"Using violent ans to put others into a sleep state allows oneself to obtain one 'Alertness Mint'..."
"Using this item maintains absolute wakefulness for 3 hours..."
Guan Tong frowned as he paced back and forth in the living room.
"If this Hidden Rule is real and applies to everyone, then soone will definitely discover its existence very soon."
"With billions of people worldwide, all doing different things at the sa ti, who knows how many people were fighting when the Doomsday Rules were announced. If soone just knocked another person unconscious and imdiately received an 'Alertness Mint,' they would quickly realize this is a Hidden Rule."
"To maintain their advantage, those who discover the Hidden Rule will likely choose to keep it secret. But since the trigger condition isn't too difficult to et, it will eventually be exposed and spread... Soon many people will know about this Hidden Rule, and what consequences would that cause? A nationwide free-for-all?"
"No, that's not right... If considered from a national level perspective, after confirming the authenticity of this Hidden Rule, to prevent massive chaos, the national authorities would definitely choose to block the information, prohibit people from going out, and wouldn't even rule out temporarily shutting down the internet to prevent people from fighting each other."
"Looking at it this way, if soone wants to profit from this Hidden Rule, the optimal approach would be to knock out more people to obtain enough 'Alertness Mints' before the information spreads and before people are prohibited from going out. Then lock themselves at ho and rely on these mints to safely survive the seventy-two hours."
"This kind of thing..."
Guan Tong shook his head; he didn't plan to do it.
Knowing full well that others would die after falling unconscious, this approach was no different from intentional murder in his view.
And it wasn't just killing one person either.
Once started, it couldn't be stopped.
Because one "Alertness Mint" only maintains wakefulness for 3 hours, while the "sleep deprivation" rule lasts for 72 hours.
This ans that to guarantee a 100% survival rate, taking one every three hours would require 24 mints total. Even cutting that in half would require 12 mints, equivalent to plundering 12 lives.
"To increase your own chances of survival, would you choose to plunder others' right to live?"
The note accompanying this Hidden Rule had clearly stated the essence of this matter.
Guan Tong's choice was "No."
"Ding dong ding dong dong."
His phone rang at that mont, not with a call sound, but with the distinctive voice call notification tone of a social dia app.
Guan Tong glanced at it and was sowhat surprised to see the call was initiated from the class group chat. He answered: "Fang Qian?"
A female voice filled with anxiety ca from the phone: "Guan Tong, are you ho? Are you alone?"
Fang Qian was Guan Tong's classmate, a delicate-looking girl who wore thin-frad glasses and had excellent academic performance, never falling below the top three in class rankings.
"Yes, what's the matter?"
"Guan Tong, I... my parents are both at research institutes in other cities. Transportation everywhere has stopped now, they can't co back at all, and I'm ho alone. The official recomndations say it's best not to be alone during these 72 hours, and keeping conversation with others is one of the best ways to maintain wakefulness... So I, I thought of you, because you..."
Guan Tong understood.
Everyone in class knew he was an orphan, so it was normal for him to be ho alone now.
As for Fang Qian's parents, they were a pair of well-known scientists. They traveled frequently to various science academies around the country, sothing all classmates had heard about.
Now with this sudden ergency disaster, Fang Qian's parents couldn't return from other cities, so it wasn't surprising that she thought of Guan Tong in her fear.
"You want to get through these 72 hours together with ?" Guan Tong asked directly.
"Um... is that okay?"
"Sure. Co directly to my ho now, I'll send you the address."
"Great! Thank you, Guan Tong."
"No need. Having soone to talk to will help
stay awake too."
"Okay... I'll co over right now!"
Guan Tong hung up and sent his ho address to Fang Qian.
About half an hour later, the doorbell rang.
Guan Tong confird through the peephole that it was Fang Qian, then opened the door to let her in.
"Guan Tong, sorry to bother you..."
Fang Qian was still wearing her blue-striped white school uniform and carried two bags as she entered the room, looking sowhat reserved as she glanced at Guan Tong.
"It's fine, make yourself comfortable," Guan Tong said.
"Okay... I brought so food. Ah, and this."
Fang Qian took out a box of stick-shaped instant coffee powder from her bag, with about a dozen sticks remaining.
"I used to brew a stick with water when staying up late doing test papers before. Never thought it would co in handy now."
Guan Tong said: "School evening self-study ends around 9 pm, right? And you still stayed up doing test papers after getting ho, no wonder your academic performance is so good."
Fang Qian pushed up her glasses sowhat sheepishly, then sat down in the living room with Guan Tong.
Noticing that Guan Tong hadn't turned on the TV or played any music through speakers, she asked curiously.
"Not necessary yet," Guan Tong explained. "Just like the coffee you brought, those things don't magically create energy - their essence is still depleting the body. Drinking it when not tired yet ans there'll be nothing left when truly exhausted, because it's all depleted completely."
Fang Qian suddenly understood: "I see. Yeah, that makes sense. The sa goes for listening to music - playing it so loud when not tired yet ans the effect will be much weaker when truly exhausted and sleepy."
"Right."
After this brief exchange, the two didn't have much more to talk about.
They weren't very familiar to begin with - in three years of high school, they hadn't even exchanged a hundred words.
Guan Tong picked up a book to read, while Fang Qian restlessly scrolled through her phone, occasionally glancing at Guan Tong from the corner of her eye.
He's actually this composed...
Online information and class group chats were exploding with activity, yet Guan Tong barely paid attention and still had the mind to read books, really...
Fang Qian thought to herself that the reason she thought of Guan Tong, found his social dia account from the class group, and even gathered the courage to co to his ho was because of Guan Tong's behavior before leaving school.
His earlier act of slapping Xu Beipeng in class to confirm he had stopped breathing, and being the first to leave school despite the horoom teacher's instructions... these things made her inexplicably feel that being around Guan Tong would provide a sense of security.
After more than an hour of mutual silence, Fang Qian bit her lip and took the initiative to start a conversation with the reading Guan Tong using information she saw online.
"Guan Tong, did you know? Lots of people online are demanding to go to hospitals now."
"To hospitals?" Guan Tong looked up at her.
"Yeah," Fang Qian said. "Apparently so dical students said they could stay awake by taking dication or getting injections containing stimulant components... Do you think that's really feasible?"
"Maybe. But even if that thod could help people survive, not everyone could use it. Those dications or injections are definitely limited and couldn't be supplied to everyone."
"That's true. Ah..." As Fang Qian spoke, she saw sothing on her phone and said incredulously, "There are actually people thanking the Fire Thief!"
Guan Tong guessed: "Probably people who wanted to end their lives."
Fang Qian looked at Guan Tong in surprise and nodded: "Yeah, the poster said they previously had cancer and had been suffering from cancer pain, having considered leaving several tis but lacking the courage. Now just sleeping once would allow them to leave this world peacefully and painlessly... So they're very grateful to the Fire Thief for bringing the Doomsday Rules."
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