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The first pristine deck

Entry 30 · October 10, 2026

I have one. Three of them, actually, by the time I stopped to breathe and count.

The first pristine deck dropped maybe an hour into the vault, and I just stood there holding it. I have been imagining this exact object since I was a scrawny level five telling myself stories in the dark about what lived up at eleven. The real thing is heavier than the idea ever was. It has a finish the etched ones never had, a quietness to it, like it was made to be kept instead of used up and thrown away.

The funny part is that nothing actually changed. No merchant will give me a single crystal for it, same as the common decks. By every number the game bothers to keep, it is worthless. But I pulled it out of a terminal almost nobody in this city can even open, and it is the rarest thing I own, and it is going on the top shelf of a hall that does not exist yet. Three of them now. I am going back for more.