2026-03-16 21:00:54“Are you ready for the second mission?”
Xu’s voice slid into Zayel’s head like it belonged there.
Zayel pressed his lips, eyes still facing the front like he was listening to class. It took him a few seconds before he answered in his mind.
“Didn’t I just finish the first mission?”
“Yes,” Xu replied immediately. “That’s why it’s time for the second.”
Zayel exhaled through his nose.
“You’re so efficient.”
“The mission you completed was the most basic and simplest mission available,” Xu said, like it had been waiting to correct him. “What you gained is basic UI access to Nex admin setting. But access isn’t control.”
Zayel’s fingers tightened on the edge of the desk.
“So what’s the second mission?” he thought, already hating how quickly he was getting used to this.
Xu’s tone brightened, almost cheerful.
“Mission display incoming.”
A panel opened in the corner of Zayel’s vision. Smaller than the academy UI. Dimmer. Hidden behind it, like it was afraid of being seen.
MISSION 002
Objective: Observe one nearby chip Reward: Chip Data Vision Failure Punishment: Blurred visionZayel stared at the word observe and felt his stomach twist.
He didn’t like missions that sounded simple. Simple missions usually meant he would fail in a stupid way.
Before he could think further, movement entered his peripheral vision.
Someone sat down beside him.
Zayel’s head turned before he could stop it.
He was used to being alone in the Class D seat by the pillar. Used to the extra empty space that made it easier for people to avoid him.
This time, the seat wasn’t empty.
Instructor Hale sighed the moment he saw it, as if the room had just given him another problem. His chip glowed faintly, a low pulse.
Zayel looked at the girl beside him.
Asymmetrical short hair. A hooded jacket worn over her uniform like she didn’t care what was required. Sharp eyes that looked distrustful even when she wasn’t looking at anyone.
Tess Calder.
Zayel recognized her name immediately, because everyone did.
She was second on the bottom list.
Zayel was first.
He remembered when she used to be Class B Synthetic during her first year. Then she dropped to Class C Regulator. And now she was here, sitting beside him like the system had thrown her down to prove a point.
He didn’t know what happened to her.
He only knew she used to do well, like everyone else. Then something changed. She became stubborn. She started missing school. She started refusing.
Zayel envied her for that, in a quiet and ugly way.
He had tried to skip before. He had tried to stay in bed, tried to tell his body no.
But every time, Nex felt like it became too strong. His legs would move anyway. His hands would dress him. His feet would walk him to school like his own will was just decoration.
Tess had somehow resisted it.
Even if only a little.
Zayel stared at the side of her face, and before he realized what he was doing, his eyes drifted to her chip.
Not directly.
Just enough.
A prompt exploded into his vision, cutting through his thoughts.
MISSION 002: COMPLETE
REWARD GRANTED: CHIP DATA VISIONXu sounded pleased.
“Congratulations,” Xu said. “Reward applied.”
Zayel froze.
His eyes widened slightly, then he forced them to relax before anyone noticed.
“What?” he thought. “I didn’t even do anything.”
Xu chuckled, light and amused.
“You’ve been observing her chip for a while now,” Xu said.
Zayel realized, too late, that he had been staring.
He snapped his gaze forward, heat crawling up his neck.
A new layer unfolded over his vision, subtle at first. Not like a big floating screen. More like faint overlays that only existed when he focused.
Lines. Numbers. Status icons.
Then, when his eyes drifted back toward Tess’s chip for just a second, the data clarified.
SUBJECT: TESS CALDER
CURRENT CLASS: D — DRIFTER SYNC CAPABILITY: HIGH (RESTRICTED) BEHAVIORAL FLAGS: ACTIVEZayel’s breath caught.
He could see it.
He could see what was usually invisible.
He thought of his own chip, his own thoughts, and for a second his stomach turned in a different way.
The system was always watching.
Now he was watching too.
Tess didn’t look at him when she spoke.
“You’re holding that tablet wrong.”
Zayel stiffened.
So she noticed him. Maybe not the staring. Maybe just the tension.
He adjusted his grip automatically.
“That’s worse,” Tess said. “You’re making it think you’re stressed.”
He froze.
“…Tablets don’t think,” he said quietly.
Tess finally turned her head, one eyebrow lifting.
“Tell that to the system that flags emotional instability based on grip pressure.”
She reached over and tilted the tablet in his hands, casual, like she’d done it a hundred times.
“There,” she said. “Now it just thinks you’re stupid instead of anxious.”
Zayel didn’t know how to respond to that.
Tess smirked.
“Relax. ‘Stupid’ is a lower risk category.”
Zayel stared at her for half a second, then looked away like eye contact could get him punished.
That was Tess Calder.
She talked about system failures the way other people talked about weather. Calm. Sarcastic.
Like it was inevitable. Like it was survivable.
Zayel now remembered the reasons she had been reclassified.
Once for skipping mandatory emotion calibration.
Once for laughing during a public apology broadcast.
The system hated unpredictability.
Tess hated boredom.
She leaned back and crossed her legs on her chair like rules were optional suggestions. When the auto-upload phase began, she didn’t sync properly.
Not because she couldn’t.
Because she chose not to.
Zayel saw it now.
A faint floating panel hovered near her vision, invisible to everyone else. Nex prompts, warning icons, compliance reminders. He could see the exact moment she dismissed them with quick, practiced gestures.
Small movements. Illegal ones.
The kind people pretended not to notice.
Zayel noticed.
Tess noticed him noticing.
She opened her eyes and glanced at him once, sharp and quiet.
She didn’t say anything.
She simply leaned back again and closed her eyes.
Sleeping.
Not syncing. Not pretending. Sleeping like the system was just noise she could ignore.
Zayel’s head started buzzing.
So it was possible.
Not fully. Not cleanly. But possible.
His thoughts were cut off when Tess suddenly sat up and snapped, loud enough to break the classroom’s artificial calm.
“No,” Tess said, her voice sharp. “I will not calm down. You calm down.”
She was speaking to the system out loud.
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Chapter 24 Sixty Seconds Underwater
Zayel did not hear Xu.The world had narrowed to the edge of the pool and the memory waiting beneath it. The water looked calm, almost inviting, but his body refused to believe it. His chest tightened as if the air itself had become heavier. His fingers curled against his palms, nails pressing into skin, grounding him in the present even as the past clawed its way back.He remembered sinking.He remembered the way sound vanished underwater, replaced by pressure and panic. He remembered how the data told his arms to move, how his legs were supposed to kick, and how his body had simply… refused. Like a machine rejecting a corrupted command.Someone laughed behind him.Someone always laughed.“Zayel Anz.”Instructor Hale’s voice cut through the haze.Zayel blinked.“Begin,” Hale said, tone neutral, eyes already flicking toward the panel as if expecting the outcome before it happened.Zayel did not move.His emotional read function went wild. Fear spiked hard, sharp and fast, lighting up
Chapter 23 The Water Remembers
Zayel activated his emotion read function the moment he sat down.The classroom felt louder than usual, even though no one was speaking any louder than they always did. Rows of students filled the room, their bodies neatly aligned, posture regulated by habit and chip-assisted discipline. The air shimmered faintly with projected data overlays that only the system-approved could see clearly.To Zayel, it was chaos.Emotions burst into view like poorly compressed files. Nervous excitement from students who wanted to show off. Bored confidence from those who already knew they would pass no matter what. Sharp spikes of irritation, curiosity, superiority, and thinly veiled disdain all layered together until it felt like standing in the middle of a malfunctioning signal tower.He swallowed.To his left, Milo leaned back in his chair, completely relaxed, tapping his foot against the floor. Zayel caught a glimpse of his emotional output and almost laughed. It was a strange blend of curiosity,
Chapter 22 Class D Alliance
Tess did not answer right away.She stared at Zayel for a second, then broke into a crooked smile that carried more mockery than warmth. It was the kind of smile that meant she had already won the argument he had not even finished forming.“Him?” she said, tilting her head toward the pool where Milo was splashing loudly. “That simpleton?”She let out a short laugh. “Oh, you really don’t have to worry about his logs.”Zayel blinked.Tess continued, her tone almost cheerful in its cruelty. “His chip recalibrates so often it barely knows what day it is. Half the time it glitches mid process. The other half, it mistranslates commands so badly that the system stopped trusting his data altogether.”She gestured vaguely, like she was talking about a broken appliance. “Imagine feeding the Nexus Core a stream of information that says ‘wake up,’ ‘go left,’ and ‘exist peacefully,’ then getting back ‘eat wall,’ ‘sleep while standing,’ and ‘initiate dance protocol.’”Zayel snorted before he could
Chapter 21 Hidden Territory
Zayel tried calling Xu.The familiar pressure at the back of his skull was there, faint but present, like a locked door he had learned to knock on without using his hands. Xu had always responded quickly. Sometimes with irritation. Sometimes with cold amusement. Sometimes with silence that still felt intentional.This time, there was nothing.No pulse. No presence. No voice sliding between his thoughts.Xu, Zayel called quietly in his mind.The space remained empty.His steps slowed as he walked around the private resort. The air felt heavier here, not with threat but with absence. No warning pings. No status checks crawling along his vision. His chip should have reacted by now. It always did when he crossed invisible lines.His shoulders tensed despite himself.Tess noticed. She was eating a dessert and walking ahead of Zayel, as if guiding him to look around the place while he followed her. She did not stop walking. She did not look back at him right away. She just spoke, her tone c
Chapter 20 Weekend Without Signals
The knock came hard.Not the gentle vibration of Nex alarms. Not the sterile tone that slid straight into his skull every morning like an uninvited thought.This was loud. Physical. Real.Zayel jolted upright in bed, breath catching as his eyes snapped open. The dim light of his Class D room flickered weakly across cracked walls and the low ceiling above him. His heart pounded as if he had already done something wrong.Another knock followed. Faster. More impatient.His first instinct was dread.No alarms meant no official summons. No alarms meant uncertainty. And uncertainty inside the academy was rarely harmless.His gaze slid to the door.Closed. Silent. Ordinary. Yet it felt heavier than usual, like it was waiting to accuse him of something.Xu’s presence stirred faintly in his mind, calm and observant, but he did not speak. That alone unsettled Zayel. Xu usually greeted him after he woke up. A quiet acknowledgment. A status update. Something.But now there was only the knocking.
Chapter 19 Unlikely Friends
Tess studied him from the corner of her eye. Zayel did not hunch. He did not rush ahead like he was trying to escape, nor did he lag behind as if waiting to be corrected. He walked at a steady pace, shoulders level, gaze forward, like someone who expected to reach his destination without interference. It unsettled her more than she wanted to admit. “Do not get any ideas,” she said at last, her voice deliberately flat. “One decent score does not mean you are suddenly special.” Zayel nodded without hesitation. “I know.” That answer annoyed her. Most people clung to any scrap of validation like it was proof of destiny. They inflated it, polished it, turned it into arrogance. Zayel just accepted it for what it was and kept moving. She clicked her tongue and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Good. Because the system loves crushing hope. Says it builds character or something.” Zayel glanced at her. Not quickly. Not nervously. There was something new in his eyes. Something like qu
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