August 16th, a piece of news spread from the academy.
Many television sets had been delivered to the campus.
Television sets indeed, many students had seen them with their own eyes, which sparked spontaneous discussions in the Mind Network.
(What's the point of bringing so many TVs? We can't use the internet anyway, can't watch anything.)
(Soone went and asked, they said these TVs are a bit different, they have optical drives.)
(Optical drives? What are optical drives?)
(Are they the kind of TVs that can play discs?)
(Discs? Those are relics from how many years ago!)
(Optical discs should be storage devices, right? So you can use this kind of TV to watch recordings?)
The students' questions were soon answered.
The academy posted a notice stating that every four student dormitories could collectively receive one old-model television set.
This old-model television set contained no internet modules internally, so using it wouldn't risk violating the rules. Moreover, along with the TV ca multiple discs.
So of these discs were compilations of movies and TV dramas, others were variety shows.
Furthermore, the notice specifically ntioned that the world's first Ascendant variety show, "Battle of the Ascendants," produced by the "Counterasures Research Office," had completed its first episode and was already recorded onto a disc.
Students could receive the TV and discs, then entertain themselves by watching this content, alleviating the pain of not being able to use the internet.
Once the notice was posted, the students were overjoyed.
These past two weeks without internet had nearly driven many people crazy.
Although so could distract themselves through activities like exercise, more people disliked exercise and preferred digital entertainnt. Many even only liked controlling characters in gas to play ball gas, while never touching a ball in real life.
So now that TVs and discs were delivered, it at least provided one more form of entertainnt.
Moreover, a variety show about Ascendants had been highly anticipated for a long ti. Ever since an insider leaked information about it on the Ascendant Ho forum, people's anticipation and discussions about this program had never stopped.
Now the show was finally born, and it just happened to appear during this period of Digital Detox with extrely few entertainnt options, perfect for getting through this ti.
The students mobilized collectively, groups of people from several dormitories together, to receive the television sets and discs.
Not just the students, the faculty and staff also received them. And unlike the students sharing one set per several dormitories, the faculty and staff each got one set per person.
Guan Tong also received a TV and discs, placing them in his dorm room.
After setting it up, he inserted the disc containing the first episode of "Battle of the Ascendants" into the optical drive.
The drive retracted, and the TV automatically started playing.
The opening featured lively sound effects, accompanied by a montage of clips showing several Ascendants sparring and fighting.
From those fragnted clips, Guan Tong actually spotted a familiar figure.
To be precise, a "cha figure."
Several clips showed a pink-and-white cha, precisely the "Snow Traces" he had fought against on Holy Grail Island.
"Didn't expect to beco a guest on a variety show... I guess the championship is rigged for you?"
Guan Tong looked at the disc's packaging box, which had an introduction to the program, roughly stating that "Battle of the Ascendants" aid to showcase the heroic combat prowess of outstanding Ascendants, as well as another side of their lives.
If the content format was sparring matches, then he truly felt the Snow Traces had imnse competitive potential. A rigged championship wasn't really a joke; this was probably also why it appeared more frequently in the opening montage.
When the main show started, the content matched the na, mainly focusing on sparring between different Ascendants.
Of course, following variety show pacing, it didn't start fighting imdiately. First ca character introductions, profiles, and so on.
After watching for over ten minutes, Guan Tong picked up the remote and turned off the TV.
It wasn't that it was bad; on the contrary, just from the opening, one could tell the planners were very experienced, with excellent pacing control, taking the safest route of a gradual, engaging narrative.
It was just that Guan Tong had more important things to do now; this kind of show was more suitable for watching before bed at night.
He glanced at the ti: 5:10 PM.
"Just about ti."
He got up, left the dorm, exited the campus, and arrived outside the Material Distribution Departnt building promptly at 6 PM.
Shortly after, Xu Xiaotian ran out, holding a folded piece of paper, which he handed to Guan Tong.
"Tong-ge, I've written down the locations of the Xisiya gathering points in Pinglu City on this. I don't know if it's complete, but any area that receives supplies from us is definitely marked."
"Good, thanks. You can go back to work."
"Alright, Tong-ge, just co find
if you need anything else!"
Xu Xiaotian jogged back inside. Guan Tong unfolded the paper in his hand, which already marked several locations.
The more important thing he needed to do was naturally to resolve the death threat.
Previously, from Yelanka, he learned the person was sent by her own older brother, and according to her, the operatives' location would be at the Xisiya gathering points in the city.
This was because Xisiya people had distinctive appearances, easily recognizable, and would stand out too much among other groups.
Moreover, Guan Tong also believed that people from this country had a fundantally colder disposition, finding it difficult to connect deeply with people from other ethnic groups, basically staying only within their own ethnic circles.
So yesterday, Guan Tong found Xu Xiaotian and asked him to compile a comprehensive record of Xisiya gathering points.
Xu Xiaotian's Material Distribution Departnt was responsible for transporting supplies to everyone in all of Pinglu City, so naturally, they had a thorough understanding of how many people were in which area and who they were.
One could say the departnt with the clearest grasp of a specific area's population wasn't the Police Departnt, nor the Archives Departnt, but the Material Departnt. Because without knowing the exact population, the Material Departnt's "eliminate waste" regulation couldn't be enforced—how could you eliminate waste if you didn't even know exactly how many people needed supplies?
After obtaining the location map, Guan Tong's next step was to investigate each one.
If not for the Digital Detox rule, it wouldn't be so troubleso; he could just find a way to investigate the surveillance caras near the academy.
But the existence of this rule ant cara data couldn't be accessed either. Because nowadays, caras were all fully networked; viewing their content carried the risk of violating the rules.
And Guan Tong's investigation thod certainly wasn't asking. His thod was to deploy a large number of Shadows at each location, letting them monitor these Xisiya living areas.
This way, as long as anyone took action, he could detect it promptly—his basis for believing there would definitely be action was that he continued teaching Yelanka.
That's right, if the person who issued the death threat discovered the target wasn't deterred by the threat and continued doing it, what would the next step be?
If one lacked the ability to make the threat real, then the threat itself was aningless.
Guan Tong was almost certain that Yelanka's brother wasn't just making empty threats.
If he ignored the threat and continued doing as he pleased, her brother would definitely order his subordinates to carry out the threat.
At that ti, by noticing who was moving suspiciously, Guan Tong could strike first.
Although he could also do nothing and just wait for the enemy to co to him, that wasn't his style. Even confident in his own strength, he preferred taking the initiative rather than waiting passively.
Once everything was set up, the next step was to wait patiently.
What surprised Guan Tong was that before his patience was even tested, the fish took the bait.
That very night, the shadow line he had deployed in one of the Xisiya gathering areas detected unusual movent.
Three Xisiya people in total left the gathering point together after 11:30 PM, heading precisely in the direction of the academy.
The three were completely unaware they were being monitored, even discussing the details of their operation along the way.
"After our warning, that teacher t with the target alone again. According to the orders our master gave us before we ca, since the warning was ineffective, eliminate that teacher."
"According to the information that ca out, the dormitory building where that teacher lives already has Beixing soldiers stationed. We need to be careful, not make too much noise."
"Right, just kill the person; if we make a big scene, it'll be hard to explain."
"Kill the person first, then we imdiately leave the city to lay low. No matter what, if a teacher valued by Beixing is killed, they'll definitely investigate rigorously."
As they discussed the operational details, they suddenly felt sothing was off and stopped together.
"Why is it getting darker and darker?"
At so point, the light on the road had been growing dimr. At first, they thought there were fewer streetlights, but that wasn't the case at all.
"Not good! We've been ambushed!"
"There's an enemy!!"
Only then did the three realize they had fallen into so kind of special environnt.
Everything around them was rapidly being swallowed by a terrifying darkness; this was definitely not a natural situation.
"It's a barrier, the enemy used a barrier item!"
"Break it together!"
The three attacked simultaneously, using their own abilities and items to strike at the sa patch of darkness, yet it seed to have no effect.
"What's going on?"
"Impossible, my item can unleash destructive power exceeding a thousand points of Mind Power. There's no reason it can't break a normal barrier item!"
"Don't panic, the enemy just trapped us. These barrier items have very short durations. As long as we don't panic, we'll be fine."
The three cald down, standing back-to-back, vigilantly watching their surroundings.
They strained their eyes, trying to see clearly, but couldn't see anything.
It was too dark. They tried using illumination items, but they only lit up a small area around them; everything slightly farther away was completely swallowed by darkness.
"Damn it, who exactly is it? And how did our identities get exposed?"
"Spineless bastard! Dare to co out!" one of them shouted loudly in the Beixing language. The other two frowned, thinking it was useless.
Yet unexpectedly, the other party actually responded.
"You sneak into soone else's ho to slip notes and throw trash without even saying hello, and you dare call others spineless?"
Hearing that sowhat ethereal, unstable voice, the three tried to locate its position in the darkness based on the sound, but couldn't determine it at all.
Need to make him speak a few more sentences!
The three understood each other without words. Just as they were about to speak, they simultaneously sensed sothing wrong.
"Mind Power..."
That strange feeling of physical weakness reminded the three of sothing, and they all opened their Terminal panels.
Looking at the numbers on the panel showing their slowly decreasing Mind Power reserves, all three fell into panic: "Mind Power is decreasing! What's happening?!"
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