Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 178 Dramatic Changes and Transformation Surgery

On April 4, after the sense of touch was eliminated, any organization or group in the world was effectively paralyzed.

Existing medical resources and mental power-related items or abilities are simply insufficient to guarantee that most people will be spared from elimination, and since most people cannot control their bodies, it means they can't do anything.

In this way, these people will not only be unable to produce anything, but will also need the care of a very small group of other people. Otherwise, in the remaining eleven days, without anyone to take care of them, they are likely to die in large numbers.

Countries that made preparations in advance were better off, such as Somaliland and North Star, which arranged for personnel to take care of others in advance.

However, some small countries that lack both foresight and capability immediately fell into a state of complete collapse.

Guan Tong saw a few posts on the website, one of which was posted by a user from the Tulip Federation.

The post is titled "The fragile federation has completely collapsed under this rule."

The content mentions that civil war broke out in the Tulip Federation in the middle of the eighth apocalyptic rule. Warlords of all sizes formed alliances to fight against their rivals, resulting in extremely heavy casualties.

This civil war began with Rule Eight and continued until Rule Ten. But now, with the random elimination of the sense of touch, the civil war has come to an abrupt end.

It's not that they don't want to fight, it's that they can't continue. The vast majority of personnel have lost their fighting ability, and a few high-ranking officers are using methods to preserve their senses, but they won't personally engage in hand-to-hand combat.

After all, fighting to the death is the business of subordinates. The high-ranking officials among these warlords are all afraid of death, so it is unlikely that they would personally take the lead.

Thus, this opportunity brought an end to the civil war, along with the Tulip Federation. This organization, which had been established for only a year and whose paper strength once rivaled that of Soroma and North Star, was declared to have disintegrated in the civil war.

All factions returned to their respective territories to recuperate. The largest warlord force in the Federation was also severely damaged in this civil war, with its leader, "The Wolf," nearly wiped out, and it lost its ability to control the other warlords.

Aside from the disintegration of the Tulip Federation, it can be predicted that many small countries that were already struggling to survive will perish after the rules expire in mid-April.

After that, only a few powerful national entities should remain in the world. The rest will likely consist of various survival groups, international mercenary groups, and the like.

It's hard to believe that the first apocalyptic rule was released last April, and in just one year, the world has undergone such dramatic changes.

However, Guan Tong believes that the situation may change even faster. Based on what he learned from the "Qimo Star Puzzle Fragment," the population of Tianshui Star is still too large for the Fire Stealers, and they will certainly continue to reduce it using various rules.

……

How long has it been?
The man thought to himself.

At this moment, everything was pitch black before his eyes, and he could not perceive his own body at all. Only his consciousness was wandering around, like a ghost.

The man was usually proud of his calm and unflappable demeanor, but when his sense of touch was gone, he panicked.

This inability to perceive one's own body is truly terrifying.

He couldn't even tell if he was still alive or if he was already dead and his soul had left his body.

Since he was still conscious, he should still be alive. But living in this state made him wish he were dead.

The deathly darkness almost swallowed him completely.

He felt as if his soul was being torn apart, and his brain was constantly sending various signals, but there was no reception or feedback at all.

Then a strange situation arose.

"I...I saw it?"

The man felt his vision gradually brighten, with multicolored lights flashing and dancing, like a group of tiny people dancing. He tried to join in, but the light vanished the next moment, and everything returned to darkness.

It's an illusion!
The man paused for a moment before realizing that what he had just "seen" was merely a hallucination created by his brain.

When the body can no longer provide any feedback, it can only create illusions to deceive itself.

This made the man think: If what I just saw was a hallucination, could it be that my life over the past thirty years was just a hallucination created by my brain?
What is real and what is fake? The man was completely confused. If all his actions depended on his brain releasing and receiving signals, how could he be sure that he was normal now or that he was normal in the past?

Is it possible that I've actually been in this state all along, with only one thought? That the past thirty-odd years of my life were just a slightly longer illusion?
Does the length of time have any meaning for the brain's consciousness? If the brain can change its perception of time, then can a second be eternally long, and eternity become as short as a second?

So, have I lived for over thirty years, or only for a second? I can't tell, I just can't tell...

"Hey! Hey!"

Beside a bed in the shelter, the caretaker anxiously patted the face of the man on the bed.

The bracelet on the man's wrist emitted a piercing alarm, a sign that vital signs were waning.

The administrator patted the man several times before realizing it was pointless. He tried giving the man some medication, but to no avail, and the bracelet's alarm continued to sound.

A few minutes later, the bracelet emitted a long beep. The administrator checked the man and confirmed that he was dead.

"Ugh……"

He sighed, shook his head helplessly, and could only go to the data room as soon as possible to report the death on the computer.

Meanwhile, death reports from various shelters filled the storage system of the countermeasures research room.

The analysts in the analysis room were overwhelmed by what they were seeing, and the more they looked, the more alarmed they became.

Serious deaths occurred in almost every shelter, some of whom had underlying conditions such as epilepsy or asthma, and were triggered after the tactile sensory desensitization was eliminated.

Another group appears to have experienced brain problems in those who were eliminated. According to professional instrument testing, after a prolonged period of inability to perceive their own bodies, the brain develops a judgment that "the host is dead," leading to the annihilation of self-awareness and resulting in brain death in a large number of people.

The most critical issue is that there is virtually no way to intervene externally in this situation.

……

At the same time, in the Somali Empire, a special operating room was in operation. Several people who had been desensitized to touch lay on hospital beds, undergoing craniotomy for implantation surgery.

However, the surgeon was not a human doctor, but a sophisticated robotic arm controlled by a computer.

The King of the Solomon Empire stood outside the operating room, his hands resting on his scepter, watching the surgery unfold inside.

Standing next to him was an elderly man with white hair, wearing a white coat, who looked like a doctor.

"Dr. Heisen, are you sure your 'Iron Will' plan will succeed?"

“Your Majesty, I am confident,” the old man said. “The relevant technology has been researched for more than 20 years. This time, the rules have eliminated human touch, which allows the chip to be implanted in the brain in an environment where there is no rejection from the human body. It is simply a precious opportunity bestowed by God.”

Dr. Haisen became excited as he spoke: "Your Majesty, if the implantation is successful, and you then equip them with mechanical prosthetics, you will have a group of steel soldiers who will absolutely obey your orders!"

King Soro nodded slightly: "I have only one question: after the mechanization is complete, will they still be judged as human by the Firebringers? Don't forget, what I need are soldiers who are not bound by the rules of the apocalypse."

(End of this chapter)