On the streets of Yunhua City, a young man walked with vacant eyes.
He seemed to have no destination, unsure of where to go.
"Thump."
A passerby collided with him. The passerby immediately frowned and said, "What are you doing? Not watching where you're going, you..."
Halfway through the sentence, when the young man's murderous gaze locked onto him, the passerby instantly gulped, lowered his head, and quickly hurried away.
"...I never thought Gu Fei would fall to such a state!"
The young man was none other than Gu Fei, the former captain of Squad Three.
The failure of Squad Three in this Ascendant Challenge Tournament had made him the person most responsible.
Actually, the moment he was killed on Holy Grail Island, he already had a premonition that he would be punished.
But he never expected that the final decision from above would be to expel him from the squad and confiscate all the items previously invested in him.
This feeling was like being cast from heaven into hell. After handing over the items to the official personnel, Gu Fei left the base in a daze, wandering aimlessly through the streets.
He knew that from now on, he was no longer a member of the official organization and could no longer enjoy comprehensive protection and limitless investment. Even if his Mind Power upper limit surpassed that of ordinary people, so what?
Gu Fei understood very clearly that after leaving the official team, soon, those former teammates who were once inferior to him would surpass him. And he could never go back, only surviving as an ordinary person.
The sheer disparity of it all was something he couldn't accept.
Gu Fei walked, and when he came back to his senses, he found himself on the rooftop of a tall building.
Standing at the edge and looking down, he raised his right hand. His Mind Power item, that curved blade, appeared in his grasp.
Gu Fei slowly placed the curved blade horizontally against his neck, his hand trembling slightly.
Before today, the thought of "suicide" had never crossed his mind. But now, his spirit had completely collapsed. He simply couldn't accept falling from the lofty position of an official team captain to being merely a slightly stronger ordinary person.
He would use his own weapon to cut his throat, then let his body plummet from the building.
"A former official team captain, and this is all the resolve you have?"
Just as Gu Fei was about to act, a voice suddenly came from behind.
"Getting kicked out of the team and you want to kill yourself? That's so fragile it's almost laughable."
Gu Fei whirled around sharply. A short-haired woman in a suit stood not far away.
"Who are you?!"
"Is who I am really that important?"
"..."
Gu Fei wasn't stupid. He knew this woman must have been watching him for some time; otherwise, she wouldn't have followed him to the rooftop of this abandoned building.
He pointed the curved blade at the woman and said coldly, "Why are you following me? Speak, or I'll kill you right now!"
"Relax, I'm not interested in you. It's just that the Commander sent me to assess your situation... and from the looks of it now, the results don't seem promising. What use is a person who so easily decides to end their own life, no matter how strong they are?"
Commander?
Gu Fei frowned. "Who is this 'Commander' you're talking about?"
He had just been kicked out of the official team, and immediately this "Commander" sent someone to assess him. That was clearly suspicious.
How did this Commander know about his captain status and internal information from the Countermeasures Research Office?
"The Commander is the Commander," the short-haired woman said. "Gu Fei, let me be direct. You went through round after round of selection to become captain. I think you understand the difficulty of that better than anyone."
"If you want to die, then go ahead. But if you still feel unwilling, if you want to prove yourself, if you want revenge... then the Commander might give you a chance."
Prove himself... revenge...
Gu Fei's right hand, holding the curved blade, slowly lowered unconsciously.
"Take me to see your Commander."
The short-haired woman smiled slightly. "The Commander is not in Yunhua. Since you have this intention, I will report your situation. If the Commander is willing, he will summon you. Until then, you wait."
After saying this, the woman turned and left. Gu Fei stood in place, silent for a long time, his gaze gradually hardening.
"That's right, I can't just die like this... that would be too pathetic! Even if I'm kicked out of the official team, can't I, Gu Fei, rely on my strength to join another organization and gain resources? Sooner or later... hmph!"
The short-haired woman, now downstairs, took out a small phone and made a call.
"Commander, Gu Fei wants to see you."
"Let him wait," came the voice from the phone—it was precisely the voice of Big Sister, the founder of the Qingmei Society. "I'll find time to see him later."
"Commander, forgive me for speaking out of turn. This Gu Fei actually wanted to commit suicide after being expelled from the official team. Is someone with such a weak character really worth cultivating?"
"Heh." Big Sister chuckled. "Child, that's not weakness. Truly weak people don't dare to commit suicide... Since this Gu Fei dares to kill himself, he dares to kill others. With proper guidance, he can become a useful blade in our hands."
"Yes, Commander. I understand."
...
"The city is changing so fast..."
Guan Tong walked down the street. Having not gone out for a while, the urban area of Yunhua City had transformed dramatically.
First, both sides of the streets had been completely cleared out. Shops, bus stops, even the roadside trees and flowerbeds in the green belts had been removed.
And on these cleared spaces, what was being constructed were undoubtedly the various-sized shelters proposed by the authorities earlier.
Guan Tong noticed these shelters weren't being built directly from ground level. Instead, deep pits and large holes were dug first. This meant the shelters would have both underground and above-ground levels, clearly aiming for a professional-grade construction.
Seeing this, he couldn't help but marvel at the high efficiency of the official action. At this rate, he estimated that in another one or two rounds of rules, these shelters could be put into preliminary use.
He was just a bit curious: once all these professional-grade shelters were built and people moved in, would there still be anyone outside?
The thought of streets filled with shelters, not a single human figure in sight, gave Guan Tong an inexplicable sense of eeriness.
But in the era of the Doomsday Rules, everything must yield to survival.
And as long as humanity survived these forty-nine Doomsday Rules, if there were still a large number of survivors by then, relying on the accumulated items, abilities, and Mind Power from these rounds of rules... perhaps humanity as a whole would be elevated to a brand new golden age.
Guan Tong wandered through the streets and alleys. He didn't find Mousey, but he did find a stray cat with pure black fur and jade-green eyes.
This was quite rare, because the fourth rule, [Snow in June], had caused wildlife in urban areas to almost disappear.
During that rule, even humans faced numerous difficulties just surviving, let alone stray cats and dogs.
Guan Tong took out a sausage he carried with him and successfully brought the little black cat back.
He placed the little black cat in a room inside the shelter, where he also stored some supplies and other items.
Then he stood outside the door, closed it, and returned the shelter to the [Wordless Book].
The next moment, the shelter disappeared without a trace, along with the supplies and the little black cat inside.
"...It all went into the book?"
He summoned it again, opened the door, and went inside. The little black cat was lying on the bed, and the supplies were still in their original positions.
This experimental result greatly satisfied Guan Tong.
He had previously worried that if he stored supplies inside the shelter, once he recalled the shelter, all the supplies would fall to the ground. That would be very troublesome when relocation was needed.
But now it seemed that items placed inside the shelter became part of the shelter itself, moving in and out of the book pages along with it.
And it wasn't just inanimate objects; even living creatures worked. At least from the little black cat's condition, it didn't seem harmed during the process.
"If anyone crosses me in the future, I can lure them into this shelter, then directly recall it into the book pages, trapping them to death..."
As Guan Tong was thinking this, the little black cat gave a "meow," jumped to his feet, and rubbed its head against his pant leg.
"Look at you, all pitch black, just like the color of my Shadow." Guan Tong squatted down and rubbed the little black cat's head. "You can stay with me from now on."
He had originally gone out just to find a living creature for the shelter recall experiment. But now, looking at this little black cat, he found it quite cute and simply decided to adopt it himself.
Guan Tong thought this was fine. At least he'd have a living companion. Although his personality wasn't very outgoing, staying alone all the time occasionally brought a sense of loneliness. Having a little black cat around wasn't bad.
"What should I name you?" Guan Tong looked at the pitch-black cat and thought for a moment. "I'll call you 'Coal Ball.'"
"Meow." The little black cat meowed, whether in agreement or protest was unclear, but Guan Tong decided on the name.
"Come on, Coal Ball, let's get you washed first. Look how dirty you are."
Guan Tong picked up Coal Ball and took it to the bathroom for a bath, then fed it some biscuits and sausage.
After eating and drinking its fill, Coal Ball quickly jumped onto the bed, lay down, and closed its eyes to sleep.
Watching from the side, Guan Tong felt quite pleased.
Coal Ball didn't seem very afraid of people, but it wasn't a clingy cat either. That was fine. Guan Tong didn't need too much interaction. Just having another living creature in the space besides himself could somewhat alleviate the feeling of loneliness.
"Next is waiting for the sixth rule to be announced."
Sitting at the table, Guan Tong thought about how to spend these ten-plus days.
He had already stockpiled a lot of reserve Mind Power and Silver Hunt bullets. Stockpiling more wasn't impossible... but he felt the returns wouldn't be as significant as before.
"Is there another way to improve my strength from a different angle..."
As he pondered, his eyes suddenly lit up.
How could he have forgotten that!
He hurriedly plugged in and turned on the computer, accessing the official website of the Mind Power Academy.
That's right. With so much happening during the tournament, his mind had been a bit chaotic, and he had completely forgotten about Shi Jingyi's course, "Mind Power Flow."
If he wanted to find other ways to improve his strength, Shi Jingyi's unique application of Mind Power was naturally the first choice.
Imagine if he could also circulate Mind Power throughout his body like Shi Jingyi. With his vast reserve of Mind Power, he could definitely unleash considerable power.
However, Shi Jingyi had also said before that learning her system required some talent, patience to work hard, memorizing human acupuncture points, and learning how to circulate Qi.
"I'll give it a serious try. Best if I can learn it; if not, then forget it." Having made up his mind, Guan Tong clicked into Shi Jingyi's course channel.
But only after clicking in did he realize a somewhat strange issue.
...What work was this laptop connected to?
Previously, when Guan Tong used the laptop to go online, he would turn on his phone's hotspot for the computer to connect. But now, the laptop seemed to automatically connect to the work as soon as it was plugged in and turned on.
He checked it. The work connection displayed "Unknown Wireless."
"...Could it be that this is the peculiar work that comes with my shelter?"
Realizing this, Guan Tong immediately had a deeper thought: "If I use the work inside the shelter, can I avoid being tracked online?"
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