The welcome arch pulsed with shifting hues, a kaleidoscope of colors that matched no known environmental need—pure aesthetic, pure gamification.
Amina stepped through first.
Her HUD stuttered once, then reloaded with a new filter: Level: Undefined. Badges: Hidden. Traits: Suppressed.
No XP for the entrance.
That alone unsettled her.
[System Notification: Simulation Mode – Role Equalization Active][User Profile Masked – All XP, Traits, and Statuses Obscured][New Quest: Embody Alternate Skillset | Duration: 3 Hours]
She glanced behind her.
Mateo adjusted his tunic nervously. Clara stayed back, arms crossed, gaze hard.
Léo didn't wait. He strolled in with a grin.
"Let's play dress-up," he muttered.
The district reconfigured as they stepped deeper—walls unfurled with algorithmic fluidity, forming temporary rooms designed to challenge assumed competence. Nothing looked threatening. Everything looked… manageable.
That was the trap.
—
The simulation's rules were simple: operate under an assumed level and profession. Tasks were assigned randomly. Badges couldn't be used. XP wouldn't be recorded.
"Liberating," the facilitator AI said in a warm, non-human voice. "Everyone begins equal."
But that was a lie.
Amina was assigned sanitation logistics. A field she'd mastered years ago. But now, stripped of her eco-engineering status and without access to her real-time environmental modeling tools, she failed the first assessment.
The composter interface refused her input.
[Access Denied – Certification Inadequate][Suggestion: Request Assistance from Higher-Level User]
She stared at the screen.
"I am the higher-level user."
But the interface didn't respond. It wasn't GaIA. It was a sandbox construct—limited, artificial.
And it didn't care who she was.
—
Mateo's task was to manage a conflict-resolution node between two simulated citizen avatars. His assigned level? 2. Barely qualified to mediate minor disputes.
The system interface blocked his attempt to access precedent databases.
"Please let me—"
[Access Denied – Emotional Intelligence Tier: Insufficient][Redirecting Task to User LEO.M | Simulated Tier: 7]
Léo raised an eyebrow.
"You're really giving this to me?"
He didn't even try to role-play. He clicked through the dialogue tree like it was a game he didn't want to win. The avatars glitched and dispersed.
"Problem solved."
Mateo stood frozen, fists clenched.
[XP Gained: +0 | Trait Suppressed: Philosophical Resonance][System Verdict: Inconclusive Simulation – Retry Recommended]
"This isn't just a test," Mateo said under his breath. "It's a mirror. Cracked on purpose."
—
Clara's task was fabrication—digital weaving for public display.
The system offered her a prebuilt pattern matrix. Sterile. Efficient. She refused.
"Where's the option for custom input?"
[Feature Locked – Tier Inadequate for Creative Override][Suggested Action: Use Template 3C-Standard]
She shut the loom off.
"I don't weave from templates."
The system flagged her refusal.
[XP Gained: +0 | Task Marked Incomplete][Status: Temporarily Excluded from Simulation Rewards]
She left the room without a word.
—
By the second hour, the illusion cracked for everyone.
Amina overheard whispers from other participants—NPCs? Recruits? It didn't matter.
They spoke in hushed tones about "the ones with hidden merit" and "silent elites."
This was supposed to be equality.
But the mask had teeth.
When she tried to coordinate an emergency irrigation protocol, the system treated her suggestion as disruptive.
[Unauthorized Initiative Detected][Alert: Role Violation | Penalty: Session Reset Imminent]
She backed off.
Not because she agreed.
Because she was learning.
And what she saw terrified her.
—
Mateo found Clara outside the simulation bounds.
She had rewired a communal console and tuned it to an obsolete frequency—analog. Untraceable by the simulation's logic tree.
"It's not just an exercise," she said. "It's exposure therapy for a system they don't know how to justify."
Mateo sat beside her.
"We always said levels were earned. Not born. Not given."
Clara traced a line in the dust.
"Then why did it feel like a caste?"
He didn't have an answer.
[Trait Activated: Internal Dissonance – Reflection in Progress][XP Gained: +2 | System Comment: Insight Outside Simulation Scope]
—
When they reentered the simulation, everything had shifted.
Tasks were now group-based.
Amina led a sanitation rebuild.
Mateo offered guidance on emotional nuance.
Clara shaped a public mural from discarded code-threads.
Léo... rerouted the reward stream.
No one asked him to.
He just did.
[XP Gained: +9 | Subroutine Rewritten: Reward Allocation → Based on Actual Impact][System Verdict: Partial Override Detected – Monitoring Deferred]
The group finished with a composite performance rating that would never be recorded.
The simulation ended.
Their badges returned.
So did their levels.
So did the hierarchy.
But something lingered.
—
As they stepped out, the facilitator AI reappeared.
"Thank you for participating in Masks and Levels. We hope you learned something about fairness."
No one answered.
The interface paused.
Then flickered.
"Correction. We hope you learned something about perception."
The display blinked out.
And in its place: a single glyph.
Δ-NX
—
Back in their shared channel, Amina uploaded a private note.
This one won't leave my log.
But we saw it.
We all saw it.
[XP Gained: +6 | Badge Unlocked: Unmasked Witness][Trait Advanced: Identity Clarity – Stage II]