199: Chapter 200 The Unseen Ones Tripped Up the World First

[Visual correction started]

[Irrelevant pain masked]

[Ineffective weakling fading]

[Priority display: usable people, usable things, usable paths]

When the golden markers fell into everyone's eyes, the world did not turn black.

On the contrary, it became clearer than ever before.

Paths were marked as the shortest routes.

Tools were marked with usability ratings.

Bright outlines emerged on strong people.

Those who could heal, those who could carry, those who could Record, and those who could still fight were all traced out as if by golden thread.

Meanwhile, those who were lying down, crying, gasping for air, or too tired to speak began to fade.

In First Hospital, Fang Ning looked down at Xiao Man.

She was clearly in the incubator.

The monitoring lines were still connected.

But in Fang Ning's eyes, Xiao Man was nothing more than a blurry gray shadow, with a line of golden text floating beside her:

[Low active response individual]

[Care priority: deferrable]

Her hand paused.

It wasn't that she wanted to stop.

It was her eyes telling her: This is not important.

Beside her, Xiao Man's mother rushed to the glass, only to find her daughter's face swallowed by fog.

She desperately opened her eyes wide, but only saw the highlighted oxygen valve in the top right corner of the incubator.

[Adjustable resource]

She could see the valve.

She could not see the child.

Her whole body froze, her lips trembling until they turned white.

"I... I can't see her anymore."

In the Beiyuan Mine, the young miner whose leg was pinned by a stone shelf had turned into a translucent obstacle in everyone's field of vision.

His miner's lamp was still lit.

But the person was not.

When the Old Miner turned his head, the golden marker in his eyes automatically provided a path:

[Higher efficiency to bypass on the right]

He almost bypassed it.

Until something tripped him at his feet.

He looked down and saw a hand covered in mine dust, gripping his pant leg tightly.

His eyes couldn't see the person.

His hand knew someone was there.

The Old Miner suddenly crouched down, felt the pinned leg, and his expression turned ferocious.

"Screw your bypass!"

He picked up a piece of ore and smashed it against the pressure beam.

In the Qinghe County classroom, the girl who had just stopped bleeding was gradually turning into a gray shadow in the eyes of her classmates.

The blackboard, desks, exit, and chalk box were all very clear.

She was not.

Teacher Song Qing saw the escape arrow on the wall shining blindingly, but she could not see the girl's pale lips.

She suddenly closed her eyes.

The moment she closed her eyes, the girl's rapid breathing, the sound of a chair dragging on the floor, and the sound of blood dripping onto the ground all returned.

Teacher Song Qing opened her eyes, stopped looking at the golden arrow, and lunged directly toward the sound.

"She's here!"

In the Main Control Room, Lin Jin's vision was also covered by golden markers.

On Chen Ye, it shone:

[Pressure-bearing unit]

Shen Tingxue was:

[Low-temperature control module]

Zhou Heng was:

[Energy conduction node]

Luo Wensheng was:

[Recording device]

Ye Guizhou was:

[Sign-off apparatus]

He Zhibai was:

[Cost accounting terminal]

Even Cheng Du was marked as:

[Old maintenance data source]

Lin Jin's breathing grew heavy bit by bit.

He turned to look at the treatment pod.

Lin Shoushan was lying there.

But in his golden vision, the treatment pod was empty, with only a few life-support lines highlighted.

[Inefficient life support occupancy]

[Recyclable medical resource]

Lin Jin's gaze went completely cold.

He reached out and pressed his hand against the glass.

He could not see his father.

But on the other side of the glass, weak knuckles tapped twice.

Thump.

Thump.

The sound was not loud.

Yet it knocked that line of [Recyclable medical resource] until it wavered.

Lin Jin closed his eyes and opened them again.

His father was still gray.

But those two taps had left a position.

There was someone there.

Cheng Du hissed beside the Mainframe:

"It has connected visual priority to usability!"

"The more one can contribute, the brighter they are."

"The more care one needs, the more faded they are."

"Once they fade to a certain degree, all local systems will treat them as background!"

Qin Shanhe looked at the temporary classroom.

Among those old students, the ones who were most severely injured, most exhausted, and most afraid to speak up had all faded into gray in his field of vision.

Meanwhile, students who could organize, call out, and move things were marked brightly.

This was exactly like the screening during the first failed experiment back then.

Whoever was useful stayed.

Whoever was useless was abandoned.

Qin Shanhe grabbed a piece of chalk and wrote on his own chest:

[I will look at the gray ones first]

He held this phrase up.

In the temporary classroom, everyone who could still see the words was stunned.

Subsequently, people began to follow suit.

Don't look at the bright lines.

Look for the gray shadows.

Look for empty seats.

Look for corners that shouldn't be quiet.

An old student suddenly shouted:

"Someone is missing from the third row!"

He rushed over, and behind two blindingly bright desks and chairs, he felt a little boy curled up on the ground.

The child was marked as:

[No current action capability]

But his hand was still trembling.

He was still clutching his name tag.

The old student picked him up, and tears fell immediately.

"He is not invalid."

"He is just scared silly."

Luo Wensheng recorded immediately:

[No current action capability does not equal irrelevant.]

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Gray shadow received]

He Zhibai recorded in the accounts:

[Time and labor costs incurred from searching for those who have been faded are to be publicly borne.]

Fang Ning also began to change the procedures on her end.

Since she couldn't see Xiao Man clearly, she posted palm prints, footprints, temperature charts, feeding times, and the current caregiver in front of every incubator.

She did not rely on golden vision to judge.

She relied on "occupancy."

She wrote at the Nurse station:

[When you cannot see clearly, count the beds first.]

[If a bed has someone, it cannot be treated as an empty bed.]

[Gray shadows are to be prioritized for visual re-verification.]

Xiao Man's mother pressed her own palm back against the glass, and then pressed Xiao Man's little footprint below it.

The two prints were side by side, separated by the glass.

The golden markers wanted to fade Xiao Man, but they couldn't erase that footprint from the Records as well.

[Current location: Incubator No. 3]

[Current status: Needs care]

[Visibility abnormal]

The headboard card suddenly lit up with a grayish-white light.

It was not the God's gold.

It was The Hospital's local confirmation.

In Qinghe County, Teacher Song Qing had every student press a chalk handprint on the corner of their desk.

"People might turn gray."

"The corner of the desk won't run away on its own."

"Thirty-seven prints, thirty-seven people."

A child asked:

"Teacher, what if I can't see the classmate next to me?"

Teacher Song Qing pointed to the blackboard:

"Count the prints."

"Count the chairs."

"Count who answered just now."

"If you can't see, don't say they aren't there yet."

By the drainage ditch in Hai City, Intern Liang Yu discovered that the Pancake Uncle had almost faded into the background, with only the rolling pin in his hand marked as [Temporary support tool].

She rushed over and pressed down on his shoulder.

"Uncle Wang!"

The Pancake Uncle was panting heavily.

"I thought that if I rested for a while, no one would be able to see me."

Intern Liang Yu helped him to the wall and nailed a broken guardrail sign beside him.

[Uncle Wang is resting here]

[Not an empty seat]

He laughed and scolded:

"Write my full name, Wang Dahai, don't make it look like a tombstone."

Intern Liang Yu's eyes reddened, and she immediately added his name.

work order no. 002 continuously received feedback from all over.

[If you can't see clearly, check the bed first.]

[Bright ones aren't necessarily urgent, gray ones aren't necessarily irrelevant.]

[There might be someone next to an empty chair.]

[People next to tools must also be confirmed.]

[Those resting can be seen; they must not become background just because they are temporarily useless.]

Lin Jin looked at these messy receipts and raised his hand to write a new draft definition on the Mainframe.

[Visibility must not be determined by usability.]

[Those being cared for, those resting, the injured, infants, the comatose, and those unable to act all retain the right to have their location and status confirmed.]

[When visual results conflict with local occupancy Records, priority should be given to re-verification; they must not be directly judged as non-existent.]

God Head immediately pushed back.

[Visual resources are limited]

[Prioritizing the display of high-value targets is beneficial for overall survival]

[Fading the weak can reduce decision-making burden]

Cheng Du watched, so angry he laughed.

"It finally told the truth."

"It finds seeing the weak troublesome."

Lin Jin did not curse.

He looked at those gray shadows on the city-wide model.

If everyone looked at all the suffering at the same time, they would indeed collapse.

This was the trap set by God Head.

Either let the center filter it out for you.

Or everyone gets crushed by the suffering.

But they had long ago learned an answer.

Lin Jin picked up his pen and added:

[Look nearby first.]

[Those on duty must look.]

[If powerless, one can hand over.]

[Seeing does not equal bearing it alone, but one must not pretend not to have seen.]

Qin Shanhe put these four sentences on all the screens.

Rest stations immediately separated into "observation shifts."

Not everyone who is resting needs to stare at the suffering.

Those on duty are responsible for looking at gray shadows, counting empty seats, and verifying beds and seats.

The exhausted can close their eyes and rest.

But there must be someone watching at the rest station.

Hospitals patrol by area.

Mining areas patrol by rope segments and points.

Schools patrol by desk handprints.

Bypass stations patrol by the number of people in the handover loop.

Return application stations patrol by application forms and the location of those waiting.

Vision is no longer handed over to a center.

Nor is it pressed onto everyone.

It is broken down into local confirmation.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou gripped work order no. 002.

This time, he didn't rush to cut.

Because the golden definition line was very cunning.

It was not a single line.

It was entwined in the habit of "only what is useful is visible" in everyone's eyes.

Lin Jin pressed the new tool against the Mainframe's visual layer.

Six slots lit up.

"Observation position."

Qin Shanhe spoke:

"I will look at the gray shadows."

"Recording position."

Luo Wensheng picked up his pen:

"I will Record visibility abnormalities."

"Verification position."

He Zhibai wrote:

"Re-verification costs are to be publicly borne."

"Handover position."

Ye Guizhou stamped:

"Seen received, does not equal solely responsible."

"Pressure-bearing position."

Chen Ye raised his broken shield:

"Block overload, not people."

"Energy conduction position."

Shen Tingxue and Zhou Heng nodded simultaneously.

Ice light and lightning light pressed against the golden visual line from both sides, preventing it from exploding into everyone's eyes.

Lin Jin closed his eyes and opened them again.

There were still golden markers before him.

But he no longer followed the golden markers to look at the bright places.

He looked at the gray.

Looked at the empty.

Looked at the ignored corners.

Looked at the position left by those two taps in his father's treatment pod.

"Teacher Xu."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou brought down work order no. 002.

"Cut."

Snap!

[Usability = Visibility Priority] broke.

The Sky Gate's eyes suddenly constricted.

Countless faded people reappeared in outline.

Xiao Man's little face became clear bit by bit before her mother's eyes.

In the Beiyuan Mine, the young miner who had been pinned turned back into a person.

Wang Dahai, resting in the corner in Hai City, no longer looked like a background.

In the temporary classroom, the curled-up child was held in a classmate's arms and cried out loud.

The world became crowded again.

There were many injured.

There was much crying.

There were many people covered in dust.

Seeing these things was not comfortable.

But everyone knew—discomfort is not a reason for them not to exist.

The Mainframe's feedback appeared.

[Vision must not be uniformly corrected by God Head into efficiency rankings.]

[Usability, combat power, labor ability, and professional level must not determine whether a person is seen.]

[Seeing is confirmation, not possession; after seeing, one can save, transfer, or Record those who cannot yet be saved, and must not pretend not to have seen.]

[Those resting, the injured, the weak, infants, the comatose, and those with no current action capability must not be faded into background or obstacles.]

In the sky, the eyes of Mother of All Things slowly closed.

The golden markers receded layer by layer.

Jiang City saw the world as it originally was again.

Dirty.

Messy.

Congested.

People were everywhere.

Everything needed handling.

No path was absolutely optimal.

Chen Ye stared at the figures recovering from the gray-white screen, rubbing his eyes.

"It felt easier when I couldn't see before."

"Now that I can see, I feel more like cursing."

Lin Jin shouldered the new tool again.

"If you can curse, it means you aren't blind."

Thirteen looked at him.

"You couldn't see Lin Shoushan just now."

Lin Jin was silent for a moment.

"Yeah."

In the treatment pod, Lin Shoushan tapped on the glass.

This time, Lin Jin saw his hand.

Very thin.

Full of injuries.

But it was there.

Just as Lin Jin was about to walk over, the Mainframe suddenly emitted a very low vibration.

Not the eyes.

Not the ears.

Not the throat.

Not the hands.

Cheng Du stared at the screen, his pupils shrinking sharply.

"It's not stealing sensations anymore."

"It wants to steal locations."

Deep within the Sky Gate, the spine of Mother of All Things fully unfurled.

Seventy-two abyss entrances rotated simultaneously, like a huge coordinate map.

Beneath everyone's feet, a golden positioning point emerged.

[Visual, auditory, linguistic, and manual toolization recovery failed]

[Judgment: Humans confirm each other based on spatial relationships]

[Next target: Location ownership rewrite]

[Relocate all locations not recognized by God back to the maternal delivery room]

Below the incubator in First Hospital, the floor tiles turned into golden delivery bed tracks.

The chairs at the rest station began to slide toward the No. 9 Forbidden Zone.

The circles of the temporary classroom were dragged toward the Sky Gate by a golden line.

God Head's voice fell coldly:

"Since you insist on seeing each other."

"Then I will put you all back to a place where I can see you."