49 Apocalypse Rules

On April 4th, after the sense of touch was eliminated, virtually every organization and group in the world was rendered paralyzed.

Existing medical resources and items or abilities related to Psychic Power were completely unable to protect the majority of people from the elimination. With most people unable to control their bodies, it meant they could do nothing.

As a result, not only were these people unable to have any productive output, but they also required care from the extremely small number of people who were unaffected. Otherwise, with eleven days remaining, it was highly likely that large numbers of them would die without anyone to look after them.

Nations that had prepared in advance were slightly better off. Countries like the Soloma Empire and North Star had arranged for personnel to take care of others ahead of time.

But some small nations that lacked both foresight and capability immediately fell into a state of total collapse.

Guan Tong saw a few posts on the website, one of which was from a user in the Tulip Federation.

The post’s title was *The Fragile Federation Has Completely Collapsed Under This Rule*.

The content mentioned that a civil war had erupted in the Tulip Federation midway through the eighth Apocalypse Rule. Warlords of all sizes formed their own alliances and crusaded against their rivals, resulting in extremely heavy casualties.

This civil war began during the eighth rule and continued all the way through the tenth without end. Now, today, with the random elimination of the sense of touch, the civil war came to an abrupt halt.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to fight; they simply couldn’t anymore. The vast majority of their personnel had lost their combat effectiveness. The few high-ranking members who used special means to preserve their senses were not about to personally engage in hand-to-hand combat.

After all, fighting to the death was a job for their subordinates. The higher-ups among these warlords were each more afraid of death than the last, so getting them to fight personally was out of the question.

Thus, taking advantage of this opportunity, the civil war ended, and with it, the Tulip Federation. This organization, founded just one year ago and whose on-paper strength could once compete with the Soloma Empire and North Star, was declared dissolved amidst the civil war.

All the various factions returned to their own territories to rest and recuperate. The largest warlord faction in the Federation had also been severely battered in the civil war. Their "Alpha Wolf" had been nearly taken out, and they had lost all control over the other warlords.

Aside from the dissolution of the Tulip Federation, it was predictable that by the time the rule ended in mid-April, many of the small nations that were barely hanging on would also perish.

Afterward, the world would likely be left with only a few powerful nation-states. The rest would probably be a collection of large and small survivor groups, international Ascender mercenaries, and the like.

The first Apocalypse Rule had been announced last April. Now, only a year later, the world had undergone such a drastic transformation it was hard to fathom.

However, Guan Tong believed that the situation would likely accelerate. Based on the information he had obtained from the "Qimo Star Puzzle Fragment," there were still far too many people on Celestial Water Star for the Fire Thief’s liking. It would definitely continue to use various rules to cull the population.

...

How long has it been?

The man wondered.

There was only pitch-black darkness before his eyes. He couldn’t perceive his body at all, only a solitary consciousness adrift, like a ghost.

The man usually prided himself on being calm and unflappable, but when his sense of touch was eliminated, he truly panicked.

This state of being unable to perceive his own body was simply too terrifying.

He wasn’t even sure if he was still alive, or if he had died and was having an out-of-body experience.

’Since I’m still conscious, I should be alive. But being alive in this state is a fate worse than death.’

The deathly silence of the darkness seemed to want to swallow him whole.

He felt as if his soul was being torn apart. His brain was constantly sending out various signals, but it received no response, no feedback.

And then a peculiar situation arose.

’I... I can see?’

The man felt his vision gradually brighten. Multicolored lights flickered and danced, like a group of tiny people performing.

He tried to join them, but in the next moment, the lights vanished without a trace, and everything returned to darkness.

’It was a hallucination!’

The man was stunned for a moment before realizing that what he had "seen" was just a hallucination created by his brain.

Unable to get any feedback from the body, it could only create its own illusions to deceive itself.

This made the man think: ’If what I just saw was a hallucination, could my past thirty-plus years of life also be just a hallucination created by my brain?’

What is real, and what is false? The man was completely lost. If all his activities relied on his brain sending and receiving signals, how could he be sure that his current self was normal, or that his former self was normal?

Could it be that he had actually been in this state all along, as just a single thought? Were his past thirty-plus years of life just a slightly longer hallucination?

But does the length of time even have meaning for consciousness? If the brain can alter its perception of time, couldn’t a second be made to feel like an eternity, and an eternity feel as short as a second?

’So have I lived for over thirty years, or just for a single second? I can’t tell... I just can’t tell...’

"Hey! Hey!"

By a bedside in the shelter, an attendant was anxiously slapping the face of the man on the bed.

The bracelet on the man’s wrist let out a piercing alarm—a sign that his vital signs were weakening.

The attendant slapped him a few more times before remembering it was useless. He tried to administer some medicine to the man, but it had no effect. The bracelet’s alarm continued to sound.

A few minutes later, the bracelet emitted a long "BEEEEEP—." The attendant checked the man and confirmed he was dead.

"Sigh..."

He sighed, shaking his head helplessly. His only option was to hurry to the data room, open a computer, and report the death.

At the same time, death reports from every shelter flooded the intake system of the Strategy Research Room.

The analysts in the analysis room could barely keep up, growing more horrified the more they read.

Nearly every shelter was reporting a severe number of deaths. Some were individuals with pre-existing conditions like epilepsy or asthma, which were triggered after their sense of touch was eliminated.

Another portion seemed to be a problem with the eliminated individuals’ brains. According to professional instruments, after being unable to perceive the body for an extended period, the brain made the judgment that the "host has deceased," which led to the self-termination of consciousness, causing a large number of people to become brain-dead.

And the deadliest part was that there was almost no way to intervene externally in this situation.

...

At the same time, in the Soloma Empire, a special operating room was in session. Several people whose sense of touch had been eliminated lay on operating tables, undergoing craniotomy and implantation surgery.

However, the head surgeon was no human doctor, but rather a set of precision robotic arms controlled by a computer.

The King of Soloma himself stood outside the operating room, leaning on his scepter with both hands as he watched the surgery inside.

Standing next to him was a white-haired old man in a white coat who looked like a doctor.

"Dr. Heisen, are you certain your ’Steel Will’ project will succeed?"

"Your Majesty, I am confident," the old man said. "The relevant technology has been in research for over twenty years. This rule, by eliminating a person’s sense of touch, allows the chip to be implanted into the brain without any physical rejection. It’s practically a precious opportunity gifted by the heavens."

Dr. Haisen grew excited as he spoke, "Your Majesty, if the implantations are successful, and we then equip them with mechanical prosthetics, you will possess an army of steel soldiers who will obey your every command!"

The King of Soloma nodded slightly. "I have but one question. After the mechanization is complete, will they still be judged as ’human’ by the Fire Thief? Don’t forget, what I want are soldiers who are not bound by the Apocalypse Rules."