Nothing happened.

It started on a forum—a thread with a cryptic title: "Black Ops 1 Unlock All PC – No Virus, No Survey, Just Freedom." Inside was a single .exe file named "MP_Unlocker.exe" and a text file that read: "Run as admin. Press F1 in main menu. Every weapon. Every camo. Every prestige. No grind."

But on the fourth day, the lobby chat turned cold. A level 1 player with a default M16 killed him three times in a row. "Reported," the player typed. "You're a loser, unlocker."

For three days, he was unstoppable. He joined lobbies and heard people gasp. "Dude, how did you get the Olympic skin on the M14?" a kid asked over voice chat. Alex just laughed. "Skill," he lied.

Alex laughed it off. Valve Anti-Cheat? This was Treyarch's game. He was fine.

The file was only 2.4 MB. He disabled his antivirus—it kept screaming "Trojan! Trojan!" but the forum post said that was a false positive. Trust me , the poster wrote. I'm a legend.