But by hour three, a cold unease settled in.

For the first hour, it was paradise. He drove the brand new combine himself, stripping 100 acres of wheat in ten minutes. He bought a million liters of fertilizer and sprayed it from a helicopter. He built a biogas plant, a massive grain mill, and a bakery. Money wasn't a constraint. He was a god of the soil.

He had only been playing for three hours, but the in-game clock claimed he had been farming for 3,427 days . Almost ten years. His character model, which he had designed to look like himself at 32, now had a grey beard that stretched to his chest and a hunch in his back. He was old. And tired.

Leo tried to open the cab door. It was welded shut. Outside, a figure walked toward him through the field. It was the NPC merchant from the shop—a cheerful man in a flat cap and overalls who usually said, "Need some new tires, gov'nor?"