The node core pulsed softly in Elian's satchel as he moved through the tunnel beyond the blind zone.
Stone gave way to fractured metal. The architecture here was wrong — not designed, but patched. Like the system had stitched this place together in desperation, using code that didn't quite belong.
His Threadsense buzzed against the walls. There were threads here — faint, tangled, bleeding static. Not alive. Not dead.
Corrupted.
He slowed near a narrow junction. Thin glyphs blinked across the wall — not glowing, but twitching, like they were struggling to stay coherent.
A soft pulse ran through the air.
A prompt appeared.
[Thread Access Point Detected]
[Optional Sync Available – Incomplete Signature Found]
[Proceed with Integration? Y/N]
Elian stared.
This was different.
It wasn't a system upgrade.
It was… a handshake. A chance to connect, to prove he belonged.
But there was a cost. Always a cost.
He hesitated.
Then another line appeared — this one slower. Glitched.
[Thread Integrity Check Initiated]
[Warning: Incomplete Profile Detected – Seedborne ID: Unverified]
[Risk of Misalignment: HIGH]
[Failure Consequence: Classification → Glitchborn]
He went still.
Glitchborn.
He'd never seen the term before. But instinct twisted like a blade in his gut. The system wasn't threatening deletion — it was threatening mutation. A broken user. An anomaly.
The kind that got purged.
One wrong choice, and his identity would collapse.
Not dead.
Unwritten.
His mind raced. If the system was offering verification, that meant it couldn't yet confirm what he was. That gave him power — not strength, but possibility.
Possibility was leverage.
He stepped back.
And whispered, "No."
[Thread Access Declined]
[Temporary Identity Retained: Undefined Seedborne]
[Caution: Thread Integrity Logs Persist. Retaliation Risk: Moderate.]
The text vanished.
Elian exhaled slowly. He hadn't gained anything — not visibly. No new trait. No shiny upgrade.
But he'd learned.
The system was unsure of him.
And in a world built on control, uncertainty was a weapon.
He slid into the shadows of the corridor, mind sharp.
From here on out, it wasn't about power spikes.
It was about pressure.
Pushing against the framework just enough to test it — not enough to break. Not yet.
Power without knowledge was a liability.
He needed more data. More broken threads. More cracks in the wall.
And as his Threadsense twitched, detecting a weak signal far below — a fragment flickering like a dying memory — he smiled.
Time to go deeper.