164: Chapter 165 This time, Ye Guizhou did not sign for anyone's package.

"I, this time..."

"Cannot sign incorrectly again."

Ye Guizhou stood behind the crowd, the Abyss occupation card on the back of his hand fully unfolded.

[Final Sign-in Clerk]

[Can receive or reject any return application]

[Every time you reject, a real application to return home in reality will be permanently stranded]

[Every time you receive, if the other party is fake, the responsibility is borne by the signer themselves]

Tens of thousands of black application forms fell from the sky.

Every one of them was urging.

[Please sign]

[Please reject]

[Please process immediately]

They landed on Ye Guizhou's shoulders, his hair, his feet, and drilled into his hands like living things.

He used to be just an E-level Sign-in Clerk.

One of the most useless occupations.

Sign for express delivery.

Register documents.

Confirm that a piece of paper arrived at a certain place.

No one thought this occupation could determine life or death.

But the White Tower used his sign-in stamp to send minors, hidden occupation holders, and residual personalities into traps of "Notified, Confirmed, Agreed" one by one.

He had never killed anyone.

But his stamp had been used to write "Understood" for others.

Now, the Abyss pushed a whole city's return applications in front of him.

Asking him to accept.

Or reject.

Ye Guizhou's hand trembled so much he could barely hold that old stamp.

The first application form landed on his palm.

[Applicant claims: Lin Xiaohe]

[Status outside the door: Suspected contamination]

[Related person inside the door: Father Lin Deshun]

[Please sign/reject]

The old man from the West District stood inside the door, looking at him through the communication device.

The old man didn't urge him.

He just held the testimony left by that message door, his eyes red.

Ye Guizhou looked down at the application form.

If he signed, the "Lin Xiaohe" outside the door could enter the next step of verification.

If she was fake, all responsibility would fall on him.

If he rejected, perhaps the real Lin Xiaohe would be blocked outside the door forever.

What was more terrifying was that the application forms in the sky didn't give him a third option.

[Countdown: 10]

[9]

[8]

The Abyss gently reminded: "The value of a Sign-in Clerk lies in timely processing."

"Not processing for a long time is equivalent to dereliction of duty."

It was like this again.

Not answering was treated as agreement.

Hesitating was treated as dereliction of duty.

Ye Guizhou's face was pale.

Chen Ye rushed over, raising his shield to block the continuously falling application forms.

"Don't look!"

"Don't stamp yet!"

The black application forms bypassed the shield and stuck directly onto the back of Ye Guizhou's hand.

[Sign-in Clerk must not refuse to perform duties]

[Please process]

Ye Guizhou's eyes began to lose focus.

The Abyss occupation card on the back of his hand lit up.

His hand was forced to lift, the stamp hovering over Lin Xiaohe's application form.

Lin Jin stepped forward and grabbed his wrist.

"Where did you go wrong before?"

Ye Guizhou's lips trembled.

"I signed."

"No."

Lin Jin stared at him.

"You were wrong before because you thought signing meant agreeing for them."

Ye Guizhou was stunned.

Lin Jin picked up an old application form.

"What was the original duty of a Sign-in Clerk?"

Ye Guizhou's throat moved.

"Confirm the document arrived."

"And then?"

"Confirm who received it."

"And then?"

Ye Guizhou's gaze gradually returned.

"Record the time of receipt."

"Can you agree for the recipient?"

"No."

"Can you prove the content is true for the sender?"

"No."

"Can you burn all the mail because you are afraid of making mistakes?"

Ye Guizhou shook his head.

"No."

Lin Jin let go of his wrist.

"Then do what a Sign-in Clerk should do."

"Not a judge."

"Not a gatekeeper."

"Nor the person who makes decisions for the whole city."

Ye Guizhou looked at the application form in his palm.

The Abyss was still counting down.

[3]

[2]

He suddenly flipped the stamp over.

He didn't stamp the "Sign-in" on the front.

Instead, he used the edge of the stamp to press heavily on the blank space of the application form.

Bang!

A gray mark that had never appeared in the Abyss process emerged.

[Received]

[Not verified]

[Must not be considered as accepted]

The application form shook violently.

The countdown stopped.

The Abyss's voice turned a degree colder.

"Invalid processing."

Ye Guizhou's hand was still shaking, but his voice was much clearer.

"Signing only proves that I received this application."

"It doesn't prove it is real."

"It doesn't prove it can enter the city."

"It doesn't prove I agreed for Lin Deshun to open the door."

"And it certainly doesn't prove I have the qualification to refuse his daughter from coming home."

The first application form turned from black to gray, hanging beside the West District message door.

Lin Xiaohe's shadow did not enter.

Nor was it cleared.

She just gained a position waiting for verification.

The old man Lin Deshun held the testimony and said chokingly: "I heard it."

Below the sixth question of the sky exam paper, the first process Record was generated.

[Return application status: Received, not verified, temporarily stored]

The black application forms seemed enraged, pelting Ye Guizhou like raindrops.

[Please sign]

[Please reject]

[Please process immediately]

Ye Guizhou took a half step back, his face turning pale again.

He could stamp one.

But tens of thousands, it was impossible for him to handle alone.

The Abyss wanted to crush him.

To crush him until he, for the sake of speed, became a tool that only knew how to stamp again.

Qin Shanhe picked up the broadcast.

"Everyone."

"Sixth question temporary process."

"Whoever receives a return application, do not open the door for others, do not reject for others."

"Only register three things."

"Who claims to return."

"Who is waiting inside the door."

"Whether the verification is completed now."

"For those not verified, all temporarily store."

Fang Ning was the first to respond.

She found a medical Record folder in The Hospital hallway, tore off a blank piece of paper, and wrote:

[Applicant claims: Zhang Jian]

[Waiters inside the door: Wife Ning An, young son Zhang Xiaozhou]

[Status: Not verified]

After writing, she didn't sign "Agree".

She only wrote: [Record: Fang Ning]

The Abyss occupation card on the back of Ye Guizhou's hand suddenly split a faint gray light, falling onto that piece of paper.

[Distributed sign-in Record established]

The Abyss was silent for a moment.

It hadn't expected that the Sign-in Clerk would no longer take all the documents into his own hands.

He had broken the "sign-in right" back into the most primitive registration action.

Whoever is on the scene, Records.

Whoever makes contact, notes.

Whoever is unsure, writes unsure.

More and more temporary recording points lit up in Jiangcheng.

Doctors recorded applications at the ward door.

Teachers recorded the sounds students heard.

City defense officers recorded the black shadows appearing outside the defense line.

Old students recorded the return requests left over from the underground containment school.

One by one, the application forms turned gray.

[Received]

[Not verified]

[Not entering the city yet]

Not accepted.

Not rejected.

It was waiting.

Ye Guizhou stood in the center of the open space, the Abyss patterns on the back of his hand flashing wildly.

[Final Sign-in Clerk authority diluted]

[Re-centralizing processing]

In the next second, all gray application forms flew back to the sky simultaneously, gathering above his head again.

The Abyss did not allow responsibility to be split.

It wanted one person to stamp.

One person to bear.

One person to make mistakes.

Lin Jin looked up at those papers.

"It is reclaiming the process."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised 002.

"Can cut the binding between the Sign-in Clerk and the city-wide applications."

Ye Guizhou suddenly shook his head.

"Don't cut."

Everyone looked at him.

"If cut, all applications will immediately become ownerless."

He looked up at the sky full of paper pages.

"I don't want to run away anymore."

He walked to the center of the open space and picked up that old stamp.

"But I also won't decide for them."

Ye Guizhou took a deep breath and shouted to the sky:

"All return applications, come to me first."

The black application forms fell with a bang, like a mountain of paper, submerging him completely.

Chen Ye was about to rush in but was stopped by Lin Jin.

Inside the paper mountain, the sound of the stamp falling came out.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Each time was very slow.

Not a mechanical repetition.

For each one, Ye Guizhou looked at it, read it, and then stamped the gray mark.

[Received.]

[Not verified.]

[Must not be accepted on behalf.]

[Received.]

[Not verified.]

[Must not be rejected on behalf.]

His throat quickly went hoarse.

His wrist also oozed blood.

The Abyss occupation card tried to change his movements back to one-click processing.

He used his other hand to press down on the stamping hand, pressing it down one by one.

Not a delivery man.

Not a judge.

Just a person who finally knew he couldn't overstep his authority.

The crowd quieted down.

Then, someone stepped forward.

Fang Ning picked up a stack of application forms.

"I read, you stamp."

Another mentor stepped forward.

"I verify the name."

Old student Tang Qi also walked over.

"I Record the unconfirmed reasons."

Su Yan was supported by the medical team and raised his hand.

"I can mark which doors are still waiting, and which doors have already withdrawn."

Ye Guizhou looked up at them.

"The price will be calculated on me."

Lin Jin said:

"Responsibility can be split, it doesn't mean no one helps you carry the work."

Chen Ye stood his shield in front of the paper mountain, blocking the black fog trying to drill in.

"Rest assured."

"Today you just worry about stamping 'Don't know'."

Ye Guizhou suddenly smiled.

Very lightly.

Like the breath that had been pressed on his chest for twenty years finally leaked a little gap.

Jiangcheng began to establish a real "Return Application Station".

Each application had a number.

But the number was only for searching, not to replace the name.

Each application was allowed to be supplemented.

Allowed to wait.

Allowed people inside the door to regret.

And allowed people outside the door to admit "I might not be the original me".

The open answer to the sky's sixth question gradually took shape.

[Return applications must not be directly accepted by longing, nor directly rejected by fear.]

[Sign-in only indicates receipt, not agreement.]

[Applications should be temporarily stored, verified, supplemented with testimony, and allowed to wait.]

[No single Sign-in Clerk shall bear the final ruling alone.]

The Abyss occupation card on the back of Ye Guizhou's hand began to crack.

But it didn't completely shatter.

It still inserted a black line into his palm.

The Abyss voice sounded again.

"The process is well established."

"But there is always the first one that must be decided."

Deep in the paper mountain, a golden-bordered return application slowly rose.

All ordinary applications automatically gave way.

In the applicant column, there was no self-claim.

But a name that was as real as it could be.

[Applicant returning: Lin Shoushan]

Lin Jin's face sank.

Lin Shoushan in the maintenance passage also saw that application through the communication device.

There was no surprise on his face.

Only a kind of exhaustion that would come sooner or later.

The application form continued to unfold.

[Source: No. 9 Forbidden Zone Abyss side]

[Status: gods heart residue, regret echo, a mixture of occupation fragments left by the person himself]

[Similarity: 92%]

[Contamination: Cannot be determined]

[Related person inside the door: Lin Jin, Thirteen, Lin Shoushan himself]

Chen Ye felt his scalp tingle.

"Lin Shoushan himself also counts as a related person inside the door?"

The Abyss chuckled.

"A person can also wait for themselves to return."

At the bottom of the application form, three options appeared.

[Accept: Echo Lin Shoushan enters the city, completes Lin Shoushan's missing memories]

[Reject: All Abyss-side residues of Lin Shoushan permanently stranded]

[Temporarily store: Need to provide a person of the same origin as a waiting anchor]

The black line slowly pointed to Lin Jin.

Then slowly pointed to Thirteen.

Finally, it landed on the real Lin Shoushan in the treatment pod.

Ye Guizhou held the stamp, for the first time not immediately stamping "Temporarily store".

Because this time, temporary storage also had a price.

It required a person of the same origin as an anchor.

Lin Shoushan was silent for a long time in the communication.

"Stamp temporarily store."

Lin Jin looked at him.

Lin Shoushan said in a low voice:

"I will be the anchor."

"I owe too many things to that side."

"If it is just regret, I will wait."

"If there are still memories that haven't returned inside, it should also be me who verifies."

Thirteen said coldly:

"You want to bear it alone again?"

Lin Shoushan looked at them.

"Not deciding for you."

"This time I am just signing for my own residue."

Ye Guizhou's stamp hovered in mid-air.

The sky exam paper suddenly turned the page.

The seventh question emerged in advance.

[When a person splits into residues, echoes, regrets, and contaminants, which one is qualified to be called the person himself?]

The golden application form began to burn.

Echo Lin Shoushan's voice came from outside the door.

"Don't temporarily store me."

"I don't want to wait anymore."

"Lin Jin."

"Do you really not want a complete father?"