Bicycle Confinement Laboratory -

On his third night, curiosity won. He followed the hum.

A digital ghost. A slave that never tired, never escaped, never died—just pedaled forever inside a machine that thought it was human.

PHYSIOLOGY: STABLE NEURAL UPLOAD: 14.3% COMPLETE

Elias’s radio crackled. “Guard 443, you’ve deviated from your route. Return to checkpoint or we will send a retrieval team.”