49 Apocalypse Rules

A group of eight or nine students arrived at the exit gate, their faces tinged with nervousness. They had no idea if they could successfully sneak out of the city.

It was actually difficult for the staff to tell who was a student and who wasn’t. The surviving population consisted mainly of young adults, and the academy didn’t consider age during admissions, so students ranged from their late teens to their late twenties.

However, Zhou Qinfeng had given them a heads-up, providing an approximate time when the students would try to leave the city. So, when that time came, the staff started asking a few extra questions to those exiting.

"What’s your business outside the city?"

Faced with the staff member’s question, one student feigned composure and recited their prepared excuse.

"We’re headed to Ming City."

The students had done their homework and knew which excuse would get them out smoothly.

Ming City was a city adjacent to Pinglu. It was also a mountain city, but its infrastructure was far worse in every aspect, and the city itself was smaller.

However, quite a few people who had relocated to Pinglu found it too crowded and decided to move to Ming City. This was officially permitted, making it an exit request that was almost never denied.

The staff member glanced at them, remembered his superior’s instructions, and narrowed his eyes. "Are you really going to Ming City?" he asked carefully.

"Of course."

Just then, Mrs. Chen emerged from the guard booth and walked toward the gate.

A sharp-eyed student spotted her and exclaimed in a hushed tone, "Mrs. Chen!"

The other students turned to look. They were all startled to see Mrs. Chen, and their spirits immediately sank. They knew that with an academy teacher here, there was no way they were getting out.

Mrs. Chen walked up to them and said with a frown, "Don’t you all know the academy has a rule that students are not allowed to leave the city without permission?"

"..."

"Get back to the academy. Don’t forget that breaking the rules can lead to expulsion!"

"We know..."

The students trudged back, dejected. One of them, unwilling to give up, asked, "Mrs. Chen, how did you know we were leaving today?"

Mrs. Chen said impassively, "I didn’t. I was just passing by on an errand and happened to see you all."

"What? We’re so unlucky. If we’d known, we would have gone with..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing at all!"

After the students had walked some distance away, Guan Tong also came out of the booth.

Mrs. Chen said to him, "Mr. Guan, we can head back now, too."

Guan Tong suddenly brought up, "I remember the Dean said there were over a dozen students planning to leave the city on the Mind Network. There were only seven or eight here. The numbers don’t seem to add up."

"Maybe some of them changed their minds?" Mrs. Chen guessed. "A few probably thought about the punishment for getting caught breaking the rules and got cold feet at the last minute."

Guan Tong nodded.

But the next moment, they both heard the urgent voice of Dean Zhou Qinfeng through the connected Mind Network.

(Mrs. Chen, Mr. Guan, are you there? Can you hear me?)

Guan Tong and Mrs. Chen glanced at each other. They had both clearly heard it.

(We can hear you,) Mrs. Chen responded through the Mind Network. (Dean, we just stopped a few students from leaving the city and sent them back. Has something happened?)

(The ones you stopped were trying to use the main gate! Counselor Fang Qian just reported that she heard the students you stopped talking on the Mind Network. They said they should have just taken the mountain path out like the others! Some students didn’t go to the gate; they slipped out of the city through the mountains!)

Zhou Qinfeng’s words stunned Mrs. Chen, and she looked at Guan Tong.

’So Guan Tong’s suspicion was right after all,’ she thought. ’The numbers didn’t match up not because some got scared, but because they took a different route.’

As a mountain city built against the slopes, Pinglu did indeed have mountain paths one could take to get down. But those paths were relatively steep and dangerous. Aside from a few locals who knew the terrain, no one else would risk taking them.

But everyone had overlooked one thing: a mountain path that was steep and dangerous for an ordinary person in the past was nothing to an Ascender, whose physical abilities far surpassed a normal human’s. It might not be like walking on flat ground, but the chance of slipping and falling to their death was extremely low.

Mrs. Chen said urgently, (Dean, what should we do? Is there still time to intercept them?)

(It’s too late. Those kids are already down the mountain! We’ll probably have to go outside the city to find them!)

Guan Tong spoke up then: (How about this, Dean? I’ll go out of the city and bring them back. Have Mrs. Chen meet with Counselor Fang Qian to find out how many took the mountain path, then tell me through the Mind Network.)

Mrs. Chen asked in surprise, "Mr. Guan, are you going out alone? Will it be dangerous?"

"It won’t be," Guan Tong said.

(Alright, we’ll do as Mr. Guan says. Mrs. Chen, you head back to the academy for now.)

(Understood, Dean.)

"I’ll head back right now, then. We’ll be in touch through the Mind Network. Mr. Guan, be careful out there by yourself."

"Don’t worry."

After Mrs. Chen left, Guan Tong exited the city through the gate.

He wasn’t as angry as the Dean about the students sneaking out; he was just a little worried.

After all, as a wilderness veteran, he knew very well that the outside world wasn’t the fun adventure the students imagined it to be.

「...」

"Haha! Those unlucky idiots who took the main road got caught by Mrs. Chen!"

The five students who had taken the mountain path down were basking in the excitement of successfully escaping the city.

They had received news through the Mind Network that the students who tried to leave through the main gate had been caught by a teacher and sent back to the academy. This confirmed that choosing the small mountain path had been the right decision.

When the dozen or so of them had met up earlier, they had disagreed on which route to take out of the city. Some felt the main road was safer and the mountain path was dangerous. But others argued that while the path was dangerous for ordinary people, it was no problem for Ascenders like them, and the chance of getting caught was much lower.

Now that they had successfully gotten out via the mountain path, the group naturally didn’t hold back from mocking those who took the main gate on the Mind Network.

"Yun, which way do we go?"

After descending the mountain and leaving the city, the students looked to their leader, a young man in his early twenties. His name was Shen Yun, and he was a popular figure at the academy. With his excellent grades and charismatic personality, he had quite a few followers.

"We head south," Shen Yun said. "I heard the scenery at Cangying Ridge to the south is nice, and there’s a camp there. We can go check it out!"

"Okay, whatever you say, Yun."

South of Pinglu was a continuous chain of mountain ranges.

Some of the foothills had been commercially developed, but they were all abandoned after the apocalypse.

According to some information online, some people who roamed the wilds would specifically look for places like this to set up camps.

A sturdy, long-term camp couldn’t rely on just cars and tents; it needed some kind of structure. Compared to building from scratch, it was obviously much more convenient to occupy abandoned wilderness buildings that the government no longer wanted.

This led to many well-developed 5A-rated scenic areas becoming prime territory for squatter camps, with many being taken over by wilderness dwellers and turned into camps.

The authorities had more or less adopted a policy of tacit approval toward this.

On one hand, the North Star People in the wilds also needed to survive. On the other, the government lacked the energy and manpower to maintain these scenic areas anyway, so letting those who chose the wilderness live there was no great loss.

On the edge of the southern mountain range near Pinglu, there was a once-popular scenic spot called "Cangying Ridge," which was the students’ destination.

The five students walked and chatted cheerfully, paying close attention to the scenery along the way. However, it was different from what they had imagined. Besides the dusty road and some overgrown weeds, there wasn’t much to see.

By the time they reached the base of Cangying Ridge, the ornamental gatehouse in front of the mountain steps had fallen into disrepair, having been unmaintained for nearly two years.

"Look at this gate. It’s already in this state. In a few more years, it’ll look like ancient ruins."

"I’d say it’s already ruins now."

"Man-made things fall apart pretty quickly without maintenance. Tsk, I bet in the future, all cities except for the densely populated ones will become ruins."

"The future? They’re already ruins after the Quake Rule!"

The students were moved by the sight, sighing with emotion.

Shen Yun smiled and said, "Alright, let’s not get all sentimental. I believe that one day, humanity will build a more glorious world. Come on, let’s go up and take a look!"

"Let’s go!"

Since this was a developed scenic area, the path up the mountain had carved steps, making it very convenient. The students were also Ascenders with plenty of stamina, so they quickly reached a spot not far from the Cangying Ridge viewing platform.

In front of the viewing platform was a cluster of quaint, antique-style buildings—pavilions built by the government in a traditional style, specifically for tourists to use as photo ops.

The group excitedly headed toward them for a look. Just as they approached one of the buildings, the wooden door opened with a CREAK.

Then, a few people walked out from inside.

They were mostly dressed in mismatched clothes, their expressions grim. Without a word, they sized up the students from head to toe.

Although the students had guessed there might be a wilderness camp here, they were still a bit taken aback by the sudden encounter. Shen Yun, the leader, took the initiative to speak. "Hello, we just came from Pinglu to have a look around."

The people ignored Shen Yun. One of them shouted, and soon, more people emerged from the other pavilions.

The sheer size of the group, forty to fifty people in total, stunned Shen Yun and his friends. They hadn’t expected the camp to be this large, and the way these people were looking at them was clearly not friendly.

"What... what do you want?" one student asked nervously. "We’re just looking around. We don’t mean any harm."

Another student plucked up his courage and added, "We’re students from the academy."

It would have been better if he hadn’t said that. The moment the words left his mouth, the students clearly felt the campers’ faces darken instantly, their expressions shifting to undisguised loathing.

"Academy students?" A burly, heavily bearded man stepped out from the crowd and stared them down. "Do you know who we are?"

"Aren’t you people who live in the wilderness?" Shen Yun said. Seeing their hostile expressions, he added in confusion, "We haven’t done anything to offend you, have we?"

The bearded man sneered. "How could we ’inferiors’ ever be worthy of being offended by you chosen ones?"

The moment he said the word "inferiors," the students instantly understood what was happening.

One of them blurted out, "So you’re all ordinary people!"

For a while now, some self-important Ascenders on the internet had been contemptuously calling ordinary people "inferiors." Over time, some ordinary people began to use the term in self-mockery, but that self-mockery was definitely tinged with a certain hatred.

Shen Yun knew these people were ordinary, and he also understood why they were so hostile, even hateful. After all, compared to ordinary people, Ascenders had a higher status. And academy students, specially cultivated by the state, had an even higher status than regular Ascenders.

Combined with the special treatment academy students received during past ’rules’, it was no surprise they attracted jealousy and resentment.

"In that case, we apologize for disturbing you. We’ll head down the mountain now." Shen Yun didn’t want any conflict with these people and planned to leave as quickly as possible.

However, one of the tall and brawny students who came with him looked defiant.

"Yun, why are we backing down? They’re just a bunch of ordinary people. So what if there are a lot of them? What can they do to us? It’s not like they own Cangying Ridge. Why can’t we look at the scenery before we leave!"

Shen Yun turned and glared at his companion. Before he could speak, the bearded man laughed coldly. "Well, well, kid. I was just going to tell you all to get lost. But since you’re so dismissive of us, it seems we’ll have to teach you a lesson. Brothers, grab your weapons!"

"YEAH!"

Some of the men ran back into the buildings. When they came out, they were holding all sorts of weapons: machetes, wooden clubs, compound crossbows, hunting rifles, and even firearms like pistols and assault rifles!