Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 169 Organizational Response Plan

Many organizations and groups made purchases immediately after discovering the hidden information related to the rules that the administrator of the House of Ascended was selling.

100,000 Ascension Coins are nothing to them; they would be willing to exchange them for even a little bit of useful information—even information with the side effect of mind lock, like the Eighth Rule.

However, the people in these organizations all noticed that this time the site administrator wrote "notify us in 12 hours" in the post, instead of the previous 24 hours.

In this rule, one of humanity's senses will be randomly eliminated after 24 hours. Some astute individuals speculate that perhaps people will be able to deduce hidden intelligence from the phenomena at that time, making it impossible for the website administrator to sell their information.

But regardless, you still have to buy it now.

After the transaction is completed, all that's left is to prepare while waiting 12 hours to receive the information.

Guan Tong himself wasn't idle either. Although he had a shadow, a mental construct that could share his senses, based on his experience with the previous nine rules, it could be put to use without causing the challenge to fail.

However, he actively sought more means, one of which was the end-user market.

He currently possesses a substantial sum of four million Ascension Coins, but he still needs to spend some of them to convert them into actual combat power or personal protection. Otherwise, these coins lying on the panel are just numbers and have little meaning.

After opening the market, he first discovered that the tradable "Communication Scroll," which had a chance to drop when killing a Sound Hunter during the seventh rule, "Silent Moment," had now increased in price significantly.

Previously, when he was handling matters at the Yongzhou base, the market price for the "secret call log" had already risen to around 8. Now, with the release of the tenth rule, it has increased by another 50%, reaching a high price of around 12 to 3.

"It seems that many people feel that after their five senses are eliminated, they can only rely on them to communicate with others."

Guan Tong believes that the core reason for the price increase lies in people's fear of losing their five senses.

Many people online now believe that after all five senses are eliminated in five days, humanity will experience an existential crisis. Perhaps only through telepathic communication with others via the "Secret Telegram Scroll" can one confirm their existence and avoid going insane.

Guan Tong still has many of his own [Call Scrolls]. Of the 10 bound scrolls, he only used one to contact Chen Na, and of the 3 tradable scrolls, he gave one to Chen Na's friend Qing Jin. He now has 2 scrolls left.

He was thinking about whether he should buy a few more to stock up, but when he looked at the market again, he found that the few remaining tickets had all been quickly bought up by others.

"Never mind, I'll look at something else instead."

Guan Tong tried searching using "five senses" as a keyword, and most of the results were unimportant gadgets.

[Vision Enhancement Drug]: Improves uncorrected visual acuity to 5.0 within 24 hours of taking the drug. Tradeable.

Price: 1500 Ascension Coins

……

[Hearing Amplifier]: Enhances hearing to its maximum level for 30 minutes. This is a one-time use item and is tradable.

Price: 3000 Ascension Coins

……

Guan Tong glanced around, not really hoping to find anything good.

Because once the rules are released, a large number of traders from various organizations will definitely search for the relevant items immediately. Any good ones will have already been bought up, and it is unlikely that any will slip through the net.

Even under these circumstances, Guan Tong still discovered a prop that caught his eye.

[Taste Blocker]: When activated, it will block the sense of taste for everyone within a 50-meter radius for 10 minutes, with a 24-hour cooldown. Tradeable.

Price: 30000 Ascension Coins

"After using this item, people within its range should also be considered to have 'taste impairment,' which should be able to offset the elimination of the rule."

Guan Tong knew why no one was buying the item: the tenth rule itself would eliminate the five senses, so what people wanted were items that could "preserve" or "restore" the five senses, not items that would eliminate them again.

But the key is the hidden rule that "two negatives equals one positive." If the public knew this, this prop would probably have been snapped up immediately!

Without saying a word, Guan Tong bought it directly.

"After I send the hidden information to the various buyers, I will then list this item on the market at a high price, several times higher. It will definitely be snapped up in seconds... This should be considered a standard way to take advantage of information asymmetry and snag a bargain."

He bought one and wanted to see if there were any similar props for him to make do with, but he found nothing else.

However, this prop gave him some inspiration: if someone had the ability to block out their senses, it would be very useful in this rule.

……

8:50 PM, Post-Apocalyptic Rules and Countermeasures Research Room.

Everyone gathered in the meeting room, waiting for the station manager of the House of Ascended to send over hidden information related to the rules.

This time, the intelligence research lab also spent money to purchase intelligence, but based on the lessons learned last time, everyone believed that they should make careful judgments and use intelligence this time.

With ten minutes to go before the site administrator sends the message, everyone started discussing it.

"It seems that the site owner of the Ascendant's Home website has the ability to parse the rules. It's just unclear whether they can parse them completely or only partially."

"Based on the situation described in Rule 8, it's possible that only a portion of the analysis was performed. It's also possible that the existence of side effects was deliberately concealed." "Speaking of which, our database doesn't record anyone with similar abilities—someone who can predict and analyze rules?"

"There is currently no one who can analyze the rules, but there are a few people in the records who have the ability to deduce hexagrams. However, the results given by these abilities are not clear. They are often just a few words and require a lot of mental energy, making them difficult to use."

"I know that Soroma has a rather famous fortune teller called 'The Key of the Moon.' I heard that even the king went to her to ask her some questions."

"Based on experience, the more powerful and abstract the ability, the greater the consumption of mental energy. To analyze something as fundamental as the rules of the apocalypse, the consumption of mental energy should theoretically be extremely terrifying... I wonder how that stationmaster managed to do it."

"It would be great if this website administrator could cooperate with us. Right now, a lot of information on it is spreading uncontrollably, which is not a good thing."

"The station manager sent a message." At this moment, the person who had been refreshing the private messages spoke up, and everyone immediately perked up. Gao Liangwei, who had been silent all along, also looked at the big screen.

The site administrator's private message reply, purchased with 100,000 Ascension Coins, is displayed above, and it's still just a brief sentence.

Station Master: "When a rule eliminates a certain sense, if the corresponding sense is already in a disabled state, it can be restored to its original state."

Everyone was astonished when they saw the message.

"There's actually such hidden information..."

"Does this mean that if visual senses are randomly eliminated at 9 a.m. tomorrow, blind people will actually regain their sight?"

"I see, I understand now! No wonder the station chief sent the intelligence in advance. If we wait until 24 hours later, based on the reports from various locations, we can figure out the existence of this hidden intelligence ourselves!"

"If this intelligence is accurate, then what preparations should we make..."

The group gradually realized something.

Even though Guan Tong didn't mention "self-harm" in the message, the smart people in the room could quickly figure it out.

Gao Liangwei then spoke up: "Search the database immediately to see if anyone possesses any items or abilities that can disable the senses."

"Yes, person in charge."

The data analysts immediately got to work, while other scholars and experts continued their discussion of the intelligence.

“If we go to extremes—I mean extreme cases—perhaps losing sensory function through self-destruction is one option.”

"Self-destruction? Like gouging out your own eyes?"

"What did you say? Of course it's not that cruel! I mean, it can be done painlessly through surgery!"

"What if it fails? Can we afford the cost? Unless we can cause temporary disability through medication or minor surgery, and then recover on our own if we fail to cope with the rules, I think it's worth a try."

"Even if the information is accurate, which of the five senses will be eliminated at 9 a.m. tomorrow is completely random. To prepare for disability, we have to do all five, right?"

"This……"

"The other functions might be achievable with medication. How can we prepare for tactile dysfunction in advance?"

Everyone looked at the medical expert in the conference room, who pondered for a moment: "We don't know how broad the definition of 'touch' is in the rules. Is it just the most basic touch of the outer skin, or the touch that goes deep into the mucous membranes and internal organs?"

The definition is uncertain, making it difficult to prescribe a specific treatment in medicine. However, I've discussed this with several colleagues, and one possibility is that after humans lose their sense of touch, they fall into a special conscious but unconscious vegetative state… If we were to try to simulate this, perhaps general anesthesia would be an option.

"General anesthesia...that carries considerable risks, doesn't it?"

“Of course.” The medical expert replied without hesitation, “Normally, a lot of tests and risk assessments are needed before general anesthesia. And a professional anesthesiologist must be present during anesthesia. Before the post-apocalyptic era, only a few thousand new anesthesiologists were added each year in China. Now…”

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this. The scarcity of anesthesiologists, coupled with limitations in medication and equipment, meant that even if general anesthesia were effective, only a very small number of people could experience it, and it was impossible for it to be widely available in various shelters.

"The results are in," the person in charge of the database said. "We found a total of forty-three potentially useful items or abilities, including one key ability that has been tested."

"Oh? Let's project it onto the big screen and see," Gao Liangwei said.

"Yes, person in charge."

The data analyst projected the information onto a large screen, and everyone looked at it.

The key ability is recorded as "Cognitive Dislocation," and its owner is a registered resident of the shelter who was a psychologist before the apocalypse rules.

The effect of this "cognitive dislocation" ability is that it can temporarily alter another person's cognitive processes. The record shows that this psychologist used this ability to save someone in the same shelter.

The person experienced severe somatization due to excessive psychological stress, manifesting as intense tinnitus. Tormented by the tinnitus and unable to sleep, the person contemplated suicide, but the psychologist learned of this and sought them out for a talk.

During the conversation, the doctor used this "cognitive dislocation" technique, and after using it, the person actually couldn't feel the tinnitus anymore. Although the effect only lasted for less than a day, because the breathing was relieved and the mindset improved, the person gradually recovered.

According to the shelter's summary report, this ability can affect physiological senses by altering the target's cognitive processes in the short term.

"So, this psychologist can use their abilities to make the target's brain 'think it's deaf,' thereby temporarily shutting down auditory senses to cope with the elimination of rules?" someone commented after reading the article.

“We can’t rule out that possibility,” Gao Liangwei said. “Immediately notify the shelter to transfer this person over. Also, gather all other relevant ability and item holders together and conduct experiments to verify their effectiveness.”

(End of this chapter)