"Brother Guan!"
Hearing Guan Tong's voice, Chen Na exclaid softly, never expecting it would be him calling.
Guan Tong asked, "Xiao Na, I saw your car at the developnt zone parking lot. Didn't you go to Yong'an? By the way, how were your mom's hospital checkup results?"
"I, we, Mom she—"
Chen Na wanted to say they hadn't gone to the capital, wanted to say Mom's checkup results were very bad, but the words reached her lips, and she rembered the short-haired sister's matter.
The latter had specifically instructed her when they first t and said goodbye not to ntion anything about them, or about the assessnt, to other people.
If she found out the information had been leaked, the previous invitation would be canceled.
Chen Na couldn't accept cancellation, because this was the only lifeline she had to save her mom.
"Mom is fine... We went to the capital, we went by bullet train... That big car is just abandoned." Chen Na said in a low voice.
"Is that so."
"Brother Guan, I, I have things to do here, so I'll hang up first."
"Okay."
Quickly pressing end call, Chen Na's little face flushed red. Even though it was just over the phone, lying still made her very flustered.
"Sorry Brother Guan..." she whispered, looking at her phone, "I didn't an to lie to you, I have to get the dicine item to cure Mom..."
On the other side, at the parking lot, Guan Tong put away his phone, feeling Chen Na's tone on the call was sowhat strange. And she seed very eager to hang up, only saying two or three sentences total before ending the call.
But since she said they went to Yong'an by bullet train, Guan Tong didn't think much more about it, telling the parking lot staff, "The owner of this car has already left Yunhua, the car is probably abandoned."
"Abandoned? Then I'll have soone take it away later."
Guan Tong returned to his own car, continuing toward his destination.
Along the way, he saw the villages by the roadside were still in their collapsed state after the Snow Disaster. It seed no one had done any cleanup in the months since.
Probably due to various factors like insufficient manpower, the authorities were already giving their all just to ensure urban material supply, shelter construction, public order maintenance, etc., with no spare capacity to manage villages outside the cities.
This resulted in even villages near cities now being almost devoid of human presence, completely silent and dead.
However, the original corpses were all gone, probably having "returned from death" during the living dead rule and run off to attack the cities.
There were quite a few cars on the road, but most were going the opposite direction from Guan Tong. Those car owners were likely people evacuated outside the city for refuge during the Blood Plague Virus rule, with so survivors starting to return to the city after the rule ended.
Continuing onward, around past ten at night, Guan Tong reached his destination, Mingdao Mountain.
Sa as last ti he ca, this place was still desolate. The only trace of human life was the little camp he himself had built earlier.
That's right, his little camp was actually still there, just the surrounding wooden stakes had collapsed. This kind of simple camp couldn't last more than ten days without maintenance.
With darkness having fallen, Guan Tong didn't go up the mountain, spending the night cramped in his car.
The next day after dawn, he drove the car into the woods at the mountain's base, then hiked up Mingdao Mountain on foot.
During the Snow Disaster rule, he had lived here for quite a while, but because the mountain was sealed by snow, he had never gone up, which was sowhat regrettable.
After ascending this ti, he found the top was pretty much as he expected. Being undeveloped, it was overgrown with weeds, scattered rocks, and so crooked, haphazardly growing trees.
Before the Doomsday Rules era, occasional hikers would co here to climb, but after entering the rules era, no one had that kind of leisure anymore.
Guan Tong walked around the mountain for a while, looking for a suitable spot to place the shelter. Before long, he found a flat area with good sunlight and decided to place it there.
But before placent, so preparation was needed.
Black light flashed across the pattern on Guan Tong's hoodie, and the Greataxe Warrior appeared.
Then he took out the [Corpse Whistle], blowing it continuously. So living dead erged from underground.
"Greataxe Warrior, chop down those few trees. Living dead, clear away these weeds, scattered rocks, and such. Then move the felled trees away."
After giving his summons their orders, Guan Tong sat to the side, leisurely watching them work.
This made him feel for the first ti that having many summons had its benefits. At least he wouldn't have to do various chores and physical labor himself anymore.
If he had these conditions back during the Snow Disaster rule, he wouldn't have needed to get up every day and laboriously clear the path himself for half a day. He could have just sat in the camp and let the summons do it.
Soon, the Greataxe Warrior chopped down the few obstructive trees by their roots, and the living dead transported away all the weeds, scattered rocks, and fallen trees, clearing out a clean empty area.
Guan Tong then took out the [Wordless Book]. Since summoning the Greataxe Warrior and living dead had consud quite a bit of Mind Power, he could only use so reserve Mind Power to materialize the extrely costly shelter.
Once the wooden cabin was in place, as soon as Guan Tong turned the doorknob, Coal Ball leaped out with a whoosh.
"ow!"
It jumped onto Guan Tong's shoulder, lying down while sowhat warily looking around. It seed the change in environnt made it montarily uncomfortable.
Guan Tong patted its little head, "You and I will be living on this mountain for now. Get familiar with this new ho."
Standing at the doorway, Guan Tong looked inside. Because he had packed too many supplies inside before leaving, there was almost no floor space left.
He had a few living dead move out a portion first. It was already October, the weather no longer hot, so so supplies could be left outdoors without issue.
Even after moving out eight or nine boxes, there was still plenty inside. Guan Tong sighed, "I wonder how high my Mind Power upper limit needs to be before my shelter can expand."
His current goal was to have at least two rooms and a living room. One room for living, one for storage to hold things. Unlike now, with only one room, things got ssy when piled up too much.
After everything was tidied up, Guan Tong went to the bathroom for a shower, then used a hairdryer to dry his hair, before sitting at the table and opening his laptop.
Being able to use water and electricity on this desolate mountain without relying on machines was undoubtedly what satisfied him most. Compared to that, the small space wasn't such a big deal.
Guan Tong first checked the academy's online courses. No updates yet.
During the Blood Plague rule, the academy naturally suspended classes too, with instructors and students isolating in their respective dormitories.
There were definitely quite a few infected individuals, but compared to the outside situation, it should be much better.
Just as Xu Xiaotian said on the phone, the authorities placed great importance on the academy. Those students received professional-grade protective gear and oxygen masks imdiately after the rule was announced, greatly reducing infection probability.
This was understandable. After all, those who could enter the academy were all Ascendants with at least 80 points of Mind Power upper limit. To the authorities, these were being cultivated as core forces, definitely not to be lost.
Then Guan Tong logged into his "Ascendant Ho" website. As soon as he opened the backend, he was astonished.
"So many people registered accounts?"
Previously, besides his own administrator account, the only registered user was "Mask." Yet after just two or three days of not checking, the website's registered accounts had now exceeded eight hundred, approaching the one thousand milestone.
He thought soone must have done so promotion, otherwise it wouldn't have grown this fast.
Returning to the website hopage, he opened the intelligence section.
The Holy Grail post he made already had over two hundred replies.
"Infinite Mind Power? Is the information reliable?!"
"Holy crap! No wonder Shadow was so fierce back then, slaughtering hundreds of participants like pigs. Turns out he had infinite Mind Power buff!"
"Actually, many participants discussed this before. Everyone thought Shadow was just one person, couldn't possibly have that much Mind Power to keep using items and abilities. Now it seems, it was because of this Holy Grail's buff."
"Feels like you need suitable abilities or items. Even if I had infinite Mind Power, I couldn't utilize it effectively."
"Sa as above
1. My item is actually pretty powerful, but it has a cooldown. Even with infinite Mind Power, if the cooldown isn't ready, I can't use it! Once surrounded, can only wait to die."
"Curious where the Administrator's information source is from? Does the Administrator know Shadow?"
"Administrator, Administrator, could it be that you are Shadow? If so, please allow
to express my worship and cling to your thigh!"
Guan Tong read the users' replies. Most found his claim credible, but were curious about his information source.
Guan Tong wouldn't expose himself by admitting he was Shadow. That would ruin the mystique. Even if soone suspected he was, as long as he didn't admit it, they couldn't be sure.
Also, with more users, they had started posting on the website themselves.
The intelligence section now had over twenty posts. Guan Tong skimd through them. Most were irrelevant public information, none he wanted to "feature."
Additionally, in the commission and transaction sections, although there were posts, only a few, and all were skeptical. They thought it unsafe for Ascendants to conduct commissions or transactions on this unreliable small website.
Guan Tong wasn't surprised by this, but he believed with ti's verification, everyone would soon discover his website's security was indeed guaranteed.
Finally, the "casual talk" section. Guan Tong clicked in and found this section had the most posts, over one hundred already.
What puzzled him was that many posts were discussing network security technology-related content.
He opened so to look and finally understood what was going on.
Turns out, over the past two days, a bunch of hackers had tried cracking the website, tracking his administrator IP address location. Naturally, they all failed.
Many of these hackers were quite famous in their circles, top-tier technically. Even they couldn't breach it, which indirectly verified this website's high security performance, thus attracting so users.
And these hackers themselves, feeling this website was very secure, actually treated it as a technical discussion area, discussing various related knowledge.
Guan Tong even saw that "Mask" who sent him the website optimization package dropping all pretense, posting about his attempts using cracking tools and Trojan internal infiltration, and how both processes failed.
Guan Tong had known earlier this "Mask" offering unsolicited help had ulterior motives, but based on the shelter network's characteristics, he didn't care much. Now it seed, it likely started with this guy, him alone bringing a bunch of hackers, who then attracted so ordinary users.
But since this guy both worked overti making the optimization package and indirectly helped promote the website, Guan Tong's evaluation of Mask beca: although the original intention was bad, the execution was good.
However, one post then caught his attention.
The post title was: "Questions Regarding Transactions Within the Website"
After Guan Tong clicked in, the poster expressed confusion in the main text.
"Although the website was just created, with various functions still quite rudintary, its security does indeed seem good for now.
But this security can only guarantee online safety. If users want to conduct transactions, they will inevitably involve offline aspects. How will user safety be guaranteed then? Moreover, after the 10th, the country enters warti state, urban Ascendants will have restricted movent. How can transactions be ensured to proceed smoothly?"
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