143: Chapter 144 The world cannot drink her blood forever

"Twenty years ago, between me and the professions of the entire world—"

"—he chose the entire world."

Yu Xing's voice held no blame.

The calmer it was, the more it felt like a dull knife.

Lin Shoushan leaned back in the treatment pod, his chest rising and falling slightly.

He looked at the transparent brain, not avoiding her gaze.

"Yes."

"I shut down the incubation field once."

Yu Xing's neural eyes contracted slightly.

"You never told me."

"Because it was only shut down for forty-seven seconds."

Lin Shoushan's voice was hoarse.

"Among the first batch of professionals who lost the supply of the personality templates, the warriors began to indiscriminately attack threatening targets, Healers only repaired physical damage without judging the patients' limits of endurance, and protectors locked their companions into absolute safety zones, completely blocking off the evacuation routes."

"They didn't lose their power."

"It was their professions overriding their humanity."

Chen Ye subconsciously looked at his shield.

If protection only pursued absolute safety, the simplest method was indeed to lock everyone up.

Shen Tingxue said in a low voice:

"It wasn't that their personalities disappeared."

"It was the most primitive execution logic within the professions losing its constraints."

Lin Shoushan nodded.

"The personality template was originally only responsible for giving the professions a direction."

"To let warriors know that bravery is not indiscriminate slaughter, to let Healers understand that life is not just a set of values, and to let repairers know why things are worth fixing."

"But later, the profession system stopped cultivating new ways to stabilize."

"It kept all professions dependent on Yu Xing."

Yu Xing stared at the 1,203 empty pods.

"So, I cannot leave."

"Once you leave, the entire world will lose its source of stability within seventy-two hours."

Lin Shoushan closed his eyes.

"At the time, I couldn't find a second path."

Thirteen stood in front of the cultivation pod, his face pale and cold.

"So you let her supply them alone for twenty years."

"Not alone,"

Yu Xing corrected him.

"it was the version of me that woke up 1,204 times."

Lin Shoushan's fingers slowly clenched.

This time, he didn't say "I'm sorry."

Because a simple apology could not carry the weight of twenty years.

Deep within the Golden Delivery Room, the master switch was still flashing.

[Shut Down Personality Incubation Field]

[Estimated collapse time of the existing profession system: 72 hours]

On the dome, the six Divine Seats stabilized their forms once again.

They had just lost the right to reclaim personalities, but they still controlled the underlying judgments of the profession system.

The Sixth Seat [continuation] rotated slowly.

"Lin Shoushan made the correct choice."

"Sacrificing a single personality source to maintain a complete professional civilization."

"This is the optimal solution."

Lin Jin looked up.

"Letting one person bleed for twenty years to prolong the life of the entire world."

"You call that civilization?"

"She is not human,"

the Divine Seat answered.

"She is the source of the personality templates."

Yu Xing's transparent brain tissue vibrated gently.

There was no anger.

It was as if she had already heard these words countless times.

Lin Jin, however, walked to the master switch and pressed his hand against its casing.

"She has already given herself a name."

"So she is human."

The Divine Seat did not argue with him.

[If you insist on shutting down the incubation field, please accept the consequences of the profession system's collapse.]

[Estimated casualties: Incalculable]

[Degree of civilization regression: Incalculable]

[Yu Xing may obtain freedom]

[Please make your choice]

Another binary choice.

Save Yu Xing and destroy the profession system.

Preserve the world and keep Yu Xing pinned to the delivery room.

Lin Jin did not touch the switch.

He looked down at the supply structure below the main shaft.

The Hand of Rules had already disappeared, and the repair personality template had also been reclaimed.

Those pipelines no longer automatically displayed faults in his eyes.

He could only kneel on the ground and feel them one by one.

Metal interfaces.

Check valves.

Supply pumps.

Beside every personality template pipeline, there was a thinner return pipe.

Lin Jin tapped them with a wrench.

It wasn't a personality supply inside.

It was the new records generated daily by the professionals.

Fear after bravery.

Self-blame after failing to heal.

Hesitation that arose when protecting others.

All changes that did not conform to the professional templates would be sent back to the No. 9 Forbidden Zone along the return pipes.

Then, they were marked by the system as—

[Personality Deviation]

[Do Not Save]

Zhou Heng squatted down beside him.

"So everything the professionals grew on their own later was sent back as waste?"

"Yes."

Lin Jin felt the wear on the return pipe.

"It's not that the system doesn't have a new source of stability."

"It's that it has never acknowledged that humans can grow into something different from the template."

Yu Xing's neural eyes suddenly all snapped open.

"The return zone is at the very bottom of the delivery room."

"Over twenty years, a lot has been stored there."

The golden floor parted slowly.

Below the main shaft, a bottomless black storage pool was revealed.

There was no liquid in the pool.

Only countless tiny specks of light.

A warrior admitting they were afraid for the first time.

A Healer hesitating between saving a life and respecting a patient's choice.

A mage abandoning the optimal spellcasting path out of anger.

A protector who clearly could have dodged, but chose to stand in front of someone else.

All of these were judged as deviations by the profession system.

But it was precisely these deviations that proved they had eventually lived as themselves.

Lin Jin looked at Lin Shoushan.

"Was this pool not here twenty years ago?"

Lin Shoushan stared blankly below.

"No."

"The profession system had just been established back then."

"Everyone could only rely on the initial template."

"Then things are different now."

Lin Jin stood up.

"Yu Xing gave them a starting point."

"Twenty years have passed, and they have already grown things of their own."

The Sixth Seat spoke in a cold voice.

"Personality deviations do not possess a unified structure."

"They cannot serve as a source of stability."

"Who says stability must be unified?"

Lin Jin looked at Chen Ye.

"Let's try one first."

Chen Ye pointed at himself.

"Me again?"

"The return pipe for the Protection class is the closest."

"...Fine."

Chen Ye planted his shield in the ground and walked over to the supply valve for the protection personality template.

Lin Jin did not shut it down immediately.

First, he pulled up Chen Ye's deviation records from the storage pool.

[In the first dungeon, retreated half a step out of fear, then actively returned.]

[When the Protection Role was absent from the field, still protected the team through anticipation.]

[After the White Shield Sample appeared, refused to prove his own position at the cost of the other being reclaimed.]

[Professional personality template inclination: Unconditional endurance.]

[Chen Ye's actual choices: Fear, judgment, refusing to sacrifice others.]

Chen Ye looked at those records, his lips twitching.

"Can we delete the first one?"

Zhou Heng said:

"No."

"Can't you say something nice for me?"

"Having retreated and then returned is more useful than never having been afraid."

Chen Ye was stunned for a moment.

He stopped joking.

Lin Jin grasped the supply valve.

"After shutting down the template, you might lose your protection instincts."

"Or your profession might go out of control."

Chen Ye looked at his shield.

"Just now when the template was taken away, my legs were shaking from fear."

"But I still blocked it."

He reached out and grasped the valve.

"Shut it off."

Lin Jin and he applied force at the same time.

*Click!*

The supply for the Protection class template was severed individually.

The professional emblem on Chen Ye's chest instantly went dark.

All the light on his shield vanished as well.

A few seconds later, the three deviation records belonging to him rose slowly from the storage pool and slotted into the vacant stabilization interface.

There was no unified personality.

There was no system template.

Only the three choices Chen Ye had made himself.

The shield lit up again.

The light was no longer as thick and orderly as before.

Its edges were even slightly crooked.

Yet when Chen Ye gripped the shield, a smile appeared on his face.

[Protection profession restabilized]

[Personality stability source: Chen Ye's personal experience]

[Template dependency: Removed]

Yu Xing's transparent brain suddenly flared with light.

The six Divine Seats vibrated simultaneously.

[Single individual testing lacks universality]

Lin Jin did not respond.

"Shen Tingxue."

Shen Tingxue had already walked to the supply valve of the Mage Class.

Her deviation records surfaced accordingly.

[Due to concern for companions, non-optimal emotional fluctuations occurred.]

[Refused to inherit the Second Observation Position.]

[Despite knowing that freezing was safest, still chose to retain Thirteen's independent personality.]

She shut off the template supply with her own hands.

The frost went out for three seconds.

When it reappeared, it was no longer absolutely smooth.

Subtle cracks had appeared within the ice.

Yet it was still under her control.

[Personality stability source: Shen Tingxue's personal experience]

Zhou Heng didn't wait for Lin Jin to call him.

He shut off the supply of the Breaker Class, connecting his hesitations, detours, and wrong choices to the interface.

When the Thunder Spear lit up again, its tip no longer automatically pointed out the shortest path.

He needed to judge for himself.

But that path belonged to him.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou also walked toward the Corroboration class valve.

His hand lingered on the switch for a long time.

"My deviation over the past twenty years is probably entirely about not daring to speak up."

Lin Jin said:

"But you spoke up in the end."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou closed his eyes and shut off the supply.

No dazzling records appeared in the storage pool.

Only an extremely faint testimony.

[Wanted to flee, but did not flee to the very end.]

The Corroboration profession restabilized.

The four tests were complete.

The Golden Delivery Room's warnings began to recalculate.

[Detected that real-world individuals can form independent personality stability sources]

[Profession system collapse conditions have changed]

[Generating new proposal]

For the first time, Yu Xing's voice carried a distinct tremor.

"I can leave?"

"Not immediately."

Lin Jin looked at the storage pool.

"But the entire world can begin to wean off."

The black light of The Sixth Seat suddenly flared violently.

"The use of personality deviations is forbidden."

"Deviations will reduce professional efficiency."

"Deviations will generate unpredictable individuals."

Thirteen looked up at it.

"Humans are inherently unpredictable."

The national professional network lit up again at this moment.

A new prompt was sent to every professional.

[Professional Personality De-templating Test]

[Do you wish to use your own experience to replace the continuous template supply?]

[Warning: After de-templating, the profession will no longer automatically provide standard personality inclinations.]

[You may feel fear, hesitate, regret, or change.]

[But these will belong to you.]

All over the world, countless professional emblems began to flash.

Some confirmed immediately.

Some hesitated.

And some refused.

Lin Jin did not choose for them.

Yu Xing had waited for twenty years.

Waiting a little longer was fine; each person should answer with their own hands.

The six Divine Seats, however, were not prepared to wait.

They turned toward Yu Xing simultaneously.

[Alternative solution for the personality template already exists]

[Original template source has lost its necessary value]

[Executing cleanup of useless structures]

All around the Golden Delivery Room, all the cultivation pods suddenly reversed.

They were no longer sending sustaining energy to Yu Xing.

Instead, they turned into 1,203 incinerators.

Red-gold flames erupted from the empty pods, surging along the conductors toward the central brain.

[Cleanup target: Yu Xing]

[Cleanup countdown: Three minutes]

Yu Xing watched the closing flames, no fear in her neural eyes.

She only said softly:

"So once I'm no longer needed—"

"—they even find letting me live to be a waste."