This wasn't the first time the crack had opened.
This time, however, Li finally understood who was looking at him.
It all started with a long-forgotten file.
The lowest-level database of the student council,
was accessible to only three people:
Bai Ya, Li,
, and Jinguji Hai himself.
When Bai Ya projected the soul record,
Even the air seemed compressed.
The file title was a single sentence:
"Record of Surviving Individuals of Rift Sealing Object (Unique)."
Li saw the name immediately:
Jinguji Hai.
No age.
No origin.
There was only one note, like a warning for the future:
"This soul entered the core of the rift intact and was retrieved in a 'non-dead state.'"
Li's throat tightened.
"You entered the rift?"
Jinguji Hai didn't deny it.
He simply took off his glasses slowly, his tone so flat that it didn't seem like he was talking about his own experience.
"When I was twelve."
"The rift went berserk that time. Originally, the entire school district was to be sealed off."
"That wasn't an accident."
Grey said it was a failed experiment.
The student council leaders back then
—attempted to prove one thing:
"If you send the 'guilty' directly into the rift,
Would the rift automatically conduct its own trial?"
Grey was chosen, not because he was innocent.
But because—
His soul structure was unusually stable.
"They said I'm 'suitable to bear the consequences,'" Grey said calmly.
There was no time in the Rift.
No light.
No up or down.
Only countless overlapping voices.
repeatedly asking the same question:
"Are you willing to admit that your existence is a sin?"
When Li heard this, the Mark of Sin jumped violently.
It was all too familiar.
This wasn't a question.
It was the core logic of the trial system.
Gray wasn't torn apart.
Nor was he purified.
The crack was on him.
It made some kind of misjudgment.
"It can't judge me," he said.
As he said this, a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth for the first time.
Not a smile.
It was mockery.
"Because I was inside and saw it."
Li's heart sank.
"Saw what?"
Gray looked up at Li.
For a moment, Li had a strange feeling. The other's gaze seemed to pass through him and look at something further away.
"An eye judging the world."
Not a god.
Not a will.
But rather, a "judgment device" that had been pre-programmed.
The crack wasn't a door.
It was a pupil.
Bai Ya finally spoke in an unusually low voice.
"So the Sin Mark isn't used to punish sin."
He pulled up another piece of data.
"It's used to—
adapt the human soul to that eye."
Li understood instantly.
The Sin Mark wasn't a mark.
It was an interface.
It was a converter that allowed "Judgment" to befall humanity.
Gray—
—was the first person to be fully connected yet not collapse.
"Are you a failure?" Li asked softly.
Gray shook his head.
"No.
"I'm a successful case that wasn't activated."
That's why he was sealed away.
He was left in the student council.
He was placed in the closest position to the crack.
Not for protection.
For observation.
Li stood in the archives.
All the fragments in his mind finally aligned.
Why did the Mark of Sin choose him?
Why was his trial replicated throughout the campus?
Why did the rift respond to him?
It wasn't because he was righteous.
Not because he was special.
But because—
He was becoming the second "fitter."
Grey put his glasses back on and looked at Li. His tone was serious for the first time.
"You and I are different.
"I was just thrown in.
"But you—"
He paused.
"You were actively chosen by the system."
A soft chuckle sounded in Li's heart.
Not mockery.
It was satisfaction.
Night.
Deep within the crack,
The invisible eye shifted slightly.
It was as if it were finally confirming something.
Li stood by the window.
For the first time, it wasn't fear or confusion that consumed him.
But he had a clear understanding of one thing.
The seal wasn't meant to imprison it.
Rather, it was meant to await the arrival of someone capable of passing judgment.
After Jinguji Hai's past was revealed, the entire student council fell silent.
But Li sensed that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Like silent breaths, the cracks awaited their next move.
That night, Li followed Bai Ya to the underground chamber.
Hui opened a small, sealed soul container. Inside was a semi-transparent shadow—the "soul remnant" from when Hui entered the rift at age twelve.
Li looked through his Eye of Judgment. The soul remnant was motionless, but countless tiny eyes seemed to move within it.
whispering,
"You're next."
Li's heart skipped a beat.
For the first time, he felt that the whispers weren't just an illusion.
The rift itself was speaking to him.
Hui's voice was cold.
"Back then, I was just a container.
I had no choice.
You could."
The air in the underground chamber was unusually thick.
tinged with a faint crimson glow.
Li took a deep breath and felt the rhythm pulling at his soul.
—like the pulsation of a crack carrying a semi-conscious sense of life.
"Is it breathing?" Li whispered.
White Raven nodded.
"The crack isn't just a simple space. It senses approaching souls. Gray was able to survive because his soul resonated with its rhythm."
Li felt a slight sting in his chest, and the Imprint of Sin responded.
"You will adapt to it, too."
Gray pulled out a small booklet detailing the experiments on the seal and the rift.
"The rift's core forcibly extracts the soul's 'judgment potential.' Only those with perfect compatibility can survive."
Li flipped through each page, his heart growing heavier with each turn.
This meant that his judgment ability wasn't accidental but a designed outcome.
White Raven frowned.
"So, you're not just a judge.
You're part of the Rift's 'Container Project.'"
Li's gaze turned icy.
"So, all the previous pseudo-judgments and the school-wide trial were tests?"
Gray nodded slightly, his voice low.
"Not just tests.
Also inducement."
In the dead of night, whispers echoed through the secret chamber again.
This time, they were clearer, as if they were coming from the depths of the rift.
"Bear your judgment. Bear your judgment. Bear all those who yearn for judgment."
Li clenched his fists, the mark of sin on his chest bulging slightly.
For the first time, he felt that his existence was part of the rift itself.
White Raven said coldly,
"Be careful; it's not just surveillance.
It will guide you, even manipulate you."
Li took a deep breath and silently resolved:
"If this judgment is to begin, I must control it myself."
Li stepped out of the basement into the depths of the night.
In the distance, a crack trembled slightly, emitting a red light that flowed like blood.
The whisper echoed again:
"The Compatible One has awakened."
Li looked up, a cold glint in his eyes.
He would no longer take a passive approach.
He would actively confront the judgment itself.