216: In Chapter 217, in Blank Zone Zero, the living don't want to be the answer.

The breathing at the end of the tunnel was very rhythmic.

It was so rhythmic that it didn't sound like a group of people sleeping.

It sounded more like someone was afraid of being heard by the world, and had practiced breathing to the same beat.

After the ground behind the gray door cracked open, an old downward-sloping rail track was revealed.

The track had no career inscriptions.

No awakening lights.

Only hand-carved arrows.

[Go down, do not light your emblem]

[Do not ask about careers]

[State who you are first]

Chen Ye saw the first sentence and subconsciously looked down at his Shield Warrior emblem.

As soon as the emblem lit up, a flurry of tapping sounds came from both sides of the track.

It wasn't an alarm.

It was many people hitting iron pipes with stones at the same time.

Tap, tap, tap!

Thirteen reached out first and pressed down on the emblem on Chen Ye's chest.

"I told you not to light it."

Chen Ye hurriedly suppressed his spiritual power.

"I didn't do it on purpose."

A hoarse voice came from deep in the tunnel.

"People above, take three steps back."

"The career light will cast the children out of the page."

Everyone stopped at once.

Lin Jin raised his hand, signaling everyone to extinguish their career interfaces.

Shen Tingxue withdrew her ice.

Zhou Heng withdrew his lightning.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou wrapped work order no. 002 in black cloth.

Gu Changye also lowered his Abyssal Blade, not letting the aura of the abyss leak out.

Lin Jin stepped forward.

"Lin Jin, Repairman."

The tunnel was quiet for a moment.

The voice said coldly:

"Careerist?"

Lin Jin nodded.

"Yes."

"Then what did you come here for?"

"To investigate the No. 0 Career Blank Zone."

"Wrong."

The other party interrupted immediately.

"This is not your Blank Zone."

"This place is called Wuye City."

"Blank is the name given to us by those above."

As this sentence fell, a small oil lamp lit up at the end of the track.

A thin, tall man stood behind the lamp.

He had no career emblem.

Hanging around his neck was a wooden plaque; on it was not a career name, but three handwritten characters.

[Zhong Minglin]

Behind him was an underground city.

Low roofs, rough brick walls, hand-dug water channels, hand-cranked generators, rows of paper rosters, children huddled on unnumbered beds, old people sitting at the door grinding needles, women using wooden boards to Record the daily grain count.

This was not a ruin.

Nor was it a prison.

People lived here.

No career light.

No levels.

No system pop-ups.

But every corner was filled with traces of "people living."

Rice pots were steaming.

Missing persons notices were posted on the walls.

The doors were hung with signs for today's water duty, light duty, and medicine duty.

There were children drawing on the ground; what they drew wasn't a career emblem, but a crooked fish.

Chen Ye stared in a daze.

"They... have always been here?"

Zhong Minglin sneered.

"Otherwise?"

"The world above you presumed us dead, so we had to find a place to live."

A-Lu, holding the tape recorder, practically rushed down the track.

"Where is my grandmother?"

Zhong Minglin's expression changed slightly when he saw the non-career birth page in his hand.

"You are A-Lu?"

A-Lu froze completely.

"You know me?"

Zhong Minglin did not answer immediately, but turned to look at a row of small houses in the city.

"He Chunlian's child is here."

As these words were spoken, the sound of a bowl hitting the ground came from inside the house.

A white-haired old woman walked out, leaning on the doorframe.

She was extremely thin, her back bent, her left leg seemingly having suffered an old injury, walking very slowly.

But A-Lu only took one look, and he was nailed to the spot.

The old woman also looked at him.

Her lips trembled for a long time before she called out:

"A-Lu?"

The tape recorder in A-Lu's hand fell to the ground.

He rushed over, but stopped abruptly one step away from the old woman.

As if afraid that if he touched her, she would shatter.

The old woman reached out, her hands full of cracks and calluses.

"You've grown tall."

As soon as these words came out, A-Lu finally burst into tears and threw himself into her arms.

Many people in the underground city turned their faces away.

Someone whispered:

"Another one found back."

Someone else said:

"Did those above finally open the door?"

Zhong Minglin looked at Lin Jin, but there was no welcome in his eyes.

"You found one person, and you think you've fixed it?"

Lin Jin shook his head.

"No."

"Then you'd better remember."

Zhong Minglin pointed to the underground city.

"This is not proof that you can live without a career."

"Nor is it proof that you should shut down the Career System."

"We survived, but that doesn't mean this path is easy."

"We lost many people."

"Starved to death, died of illness, blocked at checkpoints, unable to leave or return."

"We have no careers, not because we are inherently noble."

"It's because some had no choice, some refused, some were excluded, and some were afraid of being dragged back into your web after re-recording."

He said this, his voice even colder.

"So don't move us up there and use us as an answer to your big question."

Beside the old track, the underlying system popped up a line of prompts.

[Long-term non-career social sample discovered]

[Can be used to evaluate the feasibility of shutting down the Career System]

Zhong Minglin looked up sharply, as if stung by those words.

Many people in the underground city retreated at the same time.

Children hid the paper in their hands behind their backs.

Women clutched their rosters tighter.

He Chunlian, holding A-Lu, also turned pale for a moment.

She whispered:

"Are they going to count us again?"

Lin Jin looked at the prompt.

"Delete sample definition."

The system responded:

[This group has evaluation value]

"People are not samples."

Ye Guizhou's seal sound fell immediately.

[Population discovered received]

[Does not constitute sample authorization]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[No. 0 Career Blank Zone self-designation: Wuye City.]

[Its existence can be used as factual material, and must not be simplified into a tool of evidence for closing or retaining the system.]

He Zhibai added to the account:

[Wuye City's historical casualties, long-term exclusion, resource arrears, migration restrictions, and medical rejections must all be recorded item by item.]

["They survived" must not be used to offset the debt.]

The system prompt was crushed into gray and white.

[Wuye City: Existing population]

[Status: Needs confirmation, needs communication, needs respect for self-designation]

Zhong Minglin looked at these lines of text, his expression not relaxing.

"You can write it."

"But can those institutions above acknowledge it?"

"They lack grain, they will count us first."

"They lack labor, they will say since we have no careers, we are suitable for the dirtiest work."

"They want to close the system, they will say look, Wuye City has lived for twenty years."

"They want to retain the system, they will say look, Wuye City lives so miserably, so all children must awaken."

"You tell me, which one can you block?"

This made everyone silent.

Because he was right.

Once Wuye City was seen, it would be used by all kinds of people as an argument.

Lin Jin looked at him.

"That's why we have to ask you first."

Zhong Minglin laughed.

"Ask us if we are willing to be counted?"

"No."

Lin Jin pointed to the paper rosters of Wuye City.

"Ask how you want to be seen."

Zhong Minglin's laughter stopped.

Lin Jin continued:

"We can temporarily not disclose the specific location."

"We can register the existence first, without publishing a list."

"We can supplement birth pages, death pages, and missing pages according to personal wishes."

"We can send a question session, but it does not represent everyone in the city."

"You can refuse to become a model for closing or retaining schemes."

"You can propose: The true cost of living without a career must enter an explanation period."

"You can also choose not to answer for now."

People in the underground city began to whisper.

A woman holding a roster asked:

"If the list is not disclosed, will they say we don't exist again?"

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Existence confirmation can be separated from list disclosure]

Luo Wensheng wrote:

[Group existence can be registered; personal identity disclosure requires confirmation by the individual or a legal witness process.]

An old man asked:

"Can those who died here have their death pages supplemented first?"

Fang Ning responded immediately:

"Yes."

"But death confirmation and missing confirmation are separate."

A teenager asked:

"I have no career and no birth page, can I go up and see the sun?"

Qin Shanhe's voice was hoarse:

"You can apply for migration registration."

"But those above must prepare to receive you first, not throw you to a door that only recognizes career emblems."

He Chunlian, holding A-Lu, suddenly asked:

"Can I not go out first?"

A-Lu looked up sharply.

"Grandma?"

He Chunlian touched his head, tears falling continuously.

"I want to go out and see you."

"I also want to see the sky."

"But I have lived here for a long time."

"I don't want to be registered as someone's burden the moment I open the door."

Lin Jin nodded.

"You can choose not to go out for now."

A-Lu cried and grabbed her clothes tightly.

"Then can I stay too?"

Lin Jin looked at He Chunlian, not answering for her.

He Chunlian squatted down and looked at A-Lu seriously.

"You can stay for a few days."

"You can also go up to study."

"You can also run between both sides."

"But you cannot hide in the underground forever just because Grandma is here."

A-Lu nodded hard, but his tears didn't stop.

Zhong Minglin watched this scene, his eyes finally moving.

He turned around and picked up an old wooden plaque from the wooden table.

It was written:

[Wuye City Temporary Deliberation Office]

He placed the plaque in front of Lin Jin.

"We won't sign your retention, nor will we sign your closure."

"We will sign one thing first."

"Wuye City enters the explanation period."

"As our own question."

"Not as material for your answer."

Lin Jin took the plaque, not pressing his own seal.

He handed it to Zhong Minglin.

"You stamp it yourselves."

Zhong Minglin looked at him for a long time, then took out a very old wooden seal from his bosom.

The seal face was not any institution.

Only two characters.

[Here]

He pressed the wooden seal heavily on the plaque.

[Wuye City is here]

These four characters lit up with a gray-white light.

work order no. 002 synchronized and wrote back.

[Wuye City group existence confirmed]

[Specific list: Not disclosed for now, supplemented according to individual processes]

[Specific location: Protected disclosure, only for use by relief and communication channels]

[Must not be used as a unilateral sample for closing or retaining the Career System]

[Real costs of non-career life, casualties, exclusion, self-governance experience, resource needs, enter underlying review explanation period]

In the underground city, some people breathed a sigh of relief.

Others remained vigilant.

This was good.

Trust should not be generated immediately just because a door opened.

Just then, the underlying system suddenly popped up a new reminder.

[After Wuye City enters the explanation period, the existing public resource gap expands]

[Grain, medicine, surface passage quotas, non-career education interfaces are insufficient]

[Transition rationing suggested]

Zhong Minglin's expression changed.

"You above are also lacking, right?"

Hai City, Beiyuan, and Nanling all replied with silence at the same time.

Lacking.

All lacking.

Lin Jin was about to speak, when rapid iron pipe tapping suddenly came from deep in Wuye City.

Tap tap tap tap tap!

Zhong Minglin's expression changed drastically.

"The underground water level has risen again!"

Cheng Du immediately accessed the underground structure map in the Mainframe.

"There is still abyss seepage below Wuye City?"

Zhong Minglin gritted his teeth:

"Not the abyss."

"It's the dirty water from the lowest level after The 72 Stations above release pressure, all flowing to us."

The Mainframe screen flashed red suddenly.

[Unloaded buffer subsidence side effect discovered]

[Wuye City is located downstream of multiple pressure relief points]

[Water expected to enter the East District low level in seventeen minutes]

In the underground city, the children began to panic.

Zhong Minglin stared fixedly at Lin Jin.

"See that?"

"The system you above fixed, the dirty things that leak out, still flow to us first."

Lin Jin gripped his new tool tightly.

This sentence was heavier than any accusation.

Because it was true.

The next second, the first oil lamp in the East District of Wuye City went out.

In the darkness, came the sound of a child crying.