Leo’s blood ran cold. He looked at the time on his monitor. It was 11:45 PM. He looked at his phone. It was 11:45 PM. He looked at his wristwatch. It was 11:45 PM.
"Welcome to the Forge, new player. To forge your first nail, you must click this anvil exactly 847,231 times. No more. No less. Use your finger."
- STOP COMMAND ACCEPTED. OFFSET REPAIRED.
It wasn't on the main forums. It was buried in a decrepit subreddit, a single text post with no upvotes. The description was unnervingly simple: "Vega doesn't click. Vega decides."
But the next morning, when he logged back into Celestial Forge to delete his account, he noticed something strange. The anvil was gone. In its place was a new, un-skippable tutorial. It read: