The cursor on the screen moved on its own. It dragged a file from the "Island" folder and dropped it into a folder labeled "Elias_Private_Photos." Then, the webcam light flickered on.

Welcome to the Island. Hope your saves are backed up.

He spent those hours watching trailers of the game—the swaying palms, the crafting systems, the mysterious ruins. When the file finally landed, his antivirus shrieked. "Threat detected," it warned in a frantic red box. Elias sighed, rolling his eyes. "False positive," he muttered, disabling the shield. He’d done this a dozen times. He ran the .exe .

The laptop screen went black. The only light left was the eerie, glowing sunset coming from the doorway. Elias stood up, his legs shaking, and walked toward the beach. He had searched for the island, and now, the island had found him.