49 Apocalypse Rules

Apocalypse Rules Strategy Research Room.

Gao Liangwei and the others had already confirmed his identity as Shadow when they previously saw Guan Tong use long ropes formed from shadows to save personnel who had nearly fallen into the earth’s fissures.

They also understood perfectly well why Guan Tong would want to hide his identity. Zhang Minglu, in particular, had previously heard from Gao Liangwei that some high-level decision-makers were hostile toward Shadow.

That was precisely why, after the Andai Kingdom incident, the authorities had rushed to issue a statement calling for Shadow’s pursuit before a detailed investigation was even concluded.

Zhang Minglu believed Shadow himself had probably realized this, which was why he used the alias "Shepherd." But now that footage of him manipulating shadows had appeared, their previous suspicions were all but confirmed.

’I wonder how the director will handle this? Pretend he doesn’t know?’

Zhang Minglu looked at Gao Liangwei, who hadn’t said a word after seeing the Shadow Ropes. This silence was perhaps a statement in itself.

When Guan Tong requested to speak directly with the head of the research room, Gao Liangwei agreed.

There was no need for any complicated procedures. Dragon Soul simply handed his special communication earpiece to Guan Tong, allowing him to speak with Gao Liangwei.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Gao Liangwei got straight to the point.

Guan Tong didn’t waste any time either, getting right to the problem. "Judging by this magnitude 6 earthquake, the current speed of destroying the Earth Vein Pillars is insufficient. If we try to handle future quakes of magnitude 7 or higher the same way, we will certainly fail."

"Yes, that’s our assessment as well," Gao Liangwei said.

He and the others in the Strategy Research Room had noticed this problem while watching the live feed. Based on this performance, forget magnitudes 8, 9, or 10—even the upcoming magnitude 7 earthquake would be a massive problem.

"You must have some kind of solution, if you wanted to speak with me directly."

"I do," Guan Tong said. "I have a way to store Psychic Power. If you trust me, you can mobilize a huge number of Ascenders during the interval between earthquakes to transfer their Psychic Power to me. I’ll store it all up and, when the next earthquake hits, I can unleash it all at once to destroy the Earth Vein Pillar. The efficiency will increase exponentially."

After Guan Tong finished speaking, everyone in the conference room was stunned.

"Store a massive amount of Psychic Power?!"

"The ability to store Psychic Power isn’t unheard of, but from the sound of it, he can store a huge amount at once? That’s..."

"It’s not just about storing it! He means he can unleash a reserve of Psychic Power that exceeds his own limits in an instant. That’s terrifying!"

"It sounds feasible! It would definitely boost efficiency, and we’d need far fewer people at the epicenter!"

"Don’t forget to consider the risks involved..."

Everyone had a different reaction; some were delighted, while others were hesitant. But none of them had the authority to make the decision, and they knew very well that this wasn’t something the Strategy Research Room could decide on its own.

Gao Liangwei pondered for a moment before replying, "This information is critical. I must report it up the chain of command. A decision can only be made after discussion."

"Of course." Guan Tong had expected this answer.

"Can you give me a rough estimate? If your plan is approved, how many Ascenders would need to transfer their Psychic Power to you?" Gao Liangwei asked. "A few thousand? Tens of thousands? Or more?"

At the side, Zhang Minglu muttered under his breath, "If he can store it without a limit, then the more the better. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands..."

Guan Tong’s voice came through: "The more, the better."

To nullify the immense energy released by the ultra-high-magnitude earthquakes to come, the amount of Psychic Power needed would only increase.

Besides, Guan Tong had his own little selfish motive.

’That is, if by some chance there’s any left over, it would be great if I could keep a little for myself.’

’Not a lot, mind you. If I could keep, say, eight or ten thousand units, that would be enough to last me a long time. If I had to save that much on my own, it would take forever and a day.’

This showed just how powerful a person could become if the strength of the collective was focused on them—not to mention, he could use the surplus to write on the sixth page of the Wordless Book.

Most importantly, Guan Tong wouldn’t feel any guilt for doing this.

This wasn’t like the eighth of the Apocalypse Rules, which would have caused others’ Psychic Power limits to decrease.

Because other people couldn’t store Psychic Power, even if they transferred today’s Flowing Psychic Power to Guan Tong, it would be restored by tomorrow.

This way, Guan Tong would gain a reserve of Psychic Power, and the contributors would have played a part in mitigating the earthquake disaster, giving them a real sense of participation instead of just waiting in a shelter and leaving things to fate.

After the call ended, the Strategy Research Room held a brief discussion.

Gao Liangwei still didn’t mention the word "Shadow," as if he had reached a tacit understanding with Guan Tong: getting through the immediate disaster was the top priority. Everything else could be dealt with later.

Zhang Minglu spoke excitedly, "If this person can store an unlimited amount of Psychic Power, then we could mobilize all the Ascenders in every shelter and have them transfer it to him in shifts. That way, the moment an ultra-high-magnitude earthquake strikes, he could instantly destroy the Earth Vein Pillar, weakening the disaster’s impact and reducing casualties!"

"I object... Since no one else will bring it up, and the director is avoiding the topic, I’ll be the one to say it." At this point, a history professor spoke up with a frown. "This ’Shepherd’ is undoubtedly ’Shadow.’ I think we all know that in our hearts."

"You all should remember the first Ascender tournament, where Shadow, holding the Holy Grail that could provide infinite Psychic Power, defeated hundreds, even thousands, of people by himself. Months have passed since then, and his combat power has surely only increased. Isn’t it incredibly dangerous to give him so much Psychic Power at a time like this?"

"Dr. Yu, is this really the time to be worried about that? Aren’t the ultra-high-magnitude earthquakes more important?!"

"Of course the earthquakes are more important!" Dr. Yu raised his voice. "I’m worried that Shadow will go back on his word! What if, after receiving Psychic Power from tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people, he suddenly decides to keep it for himself and refuses to cooperate with the authorities to destroy the Earth Vein Pillars? Do we have any way to counter that?!"

"..."

A silence fell over the room. His words did make some sense.

It was like signing a contract where one party had to give up a massive amount, but only received a promise in return. A promise with no collateral, and no way to punish the other party if they backed out.

Dr. Yu continued, "If it weren’t for this earthquake, I wouldn’t worry about Shadow daring to go back on his word. I don’t believe even the strongest Ascender could withstand a global manhunt conducted in earnest by a nation the size of the North Star."

"But this time is different. If he backs out now, it would be difficult for the authorities to pursue or retaliate, because a magnitude 10 earthquake would be enough to destroy most national powers. What if Shadow is ambitious? What if he hides, waits for the world to become a wasteland, and then uses the immense Psychic Power the people gave him to become a king? Who could possibly stop him then?"

Initially, no one had any major objections, but after hearing Dr. Yu’s explanation, they all started to share the same nagging worry.

Someone suggested, "What if we negotiate with Shadow to place some kind of restriction on him, using a special ability or item, that we can activate if he goes back on his word?"

Someone immediately shook their head. "He would never agree to that. It might even jeopardize the entire cooperation."

Zhang Minglu thought for a moment, then said to Dr. Yu, "Your concerns aren’t baseless, but I’d like to point out that we’re not completely in the dark about Shadow."

"During the incident with the eighth Apocalypse Rule, at the meeting after he destroyed the Supporter base in Yongzhou, I said that this person possesses a simple sense of justice. What happened later in the Andai Kingdom confirmed my judgment once again. He only killed the armed warlords, he didn’t attack ordinary people. Later, he voluntarily revealed the existence of the Qimo Star Chronicles. He could have kept that secret to himself, but he chose to disclose it to the whole world, which to some extent facilitated the establishment of the Human Federation."

"Therefore, looking at all these incidents together, I believe that while he may be a bit of a loner who dislikes group life, his fundamental nature is not evil. If I had to choose, I’d be willing to trust him to keep his promise and not go back on his word."

"Dr. Zhang does have a point..."

"Indeed. Based on Shadow’s past actions, he doesn’t seem like an ambitious person."

"Let’s vote." Gao Liangwei, having listened to the discussion for a while, finally spoke. "All in favor of this plan, please raise your hands."

Zhang Minglu was the first to raise his hand, followed by a few others. However, a group represented by Dr. Yu did not raise their hands.

Gao Liangwei scanned the room. "The supporters make up about seventy percent. The minority will yield to the majority. I will report this plan to the high-level decision-making department and mention that the Strategy Research Room has approved it."

The opposition faction was somewhat displeased to hear this but said nothing. This was indeed the research room’s procedure: when faced with a major disagreement, they would settle it with a direct vote.

Only Dr. Yu, the representative of the opposition, wore a grim expression. The moment the meeting ended, he rose and left in a hurry.

Zhang Minglu watched him go. He waited until everyone else had left and then said to Gao Liangwei, "Director, Dr. Yu’s opposition seems quite strong. Don’t you think you should talk to him privately?"

"I don’t have time for heart-to-hearts right now. I have to report this immediately, and we also need to prepare for the magnitude 7 earthquake," Gao Liangwei refused. "If he can’t see reason now, he’ll come around in a couple of days."

After returning to his private lounge, Dr. Yu paced back and forth in anger, cursing under his breath. "A bunch of shortsighted fools, absolutely shortsighted! ’A weapon in hand stirs the impulse to kill.’ Even a good person might turn bad after suddenly coming into a huge fortune! And what is fortune compared to the lure of power? Hasn’t history taught us that there are countless examples of good-natured people who, once in power, underwent a complete change in personality and began to slaughter indiscriminately?!"

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

A knock sounded at the door. Dr. Yu opened it to find a plain-looking middle-aged woman standing outside.

"Dr. Sun? Is something wrong?"

The woman, Dr. Sun, said, "Dr. Yu, I wanted to talk to you about what happened in the meeting. You probably saw that I didn’t raise my hand in agreement either—I was persuaded by what you said."

Dr. Yu was thrilled to hear this. "So Dr. Sun also thinks it’s dangerous? Entrusting so much power to someone we know nothing about is simply absurd!"

"It is. And Mr. Gao’s insistence on ’majority rules’ regardless of the situation strikes me as rather unscientific. I think we in the academic world understand that the truth is often grasped by only a few, while the majority is often ignorant. This is perhaps a blind spot for Mr. Gao, given his military background."

"Exactly!" Dr. Yu was overjoyed. "A Senior Colonel from the army should just be leading troops, but instead they sent him to run a research facility. I was against it from the very beginning. Look at what’s happened over the past year—he’s nearly turned a place for sharing and exchange into a military barracks!"

Dr. Sun smiled upon hearing this. "You’re absolutely right, Dr. Yu. Since this opportunity has presented itself, I was thinking, perhaps it’s time we jointly wrote something to report these issues to the higher-ups?"

"This..." Dr. Yu hesitated upon hearing her suggestion.

"Don’t worry, it’s not just you and me. Many others agree. I believe that as members of this research room, we have a responsibility to shoulder for the future of both the facility and humanity."

"...Alright! I’ll write it too!"