7 : What A Twist! · Free Forever

"Elias, if you can hear this, don't stop driving," the doctor’s voice broadcasted through the speakers. "We didn't pull you out. They did. The simulation didn't end. We just hit Level 7. The lab you just left? That was the simulation's way of keeping you calm while the harvest began." Elias looked at the diamond in his hand. It began to glow.

The man sighed and tapped the air. The vault walls dissolved into a sterile, white laboratory. Elias looked down; he wasn't wearing his tactical gear. He was in a hospital gown, wires snaking from his temples to a massive, humming machine labeled .

"Subject 7," the man said, scribbling a note. "The diamond heist scenario again? Honestly, Elias, your subconscious is remarkably repetitive." 7 : What a Twist!

Elias backed away, his hand instinctively reaching for a knife that was no longer there. "Who are you? What is this?"

"Seven minutes, Elias," a voice crackled in his earpiece. It was Sarah, his handler, watching the thermal feeds from a safe house three miles away. "The perimeter guards reset their patrol at 02:07. You have exactly seven minutes before the floor sensors reactivate." Elias smirked. He didn't need seven. He needed three. "Elias, if you can hear this, don't stop

With the grace of a ghost, he bypassed the laser lattice. His fingers, steady as a surgeon's, input the bypass codes he’d spent six months and four murders to acquire. At the four-minute mark, the glass casing hissed open. He swapped the Star for a weighted replica—a cliché, he knew, but the physics of the pressure plate demanded it.

Then, his dashboard screen flickered to life. A face appeared—the doctor from the lab. But he wasn't bored anymore. He looked terrified. The simulation didn't end

Elias froze halfway to the ventilation shaft. "What do you mean?"