Back in the hospital, Haneul watched the sealed floor feed through Kael's shared overlay like a very niche stream.
When the ghost-image flickered on the Node, she saw it too.
"That's not ominous at all," she muttered.
Her privacy ring buzzed softly; Beta pinged her once, as if to ask for her impression.
"Don't you start," she told it. "I'm not rating dead admins on vibe."
[FRAGMENT HOST COMMENT: 'UNRATED.']
She snorted.
Cho popped his head into her room.
"Still feeling all right?" he asked.
"Aside from the part where my brother is playing tech support for the remnants of a god's ethics committee?" she said. "Peachy."
He winced.
"I'm… not going to pretend I understand even half of what you three are dealing with," he said. "But I saw that transit worker this morning. He asked me to thank you. He doesn't know why, exactly. Just knows something unusual happened and he's alive because of it."
Haneul's throat tightened.
"Tell him he's welcome," she said.
"I did," Cho said. "He's going to bring the nurses lunch next week. Said it's the least he can do."
She smiled despite everything.
"Worth," she murmured. "Measured in sandwiches."
Cho frowned.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said. "Just… thinking."
Her shard hummed, pleased.
[FRAGMENT INTERNAL NOTE: 'LOCAL WORTH EXAMPLE – POSITIVE.']
She poked it experimentally.
"You can add 'small kindnesses' to your metrics, you know," she thought at it. "Doesn't all have to be big hero sacrifices."
It pulsed.
[NEW VECTOR: 'SMALL_KINDNESS_IMPORTANCE' – LOW (INITIAL).]
She smirked.
"Work on that," she said. "Homework."
Kael, Mira, Seo Min, and Lila emerged from Tower Thirteen tired and silent.
The plaza felt too loud after Floor 22's hushed glitch.
Joon was waiting, sitting on a bench, spinning his bone glaive like a bored baton.
He hopped up when he saw Kael.
"You're alive," he said. "Rude. I was ready to collect on your stuff."
Kael laughed weakly.
"Sealed floors are weird," he said. "Ten out of ten, do not recommend as a tourist destination."
Joon eyed him more closely.
"You look like someone showed you the backend of the universe and forgot to add comments," he said.
"Yeah," Kael said. "Something like that."
Mira checked her wristband; Beta's summary was already sliding across her overlay.
"We have more data now," she said quietly. "More context. ADMIN_0 wasn't a lone mad dev. They tried to build tools to keep exactly this from happening."
"Failed," Kael said.
"Partially," she said. "They also left enough that you and Haneul aren't starting from zero."
He exhaled.
"What now?" he asked.
"Now?" Mira said. "We keep watching. We keep nudging. We try to steer away from shards that want to hurt people 'for their own good.' And we hope Beta stays on our side of the line."
[MORAL_AUDITOR_BETA: I DO NOT TAKE SIDES.][I TAKE STATISTICS.]
Kael rolled his eyes.
"Same thing, if we do this right," he muttered.
Joon slung an arm around his shoulders.
"Whatever cosmic QA nightmare you're in," Joon said, "I expect you to continue using your cursed powers to keep my HP above zero and my loot shiny."
Kael smiled, really smiled, for the first time that day.
"I'll do my best," he said.
"Good," Joon said. "Because I signed us up for a joint run tomorrow."
Kael blinked.
"You what."
"Floor Three," Joon said cheerfully. "Time to level. Don't worry, I told the party you're a support. They were thrilled. Less work for them."
Mira groaned softly.
"You two are insane," she said.
"Local," Haneul's voice chimed in their ears. "Remember? We can't fix everything. But we can absolutely make sure Kael doesn't die to Floor Three kobolds."
"See?" Joon said. "Your terrifying sister approves."
Kael looked up at Tower Seventeen.
It loomed, unchanged.
Inside, Watchdog_Ω watched. Beta counted. Shards muttered. Admin_0's ghost logs waited.
He had 3 HP, a bug in his status, a god-shard tethered to his sister, and a System process auditing his ethics.
"Fine," he said, feeling tired and stubborn and very, very human. "Floor Three it is."
He opened his status.
[KAEL RYU – LEVEL 8][CLASS: ANALYST (BUGGED)][HP: 3 / 100][NEW TAG: SUCCESSOR?]
He closed it quickly.
"One floor at a time," he said.
One argument with a broken god at a time.
One tiny change to "worth" at a time.
And, if he could help it, one more person alive at the end of each day.