The sky above is a brilliant, piercing blue, dotted with a few drifting white clouds. Golden sunlight cascades over the cityscape below, revealing an impossible harmony: lush, sweeping green fields intertwined with a sprawling, hyper-advanced civilization.

 High in the stratosphere, two colossal mechanical conveyor belts stretch upward into the Space, connecting the planet directly to a massive orbital space station floating miles away in the dark void of space. Monstrous starships drift through massive propulsion rings anchored to the ground, waiting in an orderly queue. The moment a ship reaches the lower atmosphere, the ring triggers a blinding kinetic boost, launching the vessel cleanly onto the space station's conveyor system before it vanishes into the cosmos.

Down below, the streets are teeming with thousands of people, their voices merging into a constant, ambient chatter. Yet, beneath the human noise, the thunderous roar of every ship launching into orbit rumbles through the air like an endless thunderstorm, vibrating deep in the chest as if the sky itself might collapse at any moment.

Echa takes in the vast sight, completely paralyzed by the scale of it all. She is too stunned to utter a single word. A sudden breeze catches her grey coat, carrying the crisp, fresh scent of the distant fields across her face.

Directly in front of her bare feet, just a single step ahead, sits a staircase equipped with an integrated lift mechanism. As she approaches, the console emits a weak, damaged BEEP! BEEP!

 “Breathtaking,”

she whispers softly. The moment her foot touches the step, the safety locks fail. Without waiting for authorization, the entire lift platform abruptly drops, plunging down a few meters before slamming into the lower floor with a violent METAL CLUD!

 “Ouch!”

A sharp shockwave ripples up through Echa's legs, rattling her teeth. Gritting her teeth, she quickly recovers her balance, shaking off the sting as she cautiously steps out of the broken lift and onto the bustling street level.

She walks quietly through the bustling crowd, looking cautiously around her, but no one seems to notice her presence at all.

Echa’s green eyes roam the plaza. A young child runs directly past her, laughing merrily. A group of citizens stands nearby, chatting over the gentle splash of an artificial fountain. Everything looks completely normal.

Then, she notices an old man standing motionless, staring straight in her direction. Echa raises a hand and gives him a tentative wave, but he doesn't blink. He doesn't respond at all.

“Hello? Old man?” she groans. Annoyed by the silence, she snatches a fruit from a nearby stand and hurls it straight at his face.

Before the fruit can even make contact with his skin, a small ripple of white void tears open in the air, swallows the fruit whole, and instantly resets it perfectly back onto the stand. Echa stares in absolute awe, her mouth slightly parted and her eyes wide with shock.

“A program…?”

“They are souls.”

The voice comes from directly behind her. Startled, Echa swirls around on her heel. It’s Oshna. She is standing there with that same soft, enigmatic grin. The golden sunlight catches her vibrant orange eyes, making her look almost angelic. She hesitates for a split second, maintaining that small, fragile grin as she glares gently down at Echa.

Echa immediately bristles at the sight of her, letting out an aggressive groan—yet a deep curiosity keeps her from running away.

“Souls?” Echa repeats the word skeptically.

“And where the hell were you anyway? You know I fell from that stupid staircase, right?”

Echa’s face is completely flushed with anger. She points accusingly back at the elevated, box-like building behind her, where the only connection to the ground is that completely shattered lift platform.

Oshna casts her gaze toward the broken building, her tone turning remarkably gentle.

“Forgive me. I was busy. But... I cannot change anything. I cannot fix what is already there. Or what was lost.”

Her voice drops to a fragile whisper on the word lost. For a fleeting moment, a profound sadness washes over her angelic features, and she takes a slow, heavy breath to compose herself.

Echa crosses her arms over her chest. A soft gust of wind weaves between the two of them, and a heavy silence stretches out like the empty sky. For a long moment, she simply stares at Oshna, refusing to give her a response.

“Follow me,” Oshna says simply. Pop. Before Echa can even blink, Oshna vanishes into thin air, teleporting all the way up to the high balcony of a towering sky-café, leaving Echa standing completely alone on the street level, her jaw dropped in utter disbelief.

“WAIT FOR ME!” Echa screams at the top of her lungs from the ground floor, glaring up at the sky.

Echa walks silently toward the base of the massive tower.

All around her, the crowds move in perfect, uniform synchronization. Her green eyes track their expressions, but there is nothing to find. They hold their suitcases tightly, marching down the designated lanes toward the building's entrance. The air is thin, filled only with the rhythmic, hollow click of thousands of identical footsteps. No one looks up. No one acknowledges the city around them—they don’t even look at each other.

Echa processes the chilling sight in her mind, then casts her gaze back up at the towering monolith.

A suffocatingly long line stretches far outside the building's perimeter. At the front gate, a cold, metallic security drone systematically checks the identification parameters of each citizen, scanning a barcode embedded directly into the skin beneath their chins.

Navigating through the mass of bodies, Echa accidentally cuts across the wrong exit lane, noticing that absolutely no one is coming out of the front doors. She pushes past the silent, unbothered crowd, determined to find a way up.

She reaches the primary elevator bank. But before her hand can even hover over the call interface, the heavy doors violently swing open.

A piercing shriek rips through the lobby. A woman is crying hysterically, her face contorted in absolute agony as a group of clinical automated nurses rapidly wheel a stretcher out of the lift. A motionless body lies beneath the sheet. The medical team rushes past Echa, leaving the building and heading straight toward the perimeter wall—where the nurses, the weeping woman, and the stretcher completely dissolve, disappearing into the blinding white light of the horizon.

Echa stands entirely frozen, unable to comprehend the raw, chaotic emotion behind what she just witnessed. This place was supposed to be a safe haven. A gentle, melodic chime echoes from the elevator cabin, breaking her trance. Swallowing her fear, she slowly steps into the empty lift as the doors glide shut.

When the lift finally reaches the observation deck, she steps out onto the windy balcony of the high-rise café. Oshna is already there, her back turned completely toward the entrance. High above the city streets, a massive, rusted aerial garbage freighter passes dangerously close to the building’s edge, its engines roaring as it kicks up a foul updraft.

Down below, a few simulated citizens lean out of the lower windows, shaking their fists and screaming at the pilot.

“IT STINKS! TAKE IT AWAY!”

The wind howls across the open terrace, rustling Echa's blue hair and catching her grey coat. Oshna stands perfectly still against the gale. Her exposed shoulders slowly lower, her posture easing as she lets out a heavy, world-weary sigh into the open air.

Without turning around to face her guest, Oshna whispers softly into the wind.

“Did you learn anything?”