187: Chapter 188 Old paper may shine, but that doesn't mean it can lead people astray.

Inside the Sky Gate, countless old papers flipped open simultaneously.

The expectations parents wrote when their children were born, the evaluations schools made at enrollment, the potential predictions left by the Career System before awakening, the inheritance requirements family elders secretly stuffed into files—all of them lit up with golden light at this moment.

They were not new orders.

So they were harder to dodge.

Because many of the words truly came from people who loved them.

"Hope he doesn't have as hard a life as I did"

"Hope she can inherit the Ice Phoenix"

"Hope the child has a stable career in the future"

"Suggest focusing on Record adaptation training"

"Strong talent category, long-term guidance recommended"

These papers flew out from walls, filing cabinets, and old terminals, like gentle nets, sticking to everyone in Jiangcheng.

The Ice Key in Shen Tingxue's hand suddenly lit up.

A page of old files was flipped out from the remaining Records of the Shen Family.

"Shen Tingxue"

"Ice Phoenix inheritance adaptation pre-registration"

"Guardianship expectation: Inherit the Shen Family's Ice lineage, avoid emotional loss of control, become a stable combat force"

Golden characters stuck to her shoulders.

Frost immediately crawled up along her spine.

It wasn't uncontrolled ice.

It was ice "required to be stable."

Her emotions were flattened bit by bit, and her gaze began to become overly calm.

Shen Qingshuang's expression changed.

"Tingxue!"

Shen Tingxue's fingertips trembled slightly, but she didn't immediately shatter that page of paper.

Because there was real worry inside it too.

The Shen Family was indeed afraid of the Ice Phoenix losing control.

Shen Qingshuang did indeed hope she would live more steadily.

But that expectation had now become a shackle.

Shen Tingxue gritted her teeth, raised her hand, and stabbed the Ice Key back into her own palm.

The pain allowed her gaze to recover for an instant.

"I can accept the expectations."

"But they cannot define me."

On the other side, Gu Xinghe was pinned to the ground by a stack of school pre-evaluation files.

"Record adaptation excellent"

"Obedience level malleable"

"Suggest entering Divine Seats Record reserve training"

His knees were forced to the ground by the weight of the paper pages.

Several peers rushed over to pull him up, but their ankles were entangled by their own pre-registration papers.

Some were written as "Suitable for gatekeeping," some as "Suitable for long-term duty," some as "Suggest reducing personal interests."

Su Yan had it the worst.

The phantom of the Gate of Return behind him was propped open by old papers.

"Gate of Return talent naturally stable"

"Suitable for bearing the Homeless channel"

"Suggest cultivating the habit of dedication early"

Su Yan's face turned pale instantly.

This wasn't written by the Abyss.

There was one line left by some early evaluator.

"The student has strong empathy, can focus on guiding to serve others"

The four words "serve others" twisted into a door frame in the golden light.

The door frame grew outward from behind him.

Tang Qi pressed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't listen."

Su Yan was breathing very heavily.

"But they... they might not have had bad intentions at the time."

"Bad intentions and chains are not the same thing."

Tang Qi's voice turned cold.

"Good intentions can't treat you as a door either."

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin watched as the old papers across the city formed chains, his expression growing darker.

These things couldn't be slid away like the God's Finger.

They couldn't be cut off like the golden needles either.

Because there was a part of truth within the paper.

Parents hoped their children wouldn't suffer, teachers hoped their students had a future, doctors hoped patients were stable, families hoped their descendants were safe.

The problem is—

Once an expectation is stamped by the system, it changes from "I hope you live well" to "You must live as I think."

Cheng Du gritted his teeth and pulled up the Mainframe access map.

"It's not generating on-site."

"It is calling up birth pre-registration and growth evaluation files."

"The Awakening Hall review slot can only process career registrations after one turns eighteen."

"Those expectation files for minors haven't reached the review age yet."

Lin Jin stared at the lines.

"So it's grabbing the ones who aren't qualified to answer yet."

"Right."

Cheng Du slammed his fist onto the control console.

"That's the most disgusting part of this thing."

"By the time you can answer, it says you were already arranged when you were a child."

"When you couldn't answer as a child, it says no one objected."

Lin Jin grabbed the No. 001 employee badge.

"Connect to the Awakening Hall."

The Old Calibrator's side was already in chaos.

The adult review slot at the bottom of the old calibration disk had just been pried open, and now it was being pressed down by countless children's pre-registration files; the gears were almost smoking.

Three hundred and twenty-six children surrounded the calibration disk, their arms sore from cranking the hand generator.

The Old Calibrator said anxiously:

"There's no rejection port for pre-registration files!"

"There's only guardianship signatures, school recommendations, and system predictions!"

"The personal field is grayed out!"

Lin Jin immediately asked:

"Is there a remarks column?"

"There is."

"But remarks cannot change the main item!"

"Who said anything about changing the main item?"

Lin Jin's gaze was very cold.

"Add a red remark to all pre-registrations."

The Old Calibrator was stunned.

Lin Jin said word by word:

"Expectations shall not be executed."

"Predictions shall not be used for traction."

"The individual is a minor, waiting for future review."

"Guardians, schools, and the system can only leave messages, not lock them in."

The Old Calibrator suddenly reacted, turned around, and went to pry open the remarks gear.

But the golden old paper immediately pressed down on his hand.

"Guardianship expectation valid"

"Growth plan valid"

"Minor does not possess review qualifications"

Ye Guizhou's seal-stamping sound came from the Mainframe.

Bang!

"Not possessing review qualifications does not equal others being able to define them on their behalf"

Luo Wensheng quickly recorded:

"Pre-registration files should be converted to expectation messages; they cannot directly become the basis for career, school, family relationships, or life paths."

He Zhibai added to the ledger:

"The costs of education, care, and trial-and-error incurred while waiting for the individual to grow up are publicly borne and cannot be converted into advance definition."

Qin Shanhe broadcast to the whole city:

"All parents, teachers, and guardians, listen up!"

"When you see the expectations you wrote, don't tear them up, don't deny them."

"Change the remarks."

"Write it clearly—this is my hope, not your command."

In First Hospital, Xiao Man's mother saw her file page written with:

"Hope the child doesn't become a mother without preparation like I did"

This sentence was twisted by golden light into:

"Suggest stripping away the influence of an emotional mother"

She cried and picked up a pen, writing fiercely on the side:

"This is my fear, not her path."

The golden paper trembled, and the force sticking to Xiao Man loosened.

At the north city rest station, Old Liu saw his son's old evaluation.

"Father's career is unstable, suggest the child enter a stable career route early"

Old Liu's hands trembled, but he still wrote:

"I hope he is stable because I am afraid he will suffer, not because he must live another life for me."

In the Youth Palace underground vault, in front of the girl who wanted to play for ten minutes, the "hope she is always excellent" her parents wrote years ago turned into a golden chain binding her wrist.

Her mother rushed to the scene, saw that line of text, and her face turned frighteningly pale.

She didn't say "Mom is doing this for your own good."

She knelt on the ground and used a pen to change it:

"Mom hopes you are excellent, but also allows you to be tired, ordinary, and to change your mind."

The girl looked at that line of text and asked softly after a long time:

"Then can I not be excellent today?"

The mother nodded while crying.

"You can."

The old paper loosened from the girl's wrist, turning into an ordinary, crumpled message paper.

But not everyone was willing to change.

On the south side of Jiangcheng, a family elder pressed hard on his grandson's pre-registration page.

"He is supposed to inherit our family's forging career!"

"This has been passed down by our ancestors!"

The golden light shone brightly immediately.

The teenager was forced to his knees by the weight of the career hammer phantom, and his fingers began to thicken uncontrollably, as if he were to be shaped by the career in advance.

Qin Shanhe's voice turned cold.

"Separate him from the child."

Several city defense officers stepped forward but did not attack the old man; they only pried the pre-registration page an inch away from the child.

Ye Guizhou stamped:

"Guardianship expectation is in dispute"

"Cannot be executed during the dispute"

He Zhibai recorded:

"Dispute handling costs publicly borne"

"Cannot be paid in advance by the minor's body"

The old man roared:

"What do you know! I'm doing this for his own good!"

Lin Jin said coldly through the communication:

"If you're doing it for his own good, then wait until he can answer."

"If you can't wait, then it's not for his own good."

That page of golden paper was forcibly transferred to the dispute file.

The teenager collapsed on the ground, and his fingers slowly recovered.

More and more old papers across the city were changed into messages, disputes, and pending individual review.

The God Head clearly did not accept this.

Inside the Sky Gate, the Mainframe pre-registration database suddenly opened to a deeper level.

"Massive amount of expectations downgraded to messages"

"Pre-registration traction failed"

"Initiating source recognition"

Behind all the old papers, the images of the "writers" suddenly floated up.

Parents, teachers, physicians, principals, family elders, system evaluators appeared one by one behind the papers.

Some of them were already dead.

Some were not in Jiangcheng.

Some were even just phantom images generated by automatic evaluation programs from years ago.

These images spoke simultaneously:

"I am doing this for your own good."

"I have experience."

"I am an adult."

"I know the future better than you."

The voices overlapped, pressing the children until their faces turned pale.

The door frame behind Su Yan grew out again.

That evaluator phantom stood behind the paper and said to him:

"You are so kind."

"It's a pity not to help others."

Su Yan's gaze began to unfocus.

Tang Qi tried to block it but was entangled by another old paper.

Just then, Yu Xing walked in front of Su Yan.

She looked at that evaluator phantom and suddenly asked:

"Have you ever helped him?"

The phantom paused.

Yu Xing continued to ask:

"Do you know how long he will hurt after opening a door?"

"Do you know if he also wants to go home every time he hears someone else wants to go home?"

"You only see that he is suitable."

"You never asked if he is tired."

Su Yan's eyes turned red instantly.

The evaluator phantom began to fade.

Because it couldn't answer.

The whole city began to learn to question the old expectations.

"Do you know what I like now?"

"Do you know what I am afraid of?"

"Do you know that I am not six years old anymore?"

"Do you know how this sentence hurt me later?"

"Are you willing to change it into a message?"

Some phantoms fell silent and turned into gray messages.

Others refused to admit their mistakes and were transferred to the dispute file.

The Old Calibrator finally pried open the remarks gear.

His hands were covered in blood, but he smiled like a child.

"It's connected!"

The old calibration disk in the Awakening Hall turned with a roar.

Beside all pre-registration files in the city, a new gray column was generated simultaneously.

"Expectation message"

"Risk warning"

"Individual future review"

"Currently unexecutable"

The golden chains on the old papers broke one by one.

The Ice Phoenix inheritance file on Shen Tingxue's shoulder was transferred to the message column.

She didn't tear it off.

She just wrote:

"I will use the Ice Phoenix, not be the container for the Ice Phoenix."

Gu Xinghe's Record reserve pre-registration was transferred to the risk file.

He panted and wrote next to it:

"I don't want to be any Seat today."

Su Yan's Gate of Return adaptation file was transferred to pending future review.

He wrote very slowly:

"I can help people, but I cannot be written as a door in advance."

Finally, Lin Jin looked at the birth registration risk file that belonged to him in the sky.

He added a line next to it:

"Father's fear can be recorded."

"But it cannot sit for the son."

The Seventh Candidate Seat fragment was completely locked by the file box.

The pre-registration database inside the Sky Gate went quiet for the first time.

A new write-back emerged.

"Parents, schools, families, and the system may leave expectations, suggestions, concerns, and risk warnings."

"Expectations shall not automatically become career paths, life obligations, or physical ownership."

"Minors have no capacity to respond and shall not be deemed as consenting."

"The individual's right to future review must be reserved."

"Old paper can glow, but it can only light the way, not lead people."

In Jiangcheng, many children saw those papers turn from chains into messages for the first time.

Some folded them up and put them in their pockets.

Some threw them directly into the dispute box.

Some said they would look at them later.

All of that was fine.

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, but the Sky Gate did not close.

The God Head was no longer flipping old papers.

It closed all pre-registration databases, leaving only a blank master page at the very bottom.

Cheng Du saw that page and froze completely.

"Master database blank page..."

Lin Jin asked:

"What is that?"

Cheng Du's voice was hoarse.

"Before everyone awakens, the Career System has a blank page."

"It only writes the career when you awaken."

"But if the master database gets a blank page..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

In the sky, that blank master page suddenly began to copy itself.

One page.

Ten pages.

One hundred pages.

Countless blank pages flew out from the Sky Gate, hanging above everyone's heads.

No writing expectations.

No writing careers.

No writing names.

Just erasing the original life Records bit by bit into blankness.

The God Head's voice was gentle to the point of being hollow.

"Old paper cannot hold you."

"Then there will be no old paper."

"Starting from now."

"Everyone re-awakens."