All five hit the floor.

  Breathing.

  Intact.

  The cube went silent.

  Above them—

  The text flickered.

  Completion Requirement Met.

  Anomaly detected.

  Recalibrating.

  Amaya looked up slowly.

  And smiled.

  The Box had not predicted five synchronized defiance.

  —

  When she looked toward the others—

  She saw no one.

  No Airi.

  No Yash.

  No Togi.

  No Sena.

  Just her.

  And a plain horizon.

  The chamber was gone.

  No walls.

  No ceiling.

  No hexagon geometry.

  Only a vast, open terrain stretching endlessly in every direction.

  The sky above was not sky.

  It was depth.

  Colorless and suspended.

  The ground beneath her boots felt solid—but subtly delayed, like something rendering half a breath behind her movement.

  She stood.

  Alone.

  A chime echoed.

  Not from a wall.

  From everywhere.

  The sky shimmered, and a translucent screen unfolded across the entire expanse overhead.

  The mascot appeared.

  But something about it was wrong.

  Its glow flickered irregularly.

  The softness was gone.

  The smile looked stretched.

  “Dreamers,” it began.

  Its voice no longer carried playful cheer.

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  “Box Phase completed.”

  A pause.

  A distortion crackled across its outline.

  “However.”

  The word sharpened.

  “Certain participants failed to obey structured elimination parameters.”

  Amaya’s eyes narrowed.

  There it was.

  Subtle confirmation.

  Another Box had broken.

  Five survived somewhere else.

  The mascot’s wings twitched unnaturally.

  “As a result, uplift reality allocation has been recalibrated.”

  The terrain darkened faintly.

  “Available slots reduced.”

  A ripple of wind swept across the plain.

  “Wild Hunt Protocol initiated.”

  The words did not echo.

  They settled.

  “Remove remaining Dreamers if you wish to secure uplift.”

  The smile widened.

  “If you do not eliminate others…”

  A red flicker cut across the sky.

  “…the Lattice will eradicate you.”

  Silence followed.

  Then—

  “It has been several days in your physical reality.”

  That landed heavier.

  “Your bodies remain in comatose state.”

  In the far distance, figures began materializing—isolated specks across the horizon.

  Scattered.

  “Escape to reality is no longer possible.”

  The mascot leaned closer to the screen.

  “Failure to participate will result in termination.”

  The image glitched violently.

  Then disappeared.

  The horizon remained.

  Still.

  Open.

  Amaya exhaled slowly.

  If it could eradicate freely—

  It would not need the hunt.

  Her gaze swept across the terrain.

  The overall shape tugged at memory.

  The slopes.

  The fractured ridgelines.

  The distant distortion shimmer.

  Recognition formed slowly.

  Wild Hunt zone.

  This was the second calibration layer.

  This was where escalation first sharpened.

  Where the system shifted from observation to pressure.

  Where she had once moved differently.

  Where—

  She met Akai.

  The memory flickered.

  A glitch.

  A misalignment.

  A face that wasn’t supposed to be there.

  She turned slowly west.

  There.

  The land dipped unnaturally.

  A faint shimmer in the air.

  Like a tear poorly stitched.

  After Wild Hunt came Dream Dwelling.

  And during Dream Dwelling—

  She had been searching for the core.

  She had encountered something she wasn’t meant to see.

  A fracture in the surface.

  And beyond it—

  A glimpse.

  Not sky.

  Not stone.

  Machinery.

  Something like an engine block.

  Rotating structures suspended in void.

  She had dismissed it as misrender.

  Now—

  It felt intentional.

  Or accidental.

  Which was worse.

  The terrain around her pulsed faintly as other Dreamers began moving.

  Some ran toward the nearest markers that flickered into their view.

  A map overlay blinked briefly before her eyes.

  Heat signatures.

  Approximate positions.

  Encouragement to pursue.

  She dismissed it.

  The system wanted chaos.

  It wanted blood.

  It wanted human decision.

  Because it could not act without it.

  The eradications in the Box had been conditional.

  Latency detection.

  Failure to act.

  Punishment tied to inaction—not independent execution.

  The rules always required participation.

  If the Lattice had absolute authority—

  Why threaten?

  Why reduce slots?

  Why reveal comatose state?

  Because something had destabilized.

  Another Box surviving.

  Five exiting alive.

  That was not in projection.

  The mascot had looked—

  Angry.

  A distant clash rang out somewhere beyond a ridge.

  Steel against steel.

  The hunt had begun.

  Amaya did not move toward it.

  She turned toward the seam.

  Toward the distortion.

  Toward where the Dream Dwelling layer once emerged.

  If eradicated Dreamers were truly gone—

  There would be no residue.

  No trace.

  But if the system required human elimination—

  Then those who vanished without human choice—

  Might be somewhere.

  Stored.

  Buffered.

  Suspended.

  The wind across the plain shifted direction.

  The horizon shimmered again.

  The terrain here felt thinner.

  Less stable.

  The Lattice had remodeled this layer—but remnants of older calibration remained.

  She walked.

  Not running.

  Not hiding.

  Walking directly toward the glitch.

  Behind her, the sound of distant screams carried across the expanse.

  Ahead of her—

  Silence.

  The system would expect her to hunt.

  To defend.

  To calculate survival.

  Instead—

  She would test its blind spot.

  Because if it truly had the power to eradicate them at will—

  It already would have.

  And the fact that it hadn’t—

  Was the only proof she needed.

  The seam widened slightly as she approached.

  Just enough to confirm it was there.

  Somewhere deeper within the structure—

  Metrics recalibrated.

  Subject: Amaya

  Compliance Deviation: Significant

  Escalation Probability: Rising

  The Wild Hunt had begun.

  But she was not hunting.

  She was searching.

  And this time—

  She intended to find what was maintaining the illusion.