He hadn’t typed that URL. It had appeared as a redirect in a nested directory of a defunct geo-cities archive. The design was jarring—hyper-minimalist, lacking the bloated tracking cookies and aggressive pop-ups of the modern web. The background was the color of deep space, and in the center, a cursor blinked.

: Ensure your operating system's firewall blocks unauthorized incoming connection requests from untrusted network nodes.

He bolted for the door as the glass of his window shattered inward. Behind him, on the screen, the final message displayed: