49 Apocalypse Rules

"Rest assured on that point," Gaelic said. "We just need to plan carefully and find the right opportunity to separate them."

"Mmm... let’s proceed then. Gaelic, you handle the arrangements, but I want to know every detail!"

"As you wish, Lord Rijeka."

...

"The Rule Stage is almost over. Isn’t it time to find someone to form a contract with?"

As the end of October approached, marking the final phase of the thirteenth rule, people who had been quiet for days began to stir, all for the sake of the "Truth Contract."

No one was about to forget the hidden information the authorities had released when the rule was first announced—the lure of a "double reward" was simply too great.

Moreover, once the hidden information was public, people quickly figured out the optimal strategy: wait until the very end of the Rule Stage—the last day, the last hour, even the last minute—to form the contract, thus minimizing the chance of failure.

With only a few days left before the rule ended, people knew they had to find a partner now, even if they planned to form the contract on the final day.

Otherwise, it would be awkward to get to the last day only to find no one available, or that the person you wanted to partner with had already made a deal with someone else.

So, in the last few days, people began using various channels to find partners and arrange the details for forming their contracts.

The best candidates, of course, were family and friends. Unfortunately, many people were now all alone, their loved ones having failed to survive the dozen or so rules that had come before.

This wasn’t an isolated case, but a widespread phenomenon.

This was especially true given that many families only had one child. After the Apocalypse Rules descended, the middle-aged and elderly parents of many young adults had died during the very first rule, leaving them pitifully alone in the world.

Besides, making friends in the era of the Apocalypse Rules wasn’t easy. For one, everyone was guarded. For another, a friend you made today could be gone tomorrow, a victim of the next rule. After that happened a few times, even the most optimistic person would become withdrawn.

As a result, many people now could only resort to leaving messages for each other online to arrange a time and place to meet and form a Truth Contract.

Guan Tong’s academy, however, had it easier in this regard.

Students in the same dorm attended classes and relaxed together every day. They knew each other well and were naturally the most suitable candidates to pair up and form contracts.

Of course, some didn’t get along.

During the last meeting at the dean’s office, Guan Tong had heard a teacher mention that many students had already applied to switch dorms during this Rule Stage. The reason was that conflicts arising from the rule had become irreconcilable.

As for Guan Tong, he had already decided not to form a contract with anyone, so he wasn’t paying much attention to the matter.

He never expected, however, that a firestorm of public opinion related to the Truth Contract would erupt, spreading with the speed of a wildfire. And the source of it all was his very own Ascender’s Home forum.

...

On October 29th, a post appeared in the "General Chat" section.

The title read: "I’ve been tricked! Is deliberately making someone fail the challenge allowed?!"

Within minutes of being posted, the thread’s popularity skyrocketed, and the number of replies exploded.

The reason had everything to do with the content of the post.

The body of the post read: "I arranged to form a Truth Contract with someone I met online. We met up in person, and right after we completed the ceremony to form the contract, the guy suddenly told me he had already lied before, violating the rule. Then, he said right to my face, and I quote, ’I am a cow.’

This person is a human, not a cow. The moment he said that, it meant he had lied after the contract was formed, which means my double reward is gone! I don’t even know if I’ll be dragged down with him and fail the challenge too.

After he said it, he was smug and arrogant, saying he hadn’t broken any laws and wasn’t afraid of anyone. I just want to ask, is there no one to deal with people like this? Are the official departments just going to let them run rampant?!"

Below the main post, a flood of supportive comments and similar grievances appeared.

"People like that exist? They should just die!"

"I feel for you, OP. To run into that kind of scumbag..."

"AHHH! I ran into someone like that too! He also waited until after we formed the contract to tell me he’d already lied!!!"

"Seriously, aren’t the authorities going to do something about this?"

"I checked the legal database. There aren’t any relevant laws yet, so it’s not technically a crime..."

"How is causing someone to fail a challenge and get punished by the rule not a crime? If this were a survival-type rule, how would this be any different from premeditated murder?!"

"I strongly support the OP and everyone else who’s gone through this to file a police report!"

"Everyone, let’s make our voices heard! Bump this thread to the top so the authorities can see how we feel!"

Fueled by the righteous indignation of countless people, the thread quickly shot to the number one spot on the entire website.

When Guan Tong saw the post on a computer in his shelter that evening, he too felt that people who did such things were truly despicable.

Others might not have known the second part of the hidden rule, but he knew it very well.

If two people formed a Truth Contract, and one of them lied while the other did not, then at the end of the Rule Stage, the liar would receive a triple reward, while the other person would suffer the penalty for failure.

If the other person also lied, then neither would receive a reward, and both would suffer the penalty for failure.

The problem was, for the person who didn’t want to lie, there was no choice at all. Once the other party to the contract lied, it didn’t matter whether they lied or not; they were guaranteed to suffer the failure penalty when the rule ended.

This tyrannical rule was as if the Fire Thief was telling you in the cruelest way possible just how painful the price of trusting the wrong person could be.

And this was precisely why Guan Tong had chosen not to form a contract with anyone.

However, the situations faced by the original poster and the others in the thread had a subtle difference.

The people choosing to trick others had already lied *before* the contract was even formed.

They chose to deceive others because they had already broken the rule themselves. They had adopted a "if I’m going down, I’m taking you with me" mentality, like a drowning man pulling others under.

In this scenario, because they had already lied, they wouldn’t get the triple reward even if their contract partner remained truthful. Instead, they would also face the failure penalty when the rule ended.

There were no winners, only losers.

Guan Tong had originally thought that by keeping the second part of the hidden rule a secret, he could prevent people from turning on each other for a bigger reward.

But now, it seemed he had still underestimated the depths to which some humanoid creatures could sink.

The only thing he could do now was to feature the post and pin it to the top of every board. He had to let as many people as possible know this was happening so they could avoid the same fate.

He also had another motive: to increase the incident’s impact and amplify its spread.

Like the users in the comments calling on the authorities to punish these scammers, he also believed the relevant government departments needed to take action.

If the authorities did nothing, citing "a lack of relevant laws," it would only fuel the arrogance of these people and further shatter the trust between people, which was already on the verge of disappearing.

This might be what the Fire Thief wanted to see, but it was definitely not what humanity as a whole wanted to see.

With Guan Tong, the site admin, fanning the flames, information about the post spread to every corner of the internet. By that night, it had become a hot topic of discussion for countless people, both online and off.

Many Ascenders who had planned to form a Truth Contract on the final day were so frightened by this news that they canceled their plans. Who knew if the person they’d made an agreement with would pull the same stunt?

Aside from a few partners who had absolute trust in each other, most agreements with casual friends or strangers were put on hold.

Once a chain of suspicion begins to form, it’s nearly impossible to break without powerful external intervention.

That external force could only be the authorities.

The North Star government’s characteristic swift response to public opinion was once again on display.

Early the next morning, on the 30th, several official accounts simultaneously released a statement. They announced a severe crackdown on any behavior intended to deliberately cause others to fail a rule challenge. Once evidence was submitted and verified, the perpetrators would be arrested and sentenced according to the severity of the consequences!

The statement was released quickly, but its effect was underwhelming.

Unless someone had prepared a recording in advance and the other party had brazenly confessed their evil deed, it was extremely difficult to secure the kind of hard evidence needed for a submission...

Thus, what people had originally slated to be "Contract Day" on the final day of the rule instead transformed into a "Day of Suspicion."

On that day, a large number of Ascenders made the same choice as Guan Tong. To ensure they wouldn’t violate the rule under any circumstances, they chose to forfeit the double reward and gave up on forming contracts with others...