43: Chapter 43 The Day of Reincarnation

The atmosphere in Xinhuo Hall was much calmer than on the night of the auction.

The central stele did not erupt with blinding firelight; instead, it unfolded a mission debriefing interface in mid-air.

longevity lamp sealed successfully, Old Object Chain node severely damaged, Zero civilian deaths, contaminated wounded still require observation, official attention Rank increased.

Every record was very calm, so calm that it made Zhao Ye's teeth ache just looking at it.

"The Zero deaths part is pretty good," he said, standing in the outer ring while hugging his evil-breaking short staff. "Why doesn't the contribution point settlement part after that look as good?"

Bai Ya raised his eyes: "Do you think you earned too little this time?"

Zhao Ye opened the Xin Huo Interface and showed him the balance: "It's not about earning too little; it's that the next tier is too far away. This Rank 2 Ability Seed looks like a paycheck, but the redemption requirements look like a mortgage."

Lin Zhao stood to the side, silently looking at his own interface.

He had already obtained the status of Apprentice, but the Rank 1 Ability Seed still showed insufficient contribution points.

Hearing Zhao Ye complain, he didn't reply, just read the redemption requirements again.

Before, he didn't know where the door was, but now the door was right in front of him, only it had the price written on it in plain sight.

What Xu Minglan was concerned about was not the Ability Seed, but the maintenance fees for medical tools.

Purification patches, isolation boxes, basic needle kits—each could save lives, and each required contribution points to maintain.

After she finished reading, she understood for the first time why Zhao Ye said he was poor.

"If the number of contaminated wounded increases in the future, medical tools cannot rely entirely on individual redemption," she said. "At the very least, public mission consumables should go into a logistics pool."

Tang Zhiwei's projection appeared in the outer ring; she did not have formal combat authorization, but she could see the logistics contribution settlement.

The auction evacuation, placement of the wounded, Safe House usage, and vehicle dispatch were all recorded; her status was still peripheral logistics collaborator, but her authorization had risen by one level.

"I can bear a portion of the public consumption," she said, looking at the stele. "But the rules must be clearly written. Real-world funds can support logistics, but they cannot, in turn, determine who gets abilities and who gets equipment."

After hearing this, Zhao Ye muttered: "A rich person saying they won't let money do the talking—why does that sound so unreal?"

Tang Zhiwei smiled: "Because I have seen times when money did the talking, and people would fight over a longevity lamp as if it were a treasure."

The hall was quiet for a moment.

Shen Qinghe looked at the debriefing interface without interjecting with a joke. She was more concerned about the mission timeline.

After the auction contamination began, the peripheral evacuation, on-site suppression, and medical support all went into operation, but the real problem was also very obvious: the speed at which members arrived was not stable enough.

"What if next time it's not just one auction hall, but three places going out of control at the same time?" she asked.

Zero's voice sounded beside the stele.

"Current Torch member mobility methods rely on real-world transportation, Grey Net path prompts, and pre-mission deployment. If anomalies erupt simultaneously, response efficiency will be insufficient."

Bai Ya heard this and laughed lightly: "Intelligence arriving before people is truly meaningless. The clues are almost cold, and the teammates are still stuck on the elevated highway."

Zhao Ye looked at him: "Can you not make such a serious problem sound like a ride-hailing app review?"

"At the very least, someone handles a negative review," Bai Ya spread his hands. "Anomalies won't give you compensation for delays."

Lu Chen sat deep in the hall, not appearing before the others.

Unfolded before him was the backend interface; the longevity lamp's containment cell, the Red Line Catalog remnants, and the Old Object Chain node paths were broken down into segments of rule fragments.

In the past, anomalies used these fragments to pull people, induce people, and mark people; now, the Core of the Torch needed to do the opposite and domesticate them.

Movement is not flight.

Flight is too free, and also too easy to lose control. What Torch needs is a rapid response with coordinates, authorization, and boundaries.

Lu Chen wrote down several restrictions on the interface.

Limited to anomaly missions.

Must have Grey Net coordinates or Fire Seal markers.

Must be learned by formal members.

Prohibited from activating in non-mission states.

Current initial range limited to this city.

Zero prompted: "Generate technique prototype?"

Lu Chen did not confirm immediately.

Xinhuo Hall originally only supported stable projections for about ten people. Now, formal members, Apprentices, Candidates, and logistics collaborators were already approaching the limit.

If new core standard techniques were to be opened, the training area, Grey Net map, and Candidate seats would all need to be expanded.

"Expand the hall first," Lu Chen said.

Zero responded.

"Requires consumption of sealed source essence; suggest using longevity lamp analysis remnants, Old Object Chain path remnants, and Red Line Catalog marking samples."

"Use them."

The next moment, fire patterns slowly lit up deep within the floor of the hall.

Shen Qinghe detected the change immediately. Behind the ten seats originally surrounding the central stele, the grey fog began to recede outward, as if an invisible wall was being pushed away.

New circular patterns unfolded on the ground in rings, and the phantoms of the outer ring seats, the Candidate waiting area, and the training projection area appeared one after another.

Zhao Ye looked up: "Is this a renovation?"

Bai Ya looked at the Grey Net map extending upwards and said in a low voice: "Doesn't look like a renovation; it looks like an expansion."

The stele lit up with a new prompt.

［Xinhuo Hall first expansion initiated.］

［Added: Training projection area.］

［Added: Grey Net mobility path calculation area.］

［Added: Candidate outer ring seats.］

［Core standard technique directory, preparing to open.］

Lin Zhao looked at the words "Core standard technique," and his eyes clearly lit up.

Zhao Ye, however, stared at the last line, suddenly having a rather ominous premonition.

"Why do I feel," he said, "that I'm going to have to spend contribution points again?"

Lu Chen watched everyone's reactions from the backend and silently added a sentence in his heart.

It's not just spending contribution points.

It's also about training.

And for some people, the first time they train, they will likely be thrown out like fire.

After hearing the four words "hall expansion," Zhao Ye's first reaction was to look down at his feet.

In the past, when he stood in the hall, he always felt it was like a small meeting room wrapped in grey fog—mysterious, yes, but still with boundaries.

Now those boundaries were receding, and the outer ring seats were emerging from the darkness bit by bit, and he suddenly realized that the Xinhuo Council was truly growing larger.

It wasn't as simple as just a few more people sitting down.

Candidates had their own seats, logistics and medical had corresponding markers, the training area was no longer just a temporary projection, and the Grey Net map no longer displayed only a few points in Qinghe.

Once an organization has space, many rules that were previously spoken orally would become an order that everyone could see.

The Candidates in the outer ring also saw this change. Zhou Yan stared at the out-of-town nodes on the Grey Net map, his face turning pale, but he did not retreat.

Xu Minglan looked at the medical marker reserved next to the training area, as if confirming for the first time that her position was not temporarily added, but a part that the Council must possess in the future.