Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 53 Domain Abilities

Inside the truck cab, Chen Na asked worriedly, "Mom, will Guan Tong get hit by a wild boar?"

"I don't know... This child is simply acting recklessly!"

Wang Yan looked nervous. From her angle, due to the high snow cover, she couldn't see what was going on on the path leading to the campsite.

She couldn't understand why Guan Tong would abandon hiding in the truck and instead confront a wild boar. This wasn't some plump, white domestic pig; it was a wild boar that foraged for food in the mountains, with thick skin and powerful enough to kill a person!

Just as the two women were feeling anxious, a short while later, Guan Tong climbed up from the side path, waved at them, and indicated that everything was alright.

Wang Yan got out of the car immediately upon seeing this, but left her daughter Chen Na in the car and walked over herself.

"Xiao Guan, what's wrong... ah?"

As Wang Yan approached, she looked down into the alley and immediately saw the dead wild boar with its head smashed open.

She stared at Guan Tong in astonishment: "Xiao Guan, you killed the wild boar?!"

"Hmm." Guan Tong rested for a while and regained some strength. "I have to do this, otherwise it will eat all the food in my bag."

"..."

Wang Yan could hardly believe it. Guan Tong's figure could only be described as well-proportioned, but it was far from being "robust," yet he had managed to kill a wild boar...

Wang Yan suddenly realized something and blurted out, "Xiao Guan, you used some kind of mental power item, didn't you?"

Guan Tong nodded slightly.

The battle took place on a path near the camp. Wang Yan and the others were in the car on the other side and couldn't see what happened. Even if they knew Guan Tong had used a mental power item, they didn't know exactly what it was.

Seeing this, Wang Yan didn't press the matter further, knowing that their relationship wasn't that close yet.

However, upon learning that Guan Tong had the ability to kill a wild boar, she felt much more at ease. Otherwise, if they couldn't deal with the boar, she and her daughter would have had to stay hidden in the car, afraid to get out and move around.

“Thanks to Xiaona,” Guan Tong said. “If she hadn’t given us a warning, we might not have seen this wild boar come down the mountain. If it had suddenly gored us, it could have been a disaster.”

In this desolate wilderness, there's no hope of rescue. Minor injuries are manageable, as Guan Tong has a makeshift medical kit. But if the injury is serious, there's no one to turn to for help.

“That child Nana…” Wang Yan sighed when Chen Na’s warning was mentioned, “Her ability seems to work sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t, I don’t know why.”

"Ability? Isn't it a mental power item?"

“Actually, I don’t really understand what’s going on either,” Wang Yan said. “The village had previously compiled a list of people with spiritual power scores, and they said that those who scored over 80 would receive a subsidy from the government. I asked my daughter, and she said that her score was sometimes over and sometimes not, so I was afraid of making a mistake and didn’t register it for her.”

Guan Tong found this strange and thought for a moment before saying, "Xiao Na should be over 80. Since she has times when she is over 80, it means that her mental strength limit has exceeded 80. When it is below 80, it means that she has consumed a portion of it."

Wang Yan asked curiously, "Xiao Guan, do you know a lot about this?"

Guan Tong shook her head: "Everything I know about this can be found in the white paper."

Wang Yan nodded, seemingly understanding, when Chen Na got out of the car and jogged over. Upon seeing the wild boar carcass, she exclaimed "Ah!" and grabbed her mother's hand.

"It's alright, Nana, the wild boar is already dead."

"Huh? Did Brother Guan Tong kill him?" Chen Na looked at Guan Tong with admiration. "Brother Guan Tong, you're amazing!"

Guan Tong smiled and said, "It's all thanks to Xiao Na for discovering it in advance."

“Nana, your brother Guan Tong knows a lot. Why don’t you ask him about mental powers?” Wang Yan said. “Didn’t you say before that your numbers were always fluctuating?”

"Hmm." Chen Na nodded, tilting her head as if she was organizing her thoughts.

“Brother Guan Tong, sometimes I can sense a large area around me, where people or small animals are walking around, and I can feel where they are. But after a while, I can no longer sense them, and then after a while, I can sense them again. It’s very strange.”

Guan Tong wouldn't have asked if Wang Yan and Chen Na hadn't brought it up. After all, mental strength stats and items are considered private matters these days.

But now Wang Yan asked Chen Na to tell him that he was willing to help investigate what was going on.

What Guan Tong heard from Chen Na gave her the feeling that her perception ability seemed to be "automatically activated".

Once activated, she can sense the movement and location of living beings within a certain range. This ability will deactivate once her mental energy is depleted. The process will repeat once her mental energy is restored.

Couldn't Chen Na control the activation and deactivation of this sensory ability herself?
Guan Tong thought for a moment and asked, "Xiao Na, after the first rule, what did you search for and buy in the Ascension Shop?"

"Hmm... it's because my mom used to be out delivering goods, and I often didn't know when she would come back. I wanted to know when she came back, so after I thought that, something called [Perception Domain] appeared in the store. After I bought it, I could sense her presence."

"Nana, my good girl." This was the first time Wang Yan had heard her daughter say these words, and she couldn't help but tear up. She hugged her tightly. "It's all my fault for not being home often before. I will definitely stay with you from now on."

Chen Na lowered her head slightly, a little shyly, while Guan Tong, standing beside her, was also somewhat moved. However, what he cared about more was Chen Na's ability.

That's right, after passing the first rule, what she bought was not "items" but "abilities," which is a rather rare occurrence.

Books like Guan Tong's own "Wordless Book," Xu Xiaotian's "Instant Noodles," and even Shen Zuohu's "Finger Knuckle Duster" are all tools of mental power.

However, Chen Na possesses a special ability called the "Perception Domain".

Guan Tong asked, "Xiao Na, can't you control this ability? For example, could you try to control the opening and closing of this [Perception Domain] through your mind?"

Chen Na blinked: "How do you control it with your mind?" "Hmm... For example, you can set a keyword yourself. For example, 'activate the sensory domain' and 'deactivate the sensory domain'."

After silently reciting "Open the sensory domain," concentrate your mind and mobilize your mental energy. After silently reciting "Close the sensory domain," immediately cut off the infusion of mental energy.

Wang Yan said, "Nana, why don't you listen to your brother Guan Tong and give it a try?"

"Hmm." Chen Na tried to follow Guan Tong's instructions, silently reciting 'activate the perception domain' while sensing her mental power. She immediately sensed the presence of living beings around her, but the next second it automatically shut down.

Chen Na shook her head and said, "I thought it worked after I silently chanted 'Activate,' but it stopped immediately."

"Perhaps your mental energy is depleted. Open the terminal and take a look?" Guan Tong suggested.

Upon hearing this, Chen Na silently checked her personal terminal and saw that her mental energy level was indeed 0.

"Hmm! It's become 0!"

"It's probably because your [Perception Domain] was active when the wild boars appeared... This kind of 'domain-type' ability that has a wide range of effects must consume a lot of mental energy. Xiaona, you should wait until your mental energy recovers before trying it again."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Guan!" Chen Na playfully changed her form of address.

"What do you mean, 'Brother Guan'?" Wang Yan scolded lightly. "How can you, a little kid, call someone 'Brother Guan'?"

"It's alright," Guan Tong said nonchalantly. "Xiao Na can call me whatever she likes."

"Hehe, then I'll call you Brother Guan from now on." Chen Na made a face at her mother, Wang Yan, and then looked at the wild boar carcass in the path.

"What should we do with this big black boar? I've seen people roast wild boar in movies before, should we roast some meat too?"

"No way," Wang Yan and Guan Tong said almost in unison.

Wang Yan explained, "You can't eat wild boar meat, it's full of bacteria and parasites! Nana, if you want to eat meat, there's some dried meat in the car, you can eat that."

"Sister Wang is right. Unless there's absolutely nothing else to eat, try to avoid eating wild animals, not just wild boar, but also rabbits and the like."

"Ah, bunnies are so cute, why would you eat them!" Chen Na shook her head repeatedly.

Guan Tong paused for a moment, then said, "We can't just leave this wild boar in the path. Let's take it out, put it aside, and let the snow bury it."

"Okay, I'll lend a hand, let's get it out together."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Sister Wang."

Guan Tong and Wang Yan worked together to lift the wild boar carcass from the path to the snow piled up beside it. Then, each of them grabbed a hind leg and dragged the carcass away from the camp and the truck, before shoveling snow to bury it.

After all that fuss, the three of them were quite tired.

Wang Yan and Chen Na went back to the car to rest, while Guan Tong returned to her campsite and tidied up her backpack that had been damaged by wild boars.

Fortunately, he dealt with the wild boar in time; only a bag of biscuits was crushed and a bottle of water was broken, while the rest of his belongings were saved.

If Guan Tong had hidden inside the truck and left it alone, a whole backpack full of food would have been wasted in no time.

After getting ready, Guan Tong opened her sleeping bag and lay down to rest, still thinking about Chen Na's [Perception Domain] ability.

He felt this ability had great potential, and it was currently only limited by his low mental strength ceiling. Once his mental strength increased in the future, and if its range expanded further and its capabilities improved further, it should have many uses.

Guan Tong thought to herself, "If I write a similar ability name in the [Wordless Book], can I acquire a similar ability? I can try it later, but it seems a bit risky..."

Having wielded the [Wordless Book] for so long, Guan Tong had come to understand some of its abilities. Its core was essentially the ability to "realize written concepts by consuming mental energy," which could be described as possessing an extremely powerful force for distorting reality.

The more complex, powerful, and abstract the concept, the more mental energy is required to bring it to reality.

If a forced conversion is performed, it may result in a shrunken version. For example, the first page clearly states "Guan Tong," but after the initial conversion, it may only be a shadow with the outline of Guan Tong but no physical form.

Even the "Ascension Coin" he wrote on the second page is a scaled-down version after being realized—this is reflected in the number of coins, with only 10 bound coins.

The problem is that he only wrote the three words "Ascension Coins," without any quantifiers like "XX coins." This means that he only received 10 coins, which is currently the maximum number he can convert in a single transaction.

The second possibility is that the transformation will fail. For example, Guan Tong once tried to connect the blurred shadow with the car shadow and then materialize it, but his mental energy was instantly exhausted, and the materialization failed.

His current plan is to write about "shotguns," to realistically depict the concept of a gun, which shouldn't be too difficult. However, the problem is that the characters have too many strokes, making it take too long.

"Would it be okay to simplify it to 'shotgun,' or 'scattershot,' or even just 'gun'? Can the [Wordless Book] transform it according to my ideas? Or will it randomly transform it into something that doesn't meet my requirements... I'll try it later."

As Guan Tong pondered, her thoughts returned to Chen Na's [Perception Domain] ability.

After learning about this type of domain-specific ability, his thinking became much more open.

"Could I create a similar ability? Currently, directly starting a new page on the [Wordless Book] to write is too resource-intensive... So, could we continue to leverage shadows and further develop it based on them?"

The success of adding the word "entity" before made Guan Tong want to add something else, but he didn't have any good ideas.

Chen Na's abilities in this field are now making him somewhat interested.

“When a shadow is in a ethereal state, it can merge with other shadows to expand its area. If I make the shadows merge and expand large enough in a short period of time... and if I have enough mental power to transform it into a physical entity, could I form some kind of domain of my own... such as a ‘shadow domain’?”

(End of this chapter)