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.

His mouse cursor began to move on its own, drifting toward the top right corner of the screen. His webcam’s green light flickered on. A terminal window popped up, lines of red code scrolling too fast to read.

This one wasn't recovering his thesis. It was uploading his entire life—passwords, saved photos, tax returns—to a server halfway across the world.