The hidden room was eerily silent, save for the faint hum of machinery. The Dreamland Devices sat in neat rows, their headsets untouched since the group’s last attempt to use them. Hakari shifted uncomfortably, arms crossed as she leaned against the wall.

“So, remind me why we’re doing this again?” she asked.

Luke didn’t look up from the computer screen in front of him. “Because the devices aren’t going to give us answers. The real information is in the system running them.”

Hakari raised a skeptical eyebrow. “And you think you can just… hack your way in?”

“Not hack,” Luke corrected. “Bypass security. There’s a difference.”

Sen grinned, spinning lazily in a chair. “That difference being…?”

Luke sighed. “That one of them gets you arrested.”

Hakari snorted, but Sen just leaned back, resting his hands behind his head. “Well, whatever. As long as we find something cool, I’m in.”

Luke ignored him, fingers flying across the keyboard. Yen, who had been standing slightly behind him, watching the screen, shifted nervously. “Are you sure this is safe?”

Luke glanced at him. “If you mean morally safe, not really. But technically? Whoever was in charge of wiping the system didn’t do a great job. If they really wanted this buried, I wouldn’t even be able to get this far.”

Yen’s gaze lingered on the rows of Dreamland Devices. “…Or maybe they left just enough behind to bait people like us.”

That made Sen snort. “Okay, relax, detective.”

But Luke didn’t dismiss it as easily. Yen had a point. He just didn’t want to acknowledge it yet.

A few keystrokes later, a list of archived files appeared on the screen. “We’re in.”

Sen scooted forward. “Show me, show me.”

The first few files were nothing special—logs of students using the devices in what looked like harmless VR sessions. A group playing a game of digital dodgeball. A student practicing a violin piece in a simulated concert hall. Someone messing around with floating islands.

Hakari tilted her head. “So far, this just looks like normal school stuff.”

Luke scrolled past more sessions, all more or less the same. Then he reached a section labeled RESTRICTED ACCESS.

A flicker of unease passed through him, but he clicked on the first file anyway. The footage that played was different. The student in the recording wasn’t playing a game or messing around. He was standing still, staring blankly ahead. The environment around him was a distorted version of the school—walls stretching unnaturally, words and number sequences flickering on surfaces like broken neon signs.

Listen, Obey, Repeat.

The student opened his mouth and, in a monotone voice, repeated the phrases flashing around him.

Sen’s grin faded. “Uh… what the hell is this?”

Luke didn’t answer, he simply pulled out his notebook and recorded it. He shoved it back in his bag without a word.

Hakari frowned. “Are they… awake? Or is this just a dream?”

“It’s controlled,” Luke muttered. “This isn’t like the others. It’s not a random student messing around. This looks like a test.”

Yen swallowed, gripping his sleeve. “They look like puppets.”

Luke checked the file name.

Behavioral Conditioning Experiment 7.

Hakari exchanged an uneasy glance with Sen. Even he had stopped his usual joking, watching the screen with an expression Luke had never seen on him before. Yen, meanwhile, hadn’t blinked since the footage started playing.

Luke clicked on another file, but instead of playing, it threw an error message: CORRUPTED DATA.

He tried another. ENCRYPTED.

Another. FILE ERASED.

Almost everything was either locked or wiped, like someone had gone through and destroyed any trace of what had been happening here. But there was one last intact file near the bottom of the list.

Project Eidolon: Prototype Testing.

Luke hesitated. Then clicked it.

The screen flickered.

Static. A dimly lit room. A single chair in the center, a headset wired directly into the wall. A figure seated in it, unmoving. A voice, distorted beyond recognition, speaking in a flat, clinical tone.

“Testing cognitive response… initializing Phase One.”

The file cut off.

Sen backed away from the screen. “Nope. Nope, that’s horror movie territory. Shut it down.”

Luke was already trying to reopen the file, but before he could, the screen flashed red.

UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.

The screen locked. The entire system shut down. For a moment, none of them moved.

Then Hakari slowly stood up. “Sooo… we just tripped an alarm, right?”

Luke clenched his jaw. “Maybe. Or maybe someone’s still monitoring this place.”

Yen shivered. “We should leave.”

Sen forced a chuckle, but it didn’t quite land. “Okay, but like, imagine if this was a sci-fi movie? This is when the government guys show up to wipe our memories or something...”

Nobody laughed.

Hakari crossed her arms, glancing at the now-dead screen. “I don’t know about all that, but I do know this is bigger than we thought.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow. I’m not done with this.” Luke confirmed.

Sen stood up, stretching. “Yeah, but maybe next time, let’s not get caught?”

They gathered their things, leaving the darkened room behind. But as they stepped out, Yen hesitated. He glanced back at the Dreamland Devices, at their blank, black screens. And then—a flicker. Like a reflection of something that wasn’t there. Or something that was watching.

He didn’t say anything. Just hurried after the others.