Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 132 First Proposal

As soon as Guan Tong finished speaking, everyone in the camp burst into laughter again.

The long-haired, fat man with dark eyes, however, seemed cautious, thinking that an old man who could survive so many rules might actually have some skill.

He gave a signal, and the people in the camp understood, surrounding Guan Tong from both sides.

"Old man, you've managed to survive until now and even climb up this mountain to participate in the challenge I created, that's quite impressive," the long-haired, fat man said sinisterly. "But with so many of us here, and you're the only one, I advise you to behave yourself."

"Exactly, that old codger is quite arrogant."

"Hand over the Ascension Coins and any tradable items obediently, and we'll let you go. Otherwise, you old bones will just die here!"

Guan Tong noticed that this group had a bandit-like style, and that they used violence to prevent others from participating in the challenge, so he understood their true nature.

He didn't want to waste any more time.

A murderous glint appeared in his eyes. The long-haired, fat man sensed something was wrong and shouted, "This old bastard is trying to cause trouble! Take him down!"

Upon hearing this, more than ten people in the camp summoned items or prepared to use their abilities.

But they were too slow; they didn't even have a chance to make a move against Guan Tong.

"Puff puff puff puff puff puff puff!"

The shadows that spread out from Guan Tong's feet suddenly shot up and pierced through everyone's bodies. The speed and power were so great that everyone only had time to open their mouths wide and show a terrified expression before they died.

The only one who didn't die immediately was the long-haired, chubby black man who was suspected to be the leader of the group. He seemed to have a defensive item on him that blocked the Shadow Assassin's attack.

But that doesn't change anything.

The long-haired, fat man realized this too, and with a thud, he knelt down, kowtowing and begging for mercy: "You are a magnanimous man, please spare me, please spare me! You...you are not..."

The long-haired, fat man kowtowed and begged for mercy, but when he saw the way his group of men were dead, he suddenly remembered something.

"You're 'Shadow'?! I... I went to Grail Island before, and I died from these black spikes... Shadow God, please spare my life, or else..."

"otherwise?"

"Otherwise, I'll tell everyone who you are!" the long-haired, fat man threatened through gritted teeth. "I've already seen your face, and you're using a communication scroll to talk to a friend telepathically. If you don't let me go, I'll tell my friend what you look like right now! It'll be much faster than you killing me!"

"Is that so? Whatever." Guan Tong raised her hand, and the Silver Hunter, which was in her storage ring, appeared in her palm.

Seeing Guan Tong pull out a gun, the long-haired, chubby man retorted, "Shadow is an old man in his sixties! He's about 1.6 meters tall, has spots on his nose, and—"

"boom!"

Guan Tong pulled the trigger, and a No. 2 slug took down the guy.

Guan Tong didn't care who this guy's friend was when he used the communication secret scroll to make calls.

Anyway, this old man's appearance isn't real; it's just randomly created using a "passerby transformation device." Even if it's exposed, searching for people based on this appearance will only lead to disappointment.

Despite the mess on the ground, Guan Tong wasn't particularly moved.

After the battle on Grail Island, he was no longer the novice fighter he used to be.

It can be said that the challenge brought him not only the obvious accumulation of knowledge, but also the hidden accumulation of combat skills.

With the buff of unlimited mental power at the time, and through battles with hundreds and thousands of people, he accumulated a great deal of combat experience in using shadows to kill enemies.

Therefore, these ordinary ascendants are now no match for him.

He controlled his shadow to travel down the mountain to the ticket hall at the end of the challenge.

While waiting by the stone tablet, he idly searched through the various tents, throwing all the useful supplies into his storage ring to take back with him.

It's often said that the fastest way to make money is through business with no initial investment, and that's really true. No wonder there are thugs everywhere outside the city now; compared to painstakingly finding ways to acquire supplies, raiding other camps is much faster.

If given a choice, Guan Tong really wouldn't want to make such a losing deal. He only had himself to blame for attacking an "old man" like him.

However, he saw the actions of this camp as a microcosm.

Those are some domineering Ascendants who might choose to violently prevent or attack challengers in order to stop others from challenging the projects they created.

This will undoubtedly cause a lot of chaos.

Others are here to challenge the project, not to fight you.

However, from the perspective of the person who created the project, they also have a point: What if you succeed in the challenge and take my first place? If I can't take someone else's place within the rules period, then this rule has failed.

Based on this mentality, one might feel that attacking challengers is a reasonable course of action in order to protect their project's number one position.

The challenger felt there was nothing wrong with following the rules, while the project creator felt there was nothing wrong with protecting their first place. The conflict between the two sides was irreconcilable, and they could only resort to violence.

But isn't this exactly what the fire-stealers wanted to see?

Guan Tong was perfectly aware of this: all the rules and hidden rules of the Fire Thieves were either overt or covert, inciting conflict among people.

Unfortunately, even knowing this, people still had to fight for their own survival and walk into the fire-stealer's open conspiracy.

After Guan Tong finished collecting the supplies for the camp, Shadow's group had already arrived at the ticket office at the foot of the mountain.

He opened the challenge list, selected the Tian Ding Mountain challenge, and started the challenge.

Then, he used teleportation to instantly appear at the ticket hall at the foot of the mountain from the stone tablet at the top, completing the challenge.

Opening the challenge details again shows that he is currently the "world's number one" in this event. However, this "world's number one" title will not be included in the overall statistics until the end of the rules and no one surpasses him.

"I currently have two 'firsts' in hand. To meet the minimum requirements for the hidden rule rewards, I need to win one more."

Guan Tong opened his favorites list to check out the next project he was going to challenge.

……

The next morning, at 8:50.

An impromptu meeting is being held in the Post-Apocalyptic Rules and Countermeasures Research Office.

"Isn't it almost time?" someone asked.

The person in charge of the expenses for the sublimated coins nodded: "Yes, if the station manager wasn't lying, he said he would send the information to the buyer in 24 hours, which is 9 a.m. today." "Is it really reliable..." some people were still skeptical.

"At present, the station manager seems to be quite credible, but we cannot rule out the possibility that he is playing the long game," an economist said.

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm, for example, if he actually provides accurate information. Then next time he releases new rules, if he says he'll also sell information related to the rules, will you buy it?"

"Buy it! If it's accurate information, why not buy it? Is it a loss to exchange tens of thousands of Ascension Coins for important information related to the rules?"

“Tens of thousands is not a loss,” the economist said. “Then let me ask you, what if he raises the price next time? Let’s say it doubles to 100,000.”

"I think it's worth it."

"What if the price doubles again to 200,000, 300,000, or even 500,000 or 1 million? Would you still buy it?"

"This is such a huge leap! Who would buy it for a million?"

"What if the station manager says later that it's because this intelligence is so important that it's being sold at such a high price?"

The person speaking with the economist suddenly realized, "...I understand. You mean, he might first gain trust with a few correct pieces of information, and then, when the price reaches a certain level, swindle a large sum of money?"

The economist nodded: "It's just that we think it's possible, so we still need to be careful. After all, we can't hack that website, and if we are scammed out of a large amount of Shenghua coins, we won't be able to hold anyone accountable."

"Time is up."

At 9 o'clock sharp, everyone looked at the trader.

The latter sat in front of the computer, projecting the screen onto the large screen in the room, and nervously refreshed the private message interface.

Refresh, refresh, refresh... I kept refreshing until the fifth time, and finally the site administrator's private message arrived.

"It's been sent! The intelligence has been sent!"

Everyone looked at the big screen. The information they had obtained, which cost as much as 50,000 Ascension Coins, consisted of only one short sentence.

Station Master: "If you achieve multiple world firsts during the effective period of this rule, your mental power cap will be increased after the rule ends."

Wow!
The entire office instantly erupted in excitement.

"Increase the upper limit of mental power? Really?!"

"This……"

"Are you kidding me? This hidden reward is huge!"

Everyone was utterly shocked, including the person in charge, Gao Liangwei.

Because all along, even the Countermeasures Research Lab, which has the most abundant resources, has had very few items to enhance mental power.

The allocation of each of these extremely precious props requires a meeting and a majority vote to be approved.

I never expected the hidden rewards in these rules to include this kind of boost, it's simply...

"An opportunity! This is a golden opportunity!"

This was the first time Dr. Zhang, who was in charge of training the official squad of Ascended, had been so excited that his voice trembled slightly.

"Manager, I propose that we invest significant resources to help the captain of the fourth squad achieve more first-place finishes! This is crucial for her!"

Gao Liangwei quickly calmed down and said in a deep voice, "Fourth Squad Leader, you mean Bai Xuewu?"

"Yes, that's her!" Dr. Zhang rattled off a long explanation. "The biggest constraint on her has always been her mental power limit. Her 'Snowflake Without a Trace' mech is incredibly powerful, but it also consumes a tremendous amount of energy. If we can overcome this weakness in her mental power limit, her overall combat strength will experience an explosive leap—"

Take the challenge, the one on Holy Grail Island, for example. 'Shadow' won first place thanks to the buff of the Holy Grail's infinite mental power. I believe that if it hadn't been Snow White who obtained the Holy Grail first, but instead, with the buff of infinite mental power, she could have still eliminated hundreds or even thousands of enemies and won first place using the ever-present Snow White Untraceable Ship!

Seeing Dr. Zhang's excitement, Gao Liangwei nodded slightly.

He also had some understanding of Bai Xuewu's abilities. The official weapons department had even tested her mecha, and its construction material was not found anywhere on Tianshui Star. It was a special material that had never been seen before, and anti-materiel weapons couldn't even leave a scratch on it.

"Moreover, her mecha's potential is far from being fully realized," Dr. Zhang added. "She mentioned to me that she can sense that there are still many unlocked functional modules in the mecha, but because her mental power limit is insufficient, she cannot unlock them... Just imagine how much her combat power would increase if she could unlock all those modules?"

"...I agree." Gao Liangwei was persuaded by Dr. Zhang. "All departments should work together and provide resources, but it's not just about Bai Xuewu winning more first places. Members of other teams also need to contribute."

"Yes."

"Furthermore," Gao Liangwei said, "I have decided to make this news public."

Upon hearing this, everyone present was taken aback.

“Since we’ve already decided to release the data, I think it’s also necessary to release this intelligence. After all, the Sublime Coins we use to purchase intelligence actually come from the people. They allow us to distribute them, so if we conceal this intelligence, it would be a betrayal.”

“But, the person in charge…” someone said cautiously, “even if ordinary people knew, they wouldn’t be able to win more first place awards, would they?”

"Yes, for ordinary people, it's already quite an achievement to maintain their position as number one in the projects they create..."

"I support the person in charge's decision. I also have another suggestion." The person who spoke made a suggestion that sent chills down everyone's spine.

"That is to have the public, who haven't yet created challenge projects, collectively create projects specifically designed for the official teams to win first place. This way, they can win many first places without investing a lot of resources in competition."

"This... this is a way to force people to weaken their mental strength and give first place to the official team. Who would be willing to accept that?"

"Don't forget that everyone who moves into the shelter has signed a 'consent to allocation form'."

"Agreeing to distribute Ascension Coins and items is a different matter from agreeing to the depletion of mental power!"

“I also oppose doing this. Forcing people to do it will provoke fierce resistance unless they do it voluntarily!”

"So what? Isn't it easy to suppress some emotions?"

"Suppress? What if they post the message on the 'House of Ascended' website? How will you suppress it? Or are you going to block people from accessing the internet altogether?"

"you……"

"Stop arguing!" Gao Liangwei hissed, his face grim. "This suggestion is not to be adopted. Meeting adjourned!"

　Day 18 of daily check-ins, keep up the good work.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)