August 9th, morning.
Guan Tong had just gotten up not long ago when he suddenly received a phone call from Xu Xiaotian.
"Tong-ge!"
"Xiaotian, what's up?"
"Nothing special, the academy starts tomorrow, right? I just finished moving into the dorm and had nothing to do, so I thought I'd give you a call."
"How's the dorm?"
"It's aweso!" Xu Xiaotian laughed. "They're all double rooms, super spacious. And they have all the appliances, it's really comfortable to live in!"
"That's good."
"What about you, Tong-ge? Where are you living now?"
"I'm just staying wherever."
Guan Tong was still living in that small property managent storage room. He wasn't envious of Xu Xiaotian or anyone else. For him, where he lived was truly unimportant; any place that could shelter him from wind and rain and let him sleep was fine.
"By the way, Tong-ge, I've been researching and developing my Instant Noodles item recently. Guess what happened?" Xu Xiaotian's voice carried a hint of excitent.
"I developed noodles that can increase movent speed! Pretty cool, right?"
"That's impressive." Guan Tong said, surprised. "If you can develop more noodles with different abilities, your item could be very useful."
"That's what I think too! Hehe. Oh, and about that challenge competition... You know I passed the Food Prohibition rule with my instant noodles, so I have an invitation.
I originally wanted to ask if you wanted to form a team, but it seems like team formation has to be done face-to-face. Since you said you're not coming to Yong'an... I'm planning to team up with a few classmates who enrolled with ."
"That's fine, you guys go ahead and form a team." Guan Tong said.
"Do you have a team, Tong-ge?"
"Yes." Guan Tong thought to himself that his team of one person still counted as a team. "Don't worry about , Xiaotian."
"Alright then." Xu Xiaotian said. "I'll call you again next ti, gotta go now!"
"Okay."
After hanging up, Guan Tong thought for a mont.
After these eight or nine days, people had pretty much fully researched the newly opened "Team Formation" function.
First, as Xu Xiaotian said, this function had to be used face-to-face; you couldn't just add soone as a friend remotely using a digital ID and then team up.
Secondly, after two people ford a team, so special Mind Power items could be shared and used between teammates.
For example, Xu Xiaotian's [Instant Noodles]. During the third rule [Fasting Therapy], only he could eat his instant noodles; others simply couldn't eat them.
But after the "Team Formation" function opened, if two people were teammates and a similar food prohibition rule appeared again, Xu Xiaotian could give his instant noodles to his teammate to eat, allowing the teammate to complete the challenge as well.
It was foreseeable that after the team formation function opened, the status of Ascendants who possessed "support-type" Mind Power items would see a certain rise.
Just like Xu Xiaotian's situation. His [Instant Noodles] item was previously very weak, but he developed noodles with special effects himself. And in a situation where they could be shared with teammates, they might co in handy at critical monts.
Guan Tong thought to himself: "I estimate that teams that pay more attention to personnel composition will arrange for one or two teammates with support-type items."
Returning to himself, Guan Tong wasn't envious of others. He knew that as long as he had enough ti to develop, whatever he needed, he could satisfy with the [Wordless Book].
This was also his greatest confidence in daring to survive alone. As long as his Mind Power grew slowly later and the [Wordless Book] opened enough pages, he could write whatever he needed.
If he needed food, he could write "food"; if he needed transportation, he could write "vehicle";
Guan Tong had confidence in himself. He believed that after he developed, he could completely rely on the [Wordless Book] to live a self-sufficient life.
But not yet.
"Among the people I know, besides Xu Xiaotian, Shi Jingyi should also have an invitation and will participate in this challenge competition."
Guan Tong thought that Shi Jingyi's special "Mind Power flow" ability was indeed powerful, and it naturally achieved both offense and defense. Teaming up with her should have a high win rate.
But not to ntion that Guan Tong hadn't even exchanged contact information with her, even if he had, she was currently in the capital Yong'an, and he had no plans to go there for the ti being.
"Better to focus on doing my own things well."
Xu Xiaotian's phone call made Guan Tong ponder for a mont. Then he returned to his daily routine, strengthening himself according to the thod he had previously decided on.
Since the beginning of the Doomsday Rules, he had gotten used to slowly accumulating and improving alone. To so extent, this was his comfort zone, and it had also fostered a non-anxious mindset in him.
By the evening of the next day, the 10th, one-third of the thirty days had passed, and he had stored 280 points of Mind Power.
That's right, all the Mind Power recovered in the first ten days, he stored at a one-tenth conversion rate.
Adding this to the previous remaining 50 points, his reserve Mind Power had now reached 330 points.
For the next 20 days, he planned to allocate them to storing bullets for the Silver Hunt and adding words on the second page of the [Wordless Book].
At night, sitting on the folding bed, Guan Tong opened his notebook and logged into the official website of the Mind Power Developnt Academy.
Just as Shi Jingyi had said before leaving, all the courses from the first day of school today had been recorded and uploaded.
Although the academy had a Mind Power upper limit requirent for enrolling students, that was only a necessary asure due to limited space.
Otherwise, without enrollnt requirents, a large number of people nationwide would definitely flood in to enroll. At that point, not to ntion the academy couldn't accommodate so many people, the entire Yong'an might not be able to handle such a large population.
Therefore, so that Ascendants who didn't et the requirents could also learn synchronously, all courses had recorded online video lessons.
Thus, the only difference between online and offline learning was that online learners couldn't ask teachers questions offline and receive specialized tutoring and answers.
Guan Tong didn't rush to watch the videos. First, he looked at the academy's "faculty strength."
The academy's staff list was publicly listed on the official website.
The dean was "Zhou Qinfeng." He was originally the principal of a well-known university, experienced, and now transferred to the academy as dean.
After that were three main lecturers, corresponding to the three major courses.
"Philosophical Reflections on Mind Power," main lecturer Ouyang Shanyue.
"Research on Mind Power Items," main lecturer Zheng Kexue.
"Mind Power Flow," main lecturer Shi Jingyi.
Besides the three major courses, there were so other courses, such as "Disaster Survival Studies," "Analysis and Research of the Fire Thief," "Doomsday Psychology," etc...
If the other courses were more like electives, then the three major courses were the main required courses, the ones you had to attend.
Although Guan Tong didn't go to the academy, he just didn't like that kind of environnt much, but he was still willing to learn a thing or two from good courses.
He didn't start by watching Shi Jingyi's "Mind Power Flow" course first. Instead, he followed the order and first watched Ouyang Shanyue's first lesson of "Philosophical Reflections on Mind Power."
Ouyang Shanyue was originally a philosophy teacher. After the Doomsday Rules descended, he turned to researching Mind Power.
Now, in the first lesson, he stood on the high podium and raised a guiding question.
"What is the essence of Mind Power?"
So students said it was "special energy," so said it was "the power of the Fire Thief," and others said it was "dark matter."
After listening, Ouyang Shanyue gave his own viewpoint.
"I believe the essence of Mind Power is the essence of this world—that is, this material world is created by our minds or consciousness, and Mind Power is the dium that transforms within it."
As soon as his words fell, the classroom imdiately erupted in an uproar.
A student imdiately questioned, "Isn't this typical idealism?"
"Yeah. What's the difference between this and 'the universe disappears when I close my eyes'?"
"Consciousness determines matter? This idea is a bit old-fashioned, isn't it?"
Facing the doubts of many students, Ouyang Shanyue wasn't angry. Instead, he patiently waited for the classroom to quiet down before continuing.
"Classmates, I used to think the sa as you, believing idealistic viewpoints were unacceptable. But after Mind Power appeared and I personally experienced its usefulness, I developed a completely new viewpoint."
"This viewpoint is: although the essence of the world is idealistic, our human minds are too weak to interfere with it. And 'Mind Power' strengthens this power of ours and serves as a dium, giving us the possibility to change reality with consciousness."
"The main content of my course revolves around this core viewpoint, continuously exploring the essence of Mind Power."
At this point, a student stood up and asked, "Teacher Ouyang, I want to know what's the point of learning this course? Even if your viewpoint is correct, what practical help does it give us?"
Hearing this, Ouyang Shanyue smiled and asked, "May I ask this student, how long does it take for your Mind Power to naturally recover 1 point?"
"Uh, about fifteen minutes. Is that important?"
Ouyang Shanyue said, "I recover 1 point every three minutes."
Whoa!
The classroom imdiately erupted in exclamations. Guan Tong, watching the video from his notebook, also showed a surprised expression.
Three minutes to recover 1 point?
Guan Tong himself recovered about 1 point every five or six minutes on average. He thought that was fast enough, but he didn't expect this Ouyang Shanyue's recovery speed to be almost twice as fast as his.
The questioning student was even more stunned, saying incredulously, "Th-three minutes to recover 1 point? That's five tis my speed..."
Ouyang Shanyue waved his hand, signaling the student to sit down. Then he said, "I believe that the more thoroughly you understand the essence of Mind Power, the faster your recovery speed will be. It's like solving a math problem; when you thoroughly understand the knowledge points, your problem-solving speed naturally becos much faster... So, I hope everyone studies hard."
"No problem!"
"We'll definitely study hard!"
The students' enthusiasm was instantly ignited. Recovering 1 point of Mind Power every 3 minutes—this temptation was greater than anything!
Even Guan Tong decided to watch the online courses when he had free ti later; maybe he could also improve along the way.
Afterwards, he watched the other two major courses.
Zheng Kexue's "Research on Mind Power Items" course mainly covered the analysis, listing, and in-depth research of various items. The purpose was to let students better match items according to their own situations.
Guan Tong watched for a while and felt that the content of this lesson gave him a sense of "customized equipnt for online ga characters."
It was definitely useful. The academy, backed by the authorities, had a huge item database. Just watching more, if nothing else, could at least help you understand the effects of many items.
Finally, he watched Shi Jingyi's "Mind Power Flow" course. Unlike the other two lecturers, as soon as Shi Jingyi entered the classroom, she caused waves of low exclamations among the students.
This was no wonder, after all, Shi Jingyi was that extrely rare type of beauty with heroic spirit. Coupled with her prominent martial artist temperant cultivated over many years, her extrely tall stature, and the long braid that reached her waist, seeing her in reality would give a strong visual impact.
However, soon, the students began to complain incessantly. Because as soon as Shi Jingyi ca up, she posted a "human body acupuncture point chart" on the big screen and explicitly stated, "If you want to achieve sothing in my course, first morize these few hundred acupuncture points!"
Seeing this, Guan Tong couldn't help but give a bitter smile: "Starting off by having to morize a few hundred acupuncture points, no wonder Shi Jingyi said her course required 'patience' before she left..."
After watching the three major courses, Guan Tong closed his notebook and lay down.
"I can do my own strengthening during the day, and at night when resting and waiting for Mind Power to recover, I can watch the online courses and learn a thing or two."
He thought to himself, but he had no thoughts of entertainnt at all.
This made Guan Tong himself find it very strange. When the rules first started, he would still play gas and read novels. Now, he spent the entire day grappling with things related to Mind Power, and he still didn't feel tired.
The night passed without incident.
The next day, Guan Tong was awakened by a series of "boom rumble" excavator sounds.
He went outside the residential area to take a look. After the fifth rule, the urban reconstruction work continued. Currently, the demolition work had reached the street where his own residential area was located.
"Looks like they'll start demolishing my residential area next month..."
Thinking about having to find a place to live again, Guan Tong couldn't help but feel it was a hassle.
He really wanted to take out the [Wordless Book] and write sothing like "shelter" to materialize for himself to live in—maybe it really could work, but it definitely wasn't sothing his current amount of Mind Power could achieve.
"I probably won't need to move before the challenge competition... Hmm, I'll figure out where to go after the competition ends. Today, I'll start adding words to the second page of the Wordless Book."
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