49 Apocalypse Rules

June 28th, the last three days of the fourth Apocalypse Rule’s effective period.

Guan Tong woke up in the morning and stood on the small path, looking up at the sky.

Those leaden clouds had dominated the sky for nearly a month. In three days, they would finally scatter.

’I haven’t seen the sun in almost a month... It’s a miracle I haven’t gotten sick.’

Even in countries that experienced the polar night each year, the incidence of depression was high—to say nothing of a place like North Star Country, where many people loved spending time in the sun and drying their laundry outdoors.

The damage from so many days of blizzards wasn’t just the snow itself; the various secondary disasters caused by the chain reaction would also be a major problem.

Take Wang Yan and Chen Na, the mother and daughter who had chosen to leave the village, for example.

Their case was a microcosm of a larger problem: across the country’s many villages and towns, there would always be thoughtless people or reckless scoundrels who failed to prepare enough supplies and resorted to robbing others when they ran out.

For the victims, these looters were more hateful than the snowstorm itself. The harm they caused could be even greater.

Though Guan Tong hadn’t witnessed it himself, he knew that tragedies sparked by the Apocalypse Rules were happening every moment all over the world.

But all he could do now was look after himself. Under the Apocalypse Rules, it was hard enough to just survive, let alone save the world.

He took out the Wordless Book and turned to the second page. He had finished writing the character for "gun" yesterday, but his Psychic Power had been completely depleted, so he had to sleep and recover before he could manifest it today.

’Come on. Shotgun, I want a shotgun, not a spear!’

Guan Tong repeated the words in his mind, hoping the Wordless Book would manifest the concept according to his thoughts as he poured his Psychic Power into it.

Soon, the character on the page began to warp and drift.

Just as Shadow had first peeled off the page, the character began to detach and solidify into reality as Psychic Power flowed into it.

The next moment, a shotgun with a silver body truly materialized!

"Success!"

Guan Tong was ecstatic. He hadn’t expected the Wordless Book to actually manifest the character based on his thoughts!

Not a spear, not a pistol, but a real shotgun!

This meant that as long as he had enough Psychic Power for the manifestation, he could fulfill even a "vague request" written on the page.

This discovery would undoubtedly be a great help for manifesting other concepts in the future, but for now, Guan Tong’s attention was entirely focused on the shotgun in his hands.

The reason he wanted a shotgun over a pistol or sniper rifle was its simple, brutish nature. It didn’t require long, hard practice to master marksmanship—you could pick it up and use it right away!

Guan Tong held the grip with one hand and supported the barrel with the other, feeling the unique metallic texture.

The shotgun had a stockless design, and a small electronic screen on the right side of the grip whose purpose was unclear. After studying it for a moment, he was baffled as to how to load it.

But he quickly realized—this shotgun, manifested from the Wordless Book, didn’t need to be manually loaded.

However, that didn’t mean it had infinite ammo. Guan Tong soon discovered that its bullets were generated by consuming Psychic Power. There were three types in total, numbered 1 through 3.

Type-1 was a standard scatter shot, suitable for dealing with small beasts or multiple enemies. It cost 5 points of Psychic Power to generate one round.

Type-2 was a large-caliber slug, suitable for hunting a single large beast. It cost 10 points of Psychic Power to generate one round.

The final Type-3 was a high-explosive bomb for demolition. This was the most powerful bullet and also the most costly, requiring a full 30 points of Psychic Power to generate a single round!

With Guan Tong’s current maximum of 122 Psychic Power, he could generate a maximum of 24 rounds of the cheapest Type-1 Scatter Shot, 12 rounds of the Type-2 slug, and 4 rounds of the Type-3 High-Explosive Bomb.

’Looks like if I want to fire continuously in the future... I’ll need to increase my Psychic Power limit a lot more.’

Guan Tong first tried spending 5 points of Psychic Power to generate one round of Type-1 Scatter Shot.

After it was generated, the small electronic screen on the left side of the grip lit up, displaying: Type-1 x1

’So the little screen is for displaying the ammo count...’

Seeing the text on the screen, Guan Tong thought it was like a gun from a shooting game. Having a digital, visible ammo count was quite convenient.

With the bullet generated, he aimed at the snow wall beside the path and tried pulling the trigger.

"BANG!"

A muffled blast echoed, and a dense cluster of craters instantly appeared on the snow wall, a chilling sight to behold.

’If the Type-1 is already this powerful, aren’t the Type-2 and Type-3 even more terrifying... Nice.’

High power was definitely a good thing; Guan Tong couldn’t be happier.

But he couldn’t just rely on theory. He planned to go test the Type-2 and Type-3 rounds elsewhere later.

He couldn’t test those two on the snow wall next to the path. If he collapsed it into the path he painstakingly cleared every day, he’d be beyond frustrated.

For now, he looked at the silver, metallic shotgun in his hands. After a moment’s thought, just as he had with "Shadow," he gave this gun a name as well.

"From now on, I’ll call you ’Silver Hunter.’ That’s your name, ’Silver Hunter.’"

After naming it, Guan Tong glanced at the small electronic screen on the left of the grip. After that one shot, the screen had gone dark again. It seemed it only lit up when there was ammo.

He thought for a moment, then spent the Psychic Power to generate one Type-2 round and one Type-3 round. The electronic screen immediately lit up, displaying on two separate lines:

Type-2 x1

Type-3 x1

As Guan Tong looked at it, he thought, ’Can I stock up on bullets in the gun ahead of time?’

For example, he could spend Psychic Power today to generate a few rounds and store them, then do the same tomorrow after his power recovered. If he slowly stockpiled a few hundred rounds, wouldn’t it be almost like having infinite ammo when he needed it?

Guan Tong’s idea was a good one, but reality quickly slapped him in the face.

He tried storing the gun back in the Wordless Book. When he summoned it again, the two rounds he had just generated were gone. To add insult to injury, not only was the ammo gone, but the Psychic Power used to create it wasn’t refunded.

This meant that if he wanted to stockpile ammo, he had to keep the gun out; he couldn’t store it back in the Wordless Book.

This wasn’t entirely impossible, because unlike "Shadow," the "Silver Hunter" didn’t continuously consume Psychic Power after being manifested.

Once Shadow was summoned, it would constantly drain Psychic Power to maintain its existence, whether you had it doing something or not.

The Silver Hunter, on the other hand, was a one-time deal. It only consumed a bit of Psychic Power upon summoning and didn’t consume any afterward. Only generating bullets cost power.

In other words, if he wanted to stockpile ammo, he just had to summon the gun and not put it back in the book, keeping it with him at all times.

But that would be a bit of a hassle.

Carrying a shotgun around was fine in the wilderness, but in a city, he would have to keep it in a backpack, out of sight.

After all, even in a country where guns weren’t banned, walking down the street with a shotgun in hand would get the police called on you.

’It’s a bit of a hassle, but I’ll keep the gun in my bag for now.’

Although it wasn’t as convenient as summoning it on demand, stockpiling bullets like this could be a lifesaver in a critical moment, especially with his current low Psychic Power. A little trouble was better than running out of ammo and losing his life.

"Guan!"

Just as Guan Tong was about to clear the snow on the path and then go test the power of the Type-2 and Type-3 rounds, Chen Na’s cry came from not far away, her voice holding a hint of tears.

Guan Tong immediately stored the gun back in the book and walked up the steps to the top of the snow wall. He saw Chen Na running toward him, tear tracks on her face.

"What’s wrong, Na?" Guan Tong asked as he went to meet her.

"My mom, my mom says her stomach hurts a lot! Guan, do you have any medicine?"

"Stomachache? I’ll go get my medical kit."

Guan Tong went back to his camp and took out the emergency medical kit he’d grabbed from the supply point. It didn’t have any specific stomach medicine, but it had painkillers that could help ease the pain for now.

He took the box of painkillers and went with Chen Na to the large truck. Wang Yan was curled up on her side on the sleeper berth, her forehead slick with sweat, clearly in a lot of pain.

"Wang, I have some painkillers here. Take one to help ease the pain," Guan Tong said, taking out a pill and giving it to Chen Na to give to her mother.

After swallowing the pill, Wang Yan managed a weak smile. "Thank you, Guan."

"It’s no problem. But Wang, what happened all of a sudden? Is it a stomach problem?"

"Sigh, it’s an old ailment from my trucking days... working all hours, not eating properly... It’s nothing serious. The pain will pass after a while."

"Just hang in there, Wang. The rule ends in three days. Once the snow melts, we can go to a hospital in the city and get it checked out."

Wang Yan sighed. "The rule is almost over, but will this snow melt anytime soon? Don’t you worry about me, Guan. I’ll be fine. It’ll pass."

"Alright." Guan Tong nodded. He thought for a moment and said, "I still have a bag or two of instant noodles. I’ll cook some for you, Wang. Something hot might help."

"No, you can’t do that! You keep it for yourself, Guan!"

"It’s fine. I’ll go get them now."

"Ah, well... In that case, I’ll trade you for some milk. I can’t let you take a loss, Guan," Wang Yan said seriously.

"Alright." Guan Tong knew Wang Yan was a woman of principle who didn’t like to take advantage of others, so he agreed.