183: Chapter 184 God beckons from outside the door, Jiang Cheng places a chair inside.

"Come over."

"There is no need to choose here."

"There is no need to wake up here."

The moment the three divine fingers hooked onto the second, third, and fourth entrances, many people in Jiangcheng stopped.

They weren't being forcibly dragged away.

Instead, a certain place in their hearts suddenly softened.

They were too tired.

From the White Tower to the No. 9 Forbidden Zone, from the Abyss Exams to the work orders from God Head, they had been choosing all along.

Choosing who not to sacrifice.

Choosing not to forget the pain.

Choosing not to walk the path for the children.

Choosing not to have their wills deleted by the god.

Every choice was not just empty words.

Behind every choice lay shifts, Records, ledgers, rotations, rescues, pain, and an endless stream of the next crisis.

So, when that voice said, "There is no need to choose here," some people truly moved.

At the old passenger station in the north of the city, in front of the second entrance, a middle-aged man who had just signed up for the bypass maintenance team dropped his tool bag with a clatter.

His eyes went blank for a moment, and he slowly walked toward the black gate deep inside the waiting hall.

His wife rushed up to pull him back.

"Old Liu!"

Old Liu didn't struggle, just said in a low voice: "I want to rest for a while."

"Just for a while."

The third entrance was in the basement of the Youth Palace.

A group of children who had just escaped from the golden path of the future were originally sitting on the floor crying.

After the divine finger hooked the gate, one of the girls looked up.

She asked: "Is there no homework over there?"

The teacher beside her turned pale.

The fourth entrance was the most dangerous.

It was at the back door of the old orphanage.

A dozen or so children who hadn't found stable guardianship were gathered there.

When the divine finger curled, what they heard wasn't "the god."

It was a very soft voice.

"Come over."

"Someone will take care of you."

"Someone will think for you."

A little boy clutching a tattered schoolbag actually took a step toward the gate.

In the Main Control Room, the alarms were jumping like crazy.

[Summoning is not forced traction]

[Summoning source: exhaustion, helplessness, choice overload, gap in care]

[Forced interruption may be judged as deprivation of personal will]

Chen Ye was so anxious he punched the wall.

"How do we save them?"

"Pulling them back won't work, letting them go is even worse!"

Shen Tingxue stared at the people in the image walking toward the gate, her voice very low.

"They don't want to surrender."

"They are just too tired."

The wound on Lin Jin's palm hadn't been bandaged yet, and he pressed his No. 001 work badge onto the console.

"We can't shout at them not to go."

Cheng Du nodded, his expression ugly.

"The god is just waiting for you to shout that."

"Once you shout, it can say that the human side only knows how to coerce."

Lin Jin looked at Old Liu in front of the second entrance.

Old Liu was not a bad person.

He had just delivered two batches of materials and helped move iron plates for the No. 1 station, his palms rubbed raw with blood blisters.

Now he said he wanted to rest for a while.

This statement was true.

What the god grabbed was the truth.

"Then give him a place to rest."

Lin Jin looked up.

"Don't rest outside the gate."

"Rest inside the gate."

Qin Shanhe's broadcast immediately cut in.

"Listen, everyone near the second, third, and fourth entrances."

"Do not drag people."

"Do not scold them for being cowards."

"Set up rest points on the spot immediately."

"Chairs, blankets, hot water, sugar, medicine, any place to sit, move it all over."

"Tell them—"

"You can sit down if you're tired."

"But you don't need to walk through that gate."

At the old passenger station in the north of the city, there was already a row of broken iron chairs in the waiting hall.

Several citizens rushed over and dragged the chairs to a spot ten meters in front of the black gate.

Someone brought a thermos, and someone laid an old cotton coat over the chairs.

Old Liu was still walking forward.

His wife didn't pull him again, but ran to the iron chairs and set down his tool bag.

"Old Liu."

Her voice trembled, but she tried hard not to command him.

"If you want to rest, sit here."

"I won't make you keep working."

"You don't need to promise now that you'll go on duty tomorrow."

"You sit down."

Old Liu's steps paused.

The voice outside the gate immediately became even gentler.

"They still need you to continue tomorrow over there."

"You never have to over here."

Old Liu's eyes turned red.

"I'm really tired."

His wife choked out: "Then rest."

"I'll rest with you."

"You don't need to prove you can still hold on."

A trainee from the maintenance team nearby also sat down and gestured.

"Uncle Liu, I'll rest for five minutes too."

"My legs were soft just now."

A second and third person sat down.

A chaotic rest area was quickly set up in the waiting hall.

No one shouted slogans.

Some people drank water.

Some people stared blankly.

Some people buried their faces in their hands and didn't speak.

The golden light of the divine finger hooking the gate suddenly weakened a little.

Because the temptation of "there is no need to choose here" had been caught halfway by the inside of the gate.

The third entrance, the basement of the Youth Palace.

The teachers didn't say "You must be strong" again.

Qin Shanhe directly ordered: "Stop class."

"All children, go play for ten minutes first."

Several teachers were stunned.

Qin Shanhe's voice was heavy.

"It's not a reward."

"It's maintenance."

"If children only have to not take exams on the god's side, then it's us inside the gate who are broken."

Soon, a ridiculously ugly play area was drawn on the floor of the basement with chalk.

Someone dug out an old shuttlecock.

Someone brought a few jump ropes.

The girl who had asked "Is there no homework over there?" stood in front of the golden gate, eyes brimming with tears.

The teacher squatted down and said: "There is no homework today."

The girl looked at him.

"What about tomorrow?"

The teacher was stumped.

Lin Jin's voice came over the broadcast: "We'll talk about tomorrow's homework tomorrow."

"Don't go there today."

The girl sniffled.

"Can I not know about the future?"

"Yes, you can."

She slowly retreated and sat on the edge of the chalk circle.

After a long while, she whispered: "Then I want to play for a bit."

The divine finger behind the golden gate tightened slightly.

It wasn't summoning traitors.

It was the right to rest, the right to pause, the right to not have to be sensible for a while.

If Jiangcheng didn't give it, the god would pretend to.

The fourth entrance, the back door of the old orphanage.

This side was the hardest.

No one could immediately call out the nicknames of those children.

No one could guarantee "I'll be with you."

The divine finger hooked the edge of the gate, and the golden light paved a soft path on the ground.

The little boy walked to within three steps of the gate, clutching his schoolbag.

"Does anyone provide meals over there?"

When Fang Ning arrived and heard this, her eyes instantly turned red.

She didn't say "Don't go."

She turned and roared at the people behind her: "Where's the food?"

The old orphanage kitchen had long been abandoned.

But nearby residents pushed over pots.

Someone sent porridge from a temporary supply point.

Someone moved over a folding table.

He Zhibai was frantically flipping pages in the Mainframe.

[Emergency rest point costs rising]

[Food, care, night nursing, insufficient child protection personnel]

He looked up, his voice tight: "The bill is very high."

Lin Jin looked at the screen.

"Record it."

"This cost cannot be cut."

Ye Guizhou stamped: [Rest application received] [Does not constitute transfer of child guardianship]

Luo Wensheng recorded: [Children without guardians can receive care and rest, not conditional on entering the god's gate.]

Su Yan stood far away outside the fourth gate, his face pale.

He could hear the voices behind the gate.

Those voices were imitating adults, imitating mothers, imitating a gentle adoptive parent.

"Come over."

"You don't need to wait for anyone to pick you up anymore."

Su Yan whispered: "It's pretending to be a home."

Tang Qi stood beside him.

"Then let there be a place here where someone can wait first."

Outside the back door of the old orphanage, a temporary shed was quickly set up.

The shed was crooked.

The porridge was just ordinary white porridge.

The care roster hadn't been finished yet; many people didn't even know the children's names.

But when the first child was handed a bowl of hot porridge, he looked down at it for a long time.

"Do I have to sign anything to eat this?"

The Head Nurse nearby felt her nose sting.

"No signing."

Ye Guizhou immediately arrived with a stamp and posted a piece of paper on the side of the shed on the spot.

[Receiving food does not equal agreement to be adopted]

[Accepting rest does not equal giving up future choices]

[Being temporarily cared for does not equal being owned]

The little boy finally took a step back and sat under the shed.

He held the porridge and suddenly said: "Then I'll finish drinking it first."

This sentence was very light.

But it made the golden light behind the fourth gate suddenly dim significantly.

In the Main Control Room, Cheng Du stared at the pressure chart, his single eye brightening bit by bit.

"It's effective."

"The hooking force of all three fingers has decreased."

Chen Ye let out a long breath.

"So rest can fight the god too?"

Cheng Du glanced at him.

"Nonsense."

"If a machine overheats and doesn't cool down, it will explode sooner or later."

Lin Jin, however, did not relax.

"It hasn't retreated yet."

The three divine fingers were indeed no longer forcibly summoning.

But they were still hooking the edge of the gate.

As if waiting.

Waiting for the rest points to fail.

Waiting for the porridge to run out.

Waiting for the teachers to start pushing for homework again.

Waiting for the children to realize the shed wasn't a home.

What the god gave was the illusion of never having to choose.

What Jiangcheng gave was a chair, a bowl of porridge, ten minutes of games, and a piece of paper that said "you can postpone."

The former was light and airy, but would never get tired.

The latter was clumsy, expensive, and required scheduling.

He Zhibai looked at the ledger and whispered: "Making the rest points permanent, the cost is even more troublesome than the bypass stations."

Lin Jin said: "Then make them permanent."

Qin Shanhe was silent for a moment on the broadcast, then said: "Jiangcheng's temporary maintenance team has added a new item."

"Rest stations."

"Not shelters."

"Not management."

"Not ideological education."

"Only responsible for letting people sit down first without having to walk into the god's gate."

Luo Wensheng wrote it down.

Ye Guizhou stamped it.

He Zhibai recorded the accounts.

Fang Ning filled in for medical duty.

Shen Tingxue added safety perimeters.

Zhou Heng provided evacuation routes.

Chen Ye volunteered for shield patrol.

Thirteen looked at those three gates and said coldly: "I'm responsible for watching who wants to turn the chairs into prison cells again."

At the edges of the three unfinished bypass stations, temporary brass rings finally lit up.

It wasn't a complete rotation.

But it was enough to hold off the "summoning."

[No. 2 Bypass Station: Rest point connected]

[No. 3 Bypass Station: Pause right connected]

[No. 4 Bypass Station: Temporary care connected]

[Summoning failed]

The three divine fingers slowly let go of the edge of the gate.

Someone in the crowd cried.

Because this victory wasn't achieved by burning out.

It was by admitting that one could no longer burn.

But just as the three divine fingers retreated outside the gate, the sky suddenly darkened.

It wasn't night.

It was a shadow.

Lin Jin looked up and saw on the Mainframe screen that all five fingers of the god's right hand had been retracted.

Immediately after, an entire, gigantic palm appeared over Jiangcheng.

It didn't grab.

It didn't press.

It didn't touch.

It didn't beckon either.

It simply faced palm-down and slowly covered the entire city.

The Mainframe emitted an alarm so piercing it was almost tearing.

[God's right palm unfolded]

[Coverage: Entire Jiangcheng area]

[Protocol identification: Embrace]

Cheng Du's face turned pale.

"It's not entering through the gates anymore."

Lin Jin stared at that hand in the sky blocking the starlight.

God Head's voice fell softly.

"Those inside the gate will also get tired."

"Chairs will also break."

"Porridge will also get cold."

"Then I won't let you walk over."

"I will come to hold you."

At this moment, the gravity of the entire city of Jiangcheng began to reverse upward.