49 Apocalypse Rules

The rest of March flew by, and the end of the month arrived in the blink of an eye.

The Shadow incident, which had caused a huge stir mid-month, gradually quieted down as the release of the tenth Apocalypse Rule approached.

People were more concerned about what the new rule would be, whether it would be a dangerous survival-type rule, and if they could pass it successfully.

As for matters like the Shadow, they were ultimately just a topic of conversation for most people—too distant from the lives of ordinary citizens to hold their attention for long.

Even the Andai Kingdom government, which had been the loudest in its protests during the first few days, had stopped mentioning the matter after two weeks. They even seemed to be taking steps to prohibit their citizens from discussing it further.

Someone posted on the Ascender’s Home website, speculating that some officials in the Andai Kingdom were starting to get scared in hindsight.

This was because the identities of the people killed by the Shadow had long since been dug up by busybodies and posted online.

Once everyone learned that the Shadow hadn’t killed indiscriminately but had instead destroyed the den of a minor warlord involved in human trafficking and drug dealing, voices of support erupted worldwide, with many agreeing they were good kills.

This was a huge embarrassment for the Andai Kingdom’s government. Moreover, the shift in attitude among some high-ranking officials was due to their fear that blowing the matter up would make them a mortal enemy of the Shadow.

A major country, of course, wouldn’t be afraid of making an enemy of an Ascender. But for a small nation like the Andai Kingdom, whose population was plummeting, making an enemy of someone known as the "World’s First Ascender" was definitely not a good thing.

Therefore, the Andai Kingdom’s government was trying to downplay the incident’s impact. Similarly, many dissenting voices arose within the North Star Country, arguing that their government shouldn’t have issued a statement without a clear investigation.

But all of this received far less attention as the release of the new rule drew near.

On this day at the end of the month, Guan Tong was still deep in a forest in the Andai Kingdom, having not yet left.

After waking up in the morning, he took a walk through the forest as was his habit, thinking about the recent situation as he went.

’The speculation from that "Gatekeeper" of the Primordial Man is certainly terrifying. If the people ultimately selected by the Apocalypse Rules are merely meant to be "gatekeepers" for the ruins of a destroyed civilization, that would be far too bleak and tragic.’

’But in the end, that’s just the Primordial Man’s own speculation, with no conclusive evidence to support it.’

’As for teaming up to find the holder of Fragment 5 in the Sakura Prayer nation, I’m not really interested.’

’Putting aside the inherent danger of partnering with a stranger, this isn’t a vacation. What if I just go over there and get captured by the Sakura Prayer nation’s official armed forces?’

’And another thing... even if the holder of Fragment 5 agrees to exchange the stories contained within the fragment murals, just like the two of them did... does that mean we all stop collecting the fragments afterward?’

Guan Tong didn’t think so.

’Even if I, the Primordial Man, and the fragment holder from the Sakura Prayer nation know the full stories of all five fragments, each of us would still want to collect all the pieces for ourselves.’

’The fragment’s description clearly states that assembling them yields the complete *Qimo Star Chronicles*. When that happens, will the complete *Qimo Star Chronicles* just be the full set of murals, or will there be extra content or other additional rewards? No one knows.’

’Based on this, I believe the three of us will inevitably become competitors sooner or later. It’s hard to avoid, unless someone voluntarily gives up the competition and hands over their fragment.’

Besides matters related to the fragments, Guan Tong had also made many other preparations during this time.

What took up most of his time was practicing Psychic Power Flow.

After discovering he could complete a full-body circulation, he would perform it at least once a day, and a second time if he had the energy.

After keeping this up for a while, besides becoming more proficient, he could clearly feel his body optimizing at an accelerated rate.

He also discovered that when Psychic Power circulated through his body as energy, it naturally formed a protective layer. This protection was effective against both normal attacks and Psychic Power-related attacks.

In other words, a person skilled in this art wouldn’t need a single defensive item. The Psychic Power they controlled and circulated through their body could form a defense on its own.

For example, if Guan Tong were to fight Shi Jingyi and tried to invade her body with his incorporeal Shadow, he would be blocked by her circulating Psychic Power—unless her Psychic Power was completely depleted, a successful invasion would be impossible.

This defensive effect was one of the reasons Guan Tong pursued and practiced it so diligently.

Even though he could use Shadow Armor for defense, there were still situations that were impossible to guard against. For instance, if an enemy launched a sneak attack without his knowledge, it would be difficult for him to deploy his Shadow Armor in advance.

But once Psychic Power Flow was mastered, Psychic Power energy would constantly flow across the surface of his body, which was like having an all-weather, automated defense system. As long as the attack wasn’t powerful enough to destroy you instantly, it could be effectively defended against.

Not to mention, at higher levels of mastery, it could also accelerate the natural growth of one’s Psychic Power limit. Guan Tong had specifically texted Shi Jingyi to ask about this and had received a confirmation.

By the end of the month today, he glanced at his panel and saw a significant improvement.

[Name: Guan Tong]

[Nickname: Webmaster]

[Title: Victor]

[Psychic Power: 317 (317) (2560)]

[Sublimation Coins: 685,620]

[Overall Bio-information Assessment: Excellent]

In just one month and three days, his Psychic Power limit had increased by 8 points.

At this rate, if he could consistently gain a minimum of 8 points per month under normal circumstances, and if that rate increased later, reaching 10 points wouldn’t be a problem.

This way, even other Ascenders who relied on group strength to take first place in the eighth rule and receive the maximum Psychic Power limit increase would see their advantage over him in this area rapidly shrink.

Guan Tong even felt that if he could maintain this growth rate, it wouldn’t be difficult to surpass those people later on.

In addition to the natural growth of his Psychic Power, he had also accumulated several hundred points in his reserve, bringing it from nearly dropping below two thousand to stabilizing at around twenty-five hundred.

He had used his reserved Psychic Power quite a bit during the last few rules. Whether for combat or frequently using Body Shifting to travel, it would have been impossible without the support of his reserves. Ensuring this "Psychic Power pool" didn’t run dry was extremely important to him.

And so, after a month of rest and recuperation, the new rule arrived on schedule for humanity.

...

「April 1st, 9:00 AM.」

Guan Tong sat in his shelter, watching Coal Ball, who was still sleeping soundly, and listening to the voice of the Fire Thief in his mind.

[The Tenth Apocalypse Rule has been released]

[Apocalypse Rule 10: Five Senses Elimination]

[Rule Content: Beginning 24 hours after this rule’s release, all of humanity will randomly lose one of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch. This elimination process will continue for five consecutive days, after which all five senses will be lost. This rule will last for 15 days]

[Success Reward: 500 Sublimation Coins]

[Failure Penalty: Psychic Power limit decay]

[Note: Lose your sight, and you will be shrouded in darkness. Lose your hearing, and the world becomes a silent play. Lose your sense of smell and taste, and food will be mere sustenance. Lose your sense of touch, and you will sever your connection... When all five senses are gone, how will you be certain of your own existence?]

"Five Senses Elimination..."

After hearing the newly released rule, Guan Tong was surprised, but his thoughts immediately turned to his Shadow, which could share its senses with him.

’If the Shadow isn’t affected, then isn’t this rule a freebie for me?’

...

Apocalypse Rules Strategy Research Room.

Three minutes after the rule was released, the conference room was already full.

Gao Liangwei sat down and said directly, "What are everyone’s thoughts on this rule? Speak quickly. Time is tight. In 24 hours, we will randomly lose one of our senses, and we must have countermeasures in place before then."

Everyone nodded.

If there was anything to be thankful for with this rule, it was that the Fire Thief had given humanity 24 hours to prepare. It hadn’t immediately stolen one of their senses the moment the rule was released.

These 24 hours were undoubtedly precious, especially for the Strategy Research Room. They had to race against time to formulate a response plan and then transmit it to the local emergency management agencies for implementation.

"Since the order of sensory elimination is completely random, we have to consider different scenarios. If the first sense we lose after 24 hours is smell or taste, that would be the most favorable outcome for us."

"That’s right. Losing smell and taste won’t affect daily life in the short term. But if we lose sight, hearing, or touch first, things will get very troublesome!"

Everyone nodded in agreement. For humans, being unable to smell or taste was one thing, but being unable to see, hear, or even feel touch—that was true terror.

"We can’t rely on wishful thinking," Gao Liangwei reminded them. "We must be fully prepared for any possibility."

"I believe the first thing to clarify is that this is not a survival-type rule. The rewards don’t include a Survival Treasure Chest, and the failure penalty is Psychic Power decay. This means it might be possible to pass it through clever means."

"Yes. If it’s not a survival rule, you can choose to give up if you really can’t endure it. Even if your Psychic Power decays a little, it’s better than forcing your way through and ending up with severe after-effects."

"Yeah. I remember that fasting rule. A lot of people were left with severe after-effects like organ damage, weren’t they...?"

"It’s still best to avoid decay if possible," Zhang Minglu said. "Especially since the Mind Lock problem hasn’t been solved yet."

Ascenders restricted by a Mind Lock are already unable to increase their Psychic Power limit through natural growth. If they also suffer decay from failing a rule, any advantage they’ve accumulated would undoubtedly vanish in an instant.

"For now, we don’t need to prepare for the loss of taste and smell. The focus should be on sight, hearing, and touch. Actually, vision and hearing problems are common, so human society has developed assistive technologies for them for many years. The most troublesome is touch. Research in this area is still extremely rare."

Yes, everyone was well aware that visual and hearing impairments were common human ailments. Since the development of modern science and medicine, many assistive solutions had been created for these two issues.

For example, there were guide dogs and robots trained specifically for the blind, and bone-conduction hearing aids designed for the deaf. There were many related support solutions.

But research on the sense of touch was scarce. It was hard to imagine what it would be like to have no sense of touch—if you went to touch something, having no tactile feedback meant you wouldn’t even know if you’d made contact.

Furthermore, the loss of touch would certainly not be limited to the hands. Other parts of the body would be affected too. For instance, if your skin had no sense of touch, you wouldn’t know if you were wearing clothes or what the temperature was like.

It might even become impossible for people to take care of themselves. Especially when combined with the loss of sight, you wouldn’t even know if you were standing, sitting, or lying down.

In that state, after completely losing all five senses, a person might begin to question their own physical body or lose awareness of their existence in the real world.

An expert took a deep breath and said, "No matter the random order, all five senses will be gone after five days. I think for humanity, the truly difficult test will be the final ten days without any senses. How to survive those ten days is the real problem we need to solve!"