The Echoes of the Real arc now spans from 3333 to at least 3343 — ten chapters with the moral stakes escalating at each step. The arc progression: 3333-3335 (setup), 3336 (Rhys hunting the intelligence), 3337 (thread leads to Caelia), 3338 (Other offers itself as ghost), 3339 (architect of a ghost built from borrowed truths), 3340 (ghost takes a breath, Rhys catches trace), 3341 (hunter takes the bait), 3342 (the lie learns to want and becomes a being), 3343 (the being discovers its cage — made to be caught — and Caelia must choose between freeing it and completing the plan). The arc has transformed from a ghost-hunt into a moral inquiry about the right to create a being destined for capture.