He disabled his antivirus—the first mistake. He unzipped the folder—the second. Inside was an executable titled Keygen.exe with a pixelated icon of a skull wearing a crown. When he ran it, a blast of high-tempo 8-bit chiptune music erupted from his speakers, shattering the silence of the apartment.

Panic surged. He reached for the power button, but the screen changed. It wasn't his desktop anymore. It was a live feed of his own room, viewed through his webcam. On the screen, a red box outlined his face, and a progress bar appeared at the bottom.

For a moment, Elias felt like a genius. The software began to churn, its search algorithm diving deep into the magnetic ghost-world of his corrupted drive. File names began to appear. Chapter_1_Final.docx. Data_Set_B_Refined.xlsx. He was winning.

The thesis was gone. And now, he realized, his safety might be too.