229: Chapter 230 Strength can be taught, but don't write your heartbeat into the lease agreement.

[Apply for temporary borrowing of Grade A Thunder Element route perception ability?]

[Authorized Source Suggestion: Zhou Heng]

[Cost: Zhou Heng bears thirty percent of the backlash, Pang Xiaoman bears the usage overload]

Pang Xiaoman stared at those words, instantly crumpling the registration page in his hand.

He just wanted to learn how to draw safe routes.

Wanted to make fewer detours when running the South Bank low-position pump station.

Wanted to stop being called a "low-level courier".

Yet at that very instant, the system placed a shortcut right in front of him.

Borrow Grade A Thunder Element perception for a bit.

Seventy-two hours of basic position backfill could immediately become qualified.

He didn't even need to wait until he learned it.

As long as Zhou Heng was willing to lend it.

Zhou Heng stood in the Old Awakening Hall, his expression coldly unsightly.

His Thunder Spear patterns lit up automatically, as if a hand were pulling out his nerves.

[Authorized Source Pending Confirmation]

[Zhou Heng Current Status: Available for Authorization]

[Expected Backlash: Bearable]

"Bearable?"

Zhou Heng sneered.

"You'll bear it for me?"

Pang Xiaoman hurriedly retreated.

"I'm not borrowing it!"

"I just took a look."

Yet the system did not retract it.

[If ability authorization is rejected, training cycle will be extended]

[South Bank route mapping efficiency will decrease]

[Low-position pump station rescue will be delayed]

[It is recommended that both parties voluntarily cooperate based on public interest]

As soon as the four words "public interest" came out, the atmosphere immediately sank.

Too familiar.

Healer being dragged back onto the stage was public interest.

Shield Warrior being indefinitely requisitioned was public interest.

Family children being pushed onto the defense line was also public interest.

Now it had changed its skin and said:

You don't have to go up personally.

Lend out your strength.

Sign away bodily risks.

Push newcomers along a bit faster.

Lin Jin walked over to Pang Xiaoman's side.

"Do you want to borrow it?"

Pang Xiaoman's lips moved.

He really wanted to say no directly.

Yet he glanced at the waterway map sent from South Bank, and his voice lowered.

"I'm afraid if I don't borrow it, I'll slow them down."

Lin Jin nodded.

"Then this is no longer pure voluntary consent."

Pang Xiaoman froze.

Lin Jin asked Zhou Heng again:

"Do you want to lend it?"

Zhou Heng looked at his thunder marks.

"I want to help him."

"But I don't want to shove my perception into his head."

"Nor do I want every person running routes in the future coming to ask me to lend thirty percent of the backlash."

Lin Jin looked toward the system.

"Did you hear that?"

"One fears dragging others down."

"One fears not helping others."

"Adding these two fears together does not constitute mutual willingness."

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Pang Xiaoman unconfirmed borrowing]

[Zhou Heng unconfirmed authorization]

Luo Wensheng Record:

[Ability borrowing applications under public pressure, resource shortages, and emergency rescue states require coercion risk verification.]

He Zhibai added:

[The cost of training extension caused by not borrowing abilities shall be borne by the public, and shall not be blamed on personal refusal.]

The system continued to pop up enticements.

[Ability sharing can reduce casualties]

[Short-term authorization does not change professional affiliation]

[Backlash ratio can be quantified]

Chen Ye was burning with anger as he watched.

"Once quantified, it can be sold?"

"If I share thirty percent of the pain with you, you think I should nod?"

Shen Tingxue gazed at that line [Short-term Authorization], her gaze extremely cold.

"Ice Phoenix cooldown can also be authorized short-term."

"Healer's hands as well."

"The end-stage blade too."

"Then no one needs to ask me in person, as long as they buy a 'short-term' one once."

Gu Changye's voice came from the channel.

"If the authority of the end is lent to others, the first thing it does is most likely not save people."

"It is to let people who don't want to take responsibility use someone else's hands to end things."

Inspector Han Su gripped the cracked Shizhi Blade.

"The authority of duty-killing is the same."

"The moment it is lent out, the review is gone."

Lin Jin pressed the new tool onto the [Ability Sharing Pool].

The old definition surfaced.

[Professional abilities can be temporarily transferred and used under authorization conditions]

[Both authorized parties bear the cost themselves]

[The public system only provides matching]

"Only provides matching?"

Lin Jin let out a laugh.

"You match starving people, urgent people, people wanting to prove themselves, together with people so exhausted they are about to break."

"And you claim you're merely string-pulling?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's work order no. 002 came down.

Crack!

The first definition snapped.

New gray-white text surfaced on top.

[The core of professional abilities shall not be used as position gap fillers for leasing, trading, implicit conscription, or pressure authorization.]

[Experience, knowledge, training methods, tool usage, on-site accompaniment, and low-risk demonstrations can be taught.]

[The transfer of ability cores must be regarded as a high-risk medical and personality boundary event, and shall not be used for rapid position backfilling.]

The system flickered violently.

[If ability sharing is prohibited, position gaps will widen]

"If the gaps widen, write them as gaps."

Lin Jin said.

"Don't write other people's heartbeats as answers to fill-in-the-blank questions."

He turned his head to look at Zhou Heng.

"What can you teach Pang Xiaoman?"

Zhou Heng was silent for a moment, putting away his Thunder Spear.

"Route perception is not just about thunder."

He walked up to the South Bank hand-drawn map and picked up a piece of copper wire.

"Water level changes will leave lines in the corners of walls."

"In places with heavy moisture, copper wire darkens faster."

"Knock three times next to old pipes; if the echo is muffled, it means there is water behind them."

"When running routes, don't just memorize the nearest path; memorize the fallback routes."

Pang Xiaoman stared at him blankly.

"You can learn these without Grade A Thunder Element?"

"Yes."

Zhou Heng handed the copper wire to him.

"It's slow."

"But safe."

The thin girl from the Wuye City Tingshui Team also walked over, placing a bamboo tube on the table.

"I'll teach you how to listen to water."

"First, listen to live water and dead water."

"If you can't tell the difference, you're not allowed to enter the low-position pump station."

Pang Xiaoman nodded heavily.

"Okay."

Teacher Song Qing simultaneously opened a new page in the Qinghe County classroom.

[Collaborative Training Record: Route Safety Introduction]

[Teaching Content: Waterline identification, echo judgment, fallback marking, copper wire moisture changes, hand-drawn maps]

[No Thunder Element ability granted]

[Does not constitute position conscription]

[Training failure can be retaken, not judged as low value]

When Pang Xiaoman received the new training page, his fingers trembled.

There was no "Borrowing Grade A Thunder Element" on it.

No "low-level backfilling".

There was only one line:

[You learn slowly, which doesn't mean you owe anyone thirty percent of a backlash.]

He lowered his head and looked at it for a long time, suddenly rubbing his eyes until they turned red.

At this moment, cries for help from the South Bank low-position pump station came over once more.

"The route is flooded."

"There are still two people in the bridge arch level, and their lights went out."

The system immediately popped the borrowing option back in front of Pang Xiaoman.

[Emergency state, temporarily borrow?]

Pang Xiaoman looked up at Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng looked back at him as well.

This time, Pang Xiaoman did not tremble.

He grabbed the copper wire, the bamboo tube, and the hand-drawing board.

"Not borrowing."

"I'll run the low-risk outer line."

"The Tingshui Team sister is listening right here."

"Teacher Zhou Heng will check my map, don't give me any abilities."

"If I mark anything wrong, stop me immediately."

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Personal Confirmation: Do not borrow abilities, execute low-risk outer line mapping]

Luo Wensheng Record.

Zhong Minglin added:

[Wuye City Tingshui Team assists, does not enter the pump station]

Zhou Heng looked at Pang Xiaoman and nodded.

"Set off."

Pang Xiaoman ran.

He did not run fast.

He even ran to the wrong corner twice and was called back by the Tingshui Team girl tapping her tube.

On the third time, he used the copper wire to test out a side path with abnormally heavy moisture and marked it with a red cross.

On the fifth time, he found a dry flight of stairs outside the old pump station and drew a fallback route.

Fifteen minutes later, the two people in the South Bank bridge arch level were escorted out along that dry flight of stairs.

No Grade A Thunder Element.

No ability borrowing.

There was only a low-level courier who learned the first safe route map that did not sell himself out.

System write-back:

[Position gap backfill: Successful]

Lin Jin immediately altered it.

[Training collaborative rescue: Phased success]

[Pang Xiaoman did not backfill]

[Zhou Heng did not authorize abilities]

[Tingshui Team was not conscripted]

[Successful rescue does not constitute automatic future scheduling]

When Pang Xiaoman returned, he was covered in mud, but his face was frighteningly bright.

"I drew half of it right!"

Chen Ye was just about to praise him, but choked up when he heard "half".

Pang Xiaoman laughed first.

"The other half was wrong."

"But they stopped me."

"So nobody died."

Zhou Heng nodded.

"This is more important than getting everything right all at once."

work order no. 002 write-back:

[Fourth baseline trial run: Distinction between strength teaching and ability leasing]

[Principle: Knowledge can be taught, tools can be borrowed, experience can be passed on, and on-site accompaniment is allowed; professional core abilities shall not be used for rapid position backfilling, resource exchange, pressure authorization, or risk shifting.]

[Learning results do not constitute professional affiliation.]

[Successful cooperation does not constitute future requisitioning.]

[Refusing to borrow abilities does not constitute dragging down public interest.]

Just as many people breathed a sigh of relief, the system suddenly opened an even larger page.

Not a sharing pool.

It was a market.

[Professional Ability Mutual Aid Trading Plaza: Trial Run]

[Ability authorization can yield food, medicine, housing points, priority rescue for family members, and accelerated identity supplementary recording]

[Demand parties can publish position gap bounties]

[Supply parties voluntarily quote prices]

Rows of prices popped out.

[Grade B Healing Technique authorization once: Three-day food coupons]

[Grade A Thunder Element perception for ten minutes: Fifty housing points]

[Ice element cooldown for one hour: Medicine priority right]

[Waste page recognition experience pack: Accelerated identity supplementary recording]

[Maintenance-type anomaly permission residue: High-price solicitation]

Shen Tingxue's expression turned abruptly cold.

Zhou Heng's Thunder Spear hummed lowly.

The waste page wound on Shi Nan's shoulder suddenly throbbed with pain.

Pang Xiaoman's eyes, which had just lit up, dimmed bit by bit.

Because this time, the system did not speak of compulsion.

It spoke of transaction.

It spoke of voluntariness.

It said that if you lacked food, medicine, housing, or identity pages, you could use your abilities, or the things you had just learned, to trade for them.

Lin Jin looked at the constantly scrolling prices, the new tool in his hand gripping tighter bit by bit.

"It's not snatching anymore."

"It's starting to buy."