“Your time is up, Mr. K. Thank you for spending these precious ten minutes with me. I’m afraid I must attend to our next visitor now.” The man’s words were punctuated by the sudden blare of an alarm. Without a word, the interviewer calmly reached over and silenced the noise, his face still as impassive as ever.


    The door creaked open, and another man in black appeared in the doorway. He didn’t speak a word as he moved toward K, pressing his hands firmly against K’s back, forcing him to stand upright. Both hands gripped K’s wrists with such force that K couldn’t even move on his own will.


    Before he could gather his bearings, the man shoved him forward. K stumbled. He didn’t know where he was going, but he was being pushed into an unknown destination.


    They reached a massive door, its size imposing as it slowly opened. Beyond it stretched a giant room, filled with a sea of faces, all turned downward, staring at the floor in unison. The silence in the room was suffocating, broken only by the echoes of their footsteps on the cold floor. As K’s eyes adjusted, a sense of unease washed over him. The faces were vaguely familiar, though his mind couldn''t quite place them. Then it clicked—these were the tenants. The people he had seen in passing, in the halls of the building, perhaps. Now, they were all here, watching, silent witnesses to whatever was about to unfold. They are all in their undergarments, just like himself.


    A pair of eyes met his briefly from the crowd—Ivan and the supervisor, both standing at the back, their heads lowered. Their expressions mirrored the same confusion and helplessness that churned in K’s chest. But before he could fully process the sight, his attention was snapped to a raised platform at the far end of the room.


    A tall, imposing figure stood on the podium. The man’s eyes locked onto K, his voice boomed, mplified by the acoustics of the vast room.. “Mr. K,” he began, “I am the judge, and I will therefore listen to your statements.”


    “Your… greatness?” he hesitated, unsure of the proper way to address him. The word felt hollow in his mouth, foreign and wrong. “I… I was here mistakenly. I am innocent. Please, I don’t belong here.”The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    “Mistake?” The judge raised his voice, “No one is here by mistake, Mr. K. We are all guilty in our own ways. Whether you admit it or not.”


    “Does that mean you are guilty too?” K shot back in a shaken voice.


    “Yes,” he replied, “I will be guilty if I do not perform my duty as I have been told. Now, let us proceed.”


    K suddenly starts to laugh: “You’re not performing your duty if you don''t gather proper evidence and sentence the right person.”


    The judge’s cold gaze never wavered. "Mr. K, aside from the guilt we’ve already established, we must also point out that while other passengers were staring at their phones, you were simply... staring into space. That is certainly odd behavior."


    K’s mind raced, "So, the real reason is that I didn’t stare at my phone?"


    "Yes, you were thinking, and thinking, as we’ve determined, is dangerous." the judge replied


    "What are you talking about?” K’s voice filled with disbelief,  “You’ve got nothing. You’re just grasping at straws."


    The judge continued without missing a beat, "We also detected that you looked at an official poster about anti-staff abuse at the underground station."


    "So what? I looked at a poster. Is that a crime now?"


    "We noticed you laughed at it," the judge’s tone remained even "Such thinking—mocking, undermining—is dangerous. It reflects criminal tendencies."


    K’s voice turned more defiant, "So, I’m not allowed to think for myself? I’m guilty because I thought?"


    "We are simply investigating the reasons behind your need to be sentenced. We are not concerned with your innocence. That is irrelevant."


    "So I’m innocent, but you’re just finding excuses to condemn me?" K cannot repress his anger, he shouted every word.


    The judge sighed, "We are following the rules, Mr. K. This is how this court operates."


    He paused, then continued, "There were clues, of course. But gathering clues takes time. Time is scarce. And so, the court has ruled: Everyone here is guilty. This is the only reasonable conclusion."


    The judge carried on, "Tomorrow, there will be more murders. More crimes. More trials. But trials require rulings, and rulings require time. We do not have time. So, we erase. It is efficient."


    They didn’t need justice; they just needed efficiency.