📅 SPECIAL EDITION

The City Won't Let Go: Current Cycle Extended to May 29

The season's final date is shifting. City administration has confirmed it: the cycle that was set to close on May 25 will hold on for another four days. The new endpoint — May 29.

The reason isn't technical. The city won't settle down. According to the latest reports, something's brewing. Several major players have started making moves almost simultaneously — moves that point to big changes ahead. Shutting the city down for a reset right now would mean cutting the story off at its most interesting moment.

Details next week. We'll share more as it comes in.

What this means for you, holder:
You've got +4 days for everything you didn't get to.
Builds, income, rankings — all live through May 29 inclusive.
May 30–31 — transition period. Spoiler: this is when you'll choose your side in the conflict to come.
June 1 — a fresh start, with new faces.

Staying on the situation.

🏗 Holders, stay sharp
20 new buildings are on the way. They hit the game at 7 PM GMT+3.

🎞 Animated frames are now live!

Stand out everywhere you appear. In the rankings, on the leaderboards, and all across the simulation world — add some flair to your holder, and no one will be able to look away!
Drop a comment letting us know which frame is your favorite. Or share your ideas for future frames — the best ones will make it into the game, and you'll be immortalized in the description as the one who inspired it!

🔴 TROUBLE IN COAST GROVE

Police are losing control of the district

A unit rolled into Coast Grove this morning — just a routine patrol check. By midday, there was nothing "routine" left.

A car burning at the entrance, storefronts smashed in, streets barricaded. Residents poured out and refuse to go home, while the cops crouch behind the hoods of their cruisers.

The active phase is over. But it ended strangely. The police aren't trying to enter the district anymore. At all. The cars have pulled out, patrols circle the "perimeter," and the precinct won't comment.

Coast Grove is looking more and more like a state within a state. And this state has its own president.

Everyone we spoke to on the streets repeats the same name — Caesar. Around here, everybody knows him. This is where he grew up, this is where he's respected. And judging by today, nobody else is needed to keep order here.

Coast Grove plays by its own rules now. And when something happens in the district — nobody dials 911.

We'll keep you posted.

📈 AETHER IO LANDS 90% OF THE CITY'S CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS

Nine out of ten building tenders this past quarter went to a single player. Analysts say it's the first time anything like this has happened.

On paper, it's all clean. Bids filed on time, competitive pricing, paperwork in order. There's nothing to pin on AETHER IO. Off the record, competitors are calling it "impossible."

Three mid-sized developers who lost three tenders in a row to AETHER IO have all declared bankruptcy in the past month. Coincidence? Maybe. But the coincidences are starting to pile up suspiciously fast.

Then there's the question of what's actually been built. On the books: dozens of projects completed and paid for. At the addresses: empty lots, half-finished shells, sometimes nothing at all. The corporation's response is that "construction is proceeding on schedule."

Behind all of it, one name. Zoe Kashin. CEO, 28. Gives no interviews, makes no appearances, issues no statements. Little is known about her. Everything is known about her results.
AETHER IO doesn't build for the city anymore. AETHER IO is the city.

We'll keep you posted.

🩺 "THEY REMEMBER NOTHING, BUT THEY KNOW EVERYTHING"

What's going on inside the Sim-Genetics clinic?

Over the past month, the city has logged a hundred and twenty-three cases in which successful, well-off residents suddenly walk away from their jobs, sign their assets over to trustees, and move into a small building on the outskirts. Every one of them has the same clinic in their medical file. All of them — patients of Sim-Genetics.

Relatives are sounding the alarm. Lawyers are throwing up their hands. It was all done voluntarily, of sound mind, the paperwork flawless. The police have opened an inquiry. So far they haven't gotten to the bottom of it. The few who've managed a brief word with the "patients" all report roughly the same thing. They talk normally, but they're eerily calm. They claim they've finally "seen the system" and "realized it's all a simulation." What the "system" is, none of them will say.

Behind the clinic stands a coalition of scientists. They call it a research project for the "universal liberation from the chains of the simulation." Outsiders call it a cult. On paper, Sim-Genetics studies "the nature of how we perceive reality." In practice, their following keeps growing — along with funding that nobody has really been able to trace.

One man runs the project. Dr. Pyotr Dovlatov. A former neurophysiologist. We haven't been able to reach him yet, and he speaks only with those who come to him on their own. After those conversations, by all accounts, no one walks away the same.

The doctor doesn't heal anymore. The doctor reflashes.

We'll keep you posted.