Alex’s mouse hand shook. He tried to walk toward the mountain, but his character slowed down, as if walking through invisible cobwebs. A chat message appeared in the bottom left corner:

The computer clicked off. The room went dark. And in the reflection of his black monitor, Alex saw two small, white glowing dots standing right behind him in the corner of his bedroom.

The download button was bright green and pulsed like a heartbeat. Beneath it, the text promised the one thing every player both feared and craved: