144: Chapter 145 Three Minutes: The World Grows Up on Its Own for the First Time

[Cleanup Target: Yu Xing]

[Cleanup Countdown: 02:59]

One thousand two hundred and three empty pods burned simultaneously.

The flames did not burn toward the transparent brain from the outside; instead, they surged directly into Yu Xing's nerves along the wires that had once delivered the personality master templates.

The first wire lit up.

Inside Yu Xing's body, a memory belonging to "bravery" was burned to ash.

The second one followed immediately after.

"Compassion" began to fade.

The third one.

"Calmness".

The things she had dismantled and sent into the world's class systems had now turned around to become the fuel for her execution.

Yu Xing did not scream.

She only counted softly:

"One thousand two hundred and one."

"One thousand two hundred and two..."

Her voice suddenly stopped.

She had forgotten the next number.

The transparent brain tissue contracted violently, and all the neural eyes showed confusion at the same time.

"Where... did I count to just now?"

Thirteen's face changed drastically.

"They are burning her memories of waking up!"

Lin Jin rushed to the main shaft and ripped off the outermost metal protective plate.

Inside, it was densely packed with live wires of fire.

There were no rule prompts.

There was no automatic labeling.

After the maintenance-class personality master template was retracted, he could only rely on his eyes to judge the path of each wire.

Lin Shoushan dragged the folding medical pod closer and raised his hand to point at the deepest part of the fire wires.

"Don't cut off the power supply directly."

"The incinerator and the class master template's main line share a pressure valve."

"If you cut it all at once, the class holders currently demolding will suffer a personality shock at the same time."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou gripped 002, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

"Then what do we cut?"

"Find the cleanup judgment line first."

Lin Shoushan stared fixedly at the black lines hanging down from the six Divine Seats.

"The incinerator wasn't originally an incinerator."

"It was an offline pod used to release the remaining consciousness after the master template completed its mission."

Chen Ye looked up at the sky full of fire.

"You call this releasing?"

"They altered it."

Lin Shoushan's voice sank.

"The original design was to shut off the supply, preserve the personality, and initiate evacuation."

"The Six Seats changed the sequence to: shut off supply, judge as useless, clean up personality."

Shen Tingxue had already rushed toward the first ring of incinerators.

She could no longer rely on the absolute calmness bestowed by the master template, and her Ice Line fell half a foot off mark.

The flames brushed past her shoulder, instantly burning through her school uniform.

She let out a muffled groan but did not stop.

The second Ice Line precisely sealed the pressure valve.

"How much time is left?"

[02:31]

Zhou Heng did not look for the optimal path.

He thrust out three consecutive spear strikes toward the left.

The first strike missed.

The second strike shattered an unrelated conduit.

The third strike finally pinned the outer ring drive gear of the incinerator.

Purple lightning exploded, and three hundred empty pods stopped rotating at the same time.

The intensity of the fire dropped a notch.

"The left side can be stopped,"

he said.

"But not necessarily the right side."

Chen Ye had already rushed toward the right side, holding up his shield.

Without the sacrificial instinct bestowed by the master template, with every step he took closer, he could clearly feel how hot the flames were.

The surface of the shield quickly turned red.

The flesh of his palms began to char.

He was afraid.

So afraid that he wanted to turn around immediately.

But Yu Xing spoke once more.

"One thousand two hundred and one."

She only remembered this single number now.

Chen Ye gritted his teeth and jammed his shield into the right gear.

"Then let's start counting again from this one!"

Boom!

The shield was caught by the gear.

Four hundred incinerators on the right jammed at the same time.

Chen Ye was sent flying by the recoil. Thirteen rushed forward to catch him, and the two rolled to the ground together.

There were still over four hundred lines of fire remaining.

The countdown continued.

[02:07]

Within the national class network, demolding choices were constantly being returned.

Some chose to immediately use their own experiences to replace the master template.

Others refused.

A girl who had only been a Healer for three months hesitated in front of the option for a long time before finally clicking [Do Not Demold for Now].

She said to the system:

"I still don't know if I can continue saving people without the master template."

"I want to study for a bit longer."

The Six Seats immediately seized this record.

[Those who refuse to demold still rely on the master template]

[Yu Xing possesses necessary value]

[Conflict detected between necessary value and useless cleanup]

The incinerator flames paused for a moment, then grew stronger again.

The Divine Seats coldly announced:

"Individuals cannot stabilize independently."

"The master template cannot be evacuated."

"However, the master template itself does not need to possess an independent personality."

"Retain functions, delete Yu Xing."

Yu Xing's transparent brain was sliced into two layers by the flames.

One layer was the personality supply function.

The other layer was her memories of waking up one thousand two hundred and four times.

The Six Seats wanted to keep the former.

And burn the latter.

Thirteen rushed to the incubation pod and pressed both hands against the transparent outer wall.

"Yu Xing!"

The neural eyes turned toward him with difficulty.

"Who... are you?"

Thirteen's breath hitched.

She had already forgotten him.

"My name is Thirteen."

He stared fixedly at her.

"I was also treated as a system recognition core and locked up for eighteen years."

"You told me that a person can just live first, and then give themselves a name."

There was no reaction in Yu Xing's eyes.

Thirteen raised his hand and smashed it against the pod wall.

"The 'Yu' in remaining!"

"The 'Xing' in waking up!"

Thud!

The transparent pod wall vibrated.

"This name is one you chose yourself!"

The second fist fell.

Blood flowed down Thirteen's knuckles.

"Not the master template!"

"Not the Mother of All Things!"

"And not Number One Thousand Two Hundred and Four!"

The third punch.

"Your name is Yu Xing!"

Deep within the transparent brain tissue, a single neural eye finally lit up with a faint glimmer.

"Yu..."

The flames suddenly closed in.

That eye dimmed once more.

[01:32]

Lin Jin knelt in front of the main shaft, his hands covered in machine oil and blood.

Among the hundreds of wires, he finally felt a thin wire that carried neither fire nor energy, yet connected to all the incinerators.

There was no functional label on the wire.

There was only an old term, mostly worn away.

[Offline Confirmation]

And the three characters overlaid later were:

[Useless Judgment]

This was it.

After Yu Xing lost her necessary value, this wire changed "allowed to leave" to "should be destroyed."

Lin Jin looked up.

"Teacher Xu!"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou rushed over, dragging 002.

Black light descended from the six Divine Seats simultaneously.

[Destruction of the cleanup process is prohibited]

002 vibrated frantically in Teacher Xu Wenzhou's hand.

It showed him countless targets that could be severed.

Yu Xing and the master template function.

The personality master template and the class system.

The Divine Seats and the incubation field.

Even Lin Jin and the act of maintenance.

Every single one was more conspicuous than that tiny judgment line.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's arms were pulled upward.

"I can't see clearly!"

"Listen to the sound!"

Lin Jin picked up the rusty wrench and tapped it against the thin wire.

Clang!

The metallic sound was very quiet.

It was instantly drowned out by the roar of the birthing room.

Lin Jin tapped it again.

Clang!

Teacher Xu Wenzhou closed his eyes.

He did not look at the targets provided by 002.

He only listened to the sound made by the ordinary wrench tapping.

Clang!

He took a step forward.

002 raised above his head.

"Losing utility—"

"—is not a death sentence!"

The black iron wrench came crashing down.

Crack!

[Useless Judgment] snapped down the middle.

One thousand two hundred and three incinerators lost their cleanup target at the same time.

The flames did not extinguish.

But they stopped on the outer edge of Yu Xing's nerves, unable to penetrate any further.

[Cleanup process has lost legal judgment]

[Time Remaining: 00:58]

The six Divine Seats vibrated violently.

"The master template source cannot be evacuated."

"Dependents still exist within the class system."

Lin Jin looked at the data returned from across the nation.

Those who refused to demold were not a minority.

Some were afraid.

Some were not ready.

And some believed they needed the master template to continue guiding them.

But whether they chose to accept or refuse, everyone gave a different reason.

Lin Jin suddenly understood that the true new source of stability was not "everyone must demold."

It was the choice itself.

That Healer choosing to temporarily rely on the master template was not a decision made for her by the system.

It was her admitting her own fear and deciding to continue studying.

This, too, was an independent personality.

"Yu Xing doesn't need to wait for the whole world to be weaned."

Lin Jin imported all the choice records into the mechanical main spindle of the birthing room.

"Those willing to demold can stabilize their classes with their own experiences."

"Those who are temporarily unwilling can continue to use the public templates left behind by the master template."

"But templates can be duplicated."

"The supply function doesn't need to be tied to a single person."

Lin Shoushan snapped his head up.

"Static backup of the master template."

It couldn't be done twenty years ago.

Because back then, the class system had just been established, and the master template needed constant adjustment.

But now, twenty years of class records, individual deviations, and autonomous choices were enough to form a public foundation that no longer relied on a living body.

Lin Shoushan threw himself to the edge of the medical pod and ripped open the spare slot beneath the main shaft.

"Write the one thousand two hundred and three initial master template records into the static shaft!"

Zhou Heng turned his Thunder Spear, directing the personality variance data returned from across the nation toward the main shaft.

Shen Tingxue removed part of the ice seal, turning the stopped furnace fire into backup power.

Enduring the burns on his palms, Chen Ye grabbed the jammed shield again and pushed the right gear in reverse.

Thirteen pressed his hand against the outside of Yu Xing's pod.

"Did you hear that?"

"It's not that the world doesn't want your gift."

"It's just that you shouldn't be locked up here, forced to keep giving it."

The static shaft began to rotate.

In the one thousand two hundred and three empty pods, the initial personality templates turned into points of light, written one by one into the unconscious mechanical storage.

[Warrior-class initial personality guidance: Backup complete]

[Mage-class initial personality guidance: Backup complete]

[Healer-class...]

The Six Seats pressed down frantically.

"Personality cannot be preserved by inanimate structures!"

Lin Jin used an ordinary wrench to tighten the last fixing bolt.

"If you can write personalities into class instruction manuals,"

"then we can put those manuals into a hard drive."

Ka!

The final master template completed its static backup.

[Current class system stability source updated]

[Living body master template dependency: 0%]

[Yu Xing's necessary functions: Deactivated]

[00:07]

The flames outside the incubation pod were all extinguished.

Deep within the transparent brain, those dimmed neural eyes lit up again one by one.

Yu Xing did not speak immediately.

She seemed to have gotten lost among her one thousand two hundred and four awakenings.

Thirteen still kept his hand pressed against the pod wall.

"The 'Yu' in remaining."

Shen Tingxue softly added:

"The 'Xing' in waking up."

Zhou Heng said:

"You have counted one thousand two hundred and four times."

Clutching his charred palm, Chen Ye grinned:

"This time, you don't have to keep counting."

Lin Jin spoke last.

"Someone has come to answer."

The transparent brain contracted sharply.

All the neural eyes shed a drop of transparent liquid at the same time.

"My name is..."

"Yu Xing."

[Independent Name Confirmed]

[Personality Memories Restored]

[Cleanup Process Terminated]

The golden incubation pod slowly opened.

Countless neural light filaments wove outward from the transparent brain, forming bones, flesh, and skin.

A girl of about seventeen or eighteen fell from the pod.

Thirteen reached out and caught her.

Breathing with real lungs for the first time, she coughed violently for a long while.

Then she raised her head and looked at Lin Shoushan.

Twenty years of waiting, resentment, and questioning were all contained in that single gaze.

Lin Shoushan struggled to stand up from the medical pod.

He did not look away.

"Yu Xing."

"I came too late."

Yu Xing looked at him for a long time.

Ultimately, she only said one sentence:

"We'll settle this after we get out."

Having lost the incubation field and the master template source, the six Divine Seats were rapidly pulling away from the No. 9 Forbidden Zone.

Just when everyone thought they were about to retreat, the sound of chains snapping suddenly came from the very bottom of the birthing room.

A hidden incubation pod that had never appeared in the release records slowly rose.

Its serial number was not 000 to 1203.

Instead, it was a name.

[Master Template Cleansing Executor: Shen Qingshuang]

[Status: Alive]

[Work Record: After each time Yu Xing developed an independent personality, she executed the memory wipe]

The Ice Key in Shen Tingxue's hand suddenly let out a cracking sound that was almost like a wail.

Inside the hidden pod, a white-haired woman opened her eyes.

She looked at Shen Tingxue through the pod wall, but her first words were:

"Don't save me."

"The one thousand two hundred and four deaths that Yu Xing remembers—"

"—every single one of them was pressed by my own hand."