136: Chapter 137 Qin Shanhe burned down his own dean's seat

Six black chairs began to descend.

There was no wind.

Yet the cloud layer above Jiangcheng was pressed into six massive depressions.

One of them hung directly above the academy.

The words [Replace] on the back of the chair slowly lit up, and a black shadow passed through the defensive array, descending toward the central office building.

There was only one target.

Qin Shanhe.

[Connection to the academy's highest management position detected to be broken]

[The original incumbent continues to perform their duties]

[Identity does not match the position]

[Judgment: Replacement with a stable host is required]

On the academy square, the class insignia that had just regained its light dimmed once more.

Thousands of students looked up at the same time.

They could not see the entity behind the black chair clearly; they could only see a massive shadow completely enveloping Qin Shanhe.

Qin Shanhe still held the broken half of the Deans Seal in his hand.

The moment the black shadow fell, another figure emerged behind him.

The same height.

The same face.

Wearing the same principal's uniform.

But there was no anger on that face, no fatigue, and no concern whatsoever for the students.

It was merely smiling.

A standard, gentle, flawless smile.

[Optimal management personality for Jiangcheng First Combat Academy generated]

[Retained: Management experience, combat capability, decision-making efficiency]

[Deleted: Personal emotions, overprotection, unauthorized favoritism, irrational sense of responsibility]

[Replacement progress: 1%]

Qin Shanhe's right eye instantly lost focus.

He saw the academy's archives from the past several decades flash before his eyes.

Every student recruitment.

Every casualty.

Every unauthorized protection of students.

Every time he withstood the Department of Education's orders for the sake of Lin Jin and the others.

The black chair flagged each of these actions in red.

[Unqualified decision]

[Emotional interference]

[The principal should not conflict with superior organizations over individual students]

[Deletion recommended]

Qin Shanhe's fingers loosened.

The half of the Deans Seal dropped to the ground.

The "Optimal Qin Shanhe" behind him took a step forward, slowly merging with his shadow.

On the square, an instructor's face changed drastically.

"Principal!"

Qin Shanhe abruptly raised his head.

"Don't call me that!"

This shout boomed like thunder.

The instructor was frozen in place by the roar.

Qin Shanhe wiped away the blood trickling from his nose and glared at his replacement personality.

"It's using the position to get in."

"Whoever calls me principal again is helping it confirm that I still occupy this seat!"

The black chair vibrated gently.

[Reduction in forms of address does not affect the reality of the position]

[The academy must have a supreme decision-maker]

[Qin Shanhe remains the optimal replacement target]

On the other side.

Inside the maintenance shaft, Lin Jin and the others were climbing upward.

The communication feed was intermittent, but the black chair could see clearly.

Chen Ye carried Lin Shoushan on his back, his face pale from exhaustion.

"Can Boss Qin hold out?"

Lin Shoushan lay on his back, his voice weak.

"He has to, even if he can't."

"The replacement seat doesn't kill the original person."

"It will delete everything about the person that does not conform to the position."

Shisan followed behind Lin Jin.

"And after it's done deleting?"

Lin Shoushan closed his eyes.

"It will leave behind something that looks more like the principal than the man himself."

Lin Jin picked up his pace.

"How much longer until we reach the training pod?"

Zhou Heng looked up at the markings on the shaft wall.

"Three minutes."

In the communication feed, the replacement personality behind Qin Shanhe had already merged with him up to his shoulders.

[Replacement progress: 19%]

The anger on Qin Shanhe's face was gradually fading.

He looked at the chaotic students, and only one optimal plan remained in his mind.

Evacuate everyone to the dormitories.

Lock down the Special Assignment Class.

Hand over Lin Jin.

Resume cooperation with the Department of Education.

This would minimize the academy's losses.

Such a choice was not wrong.

It was even highly reasonable.

Qin Shanhe's lips parted slightly.

"All students..."

The black chair waited quietly.

As long as this command was issued, the replacement personality would obtain its first real-world execution record.

But a stream of water suddenly sprayed from the side, drenching Qin Shanhe's head and face.

He froze.

Not far away, that F-rank irrigator was holding a leaking hose.

He scrambled to turn off the valve.

"I'm sorry!"

"My class was suspended for sixty seconds just now, and the water pressure is still unstable!"

A dead silence fell over the surroundings.

No one dared to laugh.

Yet Qin Shanhe looked down at his soaked principal's uniform and suddenly grinned.

"Old Zhao."

The irrigator was taken aback.

"Huh?"

"When was the first time you sprayed water on me?"

Old Zhao thought for a moment.

"Thirteen years ago."

"On the day you first became principal, you were lecturing students in the flowerbed and stepped on my newly connected water pipe, bursting it."

Qin Shanhe laughed louder and louder.

"It's been thirteen years, and you still haven't improved your technique?"

Old Zhao also smiled.

"And you still haven't broken your habit of standing on water pipes."

A crack appeared in the smile of that replacement personality.

Because this memory was not in the principal's duty logs.

It had nothing to do with management capability.

It had nothing to do with the position.

It was simply the thirteen years that Qin Shanhe and Old Zhao had lived through together.

[Irrelevant personality information detected]

[Commencing purge]

Qin Shanhe's smile quickly faded.

Old Zhao grew anxious.

"Qin Shanhe!"

"You still owe me three sections of water pipe!"

Around the square, others seemed to suddenly realize something.

An instructor shouted:

"Qin Shanhe! Seven years ago, you transferred me to teach the worst class, saying if I didn't do well I could screw off, but at the end of the year, you secretly took the fall for me when the disciplinary action came down!"

"Qin Shanhe! I broke my leg during the entrance exam, and you were the one who carried me to the infirmary on your back!"

"Qin Shanhe! You still owe the cafeteria for two meals from last month!"

More and more voices rang out.

Not a single person called him principal anymore.

They called him by his name.

And they weren't talking about how many correct decisions he had made.

But rather those imperfect, impulsive, biased, and even somewhat embarrassing past events.

Cracks began to appear across the body of the replacement personality.

[Excessive irrelevant data]

[Management personality contaminated]

The black chair suddenly pressed down further.

[Academy operations rely on a supreme decision-maker]

[As long as members continue to request instructions from Qin Shanhe, the position remains active]

As if to prove these words, an explosion suddenly resounded from the east side of the academy.

An instructor subconsciously turned around.

"Qin Shanhe, the psionic tower on the east side exploded! What do we do?"

All voices abruptly ceased.

The word [Replacement] on the black chair instantly doubled in brightness.

Qin Shanhe also looked toward the east.

According to his past habits, he would have issued orders immediately.

Dispatch combat instructors.

Lock down the scene.

Evacuate the students.

Contact the Processing Bureau.

Everyone was waiting for him to speak.

This was the anchor the black chair needed.

Not the Deans Seal.

Not the uniform.

But rather the habit everyone had of pushing decisions onto the same person whenever something went wrong.

Qin Shanhe fell silent for two seconds, then suddenly asked:

"Who is in charge of maintaining the psionic tower?"

A middle-aged instructor stepped forward.

"I am."

"Which students are most familiar with the area?"

"Equipment Class Three."

"Then what are you all still looking at me for?"

Qin Shanhe roared.

"Go handle it!"

The middle-aged instructor was startled.

Then he spun around abruptly.

"Equipment Class Three, follow me! Two of you cut off the power supply, five of you evacuate people, and the rest grab mechanical fire extinguishers!"

The students acted swiftly.

No one waited for a second order.

On the other side, another instructor shouted:

"Black shadows have appeared in the dormitory area!"

Qin Shanhe didn't even turn his head.

"Do the people living over there not have brains?"

A few upperclassmen exchanged glances and immediately led a group to charge toward the dormitories.

The chaos throughout the academy did not stop.

But every time a problem arose, someone would take the initiative to step forward.

Those familiar with the equipment went to repair it.

Those who knew the routes went to evacuate people.

Those skilled in combat protected others.

No one first asked, "What should the principal do?"

The academy was still operating.

[Replacement progress: 21%]

[20%]

[17%]

The black chair began to vibrate violently.

[Without a supreme decision-maker, the organization should fall into disorder]

Yet the academy before it had not fallen into disorder.

It had merely become noisy.

People made mistakes.

People bickered.

People changed their minds at the last minute.

It was far less precise than the calculations of the "optimal management personality."

But they were still protecting one another.

They still knew why they were taking action.

A cold whisper echoed from behind the black chair.

"A position can be vacant."

"But responsibility cannot be scattered."

Qin Shanhe looked up.

"You have it backward."

He bent down to pick up the half of the Deans Seal.

"Only when a position is vacant does responsibility return to the hands of every individual."

The shadow of the black chair plunged violently into his chest.

[Replacement progress: 31%]

[Forcibly binding the academy's supreme decision-making responsibility]

Qin Shanhe's body shuddered.

The replacement personality behind him pressed completely against him.

His right hand rose uncontrollably, reaching once more for the Deans Seal.

As long as the two halves of the seal were joined, he and the deans seat would be reconnected.

The black chair would then be able to fully complete the replacement through the position.

Just as the two broken pieces of the seal were about to touch, a loud boom echoed from the direction of the F-rank training pod.

The manhole cover was sent flying by a thrust of Zhou Heng's spear.

Lin Jin was the first to charge out of the maintenance shaft.

He did not rush to the square.

Instead, he took a shortcut and burst into the Principal's Office.

In the center of the office, the dark wooden chair symbolizing the deans seat was vibrating violently.

Densely packed records of Qin Shanhe's years in office surfaced on the back of the chair.

Lin Jin raised the rusty wrench.

No calibration.

No repairs.

He smashed it down with a single blow!

Bang!

The back of the chair snapped.

A second blow.

The armrests exploded.

Before the third blow could land, Qin Shanhe had already appeared at the doorway.

The replacement personality behind him was still dragging at his body.

Yet as he looked at the chair that had accompanied him for over twenty years, he only said one thing:

"Don't smash it to pieces."

Lin Jin paused.

"Reluctant to let it go?"

"Burn it."

Qin Shanhe grabbed a fire-element training crystal from the desk and pressed it directly into the broken seat.

Boom!

Flames surged upward.

The signatures, commands, and authority runes left behind by successive principals quickly curled and shriveled in the fire.

The shadow of the black chair let out a piercing shriek.

[Core item of the position is being destroyed]

[Qin Shanhe will permanently lose the deans seat]

Qin Shanhe stood before the fire.

His face was illuminated bright red by the flames.

"I never relied on sitting in this chair to protect my students anyway."

He threw the last half of the Deans Seal into the fire.

The Deans Seal melted.

The replacement personality was forcefully ripped away from behind him.

For the first time, panic appeared on that perfect, gentle face.

"The academy cannot be without a master."

Qin Shanhe raised his foot and kicked the burning chair over.

"The academy has students."

"It has teachers."

"It has gatekeepers, pipe repairmen, and cooks."

"Without one person sitting in a chair, it won't collapse."

The raging fire engulfed the replacement personality.

The black Seat of [Replacement] above the academy suddenly shot upward.

It had not been destroyed.

But it had lost its positional channel to enter reality.

[Host replacement failed]

[Reason: Core of the position was actively destroyed]

[Reason: The organization continues to maintain operations]

[Reason: The original incumbent refuses to be defined by the position]

Earth-shaking cheers erupted from the square.

But Qin Shanhe did not smile.

He looked toward other directions in Jiangcheng.

The other five black chairs were still descending.

The Seat of [Record] above the Department of Education had already half-entered the Archives Tower.

The Seat of [Reclaim] above the Abyss Processing Bureau had also extended black chains, wrapping around Gu Changye's office.

In the furthest distance, the Seat of [Continuation] above the Class Awakening Hall had completely touched the ground.

Inside the hall, hundreds of youths whose awakening had just been interrupted opened their pure black eyes at the same time.

A system prompt echoed throughout the entirety of Jiangcheng.

[Academy host failed]

[Initiating backup plan]

[Since the existing positions cannot stably bear the Maintenance Seat—]

[To be nurtured anew from among those who have not yet obtained a class, six Divine Seats hosts will be cultivated.]