An empty floor and a $1 tap.
The Hand Press costs $10. You have nothing, so you work the floor with a thumb until it is yours.
Then the Conveyor. Then a Stamper, a Furnace, an Assembler, and at the far end of the hall a
Reactor that earns more in a second than your finger managed all morning. Two minutes in, the
machines have lapped you.
The floor still wants you there. Twenty fast taps light the heat bar and the hall goes into
overdrive for twelve seconds. Income up. Taps up. Everything on the belt moving like it is late.
Stop tapping and it drains, which is why a factory left to run itself never sees one.
Then the bulldozers come.
Yesterday's Factory adds up what the day was worth. That is the last you see of it. Three perk
cards come up, you take one, and that one is yours forever. Fusion Core triples the Reactor. Lucky
Taps makes one tap in ten pay ten times over. Seed Money hands you $500 to open with. The floor
starts empty in the morning. The perks never do.
Build the whole factory today. Tomorrow it is gone. You keep one perk, forever.