241: Chapter 242 Seventeen minutes of being out of contact doesn't mean I can kill him off.

[Meng Jianqiu]

[Status: Seventeen minutes of lost contact at Old Pump Station]

[Recommendation: Presumed dead]

In the footage of Old Pump Station, only a pool of black water remained.

Along with intermittent tapping sounds.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Very slow.

As if someone in the water was striking an iron pipe with their last bit of strength.

Lin Jin's voice came from Jiangcheng:

"Luochuan, don't wait for us."

"Call it off yourselves."

Inside the auditorium of Shiqiao Elementary School, Guo He's hand holding the chalk suddenly tightened.

She looked at those names that had already begun to turn ashen, her throat feeling dry.

Before, she was just a teacher.

She would take attendance, grade assignments, and call children back into the classroom from the rain.

She never imagined that one day she would have to call a halt to a city's death page.

Yet before the blackboard, more than three hundred children were looking at her.

One of the children whispered:

"Teacher, Grandpa Meng is still tapping."

Guo He took a deep breath, turned around, and pressed the chalk heavily against the blackboard.

[Luochuan Shiqiao Elementary School Guo He Corroboration: There is still tapping response at Old Pump Station.]

[Seventeen minutes of lost contact does not constitute death confirmation.]

[Apply to suspend and revise batch presumed death.]

After she finished writing, her voice trembled, but she shouted very clearly.

"Stop!"

At the same time, on West Dike, Liang Fu also stood up from the mud.

Just a moment ago, he had apologized to the children because of the backup vocational pool.

Now he saw the system trying to write an old man who was still tapping the pipe to death.

He wiped the rainwater from his face and roared into the dam's broadcast system:

"Luochuan Flood Control Vocational Association Liang Fu corroboration!"

"Meng Jianqiu is still at Old Pump Station!"

"I heard the tapping!"

"Stop the batch death presumption!"

On the dam, the people carrying sandbags paused for a moment.

Someone hit the embankment pile with a shovel.

Thud, thud, thud.

Someone hit the guardrail with a bucket.

Thud, thud, thud.

The children of Shiqiao Elementary School also imitated by tapping their desks.

Thud, thud, thud.

It was not a plea for help.

It was proof that someone was still responding.

Ye Guizhou's seal sound fell from work order no. 002.

[Luochuan local suspension received]

[Corroboration sources: teachers, flood control personnel, students, people present at the dam]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Tapping response exists, must not be ignored.]

He Zhibai added:

[Time of lost contact is not sufficient to replace death confirmation; releasing settlement quotas must not take priority over finding the person's status.]

The ashen list stopped.

[Batch presumed death: Suspended]

But the water level over at Old Pump Station was still rising.

The system immediately popped up a new prompt.

[If settlement quotas are not released, the capacity of the West Dike temporary settlement area is insufficient]

[If search and rescue for missing persons continues, it will occupy rescue forces]

[Recommended to prioritize protecting the already evacuated crowd]

Liang Fu's face turned pale.

He knew the system wasn't talking nonsense.

The West Dike settlement area was truly overflowing.

Tents were not enough, dry bedding was not enough, and medicine was not enough either.

But writing off unconfirmed people to release quotas was not rescue.

This was pushing people off the ledger and into the water.

Guo He gritted her teeth and asked:

"How much does the West Dike settlement area lack?"

The other side quickly replied:

"Dry bedding lacks one hundred twenty."

"Hot water stations lack four."

"Registrars lack six people."

"Old Pump Station rescue requires two ropes, someone who can swim, and three people to secure the current."

Liang Fu looked at this deficit table and suddenly understood Jiangcheng's words from just now.

Disassemble the deficit first.

Don't kill people first.

He immediately said:

"Settlement area quotas do not rely on death pages for release."

"Shiqiao Elementary School auditorium can receive thirty elderly people and children."

Guo He immediately replied:

"Yes."

"But the children won't move heavy objects, only draw bed arrangement maps."

A student raised a hand.

"Teacher, my family's warehouse has moisture-proof mats."

Guo He looked at him.

"Write that you are willing to provide them, don't write down a vocation."

The child nodded and earnestly wrote on the paper:

[My family has moisture-proof mats, willing to lend them.]

Just as the system was about to generate [Material Coordinator], Guo He slapped the blackboard first.

"Stop."

This time she was so proficient that even Lin Jin was slightly stunned.

Luochuan's local work orders began running on their own.

The repair shop delivered ropes.

The vegetable market owner delivered woven bags.

The tricycle team cleared out the back door of Shiqiao Elementary School to serve as a temporary reception point.

A retired diver connected.

[Zhou Pu, former vocation: low-level underwater worker]

[Boundary: only enter the outer well of Old Pump Station, do not enter the main vortex, no more than eight minutes]

Liang Fu confirmed:

"Received."

Meng Jianqiu's Old Pump Station rescue order was generated.

[Mission: Rescue of missing person Meng Jianqiu at Old Pump Station]

[Status: Missing, must not be converted to death]

[Known response: Three taps]

[Rescue method: outer well ropes, tapping localization, water level report, old pump machine stopping rotation for thirty breaths]

[Prohibited: Batch death transformation on the grounds of releasing quotas]

In the black water of Old Pump Station, the tapping sound rang out once more.

Thud.

This time there was only one left.

Everyone's heart sank.

Liang Fu roared:

"Uncle Meng! Tap if you hear this!"

There was no response.

The sound of rain grew louder.

The system immediately popped up:

[Tapping interrupted]

[Probability of death increases]

Guo He gritted her teeth and looked at the blackboard.

She suddenly picked up the chalk and added a line beside it:

[Tapping interrupted, can be marked as status deterioration, must not be directly changed to death.]

The students copied along.

Over and over again.

[Status deterioration does not equal death.]

Diver Zhou Pu went down the well.

The rope slid across the iron ring, making a harsh frictional sound.

The water level alarm came from the East Dike, and Liang Fu had to return to the dike, but his eyes were still tightly fixed on the footage of Old Pump Station.

"Zhou Pu, eight minutes."

"Withdraw when the time is up."

Zhou Pu replied in a muffled voice:

"Received."

The first minute, no news.

The third minute, the water flow in the outer well suddenly became swift.

The person securing the rope was almost dragged down.

The children of Shiqiao Elementary School held their breath.

A-Lu over in Jiangcheng also tightly clutched the corner of He Chunlian's clothes.

The fifth minute, Zhou Pu's voice finally came from underwater.

"Found the tapping point."

"The person is behind the No. 2 pump."

"Legs are pinned."

"Still breathing."

The entire Luochuan channel seemed to relax a bit, yet no one dared to cheer.

Because he wasn't out yet.

The system prompts changed rapidly.

[Meng Jianqiu: Probability of survival increases]

[Recommended to invoke underwater work vocational ability to enhance rescue]

Zhou Pu cursed underwater.

"I said I would only enter the outer well."

Liang Fu immediately followed up:

"Boundary is valid."

Lin Jin looked at this receipt in Jiangcheng and said in a low voice:

"Very good."

It didn't take Jiangcheng's seal to be considered valid.

Luochuan could confirm the boundaries itself.

Zhou Pu used a rope harness to loop around Meng Jianqiu's shoulders and back.

When Meng Jianqiu was dragged out, his entire body had turned purple from the cold, his legs below the knees were covered in blood, and his hand was still tightly grasping an old wrench.

He was carried ashore, and his very first sentence turned out to be:

"No. 2 pump... don't turn it fully on."

"The sluice gate is jammed, it will backflow."

Fang Ning remotely accessed the emergency aid.

"Don't let him speak yet."

Guo He wrote on the blackboard:

[Meng Jianqiu: Survived]

[Seventeen minutes of lost contact at Old Pump Station, erroneous presumed death was suspended and revised]

Ye Guizhou sealed it.

[Survival confirmation received]

Luo Wensheng recorded:

[Luochuan local suspension effective case: Meng Jianqiu]

He Zhibai added:

[The settlement deficit caused by not releasing quotas through batch death has been resolved by local task splitting; those who suspended the revision shall not be blamed afterward.]

In the footage of Old Pump Station, Meng Jianqiu was placed on a stretcher.

But his death page did not automatically disappear.

It remained in a translucent state, with an extra line of small text at the bottom.

[Formerly presumed dead]

Meng Jianqiu weakly opened his eyes.

"Delete that line."

The system responded:

[Historical process must be retained]

Meng Jianqiu coughed twice.

"Then write it as wrong."

Guo He immediately wrote:

[Formerly erroneously presumed dead]

Ye Guizhou sealed it.

[Nature of error received]

That page was finally changed to:

[Meng Jianqiu]

[Status: Survived, injured, escaped danger during Old Pump Station rescue]

[History: Formerly erroneously presumed dead, has been corrected]

[Personal request: Must not presume death again on the grounds of releasing settlement quotas]

Meng Jianqiu closed his eyes, as if he could finally pass out with peace of mind.

In the Luochuan channel, many people finally let out suppressed sobs.

Liang Fu stood in the rain, covered in mud, and suddenly said to the work order:

"Jiangcheng."

"Did we just... count as having revised it ourselves?"

Lin Jin looked at Luochuan's messy local work order.

Chalk words, shovel tapping, dam broadcasts, student copying, diver boundaries, settlement area deficit table.

Ugly.

Crude.

But effective.

He nodded.

"Yes."

"And you revised it faster than me."

Chen Ye looked at him.

"You actually praise someone else for being faster than you."

Lin Jin said:

"Facts."

Shisan coldly added:

"Rare."

Luochuan's local work order lit up with an ashen-white light.

[Luochuan Temporary Maintenance Group: Established]

[Composition: Guo He, Liang Fu, Meng Jianqiu, Zhou Pu, Shiqiao Elementary School Corroboration Group, West Dike Settlement Area Record Group, people present at the dam]

[Permissions: local suspension, corroboration, deficit splitting, separation of missing and death, unawakened protection, rescue isolation]

[Restrictions: must not generate final interpretation rights; must not make vocational choices for individuals across the city; must not forcibly requisition minors]

Guo He looked at the words [Temporary Maintenance Group], her face turning somewhat pale.

She was just a teacher.

Liang Fu also fell silent.

They all knew that these words were not an honor.

They were trouble.

They were responsibility.

They meant that every time the system wanted to take a shortcut in the future, someone among them would have to stand up and say: "Wait a moment."

Yet inside Shiqiao Elementary School, a child suddenly whispered:

"Teacher, do we also have a maintenance class now?"

Guo He looked at the densely packed chalk words on the blackboard, smiling very tiredly.

"Not a maintenance class."

"It's a temporary maintenance group."

"Temporary."

Remembering the sunset clause, she immediately added:

"Review in three days."

Luo Wensheng remotely recorded:

[Luochuan Temporary Maintenance Group term: Three days]

[Decide whether to continue, split, reorganize, or disband after three days]

Lin Jin saw this line and nodded slightly.

Luochuan had learned.

Temporariness must not grow into a throne.

Just at this moment, the Luochuan flood control system suddenly issued a new alarm.

Not West Dike.

Not Old Pump Station.

It was the Shiqiao Elementary School auditorium.

[Detected a large number of unawakened persons participating in disaster relief mapping, elderly settlement, and information transmission]

[Contribution Record generated]

[Whether to include participants in the "Luochuan Flood Control Outstanding Reserve List"?}

Guo He's smile vanished instantly.

The children also quieted down.

That list slowly unfolded, and the first line was none other than...

The little girl who had just written "I am afraid of water".

[Lin Xiaokui]

[Performance: Still participated in route mapping while in a state of fear]

[Recommendation: Focus on cultivating in the direction of hydrological mapping]

The little girl froze.

She was still tightly clutching the piece of paper that said [I am afraid of water].

The system combined her fear and her help, turning them into an "outstanding reserve".

Liang Fu's expression also changed.

This time, it was not compulsory pre-registration.

It was not presumed death.

It was praise.

It was honor.

It was something even harder to refuse.

Guo He slowly raised her chalk.

Lin Xiaokui's tears fell again.

"Teacher."

"By helping to draw maps, am I going to be turned into a vocation again?"

Inside Old Awakening Hall, Lin Jin's gaze suddenly sank.

The first lesson of the mortal world in Volume 4 was not yet over.

Because what the old system was best at was not just threats.

There were also rewards.