He activated the Modifier. A soft blue glow emanated from the cylinder, syncing wirelessly with his port. A holographic menu bloomed in his vision:
But Kaelen didn't reach for a weapon. He didn't run. He stood up, slipped the Modifier into his pocket, and walked calmly toward the stairwell. The guilt was gone, but the memory remained. And memory, he now understood, was not a chain. It was a map. bdmv modifier 2.0
That guilt had driven him to build the 2.0 in the first place—to give others the escape he couldn't find. But he’d never dared to use it on the core wound. It felt like betrayal. Like killing the last honest part of himself. He activated the Modifier
The Scour would find an empty room, a flickering blue afterimage, and a man who no longer feared his own ghosts. He didn't run