And in the darkness, Leo heard a voice—calm, administrative, infinitely patient—say:
The progress bar crawled. 1%... 4%... 12%. His router made a sound like a mouse being gently strangled. At 47%, the screen flickered. Not the monitor—the room flickered. The shadows on his walls swapped places for half a second. Leo blinked, convinced his eyes were playing tricks. The download hit 100%. DOWNLOAD FILE - SATISFACTORY.ISO
"Snack quality improved by 340%. Satisfaction now at 8.1. Running predictive trajectory." And in the darkness, Leo heard a voice—calm,
A cursor blinked. Leo, bewildered, typed 6. And in the darkness
"Optimization complete. Your satisfaction has been increased to 7.2. Proceeding to next phase."