53: In Chapter 53, the record of failures, the father did not fail.

"Final Additional Test Initiated"

"Please choose whether to touch the Second Wrench Fragment"

"Warning: Upon contact, the true failure record left by Lin Shoushan in the Forbidden Building will be read"

After this prompt appeared, the air in front of 104 grew heavy once more.

Chen Ye had just climbed up from the ground, but upon hearing the words "true failure record," the relaxed look on his face instantly vanished.

Shen Tingxue also looked toward the broken wrench handle in the compartment of the toolbox.

That thing was only half a piece.

Rusted to black.

Its edges were jagged, as if it had been forcibly snapped by something.

Two incomplete characters were carved onto it.

"Rule"

Merely two characters, yet they caused the rusty wrench in Lin Jin's hand to vibrate slightly.

Like two pieces of iron separated for a long time, finally recognizing each other across twenty years.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stood in the shadows, his voice hoarse.

"Do not touch it."

Lin Jin looked at him.

"Why?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stared fixedly at that piece of the wrench handle.

"What you saw just now was only a part of the 104 Final Question."

"The failure record is different."

"It is not a question."

"It is a verdict."

Chen Ye frowned.

"A verdict on whom?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou was silent for a moment.

"Everyone."

Lin Jin did not reach out immediately.

He first used the Hand of Rules to scan it.

"Target: Second Wrench Fragment"

"Status: Broken, Dormant"

"Source: Old Tool from the Rule Maintenance Special Class"

"Residual Function: Failure Record Reading, Subject Positioning"

"Danger Level: B+"

"Warning: Direct contact may trigger memory contamination"

"Maintenance Suggestion: Use existing maintenance tools to establish an isolation interface"

It wasn't that he couldn't touch it.

But he couldn't touch it directly with his hands.

Lin Jin looked at his own rusty wrench.

This wrench had been with him since Awakening Day.

It was broken.

It was old.

It looked like something casually picked up from a scrap heap.

But at this moment, its reaction to that fragment was stronger than ever before.

Lin Jin raised the wrench and gently brought it close to the toolbox.

Between the two, the air emitted a faint hum.

"Homologous Rule Tool Detected"

"Establish an isolation reading interface?"

"Prompt: Isolation reading can reduce contamination but cannot avoid emotional impact"

After hearing Lin Jin's explanation, Chen Ye's expression remained poor.

"What does 'emotional impact' mean?"

Shen Tingxue said in a low voice:

"You will see things you don't want to see."

Chen Ye glanced at Lin Jin.

"Should we hold off for a bit?"

Lin Jin looked at the fragment.

He wanted to wait too.

But the Forbidden Building would not give him too much time.

The second wrench was a clue left behind by his father.

If he didn't read it today, the Forbidden Building might seal it away again.

More importantly, he had just finished fixing the 104 Final Question.

He already knew that his father had not chosen to excise his teammates back then.

He already knew that his father had attempted to fix that erroneous rule which treated teammates as parts.

Then, within the so-called "true failure record," there must be another layer of truth.

Where exactly did his father fail?

Did he fail to the contract?

Did he fail to the Forbidden Building?

Did he fail to the Academy?

Or did he fail to someone?

Lin Jin took a deep breath.

"Read it."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou looked up abruptly.

"You will regret it."

Lin Jin looked at him.

"You've been saying that since last night."

"I'm already tired of hearing it."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's expression was grim.

"You have no idea how dirty the truth is."

Lin Jin said calmly:

"Then that's all the more reason to wipe it clean and take a look."

He raised his hand and pressed his rusty wrench against the edge of the toolbox.

His other hand gripped the old badge of Maintenance Worker 07.

The badge grew hot.

The second wrench fragment also began to vibrate.

Between the two tools, a wisp of gray-gold thread slowly connected.

"Isolation interface establishing"

"Reading Object: Lin Shoushan's Forbidden Building failure record"

"Reading Scope: Final Stage of the 104 Incident"

"Warning: Record cannot be modified"

"Warning: Do not respond to personnel within the record"

"Warning: Do not trust the 'present' within the record"

The next second.

The entire corridor disappeared.

Everything went black before Lin Jin's eyes.

When he opened them again, he was already standing in a classroom.

104.

But it was not the 104 of the present.

It was the 104 from twenty years ago.

The blackboard was still intact.

The desks and chairs had not decayed.

Outside the window, it was evening.

The golden-red sunset shone into the classroom, casting long shadows for everyone.

A young Lin Shoushan stood in front of the blackboard.

He looked more disheveled than in the photo.

Blood flowed from his forehead, and the second wrench in his hand was much more complete, with four characters carved onto the handle:

"Rule Correction"

Shen Qingshuang stood to his left, her ice-blue spear thrust into the ground; she was half-kneeling, with a wound on her shoulder so deep the bone was visible.

A young Teacher Xu Wenzhou stood in the corner.

His face was deathly pale, and his right hand was pressing hard against a communication token.

Several students were still lying on the ground.

One of the students was covered in black contract threads.

Lin Jin knew that must be the teammate who was judged as a "fault node" back then.

On the blackboard, the original Final Question had already been smashed halfway.

In its place was a new clause written by Lin Shoushan in blood.

"Team survival must not come at the cost of erasing a teammate's existence."

It was exactly the same as the clause Lin Jin had just written.

No.

It was not exactly the same.

His father had written it earlier.

And it was more stable.

The next moment, a record prompt appeared.

"Lin Shoushan's First Maintenance: Success"

Lin Jin's pupils constricted.

Success?

Not a failure?

The black contract threads in the classroom were receding.

That contaminated student struggled to lift his head, crying out:

"Brother Lin..."

"Am I still here?"

Young Lin Shoushan grinned.

"Nonsense."

"I'm fixing the contract, not you."

Shen Qingshuang said in a low voice:

"The contract has stabilized."

"We can get out."

Young Teacher Xu Wenzhou, as if finally seeing a way out, breathed a huge sigh of relief.

But it was also at this moment.

The back wall of the classroom suddenly cracked open.

Behind the wall was not a corridor.

But a pure white space.

In the center of the space hung a huge light screen.

On the light screen, countless characters scrolled rapidly.

"Experimental Team Contract Correction Successful"

"Human Individual Protection Clause Effective"

"Rule Maintenance Compatibility: High"

"Sample Value Increased"

"Recommend Recycling Maintenance Position Sample"

"Recommend Sealing Abnormal Classroom"

Lin Jin looked at those characters, and a chill ran down his back.

This was not the Academy system.

Nor was it a normal dungeon rule.

This scent, he had seen it in the files of the Abandoned Hospital.

The God System.

Young Lin Shoushan saw it too.

The smile on his face instantly vanished.

"I knew it."

"This class isn't testing the students."

"It's testing whether we can fix you."

The light screen did not respond.

It just continued to scroll.

"Reverse Identification Test Port for Maintenance Position Detected"

"Initiating Recycling Process"

The next second, the black contract threads surged again.

But this time, they did not wrap around that contaminated student.

Instead, they all wrapped around Lin Shoushan.

Shen Qingshuang immediately swung her spear, and frost exploded outward.

"Shoushan!"

Young Lin Shoushan raised his hand to block.

"Don't come over!"

He slammed the second wrench into the ground.

"Qingshuang, freeze the door!"

"Wenzhou, don't touch the external sealing order!"

Young Teacher Xu Wenzhou's face was deathly pale.

His communication token was flashing crazily.

From inside came the chaotic voices of the teachers.

"104 contamination out of control!"

"Execute sealing immediately!"

"Teacher Xu Wenzhou, press confirm!"

"As long as you seal it, the outside will save you!"

Young Teacher Xu Wenzhou's hand was shaking violently.

Shen Qingshuang shouted angrily:

"Don't press it!"

"Sealing will cut 104 out of reality!"

Young Lin Shoushan, while suppressing the light screen with his wrench, turned his head and roared:

"Teacher Xu Wenzhou!"

"Trust me!"

"I can dismantle the port!"

Young Teacher Xu Wenzhou was on the verge of tears.

"It's too late..."

"We are all going to die..."

He looked at the students lying on the ground, looked at the constantly expanding white light screen, and finally looked at the communication token in his palm.

His finger slowly descended.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's body in reality trembled violently.

Chen Ye's voice came from the side.

"Did he press it?"

No one answered.

The young Teacher Xu Wenzhou in the record, in the end, pressed that token.

The next second.

The entire 104 shook violently.

The doors, windows, walls, and floor all began to fade from the world.

Young Lin Shoushan turned his head abruptly, his eyes red.

"You damn — —"

Before he could finish his sentence, the white light screen suddenly extended a rule chain, piercing through his second wrench.

Crack!

The complete wrench snapped in the middle.

One piece flew off and landed in the toolbox compartment.

The other piece was dragged into the depths by the white light screen.

Shen Qingshuang rushed forward, her ice-blue spear thrusting into the light screen, and she herself was half-swallowed by the white light.

She looked back at young Teacher Xu Wenzhou.

She didn't scold him.

She just said one sentence:

"Get out alive."

"Tell the truth."

Young Teacher Xu Wenzhou fell to his knees.

But 104 had already begun to seal.

At the end of the record, heavy footsteps came from outside the classroom.

The scene shifted.

Lin Jin saw outside the door.

A much younger Qin Shanhe stood before the sealing formation, his face covered in blood.

He seemed to have just rushed here and was currently punching the formation barrier.

"Stop!"

"Who told you to execute the sealing!"

But beside the formation, another hand had already pressed onto the final confirmation rune.

That hand was wearing a black glove.

The cuff had the silver emblem of the Department of Education.

The sealing formation lit up.

Qin Shanhe's roar was completely cut off.

Subsequently, the final judgment of the failure record slowly emerged.

"Lin Shoushan's First Maintenance: Success"

"Direct Cause of 104 Incident: External Sealing Order Overrode Maintenance Process"

"Sealing Execution Chain: Department of Education Special Approval"

"On-site Signatory: Teacher Xu Wenzhou"

"Academy Confirmer: Qin Shanhe"

Seeing the last line, Lin Jin's heart sank abruptly.

Qin Shanhe.

The Academy Confirmer.

Before the image shattered completely, young Lin Shoushan seemed to have sensed something.

Across the twenty-year record, he suddenly looked up and looked toward the position where Lin Jin was.

"Son."

"Remember."

"Don't just look at the signature."

"Look at who made him sign it."