49 Apocalypse Rules

Guan Tong immediately ran some tests for network tracking and the like.

He randomly logged into a few websites and checked his IP location. The result was always "Unknown Location."

After that, he tried several other methods to test his IP and location, but they all came back as either unknown or undisplayed.

He even opened a map application and selected "locate me." After a few seconds, the app displayed a message: "Service is not available in the current area."

’...It feels like this shelter is in an "Otherworld," completely cut off from reality.’

Guan Tong ran an experiment. He took his phone outside, started recording, then went back inside and closed the door. When he went out again and checked his phone, the house was still there in the recording; it hadn’t disappeared.

This proved the shelter existed on a physical level. It was just that its functions—more accurately, its energy—were self-generated, or rather, generated by Psychic Power. That was why it had no connection to the outside world.

The electricity, water, and even this untraceable wireless network were all products converted from Guan Tong’s Psychic Power by the shelter.

This discovery made Guan Tong realize for the first time that this shelter was far more incredible than he had imagined.

’At the very least, I definitely can’t convert Psychic Power into electricity, water, and internet... I guess it really is an all-purpose shelter, huh? Did I underestimate it?’

’This makes browsing the internet much more convenient.’

Guan Tong thought to himself. He had always rarely posted online, preferring to just lurk. He was worried that if he revealed any important information, someone with ill intentions could track him through the internet and find him.

Now that he’d confirmed he couldn’t be traced, if he obtained any crucial intelligence in the future, he could post it online without worry. That way, he could help some people out.

BUZZ BUZZ...

His phone vibrated. Guan Tong picked it up and saw it was a call from Xu Xiaotian.

"Hey, Xiaotian, what’s up?"

"Nothing much, Tong. The challenge just ended, right? I wanted to tell you, our team ran into a group that was teaming up illegally. We got wiped out right at the start," Xu Xiaotian said with a sigh.

"The Wolf Pack Team, right?"

Guan Tong had also seen many contestants online furiously denouncing the Tulip Federation’s Wolf Pack Team. The other countries’ teams all acted on their own, but the Federation’s Wolf Pack Team was something else. Dozens of teams grouped together to act as one. How was anyone else supposed to compete?

However, Guan Tong hadn’t encountered them himself. He didn’t know if the Wolf Pack Team had come to fight for the Holy Grail later on. All he knew was that he had eliminated everyone who entered the smoke without discrimination.

"That’s them! I really don’t know what they were thinking. Even if they wiped out all the other countries’ teams, wouldn’t they still have to fight each other in the end to decide the top ten?"

"They probably thought that this way, all the top-ten rewards would fall into the hands of their own Federation’s teams."

"True... But it still feels pretty ridiculous. Oh, right, something big is happening." Xu Xiaotian’s tone turned serious. "Tong, you might not know, but Yong’an is probably going to restrict entry soon!"

"Is that so?"

"It seems like it’s because too many people from all over the country are coming to the Capital every day. You have no idea how crazy it is. A lot of the newcomers have nowhere to live and can only sleep on the floor at the station. A classmate of mine said Yong’an’s population has passed a hundred million!"

"...That really is a lot."

Guan Tong knew that ever since the snow disaster and the Living Dead rule, megacities had been accelerating their siphoning of the nation’s population. In Yunhua as well, the number of new people entering the city had surged.

But thinking back to Wang Yan’s yearning for the Capital, her hope for her daughter Chen Na to study and live there... many people across the country must have had similar ideas, which would naturally lead to a population explosion in Yong’an.

"Yeah. That’s why I’m calling to let you know, Tong. If you don’t come soon, it’ll probably be hard to get into the city once the restriction order is issued. If you’re worried about having nowhere to stay, I’ll make a spot for you in my dorm room!"

"Thanks, Xiaotian, but I really have no plans to go to Yong’an anytime soon. You just focus on your studies at the academy. Don’t worry about me."

"Alright then. Well, if you ever decide to come, give me a call! I’ll come pick you up!"

"No problem."

After hanging up, Guan Tong thought, ’In the future, there probably won’t be many people left anywhere besides the megacities.’

This situation wasn’t unique to North Star Country; it was likely similar in other nations. When faced with disaster, people tended to band together for protection.

’I should just watch the online course videos.’

Overthinking was useless. Guan Tong refocused his attention on the online course.

Over the next ten-odd days, he mostly focused on watching Shi Jingyi’s online courses, memorizing the locations of the human body’s acupoints and trying to learn the method of Psychic Power Flow.

According to what Shi Jingyi said in class, learning the basics of circulating energy would take a diligent student about three to six months. But that was based on pre-apocalypse experience.

In this era, a sufficiently talented person would learn much faster. What used to take half a year might now only take three months. What used to take three months might now only take one.

The reason for this was that with the emergence of Psychic Power, people’s bodies were gradually and subtly being transformed.

Various experts had been tracking and studying the effects of Psychic Power on the human body, and they periodically published some of their findings.

In the publicly available reports, it was clearly stated that individuals with higher Psychic Power saw their various bodily functions improve by 30% to 50% in just a few months.

And this was an increasing trend. According to research estimates, after another 3-4 rounds of rules, the physical functions of High Spirit Users would generally be 80% to 100% better than before the Apocalypse Rules.

This meant that even excluding abilities and items, purely from the perspective of physical fitness and function, a High Spirit User of that time would be about twice as strong as their former self.

A twofold enhancement might still seem mortal, but the most important thing was the growth trend. If this trend continued, humanity would sooner or later reach a level they previously couldn’t even imagine.

What society would look like then was impossible to predict. So, all people could do now was not think about such a distant future and focus only on the immediate rules they had to face.

Ten-odd days flew by.

On the evening of September 14th.

Guan Tong was lying in bed. His black cat, Coal Ball, was sprawled next to him, stretching lazily.

’The new rule will be announced tomorrow...’

Guan Tong opened his terminal and accessed the Sublimation Store.

No new products had been added.

Before the Ascender Challenge, the store had stocked drones and Lock Openers, which were clearly items added for the challenge.

But since the challenge ended, up until today, the Sublimation Store hadn’t added any new items.

This made it difficult for people to make any general predictions about the type of the sixth rule.

’The research departments are probably freaking out even more than I am.’

Without being able to predict the rule, they wouldn’t know what preparations to make or what resources to mobilize in advance. Waiting until after the rule was announced would definitely be too late.

Guan Tong closed the store and opened the trading market.

Ever since the Living Dead rule, the prices of items on the market had remained high, only dropping slightly now. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

If Guan Tong had been concerned about this before and eager to buy, after experiencing the challenge he now felt that many items were actually quite useless.

This was especially true for offensive and defensive items.

If your own Psychic Power items or abilities could provide both, you were better off saving your Sublimation Coins to buy something special.

Just like how Guan Tong himself had Shadow, which was both offensive and defensive, ordinary attack and defense items weren’t very important to him.

Quite a few people thought this way, so the prices of some items with more unique effects on the market were ridiculously high.

The Universal Medicine he’d seen before, listed for fifteen thousand, was gone now. He didn’t know if it had been sold or taken down. He scrolled for a while and came across another piece of equipment with an outrageous price.

[Soul Pendant]: When equipped, reduces Psychic Power consumption by 15%

[Price]: 500,000 Sublimation Coins

The effect was indeed good; the more you used it, the more you saved. But the price was absurd. 500,000 Sublimation Coins. Probably even small and medium-sized organizations couldn’t afford it. Only official and large private organizations could possibly buy it.

’Looks like the good stuff on the market is out of reach for a solo, unaffiliated person like me for now...’

Guan Tong didn’t look any further and closed his eyes.

Tomorrow was the day the new rule would be announced. It was best to get some sleep and conserve his energy.

...

The next morning, just like before the last rule announcement, the sounds of excavators, transport trucks, and so on all ceased outside. The entire city seemed to have been muted.

He didn’t know which rule it started with, but on the day of a new rule announcement, the city would become unusually quiet. Everyone stayed by themselves or with a few others, silently awaiting the rule’s arrival.

Some people didn’t just wait silently; they would perform all sorts of strange "welcoming ceremonies." These were mostly religious personnel.

Guan Tong had seen online that after entering the era of the Apocalypse Rules, various religions similar to the Fire Worshipers had been established in countries abroad.

The followers believed the Fire Thief was the incarnation of a god, or a messenger sent by a god, specifically to purify this filthy world.

Every time a rule announcement day arrived, these followers would gather to hold ceremonies and sing hymns. Some of the leaked videos of these rituals were very unsettling for ordinary people to watch.

This wasn’t surprising. Even in an era when gods were merely ethereal concepts, religious power could be so strong. Now, the Fire Thief had truly demonstrated the great power to manipulate nature and reap lives at will.

To these various believers, wasn’t such a "god"—one that lived and breathed and periodically displayed its immense power—more real and more worthy of worship than any god that had only ever existed in legends?

Guan Tong naturally didn’t pay much attention to this. Besides, these religions were mostly expanding wildly overseas; they didn’t have much fertile ground to grow in North Star Country.

But he felt that the authorities might be worried. What if those Fire Worshiper followers aided the enemy, not thinking about resisting the rules but instead helping the Fire Thief execute them better? That would undoubtedly be a disaster for all of humanity.

Time ticked by until it was 9:00 AM.

Just like every time before, the Fire Thief’s voice arrived right on schedule, resounding in everyone’s mind.

[The sixth Apocalypse Rule has been announced.]

[Apocalypse Rule Six: Deadly Blood Plague]

[Rule Content: From the moment of this announcement, a virus transmitted through the air and blood will begin to spread across the world. This virus is highly lethal. The Infected will hemorrhage and die within 24 hours. This rule will last for 15 days.]

[Success Reward: 300 Sublimation Coins, a Silver Level Survival Treasure Chest.]

[Failure Penalty: None.]

[Remark: Since the dawn of humanity, plagues have followed you like a shadow. Fortunately, humanity has always survived the great epidemics. But this time, will your luck continue to hold?]

As the Fire Thief’s voice faded, a chorus of curses rose and fell throughout the city.

"A contagious virus! And it’s airborne! Damn that Fire Thief, how many people is it trying to kill?!"

"Why is it another survival rule?!"

"We’re screwed. The moment I saw ’Survival Treasure Chest’ in the rewards, I knew a ton of people were going to die this time..."