November 15th, underground base of the Doomsday Countermeasures Research Office.
Inside the laboratory, a majestic white mecha brandished a dazzling power sword, slashing down towards empty space.
With a squelch, the corpse of a Sound Hunter, cut in half, materialized and fell to the ground, dead.
What attracted it wasn't a human, but a scarecrow.
Clack—
The mecha's cockpit opened, and a long-haired girl, around sixteen or seventeen years old, climbed out. Her young face showed signs of fatigue.
After the girl left, the white mecha transformed into a stream of light and vanished.
The girl glanced at the Sound Hunter's corpse, undisguised disgust flashing in her eyes, and quickly left the laboratory.
Dr. Zhang stood at the door, watching the girl emerge. He smiled and handed her an energy drink, picking up his phone which already had text prepared: (Good work, Xiao Bai. Did it drop a Communication Scroll this time?)
The girl glanced at it, took the drink, and gulped several mouthfuls. Then she pulled out her phone from her pocket and typed a reply at lightning speed: (No drop. Also, my Mind Power is all used up!)
(I know. Go back to the dorm and rest first. Come back tomorrow.)
(Can I not come?) the girl quickly replied. (Sound Hunters are so disgusting! Even worse than snakes!)
Dr. Zhang gave a silent, wry smile: (That won't do. Your 'Snow Traces' can deal effective damage to it, which saves a lot of attack items.)
(So troublesome!) After replying, the girl strode away.
Dr. Zhang shook his head, already accustomed to the willfulness of this girl named "Bai Xuewu."
Back then, convincing her to join the official team had taken an immense effort, requiring multiple rounds of persuasion before she agreed.
A place others fought tooth and nail to enter, she was indifferent about, feeling that as a socially anxious otaku, staying home watching anime was more interesting.
Only after much back-and-forth, with Dr. Zhang promising she could form her own team and wouldn't need to communicate with any other official personnel besides him, did she finally agree.
The reason he went through all that trouble was because he believed Bai Xuewu's mecha ability was exceptionally outstanding, with huge potential, possessing the possibility of becoming a top-tier Ascendant, making her worthy of significant cultivation.
For such talent, forcing them to join wouldn't work. Once someone develops resistance, they might just go through the motions superficially and then deliver a massive betrayal at a critical moment, causing severe losses.
Looking at it now, his initial decision was absolutely correct. Bai Xuewu's high value had been demonstrated in the subsequent Ascendant Challenge Tournament, and now in using the power sword's incredibly strong attack power to slay Sound Hunters.
(Dr. Zhang, I should probably head back too.) At that moment, a young man with curly hair and glasses walked out from the adjacent room, showing the text on his phone.
Dr. Zhang looked at the young man and nodded: (Alright, thanks to your ability, we've reduced personnel casualties.)
This bespectacled young man's ability was [Scarecrow Doll]. When used, it consumed Mind Power to create a scarecrow. This scarecrow possessed human characteristics, could speak, make expressions, and the only difference from a human was that its body was made of straw.
After the authorities found this person's registered ability in the database, they immediately transferred him to the base. They used his ability to have scarecrows replace test subjects in attracting Sound Hunters. This way, they could reduce sacrifices.
(This is what I should do.) After typing, the young man left.
Dr. Zhang stroked his chin, thinking this young man was indeed promising material. If they delved deeper into that Scarecrow Doll ability, they could definitely develop new derivative abilities; the potential was quite good.
Moreover, his Mind Power upper limit wasn't low either, currently over 110 points, putting him in the first-tier level.
Coincidentally, ever since Gu Fei left the team, Squad Three had been understaffed. After a bit more observation, perhaps they could let this young man try joining.
...
Somewhere in the wilderness, not far from a campsite formed by several encircled vehicles, five people dressed in identical black clothes were observing.
Gu Fei looked at the youngest girl among them and picked up his phone: (Looks like the campsite ahead has the items on the list. How many people are inside?)
Chen Na closed her eyes, activating her [Perception Domain]. The activity patterns of all living creatures in the surrounding area formed in her mind.
She opened her eyes and replied with her phone: (Thirteen people.)
(So few? I could handle them myself.)
Gu Fei was about to step forward but was stopped by the youth wearing headphones who raised a hand.
Gu Fei typed with displeasure: (What are you doing?)
The youth with headphones typed: (Get supplies, don't kill.)
A cold glint flashed in Gu Fei's eyes: (How do you get supplies without killing? Will people just give them to you for free?!)
The other two exchanged a glance but didn't offer an opinion.
The headphone youth typed: (I'll negotiate.)
Gu Fei typed forcefully: (Why should I listen to you?!)
This time, the headphone youth didn't type. He just stared into Gu Fei's eyes.
Gu Fei glared back defiantly, but soon he discovered his whole body's strength was rapidly draining away. A look of terror appeared on his face, and soon he couldn't even stand steadily, nearly collapsing to the ground.
The headphone youth withdrew his gaze, no longer paying attention to Gu Fei, and walked straight towards the campsite.
Gu Fei stared at his retreating back, his face full of disbelief, not understanding what had just happened.
Then, another short-haired youth, the one who had been watching TV in the lounge earlier, typed to tell him: (I advise you not to clash with him. His ability is stronger than all of ours combined.)
(What is his ability?) Gu Fei inquired.
Although the five of them formed a team, to this day, everyone only knew Chen Na had a perception ability. She hadn't disclosed it herself; the short-haired woman had informed everyone, which was why she was responsible for reconnaissance.
As for the other four's abilities, none had spoken about them. They just knew each other wasn't weak; otherwise, they couldn't have passed the selection to form a team.
(I don't know either. I just know it's activated through the eyes.)
(...)
Although Gu Fei knew there was always someone better, the setbacks he'd encountered recently were just too many.
First, his entire team was defeated by a single person in the challenge tournament. Now, after joining another organization, he still wasn't a match for others in the same team. This made him feel deeply frustrated.
Thinking about it now, if these people all defected to the official side, with his strength, he probably wouldn't have been able to become the captain of Squad Three.
He remembered Dr. Zhang had vaguely mentioned this point: many strong individuals among the populace were confident in themselves, even arrogant.
Some proud individuals were unwilling to join official organizations and be ordered around. So, even members of official teams couldn't look down on civilian Ascendants, or they would suffer disastrous defeats.
Not long after, the four saw people from the campsite come out one after another, get in their vehicles, and leave.
They immediately went over and found the campsite people had left, but most of the supplies remained. It seemed just as the headphone youth had typed; he had negotiated and made the campsite people voluntarily abandon the supplies and leave.
(Send the coordinates to the base.) The headphone youth typed, instructing Gu Fei.
Gu Fei swallowed hard. Although he felt somewhat unwilling internally, he still complied. He knew that from this point on, the hierarchy between him and this headphone youth had been established.
If this team later needed to elect a captain, it would undoubtedly be this headphone youth.
...
Mingdao Mountain. Guan Tong stood on the mountain, gazing into the distance.
As time passed, by today, the 15th, half a month of the rules period had gone by.
During this period, he had been continuously using Mind Power to generate Silver Hunt bullets, eliminating Sound Hunters to obtain Ascension Coins and Communication Scrolls.
However, as his previously stored bullets were depleted, his enemy-killing efficiency dropped significantly. By now, his output of Communication Scrolls couldn't compare to large-scale organizations at the official level.
As of today, a large number of tradable Communication Scrolls had been listed on the market, with prices fluctuating around twenty-three thousand Ascension Coins. Selling them slightly higher was still possible, just not as quickly.
Presumably, as output increased, those forces holding huge funds also started considering cost-effectiveness.
Guan Tong himself was more than satisfied. As the first to eat the crab, apart from the first two or three scrolls he sold cheaply, the later ones were almost all sold near the highest price. A few even sold for around thirty thousand.
This earned him enormous profits. Currently, his total Ascension Coins were just a few thousand short of three hundred thousand.
But today, his fully recovered Mind Power wasn't used to generate bullets. He planned to conduct a different experiment.
That was the ultra-long-distance movement of Shadow.
He had this idea very, very early on and had long since tested Shadow's maximum movement distance. But back then, Shadow's movement was limited by his own visual range; it couldn't detach, so it couldn't go too far.
But now, with Shadow possessing the Five Senses, Guan Tong could continuously extend it into the distance. How far it could go, even he wasn't sure.
The reason for conducting this experiment today was because the Ascendant Home website's popularity kept rising. Many users' demands for transactions and commissions surged, all hoping the Administrator would implement these functions soon, providing a "logistics" system as secure as the website.
So, Guan Tong also decided to start attempting, beginning the effort to build his "Shadow Logistics."
He summoned the incorporeal Shadow, having it transform into its thinnest form: a shadow line as fine as a strand of hair, only about 0.1 millimeters thick. One end of this extremely fine shadow line connected to himself, while the other end rapidly moved into the distance.
Since the incorporeal Shadow had no physical form, it could burrow into the ground to move, ensuring secrecy and avoiding detection.
Guan Tong had it keep moving in the direction of Yunhua City. Unlike when materialized, where its speed was tied to his own, in the incorporeal state, Shadow's speed was extremely fast, covering vast distances in the blink of an eye.
When the other end of the shadow line was over ten kilometers away from Guan Tong, he temporarily stopped controlling Shadow. Then he attempted to materialize Shadow.
Swish—
Instantly, this hair-thin shadow line turned from incorporeal to solid. Guan Tong paid special attention to the Mind Power consumption and discovered it only consumed a single-digit amount of Mind Power.
He was initially surprised, but upon careful thought, he understood the key.
Although this materialized shadow line was long, over ten kilometers, its width was too small, only 0.1 millimeters. So, the total volume after materialization actually wasn't much.
Imagine a young woman with shoulder-length hair. Each strand is about 50 centimeters long, 0.1 millimeters wide. With an average of 100,000 strands, the total volume would be less than 400 cubic centimeters, which is less than 400 milliliters.
What does less than 400 milliliters mean? A small can of cola is 330 milliliters. The volume of that head of beautiful hair is only a few dozen milliliters more than that small can.
Previously, the Shadow Guan Tong materialized was a 1:1 life-sized existence. Think about how large that volume was? How many small cans of cola would that equal?
This discovery confirmed in Guan Tong's mind that the concept of ultra-distance materialization was feasible.
Not just 10 kilometers, even a hundred kilometers, several hundred kilometers were not a problem. He could completely stay on Mingdao Mountain and have the shadow line extend all the way to Yunhua City over two hundred kilometers away.
However... Guan Tong didn't get overly excited, because the obvious problems were also apparent.
Keeping the shadow line as thin as a hair strand, while achieving minimal volume, also meant it was extremely fragile. If it encountered any damage, it would immediately break.
Moreover, its strength was terrible. A single strand of hair, what could it pick up? If it couldn't pick up anything, how could it transport things?
These factors made Guan Tong consider again adding words to the first page of the [Wordless Book].
If he could, through adding words, make the shadow line possess extreme toughness, then his "Shadow Logistics" might not be far from becoming a reality.
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