Original fan fiction / Not official lore
The Clone Who Came Back Empty-Handed
An original short story inspired by the game’s training, clone and egg loop. The characters, dialogue and events are fictional. Nothing here establishes a game mechanic, quest or reward.
1. The empty square
Mara had left a square of floor clear for her first egg. She had even swept it, which was ridiculous: the floor never stayed dirty. Still, making a place for something felt close to earning it.
Her first clone stepped out of the portal wearing her face and none of her confidence. She pointed toward the far enclosure, where an egg gleamed through the fence.
“That one,” she said. “Bring back something worth the trip.”
The clone ran. Mara watched until it vanished behind a low wall. When it returned, its hands were empty.
She opened the upgrade menu before it had stopped moving.
2. The wrong purchase
Another clone would solve it. Two runners meant two chances. Mara counted her cash, then counted it again, already imagining the empty square filled.
Beside the portal, the first clone stood with its shoulders lifted toward its ears. Across one sleeve was a dark smear from the wall.
“Where did you stop?” she asked.
The clone pointed.
For the first time that morning, Mara walked the route herself. Beyond the wall, the path rose toward a gate. From her base, the climb had been invisible. Standing beneath it, she could see how much farther she had sent the clone than she had ever gone herself.
She closed the shop.
3. A smaller promise
The nearer enclosure was unimpressive. Its egg looked ordinary. Nobody would pause a video to admire it.
Mara returned to the portal and pointed there instead.
“That one. I’ll wait.”
Waiting was harder than shopping. Shopping let her feel that she was doing something. Waiting left her alone with a narrow path and the suspicion that everyone else was getting ahead.
She climbed onto the treadmill. She watched the runner, not the distant gate. When her clone disappeared behind the wall this time, she kept counting its steps in her head.
It came back holding an egg against its chest.
Mara nearly met it halfway. Then she remembered the square she had cleared and stepped aside.
4. What the numbers missed
The hatch was small enough to fit in both her palms. It blinked at the light and immediately tried to sit inside her shoe.
There was no grand announcement. The distant gate remained distant. Her wallet did not suddenly make her rich.
She found herself laughing anyway.
For the next run, Mara wrote down what happened. Departure. Return. Egg. Hatch. She had expected the list to make the little creature feel like a number. Instead, it showed her where the waiting really was.
Later she could buy something useful. For now, she knew which question the purchase would have to answer.
5. A place beside the portal
By evening, the square was crowded. Mara moved a bench beside the portal and made a new space on the floor.
Her first clone returned without an egg again.
She felt the old disappointment rise. Then she noticed that another runner was still on the path, and that she had changed an assignment without watching the first trip finish.
“All right,” she said, moving the notebook closer. “Show me where.”
The clone pointed. Mara stood up.
Behind them, the small pet climbed out of her shoe and settled into the warm patch of floor where the first egg had rested. The distant gate could wait until morning.
After the story: a useful starting point
Mara’s mistake is fictional, but the planning question is useful: which stage actually failed? Use the clone troubleshooting guide to separate assignment, travel, return and hatching. This story does not supply real target thresholds or promise that a particular purchase will fix a run.