152: Chapter 153 The Abyss gave Lin Jin the job titled "Scapegoat Repairman".

"Has the Career System finally broken down?"

"So now—"

"It's the Abyss's turn to hand out careers to humanity."

An ancient voice came from beneath the No. 9 Forbidden Zone.

There was no anger.

Nor was there the roaring of a monster.

It was even somewhat polite, like a staff member who had waited twenty years and finally heard the previous window announce its closing.

In the next second, seventy-two Abyss entrances cracked open simultaneously.

The black mist did not rush toward the cities.

Instead, it first drilled into every career pathway.

In front of all careerists across the country, a pitch-black card emerged.

[Detected that your current career cannot fully satisfy your wishes]

[Matching Abyss career]

[You can decline]

Chen Ye stared blankly for a moment when he saw the last line.

"It even lets you decline?"

Cheng Du's face looked even worse than before.

"The Abyss loves to lay out choices clearly."

"Because as long as you nod your head yourself, all subsequent costs can be considered voluntary."

The black mist passed through the iron gate that had been cracked open by The Six Seats.

It did not attack anyone.

It simply stopped quietly in front of everyone, reading what they wanted most yet had never been able to obtain.

The card in front of Chen Ye was the first to take shape.

[Abyss Career: Undefeated Guardian]

[Ability: Those you designate as protection targets will absolutely never die in front of you]

Chen Ye instinctively stared at that line of text.

Walking this path up to now, what he feared most had never been getting hurt himself.

It was that his shield blocked the attack, yet the person still died behind him.

The card slowly flipped over.

[Career Cost: All damage that should have been borne by the protection target will be randomly transferred to someone you did not choose]

[Accept?]

[Yes]

[No]

The hesitation in Chen Ye's eyes vanished instantly.

"Randomly transfer it to someone else?"

"Then what's the difference between my shield and using bystanders to block the door?"

He raised his fist and smashed the card to pieces.

The black mist dispersed without lingering.

Immediately after, a new career appeared in front of Shen Tingxue.

[Absolute Freezer]

[Ability: Freeze all ongoing losses, including death, breakdown, and parting]

[Cost: Every time you freeze something, you will permanently lose a corresponding emotion]

Shen Tingxue only took one look.

She swept her Ice Key.

The card was frozen into powder.

What Zhou Heng received was [Sole Path Surveyor].

The ability was to always see the correct route.

The cost, however, was that every wrong path he abandoned would be randomly walked to the end by someone else in his stead.

In front of Teacher Xu Wenzhou, it read [Innocent Bystander Witness].

From then on, the testimony he gave would never be tampered with.

But the consequences of all testimonies would no longer be borne by him.

He could be forever correct.

And he would never have to be held responsible.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou gripped 002 tightly and flipped the card face down on the ground.

"Testimony cannot just be about truth."

"Someone still has to stay behind to face the consequences."

In front of Yu Xing, the black mist condensed into a mirror.

In the mirror was not the young girl who had just grown a body.

But a complete, powerful deity who had never undergone purging.

[Abyss Career: Uniter of Ten Thousand Memories]

[Ability: Reclaim 1,204 personalities and restore the complete divine brain]

[Cost: Delete current personality "Yu Xing"]

Yu Xing stared at the mirror for a long time.

Then she raised her hand and wrote her name on the mirror's surface.

Yu Xing.

As the two characters were written, the perfect deity in the mirror cracked inch by inch.

"Those memories, I will look through them slowly."

"But no one is going to live my life for me all at once."

The black mist continued forward.

It bypassed Lin Shoushan, then bypassed Cheng Du.

Finally, it all gathered on Lin Jin's already desensitized right hand.

A career card, thicker than anyone else's, slowly grew out from his wound.

[Detected Career: F-Class Repairman]

[Detected Maintenance Authority: Lost]

[Detected Strong Demand: Continue discovering faults, continue repairing rules]

[Matching complete]

The black card flipped over.

[Abyss Career: Scapegoat Mechanic]

[Level: Unassessable]

[Ability 1: No authorization required; can see all faults in reality, careers, rules, and deities]

[Ability 2: No materials required; can immediately complete repairs]

[Ability 3: Cannot be rejected by any system]

Lin Jin silently looked at the card.

After the Hand of Rules deactivated, the world became sluggish in his eyes once again.

He could not see the connection of The Six Seats.

He could not see the faults in the Abyss rift.

He could even only inspect the black lever in front of him by taking it apart piece by piece.

But this career could return everything to him.

There was no need for a candidate seat.

There was no need for the God Head's authorization.

And there was no need to wait for his father or the system to tell him what to repair.

The cost on the back of the card slowly emerged.

[Maintenance Cost: Repaired faults will not disappear]

[The fault will be transferred to another random living being]

[When you repair one thing, the world will break another in its stead]

Chen Ye's face darkened as he read it.

"This name really didn't lie."

"Scapegoat Mechanic."

"No one knows who they'll end up suffering for."

The voice of the Abyss came from beneath the rift.

"Faults cannot vanish out of thin air."

"Your so-called maintenance is nothing more than hiding chaos in places unseen."

"The gods hid the cost in Yu Xing."

"The Six Seats hid the cost in positions."

"Humanity hid the cost in the future."

"I am merely allowing you to see—"

"Someone always has to pay."

The black card pressed itself against Lin Jin's right hand.

His darkened vision suddenly lit up.

Countless familiar prompts reappeared.

[Target: No. 9 Forbidden Zone Abyss Main Gate]

[Fault: First-run seal is rolling back]

[Maintenance Plan: Accept the Scapegoat Mechanic career, transferring the seal damage to other Abyss entrances]

[Expected Outcome: No. 9 Forbidden Zone closes, and a random city's Abyss entrance fully opens]

All he had to do was nod.

This oldest and most dangerous Abyss main gate before him could close immediately.

The cost was that another city would bear it instead of Jiang City.

Lin Jin raised his right hand.

The black card pressed itself toward his palm of its own accord.

The Abyss was in no rush.

It even displayed all seventy-one entrances that were about to be transferred.

Beihe City.

Haidong City.

Xichuan City.

Behind each city, there were clear population figures, city defense levels, and projected death counts.

Choosing a low-population area could minimize the losses.

Choosing an uninhabited forbidden zone might even mean no one would die for the time being.

"Look."

The Abyss said softly.

"I will not deceive you like the gods."

"The cost is right here."

"You only need to choose who will bear it."

Lin Jin stared at those cities.

Suddenly, he asked:

"What if no one bears it?"

"The fault must exist."

"That is your rule."

Lin Jin reached out with his left hand and gripped the edge of the black card.

"Not the world's."

He did not smash the card.

Instead, he tore it off his right hand bit by bit.

The black career card made a sharp grinding sound.

[Declining the career will lose fault vision]

"It was never mine to begin with."

[After declining, the No. 9 Forbidden Zone main gate will continue to open]

"If the gate opens, then close it."

[You no longer have the Hand of Rules]

"I still have my hands."

*Rip!*

The entire career card was torn off.

The wound on his right hand split open accordingly, blood dripping down his wrist.

All fault prompts disappeared once more.

Yet, Lin Jin did not throw the card away.

He pressed the card onto the floor of the maintenance passage.

The edge of the card immediately curled up in a certain direction.

Cheng Du's single eye lit up.

"Abyss careers automatically connect to the distribution end."

"Using it as a line tester?"

"Doesn't it like to lay out the costs clearly?"

Lin Jin gripped the chipped wrench.

"Then let's follow the bill to find the cash register."

Following the direction pointed by the card, the crowd rushed into the deepest part of the maintenance passage.

The black mist grew thicker and thicker.

Rollback Records of Abyss entrances nationwide kept flooding in.

Some declined.

Others were hesitating.

Whenever a person developed a strong desire, they would receive the Abyss career most suited to them.

Before a hospital bed, a doctor received a career capable of saving all patients.

The cost was rearranging the order of death.

On the battlefield, a soldier received a body that never tired.

The cost was aging to death within a day after retirement.

A father who had lost his child received the ability to bring back the dead.

The cost was causing another family to lose a child of the same age.

There was no deception.

There was no coercion.

There were only "fair contracts" delivered right to people's hands at their most desperate moments.

The card in Lin Jin's hand finally stopped in front of a rusted iron wall.

There were no divine patterns on the wall.

There were only seventy-two ordinary metal pull cords.

Each one connected to an Abyss entrance.

The pull cord for the No. 9 Forbidden Zone in the very center had already snapped.

Yet the break bore no signs of natural wear and tear.

It was as if someone had just cut it from the other side.

Cheng Du felt the cross-section.

"The Abyss gate didn't open itself because of the reboot."

"The reboot merely restored the lines."

"The thing that actually cut the seal is behind the gate."

The black card suddenly broke free from Lin Jin's hand and pressed onto the broken cord.

A pitch-black eye opened along the cable.

"You found me."

"Repairman."

The sound of dragging chains came from behind the iron wall.

The No. 9 Forbidden Zone main gate was opening completely.

Having no rule prompts, Lin Jin could only remove the wall panel and inspect the mechanical structure next to the broken cord.

The pull cord was broken.

But the emergency closing device was still there.

However, the seven mechanical levers that were originally supposed to be pressed down together by seven maintenance personnel had later been modified into a single career interface.

[Requires a high-privilege careerist to sacrifice their career core to permanently seal the gate]

Once again, using one person to block the entrance.

Cheng Du looked at the modified structure, his face turning pale.

"It wasn't like this in the beginning."

"Seven levers. Seven people pressing down simultaneously for three seconds could close the gate."

"Why was it changed later?"

"To save manpower."

Cheng Du sneered.

"A single position is much easier to manage than seven people who might refuse, work in shifts, or resign."

Lin Jin swung his wrench directly, smashing the career interface covering the mechanical levers.

Chen Ye held down the first one.

Shen Tingxue pressed down the second one.

Zhou Heng, Teacher Xu Wenzhou, Thirteen, and Yu Xing stood in their positions one by one.

Still short of the last one.

Lin Shoushan propped himself up against the treatment pod, wanting to get down.

Cheng Du had already dragged his metallic left leg to stand in front of the seventh lever.

"I've guarded this place for twenty years."

"I can still press this down."

The seven of them exerted force simultaneously.

The mechanical levers moved downward.

One second.

Abyss black mist sprayed out from the wall cracks, and the career cards in front of everyone appeared once more.

Two seconds.

All unaccepted Abyss contracts nationwide simultaneously increased their abilities and lowered their costs.

As the third second was about to arrive, the half of Cheng Du's body connected to the pipes suddenly fractured.

His entire body fell backward.

The seventh mechanical lever began to spring back.

Lin Shoushan rolled out of the treatment pod and slammed his shoulder against the lever.

*Click!*

The seven mechanical levers hit the bottom simultaneously.

Deep within the No. 9 Forbidden Zone, that ancient colossal gate let out an earth-shaking roar.

The black eye in the gap of the gate slowly closed.

"You can close one."

"But can you close seventy-two?"

Lin Jin pressed his hands down on the mechanical levers.

"We'll close this one first."

"As for the rest, we'll close them one by one."

The colossal gate closed completely.

On the national map, the black dot of the No. 9 Forbidden Zone went out.

But at the exact same time, a cold statistic popped up from the career network.

[Total Abyss Careers Issued: 1,903,412]

[Declined: 603,718]

[Hesitating: 1,297,682]

[Accepted: 12]

The expressions of everyone changed simultaneously.

In just a few short minutes, twelve people had already signed the contracts.

The first Record of an accepted career was forcibly made public.

[Recipient: Inspector Han Su]

[Original Career Authority: Frozen]

[Abyss Career: Job-Slayer]

[Ability: Can kill any position, seat, and career relationship]

[Cost: Every time a position is killed, everyone who has ever held that position will be erased along with it]

The communicator suddenly lit up.

Inspector Han Su stood at the top level of the Department of Education's Archives Tower.

Behind him, the black colossal chair representing the [Record] seat had already been pierced by an Abyss long blade.

Within the entire Department of Education, the bodies of everyone who had ever served in an archive-recording position were gradually becoming transparent.

Inspector Han Su gripped the blade, his face devoid of its usual programmatic composure for the first time.

"Lin Jin."

"I can kill The Six Seats."

"But I just discovered—"

"What this blade kills has never been just chairs."