Leo clicked.

Page one loaded. The text was simple:

No replies. Just a single, ominous link.

The final page loaded. One sentence:

Click.

And below it, a new line he hadn’t seen before:

Leo stared. The math was a nightmare loop. If he won, his future self lost, which meant his past self would never make the trades that led to the win. If he lost, his future self won, which erased his present motivation to avoid losing.

The red candle flickered back to life.

And his future self was already typing.