He tried to click on it. The worker turned to face the camera—the isometric angle shifted unnaturally, as if the unit had free will. A speech bubble appeared, but not in the game’s font. In his own handwriting.

One tile north: a ruin. He stepped onto it.

The autosave loaded—but something was wrong. The turn counter read . His capital, Rome, had no population. No buildings. No units. Just a single Settler standing on a hill at dawn, exactly where he started.