"Elara, do you think it’s true?" Isla's voice trembled as she looked at the towering LifeNet building from the lab's window.Elara glanced over, her fingers still hovering over her computer keys. "Do I think what’s true?""That LifeNet can give us eternity," Isla murmured, her gaze fixed on the city below. "Imagine… a life without an end. Doesn’t that sound like freedom?"Elara hesitated, feeling a familiar unease creep in. "Freedom… isn’t that easy. I think we’d be fools to think they’re giving it away without a price."She turned back to her screen, scanning the data logs she had uncovered just hours before. Elara had stumbled upon strange, irregular patterns within the LifeNet servers—data fragments that didn’t add up, as though something was decaying inside. But whenever she tried to dig deeper, access was blocked, as if someone didn’t want her to look too closely."How do you even know it’s safe?" Elara added, more to herself than to Isla. "We’re talking about people’s minds—year

“Elara… you there?”Nyx’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. She looked up, finding him leaning against her apartment door, arms crossed and looking at her with that familiar mix of curiosity and concern.“Sorry, I… was just thinking.” She gestured for him to come inside, her voice sounding distant even to her own ears.He stepped in, glancing around at the dim, cluttered apartment. Elara’s place was modest, filled with little pieces of her life, but there was one spot that always drew her gaze. On the corner of a bookshelf, half-hidden by other books, sat an old, faded notebook. It was one of the few things she had left of her mother.“Still with me?” Nyx’s voice jolted her out of her thoughts again.“Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” She took a breath, feeling like she was coming back to the present.Nyx tilted his head, watching her closely. “You sure? You’ve been a little… distracted lately. What’s going on?”She hesitated, running her fingers along the edge of the notebook on the shelf. “Do yo

Chapter 5. The Warning"Alright, Elara, time to call it a night," she muttered to herself, rubbing her temples and leaning back in her chair. The screen in front of her was filled with files, data logs, and cryptic notes she’d gathered on LifeNet.Hours had slipped by in a blur, her focus so sharp she’d barely registered the passing time. Each new detail she uncovered only seemed to raise more questions, making the mystery feel like a black hole, pulling her deeper with every moment.Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft chime on her terminal, a single ping that echoed in the quiet room. Elara frowned. The message wasn’t from any of her usual contacts, nor from the encrypted channels she sometimes used for research. It was just a blank notification with a blinking icon on her screen.“Huh… That’s strange,” she mumbled, hesitating before clicking on it.The screen flickered once, then the message loaded:“Stay out of this. Your life depends on it.”Elara felt a chill creep down her sp

“Elara, are you still up?”Nyx’s message popped onto her screen, startling her out of her thoughts. She’d been staring at her terminal for what felt like ages, trying to make sense of the odd encounters from the past few days.She sighed, typing back quickly, “Yeah, still up. Been thinking about all this… whatever this is. It’s too much.”A few seconds later, his response flashed back. “I get it. Just… don’t dive too deep alone, okay?”She smiled to herself, finding comfort in his words. “I’ll be fine. I’m just… looking through some of my mom’s old journals. Hoping there’s something here.”“Your mom’s journals?” he replied, adding a thoughtful pause. “Do you think she knew something back then?”Elara stared at the message, her thoughts swirling. “Honestly, I don’t know. But I can’t shake the feeling that she might’ve had some idea about LifeNet’s real agenda.”Nyx sent back a simple, “Good luck,” and then signed off, leaving her alone with the journal that lay open on her desk.Elara t