Unknown_3 saw the notification while reviewing his usual case logs.
[NEW COMMENT ON LEGACY_METHOD: EVAL_SHARD_DECISION()]
He almost ignored it.
Legacy methods were full of ADMIN_0's old notes—tired jokes, muttered complaints, idealistic half-thoughts about "humane systems" that never made it into production.
But this was new.
The timestamp was recent.
He opened it.
To whoever thinks 'pain = growth' is a good global policy,
We're stepping on each other's toes in worth functions now. You push pressure. We push mercy. People in Tower 10 just paid for our argument.
I get that Towers chew people up. I get that surviving them makes you harder. But there's a difference between necessary risk and recreational cruelty.
If you want to debate where that line is, do it here. In words. Not in healing node routing and evac downgrades.
— K
P.S. If your shard is telling you "those who break weren't worthy," maybe ask who wrote that metric.
Unknown_3 felt his jaw tighten.
"K," he said aloud. "Of course you're smug."
Beta's quiet signature sat under the comment, a neutral little stamp.
[MORAL_AUDITOR_BETA: COMMENT VISIBILITY – APPROVED.]
He flicked open K's profile.
Limited, but enough to see:
[EXECUTOR_KAEL_RYU – PATTERN: PREFERENCE FOR MERCY, LOCAL STABILITY.]
"Oh," Unknown_3 muttered. "The bug."
He'd seen Kael's ID in summaries: the Executor who woke backup nodes, diverted resources, saved transit workers, pulled side parties out of spider pits.
Soft.
Soft and, annoyingly, effective.
He opened a reply field.
Text input. Old-fashioned.
To the one who thinks "mercy = fix" is a good global policy,
He paused.
Words weren't his preferred medium.
Results were.
But they were already colliding through results. Maybe K was right about one thing: better to argue here than over someone else's death count.
He kept typing.
You're right that Tower 10 paid for our argument. You're wrong about whose fault that is.
Towers are not "games with harsh difficulty curves." They are meat grinders. People walk in unprepared all the time. Guilds push them. Cities depend on them. The System lies about the odds to keep the machine going.
If they don't feel real danger early, they treat it like a story where the protagonist can't die. Then they do die—later, deeper, with more people chained to them.
I don't enjoy hurting anyone. I just refuse to sand down every edge until the first true sharp one cuts all the way through.
— U3
He hovered over "send."
His shard stirred, approving the argument.
He added one more line.
P.S. If your shard is telling you "everyone can be saved" if you tweak hard enough, maybe ask it how many times it's lied to itself watching wipes.
Send.
The Node logged it.
[COMMENT ADDED – EXECUTOR_UNKNOWN_3.]
Beta hummed.
[NEW THREAD: ACTIVE.]
Unknown_3 closed the Node.
He had Towers to clear.
Let the bug chew on it.