Many organizations and groups, after discovering that the Administrator of Ascendant Ho was selling hidden intelligence related to the Rules, imdiately purchased it.
One hundred thousand Ascension Coins ant little to them; as long as they could get even a bit of useful information, it was worth it—even information with Mind Lock side effects like the eighth rule was considered valuable.
However, personnel in these organizations quickly noticed that this ti the Administrator wrote “will reveal in 12 hours” in the post, rather than the previous 24 hours.
Under this rule, one human sense would be randomly erased after 24 hours. So smart people guessed that perhaps by then people could deduce the hidden intelligence from observed phenona themselves, and the Administrator’s information would be unsellable.
But regardless, the purchase had to be made now.
After the transactions were completed, all that was left was to prepare while waiting twelve hours to receive the information.
Guan Tong himself wasn’t idle. Although he had Shadow, a Mind Power construct that could share senses and, based on experience with the previous nine rules, would be useful without causing mission failure,
he still actively sought more thods. One of his channels was the terminal market.
He now held four million Ascension Coins, a huge sum, but he still needed to spend so to convert that wealth into tangible combat power or personal safeguards. Otherwise those coins sitting on his panel were just numbers with little practical value.
After opening the market, he first noticed that the tradable Communication Scrolls, which could probabilistically drop from killing Sound Hunters during the seventh rule, Silent Hour, had risen in price again.
When he handled the Yongzhou base affair earlier, Communication Scroll prices on the market had already climbed to about eighty thousand. Now with the tenth rule revealed, prices rose another fifty percent, reaching around 120,000 to 130,000.
“Seems a lot of people think that once the five senses are erased, the only way to contact others will be through this.”
Guan Tong believed the price surge stemd from people’s fear of losing their five senses.
Many online now thought that five days from now, when all five senses might be erased, humanity would face an existential crisis. Perhaps only by using Communication Scrolls to communicate on a ntal level could people confirm their existence and avoid going insane.
Guan Tong still had many Communication Scrolls. Of his ten bound scrolls he had used only one to contact Chen Na. He had given one of the three tradable scrolls to Chen Na’s friend Qing Jin, leaving two remaining.
He considered whether to buy more to hoard, but when he checked the market again, the few listed scrolls had already been snapped up.
“Never mind. I’ll look at other things.”
Guan Tong searched “five senses” as a keyword, and most results were minor, irrelevant gadgets.
[Vision Enhancent Pill]: After ingestion, unaided vision improves to 5.0 for 24 hours. Tradable.
[Price]: 1,500 Ascension Coins
...
[Hearing Amplifier]: Temporarily boosts hearing to maximum, duration 30 minutes. Single-use. Tradable.
[Price]: 3,000 Ascension Coins
...
Guan Tong skimd the listings without much hope of finding anything useful.
Since the rule release prompted massive searches by many organizations’ traders, any good items would have been bought early—unlikely to leave any stragglers.
Yet even so, he found one item that made his eyes light up.
[Taste Blocking Device]: When activated, blocks the sense of taste for everyone within a fifty-ter radius, duration 10 minutes, cooldown 24 hours. Tradable.
[Price]: 30,000 Ascension Coins
“After using this device, people within the radius would effectively be ‘taste-disabled,’ which should counteract the rule’s erasure.”
Guan Tong understood why no one had bought this device: the tenth rule itself erased senses, so people wanted ans to preserve or restore senses, not another instrunt that disabled them.
But the key was the Hidden Rule Negative Tis Negative Equals Positive. If the public knew that, this device would have been snatched up imdiately!
Without hesitation, Guan Tong bought one.
“Later, I’ll send the hidden intelligence to those who bought it, then I’ll relist this device at a higher price and it’ll be snapped up... this is basically profiting off asymtric information.”
He bought one and checked for similar devices, but found none.
Still, the device gave him an insight: anyone who could block senses might beco extrely useful under this rule.
...
8:50 p.m., Doomsday Rules Counterasures Research Office.
People gathered in the conference room, waiting for the Administrator of Ascendant Ho to send the hidden intelligence about the rule.
This research office had also spent Ascension Coins to buy the intelligence, but due to last ti’s lessons, everyone agreed to judge and use the information cautiously.
With ten minutes left before the Administrator’s ssage, people discussed the matter.
“So far it looks like the Ascendant Ho Administrator has the ability to analyze the Rules. Whether they can fully parse them or only partially is unknown.”
“Based on the eighth rule, it might be a partial analysis. It’s also possible the Administrator deliberately concealed side effects.”
“Do our databases have records of anyone with similar abilities who can predict or decipher Rules?”
“There’s no one who can parse Rules, but the records show a few people who can infer divinatory patterns. Those abilities, however, yield ambiguous results and consu massive Mind Power, making them impractical.”
“I know in Suroma there’s a relatively well-known diviner called the Moon Key. I heard even that kingdom’s king once sought her counsel.”
“From experience, the stronger or more abstract the ability, the greater the Mind Power consumption. To parse sothing as central as the Doomsday Rules would likely consu horrific amounts of Mind Power... I wonder how that Administrator does it.”
“If only that Administrator would cooperate with us. Right now so much information is spreading uncontrollably, which isn’t good.”
“The Administrator sent a ssage.” The person who’d been refreshing private ssages spoke up. Everyone straightened, and even the previously silent Gao Liangwei looked to the big screen.
The Administrator’s private ssage, purchased for one hundred thousand Ascension Coins, was short.
Administrator: “When the Rules erase a sense, if the corresponding sense was already disabled, it can be restored to normal.”
Everyone reacted with astonishnt.
“There’s hidden intelligence like this...”
“This ans if tomorrow at 9 a.m. the randomly erased sense is vision, a blind person might instead regain sight?”
“I see now! No wonder the Administrator sent this early. If we waited twenty-four hours, based on reports from various places we could have deduced this hidden intelligence ourselves!”
“If this information is accurate, then our preparations should...”
People gradually understood the implication.
Even though Guan Tong hadn’t ntioned self-harm in the ssage, the clever minds in the room quickly thought of it.
Gao Liangwei then said, “Imdiately search the database to see if anyone has items or abilities that can disable senses.”
“Yes, sir.”
The data officers sprang into action, while the other scholars and experts continued discussing the intelligence.
“If we consider extres—extre asures—self-inflicted sensory loss might be an option.”
“Self-harm? Like gouging out one’s own eyes?”
“What did you say? Of course not that cruel! I an painless surgical thods!”
“What if it fails? Can people bear the cost? Unless we can cause temporary disability through drugs or minor surgeries that can later be reversed if things go wrong, then it might be worth trying.”
“Even if this intelligence is correct, the sense erased at 9 a.m. is completely random. To prepare to be disabled, you’d have to prepare for all five senses, right?”
“This...”
“The other senses might be achievable with drugs. How would we preemptively disable touch?”
People looked to the dical expert in the conference room. After a mont he said, “We don’t yet know how broadly the rule defines ‘touch.’ Is it only the basic outer skin sensation, or does it extend to mucous mbranes and internal organ sensation? Without a clear definition, it’s hard to dicate appropriately. However, my colleagues and I discussed that losing touch might plunge soone into a special conscious but sensationless vegetative state... If we attempt to mimic it, perhaps full-body anesthesia could be tried.”
“Full anesthesia... that carries considerable risk, right?”
“Of course.” The dical expert did not hesitate. “Normally, we need many pre-op checks and a risk assessnt before general anesthesia. Also a professional anesthesiologist must be present. Before the Doomsday Rules era, the country only trained a few thousand new anesthesiologists per year; now...”
The room fell silent. Given the scarcity of anesthesiologists, plus limits on drugs and equipnt, even if general anesthesia worked, only a few could attempt it—not sothing that could be rolled out to every shelter.
“The results are in.” The person responsible for database searches spoke. “We found forty-three potentially useful items or ability records in total, and one key ability that was tested.”
“Oh? Put it on the big screen.” Gao Liangwei said.
“Yes, sir.”
The data officer projected the information to the big screen, and everyone looked.
The key ability record was nad [Cognitive Displacent]. The holder was a registered resident of a shelter who had been a psychologist before the Doomsday Rules.
This [Cognitive Displacent] ability could temporarily alter another person’s cognitive perception. According to records, the psychologist used the ability to save a shelter resident.
That person suffered severe somaticization due to psychological stress, manifesting as intense tinnitus. Tornted by the tinnitus and unable to sleep, the person wanted to end their life but was found by the psychologist and talked to.
During the conversation the psychologist used [Cognitive Displacent], and afterward the person truly could not perceive the tinnitus. Although the effect lasted less than a day, the respite allowed the person to stabilize and gradually recover.
According to the shelter’s summary report, this ability can, by temporarily altering the target’s brain cognition, affect physiological senses.
“So this psychologist can use the ability to make a target’s brain ‘believe it is deaf,’ thereby temporarily closing the auditory sense to cope with the Rule’s erasure?” soone read aloud after reviewing the record.
“That possibility cannot be ruled out.” Gao Liangwei said, “Imdiately notify that shelter and transfer this person here. Also gather other holders of relevant abilities and items, and run experints to verify effectiveness.”
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