Guan Tong really wanted to know if the authorities had a clear plan or roadmap.
From the large-scale demolition and construction of shelters in various places during the early stages of the Doomsday Rules, to later declaring the nation's entry into a wartime state and implementing comprehensive rationing for supplies, these all seemed like consistent, continuous policies.
But after that, which direction to take next, Guan Tong had not been able to reach a conclusion based on his observations during this period.
Roughly speaking, it seemed the Beixing authorities intended to follow the same isolationist path as the Suroma Empire, meaning focusing only on taking care of their own country's citizens and trying every means to ensure their survival.
This might also be one of the reasons why, during the previous Eighth Rule period, the authorities dispatched large numbers of armed forces outside the city to conduct major crackdowns on violent organizations and provider organizations.
But if they were determined to take this path, then the previous public condemnation of Guan Tong was very strange—because if they had decided on an isolationist route, what significance did the opinions of other countries, especially small nations, hold anymore?
One year into the Doomsday Rules era, the former international landscape had long since undergone earth-shaking changes.
All so-called "alliances," "allies," "international cooperation organizations," and the like had all become dysfunctional and ineffective.
Even the "Tianshui Star League," the largest international cooperation organization of the past, now existed in name only, let alone all the others.
In other words, from Guan Tong's perspective, if the authorities intended to pursue an isolationist survival route, then there was little need to pay attention to the situations of other countries.
He even held the somewhat extreme view that, under such circumstances, "diplomacy" itself had little reason to exist and could be drastically cut back.
But if they didn't intend to isolate and instead aimed for the unity of all humanity to jointly resist the Fire Thief, then there would be much more to do and many more responsibilities to shoulder.
However, the current attitude of the authorities gave him the feeling that they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. Their actions manifested as prohibiting entry and exit, yet their statements talked about being friendly nations with Andai State and investigating the Shadow attack incident, and so on.
Guan Tong knew, of course, that the authorities were a collective, each person had their own opinions and did not share a single brain, so it wasn't strange for them to do some contradictory things.
But now that the authorities had taken the initiative to communicate with him, he needed to determine exactly what the authorities' plans were before considering whether to cooperate and how specifically to cooperate.
He looked at the private message. After he sent his inquiry, the other side took a full three minutes without replying, seemingly giving it serious consideration.
After another two minutes, the reply finally arrived.
"This matter doesn't seem to be something you should be considering."
Seeing this reply, Guan Tong instantly lost all desire to continue the conversation and closed the private message interface.
If, in this era, they still adhered to that set of dialogue methods based on status and identity, then he felt there was no need to continue the exchange.
Because this was no longer about discussing the matter on its merits.
It reminded Guan Tong of his middle school Chinese class. The teacher recited a famous ancient poet's landscape poem and asked the students for their impressions.
He remembered saying at the time that he found it all just scenery description, very boring. The Chinese teacher immediately darkened his expression and said, "What qualifications do you have to question XXX's poem?"
If one wasn't qualified to question, then what was the point of asking for impressions?
After that, Guan Tong lost all desire to communicate with that teacher, because the latter saying that meant he had already predetermined the answer, leaving little room for meaningful discussion. Or perhaps it was deliberately intended to make students submit to authority, making them consider status comparisons before speaking or acting.
But Guan Tong had never bought into that set of rules since he was a child. Returning to the present, since the official personnel said this wasn't something he should consider, he couldn't be bothered to say anything more. It was better to just proceed at his own pace.
Meanwhile, in the office of the Countermeasures Research Office, after waiting several minutes without receiving a reply, Zhang Minglu said, "Director, the other party doesn't seem to intend to continue the communication. There's still no reply."
Gao Liangwei nodded slightly. "We've come to understand this person's character somewhat. Getting him to join the authorities seems impossible."
"Indeed." Zhang Minglu felt some regret, but there was nothing to be done.
Because that was how this society operated; only those who could provide resources had a voice.
"Then let it be." Gao Liangwei was quite decisive. "Someone with this kind of personality, even if they joined the authorities, would only constantly question and resist. In the end, for the entire collective, it might do more harm than good. What we need are determined warriors like Dragon Soul and his team."
"But, Director, will the higher-ups accept this outcome?"
"They will. The higher-ups understand the importance of organizational stability better than you or I. Forcibly introducing an unstable factor like the Shadow is definitely not something they would want to see."
"...Understood."
The communication ended hastily. Different paths do not make for common plans. Both sides tacitly refrained from sending any further messages.
At 9 AM the next day, the third sense began to be eliminated.
At this moment, the vast majority of people worldwide felt as if they had lost their connection to the world.
Today's elimination was: Touch!
A one in three probability. This most terrifying elimination item had finally appeared ahead of schedule.
The moment touch was eliminated, many people, whether standing or sitting, immediately went limp and collapsed to the ground.
They horrifyingly discovered that their brains could no longer control their bodies—more accurately, they couldn't perceive their bodies at all!
This feeling was like having a nightmare. In the dream, one was completely in a third-person perspective, as if the soul had left the body, utterly incapable of any form of self-control over one's own body, leading to total muscle relaxation and widespread incidents of incontinence.
In an instant, all gathering points and shelters worldwide rapidly became filled with a foul stench. Regardless of gender or age, the sight of people collapsed in their own waste was as disgusting as could be.
And the most critical issue was that most people couldn't react.
The approach in Beixing Country was to administer full anesthesia injections and psychological hypnosis in advance to shelter administrators, putting them into a state similar to "tactile dysfunction."
This way, when touch was truly eliminated, they returned to normal through a 'double negative makes a positive' effect. Once these people recovered, they directed the pre-prepared auxiliary robots in the shelters to move all those collapsed on the ground onto beds.
Afterwards, regularly feeding these individuals, turning them over, and cleaning their bodies were also tasks for the administrators and robots.
On Mingdao Mountain, Guan Tong, at the moment touch was eliminated, also felt his body losing control, but only for a brief one or two seconds.
After experiencing it, he immediately manipulated the Shadow, having it synchronize its tactile sensations to him, thus avoiding collapsing to the ground like others, unable to move.
But even so, his own body was currently in a state of tactile dysfunction. What he felt was the tactile sensation of the Physical Form Shadow, which meant he had to keep the Shadow Armor on his body 24/7.
Recalling the sensation of having no touch for that brief moment, Guan Tong felt a deep sense of retrospective fear. "The elimination of touch is a hundred times more terrifying than the elimination of sight or taste. It's fortunate the human brain can still function, otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable..."
He wasn't exaggerating. The brain being unable to perceive the body, leaving only pure thought, might seem very "ethereal," but in reality, it triggers an extreme form of fear.
The brain might think you are paralyzed, or even dead. Individuals suffering from asthma, hyperventilation syndrome, or severe anxiety would absolutely have their conditions triggered immediately by this sensation. If not handled properly, it would lead to a large number of indirect deaths.
This was the first time Guan Tong felt that non-survival rules could also possess extremely high lethality...
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