CHAPTER 3: VERDICT PROTOCOL
CHAPTER 3: VERDICT PROTOCOL
The room darkened completely.
A single spotlight formed above the center of the ballroom.
Not on me.
On everyone.
Guests panicked again, but this time there was nowhere left to run—no doors, no blind corners, no escape into social influence or wealth.
Only exposure.
A calm AI voice returned:
“VERDICT PROTOCOL INITIATED.”
My attacker backed away slowly now, shaking.
“You’re insane…” he whispered. “You can’t judge people like this.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“No,” I said. “I don’t.”
A pause.
“The system does.”
A massive screen descended from the ceiling.
Footage began to play.
Not just of him.
Of everything.
The shove. The laughter. The champagne glasses lifted while I hit the marble. The guests turning away. The decision, repeated dozens of times in different faces, to do nothing.
The room erupted into chaos.
People screamed over each other:
“I didn’t do anything!”
“I was just here!”
“He told us not to interfere!”
But the system didn’t care about excuses.
My attacker dropped to his knees as the video looped his moment again and again.
“You set me up,” he whispered.
I crouched slightly so only he could hear me.
“No,” I said. “You set yourself up the moment you believed consequences were optional.”
The screen went white.
Then a final message appeared:
STATUS: ACCOUNTABILITY REQUIRED
The doors didn’t open.
They simply changed.
From exits…
to evidence locks.
And as the system prepared to finalize its judgment, I turned away from him and spoke one last time to the room.
May you like
“This isn’t revenge.”
“It’s correction.”
