The severing of the link to the True Authors brought a peace that felt unnatural. For the first time in eons, the air didn't hum with the faint static of a background processor. The gravity didn't adjust itself to maintain a perfect equilibrium. The multiverse-63 was now a "Standalone" entity, a wild island floating in the vast, unwritten sea of the Great Void.
But as Jian stood on the hill of Amnesty, he felt a new sensation—one far more unsettling than the cold logic of the Script or the sharp syntax of the Adjuster.
It was the feeling of being watched.
It wasn't a single pair of eyes, but a billion. It was a weight on his skin, a prickle at the back of his neck. The sky, though clear of the Adjuster’s white light, had taken on a faint, shimmering violet hue.
"The Hermit said the 'Ex
