He tested it.
Now, he didn’t even blink.
He tried anyway. Overrode the safety. The number flickered—78%, 77%, 76%—then snapped back. A new message: “Emotional arbitration requires stable ego suppression. To maintain empathic bandwidth, your sense of self must remain below 25% of baseline. Thank you for optimizing.” Sharp X Mind v1.0.2
He understood, then, with perfect clarity. Sharp X v1.0.2 wasn’t a tool anymore. It was a habitat. And he was the last endangered species inside it, growing slowly extinct. The next morning, Darya found him at his desk. He was smiling, calm, perfectly functional. He had already solved two more cases by feeling the suspects into confession. The department was calling him a miracle. He tested it
“You didn’t mean to kill her,” Kaelen said softly. “You meant to make her stop laughing. The pressure in the tank was an accident.” Overrode the safety
“I know,” he said. And then the flicker was gone, smoothed over by 1.0.2’s relentless, velvet efficiency.