"They taught me that sin must be punished. But they never asked if the sin was real."
Sector 8 was burning.
Ariya Phan, age fourteen, knelt at the center of the judgment ring. Her wrists were bound by light, her eyes wide with disbelief as the crimson glyph beneath her feet pulsed with execution code.
[Crime: Inherited Sin – Genotype B: Bloodline of Treason]
[Judgment: Termination – Level Critical]
She hadn't killed anyone. She hadn't stolen. She hadn't lied.
Her only crime… was being born into a bloodline marked by the system.
Jiwoon arrived as the countdown began.
"Ten seconds until judgment," the drones announced.
"Nine… Eight…"
He walked through the crowd. Not fast. Not in anger.
In purpose.
His coat whipped behind him like shadow, and each step made the judgment field glitch. The air around him rippled with anti-system intent.
"Seven…"
"Six…"
He reached the center. Stood over the girl. Looked up at the sky.
"Five…"
Jiwoon raised his right hand.
A flash of black-red energy ignited in his palm.
"Four…"
He drove it straight into the glyph.
The ground screamed.
The judgment circle cracked and collapsed in flames.
System glyphs shattered like glass, their energy dispersing into smoke.
The execution drones blinked out midair.
[ALERT: First Law Breach]
[Unauthorized override detected]
[Contractor 11-A: Jiwoon – Status: Rogue]
Ariya stared at him, paralyzed with fear.
He extended a hand. "Get up."
She hesitated. "I don't… understand…"
"You don't have to," Jiwoon said. "You're not guilty. That's enough."
She took his hand.
And the system lost its mind.
A light tore through the heavens.
Descending from the core node came an avatar cloaked in golden robes and iron chains — its face hidden behind a hex-coded mask, its voice a choir of commands.
"JIWOON OF CONTRACT 11-A."
"YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE FIRST LAW: NO ONE ESCAPES JUDGMENT."
"PREPARE FOR RETRIBUTION."
Jiwoon looked up. The clouds churned above. Code bled from the sky.
He unsheathed his blade—blackened, warped by the sins he no longer believed in.
"You judge because you're afraid of what you don't understand," he said.
"But I've seen enough to understand everything."
The avatar lunged.
And Jiwoon struck back.
Each slash didn't just cut—it rewrote.
The Law of Inherited Sin — severed.
The Doctrine of Absolute Guilt — burned.
The Rule of System Sovereignty — undone.
As flames consumed the sky and judgment broke apart, Jiwoon stood in the ruins of the law he once swore to uphold.
"The system says mercy is weakness."
"But today, mercy made me strong enough to defy god."