Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 162 Fragment 1 Obtained from a Correct Bet
Basong's exclusive mental power item is called the "Limitless Hand Cannon," which is an extremely powerful offensive item.

Its strength lies in the fact that users can freely adjust the power of the hand cannon by injecting a certain amount of mental energy.

If enough mental energy is injected, a single shot can even destroy a building.

In addition, it can fire different types of shells. Bassun developed three types of shells: explosive shells, poison gas shells, and incendiary shells.

After acquiring the Wuji Hand Cannon, he quickly eliminated his two former rivals, seizing their territory and interests.

If the rules of the apocalypse are pure hell for most people, then for Basson, this powerful exclusive weapon offers him a sliver of solace.

However, he, who had always been incredibly confident, now looked at that unyielding figure and began to doubt his own abilities for the first time.

In response to Guan Tong's taunts, Basong adjusted the type of hand cannon ammunition: "Try this one!"

boom!
He fired a poison gas grenade, and with a hissing sound, a large amount of poison gas spread throughout the basement.

Basong himself was not afraid; he was immune to the poison gas produced by his own weapons.

However, once the enemy inhales this poisonous gas, they will quickly suffer from skin ulceration and die from the pain.

"You say you're not afraid of explosions? In this confined space, let's see how you avoid poison gas!"

Basong's shouts were more of a way to boost his own morale.

However, Guan Tong found it somewhat laughable.

He had to blur his shadow to avoid the explosive attack, but the poison gas had no effect whatsoever.

He manipulated his shadow to stand motionless in the center of the most concentrated poison gas.

Basong quickly lost his composure upon seeing this.

Bombing didn't work, and neither did poison gas?!

"Basong, admit defeat. You are no match for me."

Upon hearing Guan Tong's voice, Basong's face darkened, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "Then try this one!"

He adjusted his hand cannon ammunition to incendiary rounds, fired a shot, and the flames instantly engulfed the shadow.

This time it worked!
Basong looked at the shadow being swallowed by the fire and a look of joy appeared on his face.

Guan Tong, who was remotely controlling his shadow in combat, hadn't expected that Basong's hand cannon had so many tricks up its sleeve, somewhat like his Silver Hunter, capable of firing different types of bullets.

Unfortunately, this was still of little use to the shadows; it would only burn the clothes the shadows used for disguise.

Then Basong saw with his own eyes a completely black entity emerge from the flames, which, in his fear, made him blurt out in a flash of inspiration: "Shadow! You are Shadow!"

Guan Tong was somewhat surprised to hear this.

Has his fame spread all the way to An Tai State?
"So that's it! No wonder my attacks were ineffective against you, no wonder you were able to find this place—because you are the Shadow!" Basong exclaimed excitedly, "The world's number one Ascended One, the Shadow!"

Hearing this, Guan Tong sensed that Basong was up to something, so she remained silent and watched his performance.

After determining that the person in front of him was Shadow, Basong put on an extremely greasy smile and said with the utmost flattery, "I never thought I would meet the legendary Shadow God. It is truly an honor!"

“Shadow God, I am certainly no match for you, how dare I oppose you! If you don’t mind, I am willing to be your subordinate and obey your commands!”

"..."

“I know the Shadow God is powerful, but I, Basong, have several hundred men under my command, all of whom are at your disposal! Oh, and by the way, I also have connections with the Antai State government, so whatever you need, I can meet and provide it!”

Basong seemed afraid that Shadow would refuse, so he kept mentioning the benefits of taking him as a subordinate.

"Oh, right! You know the eighth rule, right? I raised a batch of pigs for meat, and that's how I maxed out my mental power increase cap of 500 points! If a similar situation arises again, I can have them do the same for you..."

It would have been better if Basong hadn't brought it up, because the moment he did, Guan Tong immediately pictured the prisoners in the warehouse and wished he could kill the guy right then and there.

But before that, there's something I need to do first.

"Hand over the fragments first," Guan Tong's voice rang out.

Basong's expression changed slightly. Although he still smiled, his eyes were full of vigilance: "Shadow God, I think I should keep the fragment for now. How about this, let's spend more time together, and once I'm sure you truly consider me a trusted subordinate, I'll give it to you then."

"..."

"Don't blame me for being cautious. What if you try to kill me as soon as I hand over the fragment...right? So I'm keeping this fragment for now. Even if you're threatening me, I have no choice but to do this for my own life."

Basong made up his mind that since Shadow had come for the fragments, he could save his life as long as he refused to hand them over.

Conversely, once it's handed over, the shadow might strike with deadly force the very next second.

"Shadow God, please don't be angry or impulsive. Otherwise, even if you kill me, you won't get the fragment."

Listening to Basong's words, Guan Tong suddenly asked, "So, the fragment is definitely in your hands."

Basong nodded: "That's right. But as we agreed before, I'll only consider it after we get to know each other better..."

He was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly realized something was wrong.

The next moment, with a "crack," a piece of black plate armor inside his clothes shattered, indicating that he had suffered some kind of mental attack.

"Shadow, you?!"

As expected, there are items that defend against mental attacks...

This wasn't the first time Guan Tong had encountered something like this. Many powerful and wealthy Ascendants he met would buy items that could defend against mental attacks and carry them with them.

This means that his attempt to deal with these people through shadow infiltration and sneak attacks would easily fail and be detected.

Basong realized he was being attacked, his expression changed drastically, his previous obsequiousness vanished instantly, and he cursed, "Are you insane! Don't you want the fragment anymore? Kill me, and the fragment will disappear with me!" "Are you sure?" Guan Tong said, "What's the last sentence in the fragment's details?"

The last sentence?
Before Basong could even think of it, Guan Tong manipulated the shadows to launch another attack.

This time he didn't hold back, and a large number of shadow spikes pierced towards Basong. In his haste, the latter had no choice but to raise his hand cannon and inject all of his hundreds of points of mental power into it.

"I'll fight you to the death, Shadow!"

boom! ! ! !

The explosive bomb, infused with over four hundred points of mental energy, was incredibly powerful. In an instant, the explosion destroyed the entire basement, causing walls to collapse, supplies to burn, and even the houses above to crumble.

Basong had huddled in the corner beforehand and wasn't hit by the collapsing roof. He was panting heavily and was just trying to find a way to climb out when he felt a piercing pain!
"puff!"

A shadow blade, more than half a meter long, pierced his body from behind.

"cough!!!"

Basong vomited a mouthful of blood, and in his dazed state, he finally remembered the last sentence of the puzzle piece details:

This item cannot be destroyed and is tradable.

"Unable to...destroy..."

Facing imminent death, Basong finally understood why Guan Tong dared to attack him.

The key lies in the words "indestructible".

That's right. Normally, when an Ascended One dies, all of their items will also disappear.

This disappearance can be understood in a sense as "destruction".

If an item is specifically marked with the words "indestructible", does that mean that even if the Ascended user who owns it dies, the item will not disappear along with it?

Guan Tong wasn't sure, but he was determined to take the gamble.

Because he doesn't gamble, and given the cunning of someone like Basong, no matter how sweet his words are, he will never hand over the fragments.

After his heart was completely destroyed, Basong died instantly.

At the moment of his death, a glittering fragment quietly appeared and fell onto a piece of rubble next to his body.

When Guan Tong saw this scene through his shadow vision, he immediately knew that he had made the right bet!

"As expected, items marked 'indestructible' will drop when the holder dies!"

Guan Tong immediately manipulated the shadow lines to pick up the fragments and quickly retreated.

The massive explosion created by Basson using a hand cannon had already drawn the attention of the entire manor.

People from the manor rushed over, gathering around the collapsed buildings in bewilderment, unsure of what had happened. Fearing a secondary explosion, they dared not dig further.

Their attention was drawn to the collapse caused by the explosion, and they naturally did not notice the rapidly retreating shadow line.

When it returned to Guan Tong, the latter eagerly took the fragment into her hand.

At that moment, the ownership of the fragment changed instantly, from being ownerless to becoming an item belonging to Guan Tong.

[You have obtained: Yahoo! Chronicles - Fragment 1]

[Chronicles of Yamo Star - Fragment 1]: A mural recording part of the history of Yamo Star. There are a total of 5 puzzle pieces. After piecing them together, you will obtain the complete "Chronicles of Yamo Star". The holder of the fragment can sense the location of other fragments. This item cannot be destroyed and is tradable.

"It's actually fragment 1, which is the very beginning."

As Guan Tong was thinking, a mural suddenly appeared in her mind.

Just like what he had seen in the Fog Gate Cave before, this time the new information from the murals was directly injected into his mind.

"This is……"

Guan Tong quickly processed the information from the mural.

The content of his paintings mainly depicts various environments.

There is an endless ocean, towering peaks that pierce the sky, and green grass covering the mountains. Every environment is painted in an extremely stunning and realistic way, as if those beautiful scenes are right in front of you and within reach.

In these murals depicting the environment, one can also see some strange beasts living among them. The images of these beasts are extremely vivid; some are chasing prey, some are raising their young, and some are jumping around together, giving Guan Tong the feeling that they are beginning to form some kind of "tribe".

After Guan Tong fully digested the information from the mural in Fragment 1, a word that could summarize it came to mind: "homeland".

Indeed, the brushstrokes in this mural reveal a profound love for one's home. One can imagine that the creator of this mural must have had an extremely strong love for the environment of this planet and for the creatures that live in this environment.

Only in this way could such an amazing, perfect, and lifelike mural be created. After seeing it, Guan Tong felt an inexplicable surge of emotion that made her want to cry.

He quickly composed himself and thought to himself, "I've already got fragment 1 and fragment 3. There are still fragments 2, 4, 5... Getting those three fragments won't be as easy as it was this time."

Holding the fragment, Guan Tong could see, based on the locations of the other fragments displayed in his mind, that the original fragment, which was in the Somali Empire, had moved to a tropical region.

Clearly, the fragment holder from the Soro Empire is also actively working to collect other fragments.

The remaining one remained in the Kingdom of Sakura. This nation, with a population exceeding 300 million before the post-apocalyptic era and formidable technological prowess, was not to be underestimated.

...However, there is still something to be done.

Guan Tong hadn't forgotten that although Basong was dead, the manor hadn't been destroyed.

　Day 28 of my daily check-in challenge! Thank you all for your monthly votes and donations! I'll keep working hard.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)