"Systems don't kill you. They wait until you believe you shouldn't live."
Two weeks later, Red Vale was buzzing with rumors.They called him "the glitch."No one sat near him anymore.
Raden approached him in the empty hall.
"You pissed off a lot of people, you know."
"I followed instructions."
"You broke the system."
"Then the system was fragile."
"You think logic wins?"
"Logic doesn't win. It outlives."
In his office, Harlan reread the error log:PLAYER-INDUCED DESYNCHRONIZATION — ID: CROWE, ELIAS.He sighed.
"Not a glitch," he whispered. "A sign."