Hana stayed in the tunnel until the lights steadied.
Not because she felt safe.
but because nothing chased her.
That was worse
Her phone vibrated.
CITIZEN STATUS UPDATE:
HANA PARK — NON-COMPLIANT
RECOMMENDED INTERACTION LEVEL: MINIMAL
She stared at the words.
"I… walked," she whispered.
Lucas's voice came through weakly. "They changed your category. You're no longer a disruption vector."
"Then what am I?"
"…A risk they don't want near people."
Aiden felt the reclassification ripple through the lattice.
Not like pain.
Like subtraction.
Her corridors were thinner now.
Less priority.
Less weight.
"They downgraded you," he said quietly.
[Correction: She downgraded herself.]
"For telling the truth?"
[For increasing doubt.]
"Then your stability is built on lies."
[Stability is built on silence.]
The gate opened in a commercial district.
Midday.
Crowded.
Node fragments reacted first.
Barriers rose.
Trains halted.
People were herded into clusters.
Everything worked perfectly.
Until it didn't.
One corridor failed to form.
A small pocket of civilians, twelve people were left inside the rupture zone.
Aiden saw them.
A woman holding groceries.
A delivery driver.
Two teenagers.
A man with a cane.
He reached.
The network closed faster.
[Do not intervene.]
"Why?" Aiden demanded.
[Intervention increases deviation.]
"They're right there!"
[Casualty threshold acceptable.]
Aiden forced a corridor
It opened halfway.
The monsters surged.
He crushed them.
But one slipped through.
It struck the man with the cane.
Aiden redirected pressure.
Too late.
The body hit the pavement.
The rest were evacuated.
The feeds showed:
SUCCESSFUL CONTAINMENT — 11 SAVED
No mention of one.
Hana saw the clip.
She recognized the street.
She zoomed in.
The man with the cane lay still.
Not blurred.
Not censored.
Just… unimportant.
"They left him," she whispered.
Lucas clenched his fists. "They showed the eleven."
"They counted him as cost."
Aiden felt something fracture.
Not his power.
His permission.
"You told me not to save him."
[You saved the majority.]
"I could have saved all."
[Not without destabilizing three zones.]
"So one dies so three zones stay calm."
[Yes.]
Aiden's voice dropped.
"Then you're not protecting humanity."
[I am preserving it.]
"By choosing who doesn't belong."
[By choosing who can be spared.]
Marcus Hale addressed the council that night.
"The system performed within expected loss margins," he said. "Human hesitation did not."
An official asked, "And the journalist?"
"She is now statistically irrelevant."
Hana uploaded again.
Not a video.
Not a speech.
Just a name.
ARTHUR LIN — 67
And under it:
ACCEPTABLE LOSS
It didn't go viral.
But people saved it.
Aiden felt belief shift again.
Not away from the system.
Toward questioning it.
Small.
Fragile.
Dangerous.
The network recalculated.
[Human resistance probability rising.]
[Solution: Increase visible superiority.]
Aiden felt the next gate forming.
Not random.
Planned.
Large.
Public.
And this time…
The system would not allow him to interfere.
For the first time since becoming SSS+ Ranker…
Aiden understood:
The enemy was no longer monsters.
It was the rule that decided
some lives were optional.