49 Apocalypse Rules

After the academy term began, Guan Tong’s life settled into a stable routine.

He had to teach three classes a day, each about an hour long. The overall workload wasn’t too demanding.

In addition to the three hours of scheduled classes, he spent another hour or two on miscellaneous tasks, like answering student questions. In total, he spent about five hours at the academy each day.

This was an acceptable arrangement for him. And judging by the student feedback, his performance as a new teacher was quite good.

On the Ascender’s Home forum, a student had started a thread titled, "Psychic Power Flow Students, Come On In!" Many students had left comments.

"I think this substitute lecturer is pretty good! It’s all practical techniques, nothing flashy."

"Lecturer Guan Tong is great, apart from being a little cold."

"Speaking of which, what do you all think his relationship with Lecturer Jingyi is? I know Lecturer Jingyi used to be from a martial arts dojo. Maybe they’re senior and junior disciples?"

"Mr. Guan is incredible! Yesterday, he cleared up a problem that had been bugging me for days with just a single sentence. I think his understanding of Psychic Power Flow might be on par with Lecturer Jingyi’s!"

"Are you all just focused on the new lecturer? Am I the only one more interested in that girl, Sisiya? Does anyone know anything about her?"

"I still prefer Lecturer Jingyi. She’s so much more approachable than this Guan Tong!"

Guan Tong noticed that no one in the thread was complaining about his teaching ability. Most of the criticism was focused on him being "cold," "quiet," and "not very approachable or friendly."

He thought he was doing just fine. ’Sure, I’m not the type of warm-hearted teacher who’s always smiling, but I’m not that cold, am I?’ Whenever students had questions, he always answered them patiently.

’But it didn’t really matter. As long as I maintain the quality of my teaching and fulfill my duties as an instructor, that’s enough.’

Guan Tong shut down his computer, stood up, and walked outside, stretching lazily.

Coal Ball was leaping from branch to branch in a large tree outside, growing more and more wild.

’The new rule will be announced tomorrow. I wonder what kind it will be.’

Although the interval between the last rule and this one was two months long, many people hadn’t gotten a proper rest, as they were still dealing with the secondary disasters from the earthquake.

For those who had spent weeks relocating between cities, or for officials working in extremely busy departments like emergency management, these past two months had been less restful than the month, or even the half-month, before.

Thus, everyone was secretly hoping for a relatively easy rule this time, which would essentially serve as an extended break.

Guan Tong himself wasn’t under much pressure. He was in excellent physical condition with ample Psychic Power reserves, and his personal Terminal Panel was looking quite impressive.

[Name: Guan Tong]

[Nickname: Shadow]

[Title: Civilization Observer]

[Psychic Power: 879 (879) (196,530)]

[Sublimation Coins: 3,156,280]

[Comprehensive Bio-Information Evaluation: Excellent]

With a Psychic Power cap of 879, he was confident he was one of the Ascenders with the highest cap in the entire world.

Moreover, this number was still rising quickly. His Psychic Power cap was now naturally increasing at an average rate of one point every three days, which amounted to ten points a month.

Without any external boosts, his Psychic Power cap would break 900 in another two months, putting the major milestone of 1,000 well within reach.

Another benefit of a high Psychic Power cap was that he could store a much larger amount of reserve Psychic Power each day.

At a 10:1 conversion ratio, and storing it twice a day, he could accumulate nearly 200 points of Psychic Power daily. That was 6,000 a month—and while it wasn’t enough to deploy a large-scale Shadow Realm, it was more than sufficient for other purposes.

He was down several hundred thousand Sublimation Coins, most of which he had spent on recovery and healing items for Shi Jingyi, trying to find something that would wake her up.

However, he now felt his greatest advantage on the panel was the "Civilization Observer" title. Its Insight ability had played a crucial role in his previous battles.

When the squad "Big Sis" had sent to attack him used their items and abilities, their corresponding effects were displayed right before his eyes, allowing him to react with ease.

While this made him feel fortunate, it also made him think from time to time of the two people who had given him the fragments: the woman known as Snake Eyes from Sakura Prayer, and the person from Soloma nicknamed "Primordial Man."

Both were members of their respective nations’ official powers.

The latter, in particular, had proposed a condition when he handed over the fragment: a request for assistance in the future.

During the earthquake disaster, Guan Tong had wondered if the King of Soloma would contact him to cash in that favor—to ask him to help weaken the Earth Vein Pillar that was causing the magnitude-10 earthquake.

He had agonized at the time over whether he would agree or refuse if such a request were made.

But in the end, the King of Soloma never contacted him. Several months had now passed without a request, leaving Guan Tong with an uncomfortable, lingering sense of suspense.

As for the woman, Snake Eyes, from Sakura Prayer, Guan Tong had told her back on Leming Island that if she could no longer stay in Sakura Prayer after handing over the fragment, she could contact him.

Now that Leming Island had sunk in the earthquake, there was still no word from her. He had no idea what had become of her.

Guan Tong would mull over these things in his spare time. After all, as he interacted with more people and his influence grew, it was becoming increasingly difficult to live a quiet life, minding his own small patch of the world as he had before.

...

The next day, Guan Tong woke up in his shelter.

He hadn’t returned to the lecturer’s dormitory last night. The academy had already issued a notice that classes might be suspended during the Rule Stage, depending on the circumstances.

Once the rule was announced, the Strategy Research Room would conduct an assessment. If it didn’t impact the curriculum, classes would continue as normal; otherwise, they would be suspended until the rule period ended.

For example, during the ninth rule, "Foggy Nightmare Beast," the academy had quickly resumed its normal class schedule after it was discovered that firearms were effective against the Nightmare Beasts. There had been almost no disruption.

Besides, lecturers and students were treated differently. Students weren’t allowed to come and go from campus as they pleased, but no such restrictions applied to the instructors. So, whether Guan Tong stayed in the dormitory was entirely up to him.

He could have simply used Body Shifting to return to his shelter after his classes, but to avoid suspicion, he still made a point of staying in the dormitory for a day or two every now and then so people would see him around.

Right now, Guan Tong was sitting on a stool by the entrance, silently waiting.

At nine o’clock sharp, the voice of the Fire Thief rang out.

[The Twelfth Apocalypse Rule has been announced]

[Apocalypse Rule Twelve: Digital Detox]

[Rule Content: From the moment of this announcement, the use of any device with network connectivity is prohibited. This rule will last for 30 days.]

[Success Reward: 500 Sublimation Coins]

[Failure Penalty: Decrease in Psychic Power cap]

[Remark: You, who were born and raised alongside the internet, are accustomed to having the world at your fingertips. Can you truly accept its absence?]