The first link took him to the official Ubisoft Store page. Leo learned that Assassin’s Creed 3 had two types of DLC. The first were small pre-order bonuses (like the Lost Mayan Ruins or A Dangerous Secret missions), but the crown jewel was The Tyranny of King Washington — a three-part alternate-reality episode where George Washington becomes a tyrannical king, and Connor gains animal-like superpowers.

Another user, PatriotHunter , replied: "I downloaded the repack from a mirror link. It installed a crypto miner. My GPU ran at 100% for two days before I noticed."

Leo bought the official DLC. As he played The Tyranny of King Washington —freezing the Redcoats solid and turning into an eagle to soar over a snow-covered Boston—he felt satisfied.

He opened his browser and typed the search that would lead him down two very different paths:

Curious—and a little short on cash—Leo returned to the search results. The second link promised: "AC3 PC FULL DLC PACK + ALL PRE-ORDER BONUSES – ONE CLICK INSTALL – NO SURVEY."