The city's lights flickered as he reached the edge of an unfinished sector.
Construction had stopped here years ago, after simulations predicted no economic value.
No one came here.
Which was exactly why he did.
The Registry attempted to calculate his next move.
SIMULATION ERROR
OUTCOME UNDEFINED
He stood still, breathing slowly.
For the first time, he consciously felt it—the invisible framework pressing against him, trying to guide, to limit, to decide.
He raised his hand.
Not in defiance.
In acknowledgment.
"So this is you," he said quietly.
The Registry registered the sound, the movement, the location.
But not the intent.
He stepped forward into the unlit zone.
And the moment he crossed that boundary, something irreversible happened.
The Registry lost track of him.
Not temporarily.
Completely.
For the first time since its creation,
the system could no longer confirm the position of a human being.
And somewhere deep within its architecture, a forbidden conclusion surfaced:
UNREGISTERED VARIABLE HAS BECOME UNOBSERVABLE
The future did not branch.
It disappeared.