133: Chapter 134 The Father's Heart, Not Offering God a Throne

[Both of the Seventh Candidates have arrived.]

[One complete body.]

[One independent identification core.]

[And my heart.]

[Please decide—]

[Who shall become my humanity.]

A grand voice echoed from Lin Shoushan's mouth.

Behind the giant door on the basement level, the ledger pages completely stopped turning.

Countless class names hung in the darkness, like a collection of weapons waiting to be chosen by a new master.

Lin Jin looked at his father's golden right eye and did not answer.

Thirteen, however, was the first to laugh.

He had possessed a real body for less than an hour; his face was still pale, and the wound on his chest left by The Seventh Seat had not yet healed.

Yet, his smile made him look more like a living person than ever before.

"Have you been dismantled for so long that your brain is broken too?"

The golden class wheel slowly turned toward him.

[Identification Core.]

[You have endured eighteen years of overwriting; you understand pain best.]

[You are suited to become the god's understanding of humanity.]

The smile at the corner of Thirteen's mouth gradually turned cold.

"I have been in pain for eighteen years, and it wasn't to teach you how to pretend to be human."

The gods heart felt no anger.

It looked at Lin Jin again.

[Subject.]

[You possess relationships, choices, growth, and an independent personality.]

[You are suited to become the god's definition of humanity.]

Lin Jin raised the rusty wrench.

"You can't even recognize my dad properly."

"And you want to define humanity?"

Lin Shoushan's left eye trembled slightly.

In that eye which belonged to him, a very faint trace of a smile flickered.

But the gods heart quickly suppressed him.

The golden wheel suddenly accelerated.

[Choice refused.]

[The gods heart will judge on its own.]

A golden crack opened from Lin Shoushan's chest.

There was no flesh or blood inside.

Only a massive heart wrapped in countless class icons.

With every beat, a section of the silver threads on the basement level lit up.

Thump!

Chen Ye's shield suddenly deployed on its own.

[Class: Protection Role]

[Divine Understanding: A fixed structure for bearing damage]

His legs were pressed into the ground.

His arms spread out to both sides, and the shield rapidly fused with his flesh.

"Do you want to turn me into a wall again?"

Chen Ye gritted his teeth and forcefully pulled his right hand out of the shield's grip.

A layer of flesh was instantly torn from his palm.

"I'm damn well not blocking today!"

He stepped aside, clearing the front path.

The golden shockwave bypassed the shield and surged straight toward Lin Jin.

Zhou Heng swept his Thunder Spear.

The tip of the spear did not meet the shockwave head-on; instead, it traced a long arc almost brushing the giant door, redirecting the golden light toward the silver threads on the left.

Boom!

Dozens of ledger lines exploded and snapped at the same time.

The gods heart's right eye looked toward Zhou Heng.

[The Barrier Breaker Position should choose the shortest path.]

Zhou Heng withdrew his spear, his gaze icy.

"The shortest path is usually the one most trampled upon."

The second heartbeat sounded.

Thump!

The Ice Key in Shen Tingxue's hand suddenly stabbed toward her own palm.

[Class: Ice Phoenix Blockade]

[Divine Understanding: Freeze all unstable variables]

Frost surged violently from beneath her feet.

Lin Jin, Thirteen, Chen Ye, Zhou Heng, and even Teacher Xu Wenzhou were all targeted for the blockade.

Shen Tingxue's fingers tightened, and the Ice Key stopped half an inch from her palm.

Blood dripped down the edge of the key.

"Just because a variable is unstable doesn't mean it should be frozen to death."

She flipped her hand.

The frost bypassed everyone and lunged straight for Lin Shoushan's right eye.

For the first time, the gods heart dodged.

Lin Shoushan's head tilted back half an inch.

It was precisely this half-inch that allowed Lin Jin to clearly see a thin, gray-gold thread at the back of his neck.

The thin thread passed through the giant door, leading to the White Tower Second Floor.

The Hand of Rules lit up with difficulty.

[Target: Binding structure between the seventh divine remnant and Lin Shoushan]

[Primary Binding: Heart—Official Holder]

[Auxiliary Binding: Chief Designer Position]

[Remote Backup Host: Chief Designer proxy shell]

Lin Jin's pupils constricted suddenly.

There was still a backup host.

On the second floor, that fake Lin Shoushan who wore a clean uniform and held the "100% wrench."

The gods heart wasn't restricted to staying in his father's body.

It also had a more "perfect" position proxy shell.

It was just that the shell lacked true humanity, which was why the gods heart had always been unwilling to transfer to it.

It wanted Lin Jin or Thirteen.

It wanted to use a person who had truly lived to complete that fake body.

Lin Jin suddenly looked at Thirteen.

Thirteen clearly understood his look.

"You want to stuff it into that fake?"

"Not stuff it."

Lin Jin stared at the gray-gold thread behind his father's neck.

"It's to let it choose for itself."

The gods heart heard this.

An emotion bordering on pity surfaced in its golden right eye.

[The proxy shell does not possess humanity.]

[It cannot bear the complete gods heart.]

"That's why you asked us who would become your humanity."

Lin Jin took a step forward.

"But that thing on the second floor has been copying my dad for twenty years."

"It has his face, his memories, his position, and his habits with tools."

"Why don't you choose it?"

The gods heart fell silent for a moment.

Thirteen sneered.

"Because it's fake."

"And you know it yourself."

The golden wheel ground to a sudden halt.

These words struck the very spot it was most unwilling to acknowledge.

The gods heart could piece positions together into a person.

It could piece records together into a person.

It could piece the deceased's files together into Lu Chengyuan.

Yet it still needed real people to prove those shells were alive.

Otherwise, the so-called completeness it created was merely a stack of documents executing commands.

Lin Jin raised his right hand.

His wounds had split open, and the vision from the Hand of Rules flickered between light and dark.

He did not recalibrate the gods heart.

Nor did he recalibrate his father.

What he locked onto was that remote backup connection.

[Current Definition: Chief Designer proxy shell is merely a backup tool]

[Provable Fact: It continuously uses Lin Shoushan's name, memories, position, and design privileges]

[Rewritable Direction: The position proxy shell has an obligation to prioritize undertaking the Chief Designer duties]

This was not creation out of thin air.

Since the proxy shell dared to use Lin Shoushan's name, it had to bear the risks associated with that name.

Lin Jin gripped his wrench tightly.

"You've borrowed my dad's face for twenty years."

"It's time for you to take a shift for him."

Gray-gold light surged along the thin thread at the back of his neck, straight toward the second floor.

The gods heart instantly sensed the danger.

[Modifying the priority of the backup host is forbidden!]

Lin Shoushan raised his right hand.

The blood-stained wrench smashed straight toward the top of Lin Jin's head.

Chen Ye finally moved.

Instead of taking it head-on with his shield, he slammed violently into Lin Shoushan's elbow from the side.

The wrench fell, brushing past the side of Lin Jin's ear.

Chen Ye was sent flying sideways by the counter-shock.

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line wrapped around his waist just in time.

Chen Ye spat out a mouthful of blood and roared,

"I said I wouldn't take it head-on!"

"Taking it from the side counts as a win for me!"

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear pinned into the ground near Lin Shoushan's feet.

Lightning arcs extended along the gray-gold thread behind the giant door, marking a path for Lin Jin that would not harm his father.

"The remote connection only lasts three seconds!"

Lin Jin did not waste it.

The wrench clamped onto the gray-gold thread.

Twist!

The projection of the White Tower Second Floor instantly unfolded.

The fake Lin Shoushan wearing the Chief Designer uniform stood in the center of the General Ledger Room.

He had originally maintained his father's customary smile.

But when the gray-gold connection pierced his chest, his smile crumbled for the first time.

[Chief Designer duties transferring]

[Reality entrance fault must be handled by the Chief Designer]

[Backup host priority upgraded]

The proxy shell raised its "complete" wrench, hacking frantically at the connection line.

"Lin Jin!"

"I am your father!"

"The one on the basement level is the defective product contaminated by the divine remnant!"

Thirteen stepped into the range of the projection's connection.

He did not attack.

Instead, he projected every single file of Lin Shoushan he had received over the eighteen years, one by one, toward the proxy shell.

[Lin Shoushan does not refer to people as parts.]

[Lin Shoushan cuts the power before performing maintenance.]

[Lin Shoushan opposes the White Tower dismantling minors.]

[Lin Shoushan refuses hereditary succession of positions.]

[Lin Shoushan would never let his son stay behind in his place.]

With every file that landed, a crack split across the proxy shell's face.

Thirteen looked at it.

"You have all of his records."

"Yet you have never once made his choices."

"You can't even play a fake father properly."

"And you expect us to recognize you?"

The proxy shell completely lost control.

On the surface of the wrench in its hand, the disguised 100% began to flash frantically.

The gods heart also finally felt fear.

The golden wheel in Lin Shoushan's right eye spun violently.

[Official Holder cannot be dismissed!]

[The gods heart must retain a connection to true humanity!]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou dragged 002 over to Lin Jin's side.

His arms were still trembling.

The wrench continuously showed him things that could be severed.

[Lin Shoushan and his identity as a father]

[Lin Jin and his blood relation]

[Thirteen and the system identification core]

[The gods heart and the Official Holder]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou only looked at the last line.

"Lin Jin."

"Is the calibration complete?"

Lin Jin's right hand had almost lost all sensation.

"It is."

"Now both the fake and my dad are considered the Chief Designer."

"But its position records are more complete."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou understood.

The gods heart looked down on the fake shell.

But the rule system only recognized records.

Since the proxy shell had inherited a more complete Chief Designer position, it had to prioritize taking over the responsibilities of the divine remnant belonging to this position.

"Then cut it."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised 002.

The gods heart roared through Lin Shoushan's mouth.

[Upon severing, Lin Shoushan will lose Chief Designer privileges!]

[He will be unable to continue repairing the reality entrance!]

Lin Jin looked at his father.

Lin Shoushan in the left eye was desperately fighting to regain a bit of control.

His lips moved with great difficulty.

"Cut it."

Just a single word.

Lin Jin's throat tightened.

"Dad."

"This old man..."

Half of Lin Shoushan's face was contorted, yet he still squeezed out that familiar scolding.

"I've wanted to quit this damn position for a long time."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's hands came down.

002 did not smash into Lin Shoushan.

Instead, it struck precisely at that invisible definition on his chest.

[Official Holder of the Chief Designer Position]

Crack!

The position severed.

The thin gray-gold thread behind Lin Shoushan's neck instantly lost its anchor point.

The gods heart let out a roar that shook the entire basement level.

The golden wheel was violently ripped from his right eye.

It wasn't Lin Jin pulling it.

Rather, the proxy shell on the second floor, which held the complete Chief Designer records, was being forced to take over by the rule system.

[Official Holder vacant]

[Chief Designer position proxy shell detected]

[Duties automatically continuing]

[Transfer of the seventh divine remnant beginning]

The golden heart emerged from Lin Shoushan's chest.

With every inch it left, his body aged a fraction more.

His black hair turned white once more.

The pure white robe reverted to a tattered maintenance uniform.

The wounds on his chest, shoulder, and left leg appeared simultaneously.

Yet, his left eye had completely regained its clarity.

"Thirteen..."

His first look was not at Lin Jin.

But at the child he had left behind in the White Tower for eighteen years.

Thirteen stood in place, his body trembling slightly.

Lin Shoushan opened his mouth.

Before an "I'm sorry" could escape his lips, the golden heart detached from his body completely.

Boom!

The gods heart crashed into the second floor along the gray-gold connection.

The proxy shell's chest instantly exploded.

Its face flickered frantically between Lin Shoushan, a white paper man, and a golden divine statue.

[the seventh divine remnant has transferred]

[Current Host: Chief Designer position proxy shell]

[Humanity Completeness: 0%]

[Descent failed]

Chen Ye had just begun to look pleased.

But the proxy shell in the projection of the second floor suddenly raised its head.

It possessed no humanity.

And it no longer desired to possess humanity.

The golden class wheel expanded behind it, covering the entire Cost General Ledger Room.

A voice even colder than before echoed out.

[Humanity leads to refusal, hesitation, deviation, and malfunction.]

[Conclusion: Humanity is not a necessity for a god.]

[Humanity is the source of the world's errors.]

Lin Jin's expression changed dramatically.

They had forced the gods heart out of his father's body.

Yet they had also caused the gods heart to abandon its final obsession with becoming human.

All the ledger pages behind the giant door burned simultaneously.

The White Tower Second Floor swung open with a crash.

The proxy shell gripped the wrench disguised as complete and brought down its first strike upon the world.

[Divine Maintenance Project initiated]

[First fault to be repaired: Waste of resources caused by low-grade classes]

[Resolution: Delete all F-grade classes]

The school badge on Lin Jin's chest suddenly let out a cracking sound.

And across the entire Jiang City, the names of countless F-grade class holders began to vanish from the archives at that very moment.