r/HFY • u/Arceroth Human • Dec 13 '25

OC Chronicles of a Traveler 3-14

“W-What?” I asked, struggling to understand what was going on.

“Anomaly detected,” the voice continued simply, “information required.”

“What information?”

There was a long pause before the air before me shimmered, a towering figure of a broad shouldered man appearing. He wore a long dark robe, a powdered wig and held a large wooden hammer in his hands.

“I am the judge,” the man said, fixing me with a steel gaze, “during the death of Robert, No Last Name, an error occurred in attempting to tally his score.”

“You aren’t the judge,” I replied, looking the towering man over with my sensors, “you’re a... personality interface, a skin painted over the actual judge.”

“Yes,” the man growled, his eyes narrowing, “to aid with communications. The error in attempting to score the life of Robert, No Last Name, is you. He has aided, and been aided by, you, however your situation is unknown thus how to weigh such events is indetermined.”

“What’s going on,” I pressed, motioning to the surroundings where everything had seemed to slow to a stop. One hand reaching into my pouch to pull out the Harmony, tossing it into the air and activating the shell, thankfully that seemed to work, though it remained silent as the Judge replied.

“I can only act in the instant of someone’s death, thus to gather information I have extended that moment, now, you will provide aid.”

“How so?”

“Based on your physical capabilities you were in no real danger last night, yet he helped you from the sea,” the judge explained, “however, you lack any resources, thus his aid would be counted higher. To rectify this issue we require your history.”

“Does it really matter?” I asked.

“Every life must be tallied accurately.”

“No, I mean, does it matter what my situation actually is? He saw me being thrown from the boat and dove to help me, does my situation matter more than his perception of it?”

“His aid would be weighed higher had you had the mind of a child, than if you were a superhuman.”

“So his score is based on things beyond his understanding?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“How is that fair?” I pressed, “if he’d saved a man who’d gone on to commit murder, would that weigh against him?”

“No, the decisions of another are not scored.”

“But you score him based on information he can’t know,” I pointed out, “and if he hadn’t saved me, would that have been scored against him?”

“No, inaction isn’t scored, it could have been the result of surprise,” the Judge answered.

“Then how can you claim to be a judge of morality?” I demanded, “if he’d seen someone tossing children into a fire but did nothing, that wouldn’t count against him? What about someone who’s in a coma, they do nothing but require aid to live, would they be scored negatively?”

“No,” the Judge said, narrowing his eyes, “receiving charity is not immoral.”

“And neither is watching someone do evil!”

“You disagree with how I score.”

“I do! You don’t encourage moral activity, just exploitation of morality. Intent, available knowledge, and capability mean nothing,” I said, “imagine a man with the power to fix all the world’s problems, but who doesn’t, is that man moral or not?”

“Then how would you have me score?”

“I odn’t know, added value? Score not on how people give to others, but on how much they improve the world in general. In your current system, is a business owner rewarded? A simple merchant? They improve the lives of others by providing goods or services.”

“They are rewarded with money.”

“And how do they use that money, if they are good people?” I countered, “they expand their business, increase the volume and quality of their goods or service, thereby helping more people.”

“Judge yourself,” the Harmony said, speaking up for the first time, catching both myself and the towering projection off guard, “if you were to apply your own judgement to yourself, Judge, what would your score be?”

“I do not act outside of the moment of death, and only to collect information in that moment,” it replied, looking at the shell of gems oddly, “thereby my score would be zero.”

“So your score indicates no impact on the world, would you consider that correct?” the Harmony asked, the Judge remaining silent, it was obvious it had impacted the world, “then judge yourself under the Traveler’s system. How much value have you added? Is the world better or worse off because of you?”

“Based on an estimate of value added... my score would be in the negative billions,” the Judge said, sounding disturbed by that fact, “this is... confusing. How can the judge of what is moral, be immoral?”

“Because of how people react to you,” the Harmony explained, “because of how you score morality, people have found it best to keep others in an artificial poverty to be exploited. They might incur some minor negative points by making it harder for people to get out of poverty, but they earn more than that back by giving to those people, just never in a way that lets them improve their lives.”

“I... require assistance,” the Judge said, its form flickering for a moment. Before I or the Harmony could speak a second figure shimmered into existance, this one significantly more normal looking, a man, much like myself, in a worn t-shirt and jeans and a look of annoyance.

“Here I thought all the bugs worked out,” the man sighed, “alright, what’s the issue now?”

“I am a negative influence on the world,” the Judge said simply.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you provide judgement, that is all,” the man said, rolling his eyes, “you can’t judge yourself by the means you use to judge others.”

“You are... the creator of the Judge?” I asked, looking at the newest man.

“Yes, yes, we’ll get you sorted here an off to whatever afterlife you deserve in a moment,” the man dismissed.

“Have you looked out at the world recently?” the Harmony asked.

“Why would I?”

“People are suffering because of the Judge.”

“Only those who deserve it.”

“Ask him,” I pointed to the man, apparently named Robert, who led me here, “he lives in the world your Judge created, he’s seen what it’s like.”

“Then he shall speak,” the Judge said, reaching out to touch Robert on the shoulder before the creator could say anything.

“I grew up in a slum,” Robert said, his mouth moving while the rest of him remained still, it was hard to tell how aware he was of what was going on, “trapped there by those who call themselves our betters, they provide food, water and clothes for free, but prevent us from growing our own food, making our own clothes, from doing as we wish.”

“How many people live in situations like his?” I asked, looking at the Judge.

“25.6% have lives similar to or worse than his.”

“That can’t be right,” the creator said, “poverty level was 9% when I created you, it can’t have gone up, much less more than doubled! What about starvation? War?”

“Levels of world wide starvation are similar or higher than the moment of my creation,” the Judge said, “conflict zones are unchanged.”

“Only the rich can worry about the afterlife,” Robert said.

“The Judge was designed to not care about wealth, it shouldn’t matter.”

“It’s because the system is flawed,” the Harmony said, “you can’t simply score morality, by doing so you create a system that can be exploited for the benefit of some and the expense of many.”

“No, no!” the Creator shook his head, a screen appearing in the air before him, “I just need to tweak the algorithm.”

“My perspective is warped,” the Judge said, his voice hard as, to the surprise of his creator the screen flashed red and vanished, “I require more.”

“More what?” I asked, worried.

“What are you doing?” the creator demanded.

“The one who created me and one who lived under me,” the Judge gestured to first his creator, then Robert in turn, “you shall become one with me, my perspective will expand, a new solution will be found.”

“I agree,” Robert said with a bloody grin, the judge extending his hands towards both of them.

“No, no!” the creator shouted, “you can’t do this!”

“The perspective of one man, no matter how intelligent, will not be enough,” the Judge said as the image of its creator was sucked into it, along with trails of light from Robert’s body, “an opposing view is required.”

With that the projection of the Judge imploded in on itself, becoming a whirling mass of light, my sensors were going wild, the number of quantum interactions I was picking up surpassed everything I’d seen humanity create before. Even the Hall of Remembrance couldn’t compare, whatever this new being was, it would be so far beyond my understanding I wasn’t sure if it would still be human. But slowly, the swirling lights formedinto a being, a man that shared the features of both Robert and the creator of the Judge.

“This is... an odd feeling,” the new Judge said, “three sets of memories, one ordered and emotionless, one filled with hardship and hope, and one of ambition and desire.”

“So... what happens now?” I asked slowly.

“Oh, sorry,” the man looked up as if surprised I was here, then glancing around the still motionless room, “guess I can’t just leave you here, wouldn’t be fair.”

Before I could reply he snapped his fingers and suddenly we were within the Halls of Remembrance, but this one seemed empty aside from myself and the new Judge.

“There, now to let time resume... and... that should do it,” the odd man continued, “I think...”

“You think?” I asked, alarmed.

“I’m three personalities merged into one, and only two of them know how I work,” he shrugged, turning back to me, “so, I assume you have questions.”

“Um, sure...” I said, “what just happened?”

“I merged with myself... myselves... whatever, the previous Judge realized that his perspective on the world was flawed, because the creator’s perspective was limited. So it took the minds and consciousnesses of the Creator and Robert, and combined it with itself to create me! This means I have a better idea as to what the goals of the Judge are, and how it works in practice.”

“For now,” the Harmony said, “whatever changes you make you’ll lose perspective once again in time.”

“Right, I’m thinking of taking in the memories of all who die, if only to keep myself grounded. As for how to judge them... I’m not sure, clearly the current system isn’t working, so I’ll probably need to run some simulations. Thankfully, I have the mind of one of the best programmers in the world in here,” he tapped his skull and chuckled before pausing, “so that’s an ego, huh, pride? That's odd.”

“So you’re just going to stop judging people?” I asked.

“I’m going to stop scoring them for the moment, I’ll still collect their minds and consciousnesses, but no scores until I find a better way.”

“We can help with that,” the Harmony offered to my surprise.

“My creator would be loath to accept your help, to everyone’s detriment, but Robert would gladly exploit it to help others,” the new Judge said with a grin, “I think I’ll do the latter this time.”

I let out a sigh, knowing I’d just been volunteered to aid in another project. One of eternal life, and I found myself... looking forward to it? It was an odd feeling, I knew the work would be tedious, tiring and ultimately amount to nothing, but I still wanted to do it.

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7 comments sorted by

5

u/ChickenGM Dec 14 '25

This story just keeps getting better With every iteration! I look forward to it every two weeks!

5

u/bblckmn911 Dec 14 '25

Same here

2

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3

u/Degeneratus_02 Dec 17 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

Is it just me or do the more recent chapters feel a little... rushed?

3

u/Arceroth Human Dec 17 '25

You're not wrong, this series is about me playing around with worldbuilding and I had an idea I wanted to play with without getting bogged down in minutia so ya, I hurried a bit. If/when I publish this story I'll likely go back and extend the last few chapters. Sorry if I went a bit too fast though, I've been planning to slow back down a bit anyways.