And maybe—just maybe—it wasn’t too late to plant something real.

A line of corrupted text scrolled across the top: REPACK_BY_FARMHACKER — BUILD 2024 — THIS COPY IS NOT FOR SALE.

Jake ignored it. Just the crack acting up.

A final message burned across the screen:

And in the middle of that void, a single line of text appeared:

The soil was.

Another flicker. This time, the tractor stuttered. The sound glitched—a low, guttural growl instead of the usual diesel hum. The field warped. For a second, the canola turned black. Then brown. Then dead.