Lesson learned: "Gratis" often comes with a hidden price.

Today, Lucas has over 300 hours of driving. He has bought two map DLCs (Italy and Iberia) legally, one at a time, during sales.

So, one rainy afternoon, he typed into Google: "Como descargar Euro Truck Simulator 2 para PC gratis" (How to download Euro Truck Simulator 2 for PC for free).

The download was 500MB—far too small for a modern game. When he ran the installer, his antivirus screamed. Red alerts flashed: His computer slowed to a crawl. Instead of driving a truck, he spent the next three hours removing malware disguised as "crack files."

After more research on Reddit and Steam forums, Lucas discovered the truth. You cannot get the full modern ETS2 for free legally—but you could get a version of it for zero cost, plus enjoy frequent sales.

After his malware scare, Lucas saved his lunch money for two weeks. He bought the base game on a winter sale for less than a pizza slice. He then discovered that the free demo progress transferred to the full game.