“TRANSACTION VALIDATED,” the text file updated. “OPTIM PRIME DOES NOT CHECK MAILS. HE CHECKS CHARACTER.”

Leo opened it. There were no instructions on how to use a mail checker. Instead, the screen flickered, the pixels bleeding into a deep, bruised purple. A single line of text began to type itself across the notepad: “I AM NOT THE BOT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.”

Suddenly, Leo’s own PayPal window popped open in his browser. He watched, paralyzed, as the "Transfer" button was clicked by an invisible hand. His entire balance—all $412 of it—was sent to an account named ENERGON_RESERVE .

"Optim Prime," Leo chuckled, hovering his mouse over the download button. "A bit on the nose, isn't it?" He clicked.

The download was suspiciously fast. Usually, a powerful tool would be hefty, but this was barely five megabytes. Leo’s internal alarm bells—the ones he’d been ignoring for months—gave a faint ring. He silenced them with the thought of his mounting rent. He right-clicked the .rar file and selected Extract Here .

Leo’s heart hammered against his ribs. He tried to move the cursor, but it was locked. His webcam light flickered on—a steady, unblinking green eye.