Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 120 The First Business Deal of Shadow Logistics

Guan Tong's thinking is simple: there are two ways to transport things.

One approach is to have the shadow handle everything from start to finish. In other words, the shadow is responsible for the entire process of picking up and delivering the goods.

Another method involves Guan Tong personally participating. For example, she could use her "Shadow Shift" ability to swap positions with her shadow when the shadow arrives at the pickup point, then physically retrieve/deliver the goods. After a 10-second cooldown, she could then switch places with the delivery person.

Regardless, he will definitely choose the first option.

The second option is to become a high-level courier, which is inefficient and dangerous.

If someone sets a trap for you and you physically move there, you won't be able to escape.

Therefore, Guan Tong did not consider the second method. As one of his trump cards for survival, the ability of "Shadow Shift" would never be easily exposed for anything other than using it to save his life.

Once the first option is chosen, the next step is to enhance the shadow's resilience.

Resilience, as a form of defense, is actually linked to Guan Tong himself. To enhance it separately, one can only try adding words to the [Wordless Book].

Since the Ascendant Challenge ended, Guan Tong hasn't added any words to the first four pages, mainly because she doesn't have any ideas.

Now that he has created the "House of Ascended" website and decided to make it a success and a major source of income, he needs to focus his thinking around it.

So, over the next few days, Guan Tong resumed his work of adding words after a long absence.

He didn't go through any complicated steps; he simply added the character "坚" (firm) before "五感变形体关瞳" (five senses deformed entity close pupil) on the first page.

The character "坚" represents resilience and sturdiness.

Guan Tong wants to use a vague approach to see if she can achieve the desired effect.

In order to complete the test as quickly as possible, he did not hesitate to use some of his reserved mental energy.

In just three days, he completed the addition of the characters.

After completing this, he first summoned a humanoid shadow, made it material, and then fired a shot at it with Silver Hunter's No. 1 shotgun.

"boom!"

The shotgun blasted into the shadow's body, and Guan Tong frowned slightly upon seeing this.

Defense doesn't seem to have increased; it's about the same as before...

He then transformed the shadow from a human figure into a line of shadow and fired another shot at it.

Surprisingly, the shadow line did not break.

Is it because it's too fine and didn't hit the target?

Guan Tong went back into the house, took out a short knife, squatted down, and slashed at the shadow line.

The shadow line before the added character would have been cut off without a doubt after this cut, but now it has been cut off but not broken, only the point of the cut is slightly concave inward.

Guan Tong's eyes lit up; adding words seemed to work!

He slashed several more times and even tried to summon three undead to stack on top of him, but the shadow line still didn't break.

This resilience was completely unexpected.

It seems that the "Book Without Words" partially fulfilled my needs, only enhancing the resilience of the shadow in its short and thin state, without enhancing its defensive capabilities when it takes on a human form or manifests in a large volume.

Next, Guan Tong underwent a strength test.

It's still just a thin line of shadow, about the thickness of a hair. Try making it materialize and wrap it around a small stone; it can be dragged. Then wrap it around a larger stone, and it becomes a bit difficult to drag. And for anything bigger, it can't be dragged at all.

However, one wrap isn't enough to make ten, and ten wraps aren't enough to make a hundred. As long as the length is long enough and the number of wraps is sufficient, it can eventually be dragged.

This initially solved the problem of moving goods.

But once one problem is solved, others arise, the most pressing of which is secrecy.

A blurred shadow can hide inside any solid object, but a solid shadow will inevitably be exposed. If goods that need to be transported are placed in an enclosed room, the shadow lines will inevitably cause damage to the room when they emerge.

Therefore, at this stage, it is best to transport anything outdoors.

Guan Tong thought it over and over and concluded that simulating it with his mind alone wouldn't work; he needed to practice in real combat.

He returned to his room and opened the commission section of the House of Ascended website.

The previous post requesting "anti-talking masks" to be distributed within the city is still up, and people at gathering points within the city have already replied that they want to sell them.

The two had agreed on a price, but didn't know how to complete the transaction.

Guan Tong pulled the two into a discussion group and sent a message first.

Station manager: "Have you two finalized the details of the engagement?"

Shortly after the message was sent, both of them responded.

Black Stone (Client): "Is this the station manager?"

The Sky Like the Wind (the receiver): "Wow, it's really the site administrator! Why did you create a discussion group?"

Black Stone: "Could it be that the stationmaster has a way to help us complete the transaction?"

Station Master: "Let's first talk about the specific details of what you've agreed upon."

Black Stone: "Okay. I have a camp in the wild and I need some officially produced talking masks."

Station manager: "There are still about ten days left before the rules expire. Are you sure you still need it?"

Black Stone: "That's precisely why we need to do this! Many people in my camp are almost at their breaking point. Yesterday, one of them couldn't take it anymore and yelled out, and as a result... the closer we get to the crucial moment, the harder it is to endure!"

Guan Tong nodded; he actually felt the same way. It was just that his personality was rather calm, which allowed him to persevere. Black Stone: "This guy and I have already discussed it. We'll use Ascension Coins to buy them; 100 coins per mask, and we plan to get 10."

The Sky Like the Wind: "That's right. Each person in my settlement was given a mask, but several people have accidentally gone silent these past few days, and a few couldn't take it and committed suicide. Their masks are all unused, so I've put them away. Anyway, the authorities won't take them back, so wouldn't it be great to sell them for some Ascension Coins?"

It turned out to be like this...

After reading their descriptions, Guan Tong understood the situation.

The Sky Like the Wind: "But there's nothing I can do about transportation. I definitely can't leave the city. Let alone leaving the city, even leaving the gathering point to go outside, if my face is captured by a drone, I might be questioned! There was a guy who went out for a stroll before, and the officials came to his door and gave him a good scolding, saying that it's best not to go out during the rule period."

Black Stone: "Since the site administrator has added us to the discussion group, is there any way to help us complete the transaction?"

Station manager: "I can help you, but it will cost money; you'll need to pay a transportation fee."

Black Stone: "No problem, it's my duty. We can't let the stationmaster help us for nothing."

The Sky Like the Wind: "I agree. But how much will the handling fee be?"

After thinking about it, Guan Tong decided to charge according to the percentage of the transaction amount.

If it's a fixed amount, whether it's a large or small amount, or it's tiered pricing based on transaction volume, it's very troublesome, and it might cause user dissatisfaction later on.

Taking a fixed percentage is the fairest method.

Station manager: "We will take 10% of the transaction amount. Both parties will pay 5%. Or you can agree that one party can bear 10% on their own."

Like the wind in the sky: "Ten percent of the transaction amount for shipping?! Holy crap, site manager, you're ripping people off!"

Guan Tong replied with a calm and composed response.

Website owner: "It's not like I'm doing anything wrong. Maintaining the website and providing long-distance transportation all require high costs."

Black Stone: "10% is acceptable to me. Although it is a bit much, I can understand it. After all, the stationmaster was able to enter the city and transport things out under wartime management conditions. Not to mention the risks, he must have put in a lot of effort."

The Sky Like the Wind: "Then I can only accept it... There's nothing I can do. It's only because you, the stationmaster, have this ability that you deserve to make money!"

Station Master: "Each mask costs 100 coins. If you want to trade 10, the transaction amount is 1000 coins. 10% is 100 coins, so each person pays 50. Is that alright?"

The sky, as free as the wind: "No problem."

Black Stone: "No problem. But how exactly do we trade? We need to add each other as friends on the terminal, right?"

Station Master: "Send me the number."

The Sky Like the Wind: "Hey stationmaster, why don't you send us your ID number? Hehe, are you afraid of revealing your identity?"

Adding friends on a device requires one party to know the other party's numerical ID.

Add the other party by entering their numerical ID. Once added, as long as you don't actively disclose it, the other party won't be able to see your numerical ID or other private information such as your mental power. They will only see your nickname. However, since Guan Tong is going to do website business, she will definitely have to change her original nickname.

At the same time, the other party only reveals a numerical identifier; other aspects will remain hidden unless they are actively disclosed.

If you don't even want to reveal your serial number, then let someone else tell you the number, instead of you telling someone else.

As the site administrator, Guan Tong is definitely the one who needs user IDs, not the one who needs user IDs from him. That would be going against the natural order.

Black Stone: "No problem, I'll send it to you privately, site administrator."

The Sky Like the Wind: "I also sent it privately."

Both of them sent their digital IDs to Guan Tong via private message on the forum.

Guan Tong didn't add her immediately. Instead, she opened her personal terminal and changed her nickname.

Although many people on the forum speculated that he, the site administrator, was the real Shadow, there was no real evidence to support their speculation.

If someone adds him as a friend and they see that his nickname as the site administrator is "Shadow," it's practically the same as admitting it.

After thinking for a moment, Guan Tong changed her nickname to "Station Master of the House of Ascendants".

That's right. As a qualified website owner, you should spare no effort in advertising your website.

He then added the two as friends using their numerical identifiers.

Because he did not set his profile to be public, the two people could see nothing about him except his nickname.

Station Admin: "Friend added successfully. Please send me your location again, not just a general location, but preferably with detailed coordinates."

The two then privately sent Guan Tong their locations.

The sky, as clear as the wind, is in Lipo City, about 300 kilometers away from Mingdao Mountain where Guan Tong is located.

The coordinates sent by the black stone were more than 200 kilometers away from him.

Neither place is close, but they're not too far either.

Guan Tong then checked the type of his gathering point with the wind-like sky and learned that it was a hospital.

Guan Tong opened a satellite map on her computer, located the hospital, looked at it from various angles, and then selected a "pickup location".

That was on the hospital windowsill. He had the wind-like sky pack up the masks and place them on the windowsill, then left the window open. That way, the shadows could follow the wall, allowing him to retrieve the items without damaging the wall.

However, the route from the city center to the hospital needed careful planning. Guan Tong didn't want her delivery process to be spotted by official patrol cars or drones, as that could attract attention and cause trouble.

He then focused intently on studying the map and routes, even more so than when he was preparing for the college entrance examination.

Because this was his first business deal in "Shadow Logistics," the 100 Ascension Coins transportation fee was insignificant to his current net worth of several hundred thousand, but if the process could be completed, it would be a future income worth millions, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, so he had to take it seriously.

　Day 14 of my daily 10,000-word challenge. This is my third update today, and it's already almost midnight. Looks like I can't just spend my weekends playing around anymore... I need to get back to writing!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)