He opened the tool and dragged the game’s .exe into it. A sea of red text flooded the screen. Dependency Walker flagged a specific file: MSVCP140.DLL . It was sitting in C:\Windows\System32 , but it was the wrong architecture.

Alex took a deep breath and double-clicked the Aeon’s Gate icon one last time. The screen went black. A high-definition logo blossomed across the monitor, followed by the sweeping swell of orchestral music. No error box. No "OK" button. Just the game.

He hit "Launch." The error box appeared instantly, as if laughing. Phase 2: The Infrastructure Check

Still, the error persisted. Alex knew it was time for the "Nuclear Option":