The progress bar crawled across the screen like a digital centipede. 10GB... 15GB... 20GB. As the file finished, a strange prompt appeared, one Leo had never seen before: INITIALIZING SYNC... NEURAL LINK ESTABLISHED.

The "Free Download" hadn't given him the game. It had turned his computer into a Gate, and he was the one being tethered.

The screen didn't launch a game. It went pitch black. Then, a thin, glowing blue line appeared in the center of the monitor. It didn't stay on the glass. It drifted out into the air of his bedroom, a literal chain of light pulsing with a low, hummed frequency.

He knew better. Astral Chain was a high-end Switch exclusive, not something that just fell off the back of a digital truck for PC. But the craving to play as a Legatus officer, tethered to a mechanical beast, was too strong. His wallet was empty, and the "Download" button was large, green, and inviting. Click.

"Neural link? It’s just a game," Leo muttered, double-clicking the .exe file.