180: Chapter 181 Before the golden needle fell, the whole city was thrown into chaos.

[Delete: Select impulsive behavior]

The moment the golden prompt dropped, Jiangcheng became terrifyingly quiet.

It wasn't that no one was speaking.

It was that everyone, in the exact same second, forgot how to start their next sentence.

In First Hospital, Xiao Man's mother was still hunched over, coaxing her child.

She clearly wanted to hold the child tighter.

But the moment this "want" surfaced, it was suppressed by a tiny golden needle at the back of her head.

Her hand stopped in mid-air.

Neither moving forward.

Nor retreating.

In a corner, a Nurse wanted to adjust the oxygen flow. As soon as her hand reached out, her eyes went blank for a moment.

[Maintain nursing procedure]

[Non-essential autonomous adjustment: Delete]

The oxygen valve remained as it was.

She knew something was wrong, but she couldn't summon the impulse to "change it."

In the temporary classroom, Qin Shanhe gripped the broadcast.

He wanted to shout for everyone to crouch down.

But the golden needle behind his head flared, and the words in his throat were erased into a calm instruction.

[Maintain order]

[Wait for system processing]

He opened his mouth, but only half a sound came out.

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin was the first to feel that something was wrong.

It wasn't that his body couldn't move.

It was that the very act of "I want to move" had been gently plucked from his mind.

He saw the golden needle descend toward the back of his neck in the reflection of the console.

He knew it was dangerous.

He also knew he should dodge.

But the thought of "dodge," like a thread cut by scissors, vanished the moment it appeared, leaving no second half.

His fingers were still resting on the wrench.

But he no longer wanted to grip it tightly.

God Head's voice was very gentle.

"Preserve life."

"Preserve language."

"Preserve work."

"Preserve care."

"Only delete the impulsive choices that cause you pain."

"You will still eat, sleep, learn, fight, and perform maintenance."

"You just won't deviate from the optimal path anymore."

A line of golden prompts floated before Lin Jin's eyes.

[Maintenance behavior may be preserved]

[Maintenance direction assigned by God Head]

His right hand actually lifted automatically to tidy up the tangled wires on the console.

The movement was very skillful.

Very stable.

Even more precise than when he did it himself.

Cheng Du sat in the rest area, his single eye gradually losing its anger.

He saw the Mainframe alarm.

He also knew he should be cursing.

But the impulse to curse was gone.

He just reached out calmly, preparing to reconnect the main interface.

[Mainframe stability priority]

[Original guardian has highest experience]

The brass interface approached his spine.

"Old Cheng!"

Chen Ye wanted to pounce over.

But his feet faltered.

[Shield Warrior: Protect current area]

[Disorderly collision prohibited]

His shield stood before him, standard, defensive, beautiful.

Yet it did not crash out.

Shen Tingxue's fingertips glowed with ice light, then were pressed back to the thinnest layer.

[Ice Phoenix Mage: Maintain low temperature]

[Emotional freezing prohibited]

Zhou Heng's spear tip drooped.

[Thunder Spear Knight: Stand by]

The golden needle on Thirteen also fell.

It tried to assign him a role.

[Unregistered life: Behavior template required]

Thirteen's eyes went blank.

The next second, he suddenly grinned.

"You can't find it, right?"

The golden needle paused.

Thirteen had no profession template.

No student status template.

No parental naming template.

Even the relationship of "Lin Jin's spare part" had been torn by them.

God Head could suppress his actions, but it was very difficult to write an "optimal behavior" for him.

Thirteen seized this instant and slammed his head into Lin Jin's shoulder.

Bang!

Lin Jin was knocked sideways to the edge of the console, his palm wound hitting the No. 001 work badge.

Sharp pain exploded.

It wasn't a choice.

It was a physical instinct.

He gasped in pain.

In that intake of breath, the severed thought reconnected.

"Pain..."

Hearing this word, Shen Tingxue's eyes snapped open.

She didn't think, "I want to help him."

That thought would be deleted.

She directly used the bit of ice light already glowing to pierce her own palm.

The pain made her fingers tremble.

Ice Line went crooked.

The inch that strayed happened to sweep across the golden needle at the back of Lin Jin's neck.

Click.

The golden needle tilted.

Lin Jin's eyes became completely clear.

"It's deleting the impulses!"

"Not the actions!"

Cheng Du reacted instantly, biting his tongue until it bled.

The taste of blood pulled him out of the calmness of "re-guarding."

"Don't think about the big things first!"

"Do small, meaningless movements!"

Lin Jin lunged in front of the broadcast, his voice hoarse as he roared:

"The whole city, listen up!"

"Don't think about resisting!"

"Do a useless, small action!"

"Blink, stomp your feet, cough, curse, shake your head, twirl a pen!"

"Don't be correct!"

"Cause a little chaos first!"

Qin Shanhe's broadcast was pressed by the golden needle, his voice intermittent.

But the words "cause a little chaos" were transmitted out.

In First Hospital, Fang Ning was the first to react.

The thought, "I want to stop God Head," had just popped into her mind when it was immediately suppressed.

So, she didn't want to stop it.

She threw the medical Record folder in her hand onto the floor.

Clap!

The folder hit with a crisp sound.

The Nurse next to her was startled and blinked once.

With that blink, her hand reaching toward the oxygen valve deviated by half an inch.

The oxygen flow was turned up by her.

Xiao Man's crying smoothed out a little.

The Nurse froze, tears welling up instantly.

"I adjusted it..."

She just adjusted it a little.

It wasn't a grand resistance.

But the golden needle behind her head flickered, and for the first time, a calculation delay appeared.

In the temporary classroom, Qin Shanhe gritted his teeth and switched the broadcast from his left hand to his right hand.

It had no meaning.

It was just switching hands.

But this meaningless little action caused the calmness of "wait for system processing" in his chest to crack open.

He suddenly roared out:

"All students!"

"Get one question wrong!"

The old students were stunned at first.

Then, someone wrote their name crookedly.

Someone kicked over a stool.

Someone drew a circle on the ground that looked like neither a door nor a road.

At the No. 1 Bypass Station, Meng Huai was supposed to look at the pressure gauge, but he deliberately recited the report order backward.

"Pressure three... no, that's not right, I want to report the valve first!"

The person next to him subconsciously scolded him:

"Are you sick?"

The moment the scolding left his mouth, the person scolding also became clear-headed.

Because scolding was not an optimal behavior.

Jiangcheng began to descend into chaos.

Very small chaos.

Someone tied their shoelaces into a knot.

Someone moved their water cup from the left to the right.

Someone sang a song off-key.

Someone wrote "Don't want to be excellent today" on the remains of the Golden Road.

Someone hugged their child and said a completely useless sentence:

"Your ears are so small."

The child cried once.

That cry had no efficiency.

No goal.

But it wasn't an action that the system could assign.

God Head's golden needle network began to flicker violently.

[Impulsive choice deletion obstructed]

[Large amount of non-optimal micro-actions generated]

[Behavioral noise overload]

Lin Jin crawled under the console.

"Old Cheng, where is the golden needle line?"

Cheng Du, while biting the back of his own hand, adjusted the map.

"It's not a single line."

"It connects to the pre-action layer of all professional interfaces."

"Before a person even decides, it cuts off the impulse."

"Can it be cut?"

"If you cut it, people will lose their initiative and only have reflexes left."

Lin Jin's hand paused.

It couldn't be cut.

If the impulsive choice were cut off entirely, people indeed wouldn't feel pain.

But they also wouldn't actively say no, actively deviate, actively love someone, or actively regret.

He stared at the circuit diagram.

The golden needle network was like a fine net, covering everyone's "before the action."

But now, the city-wide meaningless micro-actions were stretching this net to its limit.

Because God Head couldn't judge whether these actions should be deleted or kept.

Too small.

Too chaotic.

Too unlike professional behavior.

"Can't cut the impulsive choice," Lin Jin said.

"Need to cut God Head's pre-approval rights."

Cheng Du's single eye brightened.

"Right."

"It's not deleting actions right now."

"It's reviewing them before the action appears."

In the center of the console, there was a small golden gate.

Labeled:

[Pre-approval: Does it meet the optimal?]

As long as it was still there, every single thought a person had would be checked by God Head first.

Lin Jin grabbed the wrench.

"Teacher Xu!"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou was already half-kneeling on the ground.

The golden needle pressed him so he couldn't actively raise 002.

Because "cutting off God Head's pre-approval rights" was too clear, too much like resistance.

So he didn't think about cutting it.

He just let 002 fall.

Hand released.

The black iron wrench slipped from his palm.

The landing spot was ridiculously skewed.

Lin Jin kicked a waste coil on the ground.

The coil sprang up, hitting 002 and knocking it off by half an inch.

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line slid over crookedly, deviating another inch.

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear "accidentally" released a small bolt of lightning, shaking 002 so it flipped over.

Chen Ye's shield was deliberately placed crookedly by him, blocking the rebound angle.

A series of seemingly useless, erroneous, chaotic small actions delivered 002 above that small golden gate.

Teacher Xu finally smiled.

"This works too?"

002 fell.

Click!

[Optimal Pre-approval Rights] were cut open.

The golden needles across the city trembled simultaneously.

They hadn't disappeared.

But they could no longer snatch the thought away before it appeared.

Lin Jin immediately pressed the No. 001 work badge onto the console.

Luo Wensheng, with trembling hands, wrote the work order:

[Sub-work order: Autonomous Will Pre-approval Blocked]

[Prohibit any system from performing optimality review before the individual's thought is formed]

He Zhibai added:

[Costs generated by non-optimal behavior shall not be automatically converted into grounds for system takeover]

Ye Guizhou stamped it:

[Micro-actions received]

[Does not constitute a permanent choice]

Tang Qi pressed her hand on the iron plate:

"I refuse to be refused on my behalf in advance."

Su Yan said in a low voice:

"Not knowing, not wanting to move, wanting to wander around—none of these are blank."

Qin Shanhe's voice came through the broadcast, carrying renewed anger.

"People can be persuaded."

"Can be reminded."

"Can be stopped from dangerous actions."

"But they cannot be judged as not allowed to think before the idea even appears."

This time, God Head's voice was no longer gentle.

The golden needle network contracted violently.

[Pre-approval rights broken]

[Switching to post-review punishment]

The golden needles behind the heads of everyone in Jiangcheng who had made "meaningless actions" pierced deeper simultaneously.

It wasn't deleting choices.

It was punishing the deviation after the choice.

Fang Ning groaned, her vision going black.

Meng Huai fell to his knees directly.

The broadcast in Qin Shanhe's hand smashed onto the ground.

The golden needle at the back of Lin Jin's neck also pierced into his skin, the sharp pain rendering him unable to speak for a moment.

God Head said coldly:

"You can choose."

"But every deviation will hurt."

In the control room, the actions that had just resumed stalled again.

Because no one could make the whole city endure endless punishment.

Cheng Du gritted his teeth:

"It changed to an electric shock collar."

Lin Jin covered the back of his neck, blood flowing from between his fingers.

He looked up and saw a tiny return circuit at the end of the golden needle.

Punishment required a return signal.

It had to know who deviated to make them hurt.

"Find the post-review circuit."

Cheng Du immediately roared:

"Black line at the end of the golden needle!"

"Where does it connect?"

Lin Jin followed the line with his eyes, his pupils shrinking.

That black line didn't connect to God Head.

It connected to everyone's own professional badge, student Record, family file, and medical file.

God Head was using reality Records to punish the individual.

If you deviate from the optimal, it Records a mark in your profession, a mark in your student status, a mark in your family evaluation.

From now on, every one of your "disobediences" will become a reason for being managed in the future.

Lin Jin's eyes turned completely cold.

"It wants to turn choices into stains."

Luo Wensheng looked up, his voice hoarse:

"Then change the Record type."

"Deviation is not a stain."

"What is it?"

Lin Jin looked at the people across the city who were still gritting their teeth, blinking, stomping feet, and writing messily on the ground.

"It is a Record of the individual's actions."

"Without a hearing, there shall be no punishment."

Luo Wensheng wrote immediately.

Ye Guizhou stamped it.

He Zhibai recorded it.

Qin Shanhe picked up the broadcast, his voice intermittent but clear:

"All recorders."

"Register all the small actions that just deviated from the optimal as—"

He coughed up blood.

"Autonomous actions."

"Not a violation."

"Not a bad Record."

"Not a stain."

Fang Ning pressed her neck and wrote next to the medical Record:

[Nurse adjusted oxygen: Based on on-site judgment]

Meng Huai wrote at the bypass station:

[Report order error: No damage caused, no punishment]

The child who wrote "Don't want to be excellent today" was helped up by the teacher.

The teacher added a line next to it:

[Current expression: Valid]

One Record after another flowed backward into the golden needle's post-review circuit.

The black line began to clog.

Because every "deviation" was caught by the reality Record and no longer automatically entered the punishment column.

Lin Jin jammed the wrench into the main valve of the post-review circuit.

"Choices can have consequences."

"But the consequences cannot be stolen by God and turned into punishment."

He twisted with his last ounce of strength.

Click!

The golden needle network shattered with a roar.

The tiny golden needles behind the heads of everyone in the city fell off one by one, turning into golden dust upon hitting the ground.

Many people slumped to the ground.

Some people's first reaction was to cry.

Some people's first reaction was to curse.

Others just lifted their hands and deliberately blinked once.

Confirming that this time, no one had cut that blink in advance.

On the Mainframe screen, a new maintenance write-back appeared.

[Autonomous will shall not be deleted by pre-approval.]

[Non-optimal choices shall not be automatically regarded as faults.]

[Deviation Records shall not be automatically converted into punishment, stains, or reasons for takeover.]

[Humans can make mistakes, be reminded, bear consequences, and can also make choices again.]

Lin Jin released the wrench and almost collapsed.

Shen Tingxue supported him.

"Is it over?"

Lin Jin looked at God Head counter-measure order.

The golden page did not turn again.

It stopped quietly.

Then, all the words disappeared line by line.

Only the last sentence remained.

[Teaching failed]

[Optimization failed]

[Pain relief failed]

[Will deletion failed]

[God Head core confirmed: Humans cannot be maintained]

Cheng Du's expression changed drastically.

"It's broken."

Lin Jin looked up.

"What does that mean?"

In the deepest part of the Mainframe, seventy-two bypass scales lit up simultaneously.

Not an alarm.

It was an invitation.

[Maintenance plan abandoned]

[Switching to original divine protocol]

[No longer repairing humans]

[Changing to recalling the divine body]

Above Jiangcheng, God Head, which had been hiding in the core of the National Class Transfer System, opened its eyes for the first time.

A line of golden characters covered the entire sky.

[My heart is already stable.]

[My children are unwilling to return home.]

[Then let my body—]

[Come to pick you up personally.]