Where Did the Fourth Option Come From?

"The Custodian also need to be saved."

Lin Qi stood outside the door, not touching the chains.

The disciple raised his face, blood still dripping from his mouth.

"You ask me what I've done first."

"You must leave the load-bearing line before doing anything."

"I answered on behalf of the Throne once."

You just said you didn't answer "yes".

"Not that time."

Mo'er crouched down by the door.

He was referring to something from earlier times.

A Hui asked, "You know?"

"I've heard the records of Custodian Zero."

The men under the gate turned their wrists over.

Beneath the whitened date markings lies a zero, mostly burned away.

There is no Zero on board.

"The list of those to the Throne started from the beginning," Mo'er said.

Because Zero isn't considered a person.

What's your name?

"No."

"Again, no name."

"When I was put on the ship, my only job was to listen."

Lin Qi asked, "Listen to what?"

"Listen to the answers from the future."

"Why?"

The Throne wants to know who will break the record.

"Did you hear me?"

"I've heard it many times."

What was your first time?

The man looked towards the notice that had not yet been taken down outside the door.

"There is no fourth option in this question."

Nami approached the communication terminal.

Lin Qi's questions always include D.

"Not twenty-two years ago."

Which one did you hear?

Should a child be put back in the cup?

Mo'er's hand landed on the chain.

"That's Old Ship verification question."

The man coughed twice.

There are only three answers: keep it, destroy it, or hand it over.

What did you choose?

"I didn't choose."

"The Throne has chosen a succession for you?"

I tore a slit in the paper.

The man raised his free hand and drew four horizontal lines on the deck.

The first three lines all had writing on them.

The fourth lane has only one gap.

I hear someone in the future always adding an answer at the very end.

Lin Qi stared at the gap.

"So you left a fourth line for the old question."

"At first, only one opening was left."

What happened next?

"Mo'er sent out the questions."

Everyone looked at Mo'er.

Mo'er did not deny it.

"I once received an answer sheet with extra blank lines."

A Hui asked, "Do you know who tore it?"

"Have no idea."

You didn't ask.

"The ship is sinking, I just need to stuff the paper into the Total Echo."

The man continued, "The blank space followed the Echo for twenty-two years, and every time the Throne posed a question, it would leave a space for someone to fill in the blank."

Nami looked at Lin Qi.

"You can add D because he left a blank line?"

"A blank line is only for writing."

The man said, "What truly made D a success was the vote."

Akainu spoke through the communication terminal.

"When the Navy first selected D, the system did not prevent it."

The dragon said, "It tried to stop it, but it couldn't delete the content that had already been witnessed by the five parties."

The Throne believed the fourth line still belonged to it.

The man raised his wrist.

"Every time someone chooses D, record Zero will be updated a little more."

Lingering Voice looked towards the iron chain.

So he woke up.

"Right."

Lin Qi asked, "Why didn't you come out sooner?"

"When I come out, the fourth row will follow me."

Not now?

"You have now made D an independent rule."

Robin put all the previous D-option records together.

From refusing to answer on behalf of others to protecting anonymity, and then to the right to access and Independent Expression, each page contains confirmation from five parties.

"The fourth line no longer relies on record Zero."

The man looked at those pages.

So I can die.

"Don't arrange this yet."

Lin Qi pressed the paper against the door frame.

"You leave a blank line, Mo'er sends Echo, the five parties turn options into rules, and no one can attribute the entire outcome to one person."

"The Throne can calculate."

"Then vote to make it not count."

The man tugged at the chain.

The red line marking the child's name tightened, and the fragments that had fallen from the Paper Figure inside the door moved closer to where the child was writing.

"This chain is linked to the takeover identity."

"First, identify them."

"If you dismantle it, Black Gate will give the takeover records to Lin Qi."

The nameless Black Line outside the door moved forward.

It wrote two words on the paper.

[Give me]

Nami immediately said, "No."

The Black Line is written again.

[I'm empty]

"Leaving your name blank doesn't mean anyone can be included."

Lin Qi pushed the takeover page away.

Do you want to take the evidence, or take over the identity?

The word "evidence" is Black Line.

Robin said, "We can give them a copy of the takeover record for safekeeping; their identity will remain on the incriminating evidence page."

Mo'er shook his head.

"It has only just gained Independent Expression and cannot bear the weight of the entire old record."

Lingering Voice, "How many parts can it be divided into?"

Vegapunk views the name wall.

"Three thousand nine hundred and forty-one copies."

Buggy's voice came from the delivery ship.

"It can be distributed."

Nami asked, "Can your ship fit them all?"

"Each one is just a piece of paper; I can deliver even a living person."

"This time, you are not allowed to search for the child by name."

"All evidence should be numbered, and each should proceed independently."

The Navy opens its sealed warehouse.

The Revolutionary Army provided underground archives.

Kuja is responsible for preserving medical evidence involving the mother and baby.

The old ledger from Foosha Village continues with the fourth line that Zero initially tore open.

Only one copy of the Black Line is retained.

It chose the first sentence spoken by the Paper Figure inside the door as its answer.

I do.

Lin Qi added a note next to it.

[Source: Throne Forced Splicing]

The paper version of myself is willing to strip away its legal effect, leaving only a testimony.

One link in the chain on the man's wrist came loose.

The Black Cup on the White Ship then darkened.

All 1,967 mother records that have been transferred are now stable, and the protected names of Zixuan Haruka, and others are no longer missing.

Garp flipped through old naval files and said, "The body receiving arrangements from twenty-two years ago have also been suspended."

Ace's voice came from Whitebeard's ship.

"Where's that tattered piece of paper that said Ace would pick up his mother?"

Akainu replied, "It has been converted into evidence of forgery."

"Don't let it get any closer to Blank."

"The Navy will be in quarantine."

Whitebeard said through the Den Den Mushi, "Kid, no one can force you to Receipt what your mother left behind."

Ace didn't reply.

After a moment, he said, "I know."

A new line was written on the Black Line outside the door.

Can I leave mine empty too?

Lin Qi replied, "Yes."

The handover process has not progressed.

This sentence has no name, nor does it take away any object.

A Black Line is drawn to create an empty line below the name field.

The temporary protection label still reads "Unanswered".

It neither accepted the name nor erased it.

The second chain on the man's wrist came off.

Mo'er reached out his hand.

"You can come out now."

"There's one more link."

"Connected to what?"

"Death records."

The death certificate, which had neither a deceased person nor a signatory, floated over from inside the door.

The man did not answer.

The page passed over him and stopped in front of Mo'er.

[Death victim: Maintainer Mo'er]

[Time of death: The day the Transport Ship sank]

A Hui grabbed the corner of the paper.

"He's alive."

The man said, "The records don't say he's dead now."

"So what does it write?"

"Mo'er died once twenty-two years ago."