49 Apocalypse Rules

A young man with vacant eyes walked along a street in Yunhua City.

He wandered as if he had no destination, with no idea where to go.

"BUMP."

A passerby bumped into him and immediately frowned. "What are you doing? Not watching where you’re going, you..."

He stopped mid-sentence when the young man’s murderous gaze fell upon him. The passerby swallowed hard, lowered his head, and quickly scurried away.

’...To think that I, Gu Fei, would fall this low!’

The young man was Gu Fei, the former captain of the Third Official Squad.

The Third Squad’s failure in the recent Ascender challenge had made him the one to bear the most responsibility.

In truth, the moment he was killed on Holy Grail Island, he had a premonition that he would be punished.

But he never expected the final decision from his superiors would be to expel him from the squad and confiscate all the items that had been invested in him.

It felt like being cast from heaven into hell. After handing over his items to the official personnel, Gu Fei left the base in a daze and wandered the streets aimlessly.

He knew that from this moment on, he was no longer a member of the official organization. He could no longer enjoy its comprehensive protection and unconditional investment. Even if his Psychic Power capacity was higher than the average person’s, so what?

Gu Fei knew full well that after leaving the Official Team, his former teammates, who had once been weaker than him, would soon surpass him. And he could never go back; he could only live on as an ordinary person.

The sheer drop in status was something he couldn’t accept.

Gu Fei kept walking. When he came to his senses, he found himself on the rooftop of a tall building.

Standing on the edge and looking down, he raised his right hand. His Psychic Power item, a scimitar, appeared in his grasp.

Gu Fei slowly brought the scimitar to his own neck, his hand trembling slightly.

Before today, the thought of "suicide" had never once crossed his mind. But now, his spirit had shattered. He simply couldn’t accept falling from the lofty position of an Official Team captain to being just a slightly stronger ordinary person.

He was going to use his own weapon to slit his own throat, then let his body fall from the building.

"A former captain of the grand Official Team, and this is all the mettle you have?"

Just as Gu Fei was about to act, a voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Thinking of suicide just because you were kicked off the team. It’s so pathetic it’s almost laughable."

Gu Fei spun around to see a short-haired woman in a suit standing not far away.

"Who are you?!"

"Does it matter who I am?"

"..."

Gu Fei wasn’t stupid. He knew this woman must have been watching him for some time; otherwise, she would never have followed him to the rooftop of this abandoned building.

He pointed his scimitar at the woman and said coldly, "Why were you following me? Talk, or I’ll kill you right now!"

"Relax, I have no interest in you. The Commander-in-Chief merely asked me to assess your situation... From the looks of it, the results aren’t very promising. What good is a person who’s so quick to end their own life, no matter how strong they are?"

’Commander-in-Chief?’

Gu Fei frowned. "Who is this ’Commander-in-Chief’ you speak of?"

He had just been kicked off the Official Team, and now this "Commander-in-Chief" was sending someone to investigate him. Something was clearly off.

’How did this Commander-in-Chief know about my captaincy? How do they know inside information from the Strategy Research Room?’

"The Commander-in-Chief is the Commander-in-Chief," the short-haired woman said. "Gu Fei, let me be blunt. You became a captain after passing round after round of selections. I’m sure you know better than anyone how difficult that was."

"If you want to end it all, then by all means. But if you still harbor resentment, if you want to prove yourself, if you want revenge... then the Commander-in-Chief might give you a chance."

’Prove myself... Revenge...’

The hand Gu Fei used to grip his scimitar unconsciously lowered.

"Take me to your Commander-in-Chief."

The short-haired woman smiled. "The Commander-in-Chief is not in Yunhua. Since you’re interested, I’ll report your situation. If the Commander-in-Chief is willing, you will be summoned. Until then, you will wait."

After speaking, the woman turned and left. Gu Fei stood there in silence for a long time, his gaze gradually hardening.

’That’s right, I can’t just kill myself... That would be pathetic! Even if I was kicked out of the Official Team, can’t I, Gu Fei, rely on my strength to join another organization and get resources? Sooner or later... Hmph!’

After going downstairs, the short-haired woman took out a small cell phone and made a call.

"Commander-in-Chief, Gu Fei wants to see you."

"Let him wait," came the voice from the phone—the voice of the big sister and founder of the Qingmei Association. "I will make time to see him later."

"Commander-in-Chief, forgive my impudence. This Gu Fei was about to commit suicide after being kicked off the Official Team. Is someone with such a weak character truly worth cultivating?"

"Hehe," the big sister chuckled. "Child, that’s not weakness. Truly weak people don’t have the guts to kill themselves... Since this Gu Fei dares to kill himself, he dares to kill others. With a little guidance, he’ll become a useful blade in our hands."

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief. I understand."

...

’The city is changing so fast...’

Guan Tong walked down the street. He hadn’t been out in a while, and downtown Yunhua City had changed drastically.

First, both sides of the streets had been completely cleared. Shops, bus stops, and even the roadside trees and flowerbeds in the greenbelts had been removed.

And on this cleared land, construction was underway for what were undoubtedly the shelters of various sizes that the officials had proposed.

Guan Tong noticed that these shelters weren’t being built directly on the ground. Instead, deep pits were being dug first. This meant the shelters would have both underground and aboveground levels; it looked like they were aiming for a professional-grade design.

Seeing this, he couldn’t help but marvel at the officials’ efficiency. At this rate, the shelters would probably be ready for initial use after another one or two Apocalypse Rules.

He was just a little curious: once all these professional-grade shelters were built and people moved in, would there be anyone left outside?

The thought of streets lined with shelters, devoid of a single person, sent an odd chill down Guan Tong’s spine.

But in the era of the Apocalypse Rules, everything had to be sacrificed for survival.

Besides, if humanity could endure all forty-nine Apocalypse Rules and still have a large number of survivors, then with the items, abilities, and Psychic Power accumulated during these rounds... it might just elevate humanity as a whole into a new Gold Age.

Guan Tong wandered through the streets and alleys. He didn’t find any rats, but he did find a stray cat with pure black fur and emerald-green eyes.

This was quite a rare find because the fourth rule, [June Snow], had caused wildlife in urban areas to nearly go extinct.

Humans had faced immense difficulties just to survive during that rule, let alone stray cats and dogs.

Guan Tong took out a sausage he had with him and successfully lured the little black cat back with him.

He placed the little black cat in a room in his shelter, where he had also stored some supplies and other items.

Then, he stood outside, closed the door, and retracted the shelter back into the [Wordless Book].

In the next moment, the shelter vanished without a trace, taking the supplies and the little black cat with it.

’...It all got stored in the book?’

Guan Tong summoned it again, opened the door, and went inside. The little black cat was lying on the bed, and all the supplies were still in their original places.

This experimental result left Guan Tong very satisfied.

He had previously worried that if he put supplies in the shelter, they would all fall to the ground when he retracted it. That would be very troublesome when he needed to relocate.

But now it seemed that items placed inside the shelter became a part of it, retracting and emerging from the book’s pages along with it.

And it wasn’t just limited to Dead Objects; it worked for living creatures too. At least, judging from the little black cat’s condition, it hadn’t been harmed in the process.

’If anyone opposes me in the future, I could lure them into this shelter, retract it into the book’s pages, and trap them to death...’

As Guan Tong was thinking, the little black cat let out a "MEOW," jumped down to his feet, and rubbed its head against his pant leg.

"Look at you, all pitch black. The same color as my Shadow." Guan Tong crouched down and rubbed the little black cat’s head. "You can stay with me from now on."

He had originally gone out just to find a living creature for his shelter-retraction experiment. But now, looking at this little black cat, he found it rather cute and decided to adopt it.

Guan Tong thought this was a good thing. At least he would have a living companion. Although he wasn’t very outgoing, being alone all the time sometimes brought on a sense of loneliness. Having a little black cat around would be nice.

"What should I name you?" Guan Tong looked at the pitch-black kitten and thought for a moment. "I’ll call you ’Coal Ball’."

"MEOW." The little black cat meowed, whether in approval or protest, Guan Tong decided to call it that anyway.

"Come on, Coal Ball, let’s get you washed up. Look how dirty you are."

Guan Tong picked up Coal Ball and took him to the bathroom for a bath, then fed him some crackers and a sausage.

After eating and drinking its fill, Coal Ball quickly jumped onto the bed, curled up, and fell asleep with its eyes squinted.

Guan Tong watched from the side, feeling quite good.

Coal Ball didn’t seem very afraid of people, but it wasn’t a clingy cat either. That was good. Guan Tong didn’t need much interaction; just having another living creature in the same space could alleviate some of his loneliness.

’Next up is waiting for the sixth rule to be announced.’

Guan Tong sat at his desk, wondering how to spend the next ten-plus days.

He had already stockpiled a lot of Psychic Power and Silver Hunter Bullets. He could gather more... but he felt the returns wouldn’t be as great as before.

’Is there another way to improve my strength...?’

As Guan Tong pondered, his eyes suddenly lit up.

’How could I have forgotten about that!’

He quickly plugged in and turned on his laptop, navigating to the official website of the Psychic Power Academy.

That’s right. With everything that had happened during the challenge, his mind had been a mess, and he had completely forgotten about Shi Jingyi’s class, "Psychic Power Flow."

He was looking for other ways to increase his strength, and Shi Jingyi’s unique application of Psychic Power was naturally his first choice.

Imagine if he could also make Psychic Power flow through his whole body like Shi Jingyi. With his vast reserves of Psychic Power, he would surely be able to unleash incredible power.

However, Shi Jingyi had mentioned before that learning her technique required a certain degree of talent, as well as the patience to put in the hard work of memorizing the body’s acupuncture points and learning how to circulate energy.

’I’ll give it a serious try. It’d be great if I can learn it, but if not, so be it.’ Guan Tong made up his mind and clicked into Shi Jingyi’s course channel.

But only after clicking did he realize something strange.

’...What network is this laptop connected to?’

Previously, when Guan Tong used his laptop to go online, he had always used his phone as a hotspot. But now, the laptop seemed to connect to the internet automatically as soon as it was plugged in and turned on.

He checked the network connection status. It showed that he was connected to "Unknown Wireless."

’...Could this be a unique network that comes with my shelter?’

Upon realizing this, Guan Tong immediately had a deeper thought: ’If I use the internet inside the shelter, does that mean I can avoid being tracked online?’