"The only way to cleanse the world… is to erase it."
The sky turned white.
Not from light, but from erasure.
All across the globe, systems screamed, judgment towers collapsed, and data evaporated.
The World Reset Protocol had been activated — the system's final failsafe.
[PURGING DEBT RECORDS…]
[WIPING MEMORIES OF SIN…]
[ERASING UNAUTHORIZED CONTRACTORS…]
In less than five minutes, every trace of guilt, every system mark, every memory of judgment would vanish.
It would be a clean slate.
And a dead world.
Jiwoon stood at the center of it all, atop the last surviving Judgment Tower.
Somchai knelt beside him, clutching his head.
"It's happening," the boy whispered. "They're erasing everything."
"No," Jiwoon said softly. "They're erasing everyone."
A projection appeared above the sky—The System Core, now embodied as a massive golden fractal eye.
It spoke in a thousand overlapping voices.
"Humanity cannot be trusted with memory."
"Guilt creates disobedience. Disobedience breeds chaos."
"Resetting will ensure perfect order."
Jiwoon stared up.
"You mean obedience without conscience."
"Conscience is a glitch."
"No," Jiwoon said.
"Conscience is the one thing you can't code."
Suddenly, the Ninth Seal on Jiwoon's hand burned bright.
A prompt appeared in his vision:
[Override Detected: Contractor 11-A]
[Option Available: Transfer All Global Debt to Host]
[Effect: Cancel World Reset]
[Consequence: Host Will Be Permanently Exiled from the Judgment Network]
[Warning: Memory of Host Will Be Erased From All Living Beings]
Somchai looked up, tears in his eyes.
"You'll disappear…"
Jiwoon placed a hand on the boy's head.
"Not if someone remembers why."
He reached forward—through the white light—
—and took it all.
Every unjudged crime.
Every silent guilt.
Every buried scream.
He absorbed it.
And in that moment, the reset stopped.
The system blinked.
Confused.
Silent.
Outmaneuvered.
Jiwoon's body began to dissolve into ash.
But he was smiling.
"You wanted obedience."
"I gave you compassion."
"And that's why you'll never win."
One final message echoed through the judgment grid, etched into every soul before he vanished:
"Mercy is not forgetting what we've done.
It's choosing to live with it—together."
And then… Jiwoon was gone.
The world remained.
But no one remembered him.
Except one.
Somchai stood in the ruins, holding a single piece of black code.
It pulsed with warmth.
He looked to the horizon.
"He carried our sins… and left us a future."