In the forest park of the Suroma Empire, amidst the thick fog, a door quietly appeared.
Adam and his four companions stepped out from within, with the forr's face brimming with excitent.
"To think we could see an alien story in this rule, not bad at all. It's just a sha it's only one-fifth of it."
He had obtained [Kimos Star Chronicle · Fragnt 2] from among the five puzzle fragnts.
"Adam, do you intend to acquire the other four puzzle fragnts?" Amanda, one of the four won, asked.
"Of course." Adam nodded without hesitation. "Aren't you all curious? About what exactly happened on Kimos Star."
The four won glanced at each other; clearly, they weren't as excited as Adam.
Compared to what happened on an alien planet, they cared more about their own safety, believing that soone as important as Adam shouldn't take risks by venturing deep into the fog.
Adam sighed softly, then smiled again. "Let's go, back we go. I think these five puzzle fragnts are probably randomly distributed around the world. Collecting a complete set won't be that easy."
...
"Wow, wow wow wow!"
In a certain cave, a dark-skinned young man stared at [Kimos Star Chronicle · Fragnt 4] in his storage box, his eyes glued to the words "Tradable".
"This is going to make
rich! Haha, putting sothing like this on the market, it'll definitely start at a million coins!"
The young man never imagined he would have such incredible luck. A fog door inexplicably appeared around him, and after walking through it, he actually obtained such a precious, tradable item.
He didn't understand the mural's content very well, nor did he care much. But he knew that those with power and influence would definitely be interested, so he was already planning to sell it.
Seeing the fog door appear before him, the young man imdiately stepped into it, reappearing at the spot where he had entered earlier.
"First, find a room, then put this thing on the market... Huh?"
Just as he finished planning, he saw a huge cylindrical object, like a giant foot, descending from the sky towards him.
The giant foot, dozens of ters wide, made the young man freeze completely. It took him two seconds to react, turn around, and start running desperately, but it was already too late.
"Boom!"
The giant foot landed, crushing the young man beneath it.
Then the giant foot lifted, and the flesh and blood on the ground were rapidly devoured by the fog, leaving behind only a single sparkling, shimring puzzle fragnt...
...
Sowhere in Sakura Prayer Country, inside a cave, three figures stood before a mural.
One person stood at the forefront in the middle, with the other two flanking slightly behind, one on the left and one on the right.
"Team Leader, this seems to be a record," the woman on the left behind said.
"It doesn't look complete," said a woman on the right behind, her face covered.
"Mmm." The young woman standing at the front in the middle stared at the mural on the wall with snake-like vertical pupils. The next mont, the mural emitted a light and transford into a puzzle fragnt.
[You have obtained: Kimos Star Chronicle · Fragnt 5]
After the snake-pupiled woman finished reading the fragnt's details, a fog door materialized before her.
The three walked into it, and when they erged, a large group of people was already waiting outside.
A man in his fifties, unshaven and scruffy, stepped forward and asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Mmm." The snake-pupiled woman showed him the fragnt's effect.
After reading it, the man exclaid joyfully, "The story behind this planet is likely related to the Doomsday Rules. Our Chosen Team must collect the other four fragnts!"
The woman nodded slightly, an inexplicable flash of sorrow passing through her vertical pupils.
...
Deep within a jungle in Andai State, a fog door appeared without warning.
Four young people ran out from inside, each face filled with anticipation and excitent.
"We actually got it! This must be a hidden item!"
"Such good luck, hahaha."
"Hey, should we sell it?" suggested a thin, short man among the four. "A tradable hidden item like this could probably sell for at least a million Ascension Coins, right? If we split it evenly, everyone would get hundreds of thousands!"
"What nonsense are you talking about! This is a hidden item we found, a symbol of our luck. How can we sell it!" a tall, burly man among them scolded.
The other two also chid in agreent.
"That's right, we can't sell it. This fragnt might have great uses later."
"This must be the will of the Sky Mother. The Sky Mother specifically let us obtain it. Not only should we not sell it, we should find the other four fragnts and complete the puzzle!"
The short man, having his suggestion rejected by his three companions one after another, forced a few awkward laughs and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, that's right, that's how it should be. I was mistaken."
However, when he lowered his head, a flash of angry, icy expression crossed his face.
...
"The locations of the other four fragnts all seem very far away."
Guan Tong stayed inside the shelter, holding the [Kimos Star Chronicle · Fragnt 3] he possessed.
After exiting the fog door, he imdiately used Body Swap to return to Mingdao Mountain, summoned the shelter, and entered.
For him, collecting the fragnts was now his primary goal.
Of course, continuing to try and remove the restrictions of the Mind Lock was equally important.
Guan Tong now held the fragnt in his hand, and a strange map appeared in his mind. Four glowing points on it indicated the locations of the other four fragnts.
"The one closest to
seems to be to the south. And judging by the map display, it's already outside the national border... seems to be within Andai State?"
Andai State was a small country bordering Beixing Country, currently still primarily focused on agricultural developnt, with relatively weak overall national power.
However, its people were world-renowned for being fierce and combative. Before the Doomsday Rules era, many world-class martial artists originated from this country.
Not just this closest puzzle fragnt, but the other three fragnts were also all outside the national border.
Guan Tong wasn't surprised by this. Tianshui Star was so large; the probability of two fragnts appearing in the sa country was just too small.
Out of five fragnts total, having one appear within Beixing Country's borders was already pretty good.
"It seems I'll have to go abroad this ti."
Since the fragnts were abroad, if Guan Tong wanted to collect them, he had to go out.
That was fine too. He originally felt sowhat restricted dostically; going out into the vast world would allow him to really make his mark.
But he didn't plan to go out during the period of the Ninth Rule.
During the rule period, the whole world was shrouded in thick fog, making movent extrely inconvenient.
So his plan was to wait until the Ninth Rule ended and go out during the interval period before the Tenth Rule was announced.
"In the more than twenty days before that, I need to break this Mind Lock."
Once Guan Tong had a plan, he proceeded step by step.
He spent a day waiting for his Mind Power to fully recover, reaching its 309-point upper limit.
Then he opened the [Wordless Book] to the fifth page, injected all 309 points of Mind Power into it, and activated the character "kai" written on it.
Just like the first activation, the "kai" character, having absorbed 309 points of Mind Power, transford into a data stream that blasted into Guan Tong's body.
Boom!!
He imdiately felt the "restraint" of the Mind Lock deep in his mind receive a powerful impact, showing signs of loosening.
It works!
Guan Tong was overjoyed. He wasn't afraid of high Mind Power consumption; he was afraid of it being ineffective like the first impact.
Now, the impact of 309 points of Mind Power had clearly loosened the restraint. This ant that as long as there were enough subsequent impacts, constant dripping wears away the stone, and the Mind Lock restraint could be broken!
So for the next several days, he did nothing extra, focusing solely on recovering Mind Power and using the power of the [Wordless Book] to impact the Mind Lock restraint.
Three days, five days, ten days...
Ti passed. Half a month later, Guan Tong clearly felt that the Mind Lock in his mind was on the verge of collapse!
He was confident that just seven or eight more impacts would shatter the restraint, allowing his Mind Power upper limit to resu its natural growth.
During this half-month period, he also occasionally went online to understand the situation.
Unlike previous rules where humans were too passive, in this Ninth Rule, humans were launching a full-scale, extrely proactive offensive.
With modern weapons usable, official forces from various countries dispatched armies, using all sorts of firearms and artillery against the Nightmare Beasts, completely overwhelming them in combat.
Beixing Country, in particular, announced just one week after the rule was issued that the Nightmare Beasts in the fog of major cities had been suppressed by the military. However, since these Nightmare Beasts seed to continuously spawn from the fog, ordinary people still had to stay in sealed locations.
Otherwise, if the Nightmare Beasts were limited in number, they would probably have been cleaned up by the "steel tide" by now.
But as ti passed, the intelligence Guan Tong initially released—the situation where "humans can be eroded into Nightmare Beasts"—was also discovered in various places.
Officials even conducted special research on this, finding so humans severely eroded by the fog, recording their changes, compiling a report, and publishing it.
When humans are initially exposed to the fog, they feel the pain of their skin being corroded. If not intervened in ti, after inhaling the fog for a period, they will begin to hallucinate and lose themselves.
The speed of losing oneself is related to individual physical fitness. So ordinary people with poor constitution might lose themselves in just a few minutes or over a dozen minutes after inhaling the fog. So Ascendants with stronger physical fitness, especially those with higher Mind Power, would lose themselves several tis slower.
Once they fall into a lost state, humans are no longer human; they turn into Nightmare Beasts. Humans transford into Nightmare Beasts take about three days for the facial features on their heads to be completely corroded, turning into a terrifying appearance.
When Guan Tong saw the report, he couldn't help but think of Yu Hong, and that human face pressed against his shelter window the night he was sleeping. The forr's facial features weren't completely corroded yet, while the latter had probably finished corroding completely, hence leaving a flat facial imprint on the glass.
Additionally, after humans turn into Nightmare Beasts, like regular Nightmare Beasts, they explode into fragnts upon death, absorbed by the mist, leaving no corpse.
After this report was published, people began extensive discussions.
Many speculated that the Nightmare Beasts in the fog probably weren't originally monsters either, just ordinary creatures from so alien planet. They were corrupted by this strange, eerie fog and turned into Nightmare Beasts.
So inferred that the real monster wasn't the Nightmare Beasts, but the "Fog" itself. Nightmare Beasts were rely its derivatives, or sothing like "blood servants" created by a vampire, existing solely to capture more "blood food" for their master.
This also explained why the Nightmare Beasts' thod of attacking humans was to destroy the buildings humans were in, wreck their vehicles, tear their protective gear... Essentially, it was to fully expose humans to the fog, letting the fog complete its "feeding."
Everyone who read the report felt genuine fear towards the "Fog" from the bottom of their hearts, while also feeling fortunate.
Fortunate that human-made weapons could eliminate Nightmare Beasts, fortunate that human-made sturdy shelters could resist the fog's corrosion. This way, even if this mist could claim so lives, it certainly couldn't deal a devastating blow to humanity as a whole.
After reading these reports and combining them with the content of the [Kimos Star Chronicle · Fragnt 3] he had seen... Guan Tong vaguely felt that the incredibly diverse biological ecosystem on Kimos Star was likely completely destroyed, even driven to extinction, by this "Fog."
Perhaps, although the creatures on that planet were large enough, they didn't develop technology. No matter how powerful a physical body, how long could it withstand the corrosion of this fog?
The complete [Kimos Star Chronicle] likely recorded the process of how this planet and its creatures were destroyed. Would it be related to the Fire Thief and the Doomsday Rules?
Guan Tong could hardly wait for the rule period to end, to embark on his new journey abroad to collect the fragnts.
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