76: Chapter 76 The Fourth Path: One Cannot Go Alone First

[Walking With Teammates]

The tiny door on the blackboard was glowing.

It was hidden at the bottom of the first floor of the White Tower; it was neither in the most conspicuous position nor did it lead to any clearly marked main road.

If not for the simultaneous projection of the four training fragments, no one would have been able to see it at all.

Chen Ye stared at those four characters and rubbed his eyes.

"Walking With Teammates?"

"Doesn't that sound a bit too simple?"

Zhou Heng said coldly:

"The simpler it sounds, the more likely there's a trap."

Shen Tingxue looked at the map.

"It's not a main path."

"It's more like a hidden path."

Lin Jin nodded.

The Hand of Rules before his eyes was still refreshing.

[Target: Partial Map of the First Floor of the White Tower]

[Identified False Shortcuts: Safest, Coldest, Straightest, Most Familiar]

[Hidden Entrance: Walking With Teammates]

[Activation Condition: Synchronization of the four members' action windows]

[Warning: If any member arrives alone, a replacement judgment will be triggered]

After listening, Chen Ye sat up straight immediately.

"We can't even arrive alone?"

"This tower is really sick."

"If you walk too slowly, they say you're dragging everyone down; if you walk too fast, they say you're arriving alone."

Zhou Heng looked at the map, his brows locked tight.

"It doesn't want speed."

Shen Tingxue took over.

"And it doesn't want slowness either."

Lin Jin looked at that door.

"It's that you cannot take any single person's optimal solution and treat it as the path for the entire team."

Qin Shanhe held his enamel mug, standing in the back row.

He looked at the four false shortcuts on the blackboard, his expression even darker than before.

"The safest path corresponds to the Protection Role."

"The coldest path corresponds to the Lockdown Role."

"The straightest path corresponds to the Barrier Breaker Position."

"The most familiar path corresponds to the Maintenance Position."

"These four paths can all allow a specific position to be pushed to its extreme."

Chen Ye frowned.

"Isn't being pushed to the extreme a good thing?"

Qin Shanhe glanced at him.

"For a solo team, it is."

"For a Rule Maintenance team, it is not."

"The safest path will make you hide behind a shield and be unable to repair anything."

"The coldest path will freeze the contamination, but also freeze your actions."

"The straightest path will reach the core the fastest, but also take the full brunt of the backlash the fastest."

"The most familiar path will make Lin Jin walk in the footsteps of the previous generation's Maintenance Position, and eventually, the White Tower will write it as an inherited path."

Chen Ye felt a chill down his spine.

"Then what about the fourth one?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou stood before the podium and took over.

"The fourth path is neither the fastest nor the steadiest."

"It requires each of you to leave action space for the others."

The blackboard changed accordingly.

[Second Day of Training Starting Early]

[Training Theme: Team Cooperation and Contract Anti-Tampering]

Chen Ye's eyes widened.

"Early?"

"Didn't they say the first day ended today?"

The blackboard coldly wrote a line of text.

[The White Tower will not wait for you to get enough sleep.]

Chen Ye: "..."

Zhou Heng sneered.

"It suits you."

Chen Ye looked at him.

"Are you looking to fight again?"

Lin Jin placed the four training fragments in the center of the table.

Shield-shaped light fragment.

Low-temperature path diversion ice crystal.

Buffer barrier-breaking nail.

Old path identification screw.

The four fragments lit up simultaneously.

The old classroom changed again.

This time, it wasn't pressure samples appearing outside the door.

Instead, the entire classroom was stretched into a long white corridor bridge.

The bridge hung in mid-air.

Beneath the bridge was bottomless white mist.

The bridge deck was divided into four narrow tracks.

Each track had different labels in front of it.

[Safety Track]

[Cold Lockdown Track]

[Straight Break-Through Track]

[Old Repair Track]

The four tracks appeared parallel but intersected from time to time.

The blackboard hung at the head of the bridge.

[Training: Bridge of Togetherness]

[Rule 1: The four must arrive at the destination simultaneously]

[Rule 2: If any member leads by more than three action windows, they will be judged as a priority sample]

[Rule 3: If any member falls behind by more than three action windows, they will be judged as a replaceable object]

[Rule 4: It is forbidden to use forced binding to drag teammates]

Chen Ye's face fell after reading.

"Can't lead, can't fall behind, and can't drag?"

"Is this bridge meant for humans?"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou said:

"It will be harder inside the White Tower."

"This is just a simulation."

Zhou Heng gripped his Thunder Spear.

"Then let's go."

As soon as he finished speaking, he stepped onto the Straight Break-Through Track.

With a flash of lightning, Zhou Heng instantly surged forward.

His speed in breaking barriers was already fast.

Combined with the newly acquired buffer barrier-breaking nail, the first barrier was almost torn open by him in an instant.

The blackboard lit up immediately.

[Barrier Breaker Position is leading by two action windows]

Lin Jin shouted:

"Slow down!"

Zhou Heng frowned and forced himself to stop.

But just as he stopped, several chains extended from the white mist behind the Straight Break-Through Track, wrapping around his ankles.

[Barrier Breaker Position has an abnormal pause]

[Suggestion: Use Youthful Projection of Zhou Chengyue to replace, in order to maintain rhythm]

Zhou Heng's expression sank.

"Can't even stop?"

Shen Tingxue raised her hand, frost spreading along the Cold Lockdown Track, attempting to suppress the white mist chains.

But as her ice spread, the Safety Track Chen Ye was on was immediately frozen halfway.

Chen Ye's shield had just been raised, but he slipped and almost fell.

[Lockdown Role is affecting Protection Role's actions]

[Teammate's action window damaged]

Shen Tingxue withdrew her hand, brows furrowed.

Chen Ye hurriedly raised his shield, wanting to protect Lin Jin.

As a result, the shield surface blocked the front of the Old Repair Track.

Lin Jin had only walked two steps before being blocked by Chen Ye's shield.

The blackboard continued to write.

[Protection Role is over-protecting]

[Maintenance Position's action window is restricted]

Chen Ye's face turned green.

"I didn't mean to!"

Lin Jin didn't blame him.

He looked down at the Old Repair Track and discovered a row of familiar repair marks beside the track.

Those marks were very similar to the techniques of Lin Shoushan's remnant shadow earlier.

If he followed them, he could pass through the front-end malfunction quickly.

But the Hand of Rules reminded him at the same time:

[Old Repair Track contains path inheritance inducement]

Lin Jin could only stop to observe.

With this stop, he fell behind again.

[Maintenance Position is lagging by two action windows]

[Suggestion: Use Lin Shoushan's repair remnant shadow to replace, to increase efficiency]

Chen Ye couldn't help but curse:

"Every step on this bridge is trying to convince us to replace someone!"

Teacher Xu Wenzhou's voice came from outside the bridge.

"This is the second day of training."

"The White Tower will not wait for you to make a big mistake."

"It will write every instance of disconnection as a reason for replacement."

The first attempt failed quickly.

Zhou Heng was judged as leading by too much.

Lin Jin was judged as lagging by too much.

Chen Ye's protection affected actions.

Shen Tingxue's lockdown affected teammates.

The four tracks snapped simultaneously, and the group was thrown back to the bridge head by white light.

Chen Ye sat on the ground.

"Fine."

"I admit it, it's even more wicked than I thought."

Zhou Heng's expression wasn't good either.

"Normal coordination simply isn't enough."

Shen Tingxue said:

"We can't walk our own tracks separately."

Lin Jin nodded.

"The four tracks aren't meant for us to walk separately."

"They are meant for us to open windows for each other."

Chen Ye looked at him.

"How do we open them?"

Lin Jin crouched down and tapped on the bridge head with a wrench.

"Chen Ye, don't block completely."

"Use pressure-bearing angle correction to guide the impact to a point Zhou Heng can break."

He looked at Zhou Heng.

"Zhou Heng, don't compete for the fastest."

"Open the buffer points, not the destination."

Then he looked at Shen Tingxue.

"Shen Tingxue, don't freeze the whole segment."

"Only freeze the counter-attacks and misaligned parts, leaving action room for us."

Finally, he pointed to himself.

"I won't follow the old path, nor will I drag everyone down waiting for me to finish analyzing."

"I will only repair the key points that cause the team to disconnect."

Chen Ye thought about it.

"What about the rhythm?"

Lin Jin held up four fingers.

"Block, break, freeze, repair."

"It's not about who is first or last."

"It's about one action leaving a window for the next."

Zhou Heng frowned.

"What if I can finish it in one shot?"

Lin Jin looked at him.

"Then you only open seven-tenths."

Zhou Heng's face darkened.

"We have to leave seven-tenths when breaking barriers?"

Shen Tingxue said calmly:

"Otherwise, you can cross the bridge alone."

Chen Ye added:

"And then the White Tower will gift you a youthful version of your uncle."

Zhou Heng: "..."

He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his anger.

"Again."

The second time on the bridge.

Chen Ye moved first.

He didn't set the shield up as a wall, but propped it diagonally at the intersection of the Safety Track and the Straight Break-Through Track.

The white mist impact hit the shield surface and was guided to a barrier node in front of Zhou Heng.

"Break!"

Zhou Heng thrust his Thunder Spear out.

He instinctively wanted to pierce through the entire barrier with one shot, but remembering what Lin Jin said about "only opening seven-tenths," he forced himself to shift his spear's trajectory.

The barrier didn't completely shatter.

It only cracked open a controllable gap.

Shen Tingxue's low temperature fell; she didn't seal the entire crack, only froze the white mist counter-attacking at the edges.

Lin Jin passed through the window left by the three, his wrench smashing into a hidden catch beside the Old Repair Track.

"This isn't the old path."

"This is a disconnection catch."

Bang!

The four tracks extended forward simultaneously for a segment.

The blackboard recorded:

[Action window synchronization: Success]

The four of them didn't stop.

The second segment, the White Tower began to increase pressure.

A giant phantom shield appeared on the Safety Track, inducing Chen Ye to take the safest route.

Chen Ye gritted his teeth, the shield not veering toward that side.

"I won't be a wall."

"I will be a door hinge."

He transferred the impact to Zhou Heng.

A [Straightest Path] sign appeared in front of Zhou Heng.

As long as he thrust his spear in, he could instantly lead by three segments.

Zhou Heng sneered.

"Get lost."

The Thunder Spear thrust toward the buffer nail on the side.

Beneath Shen Tingxue's feet, a path of extreme cold appeared, and the Ice Key vibrated gently.

She didn't look at that path, only using the low-temperature diversion ice crystal to suppress the imbalance points around the team.

In front of Lin Jin appeared a row of old marks that Lin Shoushan had once used.

He took a look, didn't follow them, but used the old path identification screw to find the White Tower hidden catch behind the marks.

"We are repairing the present."

"Not replicating the past."

Bang!

The second segment passed.

The third segment.

The fourth segment.

The four's rhythm became more and more stable.

It wasn't that there were no mistakes.

Chen Ye had a few times where his shield angle was too heavy, almost blocking Lin Jin again.

Zhou Heng also had one time where his lightning surged too far ahead, getting a warning from the blackboard for leading.

Shen Tingxue's low temperature was once too strong, causing frost to form under Chen Ye's feet.

Lin Jin was also half a beat slow because of checking old path traps.

But every time a disconnection appeared, the Mutual Verification Contract would light up.

It wasn't dragging.

It was a reminder.

Whose action window was too large.

Whose action window was being squeezed.

They started to learn to nudge their own "optimal" a little bit toward a direction the team could use.

Finally, at the end of the Bridge of Togetherness, that tiny door appeared.

On the door was written:

[Walking With Teammates]

The four stepped onto the last bridge plank simultaneously.

No one was leading.

And no one was lagging behind.

The door opened.

White light poured out from the door, but it wasn't blinding.

The blackboard wrote the final result in mid-air.

[Bridge of Togetherness Training: Passed]

[Team Cooperation Stability: Improved]

[Contract Anti-Tampering Suggestions Generated]

Four lines of grey-gold text appeared before them.

[Team actions are based on the mission window, not on the optimal speed of a single member.]

[Any difference in efficiency shall not be directly used to deduce replacement rights.]

[Members may suggest, support, or slow down; they must not deprive others of their right to act in the name of protection.]

[Members may accelerate, break barriers, or lock down; they must not abandon fellow travelers in the name of optimality.]

Lin Jin looked at these four lines and asked:

"Should we add this to the Mutual Verification Contract?"

Chen Ye nodded immediately.

"Add it."

Shen Tingxue: "Add it."

Zhou Heng was silent for a second.

"Add it."

The four badges lit up simultaneously.

The original Mutual Verification Contract expanded with a second layer of faint halo.

It wasn't a shackle.

It was more like a synchronization ruler.

[Contract Anti-Tampering Layer: Action Window Mutual Recognition, Established]

Teacher Xu Wenzhou watched this scene and let out a soft breath.

"This looks more like a Rule Maintenance team."

Qin Shanhe also nodded.

"The second day of training, you've made a good start."

Just as Chen Ye wanted to heave a sigh of relief, a communication ringtone suddenly sounded outside the old classroom.

Gu Changye's voice came from the communication talisman.

"Dean Qin."

"The Department of Education has submitted a new supervision application."

Qin Shanhe frowned.

"What do they want to do now?"

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the communication talisman.

Gu Changye's voice was even lower.

"They demand that when the White Tower opens, a supervisory Observer be sent to enter with the team."

Lin Jin's eyes turned cold.

"Isn't the White Tower a four-person team entry?"

Gu Changye said:

"They submitted old project permissions."

"The White Tower has just responded."

The blackboard suddenly lit up automatically.

[White Tower entry rules updated]

[Four-person team entry conditions remain unchanged]

[Added: One supervisory Observer position]

[Candidate Observer: Deputy Director of the Special Career Development Division of the Department of Education — Deputy Director Zhou Chengyue]

Zhou Heng's face instantly turned ashen.