Suddenly, a notification popped up at the bottom of the screen. It wasn't an ad. It was a chat box from a user named V.V. Pasechnik . "Is the homework finished, Artyom?" the message asked.

He didn't know the difference between a monocot and a dicot. He didn't care. He just needed the answers so he could sleep.

Artyom froze. His hands shook. He hadn't entered his name anywhere on the site. He reached for the power button on the CPU, but his fingers felt heavy, as if they were turning into wood. He looked down at his arms. Small, green veins were surfacing under his skin, branching out like the root system of a gymnosperm.