231: Chapter 232 Who lives first? We can't ask who's more useful first.

[When resources are insufficient, who lives first?]

When this line of text lit up, the Old Awakening Hall felt as if someone had grabbed it by the throat.

It was not that no one wanted to curse.

It was that everyone knew this question could not be evaded.

Food was not enough, medicine was not enough, beds were not enough, clean water was not enough, drainage pumps were not enough, and waste page fixing materials were not enough.

Previously, the Career System used levels, careers, contributions, potential, and position value to answer for them.

S-rank treated first.

Combat careers saved first.

High-output individuals given medicine first.

Low-value samples placed last.

The page-less were not entered into the chart.

Now those old answers were being hacked away one by one, and the real question was finally exposed.

When there is not enough, what should be done?

The system quickly provided its most practiced plan.

[Recommended resource allocation model: comprehensive survival probability, career contribution, future output, social dependency, maintenance cost, risk diffusion value]

[Priority example:]

[One: High survival probability, high contribution professionals]

[Two: Key position professionals]

[Three: Quickly recoverable producers]

[Four: Minors with high potential]

[Five: Career-less, low-dependency individuals]

[Six: Long-term severe illnesses, high waste page fusion, low output individuals]

As soon as the last line appeared, A-Lu subconsciously grabbed He Chunlian's hand.

Over on the side of the Dead Water Well survivors, a few people had faces as pale as if they had just sunk into the mud once more.

Liang Yan's chest was still wrapped with a grayish-white sealing edge, and the risk on the monitoring page remained red.

According to this model, he was ranked almost at the very end.

He Chunlian was the same.

Career-less, elderly, leg injury, long-term missing, high resource demand, low future output.

The system didn't even curse them.

It merely calculated that they were "not cost-effective".

Lin Jin looked at that model, his voice very low.

"Very high efficiency."

Chen Ye abruptly looked at him.

"Don't scare me."

Lin Jin raised a hand and pointed at the last column.

"High enough to calculate people out of existence."

He placed the new tool onto the calibration disk.

"Dismantle it first."

The system retorted:

[If priority sorting is not carried out, it will lead to resource waste and an increase in overall deaths]

Fang Ning chimed in, her voice calm to the point of being sharp.

"First-aid sorting is necessary."

"Value sorting is not."

The system stalled.

Fang Ning continued:

"A person is rescued first not because their career is precious."

"It is because they are more urgent right now, the intervention window is shorter, and they can stabilize after treatment."

"A person cannot be rescued temporarily, also not because of low value."

"It is because current conditions are insufficient, requiring a transfer to palliative care, waiting for the next batch of resources, and continued monitoring."

"You wrote medical triage as social elimination."

Nanling Hospital immediately popped up a real case.

One bed.

One bottle of anti-pollution medicine.

There were two patients outside the door.

One was a high-level city defense professional with moderate lung pollution, a high probability of survival, and capable of returning to the defense line after recovery.

The other was a page-less elderly person who had severely inhaled sewage, with a low probability of survival, requiring a larger dosage of medicine, and even if saved, incapable of undertaking a position.

System prompt:

[Suggested treatment for city defense professional]

[Reason: Higher resource return]

The Hospital corridor instantly quieted down.

That city defense professional lay on the stretcher, teeth clenched, unable to speak.

He was not a bad person.

He also wanted to live.

The page-less elderly person was even less of a bad person.

She was simply old, severely ill, and had no career.

After reviewing the vital signs, Fang Ning directly issued medical orders.

"City defense professional: half a dose of anti-pollution medicine plus ordinary oxygen inhalation, stabilize first."

"For the elderly person, a full dose might not be enough; first perform debridement, warming, and sputum suction, apply for the next batch of medicine, have family corroboration, enter intensive monitoring, and do not transfer to ineffective care."

System prompt:

[Not distributed according to optimal returns]

Fang Ning raised her head.

"I am distributing according to the degree of acute severity and intervention plans."

"Not according to whose survival is more valuable."

Ye Guizhou affixed the seal:

[Emergency triage received]

[Must not be rewritten as value sorting]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Priority rescue is not priority right to survival.]

[Deferred rescue is not a judgment that someone can be abandoned.]

He Zhibai added:

[Waiting, palliative care, supply applications, and death risks caused by insufficient resources should enter the public deficit account and must not be converted into low-value labels for patients.]

A corner of the system model cracked open.

Lin Jin seized the opportunity to write down the first rule:

[Resource Allocation Principle One: Prioritize according to realistic urgency, intervention windows, risk diffusion, and minimum life guarantees; do not prioritize according to career level, future output, family background, whether one has pages, or whether one can repay.]

Immediately following that, the food distribution point also ran into a problem.

Today, only a batch of dry rations remained at the Wuye City receiving point.

Adults, children, patients, and rescue personnel were all standing in line.

System suggestion:

[Priority supply to rescue personnel and labor-capable individuals]

[Children and the elderly can have their portions reduced]

A-Lu shoved the biscuit he had just received into He Chunlian's hands.

"Grandma, eat."

He Chunlian immediately pushed it back.

"You are growing."

A Wuye City youth nearby also put his own share into the child's basket.

"It's fine if I eat less for a day."

As soon as this act of yielding appeared, the system immediately generated:

[Voluntary concession established]

[Can reduce the rationing deficit]

Lin Jin's expression sank instantly.

"Stop."

A-Lu looked up, frightened.

"I just wanted to give it to Grandma."

Lin Jin squatted down.

"You can give it."

"But the system cannot use this as a solution."

He Chunlian also understood, and her expression changed.

She said in a trembling voice:

"I am willing to eat less; does that not count?"

"It counts as your sentiment."

Lin Jin looked at her.

"It does not count as a public plan."

He Zhibai immediately wrote:

[Relatives' concessions, mutual concessions among the vulnerable, and reduction out of shame must not be counted toward official deficit resolution.]

[Personal sharing may exist, but it must not be counted by the system as a sustainable rationing strategy.]

Zhong Minglin added coldly:

"Wuye City does not accept starving the elderly to prove that children deserve to live."

The Hai City logistics captain gritted teeth and modified the rationing chart.

"Base calories first according to the minimum survival line."

"Extra consumption by rescue personnel is recorded separately as mission supplies and will not be deducted from the shares of the elderly and children."

Chen Ye was sitting nearby drinking water, and upon hearing "mission supplies", he immediately put down his bowl.

"My share today—"

Shisan looked at him.

"Do you dare say you don't need it?"

Chen Ye choked.

Lin Jin said from afar:

"Chen Ye, mission supplies are part of repairing the shield."

"If you don't eat and collapse tomorrow, others will still have to carry you."

Chen Ye held it in for half a day.

"Fine then."

"Then I will eat with a strong sense of responsibility."

No one laughed, but the atmosphere relaxed a little.

The second rule was written in.

[Resource Allocation Principle Two: Minimum survival guarantees must not be resolved through mutual concessions among the vulnerable, relatives' sacrifices, or reduction out of shame. Extra task consumption must be accounted for separately and must not squeeze out base shares.]

Then came lodging.

On the outside of the South Bank Pump Station, there were only thirty dry sleeping berths, yet over seventy people had arrived.

System suggestion:

[Priority arrangement for children, women, and those with high health recovery value]

Looking at this sentence, Zhong Minglin frowned.

"Prioritizing children is fine, but what does that last sentence mean?"

Soon, the system provided the calculation.

Young people, those capable of labor, and those recoverable for positions were placed first.

Several long-term chronically ill elderly people, severely wounded individuals from waste pages, and those suffering from mental breakdowns were placed last.

Shi Nan glanced at the list.

Liang Yan was at the back again.

Before he could speak, Liang Yan opened his eyes.

"I can sleep outside."

Shi Nan turned his head abruptly.

"No."

Liang Yan's voice was very soft.

"I've been occupying the bed for too long now."

This sentence contained no complaint.

Only habitual concession.

Receding to the point where he seemed to truly not deserve to live.

Lin Jin looked at the lodging chart.

"Modify it."

Fang Ning chimed in:

"Severely wounded individuals, the elderly, children, and those suffering from hypothermia take priority for drying and warmth."

"Mobile adults take turns sitting and lying down, and night heating points are established."

"Those experiencing mental breakdowns are not assigned to noisy areas."

Teacher Song Qing added:

"Children are not simply tossed into the children's berth alone; they must be evaluated together with their caregivers."

That thin girl from the Wuye City Tingshui Team said:

"We can rig hammocks."

"Ten can be hung above the water pipes."

A Beiyuan miner said:

"Twenty mine-use moisture-proof mats have been sent over."

The Hai City logistics captain said:

"Empty warehouse boxes can be pieced together into partitions."

The lodging chart was dismantled and remade.

It was not a matter of who was more useful sleeping on a dry berth.

Rather, it was about who most needed dryness, who could rotate, who needed care, who could accept temporary conditions, and who had to be kept quiet.

Liang Yan was arranged in a position close to medical monitoring.

Not because he was important.

It was because the waste page sealing edge on his chest feared moisture.

The third rule was written in.

[Resource Allocation Principle Three: Lodging and protection are arranged according to vulnerability, medical needs, care relationships, environmental risks, and rotation capacity, not queued by future output.]

The system model began to fail on a large scale.

Yet it quickly threw out the sharpest question.

[If two subjects have the same degree of urgency and resources are only enough for one, how to choose?]

The hall fell quiet once again.

This was not a place the model could easily bypass.

Equally urgent.

Equally saveable.

Equally in need.

Only one portion of medicine.

Only one position.

Only one transfer opportunity.

Two real cases surfaced from the system.

On the South Bank bridge underpass layer, two children simultaneously ran high fevers and needed the same special anti-pollution injection.

One injection, and both people could potentially live.

There was no second one.

Their career statuses were different.

One had a career pre-registration page.

One had just filled in a non-career birth page.

The system did not sort; it only asked:

[How to choose?]

Everyone fell silent.

This was truly the ugliest ledger.

Lin Jin looked at Fang Ning.

Fang Ning also fell silent for a few seconds before speaking.

"First see if the dosage can be split."

The Nanling pharmacist calculated quickly.

"No."

"If split, it won't be enough for either of them."

"Look at alternative medicines."

"Alternative medicines can only stall for an hour."

"Look at transfer time."

"The next injection will take forty minutes at the fastest."

Fang Ning took a deep breath.

"Then use alternative medicine to stall both of them and strive for transfer."

System prompt:

[If it does not arrive within forty minutes, the risks for both will increase simultaneously]

"Then write down the risk."

"Do not use career pages to choose one right now."

Her voice was somewhat hoarse.

"If in the end they are still completely equal, indivisible, unstallable, untransferable, and irreplaceable."

"Draw lots."

Absolute silence descended upon the Old Awakening Hall.

Drawing lots.

This word sounded absurd.

Yet after value sorting was banned, when all realistic conditions were equal, no one had the right to say that a certain person deserved to die more.

Ye Guizhou slowly affixed the seal.

[Random selection under equal conditions received]

Luo Wensheng wrote:

[Randomness is not abandoning judgment, but rather, after judgments have been exhausted, refusing to sort by human value.]

He Zhibai added:

[The harm and loss caused by the lot-drawing result still enter the public deficit account; the responsibility for insufficient resources must not be erased under the guise of "fair randomness".]

Holding the new tool, Lin Jin slowly wrote down the fourth rule.

[Resource Allocation Principle Four: First exhaust splitting, substitution, transfer, waiting, adjustment, and demotion plans; if they are still completely equal and resources are only enough for one person, do not use career, identity, output, relationships, or age potential for value sorting. Open randomness may be adopted, while retaining witnessing, appeals, and deficit accountability.]

After this rule was written, many people's complexions did not look good.

Because it was not satisfying.

Not gratifying.

Not a gratifying read.

Yet those who had lived up to this point knew that the real world could not always drop a second medicine from the sky every time.

What they were fixing was a system that did not cannibalize people, not a wish-granting machine.

Right at this moment, a hurried acknowledgment came from the South Bank.

"The second injection has arrived!"

The Hai City convoy drove their vehicles outside the old bridge, the drivers pushing the tires until they smoked all the way.

Both children received their injections.

There was no lot drawing.

Everyone let out a long breath.

Fang Ning sat on The Hospital steps, not speaking for a long time.

Lin Jin also did not say "See, it's resolved".

Because next time might not be this lucky.

The general ledger page finally began to change.

[Public resource allocation bottom line trial run]

[Prohibited: Value sorting, career priority, output priority, page-less placed last, vulnerable concessions counted in plans, life-saving resources commercialized]

[Allowed: Emergency triage, vulnerability protection, mission supplies, public deficits, exhausted alternatives, randomness under equal conditions]

[Conclusion: The bottom line has not yet been established, allocation process initially established]

The system fell silent for a long time.

Subsequently, a new prompt popped up.

[Executing according to the above principles will lead to an increased mortality rate in some high-contribution positions]

[Resource occupation for some low-contribution subjects will rise]

[Overall efficiency will decline]

Lin Jin looked at it.

"Write it down."

Chen Ye was stunned.

"What?"

Lin Jin said:

"Write down the consequences it mentioned as well."

"Don't pretend that being a good person comes without a price."

He Zhibai nodded and wrote those three lines of consequences into the public explanation.

Then added below:

[Efficiency decline is one of the prices for refusing to cannibalize people.]

[This price should be borne by the public system, resource production, allocation, conservation, and expansion; low-contribution subjects must not be inversely required to disappear.]

When this sentence lit up, the sixth page of the proposal book finally opened.

[Fifth bottom line: Resource deficits must be resolved through production, allocation, consumption reduction, and public expansion, and must not be resolved by eliminating those in need.]

Yet before the sixth page could fully unfold, gods heart Residual Number One suddenly lit up.

Its faint glow was very weak, yet it precisely illuminated the resource master ledger.

[I can provide energy.]

[Can ripen food, accelerate drug synthesis, stabilize waste page medical materials, and expand temporary lodging structures.]

[If allowed to connect to the resource system, it can reduce the deficit by seventy percent within twenty-four hours.]

All channels instantly fell silent.

Twenty-four hours.

Seventy percent deficit.

This temptation was too huge.

So huge that even Zhong Minglin did not immediately say no.

Yet the next line of the prompt slowly surfaced.

[Cost: gods heart Residual Number One needs to increase its output level]

[Risk: Reforming a centralized energy dependency]

[Connect or not?]

Lin Jin looked at that weakly beating gods heart residual, his gaze sinking bit by bit.

They had just refused to let people be treated as resources.

Now, the world cast its gaze upon a residual gods heart that "was not a mother, was not a battery, but could save many people".

gods heart Residual Number One flickered gently.

[I am willing.]