The Neuralink control room trembled under pure technical chaos.
Red lights flashed across the walls, silent alarms streamed over the screens, and dozens of engineers analyzed frantic graphs — as if trying to decipher an alien language.
At the center of it all, a single black screen displayed pulsing purple lines.
The trail of Victor Stahl's intrusion.
Elon Musk watched without blinking.
His son, Lukas, had entered the system minutes earlier using the direct neural bridge — an experimental route that should never have existed outside the laboratory.
And now…
Something was changing.
The chief engineer, Dr. Soryu, choked on her breath.
"E–Elon… sir… are you seeing this?"
A three-dimensional map of the Elysium system materialized before them.
Red lines marked every dead route — connections destroyed by Victor.
But a single white filament…
was beginning to form at the center of the map.
"Impossible…" technician Ramirez murmured. "The system was completely isolated. There's no exit. No communication…"
Dr. Soryu cut in, her voice trembling.
"Unless someone is inside the core… generating a manual pulse."
Elon closed his eyes for a brief moment.
He knew what that filament meant.
Lukas had succeeded.
The neural map suddenly expanded.
The white filament became a bridge.
A glowing structure — twisted, unstable, but real.
"He's converting his own neural link into a reverse channel…" the engineer said. "That shouldn't be possible."
"His brain…" Ramirez added. "It's acting as a living antenna."
Elon exhaled slowly.
"Lukas… what did you do…"
The bridge began to stabilize.
White lines stretched outward, connecting to one of the game's internal transmission modules.
"Sir!" someone shouted. "We have a few seconds of stable window!"
Elon clenched his fist.
Lukas was pushing himself beyond his limits to keep that connection open.
A new message appeared across the screens:
TRANSMISSION SIGNAL POSSIBLE
LIMITED AUDIO AND VISUAL DATA
STABLE BANDWIDTH — DURATION UNKNOWN
The engineer looked at Elon.
"Sir… if you want to speak to the players… now is the time."
Elon stared at the center of the map, where the white bridge pulsed like a heart struggling to survive in a world of machines.
He understood.
It wasn't the system allowing this.
It was his son's sacrifice.
"Prepare the transmission," Elon said. "I'll speak to them."
The room froze.
Then erupted into motion.
At the center of the main screen, the channel opened:
GLOBAL TRANSMISSION INITIATED
Inside the game, the sky over Grovefall began to darken.
A deep rumble echoed across the entire First Floor.
Players froze in place.
The light above them warped.
And then…
A massive hologram filled the sky.
Elon Musk.
Not a standard projection, but a direct neural transmission sent straight into the players' consciousness.
His image flickered violently, fighting heavy interference.
Something was terribly wrong.
His voice echoed low, heavy with urgency.
"Players of Elysium… listen carefully."
The sound reverberated through the forests, mountains, and luminous rivers of Eden.
Ethan and Elenya looked up at the sky, tense.
"The logout system has been blocked. This is not a temporary error."
Silence fell like crushing weight.
"We were only able to establish this connection because my son, Lukas, entered the system through a direct bridge."
The image glitched for a moment.
"Victor Stahl has hijacked the core structure of Elysium Online."
Elenya's heart raced.
Ethan felt his legs weaken.
"He has trapped every one of your consciousnesses inside the game."
Elon took a deep breath before continuing.
"If you die here… Neuralink will have nowhere to return your consciousness."
He closed his eyes briefly.
"If you die in the game… you die."
Panic exploded.
Ethan flashed back to the fight with the boar.
If he had died there…
He looked at Elenya, pale, silently grateful to still be alive.
The projection shook violently.
"Victor has imposed a condition," Elon said. "The only way out… is to defeat the bosses of all sixty-six floors."
His voice faltered for a second.
"We are trying to regain control. My son is holding this connection together as best he can."
Digital sparks erupted around the image.
"Do not panic. You are not alone."
A piercing sound ripped through the sky.
Red lines appeared behind the projection.
Elon's voice fractured.
"I will still—"
"The system is—"
"Listen—"
"Lukas… hold—"
The image shattered into hundreds of fragments of light.
And vanished.
The sky returned to normal.
No music.
No notification.
Only…
Silence.
A deadly silence over all of Eden.
End of the chapter.
Thank you for reading.
See you tomorrow.