The progress bar crawled. Estimated time remaining: 4 hours and 32 minutes.

"Sire, the winter is cold, and the wolves are closing in. Please... we need food."

Suddenly, the search query that brought him here felt less like a lucky find and more like a trap. He hadn't just downloaded a free game; Marcus had just become the absolute ruler of a living, breathing digital pocket world. And just beyond the fog of war, he could hear the distinct, heavy marching of an enemy army.

Then, a low, resonant horn sounded from his desktop speakers.

Marcus froze. He tried to move the camera, but it was locked onto this small village. He tried to press the escape key to exit the game, but the keyboard didn't respond. He looked at the chat box at the bottom of the screen. A message had been typed there, but not by him.