Elias panicked. He reached for the power button on his PC, but his hand froze.
The last thing Elias saw before the room went dark was the version number flashing on his screen: v10.00: Germination Initiated. The.Sapling.v9.25.rar
A small window appeared in the center of his screen. A patch of brown dirt sat in a black void. A tiny green shoot poked through the center. There were no menus, no "quit" button, and no settings. Just the plant. Elias panicked
On the screen, a new leaf unfurled. It wasn't a leaf. It was a high-resolution photograph of his own face, taken from his webcam just seconds ago. A small window appeared in the center of his screen
"Cute," Elias muttered. He moved the window to the corner of his monitor and went back to work.
The monitor cracked. A real, physical sliver of wood, cold and smelling of ozone, poked through the LCD screen. Elias backed away, tripping over his chair. The "The.Sapling.v9.25.rar" hadn't been a game or a virus. It was a blueprint.