49 Apocalypse Rules

"Mr. Liu, please get in the car."

At the entrance of the Jule Company building, a well-dressed young driver opened the rear passenger door and spoke to Liu Yuqiang with a smile.

Liu Yuqiang frowned as he looked at the long-body car parked in front of him, its windows completely blacked out.

The young driver seemed to notice Liu Yuqiang’s displeasure and said with a smile, "This is a request from our big boss. Every attendee must take this type of vehicle to the meeting location. We ask for your understanding, Mr. Liu."

"Understood."

Liu Yuqiang knew that "Big Sis" had always been mysterious and careful. Now that she was organizing an internal, in-person meeting for the Qingmei Association, she was bound to be even more cautious.

After he settled into the back seat, the driver closed the door.

Just as Liu Yuqiang had expected, the side windows were covered with a special film, and a partition had been installed between the front and back seats. This way, anyone in the back couldn’t see outside and would have no idea where the car was going.

In essence, this wasn’t much different from having a black plastic bag pulled over your head, which would have been simpler and more convenient. But this wasn’t a kidnapping, after all. It was a members’ meeting, and the dignity of the bosses had to be considered.

The car started moving. Since Liu Yuqiang couldn’t see anything, he simply leaned back against the soft seat, closed his eyes to rest, and began to speculate on Big Sis’s purpose for organizing this meeting.

Before the Apocalypse Rules, the members of the Qingmei Association had mainly focused on exchanging business resources and connections, helping each other secure top or even leading positions in various commercial sectors.

But after entering the era of the Apocalypse Rules, business had given way to survival. So where did that leave these business titans? Were they supposed to struggle just like ordinary people? The psychological gap was just too immense.

Big Sis had previously said in the group chat that the meeting was to discuss the future plans for the Qingmei Association, so Liu Yuqiang was actually quite looking forward to it.

However, the fact that Big Sis hadn’t disclosed the meeting location, instead sending special cars to pick them up—cars that were specially sealed—showed that she didn’t fully trust the members. This made Liu Yuqiang somewhat uncomfortable.

He took his phone out of his pocket, only to see that it had no signal. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

’Is there a signal jammer in the car?’

Liu Yuqiang put the phone back in his pocket, his frown deepening.

...

Guan Tong sat on the mat he’d laid out in the storage room, staring at the words "Psychic Power" on the third page of the Wordless Book. He didn’t immediately infuse his Psychic Power; instead, he began to chant silently.

’Increase Psychic Power limit, increase Psychic Power limit.’

It was just like when he’d written the word "gun" on the second page and silently chanted, ’I want a Shotgun, not a spear.’ He was doing this in the hope that the Wordless Book would manifest the result he truly desired.

Although this method was a bit metaphysical and he didn’t know if it would actually work, there was no harm in trying.

After chanting it several times to ensure no other thoughts interfered, Guan Tong infused all of his remaining 100 points of Psychic Power into the page.

The next moment, something similar to what happened when he wrote "Sublimation Coin" occurred.

The words "Psychic Power" rapidly lifted off the page, twisting and deforming into a stream of data.

This stream of data then slammed into Guan Tong’s forehead before floating back out and reforming into words on the page.

’Did it work? Or did it fail?’

Uncertain, Guan Tong immediately opened his personal terminal to check his status panel.

[Name: Guan Tong]

[Nickname: Shadow]

[Title: Orderkeeper]

[Psychic Power: 0 (126) (10)]

[Sublimation Coins: 30]

[Comprehensive Bio-Information Evaluation: Excellent]

’...What is this?’

Guan Tong stared at the Psychic Power data on his panel. He knew that the "126" in the first set of parentheses represented his limit. But the (10) in the second set was new. What did it represent?

He thought for a moment, then picked up the Silver Hunter and tried to create a No. 2 round, which cost 10 Psychic Power.

On the electronic screen on the left side of the gun’s grip, the remaining count of No. 2 rounds immediately increased by one.

Guan Tong also noticed that the Psychic Power data on his panel had changed to "0 (126) (0)".

’I see! The manifestation of the words on the page didn’t increase my Psychic Power limit, but it did convert it into a form of storable Psychic Power!’

Guan Tong was thrilled by this discovery. Although infusing 100 points of Psychic Power only yielded 10 points of stored power, from another perspective, this was an indirect way of increasing his Psychic Power limit.

He could convert and store power in his spare time. Even at a 10-to-1 conversion rate, he could turn his full 126-point capacity into about 12 stored points.

This was similar to stocking up on ammo for the Silver Hunter. He could save it when he didn’t need it and then unleash it all at once when he did, bursting with several times his normal combat power!

’Excellent! As long as I have enough stored, I can unleash the combat power of multiple people all by myself at a critical moment.’

Guan Tong thought to himself, ’Especially since my Shadow, powerful as it is, has the major drawback of consuming too much power.

’When the Shadow exists in its physical form, it consumes 1 point of Psychic Power for almost every second of its existence. With my current limit of 126 points, the Shadow can only maintain its physical form for a little over two minutes.

’Against a single target, two minutes might be enough to decide the outcome. But against multiple enemies, two minutes would be far from sufficient.

’If I could use pre-stored Psychic Power as a "backup battery" in that situation, I could greatly extend the Shadow’s duration, thereby increasing my own combat endurance.’

Although his subjective goal for this conversion—to increase his Psychic Power limit—had failed on the surface, Guan Tong was still very satisfied with the actual result.

’Today is July 24th, which means there’s one week until the fifth rule is announced. My current natural Psychic Power recovery rate is about 1 point every 5 minutes, so my total natural recovery over 24 hours is around 280 points...

’Unlike with the Sublimation Coin, the words on the page didn’t disappear after this conversion. This means it’s more like the Shadow—I can directly infuse Psychic Power to convert it, rather than having to write the words again each time.

’I don’t need to push for the maximum conversion rate. As long as I can store 20 points of reserve Psychic Power each day, I’ll have 140 points saved up in a week.’

Guan Tong felt a surge of excitement.

In a week, at full capacity, he would have his own 126 points of Psychic Power plus about 140 in reserve, for a grand total of over 260 available points!

If he supplied all of that to his Shadow, it could maintain its physical form for nearly five minutes, a massive boost to his combat endurance. If he used it to generate ammo for the Silver Hunter, he could create 26 No. 2 rounds or 8 No. 3 rounds.

He recalled the terrifying power of the No. 3 High-Explosive Bomb; a single shot was enough to destroy a small target. If he created eight rounds at once and fired them all... Guan Tong didn’t think any enemy at this stage could withstand such a barrage, though it would be a different story if they had some special item, of course.

Thinking of special items, Guan Tong had also been browsing the market on his personal terminal during the past few days while resting and waiting for his Psychic Power to recover, checking out the various items for sale.

Of course, he was just window shopping; with only 30 coins left, he couldn’t afford to buy anything even if he wanted to.

But not being able to afford them didn’t stop him from looking. The more he learned, the better chance he’d have of recognizing something if he happened to encounter it in the real world.

However, on several occasions, he had just refreshed the page to find a reasonably priced item with a good effect, only to have it bought by someone else before he could even finish reading the description. After this happened a few times in a row, he realized that many people were constantly watching the market, ready to snap up good deals.

But as the saying goes, everyone has their own way of getting by.

Those organizations and groups could rapidly strengthen their individual members by pooling resources, but Guan Tong had his own methods.

He felt that with his ability to see hidden rules combined with the Wordless Book, his development wouldn’t necessarily be slower than theirs.

Of course, he had also considered that with his own unique advantages, if he could also get the massive resource investment of a powerful organization, the combination would lead to a terrifyingly fast development speed—but that was just a fleeting thought.

Perhaps it was due to his personality, but Guan Tong always carried a faint sense of insecurity that made him reluctant to rely on others. That was why he’d rather progress a bit more slowly than rashly join some unfamiliar group.

He quickly reined in his thoughts and focused on the present. ’I should stop overthinking things. For the next week, I’ll just focus on steadily saving up some reserve Psychic Power and be in peak condition to welcome the announcement of the fifth Apocalypse Rule.’