After the release of the Tenth Doomsday Rule, it unsurprisingly topped the trending charts on all major social dia platforms.
This included Ascendant Ho, where the Casual Chat section was also filled with related discussions.
However, compared to the rule itself, people were more pleased with the type of rule.
"A non-survival type rule! Hooray!"
"Not bad, not bad, we can survive a while longer. I really can't handle any more survival-type rules."
"Actually, if all survival-type rules were like the ninth one, it'd be fine. As long as modern weapons can be used effectively, the death toll can be significantly reduced."
"I feel this Tenth Rule is okay. Losing one sense per day, all five senses gone in five days. Then persisting for ten days in that state... shouldn't be too difficult, right?"
"Not difficult??? Are you sure???"
"Those who say it's not difficult, try living with your eyes covered for a day first. Just losing vision alone is very inconvenient."
"I think I can imagine what losing the other senses would be like. But losing the sense of touch... I really can't imagine what that would feel like."
"By the way, are there people in the world born without a sense of touch? I don't think I've heard of that."
"Would it be similar to the feeling of being under anesthesia?"
"I think without a sense of touch, it would be similar to being paralyzed... Think about it, how would you perceive the physical world without touch? How would the brain send signals to the motor nerves without receiving corresponding feedback?"
"Is the person above serious? Don't scare ! Being paralyzed for ten days would be pure torture!"
"It might not necessarily be ten days. Maybe the first randomly lost sense is touch. With a one in five probability, if it really lands on that, it's fourteen days of paralysis..."
The atmosphere of online discussions quickly shifted from initial relief that the Tenth Doomsday Rule wasn't a survival type to various terrifying imaginations and worries about losing the sense of touch.
Many people have seen blind or deaf individuals in daily life, and so even have such people in their own social circles. As for losing taste and sll, most people have even experienced it personally, like when having a cold or fever and food tastes bland, which is a temporary loss of taste.
Because these four are often encountered and understood, people aren't afraid of them happening to themselves—after all, the rule only lasts a short half-month.
But the elimination of touch is sothing few understand, so the more they discussed it, the more terrifying it seed.
Later, as ti passed, official organizations in various countries also released so suggestions.
The Beixing Country authorities released a notice three hours after the rule was announced.
The content included:
Relevant factories would imdiately begin production of guide devices and hearing aids, rapidly transporting them to various shelters and gathering points within cities;
Taste and sll need not be worried about for now, as the current food system is ration-based, with everyone eating standardized canned food. Even if you can't sll or taste, there's no need to worry about health issues due to food quality.
Regarding touch, current related research is insufficient, so they can only temporarily design and produce assistive robots. If humans beco unable to care for themselves after losing touch, these robots will, according to programd settings, assist individuals with eating, excretion cleanup, and other tasks.
...These asures seed normal, but behind them lay a huge test of the supply system. Among the many countries globally, currently only Beixing Country could achieve such large-scale, mass customization of supplies.
Beyond these, the authorities also encouraged people to try using other thods to pass the rule based on their own Mind Power items and abilities.
This isn't a survival-type rule, so it's unclear whether using external assistive devices would cause the challenge to fail. Therefore, if you can use Mind Power-related ans to get through, it's best not to use man-made aids.
After seeing the official notice, the citizens of Beixing Country felt much more at ease.
As the notice said, it's best if you can get through on your own. If you can't, the official preparations are sufficient, so there's no need to worry about life-threatening dangers.
With this safety net in place, people wouldn't be overly tense and could approach the rule challenge with a relatively relaxed mindset.
...
Three hours earlier.
While the Counterasures Research Office was holding intensive etings for discussion, Guan Tong, who was in the forests of Andai State, opened his Terminal panel to check the Hidden Rule.
[Hidden Rule Ten: Negative Tis Negative Equals Positive]
[Hidden Rule Content: When a sense is randomly eliminated, if your corresponding sense is already disabled, you will receive the opposite effect.]
[Note: If you want to preserve your vision, you can blind both eyes before the sense elimination; if you want to preserve your hearing, you can pierce both ears before the sense elimination... But the problem is, self-mutilation is an extrely painful act. Is it worth doing this to pass the rule?]
"This!"
After reading the Hidden Rule content, Guan Tong abruptly stood up.
He hadn't expected the Hidden Rule for this Tenth Doomsday Rule to be so terrifying.
"If the corresponding sense is already disabled before elimination, a reverse effect occurs during elimination... For normal, healthy people, to get this reverse effect, they must self-harm in advance..."
This might be good news for those born blind or deaf, or those who beca so later in life. They don't need to do anything; just wait until that particular sense is randomly eliminated, and they will gain health.
But for the majority of healthy people, this is undoubtedly too cruel!
"...I won't use this rule."
Guan Tong made this choice almost without hesitation.
A psychologically normal person, even if they self-harm to pass the rule, would certainly suffer irreversible psychological damage.
It could be said that this Hidden Rule is the first one, besides the first one [Plunder Clarity], that Guan Tong felt he would rather lose so Mind Power Upper Limit than use.
However, even if he doesn't use it, this Hidden Rule will soon be discovered.
Because even though it has been a full year since entering the Doomsday Rules era, there must still be blind, deaf, and people who have lost their sense of taste or sll in the world.
When these people find that after the sense elimination, not only are they fine, but they also regain their vision/hearing/sll/taste, they will definitely realize the existence of a Hidden Rule.
The people around them will also notice and spread the word.
Given this, Guan Tong planned to make the most of it and sell this Hidden Rule on the website.
After making the decision, he imdiately opened his computer and logged into the website.
He had many private ssages. Although he didn't sell the hidden information for the last rule, that didn't stop many people from leaving him ssages as soon as the new rule was released, asking if he had any hidden intelligence related to the rule for sale.
Guan Tong followed the sa process as last ti, opening the special section called "The Administrator's Domain".
In this section where only he had posting permissions, there was currently only one post: the previous intelligence sale titled "Selling Hidden Intelligence Related to the Eighth Doomsday Rule".
This ti, he posted the second one.
"Selling Hidden Intelligence Related to the Tenth Doomsday Rule"
Details: Intelligence price 100,000 Ascension Coins, not disclosed imdiately, will be uniformly disclosed after 12 hours
The mont he pressed publish, the number of replies to the post visibly skyrocketed, breaking one thousand in less than a minute, an astonishing speed.
Guan Tong hadn't expected so many people to be following him, but upon careful thought, it made sense. The website had been online for several months, and the current user count was already terrifyingly high, so this performance wasn't surprising.
Refreshing the page, the comnts in the post were simply overwhelming.
"The Administrator is selling intelligence again?!"
"The price doubled this ti, 100,000 for one piece, tsk tsk, the Administrator is going to make a huge profit again."
"Support the Administrator for not scamming the poor! We poor folks can just wait for the Beixing Country authorities to buy it and announce it. Since they announced it last ti, they'll definitely announce it this ti too, right?"
"That's not necessarily the sa... If it's hidden intelligence like the Alertness Mint, do you think the authorities would announce it?"
"I hope the Administrator makes lots of coins, well-deserved for developing such a great website!"
"I wonder if the hidden intelligence has information about solving the touch elimination problem. I've watched so many videos explaining how terrifying losing touch is, and they've scared
stiff."
"Sa here, person above... I hope there's a solution."
Guan Tong noticed that many replies expressed hope that Beixing Country would buy the intelligence and then make it public, and hope that the intelligence could solve the touch elimination problem.
It must be said, regarding the touch elimination problem, Guan Tong didn't have an answer either.
The Hidden Rule is "Negative Tis Negative Equals Positive". For a blind person, negative tis negative equals not blind; for a deaf person, negative tis negative equals not deaf... But how can a normal person make themselves lose touch first? To trigger the rule effect of negative tis negative equals positive?
The Hidden Rule didn't ntion this aspect, and he couldn't figure it out. Would you have to paralyze yourself first? But what if that doesn't work? Or what if you go too far and kill yourself?
Guan Tong thought about it and decided not to dwell on it. Since he didn't plan to use this Hidden Rule anyway, there was no need to think so much.
He clicked on his private ssages. As expected, just minutes after posting the intelligence sale, custors requesting to pay for the purchase ca flooding in.
Last ti, for intelligence priced at 50,000 Ascension Coins, he only sold eleven copies. This ti, he doubled the price to 100,000 Ascension Coins, but the number of users sending ssages to purchase exceeded thirty.
Guan Tong naturally accepted them all, following the old procedure of having these people report their Terminal nurical IDs, then adding them as friends to conduct the transaction.
The transaction process lasted nearly an hour in total, with 34 copies of intelligence sold. At 100,000 Ascension Coins per copy, 34 copies totaled 3.4 million!
After the transactions ended, Guan Tong looked at the total of 4,085,620 Ascension Coins on his panel, and a catchy, sowhat demonic lody of "I made money, made money, don't know how to spend it" instantly played in his mind.
He now possessed a huge sum of four million Ascension Coins! Compared to the current average Ascendant's stash of around 1,500, his four million-plus was the combined total of over 2,700 people!
One person possessing the total Ascension Coin amount of nearly three thousand people was already very terrifying. A group of three thousand people could absolutely be considered a large organization.
Guan Tong now personally controlled the total currency amount of a large organization, and he could spend it freely—this ant he could use it all to strengthen himself, or he could use it to recruit followers.
That's right, although he had no intention of recruiting followers, if he wanted to, he could completely use this huge sum to quickly assemble a team of Ascendants.
Based on his understanding, many civilian organizations and groups, even so official governnt bodies, were recruiting freelance Ascendants by offering Ascension Coins as "wages".
The previous thod of relying on violent suppression and coercion had gradually beco unworkable over ti.
The reason for this followed the sa logic as how the feudal system was a dinsional downgrade from the slave system, and capitalism was a dinsional downgrade from feudalism.
Capturing people to exploit as slaves versus hiring people to work for you—the latter definitely has more subjective initiative.
This wasn't just Guan Tong's personal opinion, but the result of his observations. His observation platform was his own website.
That's right, as the number of users on Ascendant Ho grew, many users began spontaneously posting commissions and conducting transactions.
Especially in the Commissions section, Guan Tong had taken a look before and found that even "international rcenary groups" had appeared.
As long as you have enough Ascension Coins, these rcenaries located in various countries around the world are willing to solve your problems for you, which could be described as highly marketized.
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