CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: The Missing Fourth
Faction War Time: +02:12:37
Zone Status: ΔK – 1 Zone Secured
Current Trial: Zone D — The Tether Game
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[Segment A – Zone D: Three Players, One Lie]
Reina's hand hovered over the lock.
> > TRIAL: THE TETHER GAME
Participants: 3
Objective: Stay linked. One of you is secretly marked.
Timer: 30 minutes
Rule: If the marked player disconnects, the other two win.
Rule: If a clean trio survives, all lose.
Rule: If the unmarked cut the wrong tether, they both die.
Three glowing cords—thin as nerves—connected their wrists.
Reina. Tayo. Marik.
A whisper from the wall:
> "The marked doesn't know they're marked…"
That changed things.
They circled each other like knives in water.
Marik paced. "Classic prisoner's dilemma. If we do nothing, we die."
Tayo: "Cut wrong, we still die."
Reina said nothing.
She was watching the wall. Symbols etched into it. Flickering.
But Reina was already calculating.
"Someone or something is pushing this toward collapse. These aren't just trials. They're filtration."
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[Segment B – Return of the Fourth]
The door to the trial chamber hissed.
Noah staggered in, smoke trailing off his jacket. A single card clung to his hand, dripping ink like it was bleeding memory.
Reina turned sharply.
Marik reached for his sidearm. "He's not cleared."
Noah looked up.
His eyes were different.
Focused. But not entirely… present.
"I was somewhere else," he said. "The Black Zone."
Tayo flinched. "You shouldn't be alive."
Noah held out the card: VOID – UNBOUND
"I didn't win. I just didn't lose the right way."
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[Segment C – Final Move of the Tether Game]
> Time Remaining: 00:01:24
The cords began to glow red.
They had to choose.
Reina: "The test isn't about identifying the marked. It's about who's willing to sever the connection. The marked one can't—but the unmarked must."
Tayo's hand hovered over his tether.
Marik shook his head. "You're both thinking too much."
He stepped back—and cut his own line.
A pulse rippled across the room.
Silence.
Then:
> TRIAL COMPLETE.
Correct Action: Self-Severance by Unmarked.
Player Status: Survived – Marik. Survived – Reina. Survived – Tayo.
Trust Penalty: Applied.
The cords turned to ash.
And suddenly, the floor shook.
---
[Segment D – Collapse Warning / Protocol Breach]
Noah's card began to glow—black ink writhing into symbols none of them recognized.
A message appeared on every wall:
> GRAYSON PROTOCOL BREACH
BLACK CARD DETECTED
UNAUTHORIZED PLAYER REINTEGRATION
NEXT TRIAL: DISAVOWAL
Reina looked at Noah.
"What did you bring back with you?"
Noah stared at his hand.
And for a second… the card blinked with two reflections—his, and someone else's.