212: Chapter 213 The dissenting votes on the third basement level are not meant to kill today's children.

The door to the third underground level opened.

It did not open outward.

It collapsed downward.

In the center of the old school site, the ground where the "Principal's Ruling" had long been dismantled suddenly split into a black square opening. Cold wind poured out from below, carrying the musty smell of old paper.

Gu Changye stood by the edge of the fissure.

He looked at the signature line on the screen.

[Student ID 00001: Gu Changye]

[Collateral Witness Teacher: Qin Shanhe]

His hand slowly pressed onto the hilt of his blade.

"I remember writing it."

"But I don't remember it ever being sent out."

Qin Shanhe's expression was grim.

"I don't remember signing it either."

The Record personality of the young Qin Shanhe walked over from the Temporary Classroom, his figure much fainter than before.

He looked at the line [Collateral Witness Teacher] and remained silent for a long time.

"I remember."

The real-world Qin Shanhe looked at him sharply.

The young Qin Shanhe said in a low voice:

"It wasn't signed as the Principal."

"It was signed as the only teacher who was still willing to listen to them that night."

Gu Changye closed his eyes.

"We wrote that opinion for an entire night."

"Some wrote they didn't want a Career."

"Some wrote they wanted to keep their abilities but didn't want a designation."

"Some wrote they wanted to quit."

"Some wrote that as long as they weren't called failed samples, they were fine with continuing classes."

"I wrote the title at the end."

[If a Career will consume people, then we would rather not have it]

This sentence sounded as if it were being read aloud again from twenty years ago.

The old students stood by the edge of the fissure one by one.

No one urged them to go down.

No one asked if they still wanted to shut down the Career System.

Because twenty years ago, when they said this, the Career System was indeed consuming them.

Gu Changye stepped down the first step.

Lin Jin followed with his new tool, and Shen Tingxue, Chen Ye, Zhou Heng, and Shisan entered afterward.

Qin Shanhe stood before the entrance, not moving immediately.

The young Qin Shanhe glanced at him.

"Are you afraid to go down and see what you failed to accomplish?"

Qin Shanhe was silent for a moment.

"I am."

"Then let's be afraid together."

The young Qin Shanhe went down first.

There were no classrooms on the third underground level.

There was only a long archive corridor.

The walls on both sides were embedded with iron drawers, each with a red seal stuck on it.

[Invalid Opinion]

[Emotional Dissent]

[Unstable Sample Statement]

[Minor's Misunderstanding]

[Expression of Resentment Caused by Career Abnormality]

The further they walked inside, the denser the seals became.

Chen Ye was furious at the sight.

"They treat all dissent as a sickness?"

Gu Changye's voice was cold.

"Back then, whenever we said we didn't want to continue, it would be recorded as mental contamination."

Just as he finished speaking, the iron drawers on both sides suddenly popped open in unison.

Countless old papers flew out, assembling into a huge black-and-white wall in the center of the corridor.

The wall was covered in children's handwriting.

Some were crooked, some were scribbled, and some were blurred by tears.

[I don't want to be called a failed sample anymore.]

[My Career made me hurt my friend, I want to stop.]

[The teacher says I am a deviation, but I am just scared.]

[If I must kill a classmate to graduate, then I don't want to graduate.]

[My Career is not me.]

[I want to go home.]

As soon as these words appeared, the entire corridor began to vibrate.

The underlying system immediately identified them.

[Original opinion from uncounted individuals has been read]

[Strong opposition to the Career System]

[Should historical dissenting votes be included in the current underlying review?]

Above the wall of old paper, a huge black button appeared.

[Shut Down Career System]

Chen Ye's expression changed.

"It's going to use these old opinions to press shut down directly?"

Cheng Du's voice came from the Mainframe:

"Don't touch it!"

"This attachment has been sealed for twenty years; its emotional intensity and system priority are both very high."

"Once pressed, it will become a 'supplementary vote from the excluded,' directly impacting the minimum maintenance!"

The countless children's words on the wall began to glow.

It was as if twenty years of grievances had finally found an outlet.

[We were not counted back then.]

[Count us now.]

[We dissent.]

The black button pressed down toward everyone, inch by inch.

No one was actively pressing it.

It was those old opinions, having been delayed for too long, trying to smash themselves into today's system.

First Hospital immediately sounded an alarm.

Screams also came from Nanling Hospital.

[Career System shutdown impact preheating]

[Medical auxiliary interface unstable]

In the Qinghe County classroom, the pre-awakening interface on Xu Tian's chest flickered.

She clutched the paper with the half-drawn puppy, her face pale.

"Teacher, do I have to join the people from before and choose 'no'?"

Teacher Song Qing gritted her teeth and shielded her behind her.

"You don't have to vote for the big brothers and sisters from twenty years ago."

On the third underground level, Gu Changye looked at the wall of paper, his eyes aching as if carved by a knife.

"They have the right to dissent."

Lin Jin nodded.

"Yes."

"But they do not have the right to press shut down for everyone today."

Gu Changye looked at him sharply.

Lin Jin did not retreat.

"You were deleted by the system back then; that was a mistake."

"It is necessary to add your dissenting votes back in."

"But adding them back doesn't mean turning this dissent into a new, absolute command."

"You weren't heard back then."

"So today, we must not let others lose their chance to speak either."

The black button paused for a moment.

But behind the paper wall, countless old voices filled with sobbing emerged.

"Then what do we do?"

"We've waited for twenty years."

"We can finally say 'no'."

"Are you asking us to wait again?"

This sentence felt like a punch to everyone's chest.

Qin Shanhe walked down the stairs step by step.

His face was very pale.

The real-world Qin Shanhe and the young Qin Shanhe stood side by side in front of the paper wall.

The young Qin Shanhe raised his hand and pressed onto his own Collateral Witness signature.

"I didn't sign a shutdown command back then."

"What I signed was: They have said these words."

The real-world Qin Shanhe's voice was hoarse:

"And I failed to let these words enter the statistics later."

He looked at the old papers.

"This debt is on me."

"Not on the children of today."

The wall of old paper vibrated more violently.

[Collateral Witness Teacher admits dereliction of duty]

[Should he execute the dissenting opinion on their behalf?]

A gold-and-black chain emerged from the paper wall, coiling directly toward Qin Shanhe's throat.

Lin Jin's eyes darkened.

"Trying to find one person to stand in for the whole class again?"

Chen Ye shoved his shield forward, but the chain bypassed the shield and struck directly at the Collateral Witness signature on Qin Shanhe's chest.

The young Qin Shanhe blocked it in front, his body pierced by the chain, instantly dimming by half.

"A Collateral Witness is not an executor."

He gritted his teeth and said.

"A Collateral Witness only proves that the words exist."

Luo Wensheng recorded on the Mainframe above:

[Collateral Witness Teacher signature proves the existence of the opinion; it does not constitute executing the dissenting opinion on their behalf.]

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Dissent received]

[Does not equal immediate shutdown]

He Zhibai added:

[The hearing cost delayed by twenty years must not be transferred to current users through a forced shutdown]

The gold-and-black chain was suppressed by the three Records.

But the wall of old paper still did not settle.

Because these words had indeed not been heard for too long.

Lin Jin walked to the paper wall.

He did not swing his new tool.

He put it down and pressed his bare hand onto those yellowed pages.

The blood from his palm smeared onto the first sheet of paper.

"I will not delete you."

"Nor will I reduce you to mere emotions."

"You are not noise, not contamination, not a misunderstanding."

"You are the first batch of dissenting opinions for the underlying review."

"But dissenting opinions enter a deliberation period."

"They do not become the only answer for the whole world."

Gu Changye stared at him.

"Then how much longer do they have to wait?"

Lin Jin looked at work order no. 002.

"No fixed deadline."

"Give them a place."

He wrote beside the paper wall:

[Questioning Seat for Excluded Dissenting Opinions]

[Right: Enter the first agenda item of the underlying review deliberation period]

[Agenda: Does the Career System possess the minimum legitimacy to continue existing]

[Agenda: Casualty risks and transition plans for shutting down the system]

[Agenda: Accountability for harm and exit guarantees for retaining the system]

[Agenda: Is the voluntary access mode sufficient to prevent people from being consumed again]

[Old opinions must not be excluded again]

[Old opinions must not independently replace all current choices]

Qin Shanhe raised his hand and added below:

[Collateral Witness Teacher Qin Shanhe confirms: These opinions were raised twenty years ago and should be added to history.]

The young Qin Shanhe also pressed his handprint.

[Collateral Witness Teacher Qin Shanhe confirms: A Collateral Witness is not pressing the button for them.]

Gu Changye remained silent for a long time, then finally put down his blade.

He walked to the wall and found that title page.

[If a Career will consume people, then we would rather not have it]

He reached out, picked up a pen, and added a line below the title.

[This sentence remains valid.]

He added another line.

[But whether or not anyone today wants a Career must be answered by the people of today themselves.]

The wall of old paper quieted down.

The sobbing sounds did not disappear.

They turned into rows of gray-white lights, hanging on both sides of the third underground level archive corridor.

Each lamp was an opinion.

No paper had a red seal anymore.

The black [Shut Down Career System] button was not pressed.

It was dismantled into an agenda box.

The box was labeled:

[Shutdown Proposal Deliberation Box]

[Retention Proposal Deliberation Box]

[Voluntary Access Proposal Deliberation Box]

[Other Proposal Deliberation Box]

Gu Changye placed that old title page from twenty years ago into the [Shutdown Proposal Deliberation Box].

As he put it in, his fingers trembled.

It was not giving up.

It was finally not having to use this piece of paper to crush others to death just to prove that they had suffered back then.

The underlying system wrote back.

[Original opinions from uncounted individuals have been added to the deliberation period]

[Historical dissenting votes confirmed to exist]

[Must not continue to be excluded]

[Must not be automatically converted into a current forced shutdown]

[Third underground level of the First Experiment Failure Containment School converted into a public hearing archive]

The lights on the third underground level turned on one by one.

Many old students stood in the archive corridor, seeing their own words, their own tears, their own "I don't want it," for the first time not covered by red seals.

Some crouched down and cried.

Some cursed for a long time.

Some just touched the paper and said:

"So the words I said back then are still here."

Lin Jin did not urge them to go up.

The deliberation period would not end today.

These words had been suppressed for twenty years; they could not be given just three minutes.

Just as everyone thought the third underground level had finally stabilized, the row of archive cabinets in the deepest part suddenly opened on its own.

There was no paper inside.

There was only a black school badge.

Engraved on the badge was:

[List of Unaccepted Career Holders]

[Statistical Processing: Never became a valid population]

Shisan suddenly looked up.

Zhao Jing was also stunned.

The seats for the Non-Career holders, those not yet awakened, and those unaccepted flashed simultaneously.

Behind the black school badge, a line of even colder text emerged.

[First batch of those who did not accept Career designation: 36,009 people]

[Current status: History unsearchable]

[System presumption: Naturally perished]

Lin Jin stared at that line of text, his heart sinking sharply.

The next second, from deeper within the third underground level, came a very faint knock.

Thud.

It was as if someone had been waiting behind the door to be counted in, a very, very long time ago.