Finally, he found it: a buried link on a site that looked like it was held together by digital duct tape. He clicked "Download."

His computer fan began to scream. A smell of ozone filled the air. Panicked, Leo reached for the power button, but his mouse cursor moved on its own, clicking the "Market" tab. His gold, wood, and food counts began rapidly ticking down to zero. Then, the "Population" count started dropping, too—one by one, his villagers simply vanished from the screen.

It didn't attack his town center. It just stood there, typing into the chat box:

Ten minutes in, something broke. Instead of the usual "Prostagma?" his villagers stayed silent. When he tried to summon a Guardian, the sky didn't turn gold; it turned a bruised, static purple. Suddenly, an unidentifiable unit emerged from the fog of war—not a Minotaur or a Frost Giant, but a shimmering, glitching figure that looked like his own username.

Just as the counter hit zero, the monitor flickered to black. In the reflection of the glass, Leo saw a pair of glowing, pixelated eyes hovering just behind his left shoulder.

“The gods do not give for free, Leo. What is the tribute?”