by Nole Moody
Jonathon Smith’s job is simple: sit still, look human, and press “approve” when the system asks. In a world where corporations own justice and drones enforce it, he’s just a legally required checkbox. Until he makes one mistake. When the system wrongly targets an innocent man, Jon does the unthinkable—he intervenes. With seconds to act, he hacks a compliance drone, adding one tiny rule: Do not terrify small children with cats. The drone crashes. The victims survive. Jon becomes the problem. But when the corporation reviews the damage, they discover something worse than sabotage—his fix works. It reduces panic. It lowers lawsuits. It’s profitable. Now Jon has a choice: pay for the drone he destroyed… or help build a better system. He chooses both. Because if he’s going to be part of the machine, he’s going to change it—one small, inconvenient rule at a time. And that’s going to make everything worse.(This is the sequel to Legally Required Human; only a stub of that story remains on RoyalRoad at present because it's published on Amazon now ... and free this week incidentally)Chapters will come out at least once a day until the completed story is posted (it's around 80% written now and in the proof-reading/correction stage). Obviously, if you spot any issues, please let me know.
