220: Before the closure plan is made public in Chapter 221, let's first pull the living people out of the mud.

"Publish it."

"But first, make public the people beside the cover."

"Tell everyone—"

"This plan didn't fall from the sky."

"Beneath it, it's crushing two hundred and sixteen living people."

As Lin Jin's voice faded, all channels above the Dead Water Well went quiet for a moment.

Then, work order no. 002 automatically opened the public page.

[Core Material: National Class Transfer System Voluntary Shutdown and Non-Career Survival Transition Plan]

[Discovery Location: Career Waste Page Sedimentation Zone]

[Associated Personnel: Two Hundred and Sixteen Survivors Carrying Waste Pages]

[Broadcast to the world immediately?]

The button was already lit.

Many cities sent requests simultaneously.

[Request to immediately publish the shutdown plan]

[Request to suspend publication to prevent panic]

[Request to hide the discovery location and only publish the document]

[Request to confirm if the waste page carriers have the qualification to testify]

As soon as the last one appeared, the expressions of many people in the Dead Water Well changed instantly.

Behind the floating platform, the woman holding a child immediately tucked the child into her arms.

Shi Nan gripped the wooden oar tightly, his gaze turning cold again.

"Qualification to testify?"

"We've been soaking in this mud for twenty years, and we still have to prove we're capable of speaking first?"

Lin Jin looked at the public page and said coldly:

"Cancel the automatic broadcast."

The system paused for a moment.

[Core material affects underlying review and should be published in a timely manner]

"Timely publication does not mean using living people as the cover."

Ye Guizhou's seal landed heavily.

[Material discovery received]

[Personnel identity, location, and images must not be automatically published]

Luo Wensheng wrote:

[Plan document may be published.]

[Discovery process may be published.]

[Whether waste page carriers use real names, appear on camera, or testify requires confirmation from the individual or through the temporary protection process.]

He Zhibai added:

[The delay cost incurred from protecting witnesses shall be borne by the public; survivors must not be forcibly exposed under the guise of "public awareness."]

The button on the public page turned gray.

A new prompt appeared.

[Entering public preparation process]

[Must first complete: Material decontamination, personnel rescue, evidence chain recording, privacy protection, and risk explanation]

Shi Nan stared at those lines of text, his fingers still not loosening.

"It sounds nice."

"When the people above start arguing, will you still remember us?"

Lin Jin did not promise that he would "always remember."

He simply pointed to the floating platform in the waste page mud.

"Pull the people out first."

"After finishing, create temporary pages one by one."

"Those willing to testify will testify."

"For those who are unwilling, their names will be sealed."

"Treat the severely injured first."

"Do not tear the waste pages yet."

Shi Nan looked at him for a long time, then finally propped the wooden oar against the edge of the floating platform.

"Then save the child on the inside first."

The salvage began.

The waste page mud in the Dead Water Well was stickier than imagined.

It was not ordinary mud.

Whenever someone was pulled out, the surrounding tattered career pages would light up with old Records, attempting to prove that this person "should be sedimented."

An old man had just been helped onto the floating board when the wet, rotten page behind him immediately popped up:

[Original Career: Low-level Warehouse Keeper]

[Status: Neglect of Duty and Fleeing]

[Disposition: Waste Page Sedimentation]

The old man's face turned pale.

"I didn't flee."

"The granary collapsed that year, and I was trapped for three days."

"When I woke up, the grain was gone, and they said I neglected my duty."

Ye Guizhou immediately stamped:

[Personal statement received]

[Neglect of duty Record pending review; cannot be used as a basis for sedimentation]

Luo Wensheng recorded the old man's voice.

He Zhibai opened a new account:

[Old responsibility Records need to be re-investigated]

The [Neglect of Duty and Fleeing] on that career page turned gray.

The old man was finally pulled up.

When another young woman was rescued, half a [Healer] page was wrapped around her wrist.

As soon as she saw Fang Ning's medical insignia, she shrank back.

"Don't make me go back to the treatment table."

Fang Ning didn't reach out, only placed a dry cloth at her feet.

"Wipe your face first."

"As for the treatment table, we'll talk about it when you're able to speak about it yourself."

The woman looked at the dry cloth and suddenly cried.

It wasn't a wailing sob.

It was just as if she had finally loosened a little from that wet page.

Lin Jin stood in front of the floating bridge, helping to secure the ropes while watching the old disposition Records constantly popping up from the system.

[Transfer Failed]

[Exit Rejected]

[Ability Damaged, Degraded to Waste Page]

[High-Risk Career Unstable, Sedimented]

Each one felt like a belated verdict.

And every time someone was rescued, that verdict had to be dismantled.

Career pages could Record past events.

But they could not sentence someone to death.

In the center of the Dead Water Well, the [Voluntary Shutdown and Non-Career Survival Transition Plan] was sealed by three layers of temporary evidence boxes.

The outer layer was wood planks from Wuye City.

The middle layer was brass rings from the Jiangcheng Maintenance Team.

The inner layer was mud handprints pressed by the waste page survivors themselves.

Shi Nan wrote on the side of the evidence box:

[We are not footnotes to the plan.]

Lin Jin added beside it:

[And the plan is not a reason to crush them.]

Zhong Minglin descended from above into the Dead Water Well and, seeing the people on the floating platform being pulled out one by one, his expression was very grim.

He recognized several of them.

"Weren't you all sent elsewhere back then?"

Shi Nan let out a laugh.

"Elsewhere, is right here."

Zhong Minglin was silent for a long time, then turned and shouted to the people of Wuye City:

"Clear out two rows of dry bunks in the East District."

"Give them to them first; don't register their careers, and don't ask if they are willing to go up."

Someone asked:

"What about the grain?"

Zhong Minglin gritted his teeth.

"Take out my share first."

He Zhibai's voice immediately came from the work order:

[The cost of temporary housing for waste page survivors in Wuye City shall be compensated by the public ledger.]

Zhong Minglin looked up.

"We'll talk about compensation later."

"Get the people up first."

By the time the seventy-sixth person was rescued, the Dead Water Well suddenly shook.

The old sedimentation definitions on the well walls had been dismantled too much, the black mud began to lose stability, and the entire floating platform sank downward.

Chen Ye braced the broken shield, the surface of the shield immediately emitting a sound as if it were about to shatter.

"I can't hold it for too long!"

Shen Tingxue froze the edge of the mud surface, but could only freeze a ring.

Zhou Heng directed a flow of lightning to the well walls to prevent the entire mud layer from collapsing instantly.

Cheng Du roared into the Mainframe:

"We can't keep pulling them out by force!"

"If we keep pulling, the whole Dead Water Well will flip!"

Shi Nan's expression changed drastically.

"There are still people inside!"

Lin Jin stared at the center of the black mud.

Those who hadn't come out yet—some were awake, some were unconscious, and some were completely wrapped in waste pages.

If they stopped, they would continue to sink.

If they pulled by force, everyone would sink together.

He suddenly looked up.

"Build a transfer raft."

Chen Ye panted:

"Where will we get the materials?"

Lin Jin looked toward the area around the plan document, at the waste page boxes and rotten career pages that had been dismantled.

"Waste pages can be used as floating materials."

Everyone was stunned.

Cheng Du reacted immediately:

"Career pages don't sink because the system still wants to recover the information!"

"Tie them together into an evidence raft!"

Luo Wensheng immediately recorded:

[Discarded career pages may be used as temporary floating materials.]

[Purpose of use: Saving lives.]

[Must not restore the control of waste pages over people because of this.]

Ye Guizhou stamped.

He Zhibai recorded the account.

The people of Wuye City and the waste page survivors worked together to punch holes in, tie ropes to, and press wooden planks onto the old career pages that had been dismantled.

Some people's hands were shaking violently.

They had once been dragged into the mud by these pages.

Now, they had to step on these pages to get out.

Shi Nan was the first to step on it.

The waste page raft wobbled, but did not sink.

He turned around and looked at the people behind the floating platform.

"Let the children pass first."

When the woman carrying the child with the deformed leg stepped onto the raft, the child asked in a low voice:

"Will this write me back into a Scout?"

Lin Jin crouched by the side of the raft and wrote a line of text:

[Current purpose of this waste page: Floating material]

[No career restoration]

The child looked at the line of text before daring to put their foot on it.

One, two, three.

The waste page raft transported people to the edge of the well in batches.

In the end, Shi Nan came up himself.

He was covered in black mud, and the tattered page on his shoulder was still half-stuck to his flesh.

Fang Ning wanted to help him treat it, but he raised his hand to stop her.

"Don't tear it yet."

"I know."

Fang Ning handed him a temporary medical page.

[Waste page wound: Pending confirmation of treatment by the individual]

Shi Nan took it and looked at it for a long time.

"Nobody asked me before."

Fang Ning said:

"I'm asking now."

The rescue continued until the water level of the Dead Water Well dropped to the safety line.

Out of two hundred and sixteen survivors, one hundred and ninety-seven were confirmed rescued.

Nineteen were still at a deeper level and were labeled as:

[Location confirmed]

[Currently not safe to move]

[Requires secondary rescue]

It did not say dead.

It did not say abandoned.

It also did not say "rescue failed."

It simply said:

[Still here.]

When these two words were posted at the deepest part of the Dead Water Well, the black mud churned for a moment, as if finally admitting that it could no longer swallow them into silence.

The plan document evidence box was lifted to the receiving point on the outer side of Wuye City.

The public preparation page lit up again.

[Material decontamination: Preliminarily completed]

[Personnel rescue: Phase completed]

[Evidence chain: Established]

[Survivor protection: Established]

[Publish core material?]

This time, no one pressed it immediately.

Shi Nan walked up to the evidence box and pressed his own mud handprint.

"Publish."

Zhong Minglin pressed the wooden seal.

"Publish."

Fang Ning, Teacher Song Qing, Intern Liang Yu, the Old Miner from Beiyuan, Gu Changye, and Qin Shanhe each pressed their receipts.

But next to every receipt, there was the same protective clause.

[Must not force waste page survivors to testify on the grounds of the plan.]

[Must not immediately shut down the system on the grounds of the survivors.]

[Must not bury the plan again on the grounds of shutdown risks.]

Lin Jin finally pressed work badge no. 001.

"Publish."

The first page of the plan document was projected to the whole world.

Everyone thought they would see a button to "Shut Down the Career System."

But on the first page, the first sentence left by the Mother of All Things made all channels go quiet simultaneously.

[Warning: If any organization, deity, maintenance authority, or public opinion center claims they can immediately shut down the Career System and bear the consequences for everyone, please regard them as the new The Six Seats.]

The second line slowly appeared.

[Shutdown is not a button.]

[Shutdown is a transition.]

[If shutdown is used as a means for seizing power, liquidation, abandoning dependents, or proving the correctness of a certain group of people, then the shutdown itself will become a new form of recycling.]

Chen Ye stared blankly at those lines of text.

"This... isn't the shutdown faction's blade."

Lin Jin looked at the plan document still dripping with black mud and said in a low voice:

"It isn't."

"This is a brake for everyone who wants to press the button."

Just then, the plan document automatically flipped to the second page.

A flowchart sealed with black lines by The Six Seats slowly lit up.

[First Phase of Voluntary Shutdown Transition Plan]

[Establish the Bottom Line for Non-Career Survival]

[Before this bottom line is established, any shutdown vote is invalid]

At the very bottom, there was another line of red text.

[The first bottom line: Those who are not connected to the Career System must also be able to live until tomorrow.]