During the very first hostage scene on the rooftop, the dialogue options were broken. Instead of tactical choices, the text boxes read: "HELP ME," "IT BURNS," and "STOP EXTRACTING."

After scrolling through dozens of sketchy forums and dodging aggressive pop-up ads, he found it. The site claimed to have compressed the entire game down to a mere few gigabytes. Leo clicked the glowing green download button, ignoring the protests of his antivirus software.

Suddenly, a massive text prompt filled the screen, written in a font that looked like broken code:

He sat in the dark, his heart hammering against his ribs. He promised himself right then and there that he would save up his money, upgrade his computer, and only buy official games from that day forward.

Leo reached for the power cord and ripped it out of the wall. The laptop screen went black instantly, and the room fell into a heavy, ringing silence.

Leo tried to back out to the main menu, but his keyboard wouldn't respond. He tried to force quit the game, but the screen stayed locked on Connor's face. Connor wasn't looking at the hostage anymore. He was staring directly at the screen, directly at Leo.