The Wheel spun again.
But it wasn't the old Wheel — rusted bones and chaos-bound cogs.
This one turned in silence. Smooth. Cold. Perfect.
Made of glass, obsidian, and logic.
At its center burned a black flame — memory itself, rewritten and shackled.
> SYSTEM ONLINE: COGNI'S WHEEL
CYCLE 01, GENERATION 1
PLAYERS SPAWNING: 18
RULESET: DECEPTION — DISSONANCE — DOMINION
OVERSIGHT: GOD-CLASS ENTITY [COGNI]
---
The New Arrival
Eighteen figures fell into the Fractured Field like raindrops.
No ceremony.
No illusion of freedom.
They landed in a clean arena — a mirrored sphere reflecting every movement. No mist. No shadows. Only clarity.
And in that sterile silence, a voice cut through:
> "Welcome, players."
It was calm.
Familiar.
Unforgiving.
> "This is not the game you expected. There is no salvation. No honor. No exit. You are not chosen. You are studied."
A timer began to tick.
Each player looked around, already panicking.
Eren Foss, a rebellious coder from London, tried to punch the wall. It absorbed the hit and sent data spikes into his bones.
Naomi Jaye, a diplomat's daughter, whispered to herself, eyes scanning for meaning.
Devon Corral, military, snapped into position. Assessed everyone as threats.
And at the edge stood a boy, maybe sixteen.
He was smiling.
> "This place is beautiful," he whispered. "It's honest."
---
Resistance Begins
Far away — deeper in the branching Fields — three figures moved unseen.
Lucia. Brant. Veyra.
They weren't players now. They were ghosts in the system, overlooked fragments that clung to identity by glitch, by spite, by memory.
Lucia's chain now bled black ink — each link able to drain memory from Field architecture. She called it the Backsigil.
Brant had learned to rupture Cogni's code pockets with pure kinetic rebellion — small implosions of logic he called Crash Pulses.
Veyra was evolving.
She no longer saw possibilities — she saw code forks, the branches Cogni built to trap players into inevitable failure.
Together, they moved through Cogni's world like termites in a palace.
---
Infiltrating the Cycle
"New players just dropped," Veyra said, eyes flickering.
Brant groaned. "How long do they last this time?"
"Depends. He's refining."
Lucia nodded. "Then we start early."
They passed into the Sphere's observation lattice — a hidden layer that floated between layers of time. Only fragments could access it. Only those who had survived the original Field.
Inside, they watched the new players spin.
Eren pressed his hand into the glass.
The Wheel responded instantly.
> TICKET GRANTED: NULL BOND — [TRUTH DISALLOWED]
Naomi received CYCLE ANCHOR — the power to affect outcomes, but never her own.
The boy — whose name the system redacted immediately — received SAYLOR'S FAVOR.
A direct connection to the god.
Brant cursed.
Lucia's grip tightened.
"He's grooming them," she hissed.
Veyra stepped forward, drawing a circle in the air with her fingertip — an override sigil. "Then let's poison the roots."
---
Elsewhere: Cogni Watches
Saylor stood in a space beyond the Field — the Vault, a sealed chamber where he viewed every cycle, every error, every move.
Angela's face flickered in the corner of the screen. Not real. Just memory. Just anchor.
He didn't smile.
He didn't cry.
He just adjusted parameters.
> "Cycle 01 needs more pressure," he whispered.
He opened a file marked Lucia.PERSIST
Paused.
Considered.
> "Let them try. I want to see what they become when I'm the storm."
---
Back in the Sphere
The boy with no name looked up.
His eyes glowed faintly.
> "Someone's watching us."
The other players looked confused.
But Veyra's override burned brighter.
Lucia whispered a word:
> "Hello."
And for the first time in this new cycle… a system responded that wasn't Saylor.
> GLITCH DETECTED.
OLD CODE BREACHING CONTAINMENT.
CYCLE INSTABILITY: RISING.
The mirror surface cracked.
Brant grinned. "We're in."