Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 297 The Organization Heading Towards the Final Target
Three days after the assassination attempt, somewhere near the border between Antu City and Beixing.

Guan Tong handed a USB flash drive to Shang Yuanzi.

"This contains local data stolen by Mask's Trojan program. You can pass it on to Mask for analysis. If your parents' information is on your local machine, it's only a matter of time before they can retrieve it."

His agreement with Uehara Yuki was to help each other.

After the assassination of the Divine Child, Guan Tong took advantage of the chaos within Ying Qi's organization to infiltrate the administration building again, implanting the Trojan program developed by Mask into the internal local area network and stealing local data.

"Thank you." Shang Yuanzi took the USB drive, her face showing a hint of hesitation.

Seeing her like this, Guan Tong asked, "Is there anything you want to say?"

"Did you really... kill the divine child?"

“I completely destroyed his head.”

Guan Tong deliberately avoided targeting other parts of the body and focused solely on attacking the head in order to ensure a fatal blow.

He doesn't believe that a person can survive if their brain is swallowed up by a small space.

Furthermore, the subsequent chaos at the Sakuragi Administration Building and the mobilization of all sheriffs for a city-wide search also seemed to indicate the death of the supreme leader.

"What? Do you feel something's wrong?" Guan Tong asked.

Uehara Yuki shook her head: "I just feel that the Divine Child is always very careful, but now she died so easily..."

Is it simple? Not necessarily.

Guan Tong thought to himself that his teleportation and small-space attack was a sure-kill for enemies who didn't know his secrets.

No matter how much you guard up, you'll be extremely passive when facing an enemy who can almost teleport to your side and has an attack that can destroy all defensive items.

but……

Guan Tong recalled the ninja-like guardian who could turn invisible; his behavior back then was indeed somewhat strange.

"Anyway, thank you for your help," said Shangyuan Zi. "I will communicate with Mask later and ask him to search for information. If he finds any information about my parents, I will confirm it myself."

"Hmm." Guan Tong nodded. "Do you remember what I said before, about an opportunity?"

Shang Yuanzi remembered that it was before the assassination of the Divine Child that Guan Tong mentioned it briefly, but the topic did not go into depth.

"I remember."

"This opportunity is related to my ultimate goal."

"The ultimate goal?"

"It's about exploring the truth behind a series of mysteries, such as the rules of the apocalypse, the fire-bringers, psychic powers, and apocalyptic actions."

Guan Tong added in her mind: My time travel is also included.

Now, he no longer believes that his transmigration was without cause. His transmigration, including his body "rejuvenating" back to the age of eighteen, and even the [Wordless Book] he possesses that can, to some extent, resist the rules of the apocalypse, must all have some reason.

This reason is very likely related to the truth about the fire-stealers.

"...Your goals are very ambitious."

“I don’t know if I can achieve this goal by myself,” Guan Tong said. “Especially as time goes on and the rules become more difficult, humans will become more and more passive. So, not long ago, I had the idea of ​​finding some like-minded people to work together towards this goal.”

"Exploring the truth must be something your Northern Star government wants to do, right? Why don't you join? With your abilities, you'd definitely receive the best treatment," Shang Yuanzi asked.

"I believe in the official collective, but that doesn't mean I believe in every individual within that collective."

Guan Tong said, "In any organization, there will be good people, bad people, and people who think about their own interests. I have a straightforward personality and don't want to get involved in overly complicated groups. I just want to find some people I can trust to work together towards our goal."

People like Jiang Lanying will not be the first or the last. Rather than joining a large, bloated organization to identify such people and outwit them, Guan Tong prefers to build a small organization from scratch.

Given the growing power of individuals in this era, this small organization doesn't need many members, and not even all of them need to be extremely powerful.

Guan Tong only has two criteria for selecting people.

First, this person is trustworthy, and their fundamental character is kind rather than evil.

Secondly, the person must have the determination to explore the truth. Only when everyone shares the same goal can they work together towards a common purpose.

Faced with Guan Tong's invitation, Shang Yuanzi shook her head.

“If you think I’m that kind of person… I’m sorry. I never thought about finding out the truth. All I wanted to do was find my parents, and if they were still alive, I wanted to ask them in person why they abandoned me.”

"and then?"

"And then..." Shang Yuanzi looked blankly at the USB drive in her hand, "I might die. There's nothing in this world that I'd miss."

"..."

Guan Tong remained silent for a moment, the shadows covering his face slowly fading to reveal his true appearance. Shang Yuanzi looked at his face, somewhat surprised that he would do such a thing.

"My real name is Guan Tong. If you change your mind in the future, you can contact me via private message on the Ascended House website."

Guan Tong looked at Shang Yuanzi's eyes and shrugged: "You don't need to look at me like that. But since you've told me your real name 'Shang Yuan,' I think it's okay to let you know my real name before this could be our last farewell."

"Aren't you afraid I'll reveal it? The Shadow's true identity... many people in the world want to know."

"My identity will definitely be exposed sooner or later. But I don't think you'll do that; it wouldn't make any sense for you."

Guan Tong knew very well that if Shang Yuanzi had been greedy for profit, she would not have disobeyed Yingqi's official arrangements in the first place, and none of this would have happened.

"...Thank you for your trust."

"So, is it time to say goodbye, or perhaps farewell forever?"

……

The news of "the Ascended Shadow assassinating Sakura Inori" unsurprisingly became headline news worldwide as soon as it was made public.

Sakura Inori's official account issued a full statement condemning the incident and stating that the entire nation would be mobilized to pursue the matter to the end.

In addition, they proposed that all member states of the Commonwealth of Nations issue a global warrant for the Shadow's arrest on charges of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".

According to Sakura Inori's official statement, no matter how powerful the Shadow is, it will gradually find itself in a desperate situation when faced with the all-out attack by the Human Union, the current dominant force in the world.

However, this proposal has not yet been adopted by the collective decision-making body of the People's Federation.

Member states have differing opinions.

Of those, only the Black Flag Nation explicitly responded to Sakura Inori's call.

A spokesperson for the Black Flag Nation stated that the assassination attempt by the Shadow was a "world-class crime" and absolutely intolerable.

However, the other major powers have been vague in their statements.

Beixing officials stated that they are investigating the situation and will make a public statement after the investigation is complete.

The Solomon Empire condemned the Shadow's actions but has not yet decided whether to issue an arrest warrant.

The country of Sisya stated that it would wait for a detailed investigation report before making a decision, which is consistent with the attitude of North Star.

This matter has also been widely discussed among the public, with related posts appearing on the first few pages of the "Home of Ascended People" chat section.

Among them were posts from Sakura Inori condemning and denouncing others, as well as posts that stirred up trouble and enjoyed watching the drama unfold.

One of the posts, titled "A Rational Analysis of the Shadow Assassination Operation," mostly discusses the reasons behind it.

"Personally, I think there must be a reason why Shadow God did this. Judging from Shadow God's previous actions, the person who was assassinated must not be a good person."

"You can tell from the attitudes of various countries, right? If Shadow really carried out an assassination without reason, he would have been wanted by the whole world long ago."

"That's not necessarily true. Shadow was able to assassinate the Divine Child single-handedly; his strength is beyond imagination. Anyone wanting to hunt him down should first consider whether they themselves might be assassinated."

"I don't know about other countries, but Beixing will definitely not participate in the manhunt and should even provide asylum. Don't forget how many more people would have died in Beixing if the Shadow God hadn't mitigated the disaster according to the earthquake rules? Just based on this one achievement, the Shadow God has a get-out-of-jail-free card in Beixing."

"They've even come up with get-out-of-jail-free cards... Dude upstairs, what era are we living in? Still playing the 'offsetting merits and demerits' game? I advocate rewarding merits and punishing crimes. It's true that Shadow has saved many people, but that doesn't mean he can do whatever he wants because of that."

"No matter the era, there can never truly be a crime punishing a crime. If we follow the new Ascended Person Management Law of North Star, using your ability on the street is illegal, then look at how much Shadow has broken the law... In the end, it's fine for the authorities to arrest those Ascended Persons who control fire and burn wooden boxes, but can they arrest Shadow?"

"Do you think it's possible that the Shadow God is being controlled by the spores? That's why he's doing this kind of thing. I've heard that people addicted to the spores experience hallucinations."

"How could an Ascended being of Shadow's caliber be controlled by spores..."

"That's not necessarily true. I've seen professional studies say that spores can tap into human potential, and the more powerful a person is, the higher their potential and the greater their improvement! So the stronger the ascendant, the more likely they are to become addicted."

"Still in these spores, I think you want to get into the training room."

The discussion surrounding this incident has been far more extensive than that surrounding the previous incident involving the shadowy figure in Antai State.

Although the two incidents were similar in nature, and even the one in Antai State was more serious, with the shadows blowing up the entire palace of Prince Rato... the level of discussion they generated was not on the same level.

This is still because Sakura Kingdom was originally a world power. Even though its national strength plummeted after the earthquake, it wasn't halved, but rather ripped off completely; at least the country didn't collapse.

Furthermore, since Sakura Inori is a member of the People's Association, this presents a test for the organization: how should the entire organization respond when one of its member states is subjected to a decapitation assassination attack?
Especially considering the attacker was a top-tier Ascended being like Shadow. Ascended beings of this level can go anywhere in the world and are almost impossible to restrain.

If pushed too far, he might end up like Lucifer, running off to that chaotic region of the Tulip Federation and becoming a warlord.

Just as people were hotly discussing the assassination, another major news broke.

Gutman Konya, the ruler of the Kingdom of Sisya, publicly announced that his daughter, Yelena Konya, would succeed him as the new ruler of Sisya.

(End of this chapter)