The city felt different on foot.
In the hospital, Haneul had experienced it mostly as data: event feeds, worth functions, emergency pings.
Walking past the food stalls near Tower Seventeen, she got the full sensory download.
Oil popping. Voices calling. Metal tongs clattering. Status windows chiming as Tower-goers checked last-minute buffs.
Her shard stirred with each micro-evaluation:
[VENDOR_WORTH_TO_SYSTEM: LOW.][VENDOR_WORTH_TO_SHARD: "GLUE / COMMUNITY NODE."]
She nudged.
"Hey," she thought. "Street food aunties are important."
The shard adjusted the tag.
['COMMUNITY_NODE' IMPORTANCE: +0.1.]
Kael watched from half a step away, hands in pockets, eyes half-glazed as he monitored for anything weird.
Joon was already in line for skewers.
"Don't patch the sauce," Kael muttered. "It's good as is."
"I'm not messing with the food," Haneul said. "That's how you get cursed."
They took skewers and dumplings and sat on a low wall with a view of the Tower's base.
From here, the gate looked almost… mundane.
A mildly annoyed security checkpoint with extra glow.
People flowed in and out in waves.
Haneul chewed thoughtfully.
"Does it feel louder to you?" she asked Kael quietly.
He flicked his Debug Sense on just enough to check.
The worth function around the plaza was… busier.
Little side-events, minor conflicts, half-hearted shard pings from distant fragments trying out their voices.
"Yeah," he said. "Shard network's a little more awake. Beta's watching."
[MORAL_AUDITOR_BETA: STATUS – REGION MONITORING (LOW-LEVEL).]
Joon finished his third skewer and sighed happily.
"Nothing like post-Floor-3 carbs," he said.
"You ran again without me?" Haneul asked.
"You were literally being discharged," he said. "We cleared the spider mini-boss this time. Kael did his glitch thing. I only almost fell in a web pit twice."
"Progress," she said.
Their chat pinged with a Tower clip Joon had recorded.
Kael in the background, brow furrowed, adjusting some flag while Joon launched himself at a Broodmother like an idiot.
Haneul watched it twice.
Her shard hummed, pleased to see the "Executor" doing his job without catastrophic failure.
[FRAGMENT: 'TRUST_EXECUTOR' METRIC – +0.05.]
Kael shifted.
"Feels like someone just patted me on the head," he muttered.
"It did," she said. "Mentally. Take the compliment."
Mira appeared at the edge of the plaza, blending with the crowd better than her coat suggested she should.
She didn't sit, but she was close enough to talk without raising her voice.
"City fire the other day went well," she said. "No extra conflicts. TRI's officially filed it under 'anomalous but favorable.'"
"So we're good anomalies now," Kael said.
"For the moment," she said. "Enjoy the honeymoon period before someone in a suit decides we're too unpredictable to tolerate."
"Can't wait," he said dryly.
Haneul licked sauce off her fingers.
"So what's next?" she asked. "We've got cult stalkers mildly confused, one rival Executor who won't touch trains, and a fragment network that now thinks I'm Dear Abby For Ethics."
Mira looked up at the Tower.
"Towers don't stay quiet this long," she said. "We'll get a real test. Multi-floor or multi-city. Something big enough that the System can't handle it with just old routines."
"Patch event," Kael said.
"Patch event," she agreed.
"Global?" Joon asked, suddenly very awake.
"Probably regional," Mira said. "But with fragments arguing, local might as well be global."
Kael checked his Inheritance panel.
A new "future milestone" hint had appeared, faint and grayed out.
[FUTURE MILESTONE (LOCKED): "COORDINATED RESPONSE."][DESCRIPTION: "When the System staggers, will shards pull apart or together?"]
He closed it.
"Yup," he said. "We're absolutely getting a crisis episode."
"Do I at least get to be out of the hospital for it?" Haneul asked.
"If you promise not to sprint into collapsing floors, sure," Kael said.
"No promises," she replied.