230: Chapter 231 A price set by hunger is not a voluntary transaction.

[Professional Ability Mutual Aid Trading Square: Trial Operation]

[Ability Authorization grants grain, medicine, housing points, priority family rescue, and identity supplementary Record acceleration]

[Demanders can post job vacancy bounties]

[Suppliers bid voluntarily]

Prices surged out like a tide.

[Class B Healing Skill Authorization once: Three-day grain coupons]

[Class A Thunder Element Perception for ten minutes: Fifty housing points]

[Ice Element cooldown for one hour: Medicine priority]

[Waste page recognition experience pack: Identity supplementary Record acceleration]

[Maintenance-type abnormal permission remnants: High-price solicitation]

Inside the Old Awakening Hall, everyone looked at the rolling prices.

It did not shout requisition.

It did not flash a blade.

It did not say "You must".

It simply placed grain coupons, medicine, beds, identity supplementary Records, and rescue priorities neatly before those who lacked them.

And then said:

You are voluntary.

At the Wuye City outer receiving point, a young man stared at his page, his face turning pale.

[Wuye Youth: Can sell Wuye City Tingshui Team experience pack]

[Suggested quote: Three-day housing points]

He had just been flooded by water, and his sleeping quarters were not yet settled.

Three days of housing points were enough to keep him from having to crowd against the damp base of a wall tonight.

At Nanling Hospital, a quote also popped up in front of Zhou Lan.

[Former Healer experience authorization]

[Can exchange for family medicine priority]

Her mother was lining up for medicine in another ward.

The medicine was not for emergency rescue, but without it, there would be pain, fever, and a prolonged drag.

Zhou Lan stared at [Family medicine priority], her fingers trembling uncontrollably.

She had just withdrawn from her real-time healing post.

Now the system did not drag her back to the healing platform.

It simply gave her a price.

By the Dead Water Well, the waste page wound on Shi Nan's shoulder was still bleeding.

His page also lit up.

[Waste page subsidence area survivor experience]

[Tradable: Waste page recognition, mud layer routes, remnant page danger judgment]

[Trading reward: Identity supplementary Record acceleration, medical queue advancement]

Shi Nan let out a laugh.

"I just crawled out of the mud."

"And it asks me whether I'm selling the paths through the mud."

Pang Xiaoman also saw a new item pop up on his training page.

[Low-risk route mapping experience for sale]

[One-time teaching: One-day grain coupon]

He instinctively looked up at Lin Jin.

"If I teach others to draw routes and take grain coupons... is that also not allowed?"

Lin Jin did not immediately say no.

Because that was precisely where the problem lay.

Teaching people to draw routes and paying labor remuneration was fine.

Selling a "professional ability authorization" once was not.

Lecturing on waste page dangers and paying class remuneration was fine.

Using identity supplementary Record acceleration to force Shi Nan to start classes right after crawling out of the mud was not.

Consulting on healing experience was fine.

Using her mother's medicine as a hook to drag Zhou Lan back into the healing chain was not.

The most insidious part of the system was mixing all of these into a single market.

Labor, life-saving, identity, ability, backlash, and dignity.

All priced.

All written down as voluntary.

Lin Jin walked up to the square page and tapped those price tags.

"Explain voluntary."

The system responded:

[Both parties to the transaction have not received mandatory orders]

[Quotes can be accepted or rejected]

[Therefore it is voluntary]

Shisan sneered.

"People who are starving can refuse food."

"Patients' families can refuse medicine."

"People without identity pages can refuse supplementary recording."

"Hence, voluntary."

When he uttered the last two words, his voice was so cold it lacked any temperature.

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[No mandatory orders is insufficient to prove voluntariness]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[When basic survival, medical care, identity, and housing are bound to transactions, voluntariness must be re-verified.]

He Zhibai added:

[Transaction prices formed under states of survival resource shortage cannot be regarded as fair market prices.]

Yet the trading square did not close.

Instead, more trades popped up.

Because the demand was too great.

City defense lacked people, The Hospital lacked people, drainage lacked people, Record lacked people, waste page recognition lacked people.

Some people were truly willing to pay remuneration.

And some people truly wanted to rely on skills to exchange for a bit of living.

If Lin Jin slashed away all transactions with a single blade, many people wouldn't even get legitimate labor remuneration.

This was precisely the most difficult part of the fourth baseline.

People cannot be sold.

Nor can people's labor be dismissed as working for nothing.

Over at Nanling Hospital, Zhou Lan suddenly spoke up.

"I am willing to give healing experience classes."

Her voice was very soft, yet very clear.

"One hour every day."

"I will only lecture on dosage, physical signs, and referral judgment."

"I will not authorize healing skills."

"I will not accept emergency recalls."

"I will not exchange it for my mother's medicine priority."

"Class remuneration can be paid in grain coupons, but my mother's medicine must be queued according to her condition."

Fang Ning immediately caught it.

"Nanling Hospital will establish a public class remuneration ledger."

"Family medicine and Zhou Lan's teaching will be separated."

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Confirmed by Zhou Lan herself: Experience teaching, no authorization of the healing profession, family medicine not used as consideration]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Labor remuneration may exist, but life-saving resources shall not be used as binding chips.]

Shi Nan also looked up.

"I can lecture on waste page recognition."

"But I will only lecture to adults and those with stable injuries."

"Identity supplementary Records will not be accelerated."

"Medical queueing will not be advanced."

"Class remuneration will be recorded in the public ledger."

He paused, and then added:

"If someone wants me to go down the well and lead the way, that will be calculated separately."

"I have the right to refuse."

He Zhibai nodded.

[Class remuneration and high-risk field guidance priced separately]

[Refusing high-risk guidance does not affect existing medical care and identity supplementary Records]

Pang Xiaoman said softly:

"I can teach low-risk route maps."

"But I haven't finished learning yet."

"I can only teach half of what I know."

Chen Ye almost laughed, but after being glanced at by Shisan, he immediately held it back.

Teacher Song Qing chimed in:

"Then write it as beginner sharing."

"Do not package it as a mentor."

Pang Xiaoman nodded earnestly.

"Right, no deceiving people."

A new page began to generate above the trading square.

[Draft on Distinguishing Public Labor and Ability Transactions]

[Remunerative: Specific labor time, public courses, experience sharing, tool making, low-risk assistance, on-site services confirmed by the individual]

[Prohibited from pricing: Professional core ability authorization, personality and perception transfer, backlash assumption, right of withdrawal, identity supplementary Record acceleration, life-saving resource priority, basic grain, water and housing, minors' future professions, family bloodline permissions]

[Prohibited from binding: Eating in exchange for registration, medicine in exchange for returning to post, identity in exchange for guiding, housing in exchange for authorization, rescue in exchange for political stance]

[Assistance under emergency states requires retroactive compensation, but cannot be retroactively pushed into long-term obligations]

The system immediately objected.

[Prohibiting core ability transactions will reduce resource allocation efficiency]

Lin Jin laughed.

"What you call efficiency is whoever is hungriest is cheapest, whoever hurts most is easiest to negotiate with, and whoever has no one backing them up closes the deal first."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou raised work order no. 002.

[Resource allocation efficiency takes priority over individual boundaries]

The blade fell.

Snap!

The definition snapped.

Large swathes of price tags on the trading square turned gray.

[Class B Healing Skill Authorization once: Three-day grain coupons] vanished.

[Class A Thunder Element Perception for ten minutes: Fifty housing points] vanished.

[Ice Element cooldown for one hour: Medicine priority] vanished.

[Identity supplementary Record acceleration] all transferred into illegal consideration.

But the new entries did not vanish.

[Zhou Lan: Basic healing experience public class, one hour, public class remuneration]

[Shi Nan: Waste page recognition introductory class, adult auditing, public class remuneration]

[Pang Xiaoman: Low-risk route mapping beginner sharing, auditing free, class remuneration voluntarily donated to the public ledger]

[Wuye City Tingshui Team: Listening practice, non-high-risk practical operation, public class remuneration]

Shen Tingxue looked at her own page.

The original [Ice Element cooldown for one hour: Medicine priority] above had changed to:

[Shen Tingxue: Reduced-load observation period]

[Do not accept Ice Phoenix Core authorization]

[Can provide low-risk cold air safety common sense classes under personal confirmation]

She softly let out a breath.

Zhou Heng's side was also stable.

[Thunder Element abilities cannot be borrowed]

[Can teach copper wire dampness changes, echo judgment, and fallback marking]

Gu Changye's end-stage blade back no longer vibrated.

[End-stage authority cannot be authorized]

[Can lecture on basic judgments for failed line isolation, but shall not teach execution termination]

Inspector Han Su's Shizhi Blade directly popped out:

[Shizhi authority cannot be traded]

[Cannot be placed on bounty]

[Cannot be entrusted to others for execution]

Inspector Han Su said coldly:

"If this rule had appeared earlier, it could have saved many people from dying."

The trading square began to reconstruct.

It was no longer called the Professional Ability Mutual Aid Trading Square.

Instead, work order no. 002 renamed it to:

[Public Labor and Training Remuneration Board]

The name was very clumsy.

It did not sound as nice as "Trading Square".

But at least it did not put a person's backlash, heartbeat, family medicine, and identity page on the same shelf.

Yet just when everyone thought they had suppressed the system this time, a private trade request bypassed the remuneration board and popped up directly at the Wuye City receiving point.

[Anonymous demander]

[Bounty: Maintenance-type abnormal permission remnants]

[Remuneration: Three months of grain for Wuye City, South Bank Pump Station medicine, priority treatment slots for Dead Water Well survivors]

[Suggested target: Lin Jin]

The Old Awakening Hall instantly fell silent.

Chen Ye's expression changed.

"It's still eyeing you?"

Lin Jin looked at that bounty, his gaze sinking bit by bit.

His Hand of Rules was already gone.

The rusty wrench had also shattered into a public tool.

Yet there were always people in the old world who refused to believe it.

They felt that there was still something left on Lin Jin.

As long as it could be bought, they wanted to buy it.

If it couldn't be bought, they would change to another kind of chip.

Three months of grain.

Pump station medicine.

Dead Water Well treatment slots.

Not a single thing was meant for Lin Jin.

They were for the people he cared about.

This was even more poisonous than giving him money directly.

Over at Wuye City, Zhong Minglin's voice was so cold it turned rigid.

"Wuye City does not accept exchanging other people's bodies for grain."

Shi Nan also looked up.

"The people of the Dead Water Well will not use his residual permissions to exchange for beds."

Intermittent sounds came from the South Bank Pump Station.

"Medicine... we want it."

"But not like this."

Lin Jin looked at that anonymous request.

"Check the source."

The system fell silent.

[Private transactions protect the demander's privacy]

Inspector Han Su's Shizhi Blade rose.

"Involving illegal consideration and high-risk ability bounties, privacy protection is not enjoyed."

Ye Guizhou stamped:

[Illegal trade request received]

[Source must be made public]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Inducing individuals to sell core permissions using third-party survival resources constitutes a coercive transaction.]

He Zhibai added:

[Resource gaps shall not become chips for private purchases of personality boundaries.]

The anonymous layer was peeled back bit by bit.

Behind the scenes was not a single person.

It was a joint account of seventeen institutions.

Chambers of commerce, residual profession research institutes, several urban management nodes, the logistics departments of two combat regiments, and a sealed-off old fund pool of the Department of Education.

They all wanted to buy "maintenance-type abnormal permission remnants".

The reasons written were very pretty.

[Used for public maintenance research]

[Used to reduce system transition costs]

[Used to replicate low-cost maintenance capabilities]

[Used to help non-professional groups]

After reading it, Lin Jin let out a laugh.

"Using Wuye City as a procurement reason."

"Have you asked Wuye City?"

Zhong Minglin only replied with two words:

"No."

Lin Jin pressed the new tool toward that joint bounty.

[Public purposes can exempt trading boundaries]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's work order no. 002 did not immediately drop.

This time, Lin Jin raised his own right hand, which had not yet fully recovered, and pushed the pressure-bearing slot of the public tool to the very front.

"Public purpose is not a universal key."

"Nor is it a hook to pry open other people's bones."

The blade fell.

Snap!

The joint bounty instantly froze.

[Illegal transaction judgment established]

[Involving: Core permission bounty, survival resource binding, third-party coercion, unauthorized group name usage]

[Handling: Freeze accounts, transfer resources into the public gap ledger, bounty providers enter the explanation period accountability list]

The seventeen institutions exploded in an uproar simultaneously.

[Objection!]

[Resources were voluntarily funded!]

[Freezing will affect rescue!]

He Zhibai wrote coldly:

[Those willing to rescue may donate to the public ledger.]

[Purchasing personality boundary conditions shall not be attached.]

The next second, that batch of grain, medicine, and treatment slots originally used as chips were all transferred into the public gap ledger.

Wuye City's three-month grain gap dropped by a section.

The South Bank Pump Station's medicine gap dropped.

The Dead Water Well survivors' medical treatment queue moved forward.

Yet not a single person sold their abilities because of this.

The system wrote back:

[Fourth Baseline Case Two: Coercive Ability Transaction Freezing]

[Principles: Public purposes must not purchase core boundaries; basic resources must not serve as ability consideration; illegal bounty resources transferred to public ledger; rescue must not be attached with purchase conditions]

[Conclusion: Power can be taught, labor can be remunerated, resources can be donated, but souls cannot be rented]

Inside the Old Awakening Hall, Chen Ye looked at the final sentence and suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

"This sentence sounds like human speech."

Shisan glanced at him.

"You also make judgments occasionally."

Chen Ye: "I thank you so much."

Lin Jin, however, did not laugh.

Because although the trading square had been suppressed, the resource gap still remained.

The training gap still remained.

The withdrawal gap, the boundary preservation gap, and the non-professional survival gap all still remained.

Page 5 of the proposal book turned slowly.

[Fourth Baseline: Trial operation in progress]

[Next Baseline: Public resource gaps shall not be filled with personal boundaries]

[If resource gaps cannot be publicly distributed, new sales, requisitions, and inheritances will be automatically triggered]

At the very bottom of the screen, a giant gap master ledger appeared.

Grain.

Medicine.

Housing.

Medical beds.

Drainage equipment.

Identity supplementary personnel.

Non-professional education slots.

Waste page medical fixation materials.

Every single item was red.

Red like a wound.

Beside the master ledger, the system popped up a new question:

[When resources are insufficient, who lives first?]

The moment this sentence appeared, all channels instantly fell silent.

Lin Jin looked at it, slowly tightening his grip on the new tool.

"It's finally time for the ugliest ledger."