Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 3 Guan Tong's Choice
"By using violence to put someone to sleep, you can obtain a 'wake-up mint'..."

"Using this item will keep you fully conscious for up to 3 hours..."

Guan Tong paced back and forth in the living room, frowning.

"If this hidden rule is true and applies to everyone, then someone will surely discover its existence very soon."

“With billions of people in the world, there are all sorts of things happening at the same time. When the apocalyptic rules are announced, who knows how many people will be fighting. If someone knocks another person out and immediately gets a ‘wake-up peppermint,’ he will quickly realize that this is a hidden rule.”

"To maintain their advantage, those who know about the hidden rule will likely choose to keep it a secret. But because the triggering conditions aren't too stringent, it will eventually be exposed and spread... Soon, a large number of people will know about this hidden rule. What will that cause? A nationwide free-for-all?"

"No, that's not right... If we consider it from a national perspective, after confirming the authenticity of this hidden rule, in order to avoid great chaos, the people in power will definitely choose to block the news, prohibit people from going out, and even temporarily shut down the network to prevent people from fighting each other."

"So it seems that the best way to profit from this hidden rule is to knock out as many people as possible before the news spreads and people are prohibited from going out, and get enough 'sobering mints'. Then lock yourself at home and get through the seventy-two hours with these mints."

"This kind of thing..."

Guan Tong shook his head; he had no intention of doing it.

Knowing that someone would die after falling into a coma, he considered this action no different from intentional homicide.

And it wasn't just one person they killed.

Once you start, you can't stop.

Because a "wake-up mint" can only keep you awake for 3 hours, while the rule for "sleep deprivation" is that it lasts for 72 hours.

In other words, to guarantee a 100% survival rate, you would need to eat one every three hours, which would require a total of 24 pills. Even if you halve that, you would still need 12 pills, which is equivalent to taking 12 lives.

"To increase your own chances of survival, would you choose to rob others of their right to live?"

The note on this hidden rule has made the essence of this matter clear.

Guan Tong's choice was "No".

"Ding-dong ding-dong".

The phone then rang, but it wasn't a phone call; instead, it was a voice call notification sound unique to social media apps.

Guan Tong glanced at the call and was surprised to see it originated from the classmates' group chat. He answered, somewhat taken aback: "Fang Qian?"

A woman's voice, filled with unease, came from the phone: "Guan Tong, are you home? Are you alone?"

Fang Qian is Guan Tong's classmate. She is a pretty girl with thin-rimmed glasses and has excellent grades. She has never fallen out of the top three in the class.

"Um, is there something you need?"

“Guan Tong, I… my parents are both at a research institute in another city. Transportation is suspended everywhere now, so they can't come back. I'm all alone at home. The official advice says that it's best not to be alone during these 72 hours, and that talking to others is one of the best ways to stay alert… so I thought of you, because of you…”

Guan Tong understood.

His classmates all know he's an orphan, so it's normal for him to be home alone right now.

Fang Qian's parents are a pair of well-known scientists. They travel frequently to various academies of sciences, a fact that her classmates had all heard.

Now that a sudden emergency has occurred, and Fang Qian's parents are unable to return from another city, it's not surprising that she would think of Guan Tong out of fear.

"Do you want to get through these 72 hours with me?" Guan Tong asked directly.

"Um...is that okay?"

"Okay. Come to my house now, and I'll send you the address."

"That's great! Thank you, Guan Tong."

"No need. Having someone to talk to helps me stay focused." "Hmm... I'll be right there!"

Guan Tong hung up the phone and sent her home address to Fang Qian.

About half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

After Guan Tong confirmed through the peephole that it was Fang Qian, she opened the door and let her in.

"Guan Tong, I'm sorry to bother you..."

Fang Qian, still wearing her white and blue striped school uniform, walked into the room carrying two bags and looked at Guan Tong somewhat reservedly.

"It's alright, please sit wherever you like," Guan Tong said.

"Hmm... I brought some food. Oh, and this too."

Fang Qian took out a box of coffee powder strips from the bag; there were still a dozen or so strips left.

"I used to drink a packet of this when I stayed up late doing practice tests. I never thought it would come in handy now."

Guan Tong said, "It's almost 9 o'clock when you finish evening self-study at school, and you still stay up late doing test papers when you get home. No wonder your grades are so good."

Fang Qian pushed up her glasses a little shyly, and then sat down in the living room with Guan Tong.

Seeing that Guan Tong hadn't turned on the TV or played any songs on the stereo, she asked him with a bit of curiosity.

“There’s no need for that right now,” Guan Tong explained. “It’s like the coffee you brought. It doesn’t create energy out of thin air; it’s essentially depleting your body. If you drink it now when you’re not tired, you won’t be able to use it when you’re really exhausted, because you’ll have already used it all up.”

Fang Qian suddenly realized, "I see. Hmm, that makes sense. It's the same with listening to music. If you play it so loudly when you're not tired, the effect will be much worse when you're tired and sleepy."

"Yes."

After exchanging a few simple words, the two ran out of things to talk about.

The two weren't very close to begin with; they hadn't exchanged more than a hundred words during their three years of high school.

Guan Tong picked up a book to read, while Fang Qian kept scrolling through her phone with some unease, occasionally glancing at Guan Tong out of the corner of her eye.

He's so calm...

The internet and the chat in the classmates' group were buzzing, but Guan Tong didn't pay much attention at all and was still focused on reading. It was really...

Fang Qian thought that the reason she thought of Guan Tong, found his social media account in the class group for a voice call, and even mustered up the courage to come to his house was because of Guan Tong's behavior before he left school.

He had slapped Xu Beipeng in class to confirm that the latter was dead, and he had been the first to leave school without listening to the homeroom teacher... All of this made her feel inexplicably safe around Guan Tong.

After more than an hour of silence, Fang Qian bit her lip and took the initiative to start a conversation with Guan Tong, who was reading a book, about the information she had found online.

"Guan Tong, do you know? There are so many people online asking to go to the hospital right now."

"Go to the hospital?" Guan Tong looked up at her.

"Hmm," Fang Qian said, "It seems some medical students have said that you can stay awake by taking medication or getting injections containing stimulants... Do you think this is really feasible?"

"Maybe. But even if we can get through it this way, not everyone can use it. This kind of medicine or injection is definitely limited and cannot be supplied to everyone."

“Yes. Ah…” Fang Qian said, then saw something on her phone and exclaimed incredulously, “There are actually people thanking the Fire Thief!”

Guan Tong guessed, "They're probably someone who wants to commit suicide."

Fang Qian glanced at Guan Tong in surprise and nodded: "Yes, the person who posted said that he had cancer before and had been suffering from cancer pain. He thought about leaving the world many times, but he didn't have the courage. Now he can leave this world peacefully and painlessly just by sleeping... so he is very grateful to the Firebringers for bringing the rules of the apocalypse."

(End of this chapter)