A command prompt flashed—so fast he almost missed it. A single line of green text: “Installing system privilege token…”

That’s when his laptop fans spun up—full speed, like a jet engine. The screen flickered. For a fraction of a second, the black, unactivated wallpaper returned. Then it was gone.

Windows 7 Ultimate. 64-bit Operating System. Windows is activated.

“System time anomaly detected. Core count mismatch. Do you still have a floppy drive?”