The whistle of the Night Express screamed through the apartment, and as the monitor flared into a blinding white light, the chair in the Prague apartment was left empty. The only thing remaining was a small, black steam engine icon on a screen that refused to turn off.

“The line is long, and we need a new conductor. Thank you for downloading.”

For a rail enthusiast like Jakub, this was the Holy Grail. The base game was one thing, but "včetně všech DLC"—including all downloadable content—meant thousands of dollars’ worth of tracks from the Swiss Alps to the heart of London, all for the price of a single click.

In the game, Jakub sat in the engineer’s cab. He pushed the throttle forward. The train surged. But when he tried to look out the side window, the graphics didn't show trees or stars. They showed his own apartment.

The progress bar crawled. When it finished, the icon appeared: a simple black steam engine. He launched it. There was no intro cinematic, no music—just a menu written in a font that looked slightly too jagged. He selected a route: The Black Forest, Night Express.

He ignored the flickering red warnings of his antivirus software. False positive, he told himself, clicking the "Download" button.

Suddenly, a loud clack-clack echoed not from the speakers, but from the floorboards beneath his feet. The room began to vibrate. Dust shook off his shelves.