163: Chapter 164 Outside the city gates stood those who most wanted to return.

"At that time, those standing outside the door—"

"Will be the people Jiangcheng wants to see one last time the most."

The white door closed completely.

Su Yan collapsed into Chen Ye's arms, but the Abyss job card on his chest did not extinguish.

The sixth question on the sky exam paper was like a shadow, slowly covering Jiangcheng.

[Sixth Question Preview: When it is impossible to confirm whether those returning from outside the door are still themselves, should they be allowed to enter the city?]

There was no standard answer.

There was no countdown, either.

But a second later, knocking sounded everywhere in Jiangcheng.

Dong.

Dong.

Dong.

At the entrance of a ward in The Hospital, a woman who had just lost her husband looked up.

A familiar voice sounded outside the door.

"A-Ning."

"Open the door."

"I'm back."

The woman froze.

Her husband had died outside the Abyss rift three months ago, and even his body hadn't been found.

Now, that voice, from behind the ward door—even the habit of knocking three times before coming home was exactly the same.

She held her child and stumbled toward the door.

"Don't open it!"

Nurse Fang Ning rushed over to hold her back.

Black mist seeped through the crack in the door.

The mist didn't force its way in, just asked softly:

"If you don't let me in."

"Then what was it all for, me waiting for you in the Abyss all these days?"

At the same time, shelters, temporary housing, city defense posts, and hospital corridors—sounds came from behind almost every door.

Some heard their mothers.

Some heard their comrades.

Some heard desk mates who had died in instances.

There were even old students who had just left the underground containment school, hearing their younger brothers, who had been left at home twenty years ago, calling them "Brother" outside the door.

The crowd began to lose control.

Not because of weakness.

But because those voices were too similar.

So similar that even the calmest people didn't dare to say that what was outside was definitely fake.

Su Yan's face was deathly pale.

"It's my job residue."

"I closed the door, but the desire to return home was transferred into the cracks of every door in the city."

"They can't come in for now."

"But as long as the people inside open the door voluntarily, it will be counted as a sample for the sixth question."

New statistics floated below the sky exam paper.

[Entry Tendency Sampling: 12]

[Prohibition Tendency Sampling: 3]

[Unable to Judge: A large amount]

Chen Ye handed Su Yan to the medical team, shouldered his shield, and rushed to the nearest shelter building.

"Don't let them touch the doors!"

Qin Shanhe's broadcast immediately rang through the city.

"Everyone, step back three steps from the door."

"Cry if you want to cry, shout if you want to shout."

"But do not open the door."

"And do not say you will never let them return."

"Today's first temporary rule—"

"Hearing them does not mean opening the door."

This sentence saved many who had already touched the doorknob.

But it also made many more crouch down in pain.

They heard the people they wanted to see most outside the door.

But they could only retreat three steps.

Tang Qi clutched the iron plate on her chest, her voice trembling:

"The Abyss is forcing them to make a choice."

"Opening the door might let in a fake."

"Not letting them in feels like personally rejecting the real ones."

"This question isn't looking for an answer."

Lin Jin looked at the sky exam paper.

"It wants people to be torn apart by longing."

He walked quickly to a door that was vibrating.

Behind the door was a teenager's voice.

"Teacher, I was wrong."

"I shouldn't have entered that instance."

"Let me back in."

Inside the door, a practical training instructor knelt on the ground, eyes red.

"He is my student."

"In the last communication, he said the same thing."

Lin Jin squatted down, fingers pressed against the door crack.

There was no Hand of Rules.

He couldn't hear any error prompts.

He could only observe using the most primitive method.

Every time the black mist in the door crack spoke, it would first lean close to the direction of the instructor's chest.

It wasn't that it knew what the student had said.

It was reading the words the instructor was most afraid to hear.

"Ask it."

Lin Jin said.

The instructor's throat tightened.

"Ask what?"

"Ask something you don't know, but he should know."

The instructor asked with a trembling voice:

"Before you entered the instance last time, where did you throw your practical training knife?"

Silence outside the door for a moment.

Then came the boy's crying.

"Teacher, I'm in too much pain, I can't remember."

The instructor's expression almost collapsed.

But Lin Jin reached out and pressed the doorknob.

"Don't open it."

The voice outside became urgent.

"Teacher, you don't believe me?"

"Before I died, the last person I wanted to see was you!"

The instructor gritted his teeth and continued to ask:

"Then what do you hate me for?"

Silence outside again.

This time it lasted longer.

When the real student left, he hated the instructor most for stopping him from transferring to a culinary profession.

This matter, he had never told anyone.

Only the practical training knife left at the back door of the cafeteria knew.

The voice outside suddenly became smooth.

"I don't hate you."

The instructor closed his eyes, tears hitting the ground.

"He hates me."

"Of course he hates me."

The mist outside surged violently, the boy's voice cracked, revealing the hollow sound from the bottom of the Abyss.

"Why do you have to confirm?"

"Isn't it enough to want him back?"

Lin Jin raised his wrench and smashed it hard against the bottom of the door frame.

Not smashing the door.

It was smashing the black hinge connecting the instructor's longing to the voice outside.

Crack!

The screaming outside disappeared.

The sampling number on the sky dropped by one.

Shen Tingxue quickly spread this method.

"Step one, stand three steps away from the door."

"Step two, don't open the door, only leave messages."

"Step three, ask non-guiding questions."

"Step four, allow yourself to not judge for now."

Zhou Heng added:

"If the person outside demands you open the door immediately, or demands you prove love with guilt, prioritize judging it as dangerous."

Chen Ye's addition was simpler.

"Whoever rushes you to open, don't open."

After the temporary rule spread, more and more voices behind doors revealed flaws.

Some couldn't say small things only the person themselves would know.

Some only repeated "I want to go home."

Some even switched to another relative's voice after being questioned.

But a few doors were different.

In the West District of Jiangcheng, an old man asked through the door:

"Are you really my daughter?"

The woman outside didn't cry or beg.

She just said:

"I don't know if I still am."

"I remember the noodles you made."

"I also remember being very cold when I died."

"But there are many things on me that don't belong to me."

"Dad, don't open it yet."

"Find someone to confirm."

The old man sat leaning against the door, weeping uncontrollably.

This door was not judged as an Abyss lure.

Because the person outside didn't rush to occupy the identity of "daughter."

She admitted the uncertainty.

And allowed the person inside to wait.

When Lin Jin arrived, Shen Tingxue had already frozen the door between half-open and closed.

The black shadow outside was blurry, but never rammed the door.

"This might be a real residue."

Shen Tingxue said.

"But it could also be a smarter fake."

"So it cannot be opened, and cannot be cleared."

Lin Jin looked at the shadow.

"Need an intermediate solution."

Su Yan was helped over.

"Can I... open just a crack?"

Chen Ye glared at him immediately.

Su Yan hurriedly said:

"Not using myself as the door."

"Use the door frame."

He pointed to the frozen door.

"My Returner ability still has a little left."

"If we don't let things in, just let it leave testimony, the cost is very small."

Lin Jin looked at him.

"Can you stop at any time?"

Su Yan took a deep breath.

"Yes."

"Show me you can stop."

Su Yan raised his hand, and the door frame lit up with a line of white light.

A second later, he proactively closed it.

The white light disappeared.

His face was paler, but he wasn't pulled in.

Lin Jin nodded.

"That's what I call usable."

Thus, Jiangcheng's first "Message Door" was built.

The shadow outside could not enter.

Could not reach out.

Could not demand the door be opened.

Could only leave three pieces of content.

Self-identification.

Uncertain parts.

How long they are willing to wait.

The woman outside the old man's door in the West District was the first to leave testimony.

"My name is Lin Xiaohe."

"I might have been polluted by the Abyss."

"I am willing to wait until you confirm I am still me."

This testimony was frozen by Shen Tingxue, handed to Teacher Xu Wenzhou for filing, and then cross-verified by real-life relatives, old files, and the person's residual memory.

Below the Sky's sixth question, the first prototype of an open answer finally appeared.

[Those returning cannot directly enter the city based on longing.]

[Refusal cannot be based on fear to directly clear them.]

[A mechanism for pausing, leaving messages, verification, waiting, and re-confirmation of identity should be established.]

In the crowd, someone nodded while crying.

This didn't block the people outside forever.

Nor did it let monsters in the city wearing the voices of relatives.

It just acknowledged one thing.

Wanting to see someone doesn't mean you can open the door.

Being afraid doesn't mean you can kill everything outside the door.

But just as Jiangcheng was gradually stabilizing, the sampling on the sky suddenly flipped.

[Message Door mechanism triggers Abyss sign-off process]

[All return applications must be accepted or rejected by a Sign-off Clerk]

Lin Jin's heart sank.

"Sign-off Clerk?"

Behind the crowd, a thin teenager slowly raised his head.

He didn't have the light of a combat profession on his chest.

Only an E-grade stamp that had long been judged as useless by the system.

Ye Guizhou.

The teenager who once almost sent the lives of Su Yan, He Zhibai, Luo Wensheng, and others into the White Tower because of "proxy sign-off."

He looked at the sky exam paper, his face pale.

"Not me."

"I didn't sign."

But on the back of his hand, an Abyss job card was emerging.

[Recipient: Ye Guizhou]

[Abyss Profession: Final Sign-off Clerk]

[Ability: Can accept or reject any return application]

[Cost: For every rejection, a real application to return home in reality will be permanently stranded; for every acceptance, if the other party is fake, the responsibility is borne by the signer themselves]

Ye Guizhou's hand started to tremble.

In the sky, tens of thousands of return applications fell toward him like snowflakes.

Each one wrote:

[Please sign off]

[Please reject]

[Please process immediately]

He looked up at Lin Jin, his voice almost drowned out.

"This time..."

"I can't sign wrong again."