176: Chapter 177 God Begins to Choose Parents, The First Hospital Closes the Cradle Door

[If humanity cannot prove itself worthy of being Namers]

[God will choose parents for all children]

The moment the golden work order flipped, all the door locks in the newborn area of First Hospital fell shut simultaneously.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The incubators slid automatically.

Thin golden tracks rose from beneath beds one, two, and three, as if someone were about to push the children out of the ward.

New audit forms popped up on the wall screens.

[Namer Qualification Audit]

[Emotional Stability]

[Financial Support Capability]

[Completeness of Educational Planning]

[Risk Control Capability]

[Occupational Level Adaptability]

[Completeness of Family Structure]

Every item was being scored.

The mother who had just been holding her child and calling out "Xiao Man" felt the golden lock on her wrist tightening.

[Emotional Stability: Insufficient]

[Postpartum weakness; currently lacks Namer qualification]

The child's father rushed over to support her.

A judgment immediately appeared on his wrist as well.

[Financial Support Capability: Insufficient]

[Occupational Level: D-Class Porter]

[Recommendation: Transfer to a superior guardian]

The man's eyes instantly turned red.

"I can raise them!"

"I move cargo, I can run transport at night, I—"

The screen didn't wait for him to finish.

[Excessive agitation]

[Risk Control Capability decreased]

[Namer qualification frozen]

In front of another incubator, a young couple saw their child's bed start to move backward, and the woman fell to her knees in terror, trying to grab the track.

"Don't take him away!"

As soon as she touched the track, golden light crawled up her fingers.

[Attacking the God-side allocation system]

[Guardianship qualification deduction]

Fang Ning lunged forward and pulled her away.

"Don't touch the track!"

"If you touch it, it counts as an attack!"

Cries erupted in the ward.

The children cried.

The parents cried too.

A Nurse tried to open the safety door, only to find that outside the door was no longer The Hospital corridor.

It was a golden passageway.

At the end of the passageway, a row of neat cradles was lined up.

Above each cradle floated a title.

[High-level dual-career family]

[Stable high-income family]

[Emotionless family]

[Vocational education-compatible family]

[Family capable of cultivating S-Class potential]

Those cradles were very clean.

Very safe.

Like a meticulously designed future.

And also like a row of cages devoid of humanity.

In the Mainframe control room, Lin Jin stared at the screen, his palms still bleeding.

"It isn't picking parents."

"It is picking containers."

Cheng Du's voice was hoarse.

"God loves changing love into compatibility."

Shen Tingxue had already turned around.

"I'm going to The Hospital."

"Not fast enough."

Zhou Heng glanced at the Mainframe lines.

"The Hospital is connected to the life support line; we can't transmit randomly."

Lin Jin grabbed the No. 001 work badge and pressed it onto the console.

"Open a sub-work order."

Luo Wensheng immediately wrote:

[Sub-work order: Block Namer qualification audit]

He Zhibai added:

[Risk: God deprives relatives/guardianship based on imperfection]

Ye Guizhou stamped it:

[Block application received]

[Must not be regarded as proving perfection on behalf of parents]

Lin Jin roared into the comms:

"Fang Ning!"

"Find the local control box for the cradle door!"

Fang Ning rushed out of the ward, groping along the wall, and soon found an old control box covered in golden light beneath the Nurse station.

"Found it!"

"Don't smash it."

Lin Jin watched the screen while using a wrench to tap the corresponding lines on the console.

"Pry open the cover plate, find the red and yellow wires."

Fang Ning used scissors to pry open the cover.

Inside were not ordinary wires, but two soft wires resembling golden blood vessels.

"There are no red or yellow ones, only golden wires!"

Lin Jin gritted his teeth.

"It rewired it."

Cheng Du propped himself up, took one look, and cursed:

"God Head connected the safety transfer line into an allocation track."

"The incubator track was originally for transferring infants during a fire."

"It turned a life-saving passage into a child-snatching passage."

Lin Jin's gaze turned cold.

"Then we'll change it back into a life-saving passage."

He looked at The Hospital screen.

"Fang Ning, is there a manual joystick in the control box?"

"There is one, but it's sealed."

"There should be old characters next to the joystick."

Fang Ning used her sleeve to wipe away the golden light, revealing three characters.

[Emergency Transfer]

Lin Jin said:

"All Nurses, prepare to take positions according to the emergency drill."

"Family members, don't snatch the children, don't touch the tracks."

"Stand to the side of the incubators, use your bodies to block the golden wristbands, but don't block the rescue exit."

A father said in a breakdown:

"If we don't snatch them, it'll take the children away!"

Lin Jin's voice was very steady.

"If you snatch them now, it will judge you as dangerous."

"Stand by their side and keep stating your real-life relationship with the child."

"Don't beg God."

"Leave a human Record for The Hospital system."

The man clenched his teeth, stood to the side of the incubator, his voice trembling:

"I am his father."

"I'm scared to death right now."

"I'm not stable."

"I'm not perfect either."

"But I haven't given up on him."

"I'm willing to learn how to take care of him."

As these words fell, the scoring sheet on the incubator glitched for a moment.

[Emotionally unstable]

But the next line was pushed out by The Hospital's local Records.

[Continuous caregiving: Established]

Another mother clutched her C-section wound and said weakly:

"I won't be a good mother right away."

"I will ask the Nurse how to feed."

"I will make mistakes."

"But I will change."

[Skills insufficient]

[Willingness to learn caregiving: Established]

Head Nurse picked up the ward duty log and flipped through it page by page.

"These family members have already attended newborn care education."

"Those who haven't, make it up now."

"If you don't know how to hold the child, we'll teach you."

"If you don't know how to change diapers, we'll teach you."

"If you don't know how to observe jaundice, we'll teach you."

"God isn't taking them away."

"The Hospital is helping people learn."

Fang Ning pulled down the emergency joystick with force.

The golden track vibrated violently.

God Head immediately pushed back.

[Unqualified Namers must not interfere with allocation]

[Emergency Transfer permission frozen]

Lin Jin saw the corresponding hospital line in the Mainframe suddenly thicken, like a golden umbilical cord, plugging directly into First Hospital from the direction of the God Head core.

"It has overstepped its authority."

Cheng Du said:

"God Head is directly taking over birth registration and safety transfers."

"Which one do we cut?"

"Not the children's."

Lin Jin stared at the gray line next to that golden umbilical cord.

That was the newly established protection for those awaiting naming.

It was still very thin.

But it connected the family's voices, the Nurse's Records, the children's cries, footprints, body temperatures, and temporary caregiving certificates.

"Connect the gray line into the Emergency Transfer."

Cheng Du frowned.

"This will let The Hospital's local caregiving Records take over the track."

"Is the permission enough?"

"If it's not enough, we'll make reality fill the gap."

Lin Jin grabbed the comms.

"First Hospital, all on-duty medical staff, report the ID, status, and caregiving actions of the children you are currently responsible for!"

The Nurses did not hesitate.

"Bed 3, female infant, body temperature normal, I just changed the diaper."

"Bed 7, unnamed male infant, breathing stable, I am monitoring."

"Bed 2, premature infant, oxygen saturation 96, I am responsible for the incubator."

"Bed 5, Xiao Man, just started crying, I am soothing her."

Caregiving Records poured into the gray line one by one.

Fang Ning also shouted:

"Fang Ning, neonatologist, confirming all children in the current ward are under medical protection."

"Any transfer must be based on medical necessity."

"It must not be based on God choosing parents."

The gray line suddenly lit up.

Lin Jin pressed the work badge onto the console, his finger holding down the gray line contact point.

"Connect!"

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line stabilized the console temperature.

Zhou Heng's thunder needle pierced through the outer layer of the golden umbilical cord.

Chen Ye used the back of his shield to brace Lin Jin, preventing him from being thrown back by the recoil.

Lin Jin pried hard with the chipped wrench.

Click!

The gray line connected into the Emergency Transfer box.

In The Hospital, the joystick under Fang Ning's hand finally moved.

The incubator track stopped.

The golden cradle doors began to close.

The children were not pushed toward the God-side allocation passage, but were locked back into the safe positions in the ward according to emergency procedures.

The wall screen burst out a string of errors.

[God-side allocation track obstructed]

[The Hospital local caregiving Records priority increased]

[Namer perfection qualification audit failed]

God Head work order did not stop.

It quickly switched to a colder logic.

[If parents are not perfect, they can be raised by social institutions]

[If social institutions are not perfect, they can be named and allocated growth paths by God]

Qin Shanhe's voice rang out from the broadcast.

"Imperfection does not equal handing them over to a greater imperfection."

He walked to the center of the temporary classroom.

"Everyone listen."

"Parents aren't qualified to be parents just by passing a test."

"Guardianship isn't about who has the highest score."

"Children need protection, care, correction, and supervision."

"But no system can confiscate a child simply because people are imperfect."

As Luo Wensheng recorded these words, her hand trembled slightly.

Beside her, Yu Xing added softly:

"And one cannot allocate a child's current life to the 'optimal cultivator' just because the child might be more excellent in the future."

As these words fell, the cradle labeled "Family capable of cultivating S-Class potential" on the God Head work order flickered violently, then cracked open.

He Zhibai opened the ledger.

[Child-rearing costs, medical costs, education costs, supervision costs: Public can assist]

[Must not be converted into seizing parental/guardian naming rights]

Ye Guizhou stamped it:

[Assistance received]

[Does not constitute transfer of ownership]

Tang Qi pressed down on the iron badge.

"I reject 'imperfection means disqualification'."

Su Yan also said:

"Children without parents need to find care, not find a master."

The No. 001 work badge sent these chaotic but real Records into First Hospital.

The golden locks on the children's wrists loosened one by one.

Those scoring sheets did not disappear.

But they changed from [Qualification Deprivation] to [Needs Assistance].

[Emotional Instability: Needs postpartum support]

[Financial Difficulties: Needs public assistance]

[Caregiving skills insufficient: Needs nursing education]

[Guardianship relation missing: Needs temporary protection and subsequent search]

They were no longer reasons for God to judge people out of the game.

But work that reality needed to fill in.

Fang Ning stood in the center of the ward, tears finally falling.

She turned to look at the unnamed male infant.

On his headboard sign, the golden ID number was completely wiped away.

Replacing it was:

[Name Status: Awaiting Naming]

[Current Status: Being cared for]

[Future Confirmation: Reserved]

In the ward, all the children cried in unison again.

It was messy enough to give one a headache.

But it made everyone come alive.

In the Mainframe control room, the God Head-side work order was finally suppressed.

But before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, the screen suddenly switched.

The golden work order was no longer aimed at the infants.

It was aimed at the school Records, occupational pre-evaluations, family files, and guardianship Records of all minors in the entire city.

A new line of maintenance plan slowly generated.

[Parental naming right block failed]

[Switching plan: Future path unified optimization]

[Target: All underage individuals]

[Fault description: Free growth leads to occupational waste]

[Maintenance plan: Pre-lock optimal occupation, optimal school, optimal family relationship]

The shadows of all the children in Jiangcheng were elongated by golden light at the same moment.

Straight paths emerged beneath their feet.

At the end of the paths, the "best future" calculated by God for each of them was written.

And beyond those paths, all the branching roads began to disappear bit by bit.