The mont the Fire Thief announced the rule, the originally clear sky instantly turned pitch black.
There were no stars or moon, as if the entire world had been suddenly draped with a light-proof curtain.
At the sa ti, so strange shrieking sounds simultaneously erupted from all over the world.
That sound resembled a whistle, sharp and piercing, tearing through the night sky and spreading across heaven and earth.
Accompanying this sound, certain presences began to stir restlessly.
At a temporary corpse containnt facility in Yunhua City, several staff mbers were gathered in the break room with the lights on, discussing the newly announced rule.
"What exactly are the living dead? Zombies?"
"Not sure... Let's wait for the official guide to co out first."
"Eliminating one living dead gives an extra 1 Ascension Coin during settlent! If we eliminate eighty or a hundred of them, and get the settlent after the rule ends, wouldn't that be a small windfall!"
"I'd be perfectly satisfied just eliminating ten, completing the challenge so my Mind Power doesn't decay."
"Sa here. Although the Fire Thief called this a reward stage, it's still a Doomsday Rule after all. Can it really let people farm coins so easily?"
Thump!
As they were talking, a loud noise suddenly ca from the glass door. Startled, they turned to look, and with just one glance, they were utterly horrified.
They saw a person pressed against the door, face contorted grotesquely, eyes emitting a sinister crimson red glow. What terrified them most was that this person was wearing a gray robe, clearly the standard uniform issued for temporarily contained corpses.
Had the dead co back to life?!
"No, no no no!"
They imdiately realized that if the "living dead" in this rule weren't appearing out of thin air, but were resurrected corpses, then the temporary corpse containnt facility they were currently in would undoubtedly be the most dangerous place!
Thump thump thump thump thump thump!
The next mont, their premonition ca true. A large number of corpses wearing gray robes sward to the entrance, pressing forward and backward. The glass door soon couldn't withstand the pressure and shattered with a crack.
"We're, we're done for!"
The mont the glass shattered, their minds went completely blank, unable to muster even a shred of thought about resisting.
"ROAR!!!!!"
Dozens of living dead crowded into the break room, roaring like beasts as they pounced on the staff mbers, tearing their despair and lives alike into shreds.
At the sa ti, that shrieking sound continued to propagate through the night sky.
Soon, it spread beyond the city, reached the suburbs, and extended to villages and towns.
Those villages that had been buried and vanished during the fourth rule, amidst the blizzard, had reappeared after the snow lted.
What reappeared, besides the villages, were nurous corpses soaked in the lted snow water.
Due to insufficient manpower in the city, over the past month, efforts had only focused on disaster relief wrap-up within the city and survival-oriented renovations. The outlying villages hadn't been attended to, leaving many corpses soaking in water for days.
And now, as that shrieking sound reached them, these corpses trembled before rising from the water one after another.
So were already waterlogged and bloated, showing signs of giantism; others were incomplete, limbs crushed by collapsed houses. But what they uniformly possessed was a pair of eerie crimson eyes emitting a red glow.
After a brief silence, these resurrected living dead erupted into roars and charged en masse toward Yunhua City in the distance, where countless lights were rapidly igniting in the darkness!
...
Inside the residential property managent storage room, after the Fire Thief announced the rule, Guan Tong also heard that piercing shriek.
The sound ca from far away in the south, indescribable, and extrely unpleasant to hear.
"This rule only lasts 24 hours, the shortest duration so far... and the Fire Thief specifically called it a 'reward stage'..."
Guan Tong felt it wasn't that simple. If it were truly a reward stage, couldn't they just give every Ascendant a thousand or eight hundred Ascension Coins directly? Why bother disguising it as a rule?
Looking at the sky that had turned pitch black in a second, he felt sowhat uneasy. He first closed the door securely, then hurriedly opened his personal panel to check the Hidden Rule.
Focusing his attention to stare at the fifth Doomsday Rule, soon the color particles rearranged, and the Hidden Rule appeared.
[Hidden Rule Five: Conversion Source]
[Hidden Rule Content: During this rule, eliminating living dead using items or abilities unrelated to Mind Power will not count toward the elimination tally. Besides the living dead, within a certain regional range, there exists a special 'Matriarch Converter'. The 'Matriarch Converter' can transform human corpses into living dead by emitting shrieks. Eliminating the 'Matriarch Converter' grants high special rewards and prematurely ends the living dead conversion in that area.]
[Note: During the rule's effective period of 24 hours, the "Matriarch Converter" will emit shrieks at irregular intervals, converting human corpses into living dead. If you decide to eliminate it to end the conversion, rember it cannot be killed by items or abilities unrelated to Mind Power, and it possesses formidable power, making it an extrely fearso enemy.]
The fact that eliminating living dead using ans unrelated to Mind Power wouldn't count toward the tally was sothing Guan Tong had anticipated early on. Not just him, most people should be able to guess this after the rule was announced.
What truly took him by surprise was the existence of the "Matriarch Converter."
After reading the Hidden Rule, Guan Tong finally understood that the extrely unpleasant shrieking sound heard right after the Fire Thief announced the rule must have been emitted by this Matriarch Converter!
"How many human corpses were converted into living dead by that one shriek?" Guan Tong felt a sense of foreboding. "So many people died during the fourth rule; it's impossible all those corpses were cremated. There must be many still temporarily stored in places like morgues..."
"Moreover, judging from the Hidden Rule, this 'Matriarch Converter' will emit shrieks at irregular intervals during the rule's 24-hour effective period. If humans killed by the living dead are then continuously converted into new living dead, then..."
Guan Tong felt the consequences would be unthinkable!
Especially since the Hidden Rule's note explicitly stated that the "Matriarch Converter" cannot be killed by anything unrelated to Mind Power. This ant even if the authorities discovered its existence and tried to use military firepower to kill it and end the conversion, they would fail!
Only an Ascendant, using Mind Power-related items or abilities to kill it, could end the conversion!
So now, Guan Tong faced only two choices.
Should he find a good defensive position, hold his ground, and eliminate any approaching living dead? Or should he take the initiative, venture out, and risk seeking and eliminating the Matriarch Converter?
Guan Tong looked at the Silver Hunter in his hand, remained silent for a mont, then made his decision.
"The direction I heard the shriek from earlier seed to be from the south... That's the direction I need to go."
"But I can't act recklessly. First, I need to figure out the combat capabilities of the living dead."
Guan Tong needed to know: were these living dead similar to those shambling, slow-moving zombies? Or were they monsters that, like mad dogs, would wildly charge and pounce upon seeing people?
The difference between the two was undoubtedly huge! Their danger levels weren't even on the sa plane.
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