The campus hasn't returned to normal.
In fact, quite the opposite has happened. After the "school-wide trial of Li," it seems as if the entire academy has been permanently infiltrated by something.
There's no panic.
It's an even worse state.
—Adaptation.
The next morning, the lockdown was lifted.
Students went to class, signed in, and ate breakfast as usual.
But there was one more thing.
When they checked their phones, the first thing they checked was whether they had been "seen."
Someone whispered:
"Yesterday, I clearly voted guilty, but it showed that my vote had been withdrawn."
"My friend said he dreamt last night that Li was watching him."
"Really? You had that dream, too?"
Dreams, auditory hallucinations, and projections of sin.
These began to become daily side effects.
Li stood in the corridor, and everyone automatically avoided looking at him.
Not out of disgust.
It was fear of being chosen.
He suddenly realized something terrifying.
Once judgment exists,
No one is a bystander.
The Student Council basement was a spirit interference isolation zone.
Bai Ya stood before the soul-scanning array.
The data was fluctuating wildly, like garbled code.
"Something's wrong," he murmured.
Li sat against the wall, his face pale, the Sin Mark wrapped in black cloth yet still radiating heat.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Bai Ya remained silent for several seconds before responding:
"The source of the soul anomaly isn't the rift.
"It's not an external spirit."
It's resonance."
He brought up the projection.
Soul waveforms overlapped,
Their center points were all at the same frequency.
Li.
"Their souls are mimicking your judgment frequency."
"You don't need to be present. You don't need to intervene."
As long as they believe in your existence, the judgment will operate on its own."
Li's fingers trembled slightly.
"So what's happening now isn't just someone impersonating me."
Bai Ya nodded, his tone icy cold.
"It's your 'judging concept' that has been internalized by the entire campus."
It was nighttime.
Li sat alone in the darkened classroom.
The campus outside was quiet.
But the silence seemed to be waiting for him to speak.
He looked down at his palms.
Once, he thought judgment was a tool.
Later, he realized it was a responsibility.
Now, he understood.
It was a form of pollution.
"I never thought it would become like this," he murmured to himself.
He murmured to himself.
The next second, another shadow appeared in the classroom mirror.
Not a spirit.
Not a hallucination.
It was himself.
His smile was clearer than before, and his tone was almost gentle.
"But you didn't stop it.
You didn't reject their belief in you.
You even enjoyed the moments when they feared you."
Li stood up abruptly and slammed his fist on the desk.
"Shut up."
His reflection in the mirror tilted its head.
"You know."
"The one who truly lost control wasn't the fake judge.
You started tacitly allowing the world to use you as a measure of good and evil."
It was late at night on the rooftop.
The wind was strong.
Bai Ya stood by the railing and watched the red light emanating from the crack.
"I've found something."
He didn't turn around.
"Before the Night Watch defected, they tried to set up a 'decentralized trial system.'"
"No judges. No judges."
Only collective consensus remained."
Li's heart sank.
"Sounds idealistic."
Bai Ya sneered.
"Then everyone became executioners."
He finally turned around and looked at Li. His eyes were extremely heavy.
"Right now, you are becoming that 'center.'"
"It's not a matter of whether you want to or not.
They've already put you there."
He paused, then said the cruelest words:
"If you continue to exist, the trial will not stop."
The night deepened.
Li returned to his room and lay down on his bed.
The Mark of Sin was unnaturally quiet.
He stared at the ceiling. For the first time, a thought surfaced in his mind: What if I were gone?
No judge.
No eyes.
No standards.
Would the school return?
The next second, the voice rang out again, but not from the mirror.
But in his heart.
"Do you really believe...?"
Will they stop yearning for judgment just because you've disappeared?"
Li closed his eyes.
In the darkness, he saw the faces of countless students.
Fearful, expectant, dependent.
They were all waiting for his decision.
Not as students.
Not as human beings.
But as the judge himself.
Somewhere on campus, a student looked down at his phone.
A student looked down at his phone.
A line of text automatically appeared on the screen:
"You are guilty."
He looked up in fright.
No one was there.
No Li.
No mask.
The trial no longer needed a judge.
There were no ceremonies at the academy that night.
There were no broadcasts, scarlet lettering, or masks.
Yet, the trial still proceeded.
1:17 a.m.
A girl suddenly screamed on the third floor of the dormitory.
It wasn't because she was frightened by a ghost.
Her phone lit up by itself.
On the screen was only one sentence in black text on a white background:
"You are guilty."
She froze for three seconds, then completely collapsed.
"It wasn't me! I didn't!"
She didn't know what she was denying.
Nor did she know what the sentence meant.
But her chest began to ache.
The location of the sin mark, though she didn't have one.
When the student council members on night patrol arrived,
She was already huddled in a corner with her hands covering her head. She repeatedly muttered,
"I'm not a bad person... I'm not..."
The soul projection displayed a forcibly generated sin reaction.
No source.
No trial process.
Only a result.
Basement:
Bai Ya stared at the monitor, his face as grim as ever.
"It's neither an imitation nor a fake judge."
He concluded.
"The judgment logic has been 'downloaded.'"
Jinguji Hui frowned. "What do you mean?"
Bai Ya zoomed in on the image.
Without external intervention, the waveform of the students' souls automatically generated a "guilty/not guilty" branch.
"They completed the judgment process in their minds."
"Questioning, accusing, convicting."
All that's missing is a name."
The air instantly turned cold.
"So now..." someone whispered.
Bai Ya didn't pause.
"Now, anyone could become a judge or be judged in the next second."
Li knew all of this.
He stood on the rooftop of the teaching building and looked at the scattered lights below.
Each light represented someone who was afraid of being "defined."
The mark of sin on his chest burned slightly, as if urging him on.
to see.
to judge.
to end the chaos.
If only he had opened his eyes.
If only he would intervene.
Then all of this could be corrected.
But Li didn't.
For the first time, he did nothing.
"If I intervene,"
he whispered as if explaining to someone.
"That would be tantamount to admitting—"
This world truly needs a judge.
The wind was strong, making his coat flutter loudly.
That familiar voice chuckled in his mind:
"You think that by not taking action,
you're rebelling?"
"No, you're just changing how you allow judgment to continue."
Li's fingertips grew cold.
The next day:
A new behavior emerged on campus.
Not a trial,
, but an avoidance of suspicion.
Someone left a note on a locker that read:
"This person is dangerous."
Someone circulated a list in a group chat.
"Suspected Criminals."
No evidence.
No reason.
Only one sentence:
"I have a bad feeling."
As Li walked through the courtyard,
He saw two students talking in hushed tones.
One of them noticed Li and immediately fell silent.
The other took an instinctive step back.
At that moment, Li suddenly understood.
When a trial loses its judge,
Humanity fills that position with fear.
And that is darker than any supernatural event.
Night.
Li sat on the edge of the bed and slowly unwrapped the black cloth.
The mark of sin glowed faintly in the darkness.
like an eye awaiting a command.
He stared at it for a long time until his heartbeat slowed.
"If judgment must exist..."
he murmured to himself.
"Then, at least, it shouldn't be handed over to them."
No declaration.
No passion.
Only a cold, realistic thought took shape in his mind.
Rather than letting judgment spiral out of control,
It's better to let one person have it.
This time, that voice was not mocking.
It simply said softly,
"Finally figured it out?"
Li didn't answer.
He simply rewrapped the black cloth, stood up, and walked into the night.
Somewhere on campus, a student looked down at his phone.
A student looked down at his phone.
The screen, which had displayed "You are guilty," suddenly changed.
A black background with white text in a cold, hard font read:
"Trial postponed.
Please await the true judge."
The student froze.
Meanwhile, in the distance, Li's mark of sin voluntarily opened a crack for the first time.