142: Chapter 143 Every profession in the world has lent her a piece of their soul.

"The other one thousand two hundred and three—"

"—were taken out of the No. 9 Forbidden Zone by each and every one of you long ago."

As No. 000's voice fell, all the incubation pods in the Golden Delivery Room lit up simultaneously.

One thousand two hundred and three empty pods.

One thousand two hundred and three dispatch records.

Warrior-type personality templates.

Mage-type personality templates.

Healer-type personality templates.

Scout, Blacksmith, Summoner, Knight, Chef, Farmer, Mechanic...

Almost every class still operating within the class system could find its original "personality raw material" here.

Chen Ye slowly lowered his head and looked at the Protection Role emblem on his chest.

"So every time I wanted to shield someone..."

"...was it because I have a part of you inside my body?"

"In the beginning, yes."

Inside the transparent brain, the eye made of nerves looked at him.

"The Protection-type master template acquired my desire to protect, my memories of pain, and my fear of losing companions."

"The system pieced these three things together and called it 'a personality suitable for the Protection class'."

Chen Ye's face sank bit by bit.

Zhou Heng stared at the Breaker Class dispatch pod.

"The decisiveness of the Thunder Spear class—was that also a piece of you that was torn away?"

"When I woke up for the seventy-third time, I learned to stop waiting,"

No. 000 replied.

"They took that version of me and made it into the Breaker Class master template."

Shen Tingxue looked at the two wires for the Mage and Sealer classes.

"What about calmness?"

"The three hundred and twenty-first time."

"That purge was very painful."

"I realized that the more afraid I was, the longer the pain lasted, so I forced myself to stop being afraid."

The transparent brain tissue contracted slightly.

"They said this kind of personality was suitable for a Mage."

No one spoke.

The class system had always referred to certain personalities as "natural matches."

Warriors are brave.

Mages are calm.

Healers are compassionate.

Protectors are accustomed to sacrifice.

Everyone thought it was the class that found the right person.

Yet the original templates actually came from a girl who was repeatedly awakened and repeatedly purged.

Every new reaction she produced in her agony was treated as replicable material.

The No. 002 in Teacher Xu Wenzhou's hand suddenly vibrated violently.

The wrench's jaws opened on their own, aiming at the central transparent brain.

[All class personality sources detected]

[Severable: Personality master templates and the class system]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's arms suddenly tensed.

"It wants to sever all connections."

Lin Jin immediately pressed down on the handle of No. 002.

"We can't sever them."

"The one thousand two hundred and three master templates have been in the class system for twenty years."

"If we cut them off now, no one knows what will happen."

Yet No. 000 said calmly:

"It will cause all class holders to lose their corresponding personality inclinations."

Chen Ye looked at her.

"What will I become?"

"You might no longer instinctively protect others."

"Zhou Heng might lose his decisiveness when breaking barriers."

"Shen Tingxue might be unable to maintain her calmness in battle."

"Healers will lose the empathy brought by their class, and warriors will no longer be driven by courage."

She paused.

"But those are just the initial effects."

"As for the parts of yourselves that you lived out afterward... I don't know if they can remain."

Just as her voice fell, the ceiling of the delivery room shook violently.

The six Divine Seats had already arrived at the No. 9 Forbidden Zone.

The black chair legs pierced through the golden walls, pinning themselves into the six main wires respectively.

[Personality master template reclamation initiated]

[Reclamation purpose: Reconstruct the humanity module of the Divine Seat vessels]

[All derived personalities will be returned to the original master templates]

One thousand two hundred and three empty pods opened simultaneously.

The class emblems covering the entire world let out a low hum at this moment.

The first wire lit up.

[Protection-type master template reclaiming]

Chen Ye's body shuddered violently.

The shield slipped from his hand.

It wasn't that he lost his strength.

Rather, a fear he had never felt before suddenly overwhelmed him.

He saw the Divine Seats.

He saw the massive Golden Delivery Room.

He saw the unhealed wound on his own chest.

And for the first time, he realized with absolute clarity that shielding everyone at the very front would truly get him killed.

Chen Ye's face turned deathly pale, his breathing rapid.

His legs even instinctively took a step back.

[Desire to protect reclaiming]

[Sacrificial inclination reclaiming]

[Protection personality remaining: 41%]

The second wire lit up.

The Ice Line at Shen Tingxue's fingertips instantly spiraled out of control.

She was no longer calm.

Every mechanical friction in the delivery room was like a sharp noise stabbing into her mind.

She saw Lin Jin's right hand bleeding, saw the wound on Thirteen's chest splitting open, and saw that Lin Shoushan could die at any moment.

All the worries that had been suppressed beneath her rationality rushed out at once.

Her hand holding the Ice Key shook so much that she couldn't aim for the first time.

[Mage-type calmness personality reclaiming]

The third wire pierced into Zhou Heng's chest.

He stared at the crisscrossing wires before him, suddenly not knowing which one to attack.

Every choice could potentially hurt No. 000.

Every detour could mean missing the best opportunity.

The Zhou Heng of the past, who could always quickly choose a path, stood frozen in hesitation.

[Barrier-breaking decisiveness personality reclaiming]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou was not spared either.

Holding No. 002, a powerful thought suddenly arose in his mind.

Put it down.

As long as he put it down, he wouldn't have to bear the testimony from twenty years ago, face the White Tower, or worry about swinging his next hammer incorrectly.

His fingers loosened bit by bit.

Lin Jin's Hand of Rules also extinguished at the same time.

With the Mechanic-type personality master template being reclaimed, the urge to take things apart and look inside whenever he found an error was leaving his body.

The broken wires before his eyes, the out-of-control incubation pods, and the mechanical main shaft left behind by his father suddenly seemed to have nothing to do with him.

[Mechanic-type personality reclaiming]

[Curiosity, urge to correct errors, and structural sensitivity are being stripped away]

A low voice came from behind the six Divine Seats.

"Do you see?"

"Your so-called humanity is merely a function borrowed from the master templates."

"Now, return it."

Chen Ye looked at the shield on the ground.

His hands were shaking.

He didn't want to pick it up.

Every thought in his mind was telling him that it would be safer to hide behind Lin Shoushan's healing pod.

But just as a black line lunged toward Thirteen, Chen Ye moved anyway.

He had no courage.

At least, not the kind of courage bestowed upon him by the class master template.

He was so scared that his teeth were chattering, and he even tripped slightly as he rushed out.

Yet he still threw himself forward, wrapping both arms around the shield, blocking Thirteen in the most pathetic posture.

Bang!

The black line slammed into the shield.

Chen Ye was sent flying, rolling twice upon hitting the ground.

He lay prone on the ground, his voice trembling.

"Right now, I am... truly terrified."

"But even when I'm afraid, I can still block."

[Reclamation progress of Protection personality stalled]

The panic in Shen Tingxue's eyes did not vanish.

She couldn't make herself absolutely calm again.

So she simply acknowledged every single worry.

"I'm afraid Lin Shoushan will die."

"I'm afraid Lin Jin's hand will be ruined."

"I'm afraid Thirteen will be captured again."

Her voice was unsteady, but she raised the Ice Key bit by bit.

"But I know which wire needs to be frozen right now."

A cold light slashed out.

It wasn't the most precise strike.

The ice layer was even off by half a foot.

Yet it still sealed the second black line that was lunging at Chen Ye's back.

[Calmness personality reclaimed]

[Detected: Individual still completed independent judgment]

Zhou Heng stood before hundreds of wires.

He still didn't know which path was the most correct.

Thus, for the first time, he gave up on looking for the optimal solution.

"The left."

The Thunder Spear thrust forward.

There was no absolute certainty.

There was no class intuition.

It was simply a path he chose himself, the one most likely to save someone at this moment.

Purple lightning pierced through the third reclamation wire.

"If I'm wrong, I'll change course."

[Decisiveness master template reclaimed]

[Individual choice still exists]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's hand had already let go of No. 002.

The wrench fell toward the ground.

But at the very last second, he caught it again.

Not because of the Bystander class.

Nor was it because of his mission from twenty years ago.

He merely recalled the words he had told Lin Jin.

Wanting to sever it doesn't mean it should be severed.

"This time, it is I who refuse to let go."

He gripped No. 002 tightly once more.

Everyone turned their gaze to Lin Jin.

The stripping of the Mechanic-type personality was complete.

The Hand of Rules had completely vanished.

He looked at the complex golden machinery, no longer possessing that instinct to spot a fault at a single glance.

To his eyes, all the gears were just gears.

Yet he still squatted down.

He picked up the rusty wrench left behind by his father.

He began checking screw by screw.

His speed was very slow.

He even turned it the wrong way on his first try.

Thirteen looked at him.

"You can't even see the fault anymore, so what are you repairing?"

Lin Jin readjusted the wrench.

"If I can't see it, I'll search for it slowly."

"Why must you find it?"

Lin Jin paused for a moment.

"Because I want her to live."

The neural eye within the transparent brain trembled violently.

For the first time, No. 000 showed an expression of incomprehension.

"The master templates have already been reclaimed."

"Why can you still make the same choices?"

Lin Jin looked up at her.

"You gave every class a starting point."

"But every beating Chen Ye endured was endured by himself."

"Every judgment Shen Tingxue made was made by herself."

"The paths Zhou Heng walked, the testimony Teacher Xu left behind—none of those were completed by you on their behalf."

"We might have borrowed a piece of your soul."

"But what grew afterward was our own."

One thousand two hundred and three empty pods vibrated simultaneously.

The reclamation speed of the six Divine Seats plummeted suddenly.

[Discrepancies detected between master templates and derived personalities]

[Original personalities cannot fully overwrite the real-world individuals]

[Ownership determination conflict]

Lin Jin finally felt a row of mechanical check valves beneath the base of the transparent brain.

Every personality master template wire had two directions.

Outward, for deployment.

Inward, for reclamation.

From the very beginning, the system assumed by default that all deployed personalities would forever belong to the master templates and the Divine Seats.

"Teacher Xu."

Lin Jin pointed at the row of reverse arrows.

"Don't sever the master templates."

"Sever the reclamation rights."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised No. 002.

The six black chairs roared simultaneously.

[The source of personality belongs to the class system!]

[Derived personalities have no right to refuse return!]

Yet No. 000 in the transparent brain suddenly asked:

"If we sever the reclamation rights..."

""...am I still considered their mother?"

Thirteen walked up to the incubation pod.

"You were never their mother."

"You are a person who was dismantled."

No. 000 fell silent for a long time.

She had always been called No. Zero.

Embryonic Seed.

Personality Master Source.

The incubation core of the Mother of All Things.

Every title only described what she could provide to others.

Not a single name belonged to her.

"Can a person live first..."

...she asked softly.

""...and then give themselves a name?"

Lin Jin nodded.

"Yes."

The transparent brain tissue glowed slowly.

The memories of those one thousand two hundred and four awakenings gathered like stardust.

"Then I shall be called Yu Xing."

"The 'Yu' of remaining."

"The 'Xing' of waking."

For the first time, an identity confirmation not belonging to the system echoed in the Golden Delivery Room.

[Independent Life: Yu Xing]

[Self-confirmed]

[Name Anchor established]

The six Divine Seats pressed down frantically.

But Teacher Xu Wenzhou had already swung No. 002.

"The master templates provide a starting point."

"But they cannot own another person's entire life!"

The black iron wrench fell.

One thousand two hundred and three reclamation arrows snapped simultaneously!

The class emblems across the entire world flashed violently.

The stripped courage, calmness, compassion, and decisiveness did not return from the master templates.

Because those things were no longer what they originally were.

Chen Ye was still afraid.

Shen Tingxue was still anxious.

Zhou Heng still couldn't determine the optimal route.

But their choices did not disappear.

Yu Xing's transparent brain slowly opened all of its neural eyes.

For the first time, the doors of the one thousand two hundred and three empty pods swung open completely.

"I will not reclaim your lives,"

she said.

"And I will no longer produce personalities for the class system."

From the deepest part of the delivery room came the sound of a massive gear grinding to a halt.

The six Divine Seats were flung back simultaneously by the out-of-control wires.

The golden floor split open from the center.

An elevator shaft leading to the mechanical main shaft slowly revealed itself.

Lin Shoushan stared down the shaft, his expression not easing in the slightest.

A massive master switch hung down there.

On the switch were only two lines of ancient text.

[Shut Down Personality Breeding Ground]

[Synchronously Disable All Class Personality Master Template Supplies]

Yu Xing's voice became very soft.

"Now you know why Lin Shoushan didn't come back to save me for twenty years."

"Severing the reclamation rights can only prevent them from taking away the lives lived afterward."

"But if you want me to truly leave this place, you must shut down the Breeding Ground."

"And once the Breeding Ground is shut down—"

From beneath the shaft, all class emblems across the globe projected a warning simultaneously.

[The existing class system will lose its personality stability source]

[Estimated collapse time: Seventy-two hours]

Yu Xing looked at Lin Shoushan.

"Twenty years ago, between me and every class in the world—"

"—he chose the world."