130: Chapter 131 The White Tower Forces Me to Kill Another Self

"You took my body, my family, my friends, and eighteen years."

"I have only a name left."

"Now—"

"It's your turn to return my life to me."

Inside the green evacuation door, the youth raised the gray-gold wrench.

His movements were exactly the same as Lin Jin's.

His wrist dropped half an inch first, the jaws tilted slightly, and after confirming the point of force, he flicked upward.

This was a habit Lin Shoushan had taught.

It was also a habit Lin Jin had used for eighteen years.

The wrench fell.

It didn't smash into Lin Jin.

Instead, it smashed into the unassigned enrollment list between the two.

Bang!

The two characters [Lin Jin] suddenly split apart.

A black identification chain rushed out from the paper surface; one end pierced the chest of the youth inside the door, and the other end headed straight for the F-Class Repairman badge on Lin Jin's chest.

Shen Tingxue slashed horizontally with the Ice Key.

The ice blade hit the chain, but only splashed up a scatter of fine gray light.

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear immediately circled to the side of the chain, the tip of the spear nailing fiercely into the weakest angle.

Lightning arcs exploded.

The black chain shifted half an inch, but still pierced Lin Jin's shoulder.

Agonizing pain struck.

Everything in front of Lin Jin overlapped instantly.

He saw himself lying in a crib at The Hospital.

Lin Shoushan, covered in sweat, pried open a pure black professional badge and threw a mass of black light that was still pulsing into the White Tower.

He also saw, inside the White Tower, a baby silhouette with no body and no facial features, left alone in a pure white room.

No crying.

No temperature.

Only lines of files sent in from outside the walls.

[Lin Jin learns to walk for the first time]

[Lin Jin enters school at seven]

[Lin Jin breaks a water heater at ten]

[Lin Jin awakens as an F-Class Repairman at eighteen]

That mass of black light relied on these records to slowly grow limbs, grow facial features, and grow into the appearance of the youth inside the door.

For eighteen years, the Lin Jin outside was living.

The "Lin Jin" inside was reading.

Every smile, every injury, every choice the one outside made, when transmitted to the White Tower, became only a few cold lines of text.

The black chain tightened violently.

Lin Jin's shoulder sank forward.

The youth inside the door also stumbled half a step.

Both of their badges lit up simultaneously.

[Same-name individual conflict]

[Subject: Lin Jin]

[System Identification Core: Lin Jin]

[Single candidate detected as split]

[Initiating completion program]

The seventh black chair in the sky suddenly pressed down.

The [Repair] character on the back of the chair split into two, hanging above each of their heads respectively.

A cold voice resounded throughout the academy.

[Please fight for the subject qualification]

[The winner will obtain a complete life, complete tools, and complete professional authority]

[The loser will be recycled as a redundant personality]

Chen Ye's face twisted as he heard this.

"It's making you two eat each other?"

The youth inside the door did not turn back.

"I waited for eighteen years."

"You want me to keep waiting?"

He raised the wrench and twisted the identification chain again.

The F-Class Repairman badge on Lin Jin's chest was ripped open by force.

Segments of reality records belonging to him flew out of his body.

Forming the first team with Chen Ye.

Dismantling incorrect rules at the Abandoned Hospital.

Guarding the Ice Key together with Shen Tingxue.

Zhou Heng nailing his Thunder Spear in front of him.

The four signing the Mutual Verification Contract.

Once these memories left Lin Jin, they quickly turned into flesh and blood on the youth inside the door.

His complexion was no longer pale.

For the first time, there was real emotion in his eyes.

Pain.

Grievance.

And the anger that had been suppressed for eighteen years.

"These were supposed to be a part of me!"

He roared and swung the wrench down.

"What right do you have to have everything?"

The gray-gold light passed through the evacuation door.

Lin Jin raised the rusty wrench to block in front of him.

Clang!

The two wrenches collided head-on for the first time.

Lin Jin's left arm went numb instantly, and the web of his hand tore.

The youth's tool inside the door, however, was steady without a hint of shaking.

[Rule Correction Tool completion: 100%]

[Authority suppression: 61%]

The gray-gold edge continued to press down.

Lin Jin's knees bent bit by bit.

The youth inside the door stared at him, his voice trembling.

"You aren't even complete with your tools."

"What right do you have to be outside, while I'm inside?"

Lin Jin gritted his teeth and did not answer.

Because he had no right to tell the other party not to hate.

If it were anyone else, being locked in the White Tower for eighteen years, forced to rely on others' files to imagine sunshine, a father, friends, and life, they would also go crazy.

But understanding did not equal yielding.

Lin Jin braced his left foot against the ground, and the wrench shifted violently.

The gray-gold tool grazed his shoulder and smashed down, blasting a crack several meters long into the ground.

"If you want to live, that's fine."

Lin Jin caught his breath.

"But you can't take my body, my teammates, and my eighteen years."

The youth's expression turned cold instantly.

"Then only one can remain!"

"No."

Lin Jin looked up at the seventh black chair.

"It's that only one wants to remain."

The wrench in the youth's hand stopped for half an inch.

Lin Jin pointed to the completion prompt in mid-air.

"It didn't say it would let you go out."

"It only said the winner obtains complete professional authority."

"Whoever eats whom, the one who survives in the end won't be Lin Jin."

"It will be The Seventh Seat."

A glimmer of wavering flashed across the youth's eyes.

The black chair in the sky immediately issued a second order.

[System identification core is being induced by the subject]

[Clearing external relationship interference]

Three black lights shot toward Shen Tingxue, Zhou Heng, and Chen Ye respectively.

"Scatter!"

Zhou Heng flicked his Thunder Spear, first deflecting the black light shooting at Chen Ye.

Shen Tingxue did not dodge.

She inserted the Ice Key into the ground, and an arc-shaped ice wall rose from beneath her feet, freezing the three black lights in mid-air simultaneously.

However, text quickly grew on the black lights inside the ice layer.

[Friend: Replaceable relationship]

[Teammate: Phased relationship]

[Trust: Non-essential personality data]

Chen Ye was furious when he saw this.

"Friends are now non-essential data?"

He rushed up despite his injuries and smashed the first black light with his shield.

Zhou Heng swept his Thunder Spear horizontally, nailing the second black light into the warehouse wall.

Shen Tingxue raised her hand and pulled out the Ice Key.

The third black light was severed by her along with the words "non-essential."

She looked at the youth inside the door.

"What the White Tower showed you were just our files."

"Did it tell you that Lin Jin feels pain when he gets hurt?"

The youth was silent.

"Did it tell you that Chen Ye is afraid of being replaced, yet still stands at the very front every time?"

Chen Ye whispered:

"Not every time..."

Zhou Heng kicked the back of his shield.

"Shut up."

Shen Tingxue continued:

"Did it tell you that every time Zhou Heng circles an arc, it's not because it's the optimal route?"

"It's because a straight line would hurt others."

Zhou Heng's eyes moved slightly.

"The files recorded what happened."

Shen Tingxue looked at the youth.

"It didn't record why we did those things."

The youth's hand holding the wrench trembled slightly for the first time.

He knew every action they took.

But he didn't know the hesitation, fear, tacit understanding, and choices behind those actions.

Because the White Tower didn't need to record these.

The system only cared about the results.

Lin Jin slowly loosened the jaws of the rusty wrench.

"You are not me."

The wavering that had just risen in the youth's eyes instantly turned into rage.

Lin Jin continued immediately:

"But you are not a redundant me, either."

The youth was stunned.

"You lived inside for eighteen years."

"Even if you lived by relying on files, the pain is yours, the hatred is yours, and the desire to go out just now was your own choice."

Lin Jin pointed to the seventh black chair.

"It says we must fight for one name."

"I don't accept that."

[Completion program] shook violently.

The Seventh Seat lowered black lines again.

[Subject refuses to merge]

[Identification core refuses to be recycled]

[Dual anomaly]

[Executing single-name cleanup]

The green evacuation door began to close.

Dense black cracks also emerged beneath the youth's feet.

[Identification core has lost merger value]

[Preparing for formatting]

His expression changed abruptly.

"It wants to delete me?"

"See it clearly now?"

Lin Jin raised his wrench to jam the door gap.

"It never intended to return your life to you."

The youth looked at the black chair in the sky, the anger in his eyes finally changing direction.

"I sat in it for you for eighteen years."

"Every time a candidate was summoned, I was the one who took it for you."

Lin Jin's heart shook.

The youth slowly pulled open his collar.

There was no heart in his chest.

Only a shrunken black chair was deeply embedded between his ribs.

Six chains pierced out from the back of the chair, drilling into his spine.

The Seventh Seat wasn't waiting for him.

The Seventh Seat had been sitting in his body all along.

The youth laughed at himself.

"You thought the reason you weren't found for eighteen years was because Lin Shoushan's sealing was perfect enough?"

"It wasn't."

"Every time the Rule Maintenance Seat called the Seventh Candidate, I was the one responding here."

"They thought I was you."

"I was covered for you."

"Tested for you."

"Woke up again and again for you, and was formatted again and again."

His eyes were getting redder.

"I don't want to steal your life."

"I just don't want to sit in this chair for you anymore."

The Seventh Seat seemed to be enraged.

The black chair embedded in the youth's chest suddenly opened.

Six chains tightened instantly, dragging him into the door.

The youth's knees smashed onto the ground, and the gray-gold wrench flew out of his hand.

The 100% on the tool's surface peeled off rapidly.

[100%]

[87%]

[61%]

The remaining thirty-nine percent turned into black authority, all flowing back to the chair in his chest.

Lin Jin grabbed the youth's hand.

Two identical hands locked tightly in the door gap.

[Same-name conflict intensified]

[Warning: Simultaneous rescue will lead to subject identity contamination]

Chen Ye roared while carrying the mechanical wheel:

"Contamination then so be it!"

"Pull him out first!"

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear inserted into the door hinge, forcing the about-to-close evacuation door back open.

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line wrapped around the youth's arm, but quickly turned black upon touching the chains.

"His body is connected to The Seventh Seat."

"Pulling him by force will bring the chair out with him."

Lin Jin looked at the black chair in the youth's chest.

"Then don't pull the body."

The youth laughed miserably.

"You want to take away just one hand too?"

"Take the name first."

Lin Jin said.

"The first principle of the original White Tower."

"Reserve the name first, then determine the status."

Luo Wensheng's right hand, which had just been rescued, suddenly moved inside the ice layer.

Her index finger lifted with difficulty, writing stroke by stroke on the blank space of the frozen list:

[Lin Jin]

But after writing it, the White Tower immediately brought up a blood-red prompt.

[Name has been occupied by the subject]

Luo Wensheng's hand stopped.

The youth looked at the name, his eyes dimming.

"See."

"Even the name can only have one."

"No."

Lin Jin gripped his hand tightly.

"The name can be the same."

"Only the ID number can only have one."

He raised the rusty wrench and smashed it directly at the pure black professional badge on the youth's chest.

"What's locked isn't your name."

"It's the Seventh Candidate ID!"

Bang!

A fine crack appeared on the black badge.

The youth's whole body shook violently.

The black chair embedded in his chest detached outward by half an inch for the first time.

The six maintenance seats simultaneously lowered a thunderous voice.

[Prohibit removal of candidate ID!]

[After the ID is removed, the identification core will become an unowned anomalous life!]

Lin Jin raised the wrench for the second time.

"Then just be a person first."

"We'll talk about the profession later."

The wrench fell.

The black badge shattered with a boom!

The [Rule Maintenance Seat · Seventh Candidate] on the youth's chest instantly extinguished.

The green evacuation door erupted with unprecedented light.

[Unregistered independent life detected]

[Name: Lin Jin]

[Status: Lost candidate ID]

[Whether to enter the waiting area for protection according to original design principles?]

Lin Jin and the youth looked up at the same time.

The White Tower gave two options.

[Yes]

[No]

And behind the options, the pale fingers of The Sixth Seat had already passed through the sky, heading straight to press [No].

The youth suddenly grabbed Lin Jin's hand back.

"Don't worry about me."

"Close the door."

"If The Seventh Seat follows me out, the entire academy will become a new waiting area."

Lin Jin, however, stared at the black chair that was now more than half exposed on his chest.

That wasn't an ordinary position.

At the deepest part of the chair seat, a line of small characters covered by blood was engraved.

Lin Jin reached out to wipe it away.

[Seventh Seat Temporary Carrier]

[Official Holder: Lin Shoushan]

Lin Jin's pupils contracted suddenly.

The youth also froze.

In the next second, a roar like tearing came from the basement level from Lin Shoushan.

"Don't touch that chair!"

"It isn't locking up another Lin Jin—"

"It's locking up the god I failed to kill back then!"