111: Chapter 111 The ledger may hurt, but you can't just make up accounts.

"Don't reject them anymore..."

"Every time you reject a charge, I have to recalculate it again."

"It really... hurts."

The grey fire in the containment box was terrifyingly quiet.

The boy's voice was very soft and exhausted, sounding as if it came from far away, or as if he was crushed under a ledger, unable to breathe.

Chen Ye had been about to curse the White Tower, but hearing this, his mouth fell open, and he couldn't utter a word.

"He Zhibai?"

The grey fire flickered slightly.

There was no immediate answer.

It was as if those three characters were something he hadn't been called in a very long time.

Lin Jin stared at the containment box, his expression even darker than before.

The White Tower was too good at choosing its timing.

They had just discovered that the source of the bills might be a sixteen-year-old non-enrolled youth.

The next second, the other party spoke up, saying: Don't reject them anymore.

Because every time they rejected a charge, he felt pain.

If this was true, then continuing to reject the bills would be like torturing He Zhibai.

If this was fake, then the White Tower was using He Zhibai's voice to force them to stop resisting.

But whether true or false, they couldn't just take this statement at face value.

Lin Jin raised his hand, stopping Chen Ye, who wanted to draw closer.

"Don't respond to the request."

Chen Ye was taken aback.

"But he said it hurts."

"Which is exactly why we can't answer recklessly."

Lin Jin looked at the grey fire in the containment box, his voice steady to the point of being cold and hard.

"We verify first."

A very soft voice came from the grey fire.

"Verification... also requires calculation."

"For every question you ask, I have to break down a charge."

"Every time you write a boundary, I have to rearrange it all over again."

"The White Tower will make me make up the difference."

Chen Ye's face turned ugly.

"Then we do nothing?"

Zhou Heng said coldly:

"If we do nothing, the bills will continue to fall on our heads, and on others' heads."

Shen Tingxue looked at the grey fire.

"The problem isn't that we are rejecting the bills."

"It's that the White Tower is shifting the cost of the rejection onto him."

Lin Jin nodded.

"Correct."

He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the outside of the containment box:

[Bill Source Protection Boundary]

Rule 1.

[Rejecting incorrect bills does not equate to harming the bill source itself.]

[The pain of recalculation caused by rejections originates from the White Tower's erroneous settlement mechanism and shall not be transferred as the team's debt.]

Rule 2.

Rule 3.

[If He Zhibai's residual will exists, it should be registered as a suspected victim and source of testimony, and must not be registered as a creditor.]

Rule 4.

[The White Tower shall not coerce the claimed party into accepting incorrect accounts under the pretext of 'source pain.']

Rule 5.

[Subsequent audits should prioritize severing the binding between 'bill rejection' and 'recalculation pain,' rather than halting the rejections.]

After he finished writing the fifth rule, the grey fire shuddered violently.

The boy's voice let out a suppressed groan.

Chen Ye's expression changed.

"He's hurting!"

Lin Jin's hand also paused slightly.

But he did not erase it.

Because another line of text simultaneously surfaced on the edge of the grey fire.

[Bill Source Protection Boundary detected]

[Recalculation pain is being allocated]

[Attempting to register the pain as a new debt for the Rule Maintenance Special Class]

Zhou Heng's eyes turned instantly cold.

"As expected."

It wasn't just simple pain.

It was also turning pain into bills.

Lin Jin continued writing, his voice even colder than before:

[Rejected.]

[The pain of the bill source shall not be registered as a new debt for the Rule Maintenance Special Class.]

[This pain should be registered as evidence of ongoing harm inflicted by the White Tower First Floor's settlement room on He Zhibai's residual will.]

Shen Tingxue immediately raised her hand, her Ice Line sealing the outer edge of the grey fire.

"Lockdown Role certifies."

"The pain exists, but the source of responsibility does not lie with the team."

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear pinned down the bottom of the containment box.

"Barrier Breaker Position certifies."

"Recalculation pain shall not be generated as new debt."

Chen Ye propped himself up on the medical stretcher, his voice hoarse but heavy.

"Protection Role certifies."

"We don't want him to hurt."

"But we cannot allow the White Tower to use his pain as a weapon to hurt even more people."

Gu Changye said in a deep voice:

"Abyss Processing Bureau record: If He Zhibai's residual will exists, it should be registered as a victim of old project harm."

Qin Shanhe followed up:

"Academy confirmation: If He Zhibai ever received tests or guidance related to Jiangcheng First Combat Academy, he falls within the scope of protection for prospective students."

Inspector Han Su's surveillance projection spoke:

"Education Bureau Inspection Seat record: The Special Career Development Division has sealed the non-enrolled list and must bear the responsibility of explaining He Zhibai's reception records."

As the tripartite records were established, the sounds of pain from the grey fire finally softened slightly.

But the voice was still very weak.

"You... aren't here to pay off the debt?"

Lin Jin said:

"No."

"We are here to audit the accounts."

"If the accounts are wrong, we reject them."

"If the ledger is made of a person, we save them."

The grey fire fell silent for a long time.

Then, the boy's voice softly sounded:

"Auditing... requires proof."

Lin Jin's eyes flickered.

"Can you provide the proof?"

The grey fire contracted slightly.

"I don't know."

"I can't just say whatever."

"The White Tower makes me calculate."

"Lu Chengyuan makes me record."

"Whoever takes the reward owes the cost."

"Whoever refuses replacement owes the difference."

"Whoever saves someone owes the substitute injury."

"Whoever leaves a vacancy owes the replacement."

His voice grew increasingly chaotic, like a ledger page that had been repeatedly crumpled up and smoothed out.

"I can't finish calculating."

"I can never finish calculating."

"They said that once I finish calculating, I can leave."

Chen Ye's hands clenched tightly.

"It's always those words."

"You can leave once you finish calculating."

"You can go home once you finish repairing."

"You can become stronger once you reconstruct."

"You can stabilize once you fill the vacancy."

The White Tower was best at giving people an exit they could never reach.

Lin Jin looked at the grey fire and asked:

"Have you seen Lu Chengyuan?"

The grey fire shrank instantly.

The boy's voice became much lower.

"Seen him."

"He said I was very talented."

"He said the poverty reduction test was real."

"He said as long as I helped the White Tower calculate the costs of the first floor, I wouldn't have to pay any tuition fees in the future."

Chen Ye's face turned green with anger.

"He used tuition fees to trick you?"

The grey fire didn't answer, but only continued:

"I entered the settlement room."

"There were so many accounts inside."

"Su Yan's door."

"Deputy Director Zhou Chengyue's hesitation."

"Teacher Xu Wenzhou's testimony."

"Shen Qingshuang's evacuation."

"Lin Shoushan's return home."

"And many blank names."

Lin Jin's heart sank.

Blank names.

On that non-enrolled list, there were still many blank lines.

In He Zhibai's ledger, there might be records of everyone received by the White Tower First Floor.

Shen Tingxue immediately asked:

"Can you read the blank names?"

The grey fire trembled.

"Cannot."

"The names are locked in the master ledger."

"I only have the sub-ledgers."

"What you are rejecting are the sub-ledgers."

"The master ledger is in..."

The boy's voice suddenly stopped.

The grey fire flared up violently.

[Warning: Bill source is leaking the core settlement location of the White Tower First Floor]

[Initiating loss prevention]

The containment box vibrated violently.

A suppressed scream of agony from He Zhibai echoed from deep within the grey fire.

Lin Jin's expression changed dramatically.

"Cut the loss prevention line!"

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line immediately sealed the space above the grey fire.

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear pinned down the four corners of the containment box.

Chen Ye also forced himself to prop his shield in front of the containment box, the heavy shield light suppressing the overflowing impact.

Since Lin Jin's right hand was unusable, he could only hold the chalk in his left hand, quickly writing beside the containment box:

[Testimony Protection]

[He Zhibai's residual will providing testimony does not constitute a breach of contract regarding bill leakage.]

[The White Tower shall not punish the testimony source under the guise of loss prevention.]

[The location of the master ledger belongs to evidence of old project harm and may enter tripartite review.]

Inspector Han Su immediately said:

"Education Bureau Inspection Seat confirmation: Evidence of old project harm shall not be unilaterally destroyed by the Special Career Development Division."

Gu Changye followed up:

"Abyss Processing Bureau confirmation: If the master ledger involves the list of personnel received by the White Tower, it belongs to evidence of major pollution harm."

Qin Shanhe said angrily:

"Academy confirmation: I have the right to reclaim my prospective student!"

The three voices fell in unison.

The screams of agony in the grey fire were finally suppressed.

He Zhibai's voice came through intermittently:

"The master ledger... is not on the first floor."

Lin Jin's eyes narrowed.

"Not on the first floor?"

"The first floor only has the entry accounts."

"The true master ledger of costs..."

The grey fire was choked violently as if by an invisible hand.

The boy used the last of his strength to squeeze out a few words:

"Is on the second floor."

"Who will bear the cost."

Everyone's faces darkened at the same time.

The White Tower Second Floor.

The very floor they had just refused to enter.

So the first-floor bills were merely sub-ledgers extending from the second-floor master ledger.

Lin Jin immediately pressed further:

"How do we sever the pain binding between you and the sub-ledgers?"

In the grey fire, He Zhibai's voice was already extremely faint.

"Find my abacus."

"Not the ledger."

"The ledger belongs to the White Tower."

"The abacus is mine."

"Lu Chengyuan placed it at the entrance of the master ledger room..."

He paused, as if confirming whether he could say the last sentence.

"If you enter the second floor, don't look at the accounts first."

"Find the abacus first."

The grey fire dimmed completely.

A new line of status appeared outside the containment box.

[He Zhibai's residual testimony: Sealed]

[White Tower First Floor cost bill pain binding: Marked]

[Master ledger location: White Tower Second Floor]

[Key item: He Zhibai's abacus]

Chen Ye asked hoarsely:

"So we still have to go to the second floor?"

Lin Jin looked at the line [White Tower Second Floor] and slowly let out a breath.

"Not right now."

"But we'll have to go sooner or later."

The grey fire in the containment box no longer burned.

But above the academy, a low tolling of bells suddenly rang out.

A phantom image of the White Tower materialized for a brief moment in the far distance.

The door to the second floor slowly lit up.

On the door, it was written:

[Second Floor Preview: Cost General Ledger Room]

[Entry Condition: End of the seven-day bill audit]

[Warning: If the audit fails, the master ledger room will automatically deduct the amount.]