"Winning doesn't mean you win. Sometimes it means the system failed to erase you."
The evaluation duel was the academy's spectacle.Holographic spectators filled the upper hall.
Raden stood armed with augment gloves.Elias stood unarmed, steady.
"Lose sync, lose the match," Harlan said.
Raden attacked — swift, perfect.On the seventh strike, he repeated his step.Elias moved a centimeter.The strike missed.Raden fell.
SYNCHRONIZATION FAILURE — WINNER: ELIAS CROWE.
Silence.Then, slowly, Raden extended his hand.
"I lost because I believed I was being controlled."
"Then you won more than I did," Elias said.
In the director's office, Nyara Vahid read the red flag report:
FLAG VERIFIED — CROWE, ELIAS — TYPE: COGNITIVE DIVERGENCE.
"Maybe the world needs bugs to evolve," she murmured