158: Chapter 159: Twelve thousand seven hundred and sixty-two people fired the class monitor.

"Because when he accepted the profession, he had already mortgaged his last rejection—"

"To me."

The Abyss's voice faded, and the long blade in Gu Changye's hand sank sharply.

The blade pointed at the 12,762 former students who had just broken free from their desks.

Veins bulged on Gu Changye's arm.

He wanted to pull the blade back.

But his entire right arm felt as if it no longer belonged to him; even his bones were being rearranged by the Abyss contract, forcibly executing that graduation exam unfinished twenty years ago.

[Terminal Processor]

[Currently Executing: Class-wide Purge]

[Rejection Authority: Mortgaged]

Gu Changye opened his mouth.

"I..."

The second word was stuck in his throat.

He couldn't even say the two words "refusal".

Tang Qi stood at the classroom door, watching the blade that was being lifted bit by bit.

Twenty years ago, the Class Monitor did not kill them.

Twenty years later, the Class Monitor had his hand forced by the Abyss, still needing to complete this slash.

Some students instinctively backed away.

Others lowered their heads to look at their selection panels.

[Enter Reality]

[Enter Abyss]

[Do Not Select Yet]

The three options were still there.

But no matter which one they chose, Gu Changye's blade hung over their heads.

Chen Ye charged to the front with his shield.

"Don't stand in a bunch!"

"Scatter!"

But the former students didn't really run.

They had sat for twenty years, waited for twenty years, and finally managed to stand up, only to find that the first step to escaping still required stepping over the Class Monitor's blade.

Shen Tingxue wrapped her Ice Line around Gu Changye's right arm.

The ice layer had just covered the hilt when it was shattered by the black Abyss patterns.

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear stabbed into the ground, attempting to break the connection between the blade and the classroom.

The thunder light fell, but only exploded a circle of black chalk words on the floor tiles.

[Class Monitor Duty Cannot Be Interrupted]

[Class-wide Purge Must Be Completed]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised 002.

"Can cut the duty."

Lin Jin immediately pressed his hand down.

"If you cut it now, Gu Changye and the historical relationship of the whole class will be severed together."

"The blade will treat him as the source of the purge."

Hearing this, Gu Changye looked up instead.

"Then cut me."

"Shut up." Chen Ye cursed.

"No one here is short of a corpse like you."

Lin Jin rushed into the classroom and squatted in front of the Class Monitor's desk that Gu Changye had split open.

Below the crack in the desk, that examination spindle was still rotating.

The three pages of the purge list had already burned to ash.

But the ashes had not scattered.

They twisted into a black paper chain, connecting the seat number under every desk.

What the Abyss wanted to purge was not the people.

It was the "whole class".

And this school defined the "whole class" as 12,762 fixed seats.

As long as the seats remained, the people still belonged to the class.

Gu Changye's blade would eventually fall upon every person along the seat numbers.

"Take away the seat cards!" Lin Jin roared.

Tang Qi was the first to react.

She lowered her head and pried open her desk.

A black iron plate was nailed to the bottom of the desk.

[The Rejector: Tang Qi]

[Seat Number: 12762]

The iron plate was embedded very deeply.

She dug with her fingernails, and her fingertips immediately bled.

The former students nearby rushed over to help her pry it.

More people also lowered their heads to look for their own seat cards.

But the iron plates were all nailed tight.

12,762 desks vibrated simultaneously, as if countless hands were holding them back tightly.

[Seat Ownership Cannot Be Transferred Privately]

[Those Who Have Not Completed Graduation Must Not Leave Their Seats]

Chen Ye smashed the nearest desk leg with his shield.

"Then dismantle the desks!"

The former students were stunned for a moment.

In the twenty years, the first thing they were taught was not to damage the classroom.

Cannot move seats randomly.

Cannot leave early.

Cannot refuse reallocation.

But now, Chen Ye had already smashed the second desk.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"If you want to graduate, then dismantle them!"

Tang Qi suddenly laughed.

She picked up the stool next to her and smashed it hard against her desk.

Bang!

The desktop cracked.

The second hit.

The third hit.

The black iron plate finally loosened.

The moment Tang Qi pulled out the iron plate, the blade in Gu Changye's hand tilted slightly.

[Class-wide Purge Target Reduced: 1]

Effective.

The entire underground school erupted with the sound of desks and chairs shattering.

The former students began to dismantle their own desks.

Some bit the iron sheet open with their teeth.

Some broke the stool leg to use as a crowbar.

Some didn't have the strength, so the people next to them helped smash it together.

The 12,763 reality personnel on the ground also heard the commotion coming from underground.

Qin Shanhe stood on the edge of the black open space and grabbed the broadcast.

"People above, respond to them."

"Whoever hears their own name, shout it out."

"Tell them, the seats are not the people."

"The desks are broken, but the people are still here."

Thus, every time a seat card was pulled out underground, someone on the surface would call out that name.

"Tang Qi, I hear you!"

"Zhao Tong, I hear you!"

"Li Weiming, I hear you!"

One by one, names rose from the underground, and were caught by reality.

The black paper chains in the classroom began to break.

The long blade in Gu Changye's hand shook even more violently.

The Abyss contract constantly corrected the target.

[Class-wide Purge Target: 12041]

[9632]

[5188]

But the faster the purge target dropped, the stronger the blade's control over Gu Changye's body became.

It was no longer waiting for the whole class to be complete.

It wanted to strike early while there were still targets.

Gu Changye's right arm was forcibly lifted over his head.

Under the blade, hundreds of former students who hadn't had time to dismantle their seat cards turned pale.

Shen Tingxue gritted her teeth and rushed up, gripping the back of the blade with both hands.

The frost was instantly corroded by the Abyss black mist.

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear lay horizontally under the blade, the spear shaft emitting a harsh bending sound.

Chen Ye used his shield to prop up Gu Changye's wrist.

The three of them combined could still only make the blade move half an inch slower.

[Rejection Authority: Mortgaged]

[Obstructionists Will Be Counted into the Purge Range]

Gu Changye's eyes were red.

"I can't stop it."

Lin Jin looked down at the examination spindle under the Class Monitor's desk.

There was one more place that hadn't been dismantled.

Gu Changye's Class Monitor desk.

Everyone's seats could be pulled away.

Only this desk had no seat card.

Because it was the main seat for the whole class itself.

As long as the Class Monitor's desk remained, the Abyss could continue to confirm the existence of the whole class through the "Class Monitor".

"Tang Qi!" Lin Jin looked up and shouted.

"Do you still recognize him as the Class Monitor?"

Tang Qi froze.

Everyone who was dismantling their seats also paused.

Gu Changye, holding the blade, had his breathing suddenly hitch.

Twenty years ago, they had resented him.

Resented him for not being able to take them out.

Resented him for disappearing.

Resented him for becoming a person of the Processing Bureau while forgetting that there was a whole class of classmates underground.

But what they had been waiting for was also for the Class Monitor to come back and give an answer.

Tang Qi walked to the Class Monitor's desk.

She looked at Gu Changye.

"Gu Changye."

"You didn't kill us twenty years ago."

"We heard about this."

Gu Changye's lips trembled.

Tang Qi continued:

"You shouldn't make choices for us twenty years later either."

She raised her hand and smashed her seat iron plate onto the Class Monitor's desk.

"I don't acknowledge you as the Class Monitor anymore."

The second former student stepped forward.

"I don't acknowledge it either."

The third.

The fourth.

One by one, people threw the seat iron plates they had pulled out onto the Class Monitor's desk.

It wasn't a trial.

Nor was it revenge.

It was taking back the "whole class responsibility" that had been pressing down on Gu Changye, bit by bit.

"Gu Changye, Class Monitor duty ended."

"Gu Changye, you don't need to graduate for me."

"Gu Changye, I choose for myself."

On the ground, the reality personnel also began to repeat.

"I heard it."

"Class Monitor duty ended."

"They choose for themselves."

12,762 voices rang out from the underground classrooms, playgrounds, dormitories, and stairwells.

Finally, Tang Qi raised her hand and pressed it on the Class Monitor's desk.

"Whole class vote."

"Dismiss Gu Changye from Class Monitor duty."

Crack.

The Class Monitor's desk split from the center.

The black paper chain under the desk that connected the whole class's seats broke completely.

The long blade in Gu Changye's hand suddenly lost its target.

[Class-wide Purge Target: 0]

[Class Monitor Duty Does Not Exist]

[Execution Failed]

The Abyss contract emitted a harsh screech.

[Gu Changye Has Mortgaged His Last Rejection]

[Still Must Pay the Breach Penalty]

The long blade turned direction, stabbing towards Gu Changye's own chest.

He could not refuse.

But at the moment the blade was about to pierce his heart, Tang Qi kicked the hilt of the blade.

"Who said he rejected it?"

She looked coldly into the depths of the darkness.

"It was us who expelled him."

12,762 seat iron plates lit up simultaneously.

[Class Monitor Duty Dismissed by the Whole Class]

[Does Not Belong to Gu Changye's Personal Rejection]

[Mortgage Clause Cannot Be Triggered]

The long blade stopped an inch in front of Gu Changye's chest.

Black cracks spread along the blade.

The Terminal Processor profession did not disappear.

But the exam of "Class-wide Purge" was finally deleted from its execution list.

Gu Changye fell to his knees.

His fingers loosened from the hilt bit by bit.

Tang Qi did not help him up.

She just stood in front of him and said:

"Gu Changye."

"We graduate, we don't need your approval."

Gu Changye lowered his head, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

"I heard it."

As this sentence fell, all the classroom doors in the underground school opened at the same time.

The three options for the former students lit up again.

Some walked towards the reality exit.

Some stayed in place, saying they still needed to think about it.

Some held the Abyss profession card, choosing to enter the Abyss, but this time, they weren't being sent away by seat swapping, but walking down the steps themselves.

The underground containment school began to collapse.

Not destruction.

But the completion of a school dismissal that was twenty years late.

Lin Jin stood in the center of the classroom, finally relieved.

But just then, the long blade in Gu Changye's hand suddenly flipped on its own.

The list of twelve Abyss profession recipients was reflected on the blade's surface.

Inspector Han Su.

Gu Changye.

The third name slowly lit up.

[Recipient: Tang Qi]

Gu Changye looked up abruptly.

Tang Qi's expression also changed.

She lowered her head to look at her chest.

That black seat iron plate that should have been pulled out by her had actually grown back into her flesh at some unknown time.

[Abyss Profession: The Rejector]

[Ability: Reject an unrejectable order for anyone once]

[Cost: The order you rejected will descend again in seven days with ten times the scale]

The Abyss's voice carried a smile, coming from the bottom of the collapsing classroom.

"Happy graduation."

"You rejected the Class-wide Purge today."

"Seven days later—"

"I will make the entire Jiangcheng participate in the exam again."