Late at night, Shelter No. 915, Yunhua City.
A man opened his eyes, confirmed the state of his mouth, got out of bed, and went to the bathroom to use the toilet.
He pushed the door, finding it wouldn't open, as if blocked by something hard from the other side.
What's going on?
He frowned, pressed both hands against the door, and pushed with all his might!
Thud!
As the door swung open, a corpse fell down, its pale face landing right in the man's line of sight.
Ah!
The man instinctively cried out in alarm, but was immediately stopped by the anti-speech mask he was wearing, unable to make a sound.
His chest heaved violently with fear as he took a closer look at the corpse on the floor. It was one of his three roommates—Wu Yun!
He immediately lost all desire to use the toilet, went back to wake up the other two roommates, and promptly went to report the incident to the shelter administrator.
Not long after, the administrator arrived with two staff members and carefully examined Wu Yun's corpse.
Judging from the rope tied to the sink and the ligature marks on Wu Yun's neck, the answer was obvious.
The administrator quickly concluded: Wu Yun had committed suicide.
The three roommates were immediately taken to a meeting room for a written interrogation.
All three clearly stated they had no conflicts with Wu Yun, let alone any bullying situations. As for why Wu Yun would kill himself, they had no idea either.
After the interrogation, the administrator first sent the three back and ordered them to keep Wu Yun's death confidential, not to spread the news casually within the shelter.
Afterwards, the administrator and other staff members pulled up surveillance footage, finding the parts involving Wu Yun.
The surveillance showed that Wu Yun's condition had been off for several days; he often stared blankly for long periods or simply lay in bed all day.
Furthermore, looking at earlier footage from before the seventh rule was announced, it was clear Wu Yun was a very talkative person, often visiting different dormitories to chat and socialize.
After reviewing the footage for two or three hours, the administrator preliminarily concluded.
Due to his personal disposition, Wu Yun had fallen into deep depression during the seventh rule period because he couldn't speak or communicate, which led him to choose to end his own life in the bathroom.
A major reason for the government's massive construction of shelters was to protect its citizens. Therefore, any death occurring within a shelter was a serious matter that needed to be thoroughly investigated and reported in detail.
The administrator dared not slack off. He stayed up all night writing an electronic report and sent it to the corresponding department's email.
What he didn't know was that at this moment, this email inbox was already stuffed with numerous report files sent from shelters across various cities...
...
Also late that same night.
A hair-thin shadow line slithered across the ground, approaching a city that looked utterly ordinary.
This city was Lipuo City, the location of "Wind-like Sky."
A shadow line as thin as a strand of hair was extremely stealthy even during the day, hard to notice—if you don't look carefully, can you spot a single strand of hair fallen on the ground?
At night, it was even less noticeable. Forget the naked eye, even patrol cars and drones couldn't easily spot it.
Taking advantage of this stealth, Guan Tong quickly manipulated it to reach the target location—the hospital gathering point.
He made the shadow line climb up the exterior wall to the tenth floor, as mentioned by "Wind-like Sky." After materializing, he checked window by window. On the third window's ledge, he found a small cardboard box.
Prying open the box's lid, he saw several masks stacked inside—exactly the goods awaiting transport.
From an ultra-long distance, Guan Tong manipulated the shadow line to wrap around the cardboard box several times, then gently dragged it down to the ground and retraced the route back.
To prevent the brown cardboard box from being conspicuous at night, Guan Tong manipulated the shadow line to wrap around it several times, covering it completely in black, greatly enhancing its stealth.
Next was getting the goods out of the city.
Following a pre-planned route, Guan Tong pulled the goods through an urban village. According to satellite maps, this village had long been uninhabited, undergoing demolition work, and was almost deserted at night.
The shadow line dragged the box along, quickly reaching the city's edge. Just then, an official transport vehicle drove past on the highway, its headlights bright. Guan Tong immediately ordered the shadow line to stop.
The driver, using the headlights, spotted a black box by the roadside, but he merely glanced at it and looked away, assuming it was just some trash.
Once the vehicle passed, the "black box" immediately started moving, swiftly distancing itself from the city at an extremely fast speed.
Fairly smooth...
Guan Tong, on Mingdao Mountain, closed his eyes, manipulating the shadow's movement based on the visual information transmitted from the ultra-long distance.
Guan Tong thought the reason it went smoothly was because the shadow was nearly impossible to detect at night.
Moreover, as the wartime management state deepened, almost everyone in the cities now stayed inside gathering points or shelters at night, not going out unless necessary.
As a result, some streetlights were no longer turned on, making the shadow's movement even more stealthy.
As for after retrieving the goods and leaving the city, the shadow could move at full speed without any worries.
Guan Tong directly ordered it to head for the coordinates provided by "Black Stone," arriving nearby before dawn.
Upon seeing the camp where "Black Stone" was located, Guan Tong certainly wouldn't let the shadow line take the goods directly inside.
He manipulated the shadow line to place the goods about five hundred meters away from the camp, then notified "Black Stone" on the website to pick up the goods at the target location.
Black Stone had been waiting for news. Upon seeing the message, he immediately rode a motorcycle out of the camp to the location Guan Tong sent him. There on the ground was a cardboard box. Opening it, he found exactly ten official anti-speech masks distributed within the city.
"They really delivered them!"
Black Stone was both shocked and overjoyed.
Until he actually received the goods, he had been somewhat skeptical about the whole thing.
Because retrieving goods from a city under wartime conditions and getting them out was definitely not an easy task.
The reason he was willing to try was because the Administrator hadn't charged a deposit. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have agreed to pay, thinking the whole thing wasn't very reliable.
But now, seeing these ten masks with his own eyes, Black Stone was finally convinced that the Administrator truly possessed extraordinary abilities, far beyond what ordinary people could compare to!
After the first commission transaction was completed, Black Stone received 10 anti-speech masks, Wind-like Sky received 950 Ascension Coins, and Guan Tong received 100 Ascension Coins—everyone was happy.
The happiest was actually Guan Tong, who received the least money, because he had initially verified that the Shadow Logistics method was feasible. Although various details weren't perfect, as the shadow's abilities continued to strengthen in the future, further optimization was possible.
After the commission was completed, both Wind-like Sky and Black Stone posted in the website's commission thread stating the transaction was complete and thanking the Administrator for his help.
As soon as this news broke, numerous related posts immediately popped up on the site.
《Has anyone tried it? Can the website's transaction system really be used?》
《Seems like someone completed a commission on the website...》
《Can the Administrator really transport goods out of locked-down cities? How is that done?》
If many people previously suspected the Administrator was Shadow, now many others speculated he might have connections with official channels.
Guan Tong subsequently posted in both the Commission and Transaction sections, explaining that after understanding the situations of both trading parties and the details of the traded items, he would decide whether to assist based on the circumstances.
If he agreed to assist and both trading parties agreed to pay 10% of the transaction amount as a fee, then cooperation could proceed.
As soon as his post went up, a flood of replies quickly appeared in the comments section.
"10% transaction fee... for a 10,000 Ascension Coin transaction, that's 1,000 taken out. Not cheap at all..."
"If the Administrator can truly provide services across long distances, charging a fee is only reasonable."
"Getting more and more curious about the Administrator's identity. Able to set up a secure website, able to enter and exit cities to deliver goods under wartime conditions... Could he be an official personnel?"
"Actually, I also think the Administrator might have connections with the authorities..."
No matter how people speculated, without evidence, they couldn't be certain.
Meanwhile, the official work Department, which had been continuously monitoring this website's information, discovered this latest development. Recognizing the seriousness of the matter, they immediately reported it.
...
Gao Liangwei woke up in the middle of the night and went to his office.
As soon as he turned on his computer, he saw numerous urgent reports from various departments.
He let out a silent, bitter smile. It was almost like this during every Doomsday Rule period—countless reports snowballed their way to him every day.
He raised his rough hands and rubbed his face to stay alert and focused, then began reviewing these reports.
Among them, the more severe reports concerned non-external casualties within various shelters.
Due to the implementation of closed-off management, compounded with this "prohibition of speech" rule, the atmosphere inside each shelter had become extremely tense and oppressive.
While most residents could alleviate the pressure through various forms of entertainment like reading, video games, and watching videos, a significant portion of people developed mental disorders, manifested as mania, lethargy, or even suicide.
Within less than twenty days of the rule's start, over several thousand people across major shelters had exhibited self-harm or suicidal behavior. This had undoubtedly reached a level requiring widespread psychological intervention.
Apart from this matter, two other pieces of news also caught Gao Liangwei's particular attention.
One was related to the "Ascendant Home" website. Personnel from the work Department reported that the website was no longer limited to online communication; there had been the first suspected successful offline transaction case, and the traded items involved officially produced supplies.
Gao Liangwei frowned as he read this report. Officially produced supplies were allocated to personnel based on fixed quotas. How could they become traded goods flowing out of the city? Could there be a mole?
Such a matter undoubtedly required thorough investigation. Otherwise, once a breach was opened, it would only grow larger.
The other matter was a report from the two official teams dispatched outside the city, following Dr. Zhang's suggestion.
Their report stated that extensive camps had already been established outside the cities. Moreover, organized gangs of thugs had emerged, constantly looting other camps.
The two official teams inquired whether the higher-ups could authorize them to eliminate those thug gangs during their external investigations.
Gao Liangwei pondered.
Authorizing the two teams would essentially grant them the legal right to kill. When you hold a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Without establishing a proper oversight system, how could they be sure the ones they eliminated were truly thug gangs? This was a question that needed consideration.
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