5: Chapter 5: The First Person Sacrificed Prematurely

The morning sunlight had not yet dried the dew on the Scrapyard when a piercing sound of metal clashing shattered the tranquility of Hengchuan Peak.

"Fuck your survival points! Fuck your sacrifice priority!"

A Utility Disciple with a fleshy, scarred face—Gu Qi—was waving a rusty shovel, smashing it frantically into the pile of scrap metal that had just been organized yesterday.

Clang! Clang!

A dozen broken swords that Shen Xingzhou had already sorted and prepared to send for repair were deformed by him as if they were mere mud. Several nearby Utility Disciples who were sorting Spirit Stone powder scrambled away in terror, fearing that the shovel might land on their heads.

"Shen Xingzhou!"

Gu Qi kicked over a basket filled with discarded talisman paper and roared at the top of his lungs, "Who are you pretending to be a good person for? Isn't this whole act just to help those vampires up above squeeze us dry more efficiently? We're going to die anyway, so what's the difference between me dying today or tomorrow? I'm done! Whoever wants to do this can do it themselves!"

The red bloodshot veins in his eyes were clearly visible; it was a sign that his resentment had accumulated to the extreme.

Shen Xingzhou stood on high ground, watching this scene coldly.

Dozens of surrounding Utility Disciples dared to be angry but dared not speak. A few hot-tempered ones had already clenched their fists, wanting to rush up and fight for their lives, but in the end, they forcefully held back.

Because of the first rule Shen Xingzhou had set yesterday:

"Maliciously attacking a fellow Disciple will result in the deduction of all points for the current month, and the sacrifice priority will be automatically moved to the top."

That was the naked fear of "collective punishment."

Hum— The System interface in Shen Xingzhou's mind was flashing with blinding red light at this moment, the alarm sound sharp and shrill.

[Warning: High-risk destructive behavior detected.]

[Target: Gu Qi]

[Current Status:]

Contribution: -5 points (Destruction of public assets)

Emotion: -95 (Extreme rampage)

Risk Assessment: If not handled, his resentment will detonate the emotions of 30% of the surrounding Disciples, causing the "Hengchuan Peak · Utility Disciple Performance Pilot" project to collapse.

Shen Xingzhou's fingers trembled slightly inside his sleeves.

He saw the two simulation plans provided by the System; they were a path forward and a dead end placed before him.

[Decision Simulation for "Saboteur"]

Plan A: Appeasement Strategy

Operation: Allocate 20 points from the collective pool and privately reward Gu Qi.

Expected Effect: His resentment will temporarily subside.

Side Effect: Success rate is 40%. If it fails, it will be seen as "weak and easy to bully," triggering more Disciples to imitate the destructive behavior, and the collective points will be emptied.

Plan B: Automatic Rule Execution Strategy

Operation: Do not intervene, maintain the "malicious destruction point deduction" rule.

Expected Effect: The sacrifice list will be automatically reordered, and the priority of those with negative contribution values will be significantly moved up.

Side Effect: Target individual dies. However, overall resentment fluctuation is expected to decrease by 18% (stemming from the order brought by fear).

Shen Xingzhou stared at that "Plan B."

That line, "Side Effect: Target individual dies," was as cold and lifeless as a dead man's epitaph.

"If I choose A..." he calculated rapidly in his mind, "that's taking the points everyone exchanged their lives for to fill a bottomless pit. And once this precedent is set, if anyone doesn't want to work in the future, they'll just come and smash things a couple of times, and this System will be ruined immediately. Everyone will die."

"If I choose B..."

Gu Qi would die. And he would die quickly, and he would die ugly.

"I am the person in charge of helping everyone survive..." Shen Xingzhou closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I am not a savior. I cannot save everyone."

"Besides, he was the one who smashed it."

He repeated this last sentence in his heart three times. It was as if he were injecting an anesthetic into his heart, which had not yet completely turned cold.

Shen Xingzhou opened his eyes, and his gaze turned sharp as a knife again. He did not go down to appease, nor did he yell or shout. He simply turned around and heavily added a line of text to the broken wooden board hanging with the "Survival Point System" sign:

Rule Amendment: Those who maliciously destroy public assets will have their points cleared to zero, and their sacrifice priority will be forcibly moved to the top.

The handwriting was not yet dry, scarlet as blood.

[Rule amendment complete.]

[Gu Qi current status: Contribution -5 | Emotion -98]

[Sacrifice list automatic sorting... in progress]

Gu Qi was still cursing below. Seeing that Shen Xingzhou had only written a few words and completely ignored him, he was even more furious, shrieking, and raised the shovel to smash at the pile of newly repaired Formation Plates again.

"Fine! You're not going to care, right? Today I'm just going to—"

Just then, a dull bell toll suddenly came from the distant sky. It was the sound of the merit stele updating.

The Utility Disciples who were originally watching the commotion or were angry subconsciously looked up at the projection of the jade stele shrouded in clouds in the distance.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd let out a scream, as if their throat had been strangled.

"Look... look at the list!"

"Senior Brother Gu's name! Senior Brother Gu's name went up!"

Gu Qi's movements stiffened, and the shovel in his hand fell to the ground with a "clang."

He stiffly turned his neck to look at the phantom image projected in mid-air.

The three characters [Gu Qi], which were originally ranked on the twenty-something page, were now emitting a heart-palpitating red light, rising rapidly as if they had taken a rocket. They passed the third page, passed the second page. Finally, they were nailed fiercely to the very top of the first page.

[Today's Noon · Liquidation List]

Gu Qi

Status: High-risk rampage

Remarks: No value loss, immediate execution recommended.

The whole scene was deathly silent. One could even hear the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves.

Gu Qi's face instantly turned deathly pale; that pale color alternating between red and white was uglier than a dead person's. He turned his head abruptly, the veins on his neck bulging like earthworms, staring fixedly at Shen Xingzhou standing on the steps.

"It was you... you did something to it!"

Gu Qi's voice was trembling; it was a fear that seeped out from his very bones, "Shen Xingzhou! You will die a horrible death! You are trading with everyone's lives! Even if I die and become a ghost, I won't let you go!"

Shen Xingzhou stood there, hands behind his back, saying nothing. He looked at Gu Qi's twisted face, but his heart was extraordinarily calm—so calm that it even frightened himself.

Two hours later. Noon (the third quarter).

The Disciples from the Law Enforcement Hall arrived on time. Gu Qi was dragged out, tied up tightly. He struggled and cursed all the way, spewing out the most vicious words he could think of in his life.

But the surrounding Disciples dared not step forward, nor did anyone dare to speak. They just silently made way, looking at Gu Qi with the eyes of someone watching a monster, while looking at themselves with a trace of luck.

"Senior Brother Shen..."

Not until Gu Qi's cursing faded away did a very young Utility Disciple tremblingly pull on Shen Xingzhou's sleeve.

"Is this rule... a bit too harsh? He only smashed a few things..."

Shen Xingzhou lowered his head, looking into the young Utility Disciple's terrified eyes. After a long while, he opened his mouth, his voice dry and hoarse: "That's how the rules calculate it."

It is not that I want you to die. It is the ledger that wants you to die.

Half an hour later. A white light rose from the distant Merit Furnace. That was the signal of another life turning into fuel.

Hum— The System's emotionless mechanical voice sounded in Shen Xingzhou's mind again, as if summarizing a successful surgery:

[Demonstration sample complete.]

[Target individual: Gu Qi—liquidated.]

[Overall resentment fluctuation: -18% (Fear dividend in effect)]

[Hengchuan Peak · Utility Disciple team cohesion: +35%]

[Warning: Host emotional abnormality fluctuation: +40% (Tachycardia | mild stress response)]

["Moral guilt" increase detected.]

[Enable "emotional shielding" function? Recommendation: No. Maintaining pain helps maintain decision-making rationality.]

Shen Xingzhou rejected the System's suggestion. He needed this pain. If he even lost his guilt, what difference would there be between him and that man-eating Merit Furnace?

He raised his head, his gaze slowly sweeping across the plaza before him. Dozens of Utility Disciples were standing there, watching him. In their eyes, there was no more questioning, no more anger; in its place was a mixture of terror, awe, and even a trace of crazy dependency.

It was just like... a flock of sheep that had finally found the sheepdog that could lead them to avoid the wolf pack. Even if this sheepdog would occasionally bite a disobedient sheep to death.

"Get to work."

Shen Xingzhou turned around, not looking at the white light that had not yet dissipated, his voice cold and hard like a stone. "Today's points are doubled. If you don't want to end up like Gu Qi, then get moving."

"Yes! Senior Brother Shen!"

This time, the response was deafening. No one slacked off, and no one complained. The entire Scrapyard instantly turned into a high-speed machine, with everyone frantically moving, picking, repairing, and wiping. Because they knew. If they didn't earn enough points. The next name to appear on the first page would be their own.