A fake progress bar appeared: "Installing BeamNG.drive — please wait 10 minutes."
Three months later — a full month after his punishment ended — Alex bought legitimately on a Steam sale for $19.99. He watched it download: 25 GB. Healthy. Official. No pop-ups. No malware. No guilt.
He found a plan. Small jobs. Birthday money. Patience.
Nothing happened. Then his screen flickered.
He clicked the first link. A site called "FreeGamesAllDay.net" — neon green buttons, fake download counters ticking upward. "Crack included!" the banner screamed.
"No more gaming for a month," his father said quietly. "And you're mowing Mr. Hendricks' lawn to pay back the repair cost."
This feels wrong, he thought. But the price tag on Steam — $24.99 — might as well have been a thousand dollars to a kid with an empty wallet.
His friends had been raving about it for weeks. The soft-body physics. The crumpling metal. The way cars folded like origami in slow motion. Alex wanted it. Needed it.
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