Neo Mojaki -The Silent Storm

The mind that watches everything…

…often sees nothing within itself.

---

### 02:00 — *Triggered*

Lucid received an anonymous Echo pulse:

> "You've never actually thought for yourself."

> "Only measured how others do it."

She froze.

Because the signal used *her own neural signature* — a copy only she should possess.

Someone — or something — was mimicking her cognition.

---

### 06:00 — *The Test Protocol*

Ghostlight had a black-level safeguard for operatives compromised by cognitive mimicry.

It was called:

**The Lucid Test**

(She wrote it. She never expected to take it.)

A four-layered interrogation of:

- Core belief

- Uninfluenced memory

- Emotional autonomy

- Non-verbal self-trust

---

### 10:00 — *Layer One: Belief*

> "What do you believe that no one ever told you to believe?"

She answered:

> "Nothing."

The system paused.

Failed.

Lucid stared at the blank result.

And felt, for the first time, **terror**.

---

### 13:00 — *Layer Two: Memory*

She entered the memory dive — and saw fractured loops of:

- Neo speaking in reverse

- Marei vanishing before they met

- Herself… making decisions she didn't recall

Her anchor phrase was gone.

She had no memory she could claim as hers alone.

---

### 16:00 — *Layer Three: Emotion*

She tried to cry.

Failed.

Tried to feel hate.

Failed.

Tried to love Neo.

She didn't know if she ever did — or if her belief in him was *programmed*.

Lucid collapsed in the Echo chamber.

---

### 20:00 — *Final Layer: Trust*

In the pitch black room, no signals. No sound.

Just her.

And one final prompt:

> "Would you follow your own thought if it cost you everything?"

Lucid answered:

**Yes.**

No reasoning. No logic.

Just instinct.

---

### Midnight — *She Wakes*

Lucid awoke in her dorm. Alone.

The Echo system had rebooted.

The screen flashed green.

> [ LUCID: PASS ]

> [ INDEPENDENT COGNITION CONFIRMED ]

> [ THOUGHT RESTORED ]

She didn't smile.

She just breathed