June 28th, the final three days of the fourth Doomsday Rules effective period.
Guan Tong woke up in the morning and stood on the small path looking up at the sky.
The lead-colored clouds had dominated the sky for almost a month, finally about to disperse in three days.
"Almost a month without sunlight... not getting sick is already pretty good."
Even in countries with annual polar nights, the incidence rates of conditions like depression among their citizens are quite high, let alone in a country like Beixing where many people enjoy going outside to sunbathe and air out clothes and bedding.
After so many days of blizzard, the damage to humans definitely wasn't just from the Snow Disaster - various secondary disasters under chain reactions would also be major problems.
Just like the mother-daughter pair Wang Yan and Chen Na who chose to leave the village.
Seeing one spot reveals the whole leopard - across so many villages and towns nationwide, there would always be some careless or reckless people who didn't quickly prepare sufficient supplies themselves, then went to rob others when they ran short.
For those being robbed, these thieves stealing supplies were more detestable than the Snow Disaster, and the harm they caused could be greater too.
Although Guan Tong hadn't witnessed it personally, he knew that tragic human dramas due to the Doomsday Rules must be happening every moment in this world.
It's just that all he could do now was take care of himself. Under the Doomsday Rules, merely keeping oneself intact was already hard to achieve, let alone helping the whole world.
He took out the [Wordless Book] and flipped to the second page - the character for "gun" had been completed yesterday. But because his Mind Power was depleted, he could only sleep and recover today before materializing it.
"Come on. Scattergun, I want a scattergun, not a cold weapon spear!"
Guan Tong silently repeated in his mind, hoping the [Wordless Book] would materialize the text concept according to his thoughts, while injecting Mind Power into it.
Soon, the characters on the page began to transform and float.
Just like when Shadow first separated from the page, it also began to detach and condense into reality as Mind Power was injected.
The next moment, a scattergun with a silver barrel actually materialized!
"Success!"
Guan Tong was overjoyed - he hadn't expected the [Wordless Book] to truly materialize the text according to his thoughts!
Not some spear, not some handgun, but really a scattergun!
This meant that as long as Mind Power could meet the materialization requirements, even if the text written on the page was a "fuzzy requirement," it could still be realized.
This discovery undoubtedly greatly helped with materializing other concepts in the future, but for now Guan Tong's attention was entirely focused on the scattergun in his hands.
The reason he wanted a scattergun rather than some handgun or sniper rifle was because it was simple and brutal, requiring no diligent practice of marksmanship - usable right away!
At this moment, Guan Tong held the grip with one hand and supported the barrel with the other, feeling a special metallic texture to the touch.
Moreover, this scattergun had a stockless design, with a small electronic screen on the right side of the grip whose purpose was unknown. Also, after studying it for a while, he simply couldn't figure out how to load ammunition.
But he soon realized - this scattergun materialized by the [Wordless Book] didn't require manual reloading.
This didn't mean it had unlimited ammunition though. Guan Tong quickly discovered that its ammunition all required consuming Mind Power to generate, with three types total, numbered 1-3.
Type 1 ammunition was ordinary wide-area pellets, suitable for dealing with small beasts or multiple enemies, requiring 5 points of Mind Power to generate one round.
Type 2 ammunition was large-caliber slugs, suitable for hunting single large beasts, requiring 10 points of Mind Power to generate one round.
The final Type 3 ammunition was high-explosive rounds for blasting - these were the most powerful bullets, also the most costly, requiring a full 30 points of Mind Power to generate one round!
With Guan Tong's current 122-point Mind Power Upper Limit, the cheapest Type 1 scatter shots could generate at most 24 rounds; Type 2 slugs at most 12 rounds, and Type 3 high-explosive rounds at most 4 rounds.
"Looks like I'll need to greatly increase my Mind Power Upper Limit if I want unlimited spraying fun in the future..."
Guan Tong first tried consuming 5 points of Mind Power to generate one Type 1 scatter shot.
After generation, the small electronic screen on the left side of the grip lit up, displaying: Type 1*1
"So this small screen shows ammunition count..."
Seeing the characters on the screen, Guan Tong thought it was somewhat like in shooting games - electronically visible ammunition count was quite convenient.
After generating the ammunition, he aimed at the snow wall beside the path and tentatively pulled the trigger to fire a shot.
"Bang!"
A muffled sound, and the snow wall immediately gained a dense patch of deep pits, looking somewhat chilling.
"If Type 1 ammunition is already this powerful, wouldn't Types 2 and 3 be even more terrifying... excellent!"
Greater power was definitely a good thing - Guan Tong was delighted.
But mental testing alone wasn't enough - he planned to go elsewhere later to actually test Types 2 and 3 ammunition.
These two types of ammunition couldn't be tested on the snow wall beside the path anymore - if the snow wall collapsed and fell into the path cleared daily with such effort, Guan Tong would truly be crying without tears.
For now, looking at the scattergun with silver metallic luster in his hands, he thought for a moment, then gave this gun a name just like he had with "Shadow" back then.
"From now on I'll call you 'Silver Hunter,' abbreviated 'Silver Hunt.'"
After naming it, Guan Tong glanced at the small electronic screen on the left side of the grip. After that shot earlier, the screen had turned black again - apparently it wouldn't light up without ammunition.
He thought about it, then consumed Mind Power to generate one Type 2 round and one Type 3 round. The electronic screen immediately lit up, displaying in upper and lower rows:
Type 2*1
Type 3*1
As Guan Tong looked at it, he thought: "Could I stockpile ammunition in the gun in advance?"
For example, consuming Mind Power to generate a few rounds today and store them, then after Mind Power recovers tomorrow store a few more, slowly accumulating hundreds of rounds - wouldn't that be almost like unlimited ammunition when needed?
Guan Tong's idea was quite good, but reality soon slapped him.
He tried putting the gun back into the [Wordless Book], then summoning it again - the two rounds generated earlier were reset to zero. What was annoying was that not only were the rounds reset, but the Mind Power consumed to generate them wasn't refunded either!
This meant that if he wanted to stockpile ammunition, he had to keep the gun outside constantly, unable to return it to the [Wordless Book].
Actually, this wasn't impossible, because unlike "Shadow," this "Silver Hunter" didn't continuously consume Mind Power after materialization.
After Shadow was summoned, regardless of whether you had it do work, it would continuously consume Mind Power to maintain existence.
Silver Hunter was a One-Time Deal - it only consumed some Mind Power during summoning, and didn't consume any after being summoned - only generating ammunition consumed Mind Power.
That is, if you want to stockpile ammunition, summon the gun and don't return it to the book, keeping it with you constantly.
But this way, there would be some trouble.
Because carrying a scattergun around was fine in the wild, but entering cities required carrying it in a backpack, not letting others see it.
After all, even in countries without gun bans, walking on the street holding a scattergun would get you reported and arrested.
"Although somewhat troublesome, I'll carry the gun in a backpack for now."
Although this wasn't as convenient as summoning as needed, with currently insufficient Mind Power, stocking up on ammunition in advance like this might prove greatly useful at critical moments - a little trouble was better than insufficient ammunition costing lives at crucial times.
"Brother Guan!"
Just as Guan Tong prepared to first clear snow from the path, then go test Types 2 and 3 ammunition power, Chen Na's shout came from not far away, sounding somewhat tearful.
Guan Tong immediately put the gun back into the book first, climbed the steps to the top of the snow wall, and saw Chen Na running over, tear stains still on her face.
"What's wrong, Xiao Na?" Guan Tong immediately went to meet her and asked.
"My mom, mom says her stomach hurts badly! Brother Guan, do you have medicine?"
"Stomach pain? I'll go get the medical kit."
Guan Tong returned to his own camp and took out the emergency medical kit brought from the supply point. Although there were no specific stomach medicines inside, there were painkillers that could temporarily relieve pain.
He took the painkiller box and went with Chen Na to the large vehicle, where Wang Yan was currently curled up lying sideways on the bunk, sweating on her forehead, looking very pained.
"Sister Wang, I have painkillers here, take some to ease the pain first." Guan Tong took out the pills and gave them to Chen Na to feed her mother.
After swallowing the pills, Wang Yan forced a smile: "Thank you, Xiao Guan."
"No problem, but Sister Wang, what suddenly happened? Is it stomach problems?"
"Ah, it's all from the old days frequently working odd hours driving trucks for deliveries, not eating properly that caused this chronic condition... nothing serious, the pain will pass after a while."
"Sister Wang, hold on a bit longer - just three more days and the rules will end, then when the snow melts we can go to the city hospital for examination."
Wang Yan sighed: "The rules are almost over, but will this snow melt anytime soon? Xiao Guan, don't worry about it, Sister Wang is fine, I'll be better after resting."
"Alright." Guan Tong nodded, thought for a moment and said, "I still have one or two bags of Instant Noodles there, I'll cook them for you to eat, Sister Wang. Eating something warm might make you feel better."
"That won't do, Xiao Guan, keep them for yourself!"
"It's fine, I'll go get them now."
"Ah, this... then Sister Wang will exchange milk with you, can't let you suffer loss, Xiao Guan." Wang Yan said seriously.
"Alright." Guan Tong knew Wang Yan was very principled and unwilling to take advantage of others, so he agreed.
Reviews
All reviews (0)