49 Apocalypse Rules

Guan Tong never expected Baqizi to just hand him the fragment.

Their brief conversation, however, had already revealed her to be a complete nihilist. It wasn’t surprising that someone like that would do such a thing.

For a nihilist, even suddenly committing suicide the next moment would be nothing out of the ordinary. What Guan Tong found stranger was that the officials of Sakura Prayer Country had somehow failed to see this and continued to train her.

But that had nothing to do with Guan Tong. After getting the fragment, he decided to postpone his retaliation. It wasn’t that Baqizi’s actions had made him change his mind; it was just that after learning the contents of Fragment 5, his own thoughts were in disarray and needed sorting out.

He used Body Shifting to return to Mingdao Mountain, where he usually stayed, and summoned his shelter to enter it.

He retracted his Shadow, and without the five senses it synchronized with him, his vision immediately went pitch black.

Previously, except when sleeping, he spent most of his time with his Shadow summoned, having it sync its five senses with him to give himself a greater sense of security.

But this complete darkness was actually quite suitable for thinking.

Guan Tong lay on his bed, the mural’s contents from Fragment 5 appearing in his mind.

From the destruction of Qimo Star and the planetary symbols on the fingers of that mechanical arm, it was clear that the Fire Thief must be a terrifying cosmic destroyer, having annihilated countless civilizations.

But the contradiction was, if its goal was pure destruction, why would it paint murals to record events? And why were the few surviving Exotic Beasts on Qimo Star ultimately taken away by a black cylinder that resembled a spaceship?

’Could the intelligent "Gatekeepers" of the Fog Gates, mentioned by that person called "Primordial Man" on the forums, be the very same Exotic Beasts that were taken from Qimo Star?’

It was just Guan Tong’s speculation; without any evidence, he couldn’t make a judgment.

But he could be certain that if all the information from these murals were made public, many more people would fall into nihilism, just like Baqizi.

’So many civilizations had already been destroyed by the Fire Thief. What made human civilization so special?’

Even if human civilization was technologically more advanced, it was nothing compared to the Fire Thief’s awesome power to manipulate nature.

To the Fire Thief, humanity was perhaps like chimpanzees to humans—their cognition and abilities were not on the same plane of existence.

Strangely, however, after learning all this, Guan Tong himself didn’t feel any sense of pessimism.

Instead of despair or nihilism, he was actually a little happy—happy that he had learned more about the Fire Thief.

This mentality surprised even him. It was as if even the ultimate destruction of humanity wasn’t unacceptable to him.

It was like when the very first Rule descended; he wasn’t like some people who became hysterical in their despair or resorted to any means necessary for survival.

At the time, he felt that it would be best if he could last 72 hours without sleep, as it would be an opportunity to learn more about the Fire Thief. If he couldn’t hold on and died from falling asleep, that was fine too. To him, death wasn’t that big of a deal.

After pondering in the darkness for a moment, Guan Tong felt a pang of hunger. He got up and, relying on his knowledge of the shelter’s layout, found a bag of bread in the dark.

Since today’s rule had eliminated his sense of taste, the bread had no flavor at all. The sensation was extremely strange, like chewing on a piece of soft rubber.

Guan Tong chewed a few mouthfuls and swallowed, drank a bottle of water, and after this makeshift lunch, began to practice his Psychic Power Flow.

If there was one silver lining to being deprived of his vision, it was that it allowed him to quickly quiet his mind.

Nothing calmed a person faster than absolute darkness. And without his sight, his focus was more concentrated on manipulating his Psychic Power, making his practice even more effective than usual.

He performed two full-body cycles of Psychic Power Flow in a row, and the energy moved through him with complete smoothness. As he grew more proficient, he felt that in another ten days to half a month, before the tenth Rule ended, he should be able to achieve a small breakthrough and briefly cover his entire body with Psychic Power.

It was unlikely he could form a large, 360-degree shield of Psychic Power like Shi Jingyi did back at the industrial park warehouse. But covering his body with a thin layer was still an achievable goal.

That way, he would essentially have a basic, full-body defense capable of resisting Psychic Power attacks.

This would give him a margin for error when facing enemies with strange abilities. He wouldn’t be instantly killed without any prior intelligence.

Afterward, once his Psychic Power had recovered a bit, he re-summoned his corporeal Shadow and shared its five senses with himself again.

Using the shared vision, he turned on his computer and logged into the Ascender’s Home website to see if there was any new information.

On the site’s commission board, he also saw the "bounty post" about him, issued by someone from the Andai Kingdom.

Because most people’s senses were being eliminated one by one during the tenth Rule, very few people were online, and the number of replies to every post was very low.

There were only a handful of replies under the bounty post, and most of them were mocking, saying that the Andai Kingdom was only humiliating itself by posting a bounty for Shadow on this website.

Guan Tong didn’t care. He couldn’t even be bothered to delete the post. Leaving it up was a humiliation in itself.

He opened his private messages. Although many users on the site followed him, not many sent him private messages.

This was because he had previously posted a site rule: no sending private messages to harass or spam him without legitimate business. Violators would get one warning, and a second offense would result in a direct ban. Although some users complained that the rule was too tyrannical, not many dared to test it.

Guan Tong looked through his private messages. One of them was from "Primordial Man."

Primordial Man: "Shadow, you got the fragment from Sakura Prayer Country? Impressive. To be able to do that during the Rule period."

Guan Tong thought for a moment before replying, "Shadow wants the two fragments you have, to bring all five together. You can name your price."

If possible, Guan Tong still wanted to make a deal with this person peacefully.

Then he saw another private message that caught his attention.

The user who sent it had previously bought information on the hidden rules from him twice but had never revealed their identity.

This time, however, they were direct.

"Hello, Administrator. This account represents the Strategy Research Room, an official institution established by the North Star Country. We know that your relationship with Shadow is extraordinary, and the government has been closely monitoring Shadow’s recent actions."

"If possible, we would like to communicate with Shadow to clarify a few things. Furthermore, if the opportunity arises, the government hopes to cooperate with Shadow to some extent, in order to better face the challenges brought by the Apocalypse Rules."

’Communicate, huh.’

After reading the message, Guan Tong figured his recent actions in the Andai Kingdom must have the government at its wits’ end.

A conversation might be a good thing. He also wanted to make his own stance clear. At the same time, he wanted to know what attitude the government really held toward Ascenders like him.

Previously, when he killed Ba Song and the others, the North Star government had issued a statement saying they would investigate after the Andai Kingdom’s official condemnation.

But this time, he had blown up the Andai royal palace, an act several times more severe than killing Ba Song, which had prompted the Andai Prince to personally vow that he would see the matter through to the end.

Strangely, however, the North Star government had issued no further statements this time.

’Does this mean a shift in their policy and attitude?’ Guan Tong didn’t know. He would only find out after they talked.

He replied to the message: "Fine. Shadow agrees to a discussion. Let’s use this private message channel."

After he sent the message, the personnel on 24-hour rotation on the other side noticed immediately and reported the situation up the chain.

The director, Gao Liangwei, placed great importance on this communication, as it was a critical task assigned by the higher-ups and could not be delayed. He immediately summoned Zhang Minglu, who was usually responsible for contacting Ascenders, to conduct the communication with Shadow together.

Inside the office, since Gao Liangwei’s vision had been eliminated, Zhang Minglu sat at the computer, responsible for sending and reading the messages.

"Director, should I send a pleasantry first?"

"No, we don’t have time for that, and I’m sure Shadow wouldn’t appreciate pleasantries either," Gao Liangwei said with his eyes closed. "Just ask him directly: why did he go to the Andai Kingdom to kill people and blow up the royal palace? Did he consider our country’s position when he did it?"

Zhang Minglu was surprised. "That direct? Won’t that provoke a hostile reaction from Shadow?"

Gao Liangwei insisted, "Send it just like that."

"Alright."

Zhang Minglu typed and sent the message, and a reply came back quickly.

"Director, he replied: ’Because the people who were killed deserved to die, and the palace that was blown up deserved to be blown up.’"

"..."

Gao Liangwei was speechless for a moment.

"There’s another reply," Zhang Minglu continued. "’If the government’s position is to stand with humanity, why does it turn a blind eye to the evil deeds of the Andai Kingdom’s Prince, who harbors smugglers and human-trafficking warlords, yet seeks to hold me accountable?’"

After reading the reply, Zhang Minglu sucked in a sharp breath. He hadn’t expected Shadow to be so direct with his questioning.

He looked at Gao Liangwei, whose brow was tightly furrowed as he remained silent.

"Director, how should I reply?"

"...Ask Shadow what he thinks the government should do."

"Okay."

Zhang Minglu sent the message and quickly received a reply.

He glanced at it and froze, not reading it out immediately.

Although Gao Liangwei was blind, he sensed something was off and asked, "What is it?"

"Shadow said... he thinks the government should either return to isolationism like the Soloma Empire, looking after only its own people and not meddling in superfluous affairs. Or—"

Zhang Minglu paused before continuing, "Or it should take on the responsibility of uniting all of humanity to fight the Fire Thief together, in which case the first thing it should do is get rid of external evil rulers like Prince Lado..."

After hearing this, Gao Liangwei instantly understood why Zhang Minglu had hesitated. If he were to relay these words to the higher-ups, he would probably have the same reaction as Zhang Minglu.

"Shadow really... has some astonishing things to say," Zhang Minglu remarked with a sigh.

Gao Liangwei remained silent, his hands clasped together, fingers tapping on the back of one hand as he was lost in thought.

After more than ten seconds, Zhang Minglu asked, "Director, how should we reply?"