Liu Yuqiang gazed at the distant mountains and wilderness, his heart filled with lancholy.
Today marked exactly one month since he left the capital city of Yong'an.
Because Big Sister could obtain information through internal channels, he had learned about the impending warti managent long before the official live-stread press conference.
After Big Sister delivered the news, she ordered all mbers of the Qingi Society to evacuate the cities and head to the secret base outside the city that she had established.
Although this was Big Sister's command, Liu Yuqiang knew that even if she hadn't forced it, he wouldn't have stayed inside the city to live in a shelter.
However, choosing to co outside the city ant abandoning all the accumulation of his past life. The vast majority of his surviving employees chose to stay behind, moving into or waiting to move into shelters. Only a few absolutely trusted subordinates ca here with him.
This "Qingi Base" was a place Big Sister had ntioned later during that Qingi gathering.
It was a base built inside a mountain, covering a vast area with comprehensive facilities.
Liu Yuqiang suspected this place might have originally been so kind of "doomsday command post" prepared for nuclear war, but for so reason, it had been taken over by Big Sister and underwent extensive renovations.
After the renovations, many functional areas were added, such as the Ascendant Prison. In the early stages of the rule releases, all Ascendants captured from various cities were imprisoned inside.
As for Liu Yuqiang and the other Qingi Society mbers, after arriving at the base, each was assigned work and a position based on their expertise.
Liu Yuqiang was assigned to be the head of the logistics managent departnt. His daily work involved coordinating and distributing various supplies. In return, he regularly received Ascension Coins and so items as "wages."
This kind of life wasn't what Liu Yuqiang had hoped for, nor was it what most Qingi Society mbers had hoped for. But once they boarded this ship, they had no choice.
Moreover, compared to Big Sister's need for them, they needed Big Sister's resources to survive even more. Because anyone with eyes could see that the Fire Thief's rules had always favored the young and strong.
For people like them, with an average age over fifty, if they didn't band together and use Big Sister's influence to extract resources from other Ascendants, they would inevitably be eliminated by the Fire Thief one by one.
This was sothing they absolutely refused to accept.
(Departnt Head.)
At that mont, a subordinate approached, reporting to him via text on a tablet.
(The collection operation is about to begin. The higher-ups are requesting the list of needed supplies.)
Liu Yuqiang nodded and transmitted the list to the subordinate.
The Qingi Base had a large population, and the daily consumption of supplies was enormous.
After the national warti managent was implented, all factories across the country capable of producing supplies were taken over by the authorities. Combined with the need for docunts to enter or leave cities, transporting supplies outside the city beca extrely difficult.
For this reason, Big Sister had previously instructed him to regularly compile statistics and create a list of supplies that were prone to shortages. She would then send people to "collect" them.
Liu Yuqiang understood very well that "collect" ant raiding the camps of other wilderness groups. Even if each haul wasn't large, every little bit helped.
The subordinate who received the list quickly handed it over to a short-haired woman.
That short-haired woman entered a room.
Inside the room were five people, all wearing matching uniforms printed with a black Qingi pattern.
One was sitting on a sofa watching TV, one was in a corner wearing headphones listening to music, one was fiddling with building blocks, one was playing with a curved knife, and there was a young girl sitting in a daze.
As soon as the short-haired woman entered, all five looked over.
The woman used a device to convert text to speech: "A mission has arrived. This is your first mission since forming a team."
"..."
The five stood up one after another and approached.
The woman took out a supply list: "The mission content is simple. Search the areas marked A1 to A9 on the map for the supplies listed here. Once found, you don't need to bring them back. Just eliminate any threats, then send the coordinates back to the base. The base will dispatch logistics personnel to retrieve them."
The young man wearing headphones typed a line on his phone and held it up for the short-haired woman to see: (What does 'eliminate threats' an?)
The electronic voice replied without inflection: "Exactly what it says."
Gu Fei grabbed the list directly, expressing his acceptance of the mission in a straightforward manner.
The others didn't object either, heading towards the door one after another.
When it was the girl's turn at the end, the short-haired woman deliberately patted the girl's shoulder and said via the electronic voice: "You don't need to act when encountering threatening targets. You just need to assist your teammates by letting them know the exact number and location of the enemies."
The girl nodded slightly, her face sowhat pale.
The short-haired woman paused, then added: "After this rule ends, I will apply to the Commander to let you see your mother."
Upon hearing this, a glimr of light finally appeared in Chen Na's eyes.
...
Boom!
With a series of Type 2 single-headed rounds, Guan Tong took down another Sound Hunter.
[Ascension Coins obtained: 350]
Still no Communication Scroll drop...
Seeing the prompt, Guan Tong felt disappointed.
Up to now, he had killed over five Sound Hunters.
However, only the first and fourth kills dropped scrolls. The first dropped 3, and the fourth only dropped 1.
This showed that the drop rate for this item was truly low. The first ti was just good luck.
But disappointnt aside, in terms of whether it was worth it, it definitely was.
He sold the 4th Communication Scroll for 25,000, bringing his total Ascension Coins to nearly 60,000! As a forr Lone Wolf, this was a number he wouldn't have dared to imagine before.
However, different from before, besides him, other people had also started selling Communication Scrolls on the market.
This wasn't surprising.
Not to ntion various organizations, at the very least, the official departnts of several countries with strong national power had the capability to eliminate Sound Hunters. The reason they couldn't do it at first was simply because they hadn't figured out the Sound Hunter's behavioral logic.
Once they understood it, eliminating it wouldn't be difficult for the authorities, at most costing so resources.
However, compared to the vast blue ocean market, the number of Communication Scrolls currently in circulation was still insufficient, still in a state of supply falling short of demand.
After all, one scroll only allowed 10 minutes of communication. Ten scrolls were just over an hour. For so special personnel, even 100 of these wouldn't be too many.
In this state of supply falling short of demand, even though others had started producing them, due to the low drop rate, each could still sell for over 20,000.
Guan Tong continued farming monsters.
After several optimizations, he no longer needed to spend a large amount of Mind Power to summon the Greataxe Warrior. He just used living dead to attract the Sound Hunters, then used the Silver Hunt's Type 2 single-headed rounds. About twenty rounds could eliminate one.
If using Type 3 rounds, it would still take about ten or more. This was because the Sound Hunter's volu was too small, and the large explosion area's power couldn't fully act on it, resulting in diminished effectiveness.
This consumption was actually not low, but because Guan Tong had previously used the Holy Grail buff to stockpile many bullets, they were now coming in handy.
At this mont, he definitely wouldn't feel heartache over the bullets, because bullets could be slowly regenerated later using Mind Power, but this kind of opportunity to farm monsters for coins wasn't common.
After that, he kept farming until evening, eliminating another ten Sound Hunters, but in total only dropped 2 Communication Scrolls, which made him quite frustrated.
Once it got dark, he stopped farming, returned to the wooden cabin, and took stock of his remaining bullets.
Currently, the Silver Hunt's Type 2 rounds were down to only 10, which he had deliberately kept. There were about 200 Type 3 rounds left. Types 1, 4, and 5 hadn't been used much because they were simply useless.
Buckshot, smoke grenades, and electromagnetic pulses were all ineffective against Sound Hunters. The only ones that could cause effective damage were Type 2 single-headed rounds and Type 3 high-explosive rounds.
Guan Tong thought to himself, with 200 Type 3 rounds, if I aim well, I can still eliminate over a dozen Sound Hunters. After that, I'll have to start generating bullets using Mind Power.
Originally, he had planned to use a large amount of reserve Mind Power to farm, but the extrely low drop rate of subsequent Communication Scrolls made him abandon this plan.
If they dropped every ti, using reserve Mind Power would be very worthwhile. But if it took eliminating several on average to drop one scroll, then it wasn't worth it anymore.
Because the reason he had amassed a large reserve of Mind Power was to use it as a lifesaver in ergencies when facing multiple enemies. If he couldn't exchange it for several tis the high returns, he definitely wouldn't casually use this trump card.
Taking advantage of the still strong prices, Guan Tong sold the 2 newly dropped scrolls on the market again, each for 28,000, earning another 56,000.
This brought his total Ascension Coins to 120,637, over 120,000. Compared to before the rule started, this could completely be considered an overnight fortune.
Thinking back to how he had struggled with the [Wordless Book] to get just 10 coins, Guan Tong found it sowhat amusing... though it was also related to his Mind Power being too low back then.
If he did that now, the number of Binding Coins obtained would definitely be much higher—but he probably wouldn't do it again.
Guan Tong was very clear that now, every page of the [Wordless Book] was crucial. When he could finally write on the fifth page in the future, he would definitely write sothing that could bring him actual improvent.
Currently, Shadow on the first page, Silver Hunt on the second page, reserve Mind Power on the third page, the all-purpose shelter on the fourth page... each played an irreplaceable role in his growth. Without any one of them, he wouldn't have his current strength.
So when it ca to the fifth page, he would need to deliberate deeply and materialize an item or ability that could continuously enhance him.
Opening the Ascendant Ho website, he saw many people discussing the Communication Scrolls sold on the market, and also many hoping that those who could eliminate them would share their secrets.
Guan Tong actually didn't think there was any secret. Summarized in one sentence: Attack the Sound Hunter at the sa ti it launches its attack.
But to eliminate it, two conditions needed to be t.
First, soone had to make a sound to attract the Sound Hunter. Guan Tong could summon living dead to make sounds as substitutes for humans to attract them, but most other Ascendants probably didn't have such items.
This ant that if they wanted to try attacking an Ascendant, they needed soone else to make a sound. But who would be willing to risk their life doing such a thing just so you could test your attack?
Second, the attack power needed to be sufficient.
The Sound Hunter wasn't large in size, but its defense was astonishingly high. If the attack intensity wasn't high enough, it couldn't be killed. If only injured, it would quickly turn transparent and teleport away, wasting the previous attack.
Therefore, eting these two conditions wasn't easy. The reason Guan Tong hadn't made it public imdiately was due to so concerns. Once public, there would definitely be people forcing others to make sounds to attract Sound Hunters for them to attempt elimination.
He knew that groups or organizations were probably already starting to do this, but having fewer would still be better.
At that mont, he saw soone had posted a thread in the "Commissions" section with quite a few replies.
《Can anyone get the "anti-speech masks" issued by the shelters? I'm willing to buy a batch, can exchange with Ascension Coins or supplies.》
The poster said he was the leader of a wilderness camp. Hearing that the shelters were issuing officially designed and produced "anti-speech masks," he wanted to get a batch for the people in his camp.
"These masks are indeed good. I'm from a shelter. Once you put it on, you can't speak even if you want to. Your tongue gets fixed by what seems like a small silicone splint."
"These masks are only given out for free to people in shelters and city gathering points? Not to those outside the city?"
"Definitely prioritized for those inside the city. The numbers of people in gathering points and shelters are registered for easier distribution. People outside the city aren't registered. Even if they wanted to distribute them, they couldn't determine the quantity..."
"Isn't this equivalent to official profiteering? If soone smuggled a batch outside the city, they could probably make a killing!"
"Those with guts can try, but if caught, they probably won't get off easy."
"How do you smuggle them? People in shelters can't get out. You can only buy from people in gathering points. But transporting them out of the city is troubleso."
"I'd say the content you're discussing is quite dangerous. Aren't you afraid of the authorities tracking you through the website and arresting you?"
"Not afraid! We believe in Administrator's website security!"
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