Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 131 Wise Men and Guardians

There are all sorts of challenges, too many to look at one by one.

Some ascendants are particularly clever; they deliberately make the challenges they create extremely complicated, causing others to be too lazy to understand them after reading so many words, thus reducing the probability of being challenged to some extent.

The Ascended also created a bunch of disgusting challenges.

Perhaps because their abilities or items weren't special enough, they knew they would be defeated by others if they tried to create a challenge, so they simply resorted to disgusting tactics.

Guan Tong saw challenges such as: the longest time rolling around in a pigpen with ten pigs, the breath-holding challenge with his head submerged in toilet water, the challenge of eating a certain number of live maggots, and the challenge of exchanging saliva, among others...

He had to admit that he admired these creators; they were all truly ruthless people who made huge sacrifices to prevent their spiritual power from diminishing.

Guan Tong respected these formidable individuals but didn't intend to take their first place. His focus remained primarily on more casual, mainstream challenges.

Guan Tong directly searched using keywords such as "speed" and "distance," and many challenges immediately popped up.

He felt that the first one was perfect for him.

The challenge is to move from the mountaintop monument at the summit of Tianding Mountain to the ticket hall entrance at the foot of the mountain as quickly as possible.

The challenge of getting from point A to point B is the same for him. Because with his ability to "shift between forms," ​​he can complete the challenge in an instant as long as he coordinates well with his shadow.

However, he had never heard of the mountain "Tian Ding Shan". He took out his phone and searched for it. It was about 600 kilometers away from him.

He also discovered that Tian Ding Mountain was a remote tourist attraction in the local county. After the advent of the post-apocalyptic era, the attraction was closed and no longer open to the public.

This is not surprising. After entering the post-apocalyptic era, many tourist attractions and similar places have been closed. In particular, those places that require regular maintenance or risk life-threatening situations have all been closed due to a shortage of manpower.

The creator may have chosen this mountain as the challenge because he felt that others wouldn't go to such a remote place to compete with him.

But Guan Tong has a shadow to travel with, so the distance between them doesn't make much difference to him.

"I'll put it on the shortlist for now, and then I'll challenge it later."

Guan Tong saved the challenge and continued reading.

There are other similar rules, all of which specify the exact location of the challenge.

This is actually a good approach, as it adds an extra challenge cost for other challengers—it doesn't matter if you're stronger than me; if you want to challenge my project, you have to come here first.

If two people are separated by vast distances, or even in different countries, the short two-week effective period of the rules might not even be enough time to travel.

This time cost reduces the interest of many potential challengers.

Guan Tong's ability to run 200 kilometers anywhere is a challenge with broad requirements. However, even if he were to specify a location, he wouldn't choose Mingdao Mountain, because that would definitely attract a number of people looking for him, disrupting his peace and quiet.

However, Guan Tong felt that if challenge locations could be set, places that were relatively hidden and unknown to others might have an advantage.
His idea was immediately answered.

Because when he clicked on a challenge at a specific location again, and focused his attention on the location, a row of coordinates automatically appeared in front of him.

“I see... If the creator specifies a location, that location will be marked by the terminal in the form of coordinates.”

He figured that this way, those people in the secret base wouldn't dare to designate their own location. Otherwise, regardless of whether they challenged him or not, they would expose their own position first.

Guan Tong continued reading.

I quickly found another challenge and found it very interesting.

"Challenge the maximum long jump distance. The challenge must be performed in the exercise area within Shelter 710 in Jinyang City."

The first part of this challenge is not difficult. Guan Tong jumps directly and uses the Shadow Shift skill at the same time, landing at the furthest distance, making it easy to take first place.

But the key point is in the second half of the sentence.

"The challenge location requires it to be inside a shelter..." Guan Tong understood the intention. "Quite clever. They're taking advantage of the official shelter's rule that it's not open to the outside world, limiting the competitors to everyone in the same shelter."

Official shelters are off-limits to outsiders, except for government personnel and registered residents.

This means that outsiders wanting to enter and challenge would have to force their way in, which is tantamount to a military confrontation with the authorities, and the outcome is predictable. Few people would be willing to pay such a high price just to be number one.

In this way, as long as someone in a shelter is certain that their ability is stronger than anyone else in their shelter, they can design a challenge to win first place and pass the rules.

"I remember that the official shelters could each accommodate more than a thousand people. It is indeed much easier to ensure that you get first place among more than a thousand people by means of your own ability or by using tools than to get first place in the whole country or even the world."

Guan Tong felt that soon other people living in the shelter would follow suit, or perhaps many people had already done so, using official armed forces to protect themselves from competing with large numbers of people.

However, based on the currently released data, the number of newly built shelters was limited in the month following the end of Rule 7.

Previously, more than 20 million people moved into shelters. Even if the second batch doubles that number, the total population that can move into shelters will still be less than 100 million.

In other words, fewer than 100 million people can use shelters to reduce competition; the rest will still face mass competition. After all, ordinary gathering points are different from shelters; they are semi-enclosed, not fully enclosed.

Guan Tong continued reading and added a few more challenges he could take on. He then checked out his own website.

Many people have already sent me private messages expressing their interest in purchasing the information and have sent me their digital IDs.

"It seems that my website already has enough credibility in the eyes of some large organizations."

With a price tag as high as 50,000, only large corporations can afford it. Their willingness to buy it indicates that they trust his intelligence capabilities.

This trust likely stems partly from the website's security and partly from information previously published in the intelligence section.

Guan Tong opened his terminal; his friend list was still empty. This was because he had deleted the people he had traded with afterward.

If there's another transaction later, just add it again. More than the hassle, Guan Tong fears being harassed. Yes, harassment. After the seventh rule, many people have the "Communication Scroll" item, which allows them to directly initiate calls to friends—it's very powerful.

Guan Tong didn't want to add a bunch of trading friends, and then suddenly someone would use this secret scroll to call him... Although the probability wasn't very high, he would still avoid it if possible.

After adding those who privately messaged me wanting to buy information and collecting the Ascension Coins, new inquiries began pouring in, many asking about the "shipping" time.

Guan Tong has already stated in the post that the goods will be shipped 24 hours after the rules are announced, and has not repeated this statement.

There were a total of eleven accounts that paid him to purchase information, each paying 5 Shenghua coins, for a total of 55.

With the remaining 21, Guan Tong now controls a total of 76 Ascension Coins.

This number is already quite high, roughly several hundred times the average for individuals who have achieved personal transcendence.

Because so far, as long as an Ascendant can pass the first seven rules, or even if they fail one, they should have around 1000 Ascendant Coins, considering their spending and accumulated Coins.

One thousand per person, ten thousand for ten people, and one hundred thousand for one hundred people.

Guan Tong currently has 76 Shenghua coins, which is roughly the total number of coins for 760 people.

In other words, he himself is now equivalent to being able to mobilize the sublimation coins that a medium-sized group or organization can mobilize, which is already very powerful on a personal level.

Of course, it cannot compare to large organizations with thousands or tens of thousands of people, and it is far behind the behemoths like the governments of various countries that can mobilize resources from hundreds of millions of people.

However, Guan Tong is already quite satisfied with his advanced development, and he can feel that he is on an upward trend. As time goes by, his overall improvement will accelerate even further.

"Alright, the rule only lasts fifteen days, so we need to hurry."

Fifteen days may seem like a long time, but in reality, it's very short if you want to achieve more first place results.

Because many Ascended beings specify challenge locations, it takes time for you to travel there...

"Let's get first place in the Tian Ding Mountain challenge first."

Guan Tong released his shadow, and based on its coordinates, he transformed it into a shadow line and extended it outwards.

Even at the speed of a shadow, it would take some time to cover the 600-kilometer journey, and by the time it reached Tian Ding Mountain, it was already afternoon.

Guan Tong didn't notice at first, but when the shadow arrived at the "mountain top stone tablet" that was specified in the challenge rules, she found that there were seven or eight tents pitched there, completely surrounding the stone tablet.

Um……?
Seeing this, Guan Tong thought, "I didn't expect there to be a camp here. And judging from this, does it mean that others are not allowed to challenge me?"

He thought for a moment, then took out the [Passerby Transformation Device] from the storage box and chose to use it.

The next moment, he transformed from a young man into an elderly man in his sixties.

After Guan Tong transformed, she noticed the wrinkles on her hands and sensed something was wrong. She took out her phone to look at them and was speechless.

"Why has it turned into a little old man this time... Oh well, a little old man is fine, as long as it doesn't affect my ability."

Guan Tong's ability after transformation: Teleportation

The next moment, the shadow appeared where he was, and he appeared on the top of Tian Ding Mountain, more than 500 kilometers away.

As soon as he landed, one of the tents surrounding the stone tablet was opened, and a young man in a cotton-padded coat came out.

The young man came out pulling at his waistband, seemingly going to relieve himself, and was stunned when he saw Guan Tong.

"Where did this old man come from?"

"Old man?"

"somebody is coming?"

Hearing the commotion, the people in the other tents came out to check; there were a total of fifteen or sixteen people.

They all looked at Guan Tong with some doubt, clearly not many people of such advanced age had been seen since the advent of the post-apocalyptic era.

At this moment, a fat man with long hair and dark skin stepped forward and asked, "Old man, what are you doing here? Coming up the mountain to do something pointless?"

Guan Tong coughed twice, feigning seriousness, and said, "Ahem... I saw a challenge, from the stone tablet on this mountain to..."

"Hahahaha!"

Before he could finish speaking, the men and women in the camp burst into laughter.

"So you came here for that challenge, sir. Are you alright?"

"At your age, you still want to take on challenges? You might as well find a place to stay and wait to die!"

"I don't know where this old codger came from, he's quite funny."

Guan Tong slowly said, "Since the rules allow others to initiate challenges, it's normal for me to take on the challenge."

The long-haired, fat man sneered, "Old man, let me tell you, I created that challenge. You want to take it away? No way! My brothers and I are guarding this place. Don't even mention an old codger like you, or anyone else who comes here, they won't get a chance!"

"Oh. So you guys ensure you get first place by preventing others from challenging you," Guan Tong said.

"Meng Ge, why waste your breath on that old bastard!" another youth cursed. "Get lost, or I'll kick you off the mountain, you believe me?!"

Guan Tong nodded: "It seems I need to teach you all what it means to respect the elderly and care for the young."

(End of this chapter)