135: Chapter 136 Citywide Suspension for Sixty Seconds

[ Personality Stripping Countdown: 09:48 ]

[ After stripping is complete, humans will retain only the parts most suitable for their own occupation. ]

Above the Cost General Ledger Room, a golden giant hammer slowly raised.

Before the hammer's edge had even fallen, the entire Jiangcheng had already begun to change.

A healer was resuscitating a patient, their fingers suddenly becoming mechanical and precise.

He remembered all the treatment steps but had forgotten that the person on The Hospital bed was a colleague who had worked with him for ten years.

In the academy dormitory, a fire-element warrior put down a communication from their mother.

He still knew that he excelled at burst damage, lunging, and armor penetration.

Yet he couldn't recall why, after every training session, he always replied to his mother with, "I'm fine."

On the faces of more people, emotions were fading away.

The occupation emblems were growing brighter.

But the names were growing fainter.

The Protection Role emblem on Chen Ye's chest suddenly expanded, covering his heart like a thick wall.

His pain vanished.

Fear vanished as well.

He looked down at his continuously bleeding wound, his tone calm to the point of being unfamiliar.

"The Protection Role need not concern itself with its own injuries."

Shen Tingxue slammed a palm onto the back of his head.

Chen Ye staggered half a step, his gaze recovering for an instant.

"Why did you hit me?"

"To make you remember the pain."

Shen Tingxue's voice was very cold.

"Only those who can feel pain know that they are not a shield."

Chen Ye rubbed the back of his head, his face scrunched up.

"But you didn't have to use so much force..."

He was capable of complaining again.

But the countdown continued.

[ 09:21 ]

Lin Jin looked toward the White Tower Second Floor.

The proxy shell occupied by the gods heart held the giant hammer, and the face belonging to Lin Shoushan showed not a shred of emotion.

"Occupations are stable."

"Personalities will hesitate, fear, regret, and betray."

"By stripping away personality, occupations can achieve maximum efficiency."

Lin Jin suddenly asked:

"If the occupation is gone, is the person still there?"

The proxy shell's golden right eye rotated.

[ Occupation is the only valid identity for humans participating in the system. ]

"I am not asking about the system."

Lin Jin pointed to Thirteen.

"He has no occupation."

"You failed to classify him just now."

"But he can hate, can feel pain, can reject you, and can also take the initiative to save people."

"According to your algorithm, what is he?"

[ Individuals without occupations do not possess quantifiable value. ]

Thirteen sneered.

"Translate that."

"It doesn't know."

Lin Jin stared at that giant hammer, an extremely dangerous idea rapidly forming in his mind.

The gods heart wanted to prove that personality was merely redundancy outside of occupation.

Then he would take the occupations away temporarily.

To see what remained of the entire city.

"Teacher Xu."

Lin Jin looked at 002.

"Can you just cut the interface without cutting off the occupation itself?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's expression changed.

"You want to make the city's occupations temporarily ineffective?"

"Sixty seconds."

"Are you crazy?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's voice sank suddenly.

"The Hospital, city defense, lockdown zones, and abyss monitoring all rely on occupation holders to maintain!"

"That's why we aren't cutting it right now."

Lin Jin connected to the public communication channel.

"Qin Shanhe."

The other end of the communication was filled with hurried footsteps and alarms.

Qin Shanhe did not correct the form of address.

After the Dean's Seat was severed, he had become accustomed to people calling him by his name directly.

"Speak."

"I need all occupation interfaces in Jiangcheng to pause for sixty seconds."

The other end of the communication was silent for a full two seconds.

"Reason."

"To prove that after occupations are extinguished, people will not be extinguished along with them."

Qin Shanhe took a deep breath.

"Preparation time?"

Lin Jin looked at the countdown.

[ 08:47 ]

"Two minutes."

"You really think highly of me."

Qin Shanhe cursed, then immediately cut into the academy's general broadcast.

Without the Dean's authority, he picked up the most ordinary loudspeaker.

"The entire academy is entering manual emergency mode!"

"Disconnect automatic control for spiritual energy equipment, switch medical equipment to mechanical mode, and all instructors must stop relying on occupation skills to formulate plans!"

"Remember—do not group by occupation."

"Group by who knows how to do what!"

Gu Changye's voice immediately spread across the Abyss Processing Bureau channel.

"All lockdown posts in the city are entering a sixty-second offline contingency plan."

"Mages, go get fire extinguishers; warriors, go move the generators; healers, remember that even without skills, you can still apply pressure to stop bleeding."

"Don't wait for the system to tell you what to do!"

Jiangcheng instantly descended into chaos everywhere.

But it was not a collapse.

It was everyone, outside of their occupations, rediscovering their own hands, feet, eyes, and brains.

In The Hospital, an S-rank Holy Healer took off their cumbersome robe and asked the F-rank equipment Repairman how to connect manual oxygen supply.

The fire department's A-rank Blast Pyro-mage picked up the water hose.

Even without flames, he knew how to rush into dangerous areas.

Inside the Occupation Awakening Hall, a group of youths about to awaken were led out of the formation.

The person in charge of evacuating them was not a high-rank occupation holder.

It was that F-rank guide who had just been deregistered once and whose knees were not in great shape.

He no longer possessed the guidance skills recognized by the system.

Yet he still remembered every single escape route.

[ 07:32 ]

Lin Shoushan leaned on Chen Ye's shoulder, looking at his son.

"Do you know that during these sixty seconds, the Reality General Ledger Entrance will also lose its occupation maintenance?"

"I know."

"The door will open."

"So, close the door first."

Lin Jin looked at both sides of the giant door.

The invalidation of position authority did not mean the mechanical structure would fail.

Every genuine retreat route that Lin Shoushan had left for the White Tower back then required almost no spiritual energy.

"The seventh drive shaft on the right."

Lin Shoushan's voice was weak.

"Pull out the red pin and reverse it three turns."

Zhou Heng did not use lightning; he rushed directly to the drive shaft.

The iron shaft was scalding hot.

He tore off half his sleeve to wrap his palm and gritted his teeth to turn it.

Shen Tingxue, having lost her Frost assistance, could only work with Thirteen to move the jammed lever.

Chen Ye supported Lin Shoushan but wedged his shield horizontally into the door gap.

"My occupation has stopped, but the shield hasn't disappeared."

Lin Shoushan glanced at him.

"What is your name?"

Chen Ye was stunned.

"Chen Ye."

"Remember that."

Lin Shoushan raised his blood-stained rusty wrench and struck the shield surface forcefully.

"Don't worry about being a Protection Role later."

"You are just Chen Ye."

Chen Ye's eyes grew slightly hot.

"Understood, Uncle Lin."

The giant door slowly closed.

The ledger pages churning behind the door crashed madly, and countless arms in the darkness clawed at the door gap.

Thirteen suddenly saw one of the hands.

That hand was exactly like his own had been.

It belonged to the system identification residue that had not yet been rescued.

His movements paused for an instant.

Lin Jin pushed against the lever.

"Don't look."

"When we come back, we will open the correct door."

Thirteen gritted his teeth and pressed the lever to the bottom with him.

Click!

The mechanical lock engaged.

[ Reality General Ledger Entrance: Mechanically Sealed ]

[ Estimated time without occupation maintenance: 73 seconds ]

Enough.

Lin Jin looked at Teacher Xu Wenzhou.

"Find the root."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou gripped 002 but did not immediately swing it.

002 was frantically displaying the position connections of the entire Jiangcheng to him.

Over a million lines were intertwined together.

If he cut the wrong one, it wouldn't just be a suspension.

It would be a true, large-scale occupation rupture.

Lin Jin pressed his injured right hand onto the back of the rusty wrench.

The Hand of Rules vision was already blurry, and the prompts were intermittent.

Yet, from the countless connections, he still saw the thickest golden line.

It descended from the occupation system, running through every single emblem.

[ Occupation interface continues to be effective ]

It was not the occupation itself.

It was just the switch for human interaction with the system.

"This one."

Lin Jin left a mark on the golden line with his blood.

"Only cut it for sixty seconds."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou looked at him.

"002 only knows how to cut; it doesn't know how to restore on a timer."

"I will repair it back."

"Can your right hand still be used?"

"Ask me after sixty seconds."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou did not try to persuade him further.

He raised 002.

On the White Tower Second Floor, the proxy shell finally realized their intention.

[ Prohibited from closing occupation interfaces! ]

[ Closing interfaces is equivalent to collectively abandoning occupations! ]

The golden giant hammer fell prematurely.

The countdown still had seven minutes remaining.

The gods heart, however, would not wait.

Shen Tingxue blocked in front of Lin Jin.

Her Ice Phoenix power was being interfered with by the personality stripping, and the frost was flickering in and out.

In the end, she simply treated the Ice Key as an ordinary short blade, gripped it with both hands, and faced the incoming golden hammer shadow head-on.

Zhou Heng did not summon lightning either.

He pulled out the Thunder Spear and braced the end of the spear with his shoulder.

Chen Ye handed Lin Shoushan to Thirteen, dragged his injured body, and stood at the very front.

"The three of us will hold it."

"Teacher Xu, cut!"

The golden hammer shadow crashed down.

The Ice Key, Thunder Spear, and shield emitted a piercing, mournful sound simultaneously.

Without occupation amplification, the three of them were instantly pressed down until their knees sank into the ground.

Chen Ye's wounds burst open completely.

The veins on Zhou Heng's arms bulged.

Blood also seeped from the corner of Shen Tingxue's mouth.

But they did not retreat.

Lin Jin stood behind the three, watching this scene.

The occupations had not yet been closed.

Yet they were already using their own bodies to prove—

It was not because of the Lockdown Role that she stood here.

It was not because of the Barrier Breaker Position that he chose the most dangerous angle.

It was not because of the Protection Role that Chen Ye refused to retreat.

It was simply because they wanted to.

"Teacher Xu Wenzhou!"

Lin Jin roared.

002 fell.

Crack—

That golden line running through the entire city snapped in response.

All occupation emblems were extinguished simultaneously.

No S-rank.

No F-rank.

No mages, warriors, knights, or Repairmans.

The Hand of Rules disappeared from Lin Jin's field of vision.

The frost on Shen Tingxue's palms dissipated completely.

The lightning on Zhou Heng's spear returned to darkness.

Chen Ye's shield also turned into an ordinary piece of metal.

Even the proxy shell on the White Tower Second Floor lost its Chief Designer authority in that instant.

The golden hammer shadow shattered.

Jiangcheng fell into a minute unlike any other since the start of the Occupation Era.

"Start the timer!"

Qin Shanhe's voice rang out from the ordinary loudspeaker.

"One!"

In The Hospital without occupation power, the holy healer pressed their hands onto the patient's wound.

"Two!"

The blast pyro-mage, having lost their flames, rushed into the hallway and carried out a comatose child.

"Three!"

The guide in the Awakening Hall led the last student out of the safety door.

"Four!"

In the basement level, Lin Jin and Thirteen supported Lin Shoushan from the left and right.

Chen Ye shouldered his shield again.

Zhou Heng pulled out the spear stuck in the mechanical shaft.

Shen Tingxue tore off her sleeve and wrapped Lin Jin's bleeding right hand.

No one knew if the system would return.

But everyone was still making choices.

Thirty seconds.

Jiangcheng did not stop.

Forty seconds.

People without occupations began calling each other by name.

Not "healer."

It was "Old Zhang, the hemostat is on the left!"

Not "defense warrior."

It was "Zhao Hai, the door is about to collapse!"

Not "Dean."

It was "Qin Shanhe, the students on the east side are all out!"

Fifty-nine seconds.

The gods heart on the White Tower Second Floor completely lost its judgment of humans for the first time.

[ Occupation interface closed ]

[ Personality still persists ]

[ Social actions still persist ]

[ Individual choices still persist ]

[ Original conclusion cannot be established ]

Sixty seconds.

Lin Jin pressed his bloody right hand back onto that disconnected golden line.

The Hand of Rules did not respond.

He used the rusty wrench to twist the interface, which 002 had cut open, back together bit by bit.

No skill prompts.

No maintenance plan.

Only relying on the feel he had learned from watching his father repair things over eighteen years.

Click.

The golden line was reconnected.

All occupation emblems in the city brightened simultaneously.

Frost returned to Shen Tingxue's palms.

Lightning crawled back onto the tip of Zhou Heng's spear.

The thick light patterns on Chen Ye's shield lit up again.

But this time, the occupation light did not cover their names.

On the White Tower Second Floor, the golden giant hammer that was preparing to strip away personality was covered in cracks.

[ Personality stripping plan failed ]

[ Failure reason: After occupation closed, individual still exists ]

[ Confirmation: Personality is not occupation redundancy ]

The cracks spread rapidly.

Bang!

The giant hammer shattered completely in the proxy shell's hand.

The entire Jiangcheng erupted in deafening cheers.

But Lin Jin did not smile.

He looked up at the sky.

The six black maintenance seats had already left the sky above the academy without anyone knowing when.

They had not retreated back to that giant starry door.

Instead, they had dispersed to six directions in Jiangcheng.

Department of Education.

Abyss Processing Bureau.

Occupation Awakening Hall.

First Hospital.

City Defense Center.

And the Jiangcheng First Combat Academy.

Each black chair hovered above a reality institution.

Behind The Sixth Seat, that pale finger tapped lightly on the back of the chair.

"Experiment complete."

"Personality cannot be stripped."

"Then, it can only be taken over personally by maintainers who understand humans better."

The six seats began to descend simultaneously.

And the [Replacement] seat above the academy, the first reality carrier it locked onto—

Was none other than Qin Shanhe, who had just won sixty seconds for the entire city.