Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 177 The Termination of Communication and the Elimination of the Third Sense
Guan Tong really wanted to know if the authorities had a clear plan or roadmap.

From the initial large-scale demolitions and shelter construction across various regions in the early stages of the apocalypse, to the later declaration of a state of war and the implementation of a comprehensive rationing system, these were all relatively consistent and continuous policies.

However, after this period of observation, Guan Tong did not reach a conclusion on which direction to continue in.

At first glance, it seems that the North Star government intends to follow the same isolationist path as the Solomon Empire, that is, to only take care of its own people and try every means to ensure the survival of its citizens.

This may also be one of the reasons why, during the previous Rule 8 period, the authorities deployed a large number of armed forces to conduct a large-scale crackdown on violent organizations and donor organizations outside the city.

But if you're sure you're going down this path, then the previous public condemnation of Guan Tong is quite strange—because if you've decided to take the isolation route, what does it matter how other countries, especially smaller ones, view you?

A year after entering the era of apocalyptic rules, the international landscape has undergone tremendous changes.

All so-called "alliances," "allies," and "national cooperation organizations" have become ineffective and dysfunctional.

Even the "Tianshui Xingguo Lianhui" (Tianshui Xingguo Lianhui), once the largest international cooperation organization, is now defunct in name only, let alone other organizations.

In other words, in Guan Tong's view, if the government intends to pursue a path of isolation and survival, then there is no need to pay attention to the situation in other countries.

He even went so far as to believe that, in this situation, "diplomacy" itself had little meaning and could be drastically eliminated.

But if we don't intend to isolate ourselves, but rather unite all of humanity to fight against the fire-stealers, then there will be much more to do and much more responsibility to bear.

But the official attitude now gives him the feeling that they want both sides. Their actions show that they prohibit entry and exit, but their statements say that they are a friendly country to Antai State and that they will investigate the shadow attack, and so on.

Guan Tong knew, of course, that the official body was a collective, and that each person had their own opinions rather than sharing a single brain, so it was not surprising that they would do things that contradicted each other.

But now that the authorities have taken the initiative to communicate with him, he needs to determine what the authorities' intentions are before considering whether to cooperate and how to cooperate in detail.

He looked at the private message. After he sent his question, there was no reply for three minutes, as if the other party was seriously considering it.

Two minutes later, the reply finally arrived.

"This is not a question you should be considering."

Upon seeing this reply, Guan Tong instantly lost the desire to communicate and closed the private message interface.

If in this era, people still adhere to the way of dialogue based on identity, then he feels that there is no need to continue the communication.

Because this is no longer about discussing the matter at hand.

Just like Guan Tong remembers when she was in middle school, the teacher read a landscape poem by an ancient famous writer and asked the students for their thoughts.

He remembered saying at the time that he thought the poems were all descriptions of scenery and were boring. The language arts teacher immediately frowned and said, "What right do you have to question XXX's poems?"

If you're not qualified to question, then what's the point of asking for your thoughts?
After that, Guan Tong lost the desire to communicate with this teacher, because if the latter could say that, it meant that the answer was already predetermined, and there was no point in discussing it. Or perhaps it was a deliberate attempt to make students obey authority and consider the status comparison before speaking or acting.

Guan Tong, however, has never been one to fall for that kind of thing. Back to the present, since the officials say this isn't something he should be concerned with, he's too lazy to say anything more and will just proceed at his own pace.

Meanwhile, in the countermeasures research office, after waiting for several minutes without receiving a reply, Zhang Minglu said, "Boss, it seems the other party doesn't intend to continue communication; there's still no response."

Gao Liangwei nodded slightly: "We understand this person's character to some extent. It seems impossible for him to join the officialdom." "Yes," Zhang Minglu said with some regret, but there was nothing he could do.

This is how society operates; only those who can contribute resources have a voice.

“Then let’s forget about it.” Gao Liangwei was quite decisive. “People with this kind of personality, even if they join the official ranks, will only keep questioning and resisting. In the end, it might do more harm than good to the whole group. What we need are warriors with firm wills like Long Hun and the others.”

"But, manager, will the higher-ups accept this outcome?"

"They will accept it. The higher-ups understand the importance of organizational stability better than you or I do. Forcibly introducing an unstable element like the Shadow is definitely not something they want to see."

"……Understood."

The communication ended abruptly; neither side had the same vision, and both tacitly refrained from sending any further messages.

The next morning at nine o'clock, the third sense began to disappear.

At this moment, the vast majority of people around the world felt as if they had lost their connection with the world.

What we're eliminating today is the sense of touch!
With a one-in-three chance, this most terrifying elimination item has finally appeared ahead of schedule.

The moment the sense of touch was eliminated, many people, whether standing or sitting, immediately went limp and collapsed to the ground.

They were horrified to discover that their brains could no longer control their bodies—or rather, they could not perceive their bodies at all!
This feeling is like having a nightmare. In the dream, you are completely in a third-person perspective, as if your soul has left your body. You have no control over your body in any way, to the point that all your muscles are relaxed and you experience incontinence.

In an instant, all gathering points and shelters around the world quickly became reeking of urine and feces. The sight of people, regardless of age or gender, lying in their own excrement was utterly disgusting.

The most critical issue is that most people are unable to react.

The approach taken by the Northern Star Kingdom was to administer general anesthesia and psychological hypnosis to the managers of each shelter in advance, putting them into a state similar to "tactile dysfunction".

In this way, once the sense of touch was truly gone, they returned to normal through the principle of two negatives making a positive. After returning to normal, these people directed the auxiliary robots that had been prepared in advance in the shelter to move all the people who had fallen on the ground to their beds.

Afterwards, feeding, turning over, and cleaning these people regularly are also tasks that the administrators and robots need to perform.

Guan Tong, on Mingdao Mountain, also felt a loss of control over his body the moment his sense of touch disappeared, but it only lasted for a brief second or two.

After experiencing it, he immediately manipulated the shadow to synchronize the tactile sensation to himself, so that he wouldn't fall to the ground unable to move like the others.

Even so, his own body is currently in a state of tactile dysfunction. He can only feel the touch of physical shadows, which means he has to wear the shadow armor 24 hours a day.

Recalling the feeling of not being able to feel touch for a second or two, Guan Tong felt a lingering fear: "The loss of touch is a hundred times more terrifying than the loss of sight and taste. Fortunately, the human brain can still function, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable..."

He wasn't exaggerating. The brain becomes unaware of the body, leaving only pure thoughts. This feeling may seem "ethereal," but it can actually trigger an extreme fear.

The brain might perceive you as paralyzed or even dead. People with asthma, hyperventilation, or severe anxiety are particularly susceptible to this sensation, which can trigger an attack immediately and, if not properly managed, lead to numerous indirect deaths.

This was also the first time Guan Tong had realized that rules outside of survival could also be extremely lethal...

(End of this chapter)