Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 222 Further Development of the Shadow Realm and Identity Confirmation
A high-standard two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment is the standard for a single lecturer's dormitory in the college.

Guan Tong walked around the room. All the necessary furniture was there, and even the refrigerator was full of various foods.

Looking out the living room window, you can see a continuous mountain range, offering a wide view and beautiful scenery.

Living in such a place is indeed very nice, but it's not something Guan Tong, who has been living alone in the desolate mountains for a long time, is used to.

Moreover, compared to his Pages Refuge, this dormitory does not provide a secure internet environment; he can only use the Ascended House website within his own refuge.

Now that I'm settled into my dorm, all that's left is to wait for school to start.

Dean Zhou Qinfeng had previously told him that the college would probably start in mid-July, but it's only mid-June now, so there's still a month to go.

The reason for the long wait is that the various matters after the college's relocation require time to be handled.

On the other hand, we need to wait for the arrival of foreign students.

Indeed, Zhou Qinfeng told Guan Tong that the new batch of students, including those from abroad, would arrive early this time, and the older batch would also graduate early.

Originally, the school year was one year long, with new students enrolling and returning students graduating in August. However, after the earthquake, this was moved to mid-July.

The reason is that the disaster caused by this earthquake was too great. As the backbone of society and the country, the college students were all transferred and assigned to various government departments to start working.

Once this assignment process begins, it becomes unlikely that students will be able to return to the academy later. Therefore, this first graduating class of students effectively graduated two months early, in June.

In this way, Guan Tong, the substitute lecturer, will start teaching directly from the newly enrolled freshmen.

This might be better for him, because compared to the freshmen, the senior students had been learning from Shi Jingyi before, and suddenly changing people might cause them some resistance.

Especially since Shi Jingyi is so popular among students, the sudden arrival of a male teacher to replace her will definitely cause a lot of dissatisfaction.

However, to be honest, the freshmen are only slightly better off.

Because these new students, though called "new students," must have actually spent a long time watching online classes and learning a lot online with Shi Jingyi.

Now that they've found out the person in charge has changed, and they feel the product isn't as advertised, they'll probably have some doubts.

Of course, Guan Tong only needs to fulfill her responsibilities; there's no need to worry about anything else.

After staying in the dormitory for a while, Guan Tong pondered the matter of her "Wordless Book".

The previous "heat" had been a concern for him, and it was a test of its current maximum output, which was 100 million mental energy.

If a single output exceeds 100 million, it will fall into a state of overload, resulting in both internal and external backlash.

Externally, it manifests as extremely high temperatures; internally, it manifests as a mental disorder caused by the tearing pain in one's spirit.

In a state of disorder, mental energy becomes extremely unstable.

When Guan Tong was dealing with those who attacked him, the shadows he created with his mental power were almost all distorted monster images.

However, this was not his original intention. He only wanted to create some humanoid shadows for combat, but they turned into strange monster shapes because of the disorder in his mental energy.

His later expansion into the Shadow Realm also came to the brink of spiraling out of control.

For Guan Tong, these discoveries meant that he had figured out another hidden mechanism of the "Wordless Book".

Although he probably won't have the opportunity to output hundreds of millions of mental energy again for a long time, it's still meaningful to know its limits.

"It's probably difficult to start writing on the seventh page of the [Wordless Book] anytime soon. Let's focus on developing the earlier pages."

Guan Tong had tried several times in the past two weeks and found that the mental energy required to write on the seventh page was probably more than the upper limit of one thousand points. He was still quite far from that number.

Therefore, he plans to delve deeper into and refine the character "域" (domain) written on the sixth page during this period.

He wrote that word simply because the enemies had scattered and fled, and he didn't want to let any of them go, so he wanted to control a large area. The "Wordless Book" also materialized into a shadow domain based on his state of mind and desire at the time, and it came with long-range attack capabilities covering the entire shadow domain, as well as reconnaissance and perception capabilities within the range without blind spots, and could quickly lock onto and track the location and movement of all targets.

In retrospect, it was found that, aside from its use in large-scale combat, the Shadow Domain was not without its uses in peacetime as well.

For example, besides being used for offense, it can also be used for defense.

If someone needs protection, simply enveloping them within the Shadow Domain will create a comprehensive and unobstructed protection, far exceeding the protective capabilities of Shadow Armor.

It can also be used for transportation during the protection process. Guan Tong thought that if necessary, and if his mental power was sufficient, he could expand his shadow domain as much as possible to envelop everyone in it and transfer them elsewhere.

Moreover, Guan Tong had another idea.

That is the source of energy.

He had actually considered this problem long ago, and it became even more apparent after using Shadow Domain for the first time—that is, the ability consumes too much energy.

If he were to use the Shadow Domain on a large scale, the mental energy consumed each time would be measured in tens of thousands. If he didn't have any remaining mental energy reserves, he simply couldn't afford to use it.

So, besides providing it ourselves, are there other ways to obtain the mental energy needed to maintain the Shadow Realm?
During the past two weeks of intermittent contemplation, based on the theory of mental energy flow and Jiang Ming's abilities, Guan Tong vaguely came up with an idea.

Why can't we get it from the enemy?

If he's going to expand his Shadow Domain on a large scale, it must be because he has an enemy to deal with. The Shadow Domain itself is composed of high-density mental energy. If we combine this with the theory of energy flow, could it absorb the mental energy of enemies within the domain to replenish the domain itself?

If this can be achieved, it will strengthen the Shadow Domain itself while weakening the enemy. Guan Tong felt it was necessary to spend time trying to develop it.

……

"Guan Tong, is he the lecturer who replaced Shi Jingyi in teaching?"

Inside the countermeasures research room, Gao Liangwei glanced at the documents. The first page featured a photo of Guan Tong, who looked very young.

“Yes,” Zhang Minglu said. “It was Shi Jingyi who recommended him, and he has already been approved by the dean. His background check has been done, and his identity is nothing special. However, he is learning through online courses… his talent must be very high.”

Gao Liangwei nodded; it wasn't surprising.

After entering the post-apocalyptic era, many previously ordinary people have shown extraordinary talents and suddenly stood at the forefront of the times.

Gao Liangwei turned to the next page and was somewhat surprised by what he saw: "He was almost kidnapped?"

“That’s right. In Yunhua, the person in charge of the case at the time was Li Meng.”

When Li Meng was mentioned, Gao Liangwei put down the documents and said, "I just received news today about that major nationwide kidnapping case. The mastermind behind it has now been identified."

Zhang Minglu was taken aback: "Are you sure? Is it... one of those people?"

“Yes,” Gao Liangwei said in a deep voice, “It is said that the other members were shocked and could not believe that person would do such a thing.”

"So...they caught him?"

"No, after the attack on the shadow failed, the person knew he would be found out and went into hiding beforehand, so there's a possibility he might defect. It's just that all departments are busy dealing with the secondary disasters caused by the earthquake right now, so they can't do their best to catch him."

Zhang Minglu was silent for a moment before saying, "Should we tell Shadow about this? After all, he's the victim."

What's your judgment?

"I think it's necessary, because we may continue to cooperate with him in the future, and it's important to let him know that our policy research team is trustworthy."

Gao Liangwei nodded slightly upon hearing this: "That's what I think too, and I've already submitted an application to my superiors."

(End of this chapter)