The screen went black. The laptop fan spun to a jet-engine whine. And then—silence.

Civilization V has stopped working. Close program.

Installation took eight minutes. The repack’s command prompt scrolled green text like digital rain, and when the setup finished, the desktop shortcut appeared: a brown leather icon with a bronze V.

Except the hill was wrong. Instead of grassland and river, the tile was pure black. Not coal. Not strategic resource black. A black that seemed to consume the grid lines.

Reloaded the game. Continue Saved Game.

And underneath, in faded pencil on a sticky note attached to the bezel:

Turn 1: Rome founded on a hill by a river. Good production. Settler moved. Warrior scouted. Marco grinned.