It really was teleportation-style movent...
At noon, Guan Tong saw the official bulletin and confird that his earlier suspicion was correct.
Sound Hunters are not rely fast, they teleport instantly to the sound-maker, complete the kill, and then imdiately teleport away.
And it can now be confird that Sound Hunters only hunt the individuals who made the sound; even if others are standing right next to that person, they will not be affected.
Whether a Sound Hunter would still attack if two people’s necks were pressed together is unknown; so far no one has risked testing that.
Having confird the Sound Hunter’s movent and attack thod, Guan Tong now had experintal ideas.
Of course he would not make any noise himself; instead he planned to summon living dead and have them make sounds.
If living dead count as humans under this rule, then Guan Tong would have unlimited attempts.
But to be safe, before the experint Guan Tong first summoned a thick layer of Shadow Armor that fit tightly against his skin to wrap his body.
Then he went out into the courtyard and blew the Corpse Whistle, summoning three living dead.
The living dead summoned by the Corpse Whistle do not roar unless Guan Tong issues an order; they’re not much different from robots in that regard.
Once everything was ready, Guan Tong ordered one of the living dead to make a noise.
“Roar!!!”
He stood to one side, watching that living dead.
About five seconds later, with no warning, the living dead’s neck was pierced and it died.
Guan Tong’s eyes lit up with joy, it worked.
Under this rule, the living dead he summoned were indeed classified as human.
That ant he could run multiple trials to find a way to kill the Sound Hunters.
After a mont of thought, Guan Tong had the Shadow cover another living dead’s neck and materialize into a physical form.
Then he made that living dead howl.
A few seconds later, the living dead’s carotid artery and the Shadow “neck brace” that covered it were pierced together.
What incredible penetration...
Guan Tong looked at the round hole in the materialized shadow and realized that a piece of Shadow Armor that thick could not completely stop a Sound Hunter’s attack.
What about making it even thicker?
Guan Tong looked at the last living dead he had summoned. This ti he used a lot of Mind Power, transforming the Shadow into a huge, half-ter-wide “collar” around the living dead’s neck.
After the living dead roared, a few seconds later the Sound Hunter’s attack arrived again.
But this ti it was different from the previous two; before it had been a single fatal strike, but now the Sound Hunter seed to have struck twice!
Guan Tong watched closely and confird it was indeed two strikes.
The first pierced into the Shadow collar about 80 centiters, and only the second strike finally pierced through and killed the living dead.
That made him realize at once that the Sound Hunter’s attack was not entirely capable of ignoring defenses; if the barrier was strong and deep enough, it could provide a asure of protection.
If that was the case, then under this rule quite a few Ascendants who failed the challenge might survive, especially those backed by organized groups.
Those people usually have defensive items, and if they’re close-fitting and highly efficient, they might be able to withstand a Sound Hunter’s strike.
But simply blocking the attack wasn’t enough; they’d need a way to counterkill as well.
Guan Tong thought for a mont, then summoned three living dead again.
He chose one and had the Shadow transform closely into a thick collar covered in spikes around the living dead’s neck.
That way, a Sound Hunter attacking the living dead could not avoid those spikes.
At the sa ti, Guan Tong didn’t stand idly by this ti. He used 200 points of reserve Mind Power to summon a Greataxe Warrior to stand beside the living dead, while he himself raised the Silver Hunt, preparing a multi-angle saturation attack on the Sound Hunter.
Howl.
At Guan Tong’s ntal command, the living dead gave its roar.
Five seconds later the Sound Hunter’s attack arrived. The instant the Shadow collar was struck, Guan Tong noticed the spikes on the collar had pierced into sothing and a black, viscous fluid oozed out.
Was that the Sound Hunter’s blood?
Without hesitation, Guan Tong ordered the Greataxe Warrior to attack, and squeezed the trigger himself, unleashing a dozen or so Type 3 high-explosive rounds without holding back.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom!
With the Greataxe Warrior swinging his axe, the explosions engulfed the living dead entirely.
Was it a success?
Guan Tong wasn’t sure, because he didn’t hear any agonized screams.
He didn’t wait for the smoke to clear; he imdiately guided the Shadow into the cloud to provide visual information.
Beside the living dead that had been blasted to pieces lay a strange black creature on its back.
Seeing that creature, Guan Tong’s heart leapt with joy.
It had to be a Sound Hunter!
The creature was jet black all over, looked like a short snake but had no eyes, and appeared extrely hideous. Its offensive organ seed to be a long stinger protruding from its mouth; that had been cut by the Greataxe Warrior, leaving a piece on the ground.
Guan Tong also noticed that despite suffering such heavy attacks, the monster hadn’t died; it was still slowly writhing on the ground, its body gradually turning transparent.
Not good!
Guan Tong realized that once the Sound Hunter beca fully transparent, it would probably teleport away. He imdiately pulled the trigger again, switching to Type 2 single-headed rounds that were more effective against single targets, and fired another dozen or so.
After the barrage of explosions, the voice of the Fire Thief sounded in Guan Tong’s mind.
[You have killed a Sound Hunter]
[You received Ascension Coins: 350]
[You received Communication Scrolls: 3]
Great!
The mont the Fire Thief’s voice played, Guan Tong knew the Sound Hunter was truly dead.
He was happy, but remained careful not to make a sound, quietly savoring the joy.
The Ascension Coins reward was secondary. More important was that the Tradeable Communication Scrolls that could drop had given three at once—a very lucky outco.
Once the smoke cleared, Guan Tong walked over and examined the Sound Hunter’s corpse.
It clearly wasn’t a native Tianshui Star creature. Its slender body contained a spear almost as long as its torso, several dozen centiters in length. Its attack thod seed to be to project that spear out, pierce the sound-maker’s carotid, and then retract it back into its body.
How did this creature teleport?
Guan Tong wondered curiously whether it was a biological trait or sothing the Fire Thief had engineered.
And the appearance of this seemingly non-native creature—did it prove that the Fire Thief was an alien? Like the earlier Matriarch Converters, was the Fire Thief dispersing alien creatures across Tianshui Star under different rules?
None of these questions had answers right now. Guan Tong didn’t dwell; his eyes were filled with eager anticipation.
Using living dead as bait, and then combining Shadow, Greataxe Warrior, and Silver Hunt in combat, their combined strength was sufficient to destroy Sound Hunters.
That imdiately gave Guan Tong a “farming” plan.
The goal was naturally to obtain reward Ascension Coins and to sell Communication Scrolls for more Ascension Coins.
Because even before the Ascendant Challenge Tournant, Guan Tong had found that the Ascension Coins from rules were no longer enough. Spending in the Ascension Store was fine, but his coins in the terminal market were only pocket change compared to large organizations.
Any moderately effective item was being hoarded and driven to high prices by those organizations, to the point that an individual Ascendant couldn’t afford them.
Especially now that the warti state had been declared: according to the publicly posted “shelter occupancy terms,” anyone moving into a shelter would have their Ascension Coins and items subject to unified allocation and distribution.
That gave the authorities terrifying purchasing power. Imagine billions moving into shelters; the amount of Ascension Coins the governnt could mobilize would reach the hundreds of billions or even trillions.
Since there was an opportunity now, Guan Tong decided to use this rule to obtain more Ascension Coins.
Before starting, he pulled up his personal panel and opened the terminal market.
Just as he expected, there were currently no Communication Scrolls on the market. Even though his listing had been posted for several hours, no one else had listed one—or perhaps soone had acquired them and decided to keep them rather than sell.
That ant he could be the first to list and take the risk.
Guan Tong opened the listing interface and put up one Tradeable Communication Scroll, then considered the price.
What would be appropriate?
He couldn’t sell it too cheap. This item might be useless for most ordinary people, but for high-security-demand high-ups, powerful figures, or spies and other covert operators, it would be invaluable.
Those buyers all have one trait in common: they control resources, or they receive investnt—aning they have a lot of coins.
...He wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to take from those who had so many Ascension Coins.
Guan Tong thought and entered a 3, then three zeros.
He intended to test the waters at 3,000.
He barely finished listing when a notification popped up.
[The item you listed has been sold]
“...”
Guan Tong hadn’t expected it to sell so fast; his pricing had been conservative.
He listed another scroll, this ti tripling the price to 9,000 Ascension Coins.
Three seconds later the prompt ca again.
[The item you listed has been sold]
Nine thousand sold just as quickly?
Had he underestimated how high the demand for private communications was?
He had one last scroll left. After thinking for a long ti, he priced it at 20,000 Ascension Coins.
That price felt absurd to him, but if it sold quickly that would an a huge niche market—and he might farm it hard.
Sure enough, the listing didn’t sell as fast this ti; probably buyers were evaluating value.
After seven or eight seconds, just as Guan Tong thought this one might linger a while, another notification arrived.
[The item you listed has been sold]
“!”
Twenty thousand Ascension Coins, sold in less than ten seconds?
Guan Tong was first surprised, then ecstatic, but his brow tightened slightly.
This was, on the surface, great—he would make a tidy profit as expected.
But when he realized the buyer hadn’t used their own coins but coins collected from many people, he felt an inexplicable displeasure.
The purchaser was almost certainly buying these scrolls for powerful people to use in secret communication, not to help ordinary people. As an ordinary person himself, Guan Tong felt a touch of sympathetic resentnt.
...Forget it.
He quickly reconciled himself. After all, Ascension Coins in his hands could achieve value no less than those held by organizations. They might even go much further.
Before closing the panel he glanced at his Ascension Coin balance: currently 32,487.
What had been 487 before was now just pocket change.
Thirty-so thousand Ascension Coins could buy so things even in the frenzied terminal market, but this wasn't the ti to splurge. He needed to farm more quickly.
Guan Tong had a feeling this blue-ocean opportunity wouldn’t belong to him for long. It wouldn’t be long before the officials discovered mass thods for killing Sound Hunters; once supply increased in the market, selling Communication Scrolls for tens of thousands would no longer be so easy.
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