204: Chapter 205 Bearing pressure is not about being strong; first, mark the parts that will break.

[Countdown: 30 minutes]

[The 72 Stations abyss entrance maternal maintenance is being lifted]

The first crack came from No. 1 Bypass Station.

It was not an explosion.

It was like old water pipes being suddenly tightened to the max; the brass coupling rings of the entire station expanded violently, and the tiny threads on the rings turned red one by one.

Meng Huai had just finished his shift, and before his hands had fully regained sensation, he saw the Abyss Black Tide pushing up from the valve seams.

[Maternal maintenance lifted]

[Local pressure bearing initiated]

The Black Tide had no shape.

It was like countless unfinished careers, unanswered questions, unpaid bills, and undelivered return applications, piling up into a viscous pressure, squeezing into reality.

Station No. 2 was next to the Rest Station.

The rope net with quick-release buckles under the chairs tightened to its limit instantly; people who had just fallen asleep were shaken awake, and the floorboards creaked.

Station No. 3 was under the old pipes of the First Hospital.

The monitor waveforms were pushed up by the Abyss, line by line, as if it wanted to count all the "unstable" patients as leakage points.

Station No. 4 was on the temporary receipt line toward Qinghe County.

When the chalk dust filter was hit by the Black Tide, a crack appeared on the entire blackboard.

On the Mainframe screen, all 72 entrances turned red simultaneously.

[No. 1 Pressure: 71%]

[No. 2 Pressure: 83%]

[No. 3 Pressure: 92%]

[No. 4 Pressure: Overload]

[No. 5 Pressure: Unknown]

[No. 6 Pressure: Data Lost]

Chen Ye felt his scalp tingle.

"We still have thirty minutes?"

"Some of them won't even last thirty seconds!"

Cheng Du stared fixedly at the Mainframe, his single eye bloodshot.

"The Mother of All Things was covering for us before."

"We repaired the bypasses, couplings, clutches, and filters, but underneath, there was another layer of divine body absorbing the residual pressure for the system."

"It has withdrawn that layer now."

Qin Shanhe's voice was terrifyingly deep:

"So it's not testing whether we can be independent."

"It is throwing a baby to the edge of a cliff and saying that only those who can stand are considered grown up."

On the last page of the Sky Calendar, golden characters continued to count down.

[29:12]

[Independent civilization self-verification in progress]

[Nodes that fail to bear pressure will automatically revert to maternal custody]

The pressure at First Hospital Station No. 3 suddenly jumped to 105%.

Fang Ning's voice came through, sharp:

"Station No. 3 is about to burst!"

"The burst point is under the newborn pipeline!"

Lin Jin grabbed new tools and rushed out.

Cheng Du roared from behind:

"You go to one spot, what about the other seventy-one?"

Lin Jin's footsteps paused.

This sentence was like a bucket of cold water.

What the God Head wanted to see most was them rushing to one of the most dangerous places again, and then letting one person, one team, or one city prove they could carry it all.

He turned back and looked at the seventy-two red dots.

"Mark the places that will break first."

Chen Ye was stunned.

"What?"

"Stop shouting that everyone can hold on."

Lin Jin stared at the Mainframe, saying every word clearly:

"First, admit which ones can't hold on."

Cheng Du understood the fastest and immediately tapped the Mainframe broadcast.

"All shifts at The 72 Stations, stop shouting slogans!"

"Report materials, report cracks, report personnel, report how long you can hold on!"

"If you can't calculate, report the phenomena!"

"If a screw is loose, say the screw is loose; if the cement is cracked, say the cement is cracked; hearing strange noises counts too!"

After a brief silence at each station, chaotic receipts erupted.

"No. 1 brass ring is turning red, the coupling hole can still turn, two people on duty, three spare parts!"

"No. 2 quick-release rope net is fully tightened, six chairs have cracked, half of the resting people have evacuated!"

"No. 3 pipeline is sinking, The Hospital cannot shake violently, patients cannot be moved too quickly!"

"No. 4 blackboard is cracked, the chalk dust filter has fallen off by half, students can evacuate but the materials are still there!"

"No. 5, no one knows how to read the meter, only that the ground is bulging!"

"No. 9 entrance is in an old sewer, we only have wooden sticks and two door panels!"

He Zhibai recorded the accounts rapidly, his hand almost creating afterimages.

[Pressure Bearing Inventory]

[Can Bear Pressure]

[Will Overload]

[Cannot Force It]

[Needs Evacuation]

[Needs Pressure Transfer]

Ye Guizhou stamped until the ink splashed everywhere.

[Cannot hold on: Received]

[Does not constitute failure]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Reporting danger does not equal requesting maternal takeover.]

Lin Jin pointed to the reddest ones on the Mainframe: No. 4, No. 3, and No. 9.

"Don't hold the overload stations for now."

"Relieve the pressure."

Cheng Du looked up.

"Relieve it where?"

"Empty spaces."

Lin Jin said.

"Empty mine carts, empty canals, empty classrooms, empty rest sheds, abandoned factories, disconnected delivery bed tracks."

"Do not relieve it onto people."

Cheng Du immediately accessed work order no. 002:

"Are there any empty structures anywhere that can take residual pressure?"

Intern Liang Yu from Hai City replied the fastest.

"The empty drainage ditch can still take some!"

The Old Miner from Beiyuan roared:

"There are three abandoned wells, don't relieve it into the one with people!"

Nanling Hospital:

"The old parking lot can be used as a buffer zone, but it cannot be connected to the main medical line!"

Teacher Song Qing from Qinghe County:

"The old playground is empty; if the blackboard can't hold, we can guide the pressure to the playground ground!"

Lin Jin grabbed new tools and connected work order no. 002 to the pressure gauges of The 72 Stations.

"Establish empty-load buffering."

"Write it clearly: damage to empty structures counts as public maintenance costs; it cannot be traced back to the first person who proposed it."

He Zhibai finished writing almost simultaneously.

[Empty-load buffer loss: Public accounting]

[Cannot be converted into personnel sacrifice debt]

[Do not misjudge "empty" as "can stuff people in"]

The first to relieve pressure was Station No. 4 in Qinghe County.

Teacher Song Qing led the students to connect the back of the cracked blackboard filter with three table legs and a window frame, slanted toward the old playground.

The Abyss Black Tide rushed out along the crack, and a pit collapsed in the center of the playground.

The students screamed in fear.

But the classroom didn't burst.

Half of the blackboard remained.

Teacher Song Qing, covered in chalk dust, wrote on the ground:

[Station No. 4: Transferred from classroom filter to old playground buffer]

[Playground pit needs repair]

[Students must not fill the pit]

No. 4 pressure dropped from overload to 68%.

Station No. 3 Hospital was harder.

It couldn't be relieved violently.

It would shake the wards.

Fang Ning and the Director of Obstetrics dismantled the old delivery bed tracks into three sections, connected them toward the abandoned parking lot, and simultaneously inserted check valve plates into the middle of each track.

The pressure jumped out section by section.

Every time it jumped, the monitor's red light flashed once.

The Nurses watched by the beds, not letting any patient be shaken offline.

No. 3 pressure dropped from 105% to 81%.

No. 9 old sewer had no equipment.

Only wooden sticks, door panels, and two guards whose legs were weak with fear.

Lin Jin didn't scold them.

He asked over communication:

"Is the manhole cover still there?"

"It is... it's cracked."

"Insert the door panel diagonally, don't cover it flat."

"Let it rub the pressure against the abandoned well wall, don't let it push against you."

"Use wooden sticks as rotating supports, don't just rely on one to hold it to death."

The two guards followed suit.

The first wooden stick broke quickly.

The second was connected.

The third was a mop handle taken from a nearby convenience store.

It was ridiculous.

But it was also very useful.

No. 9 pressure changed from unknown to 93%, still high, but at least there was a number.

On the Mainframe, The 72 Stations were no longer blindingly red.

Some had dropped.

Some were still rising.

But every point began to have its own pressure-bearing status.

The God Head's golden characters immediately pressed down.

[Self-bearing requires complete assumption]

[Relieving pressure to empty structures is evasion]

Lin Jin looked up.

"Wrong."

"Bearing pressure is not about pressing all the pressure onto people."

"Bearing pressure is knowing where you can bear it, where you can't, where to relieve it, and where to evacuate."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou brought up 002.

That golden definition line appeared above the Mainframe.

[Independence = Completely assuming all pressure yourself]

Cheng Du looked at this line, his eyes dark enough to kill.

"This sentence has killed many people."

Lin Jin inserted the new tool.

"Delete 'all'."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou struck.

Crack!

The definition cracked, and new gray-white characters appeared on top.

[Independence can include partitioning, mutual aid, pressure relief, evacuation, maintenance, and admitting deficiencies.]

[Cannot bear everything does not equal should be taken over by the Mother of All Things.]

The God Head did not refute.

It directly forced the second round of pressure on The 72 Stations.

[25:00]

The Abyss Black Tide rose violently.

The pressure that had just dropped soared again.

On the No. 1 Bypass Station coupling ring, Meng Huai heard an extremely faint cracking sound.

His face turned pale.

"The brass ring is going to crack!"

"Change the ring!" Cheng Du roared.

"Not enough spare parts!"

Meng Huai looked at the three spare parts, his fingers trembling.

Following their original method, they could hold on.

But after holding on, the spare parts would be gone.

What to do next round?

Lin Jin stared at the No. 1 Station image and suddenly asked:

"Can the ring work at half-circle?"

Cheng Du was stunned.

"It can, but the efficiency will drop by half."

"Then drop it."

Cheng Du suddenly understood.

"Reduced-load operation!"

Lin Jin shouted to the whole channel:

"Stations that can't hold on are allowed to downgrade!"

"Hospital stations, lower precision, don't lower the lifeline!"

"Classroom stations, lower functionality, don't lower student confirmation!"

"Rest Stations, accept fewer people, don't lock people in!"

"Bypass stations, work at half-circle, preserve the coupling!"

"Don't blow up the station just for full power!"

This sentence saved many stations.

Some stations couldn't hold on not because they couldn't, but because they kept running at full capacity to prove they could.

After downgrading, the functionality became worse.

But they were still alive.

No. 2 Rest Station reduced the number of accommodated people and transferred the excess to the empty warehouse rest point relayed back from Hai City.

No. 5 Station turned off non-essential lighting, keeping only the pressure indicators and evacuation lights.

The guard at No. 17 Station admitted they didn't know how to repair the main valve, only how to watch for vibrations, so they handed over maintenance authority to nearby workers and switched to observation.

Every downgrade made the golden "Independent Self-Verification" dim a little.

Because the God Head wanted perfect pressure bearing.

What they provided was a system that wasn't pretty but was real:

It would downgrade.

It would ask for help.

It would break.

It would report errors.

It would repair.

[20:00]

The third round of pressure arrived.

This time, the Abyss didn't just press on physical stations.

It started pressing on human hearts.

Golden characters floated in front of every station guard.

[If you leave, this station will fail]

[If you rest, three hundred people will return to the Mother of All Things]

[If you admit you can't, the independence proof fails]

A guard at Station No. 12 started crying directly.

"I can't, I really can't!"

He was crying while still gripping the valve tightly.

The sound of Ye Guizhou's stamp came through the work order.

[Can't: Received]

[Does not equal giving up]

He Zhibai immediately wrote:

[Request replacement cost to be borne publicly]

Qin Shanhe broadcasted:

"All stations, shouting 'swap people' is not shameful!"

"Shouting 'I can't' is an effective fault report!"

The second guard at Station No. 12 rushed up to take over.

The first guard was dragged to the side; his hands were still shaking, but he wasn't scolded.

He was assigned to Record vibrations.

He could still do a little something.

But he was no longer required to hold everything.

The God Head's heart pressure failed partially.

[15:00]

The 72 Stations formed the first version of the pressure-bearing table.

It wasn't all green.

There were twelve yellows.

Five reds.

Two blacks.

Black represented must evacuate.

In the God Head's test, this was failure.

In Lin Jin's eyes, it was the most important information.

He pointed to the two black dots.

"Evacuate."

Cheng Du's lips tightened.

"If we evacuate, the entrance will leak."

"Then seal it empty, leave markers, transfer pressure, don't leave people."

The two black dots were in an abandoned school basement and an old commercial street.

There was no one there to begin with.

It was just that the station equipment was poor.

The guards originally wanted to hold on until they died.

Lin Jin only gave one order:

"People out first."

After they evacuated, half of the empty station burst.

The Abyss Black Tide was guided into the abandoned basement and sealed behind three temporary check plates.

It leaked.

But it didn't swallow anyone.

work order no. 002 wrote:

[Black station evacuation]

[Status: Damaged and sealed]

[Needs subsequent repair]

[Must not judge personnel as failure]

The God Head was silent for a moment.

Because in its preset pressure-bearing proof, there was no item called "broken but people evacuated".

[10:00]

The 72 Stations began to stabilize.

Not safe.

But they entered a state of wobbling but recordable, replaceable, and downgradable.

Hai City, Beiyuan, Nanling, Qinghe County, and more cities also sent back their empty-load buffering, reduced-load operations, and evacuation Records.

work order no. 002 became thicker and thicker.

So thick it looked like a dirty survival manual.

The countdown reached the last three minutes.

The final question in the sky suddenly updated.

[Detected that humanity has not completely borne the pressure]

[There exist downgrading, pressure relief, evacuation, damaged sealing, seeking help, and public costs]

[Independent civilization self-verification is not pure]

Chen Ye laughed out of extreme anger.

"Independence still has to be pure?"

Lin Jin looked up at that line of text.

"Independence is not purity."

"Independence is not having to pretend to be a god."

He inserted the new tool into the Mainframe; all six slots lit up.

"Write the final answer."

Luo Wensheng picked up the pen.

Ye Guizhou raised the stamp.

He Zhibai flipped the accounts.

Cheng Du stared at the pressure.

Qin Shanhe observed.

All 72 Stations in the city and all responding cities simultaneously projected their pressure-bearing tables into work order no. 002.

Lin Jin said every word clearly:

[Human civilization cannot completely bear all the costs.]

The first sentence fell, and everyone's heart sank.

The God Head's golden light shone brightly, as if grasping victory.

Lin Jin continued:

[But human civilization can report deficiencies, share pressure, request help, establish couplings, allow rest, execute evacuations, admit damage, and perform subsequent repairs.]

[Cannot completely bear pressure does not equal should be reclaimed by the Mother of All Things.]

[Mark the places that will break first, evacuate the people who will die first, Record the accounts that will be wrong first, repair the parts that can be repaired first, and continue to learn the parts we don't know.]

[This is the current version of an independent civilization.]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised 002 and slashed toward that last golden line.

[Independent civilization = Can perfectly bear pressure without the Mother of All Things]

Crack!

The golden line broke.

The countdown reached zero.

The 72 Stations were not all green.

Two black stations were broken.

Five red stations were still sounding alarms.

Twelve yellow stations were running downgraded.

The remaining stations were wobbling.

But not a single person was automatically relocated back to the Mother of All Things.

On the final question, the golden characters paused for a long time.

Subsequently, cold text appeared.

[Maternal reclamation conditions not met]

[Human system detachment from Mother of All Things judgment: Temporarily established]

Jiang City did not cheer.

Because everyone was so tired they could barely stand.

Lin Jin also just leaned on the Mainframe, slowly exhaling a breath.

But the next second, an extremely faint cracking sound came from the direction of No. 9 Forbidden Zone.

Cheng Du's expression changed drastically.

"Not the stations."

"It's the backlash after the connection to the Mother of All Things is cut."

Deep within the Sky Gate, the divine body of the Mother of All Things was no longer moving forward.

It began to collapse backward.

The voice of the God Head's core appeared with cracks for the first time.

"Since the child has left the mother."

"The mother loses its meaning of existence."

[Mother of All Things self-destruction protocol initiated]

[Divine body disintegration will drag the National Class Transfer System underlying layer down into the Abyss together]

Lin Jin looked up abruptly.

Behind the seventy-two entrances, the entire divine body was collapsing into the darkness.

Cheng Du's voice was hoarse:

"It wants to die together with the Career System."