"When knowledge is sealed, fear rules in its place."
The elevator stopped on a floor that wasn't supposed to exist.
There was no button for it. No designation. Just silence—and a deep, mechanical hum that vibrated in Jiwoon's bones.
He stepped out into a circular chamber of obsidian and brass. Shelves spiraled infinitely upwards, filled not with books—but with red-etched tablets glowing faintly with sin-encoded data.
At the center stood The Archivist.
A blind old man with silver thread stitched across his eyes.
A long robe of ash-colored vellum covered in scripture.
Hands that never touched, yet knew every record ever written.
"Jiwoon of Contract 11-A," the man spoke, though his lips did not move. "The system warned me you would come."
Jiwoon stopped, eyes narrowed. "Then you know why I'm here."
The Archivist raised a finger. "You seek answers about the debtless."
"Tell me the truth. How long has the system known about them?"
The Archivist sighed. "Too long. Long enough to bury them."
He turned, gesturing toward a shelf sealed by three locks.
"The first anomaly was recorded 862 years ago.
A child born without sin, without debt, and without fear.
The system marked them as an error. A threat."
"Why?" Jiwoon asked. "Why is sinlessness dangerous?"
The Archivist approached, placing a tablet into Jiwoon's hands.
The data scrolled:
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE: THE LAW OF CONTROL]
"To maintain obedience, there must be guilt."
"To ensure guilt, sin must be defined."
The Archivist continued:
"The system was not created to judge evil.
It was created to manage morality.
To code behavior. To prevent rebellion.
A machine god forged by those who feared chaos more than injustice."
Jiwoon clenched his jaw. "And I've been their weapon all this time."
The Archivist nodded. "The strongest one. Because you believed."
A pause.
"But belief is a prison, Jiwoon. And you have finally found the key."
Jiwoon stared at the tablet in his hands. For the first time, he felt it:
Not rage. Not doubt. But clarity.
"If the system needs sin to function… then I'll show it what happens when sin becomes extinct."
The Archivist's expression turned grim.
"Tread carefully, Debt Hunter.
Those who challenge the system do not die.
They are rewritten."