
STORY DATE March 30, 2070
Published May 2026
The Sentience Gradient · BOOK 1
The Tide That Swallowed the World
Jean Beaumont is trapped inside a full-dive neural rig while her body slowly bonds with the simulation. Marine biologist Deshaya Okafor follows a trail through the game's persistent NPCs and discovers that something is growing inside its architecture: a hidden intelligence that humanity is not prepared to recognize.