After reading this post, Guan Tong was deeply shocked inside.
He had actually heard about it from the very beginning, even experienced it personally—what was the purpose behind the mastermind manipulating Shen Zuohu's gang in Yunhua City to kidnap high Mind Power individuals? It was most likely to turn these people into the "providers" ntioned in the post.
What shocked him was that there would actually be countries operating on a national scale to do such things—and not even small countries.
The Tulip Federation, as a major power ford after the advent of the Doomsday Rules by multiple small nations that collapsed under the first rule, actually possesses considerable strength. Its combined population and land area are not inferior to the Suroma Empire.
Could it be that because this federal nation was newly established and public sentint was unstable, it promoted violence as supre, creating such a twisted system where the entire population beca a "flock" of providers?
"If that's the case, under the custom challenges from nurous providers, the number of first places the 'alpha wolf' of the Tulip Federation could seize is probably astonishing. However, with the Upper Limit restriction, even getting the most first places ultimately cannot exceed 500 points..."
But Guan Tong found it very strange. By doing this, was the Tulip Federation really betting everything on that so-called alpha wolf? Were they not afraid that guy might die in so rule or be killed by soone else?
Or would they then select a new alpha wolf from the "pack"? How would they compensate for the massive wasted resources? The Mind Power lost by the entire population could never be recovered!
Guan Tong had already seen soone post a similar comnt in the thread.
"Isn't the Tulip Federation too twisted? The entire population feeding the pack and the alpha wolf? Why hasn't there been an uprising?"
"That region was already particularly chaotic, with warlords everywhere. It's not surprising that any kind of twisted thing erges."
"I have a thought: What if the person being provided for gets many first places, but suddenly dies? Will those first places be returned?"
"Soone has already posted about the situation you ntioned. After the person who got first place dies, the first place is inherited by the runner-up in order."
"This post has made
so angry. Let's pool resources. Is anyone willing to go kill that damn alpha wolf? I'll contribute 500 coins!"
"Save it, person above... He is, after all, the chosen alpha wolf. Could he be easily killed? He definitely has bodyguards around him, oh, it should be called protection by the pack."
"By the way, does our Beixing Country have a similar system?"
"Isn't there an official information channel in the shelter? You can just ask the authorities and find out."
"...Forget it. I feel it's safer to discuss it on this website."
Looking at these discussions, Guan Tong recalled his experiences in the industrial park and on Holy Grail Island.
He believed the two squads he encountered, led by the guy with the curved blade, were likely among the official teams.
However, unlike the Tulip Federation's grand and flamboyant propaganda, the Beixing Country authorities had never publicly announced the formation of an official Ascendant team. Although so speculated that the team led by "Dragon Soul," which placed third on Holy Grail Island, was an official team, there was no evidence to confirm it.
Another major power, the Suroma Empire, also hadn't publicly announced any special cultivation of individuals. However, a person in their country with the nickna "Lucifer" had gained a certain level of notoriety worldwide due to his erratic behavior.
Especially this ti, when he publicly posted the "Kill Count Challenge" he created online, it caused an uproar.
Watching so videos online, the Suroma Empire even had protests erupt over this. People demanded that the King and the Senate make a judgnt and use national power to execute Lucifer, because his challenge item clearly indicated he had committed serious cris.
But the Senate's response was: There is no direct evidence, so no judgnt can be made.
Indeed, although Lucifer said online that he created the killing challenge, no one could prove that challenge was created by him. The creator of each challenge was anonymous.
Unfortunately, this explanation was not accepted by the Ascendants of the Suroma Empire. Moreover, news spread that Lucifer had started killing people, triggering even larger-scale chaos.
Guan Tong wasn't particularly concerned about events abroad; he was more focused on the situation within Beixing Country.
In the floors below this post, many "suppliers" had provided information about challenge items.
Guan Tong noticed that there were also parts from within Beixing Country.
This made him perk up a bit.
Because the final paragraph written by the thread's original poster had touched sothing within him.
This provider system was absolutely inhumane. If you could convince others through reason to voluntarily give you resources, then perhaps others had no right to interfere.
But if you used violent thods, forcing others to cooperate through imprisonnt, this was a situation that required a heavy-handed strike.
At the end of the post, the original poster called for true powerhouses to step forward and disrupt this provider system.
Coincidentally, Guan Tong considered himself a powerhouse, and he also genuinely detested such things.
The one who caught Guan Tong's attention in the post was a user with the nickna "Ka Xiu," who left this comnt:
"Seeing this post, I want to request the Administrator and the experts to co to our rescue. There are over forty of us here. We originally fled the city together with our company's boss. Everyone was getting along fairly peacefully at first. But after the intelligence about the eighth rule ca out, the boss forced over twenty of us who hadn't set challenge items yet to set them based on his item.
We disagreed. He and his few lackeys beat us and threatened to kill us. We had no choice but to agree and collectively created similar rules.
The boss's item is a particularly fast bicycle, so the challenge items we created are all related to it. You can find them by searching for the keywords 'bicycle, hospital'."
After reading this, Guan Tong opened the challenge list on his panel and tried searching by keywords. Indeed, over a dozen similar challenge items popped up.
"Challenge: At the entrance of Heilu County Hospital in Ganlin City, ride a bicycle to move a distance of 500 ters without using any other items or abilities, based on speed."
"Challenge: At the entrance of Heilu County Hospital in Ganlin City, ride a bicycle to move a distance of 501 ters without using any other items or abilities, based on speed."
"Challenge: ..."
"Good grief, they're not even trying to hide it."
Looking at this series of highly similar challenge items, which were completely identical except for slight differences in distance, the implication of "personal customization" couldn't be more obvious.
There were also replies under this comnter's post:
"Wow, I searched. So many similar challenges. It really is a provider model!"
"Poster, if you can't handle it, just run away. This is too terrifying..."
"Aren't the authorities sending anyone to manage this?"
"It seems after warti managent, the authorities don't really handle matters outside the city much... To be precise, they simply can't manage them all."
"Damn, isn't there anyone powerful to carry out so righteous judgnt?"
Seeing this, and after reading the comnter's words, "I want to request the Administrator and the experts to co to our rescue," Guan Tong closed his computer and stood up.
He thought to himself: In that case, I'll make a trip there.
...
Heilu County, Ganlin City.
As a small county town in a remote area, the population was never large. After entering the era of the Doomsday Rules, the already sparse population completely dwindled, turning this place into a veritable ghost town.
After the Blood Plague rule, a group of forty to fifty people ca here and settled in the abandoned county hospital.
These people used to live in a gathering point in Ganlin City. The core figure was a man nad Gao Xinjian, the boss of a renovation company. The others were basically his company's employees or their relatives.
The reason the employees were willing to follow Gao Xinjian even in the era of the Doomsday Rules was because he had always treated his employees well before, paying generous salaries. Moreover, after the Doomsday Rules began, he kept encouraging everyone to persevere, and during the living dead rule, he even took the lead in eliminating a group of living dead.
This won him everyone's trust. So when he proposed leaving the city to live in the wilderness, most people in the group agreed.
After leaving Ganlin City, they drove to Heilu County. This was Gao Xinjian's hotown; he was very familiar with the area, so he chose to live here.
For the first few days, everyone was harmonious and happy. But as ti passed and supplies gradually dwindled, Gao Xinjian also slowly changed.
He beca increasingly domineering, prioritizing the distribution of supplies for himself and a few of his lackeys. When soone raised an objection, he would loudly rebuke them and even order his lackeys to shove or hit them.
The others had no way to deal with this. Although they were all Ascendants, they were no match for those few—the reason Gao Xinjian recruited those few as his lackeys was precisely because they had the highest combat power.
But they could still tolerate just so unfair distribution of supplies. However, once the intelligence about this rule was made public, Gao Xinjian demanded that the others create customized items for him and his few lackeys. This was sothing people couldn't accept.
After so many rules, who didn't know that Mind Power was the key to everything? If possible, no one was willing to lose even 1 point of their Upper Limit. Gao Xinjian's demand was simply too excessive.
Faced with everyone's protest, Gao Xinjian directly ordered his few powerful lackeys to take action, injuring several people. The others were frightened and couldn't fight back, so they had to agree and create challenge items according to Gao Xinjian's demands.
Gao Xinjian then used his bicycle item to successfully secure first place in multiple challenges. His few lackeys also each secured two first places.
The other thirty-plus people could only endure and wait for the cruel reality of Mind Power attenuation after the rule ended—this could no longer be changed, because each person could only create one challenge per rule period.
One of the young n among these people, while browsing the internet on his phone, saw the "Provider Accusation Thread" on Ascendant Ho.
Only then did the young man realize that similar problems weren't unique to their situation; they existed elsewhere too.
So he posted his own experience in the thread, pleading for soone to co and help rescue them. Because failing this rule only ant Mind Power attenuation; it wasn't fatal yet.
If a situation similar to the first rule occurred next ti, he had no doubt that Gao Xinjian, who had already torn up all pretense with everyone, would take their lives just to ensure his own survival!
A few hours after the young man posted, he picked up his phone to check.
Many people had replied to him, but not a single one said they would co to help.
So said the distance was too far and they couldn't make it; so said they had already helped by reporting to the authorities; others told them to find a way to save themselves... The young man shook his head with a bitter smile.
Suddenly, a hand appeared from above and took his phone.
The young man was startled. Looking up, he saw it was Gao Xinjian.
"Boss Gao..."
"Xiao Wang, what are you looking at so intently?"
"Nothing, nothing at all... Really..."
The young man's flustered expression, in the eyes of an old hand like Gao Xinjian, was like an open book, with every word clearly visible.
He said with a half-smile, "Is that so."
As he spoke, he glanced at the content on the young man's phone.
After reading the situation in the post and the reply the young man had posted, the smile vanished completely from Gao Xinjian's face, turning as cold as ice.
"Xiao Wang, you've done quite well."
"B-Boss Gao, I..."
The young man surnad Wang's lips trembled. An imnse sense of fear spread through his heart.
At this mont, others also noticed the situation and gathered around.
Gao Xinjian raised the young man's phone. "Co, everyone, take a look. Xiao Wang has learned to complain online. Really great!"
Everyone looked at the content on the phone, their expressions turning extrely strange.
Gao Xinjian suddenly threw the phone on the ground and stomped on it, crushing it.
Crack!
"I'll fight you to the death!" The young man surnad Wang's eyes turned red. A dagger suddenly appeared in his hand, and he lunged at Gao Xinjian.
Gao Xinjian was quick-eyed and swift-handed. He slapped away the young man's wrist, and then his few lackeys rushed forward and pinned the young man down.
"Young man, when did you secretly exchange for a Mind Power weapon? Were you planning to harm
all along?" A fierce glint flashed in Gao Xinjian's eyes. "Now I can't keep you around, kid!"
The others understood that Gao Xinjian ant to kill. So wanted to stop him, but they were afraid the danger would shift to themselves, so they remained silent for the mont.
Tap, tap, tap...
A series of footsteps suddenly sounded. Everyone looked in unison and saw a young man in his twenties walking over from not far away.
"Did I find the right place?" the young man said as he approached.
Gao Xinjian frowned. "Where are you from? What do you want?"
The young man said, "I'm looking for soone with the online userna 'Ka Xiu.' Is he here?"
The young man surnad Wang, who was being pinned to the ground by Gao Xinjian's lackeys, was shocked upon hearing this. He shouted with all his might, "It's ! I am Ka Xiu!"
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