The last slot cannot be used to select a victim.

Lin Wangchuan's finger was still suspended in mid-air.

The scrapped Yutu rabbit also stopped.

One person and one machine stood across the threshold, both facing the same handle that had been flipped inwards. Nantianmen didn't urge them on; instead, he highlighted the old text again: "Those who wish to permanently disconnect must remain inside the gate until the interface is reset to zero."

It's as if they're waiting for the outcome to come from their own struggle.

Whoever is more like Lin Wangchuan, whoever owes this door more, and whose body is more broken, should stay.

Lin Jibai reached out and stood between the two.

"Don't move."

Lin Wangchuan looked up at him. His eyes were tired, as if they had just been pulled out of twelve years of dark water, even his blinking was sluggish. He didn't give a fatherly command, nor did he say "I'll do it." He simply pointed to his chest again, indicating that he had been inside the door before and knew how to hold out until the interface reached zero.

The scrapped Jade Rabbit was knocked.

It also indicates willingness.

Two candidates immediately popped up at the South Heavenly Gate: Repairman 07's original body; Repairman 07's maintenance chain remnant. The two records began to converge, as if trying to sew the body and the narrator, who had just been separated, back together under a single name.

Xu Wangshu slammed the record board against the crack in the door: "Candidate invalid. Willingness to stay does not mean the system can merge the main body."

The white light paused slightly.

Lin Jibai saw the black rope that had just been removed from his father's chest light up again by a sliver. The remaining mechanical claws of the Jade Rabbit were also entangled by a circle of thin light. The last segment was more ruthless than the previous two; it didn't directly command anyone to die, but instead arranged everyone's guilt and similarities into a table, and then let them walk into it themselves.

Qin Lan looked down at the status of the return capsule.

"Temperature control for two hours and fifty-seven minutes. Lin Wangchuan cannot re-enter the door; his body temperature will drop to an irreversible level once he goes in. The Jade Rabbit has eighteen minutes of battery life; he can reach the handle once he enters the door, but it won't last until the interface reaches zero."

Luo Xu continued, "I used to be an observer, and Nantianmen would also list me as their primary role model."

"No," Lin Jibai said.

He spoke so quickly that his chest immediately tightened.

The number of people who were originally nineteen has been reduced to eighteen.

Xu Wangshu glanced at him but didn't remind him to "calm down." She simply wrote down the numbers. Everyone here experiences fear, and recording fear doesn't mean letting fear make decisions.

Zhou Heng leaned against seat zero, his oxygen mask frosted over. He watched this scene, his voice muffled by the mask: "I didn't write this rule. A permanent disconnect requires someone inside the door to monitor until it reaches zero; otherwise, the interface will automatically reconnect in the last three seconds."

"Why can only one person?" Qin Lan asked.

Zhou Heng remained silent.

Xu Wangshu recorded: "Refuses to answer."

Lin Jibai didn't force him with oxygen or red light. He simply squatted down in front of Zhou Heng and pushed the structural diagram on the outer third grid towards him.

"You know the layout inside the door. You don't have to help. We'll record your decision not to help. Oxygen will still be supplied."

Zhou Heng stared at the diagram for more than ten seconds before saying, "It's not that only one person can be held accountable. It's that the old Heavenly Court only recognizes one person responsible. If there are more than one, the system will automatically select the one with the most complete and traceable record."

"That is, the one that most resembles a scapegoat," Luo Xu said.

Zhou Heng did not refute.

The third handle is located inside the door, but its actual operation involves three steps: releasing the interface lock, maintaining the zero count, and confirming that the outer loop is disconnected. The old rules tied all three steps to the same person, so the executor had to remain. However, if the three steps could be separated, with each step performed by someone from a different source, in a different location, and with different termination rights, then Nantianmen would be unable to select a single person to take responsibility.

The premise is that each step cannot be interpreted as a total authorization.

The seven-city narrowband is still there, with a pitifully small bandwidth, but it's enough to send back "Continue," "Pause," "Received," and blank messages.

Qin Lan opened the toolbox, took out the mechanical gears removed from the second compartment, and arranged them into three temporary loops. Lu Chengong used the broken string to prop open the door crack, preventing the fragments of the Nine Suns from letting in light again. Luo Xu checked the No. 1 confirmer evidence box and confirmed that it was still under execution freeze. The 07 narrator manipulated the Jade Rabbit to take half a step back, indicating that he would no longer be included in the candidates.

Lin Wangchuan slowly lowered his hand.

Nantianmen notice: "No one is willing to take responsibility; permanent disconnection has failed."

"Wrong," Xu Wangshu said. "It's not that no one is willing to take responsibility, it's that people refuse to take responsibility alone."

Lin Jibai placed his hand on the outside of the door frame, feeling a cold, hard echo coming from inside. That echo had once taught him to hear the cracks in the Heavenly Pillar, and it was also slowly stealing away his old memories.

He did not go inside.

"Don't pull the last slot yet," he said. "First, remove its qualification to choose its victims."

The white light inside the door suddenly contracted.

The old system is finally starting to get anxious.

It simultaneously projected the vital signs of everyone outside the threshold into the air: Lin Wangchuan's body temperature was 32 degrees Celsius, Luo Xu's oxygen pressure was dropping, Yutu's battery was low, and Lin Jibai's stability was 18. The numbers formed an increasingly shorter red line, as if everyone would be dragged to their death by their own caution if they continued arguing.

Qin Lan divided the red line into four segments, marking them as observable, requiring remediation, not subject to forced replacement, and temporarily unknown. She first replaced the second layer of insulation film for Lin Wangchuan, then adjusted Luo Xu's oxygen supply to a safe zone, and finally checked the mechanical lock inside the door. Every step was slow, yet she didn't shift the blame for one person's danger onto another.

"If you refuse to choose one to stay, the interface won't be reset to zero," Zhou Heng said.

"Then let it remember that going back to zero is not something that can be achieved by sacrificing one's life," Lin Jibai replied.

Xu Wangshu wrote this sentence into the current record and added a restriction after it: This sentence does not constitute general authorization, does not represent those who have not spoken, and does not cover anyone's right to withdraw.

The white light in the third compartment flashed again. A new line of text appeared next to the handle inside the door: Taking on too much responsibility will dilute accountability.

Looking at the words, Luo Xu suddenly said, "Responsibility isn't a cake; it doesn't cease to exist just because a few more people know about it."

The first confirmer tapped twice gently inside the box. No one knew if it meant agreement, but this time no one offered an explanation.

Qin Lan locked each of the three external transmission loops one by one. The interface locks were released by her mechanical counterweight; the zero-counting was maintained by seven cities providing stop pulses; once the outer loops were confirmed to be disconnected, Lin Wangchuan would press an independent button outside the door. Each process could be paused, and each process was independent of anyone dying inside the door.

Nantianmen did not accept the call immediately. It caused the third countdown to jump from 45 minutes to 44 minutes, then to 43 minutes. The return-to-base temperature control immediately triggered an alarm.

"What's the next step?" Lu Chenggong asked.

Xu Wangshu looked up at the fragments of the Nine Suns: "Let them bear witness, but don't let them judge."

Inside the South Heavenly Gate, nine fragments lit up simultaneously.