54: Chapter 54 Don't just look at the signature, see who made him sign it.

"Son."

"Remember."

"Don't just look at the signature."

"Look at who made him sign it."

After young Lin Shoushan's voice faded, the failure record shattered completely.

Classroom 104 before Lin Jin's eyes was like an old photograph scorched by fire, curling and blackening bit by bit, until it finally turned into ashes filling the sky.

The next second.

He was back in the hallway of the Forbidden Building.

The sealed door of Classroom 104 was still there.

The black seal was still there.

Chen Ye and Shen Tingxue were still there too.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stood in the shadows, his face even paler than before, as if he had just been fished out of ice water.

The toolbox sat quietly on the ground.

Inside the compartment, that fragment of the second wrench was no longer vibrating.

But Lin Jin's hand, gripping his own rusty wrench, did not loosen its hold for a long time.

The final sentence echoed repeatedly in his mind.

Don't just look at the signature.

Look at who made him sign it.

The content that appeared at the end of the failure record was too ruthless.

[On-site Signatory: Teacher Xu Wenzhou]

[Academy Confirmer: Qin Shanhe]

If one only looked at these two lines, the conclusion was almost effortless.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou executed the sealing.

Qin Shanhe confirmed the sealing.

Lin Shoushan, Shen Qingshuang, and the final Rule Maintenance Special Class had been buried in Classroom 104 by their own hands.

This also explained why Teacher Xu Wenzhou was so resistant to the Forbidden Building reopening.

Why he had been trying to stop Lin Jin from entering the Rule Maintenance Special Class since last night.

It also explained why Qin Shanhe had not taken the initiative to clarify what happened back then.

But Lin Shoushan's final reminder had forcefully torn open another layer of this seemingly clear record.

The signature was the result.

It was not the cause.

What one truly needed to look at was who pushed them to the point where they had to sign.

Chen Ye held back for a long time before finally asking in a low voice:

"Brother Jin..."

"Are you okay?"

Lin Jin glanced at him.

"I'm fine."

Chen Ye said cautiously:

"That 'I'm fine' of yours doesn't sound fine at all."

Shen Tingxue did not crack any jokes.

She looked at Lin Jin.

"What did you see?"

Lin Jin was silent for a moment, not hiding anything.

"My dad's maintenance back then was a success."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou suddenly looked up.

"What did you say?"

Lin Jin looked at him.

"He solved the final problem of Classroom 104."

"The teammates were not the fault nodes."

"What was truly broken was the experimental team contract."

"He fixed the contract."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's pupils trembled slightly.

He opened his mouth, as if wanting to refute, but could not say a single word.

Because he also knew.

That was the truth.

Hearing this, Chen Ye was stunned at first, then slammed his shield hard.

"I knew it!"

"How could your dad be a failure record!"

"Didn't he succeed?"

Lin Jin did not smile.

"The accident happened afterwards."

After saying this, he looked at Shen Tingxue.

"Classroom 104 is connected to a God System test port."

"After my dad fixed the contract, the God System determined he had recycling value."

"It wanted to recycle the maintenance position sample."

Shen Tingxue's gaze turned cold instantly.

"So the practical class in Classroom 104 was never a normal course from the beginning."

Lin Jin nodded.

"It was testing whether the Rule Maintenance position could fix the rules of the God System."

"The students were the samples."

"The classroom was the testing ground."

"The Forbidden Building was the shell."

Chen Ye felt a chill run down his back as he listened.

"The Combat Academy hides this kind of thing?"

Lin Jin looked at the door of Classroom 104.

"It's not necessarily that the academy wanted to hide it."

"But the academy definitely knew part of it."

After he finished this sentence, the hallway was silent for a moment.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou suddenly let out a low laugh.

It sounded very unpleasant.

"You finally see it."

"This is what I meant by dirty."

He raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.

"Qin Shanhe talks about training students, talks about reopening the special class."

"But this building was a testing ground from the very beginning."

"The Rule Maintenance class was just used for trial and error."

Chen Ye frowned.

"Stop trying to sway the narrative."

"In the record just now, you also pressed the sealing order."

The smile on Teacher Xu Wenzhou's face froze.

Chen Ye stared at him.

"Don't try to clear your name while calling others dirty."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's lips went pale, and his fingers slowly clenched.

"I didn't try to clear my name."

His voice dropped.

"It was me who pressed it."

"The 104 sealing order, I was the one who pressed it."

Shen Tingxue looked at him.

"Why?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Because I was afraid."

When these two words landed, they were heavier than any excuse.

He no longer maintained the appearance of a gentle teacher.

He also didn't say anything like "I did it to save you."

He just stood there, like someone who had finally been stripped of his shell by Classroom 104.

"We were all about to die at that time."

"Someone kept telling me over the external communication channel that the sealing was only a temporary measure."

"They said that as long as I pressed it, the teachers would save us from the outside."

"They said that if we didn't seal it, Classroom 104 would contaminate the entire academy."

"They said that Lin Shoushan's maintenance had already failed."

"But I clearly saw that he was about to succeed."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's voice trembled.

"I still pressed it."

No one spoke in the hallway.

Chen Ye was also silent.

Because this kind of statement could not be easily scolded back.

If one stood in the position of the young Teacher Xu Wenzhou twenty years ago, with a God System test port about to lose control before their eyes, classmates collapsed all over the floor, and external orders constantly urging them on, who could dare to say they would definitely not be afraid?

But being afraid did not mean there were no consequences.

Shen Tingxue spoke slowly:

"What about Shen Qingshuang?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou closed his eyes.

"She didn't die."

Frost suddenly solidified on Shen Tingxue's fingertips.

"Explain clearly."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's voice was hoarse:

"After Lin Shoushan's wrench broke, the God System test port hadn't fully closed yet."

"Shen Qingshuang used the Ice Phoenix Spear to freeze the port for a moment."

"She blocked the recycling chain for Lin Shoushan."

"And then... she was dragged into the port."

Shen Tingxue's eyes were terrifyingly cold.

"In other words, she didn't go missing in a restricted area accident."

"She was left behind in the 104 Incident."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou nodded.

"Later, the Department of Education uniformly told the outside world that some students from the final batch died in a restricted area accident."

"The files were altered."

"Classroom 104 was erased."

"The Rule Maintenance Special Class was cancelled."

Chen Ye gritted his teeth.

"Why could the Department of Education interfere with the academy's sealing?"

Lin Jin looked at the fragment in the toolbox.

"Because of the God System."

"If Classroom 104 was really connected to a God System test port, then the Department of Education very likely knew about it long ago."

"And it wasn't even just knowing."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou looked up, his voice low:

"They were the project regulators."

The air suddenly became heavy.

Project regulators.

These five words almost completely rewrote the nature of the 104 Incident.

This was not an out-of-control test within the academy.

It was a rule experiment that was supervised by higher-ups and disguised as a practical teaching exercise.

Something went wrong in the end.

So they chose to seal it.

They chose to erase it.

They chose to pin the blame on the Rule Maintenance Special Class and Qin Shanhe.

Lin Jin finally understood why his father said at the end, "Look at who made him sign it."

Qin Shanhe's signature was likely the academy confirmation that had to be left for the process.

But what truly pushed for the sealing was the special approval from the Department of Education.

And behind the Department of Education was the God System fragment experiment.

Just then.

The fragment of the second wrench in the toolbox suddenly made a soft sound.

Click.

Gray-gold light patterns emerged on the surface of the fragment.

The voice of the Forbidden Building's master control array sounded again.

[Additional Test: Failure Cause Determination]

[Please fill in the true cause of the 104 Incident as a candidate]

[An incorrect determination will affect the entrance evaluation for the special class]

Chen Ye had just recovered, but hearing this, he stared wide-eyed.

"We have to write it?"

"Has this Forbidden Building become a sentient exam?"

Shen Tingxue, however, looked at Lin Jin.

"This question is critical."

Lin Jin nodded.

Of course it was critical.

If he wrote "Lin Shoushan's maintenance failed," it would be equivalent to admitting his father was responsible for the accident.

If he wrote "Xu Wenzhou's sealing caused the failure," it only addressed the execution level.

If he wrote "Qin Shanhe's confirmation caused the failure," it would fall right into the trap on the surface of the record.

The true answer had to be complete.

Lin Jin walked back to the temporary office in 105.

The meeting minutes on the table were not yet closed.

A new page had already automatically turned open.

The header read:

[104 Incident Failure Cause Determination Form]

Below it was left an entire blank space.

Lin Jin picked up that old fountain pen.

His blood still remained on the nib.

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stood at the door, staring at him intently.

"How will you write it?"

Lin Jin did not look back.

"Write it truthfully."

"Truthfully?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou let out a laugh.

"Do you know what writing it truthfully means?"

"It means you have to include Qin Shanhe as well."

Lin Jin said calmly:

"Write it."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou was stunned.

Lin Jin continued:

"He signed it, so it must be written."

"But writing only that he signed it, without writing who forced him to sign, that would be framing him."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou was completely silent.

Lin Jin lowered his head and wrote stroke by stroke on the paper.

[In the 104 Incident, Lin Shoushan's first Rule Maintenance was a success.]

The first line was set down.

The meeting minutes glowed slightly.

In the hallway, the seal on the door of Classroom 104 vibrated gently.

It was as if something that had been suppressed for twenty years had finally been flipped back.

Lin Jin continued writing.

[Direct cause of the accident's deterioration: The God System test port initiated sample recycling, forcibly overwriting the rules of the original practical class.]

The second line was set down.

A low rumble came from the depths of the entire Forbidden Building.

Lin Jin did not stop.

[The external sealing order overwrote Lin Shoushan's maintenance process, causing 104 to be sealed erroneously.]

[The on-site execution chain included Teacher Xu Wenzhou's accidental activation of the sealing order, the Department of Education's special approval sealing order, and the academy confirmation signature.]

Writing up to this point, Teacher Xu Wenzhou's face was white as a sheet.

Qin Shanhe's name had not yet appeared.

But the words "academy confirmation signature" were already heavy enough.

Lin Jin finally wrote:

[True cause of failure: It was not a maintenance failure, but a successful maintenance interrupted by an external sealing process; accident responsibility needs to be traced back to the Department of Education project regulators and the source of the God System test port.]

The last stroke was set down.

The entire page of paper suddenly lit up.

All the light bulbs in the Forbidden Building flickered at the same time.

From inside the door of Classroom 104, a very soft laugh came.

That voice sounded like the young Lin Shoushan.

It also sounded like an old record that had finally been corrected.

[Failure Cause Determination: Passed]

[Evaluation: Excellent]

[104 Incident Record Updated]

[Lin Shoushan's maintenance failure record has been corrected to: Maintenance successful, subsequently forcibly interrupted]

Chen Ye punched the air hard.

"Awesome!"

"That's more like it!"

Shen Tingxue looked at that line of corrected record, and there was a hint of suppressed fluctuation in her eyes.

Because this was not just Lin Shoushan's record being corrected.

Shen Qingshuang's disappearance was also finally no longer just the four words "restricted area accident."

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stood where he was, not moving for a long time.

After a long while, he suddenly said in a low voice:

"So..."

"It really can be written like this."

Lin Jin looked at him.

"You didn't write it for twenty years?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou looked as if he had been pricked.

He opened his mouth, and in the end, only a bitter smile remained.

"I didn't dare."

Lin Jin did not comfort him.

He just closed the meeting minutes.

"Then start daring from now on."

Just then, the fragment of the second wrench slowly floated up from the toolbox.

It flew in front of Lin Jin and tapped gently against the rusty wrench in his hand.

Ding.

A very soft metallic sound rang out.

A new prompt appeared before Lin Jin's eyes.

[The second wrench fragment has recognized the candidate]

[Main body location enabled]

[Target: rule correction wrench main body]

[Current location: Fourth floor of the Forbidden Building, School History Sealing Room]

[Warning: The School History Sealing Room is regulated by old Department of Education seals]

[Warning: Opening the archive will trigger external surveillance]

The expression Chen Ye had just smiled with froze again.

"External surveillance?"

Shen Tingxue's gaze was slightly cold.

"The Department of Education."

Lin Jin gripped the fragment.

The fragment was cold, but no longer resistant.

He looked up at the stairs in the depths of the Forbidden Building.

The fourth floor.

The School History Sealing Room.

The main body of the second wrench.

And the person who truly made Qin Shanhe sign.

Above the stairs, a light that had never been lit suddenly flickered.

Immediately after.

A hand wearing a black glove slowly withdrew from the shadows of the fourth floor.