The room shattered into silence.
Not darkness—isolation.
Ethan found himself standing alone in a narrow white space, endless in every direction. No walls. No ceiling. Just a flat floor and the hum of something watching.
A single panel hovered before him.
[Individual Assessment Initiated]
Objective: Information Management
Failure Cost: Variable
He clenched his jaw.
Information again.
The panel shifted, revealing three files.
Each labeled with a name.
Liam H.
Mara K.
Subject 07
No descriptions. No context.
Only a prompt beneath them.
[You may access ONE file.]
[Accessing a file incurs cost.]
A timer appeared.
03:00.
So this was how it worked.
Knowledge had weight.
Ethan hovered his hand over Liam's name, then stopped.
Liam had already shown his strategy—spend less, let others fall.
Predictable.
Mara was harder to read.
But Subject 07…
No name.
Anonymized.
The punished man.
Ethan selected Subject 07.
The moment he did, pain bloomed behind his eyes.
[Access Cost Applied]
Cost: 9 months, 6 days
He hissed but stayed standing.
The file opened.
A short log scrolled past.
Subject 07 attempted to transmit external warning.
Motivation: Group survival.
Result: Unauthorized exchange.
Ethan's chest tightened.
So he hadn't been selfish.
He'd tried to help.
The system continued.
[Additional Option Unlocked]
– Share information (Penalty applies)
– Withhold information (No immediate cost)
A final line blinked.
[Outcome impacts ranking stability.]
Another screen appeared—live.
He saw the punished man again.
Alone like him.
Panic etched across his face.
A countdown hovered above his head.
02:10.
Ethan realized with a cold clarity:
The man was being tested on something he didn't understand.
And Ethan now did.
If he warned him, it would count as sharing.
Penalty.
But if he stayed silent…
The system would extract the lesson directly.
Probably violently.
Ethan swallowed.
This wasn't about kindness.
It was about deciding what kind of participant he was becoming.
A private notification pulsed.
[Ranking Impact Preview]
– Share: –2 positions
– Withhold: Stable
Two ranks.
Two privileges.
Two warnings in the future he wouldn't receive.
He looked at the timer again.
00:58.
Ethan made his choice.
He typed a short message.
Not instructions.
Not solutions.
Just context.
Think before you act. The test is about information itself.
The moment he sent it, the space trembled.
[Unauthorized Guidance Detected]
Pain tore through his chest.
He dropped to one knee.
[Penalty Applied]
Cost: 1 year, 2 months
The screen with the man flickered.
The countdown paused.
He looked up, confusion turning into realization.
Slowly, he stopped moving.
The system observed.
Then recorded.
Ethan's ranking list flashed briefly.
He dropped.
From 2 → 4.
Still inside privilege.
Barely.
A final message appeared, neutral and precise.
[Assessment Complete]
Behavior Classified: Conditional Altruism
Status: Accepted
Accepted.
Not praised.
Not punished beyond the cost.
Ethan exhaled shakily.
The system didn't want heroes.
It wanted calculated compassion.
And now it knew exactly how far he'd go.