49 Apocalypse Rules

At the Strategy Research Room base, Chen Na was in a room, staring blankly at the ceiling.

A full day had passed since she was found by the officials and brought here.

During this time, she had been questioned twice about her background, her relatives, her reasons for joining the mysterious organization, what she knew about it, and the process of contacting Shadow... She told the truth about everything.

Afterward, the officials told her she was in the clear and that they would bring her mother to see her. So, she waited with eager anticipation.

CLICK.

The door made a sound. Chen Na looked over and, in the next moment, saw her mother, Wang Yan, enter the room. She was instantly overcome with emotion.

"Mom!"

"Nana!"

Wang Yan immediately ran over to hug her daughter. Seeing this, Dr. Zhang, who was at the door, gently closed it and left them alone. He didn’t come back until about half an hour later.

"Are you two doing okay?" Dr. Zhang asked with a smile as he entered.

By now, both Wang Yan and Chen Na had calmed down from the joy of their reunion. Wang Yan gripped Dr. Zhang’s hand tightly in gratitude. "Thank you. Thank you all for saving my daughter!"

"Please, don’t mention it. Have a seat," Dr. Zhang said. "Actually, the ones who saved your daughter were her friends, the webmaster of that site, and, of course, Shadow... I imagine Chen Na has already told you all of this?"

Wang Yan nodded. In the past half hour, her daughter had told her everything.

"If your daughter hadn’t been so righteous and notified the outside world about that evil organization, who knows how many more people it would have harmed. You could say your daughter performed a great service."

Hearing this, Wang Yan shook her head. "A great service or not, all that matters to me is that my child is safe and sound. That’s all I could ask for."

Dr. Zhang asked, "Do you have any plans for the future?"

"I just plan to go back with my daughter and live a quiet life. I’m not thinking about anything else," Wang Yan said, squeezing Chen Na’s hand.

Chen Na nodded vigorously. "Yeah! I’m never leaving Mom’s side again!"

Hearing this, Dr. Zhang’s expression grew a little awkward.

Wang Yan noticed, and her heart skipped a beat. She asked tentatively, "What is it, Dr. Zhang? Is there something wrong with my daughter?"

"Well," Dr. Zhang began to explain, "your daughter herself is fine. The main issue is that while the base was destroyed, the founder of the organization has not yet been identified... We can’t rule out the possibility that this person will seek revenge. If that happens, both you and your daughter would be at high personal risk if you were to go back home."

"Oh, this...!"

Wang Yan hadn’t considered that, but hearing Dr. Zhang’s explanation, she was suddenly overcome with worry.

"Dr. Zhang, what should we do? I’m not afraid for myself, but my daughter..."

"I have a proposal," Dr. Zhang said. "Your daughter’s ability is quite special, and very powerful. I’m the one in charge of training for the official Ascender teams, and I’d like to invite your daughter to join our official training program."

"As for you, Ms. Wang, if you’re willing to stay here, I can also arrange a job for you. That way, you and your daughter can remain together, and your safety will be guaranteed."

Wang Yan was ready to agree on the spot, but she looked at Chen Na first. "Nana, what do you think?"

But Chen Na’s little face showed a hint of resistance. "Do I have to start training again? I..."

Dr. Zhang knew the organization’s forced-growth style of training must have left psychological scars on a child like Chen Na. He said gently, "Chen Na, don’t worry. The training here won’t be like what you went through in that organization."

"Then... then I’m willing to stay here with Mom."

"That’s wonderful," Dr. Zhang said with a smile. "I’ll go create your files right away. And Ms. Wang, I’ll also take care of your resignation from the Yunhua Public Security Bureau."

"Oh, thank you for your trouble, Dr. Zhang."

After Dr. Zhang left, Chen Na said with some reluctance, "Mom, I don’t really want to train anymore... It’s so tiring. I wish I could just go back to school like before."

"Silly girl," Wang Yan said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. "In a society like this, there are no schools to go to anymore. At least this is an official government base, so everything should be properly managed. If you get tired, just tell me. That Dr. Zhang seems very reasonable; I’m sure he won’t force you to train."

"Mmm..."

"Oh, right," Wang Yan said, suddenly remembering something. "Once everything is settled here, you need to call Guan. He was very concerned about you. And besides, you lied to him last time. You need to apologize, you understand?"

"Mhm, I know. I’ll apologize," Chen Na nodded, embarrassed. The memory of lying to Guan Tong on the phone made her feel very guilty.

...

Inside a hospital room, two people stood before a bed.

On the bed lay a young man, unconscious. The tops of his legs were wrapped in thick bandages, but below them was only empty space. It was Jiang Ming, whose legs had been severed by Guan Tong just before he teleported.

The two people by the bedside were a young woman with short hair in a business suit and an elderly woman with white-streaked hair dressed in simple, handmade clothes.

"Commander-in-Chief, his life is saved," the young woman said. "But we haven’t been able to acquire any medicine or recovery items capable of regenerating limbs. We also haven’t found any Ascenders with a similar healing ability yet."

The Commander-in-Chief listened, her expression unreadable.

The young woman continued, "The destruction of the Yongzhou Base has been confirmed as the work of the Ascender known as Shadow. Furthermore, according to our inside sources, the reason Shadow found the base was because someone on the inside leaked its location. The informant was one of our own squad members, Chen Na."

"Chen Na. The little girl with the Perception Ability, correct?" the Commander-in-Chief said slowly.

"Yes."

"An entire base as large as Yongzhou, destroyed by a child’s hand," the Commander-in-Chief sighed. "Han Ling, you have disappointed me greatly."

Hearing this, a flash of pride crossed the young woman’s eyes. ’If the Commander-in-Chief had put me in charge of Yongzhou Base instead of Han Ling,’ she thought, ’this would never have been the result.’

"However, Han Ling died without saying anything she shouldn’t have. In that, she fulfilled her duty."

"...But Commander-in-Chief, it was her mismanagement that led to the destruction of the Yongzhou Base."

The Commander-in-Chief said coolly, "It was Shadow who destroyed Yongzhou Base. Do not mistake who our enemy is."

A chill ran down the young woman’s spine. "Yes, ma’am!"

"We have video footage of Shadow now, don’t we? I don’t care if it’s a disguise; I want you to find him. You must track this person down. Also, find a way to restore Jiang Ming’s legs as soon as possible. His ability is too valuable to be wasted."

"I will make the arrangements. You can rest assured, Commander-in-Chief." The young woman paused. "As for the informant, Chen Na, what do you intend to do with her? According to our latest reports, Zhang Minglu has her at the Strategy Research Room’s base. It will be difficult to make a move."

"Traitors must be punished, of course," the Commander-in-Chief said coolly. "Even if she joins the Official Team, that doesn’t mean she’ll get away. I will find an opportunity in the future. You are dismissed."

"Yes, ma’am."

After the young woman left, the Commander-in-Chief looked down at the unconscious Jiang Ming and reached out to stroke his face.

’My poor child...’ she thought. ’Your parents died so horribly to protect you. I, your grandmother, will make you the most powerful Ascender in the world...’

...

「Ascender’s Home Website」

For the past few days, a forum post had been rapidly climbing the ranks and going viral.

The post was titled: "Mysterious Organization’s Base in Yongzhou Mountain Range Group Destroyed—Was the Attacker the Shadow God?!"

The original poster wrote:

"First, a disclaimer about my source. I’m just an insignificant soldier, but I recently took part in a special operation. We were ordered to eliminate a large Sponsor Organization located in the Yongzhou Mountain Range. When we arrived, however, we found that all the guards at the base had already been wiped out. The thousand-plus Supporters who were being held captive had all been freed, and the one suspected of killing all those guards is the Shadow God himself!"

The post itself was vague, only attracting attention due to buzzwords like "Shadow" and "a thousand Supporters."

Most of the comments, however, were skeptical.

With no photos or videos, people weren’t going to believe it based on words alone.

But what really made the thread explode was a reply from the webmaster.

The reply consisted of a single word: "Yes."

The original poster might not have been credible, but the webmaster’s credibility was beyond question. His reply immediately triggered a flood of comments.

"The webmaster knows the details? Tell us more!"

"The Yongzhou Mountain Range... that’s so close to the Capital. What kind of organization would dare to stir up trouble there...?"

"So the Shadow God really did it? What’s the webmaster’s relationship with him anyway?"

"The officials have definitely been sweeping the wilderness lately. Our camp was almost wiped out, mistaken for a bandit gang... But still, an organization that can round up over a thousand Supporters... that’s terrifying."

In his cabin on Mingdao Mountain, Guan Tong sat in front of his computer, browsing the website.

In the days following the Yongzhou incident, he had done little else but continuously challenge projects to secure more first-place rankings.

Time flew by, and tomorrow would be the 15th—the day the eighth rule was set to end.

Because people had figured out a counter-strategy early on, many weaker individuals had managed to protect their first-place rankings by forming alliances for mutual protection, refusing all challenges from outsiders.

The ones who lost their first-place spots were mostly unaffiliated Ascenders in the wilderness, as well as the various Sponsor Organization networks that forced custom projects on people.

These organizations had been largely wiped out by a major official crackdown, and they no longer dared to operate openly, at least not within North Star Country. A consensus had formed among the populace to heavily target these groups.

Outside of North Star Country, however, the situation was completely different. In some smaller nations without strong central governments, the Supporter system flourished. Some of these small countries even had their own governments establish the largest Sponsor Organizations.

But this system provoked immense resistance in the era of the Apocalypse Rules. This was especially true in the Tulip Federation, a coalition formed by dozens of warlords, where a civil war erupted midway through the eighth rule’s duration.

Numerous warlords grew dissatisfied that all the resources were being funneled to a single Alpha Wolf, and they began demanding that their own factions get to have their own Alpha Wolves. This provoked a crackdown from the most powerful warlord, which ultimately escalated into a full-blown civil war.

Some people living there posted their accounts in the general discussion forums on Ascender’s Home. They described all sorts of battles between Ascenders, with an endless stream of both cold weapons and firearms. The brutality of it all was truly horrifying.

Guan Tong read some of these accounts himself and couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the ordinary people caught in the middle.

But the world’s major powers were all too busy dealing with the Apocalypse Rules to spare any attention for others. Each was focused on sweeping the snow from their own doorstep, and there was no one to act as a global Sheriff to mediate or intervene.

And so, amid this complex global situation, the eighth Apocalypse Rule—which had lasted a mere half-month yet caused immeasurable chaos—was finally declared over by the Fire Thief at 9:00 a.m. on January 15.

[The rule’s duration has ended.]