I'm doing engineering in the instance.

Chapter 35 Settlement #003

The settlement area is a semi-circular platform with a stone floor, low metal railings, and several benches in the center.

When the four people arrived, none of them sat down immediately.

Xie Chengzhou stood at the edge of the railing, checking his physical condition: there was a shallow scratch on the back of his right hand, from when he ran across the wooden beams at Exit P3; it had scabbed over, didn't hurt, but he could feel it. His jacket had salt stains left from the waves crashing onto the platform; they were dry and hard, forming a white mark on his wrist. He rolled up his sleeve and glanced at the number on the inside of his wrist; the text below the number was still changing, flashing the words "Score Calculation in Progress."

He waited.

Wu Ming sat beside him, his notebook resting on his lap, head bowed. He didn't open it, just left it there, his hands pressed against the cover. Xie Chengzhou remembered his hands trembling when he entered; it was during the first surge, when his pen had drawn an uncontrollable horizontal line on the paper. Now his hands were steady, pressed firmly against the cover, but he didn't open it.

Qin Gong stood on the other side of the railing. She straightened the sleeves of her coat, rolled them up, glanced at the text on her wrist, then rolled the sleeves down to cover it. She didn't speak; she hadn't said much throughout the entire instance, but everything she did was precise—she took each step flawlessly on the bridge from P2 to P3, she was the first to notice the location of the concrete curing agent, and when she finally ran across the wooden passage, her stride was the steadyest of the four.

She lowered her sleeves, placed her hands on the railing, and looked out of the settlement area.

Xu Kai stood about two steps away from the other three people, neither sitting nor leaning against anything, just standing with his back straight. His jacket also had salt stains, just like Xie Chengzhou's, and a white mark on his wrist. He kept his gaze fixed on the distance, not looking at anyone.

After about two minutes, the text appeared.

"Journey Through the Isolated Island Construction Site - Settlement Completed".

Then there's the rating:

"Main Quest: Completed. Number of Players: 4/12. Rating: S. Special Note: Constructing an Evasion Strategy (Third Path) - Recorded by the Constituent."

Then there are the rewards:

"280 Source Coins + Tier 1 Promotion Qualification + Designer Symbol - Third Fragment + Constitutive Information Fragment ×1 + 'Steelworm Behavior Record' Item + RI +33."

Xie Chengzhou read through the text.

He paused for two seconds on the number "4/12".

I wasn't analyzing or evaluating; I just paused for two seconds, letting the number linger in my mind for two seconds.

Twelve people went in.

Wang Bo. Lin Xiao. Zhang An. Fang Yuan. Hu Jian. Dr. Cao. Old Chen. Liu Feng.

Eight names.

He went through the eight names in his mind, then rolled up his sleeves to cover the line of text.

---

"What's your rating?" Xu Kai asked.

Xie Chengzhou turned his gaze away from the distance. "S," he said.

"I got an A," Xu Kai said, his tone unchanged, "one grade below."

"The score difference is one level," Xu Kai continued, "not because my plan was wrong, but because the constitutive model included 'construction avoidance strategies' as a special bonus. Without that bonus, our scores should be the same."

"But this is a plus," Xie Chengzhou said.

“Yes,” Xu Kai said, “that’s a plus.” He paused for a moment, “You win because the author likes your approach.”

"It's not that the constitutive model prefers it," Xie Chengzhou said, "it's that my design actually has a lower probability of failure."

"Your plan," Xu Kai said, "resulted in the deaths of eight people."

"My plan," Xie Chengzhou said, "resulted in two deaths during construction due to the unforeseen variable of surging wave cycles. Your plan, on the other hand, resulted in three deaths before Fang Yuan left, and Fang Yuan couldn't complete the level in your plan."

"So your plan is better," Xu Kai said, "because one less person died."

"It's not that one less person died," Xie Chengzhou said. "It's that my plan had a lower probability of failure under the initial conditions. Your plan has a variable you didn't take into account—the pain stress of injured players causing uncontrollable movement. This isn't a moral issue; it's a data issue."

Xu Kai paused for a moment.

"That variable," he said, "was it factored in before the field verification, or was it only realized after Wang Bo died?"

Xie Chengzhou did not answer immediately.

This is an accurate question.

He ran through the timeline in his mind: he noticed Fang Yuan's ankle injury and Lin Xiao's trembling during the on-site assessment—but he integrated these variables into his rebuttal of Xu Kai's plan after Wang Bo died, after Lin Xiao died, and after Zhang An died.

“Both,” he said. “I had already taken note of these variables during the onboard assessment, but I incorporated them into my rebuttal of your proposal after observing the actual results.”

Xu Kai glanced at him. "Well, you're more honest than me," he said. "I thought you'd say you knew from the beginning that you were going to get in."

"I don't need to win this argument with inaccurate statements," Hsieh Cheng-chou said. "My approach is better in terms of outcome, and that's enough."

"The outcome was better," Xu Kai said, "because you were lucky—the swell cycle changes happened to Hu Jian and Dr. Cao, not to you or Wu Ming."

"The cyclical changes in the swells," Xie Chengzhou said, "were a variable I hadn't anticipated, a flaw in my plan. I admit it."

"Then all our solutions have flaws," Xu Kai said.

"Yes," Xie Chengzhou said, "the difference is that my bug caused two deaths, while your bug caused at least three deaths, plus one person failing to complete the level."

"Add one more who doesn't pass the level," Xu Kai repeated, "Fang Yuan."

There was a moment of silence.

"He chose to stay on his own," Xu Kai said.

"Yes," Xie Chengzhou said, "it was his own choice."

He paused for a moment, "But he made this choice because your plan made him feel like a burden, not because my plan told him he could pass the level."

Xu Kai did not answer.

He shifted his gaze from Xie Chengzhou to the other side of the settlement area, pulling down the sleeve on his wrist to cover the line of rating text.

The movement was very light and quick; Xie Chengzhou saw it but didn't say anything.

---

Wu Ming sat down next to Xie Chengzhou, opened his notebook, and turned to the last page—twenty-three pages had already been written, from the first surge data when entering the site to the vibration records of the last evacuation. Twenty-three pages, densely packed, the handwriting changing from the fine and fragmented handwriting on the first page to the even handwriting on the last few pages, as if a person had regained their steadiness under extreme pressure.

He wrote a few lines on the last page, then looked up and said, "What were you talking about?"

"We're discussing the plan," Xie Chengzhou said.

"Which option is better?" Wu Ming asked.

"They all have loopholes," Xie Chengzhou said.

Wu Ming went over the answer in his mind, nodded, and lowered his head to continue writing.

Xie Chengzhou glanced at him and at what he was writing: it was "Supplement to the Steel Maggot Perception Mechanism" and "Surge Cycle Change Node: Fourth time passing through the P2 to P3 trestle bridge, the cycle shortened from 6.2 seconds to 4.1 seconds, triggering conditions to be verified." It was written very carefully and systematically.

Xie Chengzhou opened the memo and wrote on the last page:

"#003 'Island Construction Site'. Completed. 4/12."

He paused for a moment, then continued writing:

"The steel maggots' sensory mechanism is vibration, not sight or smell. The instant the surge impacts, the window moves—completely counterintuitive, but physically sound. Wood doesn't conduct vibration, and concrete acts as a barrier. The cyclical change of the surge: an unforeseen variable that led to two deaths. This is a flaw in my design, and a 'cyclical change early warning' mechanism needs to be implemented in the next iteration."

He paused after that line, then added:

"Xu Kai's plan has a flawed variable: the pain stress of injured players. My plan has a flawed variable: the change in the wave cycle. Neither plan is complete. The difference lies in the result."

Then he wrote:

"The interior wall of P3 has the designer's mark, which is more complete than the previous two. Three copies, three marks, all from the same system. This is not a coincidence."

He stopped writing and glanced at the last line.

Three copies, three markings.

He had seen it on the signature of the factory report in #001, on the nameplate in #002, and on the inner wall of P3 in #003. Each time it was more complete, as if someone was piecing something together for him bit by bit, but it wasn't finished yet.

He closed the memo.

---

"What's next?" Wu Ming asked.

"I don't know," Xie Chengzhou said. "We'll wait until the settlement is complete."

"I mean," Wu Ming said, "will you use the same method for your next instance—evaluate first, then verify, then build?"

Xie Chengzhou went over the question in his mind. "Yes," he said, "but I'll add a step: before construction begins, we'll assess all possible variables that could change, not just the current state, but also the trends that might change."

"Surge cycles," Wu Ming said.

"Yes," Xie Chengzhou said, "the swell cycle, and anything else that could change during the process."

Wu Ming nodded, wrote a few more lines in the notebook, then closed it and put it in his coat pocket.

He put his hands on his knees, glanced into the distance, and said, "Wang Bo," he said, "he's the first one."

Xie Chengzhou remained silent.

"He was the first one to step forward and help when we arrived," Wu Ming said. "He said he had worked as a construction site safety officer and that he knew how to walk on steel plates."

"I know," Xie Chengzhou said.

"He knew," Wu Ming said. "He really knew. He walked very steadily. He's not the kind of person who acts recklessly. He just didn't expect the turbulence to be so great when the surge came."

Xie Chengzhou listened to those words but did not respond.

Wu Ming didn't continue speaking. He turned his gaze away from the distance, lowered his head, placed his hand on the closed notebook, and paused for a moment.

The lighting in the settlement area began to change, the space began to stabilize, and the edges began to become clearer.

Xie Chengzhou glanced at the settlement area: four people, scattered in different locations. Wu Ming was next to him, his notebook in his pocket, his hands on his knees. Xu Kai was about two steps away, his back straight, his sleeves covering his wrists, not looking at anyone. Qin Gong was on the other side of the railing; she had pulled her hands off the railing, put them in her coat pockets, and was facing outwards, looking towards the outside of the settlement area, seemingly looking at nothing, or perhaps not at all, just staring in that direction.

Four people.

Each went their own way in silence.

Each of them pushed that copy into their own framework.

Xie Chengzhou felt that familiar pressure rising from his feet, and his vision began to blur.

In the white light, he wrote down his last thing:

"Four people."

Then white covered everything.