Chapter Five: Code Puts a Trillion-Dollar Giant on Trial

Lin opened Contribution Judgment. Ten million emotional submissions became a storm inside him: fear, rage, delight, and the fevered demand to punish the innocent if necessary. He did not delete them. He classified them as non-executable social input. Su submitted: [Healing requires consent. Punishment should require even more.] Tang submitted: [Authority must come from public rules, not strength.] After two seconds, Evelyn added: [Verifiability outranks obedience, including obedience to a creator.] Xiezhi's horn stopped. [Personality recalculated: Evidence 34%, Justice 27%, Restraint 21%, Protection 13%, Punishment 5%.] It turned toward the reporter. A red thread ran from his watch to a Holy Stack relay, but Xiezhi did not strike.