Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 81: The New Type of Silver Hunter and the Challenge Begins

Opening the book, Guan Tong didn't rush to write, but instead thought about what he was lacking.

Attack methods? Including the undead summoned by Shadow, Silver Hunter, and Corpse Whistle, there are already quite a few.

Defensive measures? The workaholic shadow can also serve as a shield. If all else fails, summoning a few undead to act as meat shields is also a potential option.

Escape methods? Absolutely lacking.

Yes, Guan Tong has already discovered that he can fight and defend, but he can't run.

He's not so arrogant as to think he'll never encounter a situation where he needs to run away.

In fact, quite the opposite, ever since his last confrontation with a group of people who were suspected to be an "official team," he felt he needed the ability to withdraw from the battlefield in a timely manner.

Not to mention the upcoming challenge, which will most likely require a tactical retreat.

While summoning a shadow and having it carry him for an extended period of time with unlimited stamina is an option... it's still too slow.

The key to escaping is either being exceptionally fast so that others can't catch you, or having a way to stop the enemy from pursuing you.

Guan Tong decided to focus on these two aspects when adding words to the second page.

How can a gun increase my speed?
Guan Tong pondered for a moment, then got up and walked around thinking. After a while, his gaze inadvertently fell on the window of a collapsed building in the community, where a clothesline was still hanging.

His gaze paused when it fell on the clothesline, and then an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

Grappling gun!
That's right. He remembered watching some movies before he traveled through time, which featured guns that could launch grappling hooks. Once the grappling hook was secured, the user could move quickly by extending and retracting the cable.

What impressed him most was Batman's grappling hook. Batman used it to climb rapidly, land quickly, chase and retreat... it was practically omnipotent, able to hook people, cars, buildings, steel bars, and even airplanes!

He thought the gun was really cool when he watched the movie, and wished he had one! Now, at this very moment, why not try to give the Silver Hunter a similar function by adding words?

Guan Tong doesn't think that this kind of grappling hook gun is from a movie and not realistic—is his Silver Hunter, which doesn't need manual loading and can switch between No. 1-3 ammunition at will, realistic?
This inexplicably reminded him of Ouyang Shanyue's words: mental power, as a medium, gives humanity the ability to alter reality through thought. His "Wordless Book" seemed to be helping him achieve this process.

So he immediately came up with an idea to add a word.

But the grappling hook alone wasn't enough. Besides accelerating his own movement, he also wanted another means to hinder his enemies. So, he finally decided to add two words to the second page.

Considering that the term "wordless book" can achieve the desired ambiguity, Guan Tong plans to simplify these two words into two characters:

"Smoke" and "claws".

"Smoke" refers to smoke bombs.

He needs his Silver Hunter to be able to fire smoke grenades that obscure vision, which would be effective whether used to cover an escape or an attack.

"Claw" naturally represents a hook or claw.

The three characters together mean "smoker's claw gun".

"..."

Guan Tong felt it was somewhat abstract, but he believed that the [Wordless Book] could understand his need for ambiguity, after all, they had already conducted a successful experiment before.

Once he made a decision, he immediately took action.

In the days that followed, his daily routine became completely fixed.

During the day, I expend my mental energy to add words; at night, I rest, take a walk, watch online courses from the Mental Energy Academy, and then go to sleep.

This kind of life may seem monotonous and boring, but Guan Tong enjoys it.

Seeing the strokes on the pages increase every day gives me a real sense of peace and reassurance.

As the days passed, by late August, Guan Tong had completed the task of adding the words.

He didn't store bullets for Silver Hunter during this time because he needed to re-manifest the gun after adding the words. If he stored bullets, the bullets would be reset to zero once the gun was put back into the book, and all the mental energy used would be wasted.

He held the wordless book in his left hand, unfolded it to the second page, looked at the three words "Smoke Claw Gun" on it, and silently recited the summoning.

A brand new silver hunting rifle instantly appeared in his right hand.

Its overall color scheme remains unchanged, still mainly silver, but a strange-looking diamond-shaped secondary barrel has been added to the side of the barrel, which should be for the grappling hook.

Guan Tong doesn't care about the appearance; what he cares about is whether the functions he wants have been realized.

Guan Tong's gaze fell on the small black electronic screen on the left side of the gun handle. He consumed 5 points of mental energy to generate a No. 1 bullet, and the screen immediately lit up, displaying the number of bullets remaining.

1 No. 1 bullets
0 No. 2 bullets
0 No. 3 bullets
0 No. 4 bullets
Hook and claw (ready)

"Success!"

Guan Tong smiled when she saw the newly added "No. 4 bullet" and "grappling hook" displays.

He couldn't wait to take the gun and go out to conduct experiments.

Taking advantage of his location in an abandoned neighborhood where no one else was around, he found a building that was half collapsed.

He tried to use his mental energy to generate bullet number 4, and found that it cost 15 points to generate one, more than bullets number 1 and 2, but less than bullet number 3.

Considering its functionality, Guan Tong can accept it.

After generating the weapon, he aimed it at the stairwell and pulled the trigger.

"boom--"

Like the sound of a bottle cap being opened, a gun barrel emitted a round, grenade-like bullet that was fired, followed by a "whoosh" sound. Immediately afterward, a large amount of smoke rapidly spread through the stairwell. In about two seconds, the entire stairwell was filled with white fog, making it impossible to see anything.

"The effect is not bad."

Guan Tong was very satisfied with the result; this was exactly the kind of dense smoke he wanted. It allowed him to advance or retreat at will, and if he was outmatched by a stronger opponent, he could immediately use the smoke to escape.

He then conducted an open-air test in the suburbs. The smoke covered a wide area after it dispersed, and could form a smoke column with a diameter of more than 20 meters in the absence of wind.

If there is wind, the smoke column will be quickly blown into a smoke belt tens of meters long. Although the range becomes wider, the degree of obstruction will be greatly reduced.

Afterwards, Guan Tong tested the "grappling hook" in different places such as abandoned vehicles, trees, and buildings. It basically fulfilled his need to "hook and move quickly".

Unlike generating bullets, the grappling hook consumes a fixed 15 points of mental energy each time it is used.

If used several times in a row, it would consume dozens of points, which would be a heavy burden even for Guan Tong. She definitely couldn't abuse it to travel just to save time.

After all the tests were completed, Guan Tong thought that the effect of adding the words was generally good, and it partially made up for his lack of escape methods.

Then it becomes clear what to do before September 1st.

Stock up on ammunition!
As Guan Tong's main offensive weapon at this stage, Silver Hunter's bullets must be stockpiled to ensure sufficient ammunition.

So, in the remaining days, Guan Tong focused solely on stockpiling bullets. During this time, he checked the market several more times and found that item prices remained exorbitantly high.

In Guan Tong's opinion, spending seven or eight hundred Ascension Coins to buy a one-time ordinary effect item is too wasteful. Only those who don't earn coins on their own would be willing to use it like that.

So after considering it, on the evening of August 31st, he decisively gave up shopping at the market. Instead, he went directly to the Ascendant Shop and bought 5 lockpicks and 5 drones, spending a total of 550 Ascendant Coins.

For him, stockpiling more of these is better than wasting money on them at the market. He especially thinks the drone props might be very useful in the challenge, and some professional teams will definitely buy a lot of them.

Guan Tong felt that she was almost ready.

Before the challenge began on September 1, he took stock of his current situation and equipment.

Name: Guan Tong

Nickname: Shadow

Title: Lawkeeper

[Psychic Power: 132 (132) (330)]

[Ascended Coins: 387]

Overall Bioinformatics Evaluation: Excellent

Guan Tong didn't use up all her Ascension Coins because she wasn't sure if the shop would add new items after the challenge ended, as it does after each rule ends.

If he had gone online, it would have been a bit of a problem if he hadn't gotten any coins. So in the end, he still had nearly four hundred coins left.

Open the storage box; it's filled with more and more items.

[Wordless Book], [Guiding Flashlight], [Corpse Whistle], [Basic Food Box - Bronze Level] *1, [Invitation to the First Ascended Challenge], [Multi-functional Lockpick] *6, [Mini Reconnaissance Drone] *6
In addition, there are three pieces of equipment that are already worn.

[Thermostatic Technology Underwear] (already worn), [Multi-terrain Marching Boots] (already worn), [Multi-functional Protective Suit] (already worn)
Outside the storage box, his Silver Hunter ammunition was also stocked with a large quantity of bullets:

100 No. 1 bullets
50 No. 2 bullets
50 No. 3 bullets
20 No. 4 bullets
Hook and claw (ready)

He specifically stored 50 rounds of the most powerful No. 3 bullet. If his mental energy hadn't been recovering too slowly, he would have stored even more.

After checking all of these, Guan Tong felt it was about time.

This is the limit of what he can do right now. Whether he can achieve a good result in the challenge with these preparations is up to fate.

After falling asleep, Guan Tong went online the next morning before 9 o'clock.

The online discussion surrounding this challenge is far less heated than that surrounding the post-apocalyptic rules. The reason is simple: many people didn't receive an invitation and are therefore ineligible to participate.

If you can't participate yourself, and unlike other human competitions you can watch live streams from qualified people, what's the point of discussing it?
Only a few people who received invitations made more relevant remarks.

"I wonder what the competition will be like? I'm so nervous!"

"You guys have all your teams full? Our team only has three people, I don't think we'll get good results."

"It's easy to fill a team, right? Aren't there lots of people asking for teams to recruit them?"

"I don't want to team up with people I don't know well. What if I get betrayed?"

"Our group is full, and we all know each other. But it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, since all the big shots will be participating this time, and the good results will definitely be theirs."

"That's not necessarily true; anything is possible!"

Guan Tong stared at it for a moment, then silently turned off her phone.

At 9 o'clock sharp, the invitation in the storage box flew out automatically and hovered in front of Guan Tong.

Suddenly, flames burst forth in the center of the invitation, burning a dark hole in it. The hole rapidly expanded beyond the invitation, and then Guan Tong felt a powerful suction force pull him directly into the hole!
The first Ascended Challenge is about to begin; teleportation to the arena is underway.

　三更完毕打个卡，本日更新10328字。距离两个目标徽章：习惯性爆发（1/10）、日更万字（1/30）

　　I'm even more sorry that it didn't become a huge hit today. I'll save up some chapters and try to make up for today's mistake by having a few consecutive hits during the National Day holiday at the beginning of next month!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)