Guan Tong left his ho and went outside.
There were almost no people on the streets, which made sense - losing over a quarter of the population wasn't sothing to take lightly.
Others might not know, but Guan Tong had previously checked his school's alumni group chat; out of forty to fifty people in the group, only about ten had shown up to indicate they were still alive.
Despite suffering such heavy losses, the national society was still functioning.
This was thanks to technological developnt. Guan Tong had discovered on his first day of transmigration that Tianshui Star's technology was sowhat more advanced than his ho planet Earth, roughly leading by twenty to thirty years.
For example, in Beixing Country, technologies like drone delivery and basic autonomous driving were already widespread, while robotics technology was extensively applied in major factories.
But the future was hard to predict.
Although countries had jointly announced they wouldn't yield to the Doomsday Rules and would protect civilization while vigorously developing advanced technology,
if the rules beca increasingly difficult and people kept dwindling, technological progress would likely slow down, stagnate, or even regress.
Guan Tong didn't dwell on it too much - he was soone who believed in living in the present.
And what needed to be done right now was to pass the second Doomsday Rule first.
He went to a nearby park and found many people already running inside.
Most were young people, which wasn't surprising.
Although officials hadn't released the age ratio of those who had perished, it was obvious that middle-aged and elderly people would constitute the majority.
Their energy levels simply couldn't compare to young people's, and very few could last 72 hours without sleep.
"Damn it! I can't even make five kiloters... how is it possible to run a full marathon!"
A young man who looked like a college student, exhausted from running, stopped not far from Guan Tong, hands on his knees, panting heavily as he cursed.
There were many others like him, and plenty who were even worse - so couldn't even run one kiloter, let alone five.
Guan Tong knew he wasn't much better himself.
Looking at the dense crowd on the park's running track, he decided to leave and went to a single-person self-service gym instead.
This type of gym was rare on Guan Tong's ho planet Earth, but very popular in various countries on Tianshui Star.
After paying and swiping his card for self-service access, he could enter a small private room equipped with a treadmill, yoga mat, small dumbbells, and other equipnt.
These self-service fitness pods were specifically designed for people who preferred quiet environnts or had social anxiety, and they happened to be perfect for his current needs.
Guan Tong stood before the treadmill. The rules didn't specify that running on a treadmill wasn't allowed, so it should be fine.
But trying to cheat with it definitely wouldn't work - the rules' tracking of running and ti recording would be extrely precise, and no matter what thod he used to run, the records wouldn't be wrong.
Guan Tong took out his [Wordless Book] from his Personal Terminal's Storage Box.
Then he mobilized and infused his Mind Power into it, causing the two characters "Guan Tong" to imdiately detach from the page and appear in shadow form.
Guan Tong had the shadow stand on the treadmill, then started the machine.
The running belt began moving backward, and the shadow started running under Guan Tong's ntal control.
After running for just a short while, numbers appeared before Guan Tong's eyes.
Current Distance: 100 ters, Current Ti: 35 seconds.
"Is this timing and distance provided by the rules..."
Guan Tong thought to himself that only the rules could accomplish sothing like this, projecting numbers and ti before people's eyes.
But the appearance of these records confird for Guan Tong that the shadow's running counted the sa as his own running - both would be recorded as achievent.
This gave him an idea.
For example, he could run on the treadmill while having the shadow run in place beside him.
Since the shadow had no physical form, how it ran essentially made no difference.
By stacking both their distances together, he could greatly reduce the ti needed to complete the full marathon.
"Most importantly, the shadow has no 'stamina' limitation, aning I can have it maintain its fastest speed throughout its entire existence duration!"
Guan Tong's mind stirred, and the shadow imdiately began sprinting wildly!
Its fastest speed was Guan Tong's fastest speed, which tested out to about 15 seconds per 100 ters.
Currently, at full Mind Power, Guan Tong could maintain the shadow's existence for up to five minutes.
Having the shadow run at 15 seconds per 100 ters for all five minutes would total... two kiloters.
"...That's still way too short."
A full marathon was 42 kiloters. If the shadow could only run two kiloters, it would only cover a fraction for Guan Tong - completely insufficient.
To solve this problem, there were only two approaches.
One was to extend the shadow's duration.
The other was to increase the shadow's speed.
Guan Tong felt the first approach wasn't very realistic because maintaining the shadow's existence required consuming Mind Power.
He currently didn't know how to increase his Mind Power limit, and could only maintain it for five minutes at most.
That left only the second approach to focus on.
Increasing speed, hmm...
Guan Tong looked at the buttons on the treadmill, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
"If I set the treadmill to maximum speed, then have the shadow... no, the shadow has no physical form and can't make contact with the running belt."
Guan Tong frowned in thought.
Just then, sunlight from outside projected through the window, falling warmly on his body.
Warmth... hmm? Wait... sun, sunlight... shadow?
Guan Tong suddenly looked down at the ground - sunlight shone on him, casting a shadow sideways onto the floor from his profile.
It was also a shadow, so could it...
Guan Tong manipulated the "shadow" from the Wordless Book to make contact with the real shadow created by sunlight.
Upon contact, the two imdiately rged together without any sense of incongruity.
Moreover, Guan Tong could clearly feel that the shadow he could manipulate had grown larger, which instantly thrilled him!
"How could I not have thought of this before?"
Guan Tong found it incredible.
He only realized now that the "shadow" he manipulated could incorporate other shadows created by different light sources into his control range.
For example, if he went outside now and found any building, by manipulating his shadow to connect with the building's shadow, he could control the entire large shadow of the building.
This instantly gave Guan Tong a feeling of "this is too powerful!"
Although the shadow had no physical form and couldn't do much more, it was completely sufficient for dealing with the current second Doomsday Rule!
Guan Tong's eyes shone - he already knew what he needed to do.
He imdiately drew the curtains to block the light, then took out his phone and turned on the flashlight function, aiming it at the treadmill's running belt.
This made the running belt's shadow appear.
Guan Tong then manipulated his own shadow to connect with the running belt's shadow.
He could imdiately manipulate the running belt's shadow!
Then he went to the treadmill, set it to maximum speed, and pressed start!
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh—!"
The running belt spun wildly under the machine's power, and along with it, the long shadow Guan Tong manipulated also rotated at an extrely fast speed and over a great distance!
That's right - Guan Tong couldn't deform the shadow, but as long as the shadow he manipulated was large enough, regardless of whether it was human-shaped or not, as long as it was "moving," it would count as distance increase!
At the sa speed, a human-shaped shadow might only move half a ter per step, but what about a building's shadow "taking" a step? It could potentially cover hundreds of ters!
When Guan Tong looked again at the numbers floating before his eyes, a smile imdiately appeared on his face.
Current Distance: 347 ters, Current Ti: 4 seconds
At this average speed of 86 ters per second, he would only need less than 500 seconds to complete the full marathon's 42 kiloters - this was absolutely invincible!
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