We materialized in silence.
No blast of stars, no dimensional pulse. Just... stillness. Time felt wrong the moment we arrived—like we'd stepped between frames of a paused film.
Welcome to: Fractured RelayStatus: Temporal Drift (0.6 seconds per subjective minute)Warning: Cognitive tethering required. Memory lock-in risk active.Trade Zone Designation: "Unstable Echo 2A"
A thin mist clung to the metal bones of what once might have been a stellar outpost. Its design looked Terran—Old Terran. Twisted by entropy and drift.
Even sound felt muffled here.
"Is this place even alive?" Yena asked, her voice hollow.
I raised the scanner.
Echoes Detected: 175: Sentient-class residue2: Trade logs fragmented1: System beacon – Faded1: Trader Signature – Deceased
That last one froze me.
We followed the trail. The relay's center pulsed faint blue with data fog and hanging cables like tangled veins. A crumbling sign read:
"UNITED TRADING CORE // RELAY 9 - TEMPORAL OBSERVATION POST"
Inside, slumped beside a cracked databank, was a trader.
Or what was left of one.
The body wore a half-decayed uniform tagged "MIRA-7." Her arms were wrapped around a memory anchor pod, long deactivated. Her skin had the color of stone bleached by time anomalies.
But her visor still blinked. One last log, preserved in a loop.
[PLAYBACK INITIATED]"Artifact found. Chain confirmed. Memory traded. Too strong. Too much…""Don't take the child's laughter. Don't let the system tempt you.""He's listening. He remembers. And he's not supposed to."
The log crackled. Then fell silent forever.
I looked at Yena. Her eyes were wide. "You think that's… about the System?"
"No," I said. "Worse. I think it's about someone inside the Chain."
We salvaged what we could:
2 rare data ciphers (contain old chain logs)
1 semi-functional memory anchor (possible future use)
A relic bracelet encoded with Mira's trader ID
Then the system pulsed.
Artifact Detected: Echoed Sphere – "Cradle of Forgotten Sound"Description: A relic containing pure laughter from pre-collapse eraStatus: Locked – Requires 3 Emotional Imprints
I scrolled my inventory. Nothing matched.
But I had something close. The memory pack we'd last uploaded, tagged "Hope, Carried in the Dark." The system accepted it as one imprint.
I needed two more.
"Yena," I said slowly, "we need to craft experiences now. Not just salvage them."
We left the relay without the artifact—for now.
But on the way out, I marked Mira's resting place in my system:
"Echoed Trader: Mira-7 – Fallen during Chain Ascension"Memorial Active.
The system responded unexpectedly.
Chain Recognition Triggered – Memorial Tribute LoggedPartial Reward Granted: +4.5 C.U.Memory Tag Created: ["Don't Take the Laughter"]
And suddenly I understood.
The Chain wasn't just about collecting artifacts.
It was about understanding what they meant.
That night, back in orbit near a trade-safe node, I reviewed Mira-7's logs.
Most were corrupted. But one message slipped through:
"To the next trader… if you made it here, you're one of the few. Don't trade your joy. Not all units are worth the cost. If you reach Relay 6, ask about the Mirror in Flame. It sees you before you see it."
Chills ran down my spine.
"Flame Mirror… sounds like chapter 100 kind of threat," Yena whispered.
"I plan to be alive when we reach it," I said.
We prepped two new emotional imprint packs:
"The Last Festival" – salvaged recordings from Earth's pre-collapse cultural event
"A Child's Hand in Ruins" – a memory Yena offered, from her own survival in the Wastes
We listed them with a hidden tag: Fractured Series – Chain Compatible.
Current Status:
Kai's balance now stands at 56.8 C.U. and 97.2 Earth Credits, after recovering rare data logs and earning tribute rewards from discovering the remains of a fallen Chain trader. Though he has located the second artifact—"Cradle of Forgotten Sound"—he cannot claim it until he crafts two more emotional imprints of sufficient resonance.
Mira-7's warning haunts him, and the whisper of a being that "remembers" inside the system hints at a threat far beyond mere trade. For the first time, Kai understands that climbing the Chain doesn't just require clever deals—it requires emotional sacrifice.
And some things… may be priced too high.
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— S.A.