October 1st, 8:59 AM.
One minute remained until the rule ended. Guan Tong stood at the door of the shelter cabin, his hand already on the doorknob.
As soon as the Fire Thief's voice sounded, he would go out.
Being cooped up in a small room for half a month straight without seeing the sun had not been good for his ntal state.
Especially these last two days. After posting about the Holy Grail on the website, he hadn't looked at it much, spending most of his ti sleeping.
The mont the clock struck nine, the Fire Thief's voice appeared, right on schedule.
[Rule ti has ended]
Guan Tong imdiately stepped out the door, leaving the cabin, and walked outside, taking a deep breath.
The fresh air invigorated him. The gentle autumn sunlight falling on his body instantly improved his mood considerably.
The Fire Thief's voice continued.
[Congratulations on passing the test of the Sixth Doomsday Rule]
[Reward has been delivered to the Storage Box]
[The Ascension Store has listed more products; they can be viewed through the Personal Terminal]
[The Seventh Doomsday Rule will be announced in thirty days]
This ti was rather routine. After it ended, no new functions were activated.
Guan Tong found a rock and sat in the sunlight. He sat there squinting for quite a while before silently opening his Personal Terminal in his mind.
[Na: Guan Tong]
[Nickna: Shadow]
[Title: Victor]
[Mind Power: 137 (137) (3240)]
[Ascension Coins: 687]
[Comprehensive Biotric Evaluation: Excellent]
The personal panel wasn't much different from before. The Mind Power upper limit had increased normally, and he had managed to accumulate a bit more reserve Mind Power over this half-month.
Because the shelter's consumption rate of Mind Power was slower than his own natural recovery rate, he hadn't used any reserve Mind Power at all during this rule period.
Opening the Storage Box, he found a newly added [Survival Chest · Silver Grade].
The previous two survival chests had been "Bronze Grade." This ti, for passing the rule, not only did the reward of Ascension Coins increase to 300, but the chest quality also rose a grade, giving Guan Tong a feeling of entering a new phase.
He opened the chest.
[Obtained Random Item: Greataxe Warrior Hoodie]
[Greataxe Warrior Hoodie]: A black hoodie printed with a greataxe warrior pattern. When equipped, it can consu Mind Power to summon a Greataxe Warrior to fight for you for five minutes. Its combat power is directly proportional to the amount of Mind Power consud, with a minimum consumption of 50 points and a maximum of 1000 points. Cooldown ti is 24 hours. This item is tradable.
"Another summoning-type item... Did I stumble into a summoner's nest?"
Guan Tong had previously obtained a [Corpse Whistle] that could summon living dead. Now he got a hoodie that summons a Greataxe Warrior. Adding in Shadow, who could barely count as one, he really had quite a few summons already.
He took out the newly acquired item. It was indeed a well-fitting black hoodie with a hood. The chest area was printed with a pattern of a fully armored warrior holding a large axe, looking incredibly imposing.
He equipped the hoodie, temporarily removing the [Multi-functional Anti-stab Vest] he had been wearing.
Then, Guan Tong consud 50 points of Mind Power to summon the Greataxe Warrior.
A black light flashed from the pattern on the chest of his hoodie, and a majestic, fully armored warrior holding a large axe appeared before him.
Guan Tong ordered the warrior to attack a tree not far away. The warrior imdiately strode over and, with one swing of its axe, horizontally cleaved the tree trunk in two. The sheer power was astonishing.
On a whim, Guan Tong took out the [Corpse Whistle], placed it in his mouth, and blew it twice.
Six living dead erged from the ground.
Then, under his command, the six living dead and the Greataxe Warrior attacked each other.
Guan Tong initially thought there might be so suspense, but to his surprise, in just the first clash, four of the six living dead were bisected at the waist by the axe. The remaining two pounced on the Greataxe Warrior, clawing and biting, but couldn't even break its defense. The next mont, they too were chopped apart by the axe.
"The gap is this big... And this is just summoned by consuming 50 points of Mind Power. If I spent 100, or even used reserve Mind Power, spending a huge amount in one go, I should be able to summon an extrely powerful Greataxe Warrior."
Guan Tong thought to himself that it was indeed a Silver Grade chest; the quality of the item it produced was much higher than the previous Bronze Grade ones.
However, this Greataxe Warrior also had its drawbacks; its movents were sowhat slow. He didn't know if summoning one with more Mind Power would improve that. At least for now, in terms of combat, the living dead were no match for it. But in terms of sprinting in one direction, one living dead could outrun two of these warriors.
After testing the Greataxe Warrior's combat power, Guan Tong was generally satisfied.
Relying on his abundant Mind Power and the ability to store more, he could accept having a few more summoning-type items.
For Ascendants with less Mind Power, they probably wouldn't like such items very much. Because even if the summon is powerful, being limited by Mind Power and unable to use it to its full potential would still be frustrating.
"Let's see what's new in the store."
Guan Tong opened the Ascension Store in the Terminal. Only one new item was listed, and its effect surprised him quite a bit.
[Communication Scroll]: Can be used for communication between friends. Communication ti is ten minutes.
[Price: 20 Ascension Coins]
[Purchase Limit: 10]
...
After reading about this new item, Guan Tong's first reaction was that it was useless to him.
The number of friends in his Personal Terminal was still zero to this day. Even if he bought it, there was no one to communicate with.
However, he felt this item would be very useful for so people. For example, if two people wanted to communicate secretly, but other channels were unsafe, using this [Communication Scroll] could ensure the communication wouldn't be monitored.
Or, if soone didn't have a phone or was in a place with no phone signal, they could also use it for long-distance communication.
What surprised Guan Tong even more was that this item was actually purchase-limited; each Ascendant could only buy 10.
Ten scrolls ant ten calls, each up to ten minutes, totaling one hundred minutes of call ti.
Guan Tong didn't know what the Fire Thief ant by listing this item. Did it want to give Ascendants another secret communication thod, or would this be useful in the Seventh Doomsday Rule?
"...Although it's purchase-limited, that doesn't guarantee there's no overall quantity limit."
Although Guan Tong himself had no friends, worried about the awkward situation of needing it soday but finding it sold out, he imdiately spent 200 Ascension Coins to buy the full limit of 10. He'd just store them in the Storage Box for now, to be used whenever needed.
This really wasn't a waste, especially after witnessing how crazy the Ascendant market could be. He now felt spending a few hundred Ascension Coins was practically frugal.
"This interval period is one month. The seventh rule will be announced on November 1st..."
Guan Tong thought about it. If he had any plans for this month, there were roughly three.
First, continue to increase his Mind Power upper limit and keep trying to see if he could write on the fifth page of the [Wordless Book].
Second, maintain and develop his "Ascendant Ho" website, acquiring so necessary storage equipnt to put in the shelter.
Third, continue learning Shi Jingyi's "Mind Power Flow" course. He should be able to get started this month.
Moreover, after that previous phone call, Shi Jingyi told him he could call her directly if he had any questions. Guan Tong didn't plan to be polite; he would ask whenever he didn't understand sothing. Mastering more power quickly was very important to him.
In return, if Shi Jingyi ever needed help with anything later, he would naturally lend a hand.
He thought his plans were perfect. However, that very noon, a sudden incident completely disrupted his arrangents.
...
"The country is going into a warti state?"
At noon, Guan Tong sat in front of his computer, watching the live broadcast of the press conference being held, feeling slightly startled.
This live press conference was convened by the authorities, and the person delivering the speech was also a high-ranking official.
The main content was announcing that ten days after Beixing Country completed its preliminary preparations, which would be October 10th, society would formally enter a state of warti managent.
The high-ranking official explained in detail why this was being done, citing nurous data points. Most of this data supported one argunt: the man-made disasters derived from the rules were no less harmful than the damage caused by the rules themselves.
So videos were also shown, depicting the chaos caused by destroyers in so cities. They deliberately sabotaged gathering points, damaged transport vehicles, and even set fire to self-service supply point warehouses.
The high-ranking official stated gravely that such a situation could not be allowed to continue. After entering the warti managent state, all survival supplies would be uniformly planned and distributed per capita. City residents must be registered and incorporated into the managent system.
Not only would people living in gathering points need to register, but also so urban drifters and holess people must register; concealnt would not be allowed. Afterward, cities would conduct 24-hour uninterrupted drone patrols for city-wide inspections. Anyone found deliberately avoiding registration would face severe penalties.
Furthermore, as the first batch of shelters in major cities were completed, registered personnel would be assigned to move in according to the list order. Those refusing to move into shelters would need to provide a reasonable explanation; otherwise, it would not be permitted.
At that ti, people living in cities would also not be allowed to drive out of the city casually unless they had a legitimate reason. Resources like gasoline and electricity would be used as needed and not wasted arbitrarily.
Finally, the high-ranking official summarized: The purpose of all this was to enable more citizens to survive in this catastrophic disaster brought by the Fire Thief. For this, so sacrifices in other aspects had to be made.
After watching the entire live broadcast, Guan Tong was montarily lost in thought.
Without a doubt, all his original plans had been disrupted.
What concerned him most wasn't that after entering the warti managent state, all kinds of supplies would be strictly controlled and distributed per capita.
What concerned him most was the official requirent for all city residents to register. This ant that after October 10th, continuing to live as a drifter like he did now would beco a violation. Once discovered by drones, he would be imdiately pursued and held accountable.
This sudden change left Guan Tong montarily at a loss.
He was thinking, what should he do?
Register as the authorities said, then be assigned to so collective shelter according to the allocation?
Guan Tong frowned. That was absolutely not what he wanted to do. The reason he didn't go to an academy in the first place was because, in this era of doomsday rules, he didn't want to live a reginted, rule-following life bound by restrictions.
Now, if he had to stay in a collective shelter, wouldn't that be even more painful than being in an academy? It was completely unacceptable.
Unless he revealed his identity to the authorities. If they knew he was Shadow, they would probably give him a certain degree of preferential treatnt, not having to live in a collective shelter like ordinary people... But at the sa ti, he would definitely still be subject to so arrangents or assigned so tasks.
If he didn't want to accept others' arrangents, he had to formulate and execute an alternative plan within this brief ten-day window.
Otherwise, once those ten days passed, the authorities were prepared, and the warti state was officially declared, it would be troubleso to try to do anything then.
"So... what should I do?" Guan Tong thought. "Staying in the city ans I must register, otherwise it's impossible to avoid the 24-hour city-wide drone patrols forever... Then, leave the big city?"
It was already clear from the official live press conference that only cities would strictly enforce warti state managent. As for those remote mountain villages and wilderness areas, even if they wanted to enforce it, they couldn't do so effectively.
So, should he go to those places?
Guan Tong had his portable shelter. Even if he left the city for the wilderness, he wasn't afraid. It was just that this happened so suddenly; he wasn't prepared. If he left, he didn't know where to go for the ti being.
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