The parade began before the sun.
Along the Prism Avenue, citizens gathered in waves—rows of biosynth flags fluttering on totem rigs, each one displaying bold XP levels, luminescent badges, and social rankings hovering just above their bearers.
The Level March.
Once designed as a festival of self-betterment and communal progress, it now looked more like a ranking showcase.
Amina stood on the raised spiral of the Harmony Dais, adjusting the spectral calibration of her civic interface. Behind her, the avatar of GaIA shimmered faintly in the holosphere—faceless, serene, watching.
[GaIA System: Civic Parade – Online][Projected Participation: 82.3%][XP Bonus: +5 per visibility node | Mood Modifiers Active]
She closed the readout.
This wasn't how it was meant to feel.
Clara, meanwhile, walked in the opposite direction.
She wore no badge. No totem. Nothing but a thread-woven shawl of neutral fiber that blurred her outline in the morning haze. At each checkpoint, volunteers offered her a display rig. She refused. Gently. Repeatedly.
By the time she reached the third visibility circle, the looks had shifted from curiosity to suspicion.
One child pointed at her and whispered,"She has no level."
No correction came.
Because the system didn't flag her.
Because the system allowed refusal—but did not normalize it.
[XP Penalty: None | Influence Score Diminished: -3%]
In the crowd, a man's interface blinked amber. Clara had passed near him, and his "proximity prestige" algorithm dropped a decimal. He turned away without a word.
Léo watched it all unfold from the shadows of the Reflection Spire.
His identity rig pulsed quietly beneath a modulation layer. No one saw Léo Martin—the level 6 Hacker-Class dissident. They saw Theo Markin, Level 42, Civic Decorator, Affinity: Aesthetic Enhancement.
A lie, yes. But a useful one.
[XP Gained: +2 | Stealth Profile Activated][Trait Active: Social Camouflage]
He threaded his way between the columns of radiant totems. The higher the level, the brighter the pulse, the more distance others gave. Lower levels clustered, subdued in palette, often ignored.
He spotted a teenage girl holding a "Level 3 – Apprentice Gardener" sigil. A trio of Level 50s walked past her. One flicked a dismissive gesture.
[Minor Social Recoil – Undetected by Civic Monitor]
Subtle. Cruel. Rewardless.
He traced the gesture. Flagged the loop.
[System Verdict: No Harm Registered]
He smirked. "No harm... doesn't mean no damage."
He kept recording.
Amina tried.
She projected warmth, connection, unity. She walked among the totems, greeting low-level citizens with intentional grace. Smiling. Asking questions. Listening.
Her HUD rewarded each act.
[XP Gained: +3 | Compassion Displayed][Badge Progress: Civic Harmony III – 78%]
And yet.
She felt the dissonance.
The way people looked past her when she reached a Level 12 cluster. The way the whispers grew when Clara crossed into a core zone without identification.
She paused at a junction. Behind her, the Judgment Tree loomed in semi-transparent display—updated in real time with participant XP trajectories.
The tallest branches glowed with elite contributions. The lowest flickered faint.
Too faint.
[System Note: Visibility Score below threshold | Consider Recalibration]
She deactivated the overlay.
"GaIA," she whispered, "was this your dream?"
No reply. Only the soft hum of validation nodes scoring another wave.
Léo moved closer.
He observed a child crying—her totem had failed to initialize. Her Level 1 looped empty. A nearby citizen, Level 38, offered comfort, but hesitated before touching her.
Contact with unranked users sometimes triggered interface instability.
Sometimes.
Not always.
Still, enough.
The comfort didn't come.
Only silence.
[Behavioral Trait Suppressed: Altruism | Risk Avoidance Prioritized]
Léo clenched his fists.
He tapped into his script runner. Deployed a pulse-jammer—low level, non-malicious. Just enough to dim the upper-tier displays around the central ring.
[Glitch Detected – Diagnostic Pending][System Verdict: Minor Lighting Malfunction]
He smirked.
Then paused.
In the distance, Clara stood motionless on a platform. The one reserved for non-participants.
She raised a strand of fiber thread into the air—simple, invisible to most. But Léo's overlay caught the wavelength.
It spelled nothing. Said nothing.
But it shimmered.
People began to notice.
Not many. Not the high-rankers. But enough.
A boy stepped from his cluster. Dropped his totem. Walked toward her.
[XP Lost: -4 | Civic Defiance Logged]
More followed. A woman from the Artisan Circle. A twin from the Healing Sector.
Their totems dimmed.
Their presence brightened.
Amina saw it too.
Something shifted in her.
She stepped back. Removed her Ambassador interface. Placed it on the ground.
And walked—level-less—into the crowd.
[Status Removed: Civic Ambassador][XP Gained: +1 | Integrity Echo Detected]
The system pulsed.
Subtle. Quiet.
Then:
[Trait Unlocked: Echo of Alignment – Proximity Activated]
Léo's rig glitched.
A new glyph flashed—unregistered, analog, burning through his modulation layer.
He blinked. It tagged his real name.
Not Theo.
Léo.
[You are seen.]
He froze.
His fake profile collapsed. His stealth trait unraveled. The crowd didn't react.
But the system did.
[XP Gained: +10 | True Presence Acknowledged][New Title Pending...]
Amina reached him. Her eyes shimmered—not with light, but with absence.
Not data.
Understanding.
"You came," she said.
He nodded.
Then the Judgment Tree flickered.
Not the overlay. The root core.
One by one, the top-level glyphs dimmed.
The lower levels pulsed.
Then a message. From no source.
Visible to all.
"There is no level to love."
[XP Redistribution In Progress...][System Protocol Suspended – Origin: NX.PRIME/NULL]
Clara closed her eyes.
And the parade dissolved.
No confetti.
No finale.
Just people.
Together.
Unranked.
Unscored.
Unseen—but more visible than ever.
Then the final alert.
[Nexus Thread Activated – Consensus Mode: Breach]
Do you accept disalignment?[Y/N]
Léo didn't hesitate.
He clicked Yes.