49 Apocalypse Rules

Around 3:00 AM is when most people are sound asleep.

An earthquake at this hour, if high-magnitude, would undoubtedly cause massive casualties. But the current magnitude-2 quake would have no real impact, and most people wouldn’t even feel it.

However, the officials responsible for monitoring and receiving data were on high alert. The moment their instruments detected the reading, an employee at the seismological bureau immediately reported the latitude and longitude coordinates.

A Shadow sent by Guan Tong was lurking in the corner of the room. After eavesdropping on the critical information about the epicenter’s location, it immediately entered the coordinates into a computer to pinpoint the target.

"The epicenter is in the suburbs of Fengping City. The closest Shadow Line is... one kilometer away. Lucky me!"

Guan Tong immediately located the Shadow Line closest to the epicenter and controlled it to head there at top speed. As soon as he saw the Earth Vein Pillar standing in the suburban wasteland, illuminated by the moonlight, he activated his Body Shifting ability and swapped places with the Shadow Line.

The next moment, he was on the scene.

He didn’t dare waste a single second. Before the official dispatch team could arrive, he rushed to the front of the Earth Vein Pillar.

According to information disclosed online, when an Ascender’s body comes into contact with an Earth Vein Pillar, their Psychic Power limit begins to decay. However, tests conducted abroad showed that this process can be interrupted at any time.

If the person making contact has second thoughts or intentionally gives up, they can immediately pull their hand away to stop it. It’s not a situation where once your hand is on it, you’re drained completely dry.

But Guan Tong had his own failsafe. If anything went wrong, he could activate Body Shifting again to forcibly sever the connection through physical relocation.

He took out the [Wordless Book], opened it to the fifth page, and poured his Psychic Power into it. At the same time, he extended his other hand, took a deep breath, and pressed it against the Earth Vein Pillar.

’Make the Earth Vein Pillar crack!’

He repeated the command in his mind, allowing the [Wordless Book] to grasp his intent and produce the corresponding effect.

The instant his palm touched the Earth Vein Pillar, he felt a tremor from within the structure and also clearly sensed his Psychic Power limit starting to decay.

Simultaneously, the character for "Open" on the fifth page of the [Wordless Book] lifted off the paper, transforming into a stream of data that shot into Guan Tong’s body.

’Did it fail?’

That was Guan Tong’s first reaction.

His intention had been for the converted data stream to enter the Earth Vein Pillar and crack its shell, not enter his own body.

By now, his Psychic Power limit had already decayed by 3 points, from 325 to 322. If this was indeed a failure, he needed to cut his losses and abandon the sunk cost immediately.

Guan Tong hesitated for a second. As 322 dropped to 321, he finally decided to give up.

But just as he slightly lifted his palm, his fingers not yet fully detached from the Earth Vein Pillar, he felt a surging power suddenly emerge from within his body. It flowed first into his arm, then through his arm into his fingers, and finally, using his fingers as a conduit, it poured into the Earth Vein Pillar.

CRACK, CRACKLE...

The distinct sound of cracking rang out. Guan Tong looked up to see large chunks of the Earth Vein Pillar’s shell cracking and falling off!

"It worked!"

His face instantly lit up with joy. More and more of the shell began to fall away rapidly as the energy poured in. During this process, Guan Tong noticed that the decay of his Psychic Power limit had stopped.

This undoubtedly meant that the [Wordless Book]’s power had replaced the price he would have otherwise paid. It was even accelerating the destruction of the Earth Vein Pillar’s shell, thereby reducing the tremors and the earthquake’s destructive potential.

’As long as I can keep supplying the Psychic Power the [Wordless Book] needs, can I hold on until the Earth Vein Pillar completely disintegrates?’

Realizing this, Guan Tong continued to calculate the rate of his Psychic Power consumption while observing the speed at which the Earth Vein Pillar’s shell was shedding.

Just as the officials would create a model for the ratio between Psychic Power limit decay and the reduction in an earthquake’s destructive force, he was now doing something similar. He needed to make a rough calculation of how much Psychic Power he had to supply to the [Wordless Book] to completely nullify the earthquake’s destructive power.

As a large amount of Psychic Power flowed into the page, the data stream transformed from the "Open" character continued to pour through Guan Tong’s body as a conduit and into the Earth Vein Pillar.

The cracks on the Earth Vein Pillar’s shell grew larger and larger. In less than half a minute, thirty percent of the shell had already fallen off. By this point, Guan Tong’s own Psychic Power was completely depleted. To continue, he would have to tap into his reserves.

He currently had 2,800 in reserve Psychic Power. Based on the previous consumption-to-cracking ratio of roughly 100 points of Psychic Power for every 10% of the shell, he calculated that another seven hundred or so points would be enough to make the entire above-ground portion of the Earth Vein Pillar’s shell fall off.

Guan Tong steeled himself, directly drew 800 points from his reserve Psychic Power, and poured it all into the [Wordless Book].

The "Open" character on the page shone with a brilliant light, transforming into an immense data stream that surged into his body before being channeled through his palm and into the Earth Vein Pillar.

CRACK! CRACKLE!

With such a large injection of energy, the Earth Vein Pillar’s rate of decay suddenly accelerated. Sheets of its shell peeled off, like the tiles of a dilapidated house collapsing all at once in an earthquake.

Once the Earth Vein Pillar’s black shell had completely flaked away, the tremors stopped abruptly. The dark brown liquid inside spilled all over the ground and quickly evaporated.

From the moment Guan Tong arrived to the moment the Earth Vein Pillar crumbled and vanished, the entire process took less than a minute.

But before he could even take a moment to savor his success, he heard a WHIRRRRRing sound approaching from the sky nearby.

He looked up and saw an official helicopter with flashing red lights flying closer in the distance. It was likely carrying a specialized team.

From detecting the epicenter to dispatching personnel by helicopter to the scene, the officials had taken less than two minutes—their speed and efficiency were already maxed out. But compared to Guan Tong, who could use Body Shifting to instantly teleport, there was still a full minute’s difference.

His objective achieved, Guan Tong had no reason to stay. He didn’t want to interact with the personnel in the helicopter, figuring it would be a hassle to explain. Besides, they probably wouldn’t be willing to let him leave.

So, while the helicopter was still some distance away, Guan Tong had no choice but to use another portion of his stored Psychic Power to activate Body Shifting and leave.

Seconds later, the helicopter was hovering over the epicenter, circling for a moment.

The pilot, unable to spot the Earth Vein Pillar, suspected that he might have flown to the wrong location in the dark of night. But after carefully checking the latitude and longitude, he confirmed that they matched the coordinates from his orders.

He wasn’t the only one who was confused; so was the team in the helicopter. Seeing the situation, the team leader decided they should go down and take a look. After fast-roping down, the team quickly discovered a hole in the ground. They all gathered around it, staring at each other in bewilderment.

They were sure they hadn’t come to the wrong place. The existence of this circular hole meant that the Earth Vein Pillar had indeed appeared here—but it was gone now. For some reason, the pillar itself had vanished.

The team leader immediately reported this information. The analysts who received the report were also completely baffled.

After eliminating all other possibilities, only one conclusion remained, however sensational it seemed: someone had dealt with the Earth Vein Pillar before the officials arrived.

...

Guan Tong returned to Mingdao Mountain, a lingering trace of excitement still on his face.

"I can’t believe it actually worked, though the cost was a bit high..."

This experiment had not only cost him 4 points from his Psychic Power limit but also consumed over eight hundred points of his reserve Psychic Power. It was a serious blow to his accumulated resources.

But the result was good. By leveraging the power of the [Wordless Book] in a high-stakes play, he had managed to reduce, and even completely stop, an earthquake’s destructive force without sacrificing his Psychic Power limit.

It was something to be happy about from any angle. The only thing that worried Guan Tong was whether the associated cost would change with the earthquake’s magnitude.

’I used the [Wordless Book]’s power to nullify the earthquake’s danger, and it cost me over 1,100 Psychic Power in total. But that was just for a magnitude-2 quake... What am I going to do if higher-magnitude ones cost even more?’

Guan Tong knew very well that for every level an earthquake’s magnitude increased, the destructive energy it contained grew by far more than just a few multiples.

After the eleventh of the Apocalypse Rules was announced, survivors all over the world began studying earthquakes. Many who had been previously unaware discovered a terrifying fact for the first time: as an earthquake’s magnitude rises, the amount of energy it releases increases exponentially.

For every two-level difference in magnitude, the energy released differs by a factor of a thousand. The energy released by a magnitude-6 earthquake is equivalent to over thirty magnitude-5 quakes, while a magnitude-7 is equivalent to a thousand magnitude-5 quakes!

This enormous difference in energy release meant that Guan Tong couldn’t afford to get complacent over a single success.

He had to consider the possibility that the cost for higher-magnitude earthquakes would increase, or even multiply.

If a high-magnitude earthquake required thousands, or even tens of thousands, of Psychic Power to stop, Guan Tong would be helpless. His current and reserve Psychic Power combined only amounted to a little over two thousand. Where would he make up such a massive deficit?

’Unless...’

Guan Tong had a faint thought: ’Unless I cooperate with the officials.’

North Star had a population of hundreds of millions, with the number of Ascenders also in the hundreds of millions. Who could say for sure that among them, there wasn’t someone with a special ability or item that could enhance or transfer Psychic Power?

The officials had a vast and comprehensive database, allowing them to find the holders of needed abilities in the shortest possible time. If they worked together, they might be able to solve the problem of insufficient Psychic Power.

Previously, due to an unpleasant exchange between Guan Tong and the officials, both sides had felt the other was unsuitable for cooperation, and the discussion had not continued.

But times had changed. This new rule concerned the lives of hundreds of millions of citizens. Guan Tong wouldn’t disregard the safety of so many of his compatriots just because of his personal feelings.

"I’ll test it again during a magnitude-3 earthquake!"

Guan Tong made his decision after some thought.

"If I can confirm that the Psychic Power required to reduce the danger increases with the earthquake’s magnitude... then I will have to contact the officials to discuss a potential collaboration."