After eliminating over a dozen violent thugs, Guan Tong no longer felt sleepy.
He knew that in the era of the Doomsday Rules, such things were bound to happen, it was just a matter of sooner or later.
In fact, such incidents might even occur more frequently in the future.
Just like the "First Ascendant Challenge Tournament," those Ascendants who died in that tournament were merely eliminated from the competition, not actually killed.
What if dying in the tournament meant real death?
Would Guan Tong then avoid competing for the Holy Grail? He would still go for it.
Therefore, having long been mentally prepared for this, even after just manipulating his Shadow to personally kill over a dozen people, he didn't experience much psychological turmoil.
Guan Tong sat at the desk and turned on his computer. Many people were already discussing the Sound Hunters online.
Many had already discovered their characteristic of invisibility.
Furthermore, some online believed that their physical size must be quite small.
This was because some of the victims were inside shelters, yet after the rule was announced, all shelter doors were tightly shut.
With the doors undamaged, how did the Sound Hunters get inside to attack those who made sounds?
Either they could teleport, ignoring spatial limitations, or besides invisibility, they had the ability to pass through walls, or they were simply small enough to infiltrate through places like ventilation ducts or drainage pipes.
People preferred to believe it was the third option.
Because the first two were too terrifying.
But as for the actual truth, no one could give a definitive answer yet.
Even Guan Tong himself, who had witnessed the Bearded Man being killed by a Sound Hunter, could only confirm that Sound Hunters could turn invisible.
He tried having his Shadow split into countless tiny tentacles covering the surrounding area, hoping to make tactile contact with the Sound Hunter, but failed.
However, this failure meant he couldn't determine whether the Sound Hunter moved away at extreme speed or "teleported" away after killing its target.
There was a fundamental difference between the two.
Extreme speed still left open the possibility of "chasing," but if it could teleport, ignoring spatial distance, then pursuit was impossible.
Guan Tong opened his "Ascendant Home" website.
In the "Intelligence" section, many people were posting and discussing the current rule.
《Help Post, how to ensure I don't make any sound?》
《Regarding Sound Hunters, does anyone know how to survive their attacks?》
《Official shelter notification, posting it here for those outside to see.》
Because this section had the rule "Prohibiting one-sentence topic posts," there were very few irrelevant, low-effort posts. Most were serious discussions, with those wanting to post fluff generally going to the "Casual Chat" section.
Guan Tong browsed and found one post with exceptionally high popularity.
《I, your humble servant, have an unorthodox method to clear this rule. Are you envious?》
Seeing the phrase "unorthodox method to clear," and with the post's replies already in the high hundreds, Guan Tong curiously clicked in to read.
The poster's ID was "I Am a Good Man." Guan Tong inexplicably felt the name was somewhat familiar, but he didn't dwell on it, focusing first on the post content.
I Am a Good Man: "It's rather embarrassing to say, but my Mind Power item is a 'Hypnosis App.' As the name suggests, using it allows me to hypnotize others or myself, with a duration of 24 hours.
After successful use of the item, the hypnotized person enters a deep sleep state, will not talk in their sleep, and will not suddenly wake up. In other words, I can hypnotize myself every 24 hours and pass this rule while remaining in deep sleep."
After reading the post, Guan Tong was momentarily speechless.
He had to admit, this "I Am a Good Man" was absolutely right. If he kept hypnotizing himself, remaining in deep sleep, he could indeed easily pass this rule.
And the first reply under the post made him remember why the poster's name felt familiar.
"I Am a Good Man? This ID sounds so familiar. Isn't this the legendary guy who posted during the first rule about staying awake through pure guidance?"
"It really seems like him. I remember that post's replies exceeded a hundred thousand back then..."
"Brother Liang is actually still alive?"
"Hey, how are you talking upstairs? Just based on his 'guidance without output' principle alone, you can see his immense potential!"
"Brother Liang? God Liang!"
"Hypnosis App? Truly worthy of God Liang, the item you got really suits you..."
"Good brother, share the app link, I want to hypnotize myself too!"
"Upstairs, are you sure you want to hypnotize yourself?"
"Not joking, Brother Liang's item is really useful for this rule. And I think since it can hypnotize others, he should take the chance to use it to earn a fortune, right?"
"Agree with the above. Those with power and influence definitely have this demand. Now is the time for God Liang to shine. Any other time, if you used this item to hypnotize others, they'd beat you up if you're lucky... Now if you use it, people will thank you and even have to offer benefits!"
"God Liang, where are you? I want to find you to hypnotize me! I'm a chatterbox, usually talking so much in a day that my mouth gets dry and I need to drink several liters of water. With this rule, it's going to be the death of me. I feel like I definitely can't last a month!"
The discussion in this post was extremely heated. Some were envious, some begged for hypnosis, and others gave the poster suggestions on how to use the item to earn benefits.
After reading it, Guan Tong felt this was indeed an opportunity for I Am a Good Man. However, actually going to hypnotize others still carried risks.
I Am a Good Man also replied in the post: "Many people have contacted me, offering gold or Ascension Coins in exchange for hypnosis. But after consideration, I've decided against it. The will of heaven is unpredictable, but human hearts are even more so. I fear being set up in a honey trap or coerced by unknown organizations... If official departments have a need, I am willing to assist after they verify their identities."
Once this reply was posted, everyone expressed being moved to tears.
"The gentleman shows great righteousness!"
"Now he's truly God Liang."
"God Liang, I beg you, activate infinite hypnosis and put everyone in the world into a deep sleep to pass this rule!"
The later replies became increasingly outrageous and off-topic, so Guan Tong didn't continue reading.
He pondered for a moment, then used his Administrator account to post a thread himself.
《Partial Intelligence Regarding Sound Hunters》
The post content was the two points mentioned in the Hidden Rule.
First, although Sound Hunters were extremely dangerous, they could be eliminated.
Second, after elimination, one would receive Ascension Coin rewards and had a chance to obtain tradable Communication Scrolls.
The reason Guan Tong decided to publicize this intelligence was that this Hidden Rule was somewhat similar to the information about the "Matriarch Converter" during the living dead rule.
Back then, Guan Tong didn't publicize it because there was no safe channel. If there had been, he would have chosen to make it public.
The reason was simple. There was only one "Matriarch Converter" per region. No matter how strong Guan Tong was, he couldn't eliminate converters across multiple regions alone.
So, after publicizing the information, other strong individuals in various regions could search for and eliminate them. This way, they would get rewards, and the survival rate of ordinary people would increase. It was a good thing all around.
The current rule was similar. Even if Guan Tong had plans to try eliminating Sound Hunters, there were clearly more than one. Therefore, he was willing to publicize the information, letting capable strong individuals make attempts.
Moreover, this had another benefit: further increasing the influence of him as the Administrator and of the Ascendant Home website.
He had already searched; currently, no one online had mentioned "eliminating Sound Hunters has a chance to drop Communication Scrolls." Whether no one had discovered it, or someone had but the information was blocked by the authorities... by posting it, he would be the first to make it public.
After posting, Guan Tong almost watched in real-time as the number of replies skyrocketed.
He only refreshed once, and the replies exceeded several dozen. Refreshing again, they surpassed a hundred.
Clicking in, he saw the top comments were all expressing shock.
"Administrator! Caught you!"
"Holy crap? The Administrator killed a Sound Hunter?!"
"??? How did the Administrator do it?!"
"Teach us, teach us, teach us, teach us!"
"They can drop tradable Communication Scrolls? Won't the price skyrocket to the heavens?"
"Is the information confirmed?!"
"Aren't Sound Hunters invisible? How did Administrator kill one? Sincerely seeking the method!"
There were some skeptical voices in the replies, but not many. Most believed what the Administrator said was true and wanted to know the specific method to kill Sound Hunters.
Seeing these inquiries, Guan Tong couldn't reply.
Others assumed he knew what eliminating a Sound Hunter would drop because he had actually eliminated one.
In reality, he could only see the Hidden Rules and hadn't actually eliminated one, so he could only remain silent now and not give random advice.
However, he somewhat underestimated the virality of this post. Within less than an hour of posting, the replies exceeded several thousand.
Furthermore, many website users shared the post to other social platforms, sparking huge discussions while also attracting numerous new users to register on the Ascendant Home website.
For a time, the phrase "Ascendant Home" climbed the trending rankings on many social platforms, greatly increasing its fame.
This directly led to the official work monitoring department discovering this website and quickly finding that it wasn't registered on record.
Soon, a series of investigations were launched, and some cybersecurity experts attempted infiltration, all of which failed.
The information was quickly reported up the chain, arriving at the Countermeasures Research Office in the early morning, placed on Gao Liangwei's desk.
After reading it, surprised, he immediately convened a temporary meeting with relevant experts.
Gao Liangwei: (Take a look, everyone. Our testing on Sound Hunters hasn't even officially begun, yet someone is already stating what you get for killing them!)
An expert responsible for test preparation was also stunned after reading: (This... is the information on the forum really credible? Could it be fabricated nonsense?)
(Relevant departments have reported that this "Ascendant Home" website is not registered on record, creator unknown. Moreover, the website seems to employ some special security technology; currently, it cannot be breached.)
(Can we attempt to contact the website's administrator? If the post content is true, then this person's understanding of Sound Hunters might exceed ours, and they have mastered a method to eliminate them—this is undoubtedly important.)
Gao Liangwei typed: (After the meeting, I'll have someone attempt contact. Also, I've taken a look at this website; some of its content is dangerous and shouldn't be allowed to spread according to regulations.)
A work expert typed: (The AI automatic keyword-blocking "One-way Mirror System" we developed seems to have failed on this website. It's strange; normally, the system should automatically collect information from the entire work.)
(You mean the AI system you developed cannot collect information from this website?)
(Yes, that's why it's strange, because this AI system is currently top-tier worldwide... This website's security technology is extremely special; it's likely set up using Mind Power-related items.)
Gao Liangwei was silent for a moment: (A website set up using Mind Power items—are we completely helpless against it?)
work expert: (Unless someone possesses a similar item or ability, they might be able to attempt a breach.)
(Then immediately query the ability and item registration databases of major cities, identify personnel with such abilities or items, and report them!)
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