49 Apocalypse Rules

"Director Li, this Shen Zuohu is being really arrogant. He’s specifically asking to speak with you."

At the Yunhua City Public Security Bureau, Li Meng was writing in his office when he heard his subordinate’s report. He stopped his work and said, "Oh? He’s awake? I’ll head over now."

In this current era of the Apocalypse Rules, kidnapping a High Spirit User was a major case, and Li Meng had planned to interrogate him personally anyway.

He went to the interrogation room. Shen Zuohu was firmly strapped to the interrogation chair. When he saw Li Meng enter, he grinned.

"Well, if it isn’t Director Li. We meet again. More than ten years ago, you were just a captain, right? Now you’ve clawed your way up to director. Not bad."

"That’s right, and I have you to thank for it. If I hadn’t taken down your Tiger Roar Gang back then and earned a major commendation, I wouldn’t have been promoted." Li Meng smiled. "Unlike you, Shen Zuohu. More than ten years have passed, and you still haven’t improved one bit."

Hearing this, a muscle in Shen Zuohu’s brutish face twitched, and he glared menacingly at Li Meng.

"Didn’t you want to talk to me? So talk," Li Meng said. "What was the purpose of the kidnapping, where was the victim moved, and who is your handler?"

Shen Zuohu’s expression flickered. "Handler? What handler?"

Li Meng said flatly, "Shen Zuohu, you’re not a kid anymore. Don’t try to play dumb with me."

...

After a moment of silence, Shen Zuohu sneered. "Li Meng, do you really think I’m going to tell you obediently?"

"Oh?" Li Meng gave a half-smile. "Still playing tough, huh? Your lackeys were much more cooperative. They’ve all confessed that you’re the mastermind of the kidnapping, and they also coughed up the details about the murder you committed two days ago."

Shen Zuohu’s face turned ashen at his words, and his teeth ground together with an audible GRIND.

"You can’t blame anyone else. You, the boss, run into trouble and leave your men to take the fall while you sneak off through a cement pipe to escape... You’re so disloyal. Can you really blame your men for turning on you?"

"Shen Zuohu, just be straight with me. You lost the gamble, so face the consequences. You know you’re done for this time. Once you’re in here, you’re never getting out. It’s better to just be honest and confess."

Shen Zuohu stiffened his neck and said viciously, "Li Meng, let me tell you something! I, Shen Zuohu, wasn’t taken down by you cops! If it weren’t for that damn little bastard..."

He now remembered it. The kid sitting in the back of the car had been unusually young and wasn’t wearing a uniform at all. He clearly wasn’t a Sheriff!

A wave of regret washed over him. ’If I had just taken care of the two Sheriffs guarding the door, stolen a car, and left—instead of bothering with that kid—I’d probably be safe by now!’

Li Meng said, "The ’little bastard’ you’re talking about is a special investigative consultant for our bureau. Getting caught by him is the same as getting caught by us."

Shen Zuohu’s face was grim. Even though he had been in the underworld for so many years and had seen it all, the memory of that pure black arm—devoid of any hair or pores—wrapping around his neck still sent a chill down his spine.

He remembered using his Finger Tiger to smash that arm right before he lost consciousness—his Finger Tiger was a Psychic Power item! But smashing it against the arm had been completely useless.

’The thing that put me in a chokehold from behind definitely wasn’t human! But what on earth was it? A monster?’

"Shen Zuohu."

Li Meng’s voice pulled him back to the present.

"At this point, you might as well just give up your handler. I know you. Now that you’re in trouble, there’s no way you’ll let anyone else off easy. It’s in your nature to drag others down with you."

"...Li Meng, you’re right. I, Shen Zuohu, am not a loyal man. Even if I die, I’ll take others with me. But the question is, even if I tell you who my handler is, would you dare to arrest them?"

"Tell me."

Shen Zuohu said slowly, "My contact was just a small fry, not worth mentioning. But I’m not useless. I did some digging and found out who that small fry was working for. Do you know who really wants to kidnap those High Spirit Users? It’s..."

He chuckled and said a name.

"Zhao Jiping."

When Li Meng heard this name, his expression suddenly turned grave.

He pushed up his glasses and said in a low voice, "You’re talking about the chairman of Hengyun Real Estate, Zhao Jiping." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

"That’s right. Him. The boss of the largest real estate group in North Star Country, and a committee member of the Development Department." A mocking smile appeared on Shen Zuohu’s face. "Li Meng, do you, a mere city police director, dare to arrest him?"

...

With only three days left in the effective period of the third Apocalypse Rule, Fasting Therapy, the hidden rule that "items in the Sublimation Store are limited in quantity" was finally discovered.

The first to discover it was an Ascender in the Soloma Empire.

This Ascender had originally planned to simply endure the 15-day rule period, but with three days left, he couldn’t hold out any longer.

Fearing irreversible damage and severe long-term side effects from excessive starvation, the Ascender finally opened the Sublimation Store and bought a food box.

But the moment he completed his purchase, he clearly saw a line of small text appear below the [Basic Food Box - Bronze Level] item in the store.

Quantity Remaining: 9,999,999

This line of text, indicating a limited quantity, had absolutely never been there before!

The shocked survivor posted about this online, and soon the news that "Sublimation Store items are limited" spread across the world through the internet!

A storm of discussion erupted in every country. In North Star Country, the news immediately shot to the top of the social media trending charts.

"The boxes are actually limited quantity???"

"Looks like the remaining quantity display only appears after the stock drops below ten million!"

"HOLY SHIT! There was hidden information like this?! What the hell is the Response Team doing? Why wasn’t this in the white paper!"

"Don’t just blame them. How could anyone have guessed this? No matter how good the Response Team is, they don’t have enough Sublimation Coins to run tests like ’buy out the entire store’..."

"Hurry up and look at your terminals! The food box stock is dropping way too fast!"

"AHHH??? It’s true! I just looked, and there are only 9,967,151 left!"

"How have they already sold over three hundred thousand in such a short time?!!"

"FUCK! Are there really this many rich people with coins hiding around???"

At that moment, Guan Tong, who was in room 306 of the Li Mei Hotel, also saw the news online.

’I didn’t expect this information to be discovered after all.’

From day one of the rule’s release, he had known the boxes were limited thanks to a note in the hidden rules.

However, worried it would trigger a panic buy and prevent people who desperately needed one from getting a box, he had chosen not to publicize this information.

As the end of the rule’s effective period drew closer, Guan Tong had thought the information might remain hidden. But unexpectedly, with three days to go, the number of boxes sold still hit the threshold, causing the limited quantity notification to appear.

He opened the Sublimation Store on his personal terminal to take a look.

The remaining quantity of [Basic Food Box - Bronze Level] was already down to 8,921,743.

Less than an hour had passed since the news broke, and over a million boxes had already been sold.

Seeing this, Guan Tong marveled at the immense purchasing power of the world’s Ascenders while thinking to himself, ’Good thing I didn’t publicize the information back then. Otherwise, they probably would have sold out a day or two before the rule even ended...’