Guan Tong imdiately ran a few tests related to network tracing.
He casually logged into several websites and checked the IP location for his address, but every result showed "unknown location."
Then he tried several different ways to test the IP and location, but every result was either unknown or failed to display.
He even opened a map app and selected positioning. A few seconds later the app popped up a ssage: "Service not available in this area."
"...I kind of feel like this shelter is in another world, as if it's been cut off from reality."
Guan Tong conducted an experint. He took his phone outside, started recording, then returned inside and closed the door. After a while he went back outside and checked the phone. The video had been recording the whole ti and the room did not disappear.
This proved the shelter existed physically, but its functions—more precisely, its energy—were self-generated. You could say they were produced by Mind Power, so the shelter did not connect to the outside world.
The electricity, water, and even the unlocatable wireless network were all products converted from Guan Tong's Mind Power.
This discovery made Guan Tong realize, for the first ti, that the shelter was far more powerful than he had imagined.
At the very least, he certainly couldn't convert Mind Power into water, electricity, and networks by himself... no wonder it was called an all-purpose shelter. He had underestimated it before.
"That makes browsing the web a lot more convenient."
Guan Tong thought. He rarely spoke online, mostly just read. He worried that if he said sothing important, soone with malicious intent could trace it through the network and find him.
Now that he had confird he couldn't be traced, if he obtained important intelligence later, he could safely post it online, which might help so people.
Buzz buzz...
His phone vibrated. Guan Tong picked it up; it was a call from Xu Xiaotian.
"Hey, Xiaotian, what's up?"
"Nothing much, Tong-ge. The challenge is over, right? I wanted to tell you, our team ran into a group of illegal squads and got wiped out at once," Xu Xiaotian sighed.
"The Wolfpack teams, huh."
Guan Tong had seen many players online angrily cursing the Tulip Federation's Wolfpack teams. Other countries sent teams out one by one, but the Federation's Wolfpack gathered dozens of teams to act together. How could anyone stand a chance?
He personally hadn't encountered them, and he didn't know whether the Wolfpack had gone after the Holy Grail later. He only knew that whoever entered the smoke, he treated the sa and eliminated.
"Exactly! I don't know what they were thinking. Even if they wiped out all the teams from other countries, wouldn't they eventually fight among themselves to decide the top ten?"
"Maybe they think that way the top-ten rewards will all go to teams from their federation."
"True... but it still feels disgusting. Hey, there's sothing big." Xu Xiaotian's tone turned more serious. "Tong-ge, did you know Yong'an might restrict entry soon?"
"Really?"
"Seems like too many people are flocking to the capital from all over the country every day. You wouldn't believe it. A lot of newcors have nowhere to live and have to sleep on the streets. A classmate told
Yong'an's population has passed a hundred million!"
"...That's a lot."
Guan Tong knew that after the heavy snow and the living dead rule, gacities had been accelerating their siphoning of the national population, including Yunhua; new arrivals had surged.
Thinking about Wang Yan's previous longing for the capital—hoping her daughter Chen Na could study and live there—he realized many people likely shared similar aspirations, naturally causing Yong'an's population explosion.
"Yeah. So I called to tell you. If you don't co now, once they start restricting entry it will be hard to get into the city. If you're worried about not having a place to stay, I'll make room for you in our dorm!"
"Thanks, Xiaotian, but I really don't plan to go to Yong'an in the short term. You should focus on studying at the academy. Don't worry about ."
"Alright then. When you do decide to co, call
and I'll pick you up!"
"Will do."
After hanging up, Guan Tong thought that apart from the gacities, other places would probably be sparsely populated from now on.
This situation wasn't unique to Beixing Country; other countries were likely similar. When facing disaster, people tended to cluster together for mutual defense.
"Better watch the online lessons."
Worrying wouldn't help, so Guan Tong refocused on the online class.
Over the next ten days or so, he mainly watched Shi Jingyi's courses, morizing acupuncture point locations and trying to learn Mind Power Flow.
According to Shi Jingyi, learning the basics of circulating internal energy required three months to half a year of diligent daily practice. But that experience was from before the Doomsday Rules era.
In this era, if talent was sufficient, progress would be much faster. What used to take half a year might now take three months. What used to take three months might now take one.
This was because the ergence of Mind Power had subtly begun to alter people's bodies.
Experts had been tracking and studying Mind Power's effects on human physiology and periodically released results.
Public reports indicated that people with higher Mind Power saw various bodily functions improve by about 30% to 50% in just a few months.
And that improvent trend was incrental. Researchers estimated that after another three to four rule cycles, people with high Mind Power could have physiological functions improved by 80% to 100% compared to before the Doomsday Rules.
That ant even without considering abilities or items, just looking at body quality and function, the high Mind Power people would be roughly twice as enhanced as their previous selves.
Doubling might still be humanly limited, but the most important thing was the growth trend. If this continued, humanity would eventually reach levels previously unthinkable.
What society would beco then was unpredictable. So people now could do little except not think too far ahead and instead focus on the rules they had to face now.
The ten days flew by.
Night of September 14.
Guan Tong lay in bed with the black cat Coal Ball sprawled beside him, lazily stretching.
"Tomorrow the new rule will be announced..."
Guan Tong opened the Terminal and checked the Ascension Store.
No new items had been listed.
Before the Ascendant Challenge Tournant, the store had stocked drones and lockpicking tools, clearly for that event.
But after the tournant, up until today, the Ascension Store hadn't added anything new.
That made it hard for people to predict what the sixth rule might involve.
"I bet the research departnts are more anxious than I am."
Without being able to predict the rule, you couldn't prepare resources in advance. Preparing after the rule was revealed would definitely be too late.
Guan Tong closed the store and opened the Transaction Market.
Since the living dead rule, item prices had remained high and had only slightly fallen now.
If Guan Tong had cared before and wanted to buy, after the challenge he felt many items were actually sowhat redundant.
Especially attack and defense items.
If your own Mind Power, items, or abilities already provided attack and defense, it was better to save Ascension Coins and buy special items instead.
For example, Guan Tong's Shadow provided both offense and defense, so ordinary attack and defense items weren't important to him.
Many people thought the sa, so prices for so uniquely effective items had beco outrageous.
The panacea he had seen listed for fifteen thousand was gone; he didn't know if it had been sold or delisted. He scanned for a while and found an overpriced piece of equipnt.
[Mind Pendant]: When equipped, Mind Power usage reduced by 15%
[Price]: 500,000 Ascension Coins
The effect was indeed good—used enough it saved a lot. But the price was absurd. Half a million Ascension Coins—most small or dium organizations couldn't afford it; only official bodies or large civil organizations could swallow that.
"Looks like the market has nothing for an unaligned lone wolf like ..."
Guan Tong closed his eyes.
Tomorrow was rule release day; he decided to sleep early and rest.
...
The next morning, just like before rule announcents, the sounds of excavators, transport trucks, and so on all stopped. The city seed to have been muted.
Since so previous rule, every rule release day the city grew unusually quiet. Everyone either stayed alone or with a few others, silently waiting.
So didn't only wait; they perford strange "welcoming rituals," mostly religious groups.
Guan Tong had seen online that after the Doomsday Rules began, foreign countries had seen religions crop up that worshiped the Fire Thief.
Believers thought the Fire Thief was a deity incarnate or a ssenger sent by the gods to purify this filthy world.
On rule announcent days, these followers would gather to perform rituals and sing hymns. The videos of those rituals often made ordinary viewers very uneasy.
It wasn't surprising. When gods were only abstract in the past, religion could still wield trendous power. Now the Fire Thief had actually demonstrated the power to manipulate nature and take life at will.
For believers, a living, intermittently powerful "god" like this was more tangible and worship-worthy than any mythic deity of old.
Guan Tong didn't care much about these movents, and they were largely expanding overseas with little foothold in Beixing Country.
But he suspected the authorities might worry. If followers of the Fire Thief beca collaborators and helped implent rules instead of resisting them, that would be a disaster for humanity.
Ti ticked to nine o'clock.
As before, the Fire Thief's voice arrived on schedule, echoing in everyone's mind.
[The Sixth Doomsday Rule has been released]
[Doomsday Rule Six: Lethal Hemorrhagic Plague]
[Rule Content: From the rule's release, a virus transmitted through the air and blood will begin to spread worldwide. This virus is highly lethal; infected persons will die of explosive bleeding within 24 hours. This rule will last 15 days]
[Success Reward: 300 Ascension Coins, Silver-tier Survival Chest]
[Failure Penalty: None]
[Note: Since humanity's birth, plagues have always accompanied it. Fortunately, humanity has survived major pandemics each ti. Will you be lucky enough to survive this ti?]
When the Fire Thief's voice ended, the city erupted in curses.
"An infectious virus! Airborne too! Damn the Fire Thief, how many people will this kill!"
"Why another survival-type rule?!"
"This is over. As soon as I saw 'survival chest' in the reward, I knew a lot of people would die this ti..."
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