181: Chapter 182 God's First Finger Pressed on Bypass Station Number One

"Then let my body—"

"Come to receive you personally."

The golden characters in the sky had not yet dissipated when the ground of Jiangcheng shook.

It was not an earthquake.

It was something so unimaginably massive, turning over beneath the city.

The seventy-two bypass scales lit up simultaneously.

On the Mainframe screen, the pressure curve for the first eastern entrance, which had already established a rotation structure, instantly shot to the end of the red line.

[No. 1 Bypass Station is experiencing external entity compression]

[Source of pressure: Godhead Remnant]

[Part identification: Right index finger, first phalanx]

Cheng Du's expression changed.

"It's not entering through one door."

"It's using the seventy-two entrances as joints!"

The view switched to the abandoned eastern underground passageway.

Meng Huai and Zhao Yiheng had just completed their second handover and were preparing to let the next shift of students take over.

The black door at the end of the passageway suddenly bulged inward.

The door panel did not open.

Instead, it was held down by a massive, pale golden finger from the outside.

Only a corner of the finger pad was visible, but it had already blocked the entire passageway.

There were no fingerprints on the skin.

Instead, there were dense, packed occupation emblems.

Warrior, Mage, Priest, Assassin, Repairman, Sign-off Clerk, Scribe...

Every occupation grew on God Head's finger pad like veins.

Meng Huai's knees suddenly went weak.

It wasn't fear.

It was the failed occupations within him that had once been judged by the system, which, at that moment, seemed to hear their master's call and began to crawl out.

[Godhead contact]

[Occupation origin homing traction]

Zhao Yiheng gritted his teeth and grabbed the valve.

"Don't look at the patterns!"

But his hands also began to tremble.

The handover ring, just established at the bypass station, emitted a piercing screech of friction.

Four-hour rotations, three-party witnessing, retractable, rest-allowed—these rules that had just been written in all began to warp under the pressure of that finger.

[External pressure too high]

[Suggestion: Change to permanent sealing]

[Suggestion: Designate a single caretaker]

[Suggestion: Use a human body to bear the pressure]

Meng Huai looked at the welts on his palms that had only recently faded, and he smiled again.

This time, he couldn't laugh.

"It's trying to lock someone in again."

Qin Shanhe's broadcast cut in immediately.

"Meng Huai, step back half a step."

Meng Huai gritted his teeth.

"I can't."

His hand was stuck to the valve.

It wasn't the bypass station trying to lock him.

It was that the pressure from God Head's finger was too great; if no one held it up, the entire station would be crushed.

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin had already grabbed his tool bag.

Shen Tingxue stopped him.

"Your hand is still bleeding."

"Then I'll use the other one."

Chen Ye shouldered his shield.

"Let's go!"

Zhou Heng spun his Thunder Spear and charged toward the projection door that had opened in the maintenance passage.

Thirteen said nothing, only pulled the No. 001 work badge from the control console and tossed it to Lin Jin.

"Don't stick your own name on it again."

Lin Jin caught the badge and said in a low voice:

"I know."

They rushed into the maintenance passage.

This time, it was not a rule space.

It was the artificial bypass maintenance line that had just been opened.

The pipe was narrow, the walls still carried the scent of uncooled brass, and with every step, they could hear the muffled thuds coming from the eastern entrance.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

It was like God Head was knocking on the door.

It was also like that finger joint outside was testing how much of the city could still be pressed into submission.

When they arrived at the No. 1 Bypass Station, the passageway was already filled with golden dust.

Meng Huai was half-kneeling in front of the valve, his palms bleeding profusely from the pressure.

Zhao Yiheng and two other students were pressing on the handover ring, but they couldn't complete the transfer at all.

Because the pressure wasn't falling on the position.

It was falling on the first person.

God Head's finger wanted the "rotation" to fail.

It wanted to prove that, in the end, it still required one person to hold it up.

Chen Ye rushed up and braced his shield against the outside of the valve.

Boom!

As soon as the shield surface touched the pressure wave, he was forced to one knee.

"This thing is heavier than a city wall!"

Zhou Heng stabbed his Thunder Spear into the ground, and lightning surged along the brass ring, barely forcing the handover ring to rotate half a turn.

Shen Tingxue's Ice Line spread toward the door gap, attempting to freeze the surface of God Head's finger, but it was sucked away by the occupation emblems the instant it touched the finger pad.

The Ice Phoenix pattern flared on God Head's finger pad.

Shen Tingxue turned pale.

"It's using my occupation to cool itself down."

"Don't use your occupational instincts to attack it!"

Lin Jin lunged to the side of the valve, not looking at God Head's finger first.

He looked at the ground.

He looked at the handover ring.

He looked at the warped brass latch.

He looked at the handover line that had just been repaired under Meng Huai's palm.

No prompts.

No danger levels.

Only deformed screws, misaligned valve stems, and uneven pressure.

Cheng Du roared over the comms:

"Don't try to brute force it!"

"God Head Remnant isn't a monster inside the door!"

"It's mass!"

"Mass doesn't understand your reasoning!"

Lin Jin bit down on the handle of his wrench and pried the warped latch open a little.

"Then don't give it a flat surface to press against."

Chen Ye gasped for air.

"What do you mean?"

"It's pressing the door with its finger; we shouldn't act as the door panel."

Lin Jin looked up, scanning both sides of the passageway.

The abandoned underground tunnel originally had old drainage channels.

One on the left, one on the right, perfectly bypassing the front of the door.

"Make a sliding rail."

Cheng Du was stunned for a moment over the comms, then cursed:

"You want to make it press off-center?"

"Correct."

"For it to come in, it needs a load-bearing point."

"We'll make the load-bearing point slanted."

The pressure from God Head's finger continued to increase.

The skin on the back of Meng Huai's hands began to split.

[Permanent sealing suggestion restarted]

[Single caretaker identification in progress]

Lin Jin slapped the No. 001 work badge onto the ground.

"Sub-work order!"

Luo Wensheng's voice came through immediately, his pen tip scratching rapidly across paper.

[Sub-work order: No. 1 Bypass Station Godhead finger joint compression handling]

He Zhibai added:

[Risk: External pressure inducing single-person load-bearing, re-establishing permanent caretaker]

Ye Guizhou stamped it:

[Maintenance request received]

[Cannot be considered as authorization for Meng Huai to bear pressure permanently]

Qin Shanhe broadcast to the whole city:

"No. 1 Station needs materials!"

"Old rails, iron plates, round pipes, anything that can roll—bring it all to the eastern entrance!"

"This is not a suicide mission."

"Drop the items and retreat."

Nearby residents and former students moved.

Some dragged iron rails from abandoned warehouses.

Some carried construction pipes.

Some dismantled the steel legs of old school desks.

These items were rough, rusted, and mismatched.

But they were quickly sent into the underground tunnel.

Chen Ye braced against the pressure with his shield.

Zhou Heng used thunder-fire to cut the pipes into rollers.

Shen Tingxue didn't use ice to touch God Head's finger, only freezing the ground to allow the iron plates to be temporarily secured.

Thirteen and two former students shoved the rollers one by one into the drainage channels in front of the door.

God Head's finger pressed down another inch.

All the rollers emitted a piercing screech of friction simultaneously.

Lin Jin lay at the very front, almost able to see that expanse of pale golden skin outside the door gap.

The occupation emblems on the surface of God Head's finger suddenly lit up with the Repairman pattern.

A force so familiar it made his fingers twitch reached in from outside the door.

[Maintenance object detected]

[Suggestion: Repairman to approach for inspection]

Lin Jin's body instinctively leaned forward.

Thirteen grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"Is it calling for you?"

Lin Jin gritted his teeth and smiled.

"It called the wrong name."

He shoved the work badge onto the iron plate beside the door gap.

"The one on duty today isn't Lin Jin."

"It's the No. 1 Station Maintenance Team."

The rust-colored light of the work badge flared up, blocking the Repairman pattern.

God Head's finger pad paused slightly.

It was in this pause that Lin Jin hammered the first slanted iron plate into the drainage channel.

"Chen Ye, release it by half an inch!"

"If we release it, won't it come in?"

"Half an inch!"

Chen Ye gritted his teeth and pulled his shield back by half an inch.

Boom!

God Head's finger slammed down violently.

But this time, it didn't press directly onto the valve.

The finger pad brushed against the slanted iron plate, was deflected by the rollers, and the entire finger joint slid a bit toward the right drainage channel.

Half of the underground tunnel wall was instantly crushed.

Debris exploded outward.

Zhao Yiheng was struck on the shoulder and let out a stifled grunt, but he kept his grip firmly on the handover ring, refusing to let go.

The locking pressure under Meng Huai's palm dropped suddenly.

Lin Jin roared:

"Hand over!"

The second shift of students immediately pressed onto the handover ring.

Luo Wensheng recorded.

Ye Guizhou stamped.

He Zhibai accounted for it.

The brass ring lit up.

[Handover established]

Meng Huai's hand was finally released.

He fell backward and was caught by an instructor sent by Qin Shanhe.

But God Head's finger was only deflected, not pushed out.

It quickly adjusted its angle.

The occupation emblems on the finger pad began to protrude from the skin, locking onto the iron plates like barbs.

[Godhead gripping initiated]

[No. 1 Bypass Station will be incorporated into God Head's hand]

Cheng Du cursed loudly:

"It's learned to grip!"

Lin Jin looked at those protruding occupation emblems, his eyes turning cold.

"Then let's make it unable to grip."

He picked up a steel leg from an old school desk and hammered a row of grooves along the edge of the iron plate.

Not a smooth sliding rail.

But intermittent, jagged teeth.

"When it presses, we make it slide."

"When it grips, we make it slip."

Zhou Heng understood, and his Thunder Spear rapidly blasted staggered patterns into the iron plates.

Shen Tingxue sealed the edges of the patterns to prevent them from being corroded by God Head's blood.

Chen Ye also pressed sharp edges onto his shield, bracing it at the end of the iron plates.

Thirteen used his bare hand to bend a protruding occupation emblem in the door gap out of shape.

The golden light burned his palm until it smoked.

Yet he remained expressionless.

"I have no occupation."

"It's useless for you to grip me."

Lin Jin seized the opportunity to connect the brass handover line into the jagged sliding rail.

"Record every instance of force."

"Make the sliding rail capable of handover as well!"

"What do you mean, rail handover?"

Chen Ye roared.

"When this section wears out, we switch to the next one."

Lin Jin shouted:

"Not even the iron plates are allowed to serve permanently!"

This was so absurd that Chen Ye almost laughed out loud.

But Ye Guizhou had already stamped it.

[Sliding rail components numbered]

[Replaceable after wear]

[Cannot designate a single load-bearing component to bear pressure permanently]

He Zhibai added:

[Component wear calculated into public maintenance costs]

The former students passed up the second and third iron plates.

Every plate was numbered.

Every plate had pre-reserved replacement holes.

God Head's finger gripped down again.

This time, it grabbed the first iron plate.

The plate shattered.

But the second one immediately took its place.

The first plate was withdrawn, exiting the post like an injured person.

God Head's finger grabbed the second one.

The third one took over.

The gripping force was dismantled section by section.

No single iron plate became a permanent door bolt.

And no one was pinned in front of the valve anymore.

Finally, God Head's finger was led away from the door gap by the slanted sliding rail.

Its finger pad brushed heavily against the right wall of the tunnel, emitting a scraping sound so dull it made everyone's heart numb.

The golden light outside the door flared violently.

That first finger of God Head did not enter the city.

It was stuck outside the door, stuck on a slanted sliding rail that was temporarily constructed, ugly, creaking, and made entirely of rusted iron and old school desk legs.

[No. 1 Bypass Station: Godhead finger joint compression temporarily eased]

[Permanent caretaker induction failed]

[Single load-bearing structure not established]

Meng Huai sat on the ground, looking at his bandaged hand, and suddenly cursed in a low voice.

"Even the iron plates can rotate shifts."

"I almost felt again just now that I should have held on until I died."

Qin Shanhe's voice came through the comms.

"Remember this feeling."

"Next time someone says 'You are the most suitable,' make him look at the iron plate numbers first."

Just as everyone caught their breath, God Head's finger outside the door suddenly stopped struggling.

All the occupation emblems on the finger pad went dark, leaving only one pattern lit.

It was not a Warrior.

Not a Mage.

Nor a Repairman.

It was an extremely ancient symbol.

Like a hand cradling an infant.

Cheng Du saw that pattern, and his expression changed abruptly.

"Retreat!"

"Everyone, move away from the door gap!"

God Head's fingernail slowly peeled off a small piece.

That golden fingernail did not attack them.

It drifted gently into the No. 1 Bypass Station and landed at Lin Jin's feet.

On the fingernail piece, a line of text emerged.

[Godhead right index finger confirmation: Gripping failed]

[Switching to stroking]

Lin Jin's pupils constricted.

The next second, above the heads of all the children in Jiangcheng, a light, extremely gentle golden hand shadow appeared.

That hand did not grab.

It simply descended slowly, like a mother stroking a child's forehead.

And every child touched by it began to grow quiet in their eyes.

So quiet that they stopped crying, and they stopped asking.

On the Mainframe screen, God Head's original protocol turned to a new page.

[Children who cannot be brought back]

[Can be lulled to sleep.]