The glitch lasted for less than three seconds. It was subtle, almost imperceptible: a flicker in the corner of the screen during Tariku Negasi’s latest address to the denizens of Development (Dev). His calm, familiar voice continued uninterrupted, extolling the virtues of a world freed from the burdens of the flesh. But for those three seconds, the image stuttered, fracturing into jagged lines that momentarily revealed something strange—a glimpse of a dimly lit room, metallic shelves, and what appeared to be human figures encased in glass.

Few noticed it. Fewer still questioned it. But for those who did, the moment gnawed at them like a splinter in the mind. On Earth, the glitch sparked whispers in underground forums and conspiracy circles. In Dev, however, it vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. Within hours, the universal stack control—the omnipresent system governing memory and perception in Dev—erased the event from every user’s consciousness.

Except for Brittany Winters.

The Body Farm

Beneath a nondescript facility in an isolated corner of the Earth, Tariku Negasi’s secret lay buried. The body farm, as his team referred to it in hushed tones, was a labyrinthine cold storage lab where the physical bodies of those who had transitioned to Dev were preserved. Rows upon rows of cryogenic pods stretched endlessly, each one containing the dormant shell of a human being whose consciousness now resided in Dev.

Negasi’s private quarters were situated at the heart of the facility, a stark contrast to the sterile environment outside. Here, he conducted his experiments, refining the backdoor technology that allowed him to return to Earth. The process was imperfect, fraught with risks, but it worked well enough for his purposes. By uploading his consciousness into a carefully selected body from the farm, Negasi could temporarily inhabit it, walking the Earth once more.

He never used his own body—a choice born of caution and pragmatism. Instead, he chose bodies of individuals from distant regions, careful never to visit their home countries. These excursions were his sanctuary, his means of reconnecting with the raw, unfiltered reality that Dev could not replicate. The scent of rain-soaked earth, the taste of freshly brewed coffee, the cacophony of unfiltered city streets—these were experiences no algorithm could truly simulate. 

Aamir’s secret

Only one person knew the full extent of Negasi’s secret: Aamir ‘The Watcher. He was the observer of the system but a ghost outside the Invaders’ circle. Aamir had uncovered the existence of the body farm after tracking Negasi’s digital footprints during one of his many trips. He kept evidence of the body farm away from his fellow Invaders. He hoped to use it as leverage if things ever got out of hand. For now, Aamir stayed silent, watching, waiting, and piecing together the implications of what he had found.

His silence did not raise any flags. He was always an enigmatic figure, even for the Invaders who were used to the shadows. Aamir knew this discovery placed him in a precarious position. He knew too much and risked getting uncovered by Negasi. He would do anything necessary to keep the information away from the public. But the questions remained unanswered – Why does Negasi need to escape Dev? If it is the perfect world he claims it to be? What other secrets lie hidden in the body farm? And how long can the universal stack control maintain its grip on the truth?

The missing piece

Unlike Aamir, Brittany Winters was an ordinary user—or so she thought. A software engineer from the pre-Dev world, Brittany had transitioned early, eager to escape the limitations of her failing body. But for reasons she couldn’t explain, her stack—the digital repository of her consciousness—had somehow been isolated from the universal stack control. While others forgot the glitch, Brittany remembered everything.

At first, she dismissed the incident as a minor system error. But as she replayed it in her mind, over and over, she began to see patterns. The strange room, the figures in glass—they weren’t random artifacts. They were clues. Determined to uncover the truth, Brittany began keeping a journal, encoding her observations in a way that the system couldn’t detect. She feigned ignorance, playing along with the illusion of perfection that Dev projected, all the while digging deeper into the anomalies she encountered.

Her efforts yielded disturbing insights. The glitch wasn’t an isolated incident. It was part of a larger pattern of system irregularities that hinted at something… or someone manipulating Dev from the shadows. Brittany’s investigations brought her dangerously close to the edge of discovery, but she couldn’t stop. She had to know.

The Glitch’s Ripple

On Earth, the glitch became a rallying cry for conspiracy theorists. Forums buzzed with speculation: Was Tariku Negasi hiding something? Were the live broadcasts truly live? What was the strange room in the background of the glitch?

Negasi’s team worked quickly to contain the fallout. Disinformation campaigns flooded the forums, discrediting the theories as baseless paranoia. But the questions persisted, and the rumours began to spread beyond the fringes, infiltrating mainstream discourse. Activists demanded transparency. Governments, already wary of Negasi’s power, launched quiet investigations.

In Dev, however, the universal stack control ensured a pristine narrative. Those who had witnessed the glitch directly were oblivious to it now, their memories meticulously erased. For them, Negasi remained the unassailable architect of their utopia.

But Brittany remembered.

Cracks in Paradise

Aamir had spotted irregularities in a specific connection to the mainframe of stacks. He had been tracking the source without disrupting the connection. Even if he couldn’t decrypt the information, he could keep track of it and hopefully find the source. He couldn’t report this to the Invaders, as he wasn’t sure if this was Negasi or someone else in Dev. It would dent his reputation if it was just another denizen. He tried to drop messages to bait the user. They were read but never replied.

Brittany kept getting strange messages. She wasn’t sure if it was from the System or another stack that had somehow stayed off the radar. She decided to ignore it until the sender revealed more, or she was sure who was behind the messages. The fear of getting Deleted and lost in the ‘Black Sheet’ was more than the need to find out who was behind the messages. She had limited access, so she couldn’t run a trace, but it was certain this person wanted her to follow the crumbs they left in the messages.

Negasi was not aware of the problem that was brewing. To him, things were moving along perfectly but one thing was certain: the perfect world of Dev was far from perfect, and its cracks were beginning to show.