108: Chapter 108 Record of Sacrifices

For the first time, Xinhuo Hall fell silent because of a Candidate's name.

Beneath the central stele, a new record slowly emerged.

[ Han Yue, Jiangbei Candidate. ]

[ Sacrificed during the Liuqiao Old Station mission. ]

[ Contributions: Jiangbei Paper Sedan Chair Line records, driverless night bus traces records, Liuxia entrance coordinates, and a list of seventeen missing persons' remnants. ]

There were not many words.

Yet every word seemed to weigh heavily upon the ground.

Lin Zhao stood before the stele, his eyes still a bit red.

He had washed his face and wiped the blood from the back of his hands, but he still looked as if he had just returned from the rain.

He suddenly asked, "Does he count as one of Torch's own?"

No one answered immediately.

Because Han Yue was not yet an Apprentice.

He had not officially exchanged for an Ability Seed, did not have long-term equipment clearance, and hadn't even truly entered the inner ring of Xinhuo Hall.

He was just a Candidate from the outer city, a person who brought handwritten records to the Safe House.

Bai Ya leaned to the side and said in a low voice, "When he died, he was holding the Fire Seal given by Torch."

Zhao Ye looked at the stele, his voice a bit hoarse.

"Then he counts."

His tone was firm.

As if afraid someone would object, he looked ready to hit someone the next second.

Lu Chen sat in the Fire Keeper's seat, not letting the matter dwell in debate.

"Han Yue is to be included in the Torch Sacrifice Roll."

The firelight on the stele trembled slightly.

Beneath the record, a line of small text appeared.

[ Torch remembers his name. ]

Chen Jue did not enter Xinhuo Hall.

He was still just a Candidate, without sufficient clearance.

But the Safe House received a summary of the sacrifice record simultaneously.

He sat on the floor of the corridor, staring at the name on the screen for a long time.

Beside him, Liu Shu wanted to say something; he opened his mouth three times, but in the end, he only managed to choke out, "His... handwriting is quite ugly."

Chen Jue looked up at him.

Liu Shu felt a bit awkward. "I'm not insulting him. I mean, if he could leave behind such useful information even with ugly handwriting, then the person is better than the handwriting."

This was an absurdly terrible attempt at comfort.

Yet Chen Jue suddenly smiled.

After smiling, he lowered his head, and his shoulders began to tremble.

Xu Minglan came out of the medical area, saw this scene, and did not go over to console him.

Some emotions shouldn't be suppressed in a hurry.

If suppressed, they will only resurface later in a worse way.

Tang Zhiwei submitted a new compensation plan.

Han Yue had no immediate family in Jiangbei, so new rules had to be set for real-world identity protection, personal effects processing, official filing, housing expenses, and subsequent memorial records.

She spoke very quickly.

"Lu Chengzhi's family compensation will follow the standard for peripheral collaborator sacrifices, and Han Yue's will follow the Candidate sacrifice standard. There was no Candidate standard before, so I'm drafting one."

When mentioning "return of personal effects," she paused for a few seconds.

"His notebooks cannot be returned in full."

"The parts related to anomalies must be sealed."

"The ordinary parts... can be copied."

After she finished speaking, she closed the file, her fingers pressing on the cover, not letting go for a long time.

Lu Chen approved the rule changes.

Candidates are prohibited from holding high-risk clues alone.

Outer city Candidates must operate in pairs.

Those involved with memory loss, temporal displacement, or familial inducements are prohibited from acting independently.

After a Candidate's sacrifice, real-world identity protection, personal effects processing, placement of family or associated persons, and official collaborative filing will be initiated simultaneously.

These rules were rigid.

Rigid like a new wall.

Yet everyone knew that this wall was built with Han Yue's death.

Xu Minglan submitted another suggestion.

"Candidate training needs to include psychological feedback."

Zhao Ye frowned. "What do you mean?"

Xu Minglan said, "We can't just teach them not to respond to anomalies; we must also teach them that when they feel they can't hold on, they can speak up first."

Her voice was not loud.

"It's not that Han Yue didn't trust Torch. It's that he felt that once he spoke up, he wouldn't have the chance to bring the clues back."

This sentence made the hall fall silent once again.

Lu Chen ultimately added this to the code of conduct.

In the Safe House corridor, Chen Jue finally raised his head.

Zhao Ye stood in front of him.

Chen Jue's voice was severely hoarse. "Did he say that extra line because of me?"

Zhao Ye looked at him for a moment.

"Yes."

Chen Jue's face went pale.

Beside him, Liu Shu let out a soft "sigh," as if feeling that this person was terrible at comforting others.

But Zhao Ye continued, "So don't let it go to waste."

Chen Jue clenched his fists.

This time, he did not say anything harsh.

Nor did he say that he must take revenge.

He simply copied Han Yue's delayed message onto a piece of paper and stuffed it into his pocket.

[ Don't let them sit there in vain. ]

That night, when Lu Chen returned to his room in reality, it was already getting a little bright outside the window.

The instant noodles on the table had become bloated, a layer of oil floating on the soup, looking very unappetizing.

He sat in the chair without turning on the lights.

The phone screen was lit up, displaying a copy of Han Yue's sacrifice record. It wasn't the official file, just a copy Lu Chen had kept for himself.

He stared at it for a long time, and finally changed the words "Candidate Sacrifice Roll" to "Torch Sacrifice Roll."

Candidates, collaborators, and full members would all be under the same roll.

Because death does not stratify by clearance.

And the fire should not record people by clearance either.

After making the change, he picked up the cold noodles and took a bite.

It was terrible.

He still finished it.

Before that, Lu Chen had also sent a redacted collaborative message to Gu Xingzhou.

Han Yue's name was not written as "anomalously missing person."

What he wrote was: Jiangbei Candidate, sacrificed during the mission.

After receiving it, Gu Xingzhou stared at the three characters for "Candidate" for a long time.

There was no such status in the official files.

But he did not change it.

The next day, there were new rules to write and new anchor points to build.

He could feel distressed.

But he could not stop.

Han Yue's personal effects were sorted through very slowly.

There were no valuables in his bag, only a few filled notebooks, a black pen running out of ink, a community work permit, and two crumpled meal tickets.

Liu Shu was responsible for helping identify local clues, but he suddenly stopped halfway through flipping through them.

"This guy is really annoying."

Xu Minglan looked at him.

Liu Shu spread one of the notebooks open.

Inside was a page with Liu Shu's account name, followed by the note: Talkative, timid, but will save people.

Liu Shu stared at that line of text, his eyes turning red instantly.

"What right does he have to call me timid?"

No one exposed the tremor in his voice.

Li Xi took a photo of that page for the archives and said softly, "The second half is written there too."

Liu Shu looked down at the four characters "but will save people" and didn't speak again for a long time.

Grey Net continued to complete the list of Liuxia remnants based on Han Yue's notes.

After the seventeen names, a new name appeared.

Han Yue.

But the list did not end.

At the very bottom, a line of even older text emerged.

[ Liuxia Passenger Station, first batch of passengers: thirty-six people. ]

Lu Chen looked at that line of text and finally understood.

Liu Bridge was not the destination.

What Han Yue brought back was only that row of seats at the entrance.

And this time, Torch could no longer rely on someone suddenly remembering or someone risking their life to walk in.

Han Yue had already paid the price.

Next, it would be Torch's rules' turn to pay the bill.

The real station was still deeper inside.