219: Chapter 220 Waste pages may sink to the bottom, but people cannot sink with them.

"The Career System waste page sedimentation zone... there are still living ones."

When that sentence drilled up along the sound of the water, the air in Wuye City, which had just relaxed, tightened into a line again.

Zhong Minglin's expression became extremely ugly.

"That place shouldn't have anyone."

Cheng Du said coldly in the Mainframe: "Shouldn't have anyone, and having no one, are two different things."

The old pipe network map continued to fill in.

The Dead Water Well is further down in Wuye City, even lower than the South Bank Pump Station, like the blackest piece of silt in the belly of the entire city.

Over the past twenty years, everything judged by the Career System as "unable to be incorporated" would sink there along the old pipes.

Discarded Career Pages.

Failed interfaces.

Class transfer residue.

Fragments of withdrawal applications.

Erased career resumes.

And those people whom the system conveniently classified as "Waste Page Carriers".

After hearing this, Chen Ye gripped the shield handle until it creaked.

"Waste Page Carriers?"

Zhong Minglin stared at the black pipe.

"People above have Career Pages."

"We have no pages."

"They are even more miserable."

"Their pages are rotten, but the people haven't died yet."

Lin Jin squatted at the pipe opening and knocked twice.

Thump. Thump.

Soon, there were three knocks in response from below. Thump. Thump. Thump.

It wasn't the chaotic knocking of a cry for help. It was someone who still knew how to respond.

"I can hear you," Lin Jin said, "Don't open the main gate yet."

Cheng Du immediately followed up: "If the Dead Water Well is opened directly, the waste page mud will backflow into Wuye City."

"Then we go down."

Chen Ye had just taken a step forward when the Shield Warrior emblem on his chest was illuminated by the gray-black water light in the pipe.

The next second, a line of text appeared on the pipe wall.

[ Damaged Career Page detected ] [ Can be sedimented ]

Chen Ye's expression changed, and he hurriedly suppressed his spiritual power.

"Does my Career Page count as damaged too?"

Thirteen sneered. "Your shield is almost just a handle left; it's being polite by not treating you entirely as a waste shield."

Shen Tingxue looked at Lin Jin. "Career light cannot be on."

Lin Jin nodded. "All career interfaces to the lowest level."

"Use ropes, boards, and manual pumps for tools."

"Those going down should tie on local presence tags, not career tags."

The people of Wuye City soon brought old ropes, tarpaulins, bamboo pipes, and a few wooden boards that had been soaked in water and then dried.

Zhong Minglin handed Lin Jin a wooden sign. It was written on it: [ Enter Dead Water Well, currently present, return alive. ]

Chen Ye took a look and couldn't help but say: "The last four words are quite auspicious."

Zhong Minglin looked at him coldly. "This is an order."

Lin Jin tied the wooden sign to his waist. "It is not an order."

He took a pen and added at the back: [ If unable to return, report location first, do not default to death. ]

Zhong Minglin was silent for a moment, and did not cross it out.

The group went down along the old pipes.

The further down they went, the colder the air became. The sound of the water became sticky. It wasn't the gurgling flow, but a rolling sound like paper pulp.

After walking for about ten minutes, a huge underground cavity suddenly opened up in front of them. They had arrived at the Dead Water Well.

There was no clear water in the well. Only a thick layer of gray-black paper mud, with countless shattered Career Pages floating in it.

On some pages, half a career name could still be seen. [ ...Shield Guard ] [ ...Healer ] [ Temporary...failed ] [ Withdrawal application...rejected ] [ Transfer interrupted ] [ Career Page abnormal, sedimentation processing ]

The paper pages floated like dead fish. But among those piles of waste pages, there were actually a few faint lights.

The lights were not career lights. They were fluorite stones in bottles.

Someone had tied the waste pages into a raft, setting up a wobbly floating platform. On the floating platform, there were people. Many people.

They were wrapped in old Career Pages; some stuck to their shoulders, some grown into their backs, some wrapped around half their faces like wet cloths.

A man, so thin he was nothing but bones, sat at the very front, holding half a wooden paddle in his hand.

He looked up at Lin Jin and the others, his first sentence was not a plea for help. "Don't shine career lights on us."

Lin Jin nodded. "We won't."

The man stared at their chests for a long time before saying: "Are you here to clean up waste pages, or to salvage people?"

"Salvage people," Lin Jin said.

The man let out a laugh, a very dry laugh. "That's what they said before, too."

After saying this, he raised his finger and pointed to a rotten page on his shoulder. It was written on it: [ Salvage Object: Waste Page Carrier ] [ Processing Suggestion: Recycle residual pages, physical sedimentation ]

Chen Ye's expression changed instantly. "Physical sedimentation?"

The man's tone was calm. "Pages are useful. People are in the way."

Behind the floating platform, a woman hugged a semi-conscious child tightly. On the child's chest was a broken [ Wind Scout ] Career Page, but his legs were obviously deformed; he could never run again.

The woman whispered: "Don't believe them too quickly. The people above are best at saying they'll save you first."

Lin Jin did not argue. He squatted down, placed the new tools on the ground, and spread his hands. "Then we won't touch you first. Let's ask first. How many living people are here?"

The man looked at him for a while. "As far as we know, two hundred and sixteen."

Chen Ye gasped. "Two hundred and sixteen?"

"There are also those who have sunk, we don't know," the man said. "And there are those who are awake but afraid to make a sound, we don't know either."

Lin Jin nodded. "What is your name?"

The man hesitated for a moment. "Shi Nan."

He added: "Before, the Career Page said my name was Shi Nan, later the waste page said I was an Abnormal Carrier."

Ye Guizhou's voice came from the work order above. [ Shi Nan's personal statement received ] [ Abnormal Carrier is not considered a name ]

Luo Wensheng recorded it simultaneously.

Shi Nan was stunned for a moment, as if he wasn't used to his name being accepted so quickly.

Lin Jin asked: "Do you want to go out?"

Many people on the floating platform looked up at the same time. Some also shrank back.

Shi Nan didn't answer immediately. "After going out, is it to restore the career, or to withdraw from the career?"

"It's not for us to choose for you," Lin Jin said. "First get out of the waste page mud. Then enter the review window. Continue, withdraw, transfer, postpone, all must be confirmed by the person themselves."

Someone behind the floating platform asked with a trembling voice: "What if the Career Page has already rotted into the flesh?"

Fang Ning's voice connected from the communication. "First perform medical fixation. Don't tear it if you don't have to. Confirm the risks before tearing."

Lin Jin added: "Career Pages can be voided. People cannot be voided."

When this sentence fell, a gray-black wave rolled up in the Dead Water Well. As if this place didn't like hearing this sentence.

Old definitions appeared on the well wall. [ Discarded Career Pages and carrier remnants are uniformly sedimented ]

Cheng Du cursed in a low voice above: "That's the one."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou had already raised the 002. Lin Jin pressed the new tool against the definition line on the well wall. "Cut 'Carrier Remnants'."

The 002 fell. Crack! The definition split open. New gray-white characters appeared on top. [ Career Pages can be sedimented, personnel must first verify life, name, willingness, and medical status. ] [ Personnel must not be treated as Career Page remnants. ]

In the Dead Water Well, the waste page mud rolled violently. A few rotten pages loosened from the people, but did not fall off completely.

Shi Nan watched the page on his shoulder loosen by an inch, his eyes widening suddenly. "Don't tear it all off!"

Lin Jin immediately raised his hand. "Stop."

Shi Nan was panting heavily. "Some pages, although rotten, are still pressing on old wounds. If you tear them off, the person will fall apart."

Fang Ning recorded immediately: [ Waste page detachment needs grading: can be detached, needs fixation, forcible tearing prohibited, do not process for the person for now. ]

He Zhibai added: [ Waste page medical treatment costs are to be borne publicly, and the person must not be required to repay them by restoring their original career. ]

Ye Guizhou stamped: [ Do not detach for now, effective ]

The Dead Water Well finally calmed down a bit.

What followed was not a heroic rescue. It was an extremely slow salvage.

The people of Wuye City tied old wooden boards into a floating bridge. The manual pump sent by Northern Plains slowly drew away the upper layer of clear water at the wellhead; it couldn't be pumped too fast, for fear the waste page mud would drag people down.

The waterproof templates sent from Qinghe County were turned into [ Temporary Presence Tags for Waste Page Personnel ].

Every time someone was salvaged, they were asked their name first. If they didn't know their name, they were asked how to be addressed. For the unconscious, their appearance, location, and companion testimony were recorded; no names were invented.

Someone just emerged from the mud and cried out: "Don't restore my career!"

Ye Guizhou stamped: [ Do not restore, received ]

Someone grasped a rotten page and said: "This is the only thing my younger brother left behind, don't throw it away."

Luo Wensheng recorded: [ Waste page may be a memento, requires personal confirmation. ]

Someone asked: "I pressed withdraw before, will it count as desertion?"

He Zhibai wrote: [ Withdrawal application history is valid, needs to be retrieved, must not be judged as desertion. ]

Shi Nan kept sitting at the very front of the floating platform, until the first child was pulled up, he finally seemed to believe it a little. "There is more below."

He pointed to the center of the Dead Water Well. The waste page mud there was the blackest, like a bottomless well within a well.

"The ones that sank earliest are all there."

Lin Jin looked over. Bubbles popped up from time to time in the center of the black mud. In each bubble, a fragmented shadow of a Career Page could be seen.

[ Withdrawal rejected ] [ Transfer failed ] [ Forced to continue ] [ Incompatible deletion ] [ Blanking processing ]

These were not waste paper. They were the corpses of career relationships that no one had processed for twenty years.

Cheng Du's voice was tight: "Don't let those pages rush out. It will contaminate the current review window."

But Shi Nan said: "We can't not salvage them."

Lin Jin looked at him. Shi Nan gritted his teeth and said: "There is a document below. We have guarded it for many years."

"The deeper it sinks, the thicker the waste page mud becomes. Every time someone wants to withdraw, the system throws that person's page here."

Lin Jin's heart stirred. "What document?"

Shi Nan shook his head. "We can't see it all. We only see the cover. It was judged as the largest waste page."

"Everyone who wants to leave the Career System will sink down along its edges."

A huge black bubble suddenly rolled up in the center of the Dead Water Well. The black bubble burst, and a corner of a yellowed document was revealed.

That was not an ordinary Career Page. It was very thick. Like a proposal book soaked and rotted. There were still a few lines of text remaining on the cover.

[ National Class Transfer System... ] [ Voluntary closure... ] [ Transition plan... ] [ Drafter: Mother of All Things ]

Everyone was stunned. Cheng Du stood up abruptly in the Mainframe, the maintenance position light was knocked and flickered.

"What?"

The document sank another half an inch. Shi Nan hissed: "Don't let it sink! If it sinks, all withdrawal applications will continue to fall here!"

Lin Jin grabbed the rope. "Drop the anchor!"

"That place is full of waste page mud!" Chen Ye urged anxiously.

"So we can't use a human anchor." Lin Jin inserted the new tool into the front end of the floating bridge, and the six slots lit up. "Use a work order anchor."

Luo Wensheng recorded the document location. Ye Guizhou stamped [ Document found, received ]. He Zhibai marked [ Salvage costs borne publicly ]. Shen Tingxue froze the edges of the mud surface, not the people. Zhou Heng diverted the waste page bubbles.

Chen Ye used his broken shield as a floating board, Thirteen stepped on the floating board and threw the rope towards the document cover. The first time it missed. The second time, the rope was swallowed by the waste page mud. The third time, Shi Nan suddenly handed his wooden paddle to Thirteen.

"Use this." Thirteen looked at him. "Aren't you afraid we'll take it away?"

Shi Nan's voice was hoarse. "Afraid. But more afraid of it continuing to sink."

The wooden paddle was tied to the rope and finally hooked the corner of the document. Everyone pulled together.

It wasn't a hard pull upwards. It was bit by bit, first diverting the surrounding waste page mud, then turning the document from "sedimentation processing" into "historical evidence".

The old definitions on the well wall flashed wildly. [ Largest waste page must not be salvaged ]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stepped on the 002, the black iron slashed down. [ Largest waste page = High-risk historical evidence ] Crack! The definition was rewritten.

The heavy document was pulled out of the mud bit by bit. The cover was finally fully revealed.

[ National Class Transfer System Voluntary Closure and Non-Career Survival Transition Plan ] [ Drafter: Mother of All Things ] [ Witness Maintenance Worker: Cheng Du ] [ Rejector: The Six Seats Joint Maintenance Authority ] [ Processing Result: Waste Page Sedimentation ]

Cheng Du stared fixedly at the line [ Witness Maintenance Worker ], his face deathly pale. "I... I have seen it. I thought it was destroyed."

Below the document cover, there was another line of small text covered by mud. Lin Jin reached out and wiped it away.

[ Note: If future generations still need the Career System, please at least retain the right to withdraw, the right to non-career survival, non-career birth pages, and death pages. ]

In the Dead Water Well, all the waste pages suddenly fell silent. As if this sentence had waited in the black mud for twenty years, and finally saw the light again.

But the next second, the proposal book shook violently. The underlying system popped up a blinding warning.

[ Closure transition plan discovered ] [ Will automatically enter core material for underlying review explanation period ] [ Risk: Trigger comprehensive conflict between closure faction, retention faction, and voluntary access faction ] [ Make public? ]

Shi Nan looked up at Lin Jin. Zhong Minglin was silent above. Fang Ning, Teacher Song Qing, Intern Liang Yu, Old Miner, Inspector Han Su, Gu Changye, Tang Qi, all channels went quiet.

Lin Jin looked at the proposal book still dripping with black mud and said slowly: "Make it public."

He paused, then added: "But first make the people next to the cover public too."

"Tell everyone—this plan didn't fall from the sky. Underneath it, there are two hundred and sixteen people who are still alive."