“I’m sunk,” she whispered to her cat, Sparky.

Mira’s workshop smelled of burnt maple and ambition. For two years, she’d run CoasterCrafter , a one-woman print-on-demand empire. Her weapon of choice: an xTool P2 laser cutter. Her nemesis: time.

Mira felt a chill. For months, she’d been blaming the machine’s speed. She’d considered buying a second laser. She’d lost sleep over wasted material. All because of digital ghosts.

She clicked Yes .

The screen refreshed. Her complex star map collapsed into its pure, single form. Where three invisible lines had been stacked on top of each other, now there was one. The “ghost” paths—leftover artifacts from her design software—vanished. The estimated cut time for a single coaster dropped from 14 minutes to 4.

One student raised a hand. “Isn’t that just a shortcut for lazy designers?”