He scrolled down, his heart hammering against his ribs. The log entries became more frequent, more desperate. He searched for his own name. He didn't find "Elias," but he found a coordinate: That was exactly where he was sitting. The last entry in the file was timestamped 03:06 AM.

Elias froze. Today was April 29. He looked at the clock on his desk: 03:05 AM.

Subject 04-A attempts to exit the facility. Escalation to physical reset.

Reset successful. Subject 04-A memory wiped. Current timestamp: April 29, 2026.

Subject 04-A (Elias) has accessed file 6x1l6qjp9qmr.txt. The cycle of curiosity is consistent across 441 previous iterations.

Initiating reset. See you in five minutes, Elias.

The screen behind him flickered. The file updated one last time.