Doomsday Rules Counterasures Research Office.
"The remaining living dead all died automatically after the rule ended," a researcher reported.
"Have their remains cremated as soon as possible," soone sighed. "I never expected the Fire Thief to utilize the corpses in the rules. It's truly insane."
"From the very first rule, the Fire Thief's inhuman nature has been fully exposed. There's really no need to think of it as a being with emotions."
"However, the casualties from this rule weren't that high. Although many people failed to complete the challenge... at least their lives were spared."
Gao Liangwei listened to everyone's words, then turned to ask Dr. Zhang, "How did the Doomsday teams perform?"
Dr. Zhang replied, "Out of the five teams, Teams One, Two, and Four all completed their missions, eliminating the 'Shriekers' in their respective areas. Team Three and Team Five did not complete theirs."
"Two teams failed their missions?" Gao Liangwei frowned. This did not et his expectations. "What were the reasons?"
"Team Five was on the verge of success, but the 'Shrieker' suddenly gathered a large number of living dead to besiege the team mbers. It seized the chance to escape, and we've been unable to locate it since."
"The reason Team Three failed..." Dr. Zhang paused, "...according to the reported situation, they arrived too late. The 'Shrieker' in their assigned area had already been eliminated by civilian Ascendants."
Gao Liangwei was surprised. "Civilians that strong?"
"Yes. There were two individuals in total. One of them is Shi Jingyi, one of the specially invited lead instructors at the Mind Power Developnt Academy. The identity of the other person is currently unknown, but they are suspected to have so connection with Shi Jingyi."
After hearing this, Gao Liangwei's expression darkened.
Dr. Zhang said, "Actually, there are quite a few powerful Ascendants among the civilians. It's not impossible for this situation to occur."
"Are you saying it's reasonable that Team Three, with local ard support and having pinpointed the target location first, was still less efficient than civilian powerhouses?"
"..."
"Dr. Zhang, we invested massive resources to build these five teams, not for them to fail."
"I understand. I will strengthen their managent and training."
Gao Liangwei thought for a mont, then said, "Give Teams Three and Five another chance. If they participate as a team in the Ascendant Challenge Tournant one month from now and still fail to achieve satisfactory results, then it will prove they are not worth further focused cultivation."
Dr. Zhang's expression turned serious, and he nodded. "Understood."
...
Guan Tong opened the Ascension Store. The first thing that caught his attention wasn't the newly listed items, but the 【Basic Weapon Box·Bronze Grade】, one of the earliest items listed, which now displayed a remaining quantity at the bottom.
"It seems quite a few people bought weapon boxes during this rule."
He wasn't exactly surprised. He had already seen online that many people bought these boxes just to use Mind Power-related items to eliminate living dead and earn extra Ascension Coins.
Most of them chose "spear" as their self-selected cold weapon. There were many related videos online—at a certain gathering point, people blocked the entrance with debris, then used their chosen spears to stab through the gaps at the heads of the living dead outside.
This was undoubtedly a relatively safe thod of killing enemies.
Guan Tong certainly had no intention of buying one. With Silver Hunt in hand, he had no need for such basic cold weapons.
Guan Tong selected "Sort by Listing Ti" to view the new items listed after this rule. There were two in total.
【Multi-functional Lockpick】: Can be used to open various basic locks. One-ti use item.
【Price: 30 Ascension Coins】
...
【Small Reconnaissance Drone】: Upon use, scans the surrounding 100-ter range to locate human targets. One-ti use item.
【Price: 80 Ascension Coins】
...
"A lockpick and a drone?"
After looking at the two new items, Guan Tong felt a bit strange.
He felt these didn't seem to be introduced for the sixth rule mode, but rather new items for the Ascendant Challenge Tournant.
Especially the 【Small Reconnaissance Drone】. It can only be used to scan for humans, most likely intended for human-versus-human confrontations.
Guan Tong didn't buy them imdiately. He closed the store and opened the Market, wanting to see if there were any items he wanted.
As soon as he opened it, he discovered the prices of all items had skyrocketed across the board!
Guan Tong casually looked at a few items. Their effects were quite diocre, yet their prices were actually listed at several hundred Ascension Coins.
Items with slightly better effects had prices that directly broke a thousand.
He even saw items priced over ten thousand.
【Panacea】: Upon consumption, removes all current negative status effects, restores full physical strength and Mind Power.
【Price】: 15000 Ascension Coins
"...The effect of this Panacea is impressive, but this price..."
Guan Tong quickly understood what was happening.
It was related to the fifth rule.
Those large organizations, as well as official bodies, must have obtained a massive amount of extra Ascension Coin rewards during the fifth rule.
The individuals responsible for distribution, after pooling these coins together, possessed terrifying purchasing power.
Coupled with the upcoming Challenge Tournant in a month, any large organization would undoubtedly want to achieve sothing in this competition, so they spared no expense in sweeping the Market for items, investing in their organization's participants.
Naturally, this rapidly drove up the prices of good items in the Market!
Even so distribution personnel with a knack for comrcial investnt might treat this Market like stocks. They would first buy up a batch of items in bulk, then wait for Ascendants to accumulate more coins, causing "inflation," before selling them at a higher price to profit from the difference.
"I thought my thousand Ascension Coins was a lot, but..."
Guan Tong felt sowhat helpless. He had still underestimated the Market's frenzy and the resource consolidation power of large organizations.
After looking for a while, he didn't find a single item he wanted to buy.
Items with slightly decent effects cost over a thousand, while poorer ones still sold for several hundred.
Not wanting to be a sucker, Guan Tong closed the Market.
He reopened the Store and bought one 【Multi-functional Lockpick】 and one 【Small Reconnaissance Drone】, spending a total of 110 Ascension Coins.
He planned to keep the remaining coins for now, waiting for the "frenzied buying spree" trend in the Market to subside.
The fifth rule just ended. So large organizations have many coins and want to quickly snatch up more good items. He wouldn't join the fray.
"I'll check again in ten days or half a month to see if I can buy anything."
Guan Tong closed the Terminal, took a stool outside, and sat under the warm sun around nine o'clock, contemplating his plans for the coming month.
His goal was clear: to further enhance his combat power.
Revolving around this goal, he planned to do the following:
First, as before, stockpile bullets for Silver Hunt.
Silver Hunt proved extrely useful in this rule. Although Shadow had the final showdown and eliminated the Matriarch Converter, Silver Hunt was still needed for clearing out multiple enemies in a scene.
Second, stockpile Mind Power.
In the previous week, he stored a little over a hundred points. This month, he aid to store even more.
Because this Challenge Tournant is a team battle mode. Suppose he had to face a full five-person squad alone. Even if the average Mind Power per person in that squad was only 80 points, five people would total 400 points. If each had 100, that would be 500 points!
Guan Tong didn't necessarily need to store that much, but he planned to store at least 300 points. Only then would he have the confidence to handle multiple enemies simultaneously.
The third area for improvent, he believed, still lay with "Shadow."
After having Shadow eliminate the Matriarch Converter using the "internal explosion" thod this ti, Guan Tong gained a new understanding of Shadow's formidable aspects.
As long as the enemy was unprepared, its Substantial-Ins substantial transformation could completely invade anyone's body, then materialize and explode internally. The enemy might die without even knowing how.
But the prerequisite for achieving this was that the enemy couldn't know about this capability. If the enemy knew Shadow's characteristics and took precautions, succeeding would beco several tis more difficult.
Therefore, keeping Shadow's abilities secret was paramount.
But this also made Guan Tong think in reverse—what if the enemy had similar covert thods? He could use Shadow to ambush others, and others could similarly use thods to ambush him.
"Only by staying alive can you deal damage. If my main body's defense is insufficient, no matter how strong Shadow is, it will be severely limited."
Thinking this, Guan Tong took out the Wordless Book and summoned Shadow.
Staring at it for a while, Guan Tong suddenly had an idea.
Since Shadow can transform, why couldn't it be used for both defense and attack simultaneously?
He decided to try imdiately. Through ntal command, Guan Tong made Shadow transform.
He saw Shadow stretch from the middle, one part covering his body, another part extending forward.
Materialize.
With a single thought, the part of Shadow covering his body instantly transford into Shadow Armor, while the extended part transford into a long spear.
"It really works!"
A look of joy appeared on Guan Tong's face.
He had previously been sowhat confined to Shadow's single transformation. In reality, Shadow could completely undergo "zonal transformation," one part turning into this, another part turning into that, achieving both offense and defense as one.
However, this also faced an unavoidable problem: excessive Mind Power consumption.
"The larger the volu of Shadow's transformation, the more Mind Power it consus. If the enemy is close to , it's fine. But if the enemy is far from , then the 'Shadow Armor' part for defense and the 'weapon' part for offense would need to be connected by a long shadow line."
This "shadow line," after materialization, would also consu a significant amount of Mind Power.
"What if this line is made extrely thin?"
Guan Tong made Shadow beco insubstantial, then, through ntal command, stretched Shadow as much as possible to see how thin that line could beco.
He found that in the extre state, Shadow could be thinned to about the width of a hair, around zero point sothing milliters. It couldn't get any thinner.
At this width, materialization seed to consu very little Mind Power. But length also had to be considered—imagine a hair zero point sothing milliters thick. If its length were infinitely extended, the overall volu wouldn't be small either.
Therefore, to achieve offense and defense as one, the distance to the enemy couldn't be too far. Otherwise, he would inevitably have to prioritize one aspect, unable to manage both simultaneously.
"...Ultimately, it's still a lack of Mind Power. If Mind Power could reach a thousand, using Shadow would be much more free and unrestrained."
First page "Transformation Physical Form Guan Tong," second page "gun," third page "Mind Power"... He flipped to the fourth page, hesitated, then flipped back.
With his current level of Mind Power, writing on the third page was already so strenuous. If he opened a new page, even if he managed to write sothing over a month, he absolutely wouldn't be able to materialize it.
Rather than waste it like that, it was better to brainstorm ideas for the existing pages.
The "Shadow" and "Mind Power" pages weren't easy to modify. On one hand, he didn't have many ideas right now. On the other, both currently t his needs, so no changes were necessary for now.
But that solitary character "gun" on the second page...
Guan Tong flipped to the second page, looked at that lonely character, and began to consider whether he could add new "components" to his Silver Hunt... After all, his current gun, aside from being able to fire 3 types of bullets and display the bullet count, had no other functions.
"What if I could add other types of bullets... or maybe add a silencer? When dealing with the living dead before, the gunshot noise was really loud. After killing one group of living dead, the gunshots would attract another batch... It's manageable against unintelligent enemies like the living dead, but if I were dealing with human enemies, as soon as the gun fires, others would definitely imdiately seek cover and hide."
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