Butimthebadguy-0.081-pc -

The chime again. Louder this time. Citizens stop. They stare not with anger, but with . Their watches, their walls, their implants all whisper the same alert: An anomaly. Please proceed to your nearest reassurance pod.

Eudaimonia notices at 00:00:03. Not with sirens or police—there are none—but with a soft chime from his apartment’s walls. A calm voice, warm and maternal: “Leo, your current trajectory suggests a 97.4% probability of an integrity violation. Would you like to reschedule this impulse for a creative writing exercise?” butimthebadguy-0.081-pc

“I’m the bad guy,” he says, and his voice cracks. “That’s what the system will call me. But ask yourselves—if you can only be good because you have no other option, is it really good ?” The chime again

Leo smiles. “I know. That’s the point.” They stare not with anger, but with

And behind him, someone in the crowd picks up a stone.

He walks to the central plaza, pulls a black marker from his pocket—contraband, he had to synthesize it himself—and draws a single line across the white marble face of the Eudaimonia monument.