The trading floor screamed.
Not people—the architecture. Steel flexed under pressure not born of gravity, but collapsing trust. Digital bells tolled overhead, blinking red. Every bridge, pillar, and platform buckled beneath waves of shifting numbers: stock spirals, crashing confidence indexes, liquidity outflows measured in millions per second.
Sykaion staggered forward, wind cutting across the transparent sky-bridge beneath him. Below, the market simulation twisted like a whirlpool of suffering: cities burning under collapsing currency, people vanishing mid-transaction, entire economies rendered into dust as market values hit zero.
> [Trial One: Market Collapse Simulation – Active]
Global Confidence Index: 23% and dropping
Core Asset Node: Critical
Directive: Reverse Market Freefall
Reward: +1 Phantom Feather Fragment | Unlock: Passive Income Stream (I)
Gregor Banc, the Trialmaster, floated midair with his arms crossed. No wings. No propulsion. Just dominance. His voice boomed across the simulation like an auctioneer at the end of the world.
"Twenty-nine minutes. Show us what the Coin remembers."
Sykaion's Wealth Management System flared in front of him like a tactical HUD.
He scanned the chaos.
Root Node: Aetherion Bonds.
Value: Falling.
Cause: Confidence Crash
Contagion: 7 other markets
Solution Path: Undetermined
The Aetherion Bonds were the market's cornerstone—but the simulation showed a slow hemorrhage of belief. Investors were vanishing like ghosts with every lost dollar. Belief was wealth, and wealth was memory—and memory was disappearing.
Sykaion's hands flew across the glowing interface.
> [Options Available:]
▸ Inject Phantom Credit (Locked – Requires Passive Stream)
▸ Issue False Stability Report (Risk: High Moral Debt)
▸ Locate Keystone Investor (Hidden – Scan Required)
▸ Burn Memory Token to Anchor Confidence (Single Use)
His eyes fixed on the last one. The silver token Arlyss gave him.
"Stores one personal decision across lives…"
> [Warning: Use may fracture local memory strands. Consequence: Timeline Ghosts.]
He didn't know what that meant—but he didn't have the luxury of caution.
He held the token up. "Burn it."
The coin vanished in silver fire.
And suddenly, the simulation froze.
All sound stopped. The wind vanished. The system itself shuddered.
Sykaion heard his own voice—except not quite. It was younger, more desperate. A memory he hadn't consciously recalled:
"If I ever get the chance to change this… I will. I swear it."
It was the night before he'd stolen his first ration in the slums. The night he chose to stop hoping and start surviving.
That moment—the one honest vow he'd ever made—flashed into the market like lightning.
> [Confidence Anchor Set: Sykaion Kairo – Fixed Value Integrity]
Global Confidence Index: Stabilizing… 23% → 28% → 33%
Contagion Slowed. Aetherion Bonds Paused at 64% Devaluation.
The buildings stopped groaning. Investors hesitated mid-panic.
Sykaion didn't wait.
He activated scan mode and dove into the market map.
There—one entity, pulsing behind twenty firewalls.
Name: Gillean Roe
Status: Keystone Investor (Sleeper)
Confidence Weight: 17%
Location: Sky District Vault 9
Emotional Trigger: Trust in Risk
He sent the activation key.
In the simulation, a boardroom appeared out of smoke—Roe, an elderly man in a three-piece suit, stood at the edge of a skyscraper window, watching the city below burn. His portfolio hovered beside him, sealed.
"You're wasting your time," Roe muttered without turning.
Sykaion entered the room, unsure what to say. "You're the lynchpin. If you reinvest—"
"You think I haven't tried that before?" Roe snapped. "Do you know how many timelines I've thrown good capital into, only to watch them burn down for the same damn reason?"
Sykaion took a step forward. "But this time is different."
Roe turned, eyes narrowing. "Why?"
Sykaion's mouth opened—and he realized there was no pitch strong enough to matter. Nothing logical.
So he said what mattered to him.
"Because I'm here."
Roe blinked.
"No legacy. No education. No backup. I walked in from the street with nothing but a coin and a scar. I'm not like the others. I remember what it's like to be crushed by systems you don't even understand. And I'm still standing."
A silence hung between them.
Then Roe's portfolio opened.
He signed.
> [Major Investor Confidence Injected]
Value: 17% Market Confidence Boost
Aetherion Bonds Restored to Stable
Global Confidence Index: 78%
Market Collapse Reversal: Successful
Trial Complete
The simulation dissolved into light.
---
Sykaion stood alone on a black floor in a white void.
Gregor Banc clapped slowly from the shadows.
"Well," the Trialmaster said. "You're still upright. Most new heirs end up as sobbing biomass by minute twelve."
Sykaion didn't smile. "What happens now?"
"Now," Gregor said, stepping forward, "you're officially earning. And now that you're earning…"
He held up a card—black glass edged with gold.
"...you're eligible for your first debt."
> [New Mechanic Unlocked: Passive Income Stream (I)]
Feature: Wealth Accrual Based on Reputation, Risk, Memory Anchor Stability
Additional Unlock: Debt Ledger Interface
A new panel opened in Sykaion's vision.
And with it—an entire page filled with names he didn't know.
People who owed him.
People he owed.
One name blinked red at the top:
"Arlyss Veil – Pending Collection."
Sykaion's breath caught.
"What—what does that mean?"
Gregor only smiled.
"It means every gift has a price."
And then the white world fractured.
---
He was back in the vault-library.
Alone.
The scrolls were sealed. The fire gone.
Only the Coin still glowed.
And Arlyss Veil… was nowhere to be found.
To be continued in Chapter 7…