Evan D'Sen always believed life had a rhythm—predictable, safe, scripted. Raised in New Calcutta, the son of a British-Indian architect and a Hindu spiritualist, Evan lived in a home where faith and logic coexisted, yet never touched.
But Evan noticed things. Little things.
The street vendor who always shouted the same three lines, every morning, at the same second. The digital clock in his bedroom that skipped from 02:59 to 03:01 every night. The mirror that, for a brief moment last week, blinked back at him.
It wasn't fear that gripped Evan. It was curiosity. He felt like a character stuck in a story where the background glitches were visible to those who bothered to look.
That night, while browsing through deep-web philosophy forums, a file found him.
It wasn't titled in any language he recognized, but when opened, a single message flashed:
"This is not a story. This is a test."
Evan read further.
It spoke of ancient civilizations who built simulations, layers of existence programmed by entities called the Architects. It hinted that gods, rulers, devotees, even modern humans were merely loops within loops—NPCs unaware of their code.
But sometimes, anomalies appeared. They called them Glitchers.
Evan's heartbeat aligned with the screen's flicker. He read the final line aloud:
"The simulation notices those who notice it."
His mirror blinked again.
The rhythm was broken.
[End of Chapter 1] Next Layer Unlocks Soon.