Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 133 The Raging Public Opinion

All eleven buyers who chose to spend 50,000 Ascension Coins to purchase the information received a private message reply from Guan Tong on the platform.

Globally, there are many large groups, and eleven buyers represent only a small fraction of them.

However, some groups do not have enough trust in Guan Tong and are unsure whether he is actually scamming people, so they have chosen to wait and see.

However, as the Northern Star Kingdom officially released the intelligence, its explosive content shocked all the Ascended Beings around the world who knew the news.

The more times you win first place, the higher your mental power limit will be. This is the first time since the eight rules were established that this has happened, and its importance is self-evident.

Some groups that did not spend Sublimation Coins to purchase intelligence did not have the wishful thinking of "getting intelligence for free." On the contrary, their decision-makers were all sweating profusely and feeling lingering fear.

Because only the official government of the Northern Star Kingdom chose to disclose the intelligence. All other groups, organizations, and even government agencies of other countries that purchased the intelligence all chose to conceal it.

What would happen if the Northern Star Kingdom also chose to conceal the truth?
Those groups that didn't purchase intelligence will likely see their top members' combat strength significantly reduced after this rule is implemented! In this post-apocalyptic system where the strong get stronger, falling behind even slightly means falling behind at every step, and they may never catch up again.

This intense lingering fear led the decision-makers of these groups to berate those within their organizations who considered Guan Tong unreliable. They also ordered that the next time the website owner sold information, they must buy it immediately!

It's unrealistic to expect the Northern Star Kingdom to always release information publicly, hoping to take advantage of others or steal their intelligence. If the next intelligence release has some kind of first-mover advantage, its value to those who learn of it later will be greatly reduced.

So, without Guan Tong's knowledge, his potential clients for intelligence services increased dramatically—but only if the results could be verified after the rule ended.

If, after the rules expire, the Ascended Ones who achieved multiple first-place finishes didn't increase their mental power cap, then these organizations and groups would probably be so angry that they'd join forces to find out who the site administrator was—a fraudster.

After the North Star Kingdom officially released the information, large-scale discussions quickly broke out both online and offline.

"Increase the upper limit of mental power? Is that true?"

"The information was supposedly bought from the site administrator of the House of Ascended, so it should be reliable!"

"...I remember a while ago, there was an item on the market that sold for a million dollars. Its effect was to increase the maximum mental power by 8 points. Looking at it now, the buyer was really unlucky, wasn't he?"

"You can't say that. Getting multiple first places isn't easy."

"Holy crap, my project's first place was just stolen! Who's so shameless?!"

"With this information out, won't those strong individuals be scrambling to snatch the top spot from everyone else? That's so unfair."

"I'm just giving up anyway. My abilities and the uniqueness of my props aren't high, so I can't set up a challenge that I'm guaranteed to win. Rather than forcing myself to set it up and then losing first place, I won't even create a challenge. It's better to lose to both sides than to win alone."

"Agreed! A lose-lose situation is better than a win-win situation, so I won't create any more challenge projects!"

After the news broke, the general public, initially shocked, erupted in strong resistance.

Because everyone knows very well that it's not easy to hold onto the top spot in their own project, let alone take it from someone else.

In the end, it's those who have accumulated more resources in the early stages or have access to stronger players who reap the benefits. Ordinary people get nothing; it's a lose-lose situation.

As for the powerful figures in each organization, their eyes lit up upon hearing the news.

Although they were never satisfied with just being number one and intended to achieve more, their motivation before learning the intelligence was completely different from their motivation after learning the intelligence.

Just like how workers know they'll get overtime pay, but they wouldn't sacrifice all their time for eating and sleeping; but if workers suddenly found out that the overtime pay wasn't money but gold bars, they'd have to save even their bathroom breaks for work, let alone eating and sleeping.

The excitement of the powerful undoubtedly leads to even more resistance from ordinary people.

The only group unaffected are those whose mental energy has long since depleted to zero and whose terminal panels have been turned off.

This group is divided into two groups: some remain in urban gathering points, while others choose to live outside the city. They also go online and, upon seeing the recent conflict, many expressed schadenfreude and made sarcastic remarks, while others offered analysis and appeals.

"Weren't you mocking others for being inferior horses just two months ago? Why aren't you saying that now? Do you think you're fast enough now?"

"This isn't even the tenth rule yet, and the Fire Thief has already come up with this rule that allows the strong to indirectly plunder the mental power limits of the weak... Heh heh, I think the best is yet to come."

"I hope those guys who stole first place from others remember this: the price of your strength is the weakening of people like us!"

"Logically, the authorities should do something about this... Don't these people who steal others' first place bear some social responsibility? I think we should call on them to protect the weak when these strong individuals have taken away others' mental strength!"

“That’s right. We should make the weak all over the world realize that we should not be plundered by the strong. Those who haven’t created challenge projects yet should stop creating them and let the authorities give a clear explanation.”

The outcry swept across the internet, with similar calls erupting in countries around the world.

Since the hidden rule of the first rule was exposed, there has never been such a huge online buzz.

Because this time is completely different from before.

Previously, the failure of the rules reduced mental power, and it was the Fire Thief who reduced it, so people blamed the Fire Thief.

But this time the rule failed because someone else took their first place—even if the Firebringer who set the rule was the mastermind, people still tend to blame the person who took their first place.

As these opinions fermented, some organizations and groups, and even the official bodies of some alternative countries, acted swiftly.

Qingmei base.

The base manager, a short-haired woman, was on the phone, and a steady, aged voice came from the other end. "Han Ling, you already know the information about the rules. You'll be in charge of planning how the 'resource entities' imprisoned in the base's jail will create challenges that match the team members' abilities and item advantages."

The short-haired woman named "Han Ling" nodded: "Yes, Commander. However, Yu Feiwei asked me to apply to you to tailor some challenges for him using resources."

Before the end-of-the-world rules era, Yu Feiwei was the chairman of Firebird Financial and a member of the Green Plum Society. He passed the rules without incident by obtaining more than 30 sobering mints in the first rule.

However, the trade-off is that his initial mental strength limit is very low.

Furthermore, he failed several non-survival challenges afterward, making his already low potential even more precarious.

During the previous gathering of childhood friends, his mental strength limit was only a single digit. If it were to decrease again, it would be reduced to zero. Therefore, he urgently hoped that the commander could find a solution for him.

After the state of war was declared, he, like other members, evacuated the city and moved to the base, where he served as the head of the Procurement Department for Ascended Coins.

Now that he had finally found an opportunity to improve his mental strength, he naturally wanted to seize it. He immediately found Han Ling, the base manager, and asked her to apply to the commander.

The commander on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then said, "Not allowed."

Han Ling was slightly surprised; she had thought the commander would give special treatment to the members of the "Green Plum Society".

“Yu Feiwei only has a single-digit amount of mental energy left. There’s no need to invest any more resources in him. We should use our resources on people who are more deserving,” the commander said.

“But Commander-in-Chief, Yu Feiwei is the head of the procurement department,” Han Ling reminded him. “Your decision will incur his displeasure, so…”

"Execute him secretly," the commander said directly. "After wartime administration, all their social connections will be nullified, so there's not much difference between keeping them or not."

"Yes."

"Remember to focus on setting challenges for that young man named 'Jiang Ming'," the commander added.

Jiang Ming...

Han Ling pictured the young man who always wore headphones and had an indifferent expression.

The last time we encountered the official team in the wild, it was Jiang Ming who killed one of their members. If it weren't for reinforcements arriving later and the fight continuing, the official team might have been completely wiped out.

Han Ling knew that Jiang Ming was not someone she had found. Of the five people in the team, she had only found Gu Fei and Chen Na; the other two were selected from other cities, and only Jiang Ming was someone personally arranged by the commander.

Only the commander-in-chief knew about Jiang Ming's background and origins; even Han Ling was unaware of it.

"Yes, Commander. I will have the resource team set up some challenges that match his abilities."

After hanging up the phone, Han Ling went to the prison area.

This place holds over a thousand Ascended beings, all of whom were kidnapped by local violent groups remotely controlled by the original commander through second or even third-level intermediaries.

These thousands of ascendants all had an initial mental strength of over 80 points, making them qualified for admission to the academy.

At this moment, they are restricted in their physical presence and confined to this dark and sunless place.

However, Han Ling never used torture on them; on the contrary, she never deprived them of a single meal.

The previous blood plague rules and no-speaking rules, along with the corresponding protective suits and anti-speaking devices, are all provided for everyone here.

Of course, this wasn't out of Han Ling's kindness, but rather an order from the commander. These "resource entities" needed to be well-fed and watered, and required to complete the rule challenges; this would make them more valuable and useful later on.

As a large-scale pig farmer said, raising pigs is for making money to eat meat, not for the pigs to live a happy life.

And that "follow-up" is now: the emergence of the eighth rule has finally given these people a good place to use their talents.

Han Ling wasn't worried about these people creating challenges in advance, because she knew that without her orders, they wouldn't dare use their abilities or items at will.

It's not that she has a great deterrent effect, but that all the troublemakers have been eliminated in a few months, and now only some obedient people are left in the prison.

Han Ling told them that as long as they cooperated well, they would be allowed to leave and return to normal life once all forty-nine rules were in effect.

Whether they believe it or not, they can only place their hopes on this, hoping that the rules will be implemented quickly.

As Han Ling walked through the prison area, a guard came to report: "Manager Han, two prisoners committed suicide yesterday."

Han Ling raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "The reason?"

"I don't know, it seems to be because of depression."

"Really... how many times has this happened already?"

"Currently, the number of people who have committed suicide has exceeded thirty."

"At this rate, resources will become increasingly scarce," Han Ling pondered. "It seems we'll have to report to the commander and have some people captured from the various camps in the wilderness to replenish our supplies."

(End of this chapter)