49 Apocalypse Rules

The Academy.

When the twelfth rule was announced, a collective wail of despair erupted from the student body.

They had spent nearly their entire lives with constant internet access. Even after the era of the Apocalypse Rules began, they’d had internet most of the time, save for a few specific Rule Stages.

Now, being forbidden from using any network-connected devices for a whole month was, without a doubt, a form of torture for them.

In one dorm room, a few students finished their complaining and reluctantly put away their phones, smart rings, and other devices.

One of them felt thirsty and picked up a cup for a drink. But after just one sip, he received a notification that he had failed the challenge.

Only then did he realize his cup was a smart cup, also capable of connecting to the internet!

"FUCK!!!"

Similar incidents occurred frequently across the academy in a short period.

There were so many smart devices connected to the network in their daily lives that many students broke the rule inadvertently, without even realizing it.

This caused many students to have minor mental breakdowns.

After all, everyone who came to the academy was ambitious. For them, the decay of their maximum Psychic Power from a single rule failure was a very difficult mistake to accept.

As a result, some students who had already failed the rule due to a mistake decided to just give up, clinging to their phones and using them out of spite.

The academy administration had no choice but to broadcast announcements across campus via loudspeaker, telling students to not use anything at first. They were advised to create a personal "whitelist of non-smart items" and to avoid using anything not on that list.

The group happiest about this new rule, however, was the common people.

Common people had long been living with a great deal of frustration.

Whenever a disaster-type rule appeared, they didn’t get to enjoy any of the benefits, yet they suffered from the disaster no less than the Ascenders did.

Take the previous earthquake rule, for instance. A natural disaster rule like that doesn’t care if you’re an Ascender; it affects everyone equally.

In the end, even if everyone survived, Ascenders received rewards like Sublimation Coins and items, while common people simply... survived, with no positive reinforcement whatsoever.

Over time, this led to high levels of resentment among the common people, resulting in numerous public order incidents.

But when this new rule came out, the common people were overjoyed.

They weren’t bound by the rule and could use their network devices freely.

Moreover, various official departments approached them, sweet-talking them into taking on jobs related to network devices.

This gave them a feeling of vindication, of finally being in charge. Even if this situation would only last for the month-long Rule Stage, it was far better than having practically no voice in public discourse like before.

On the afternoon the rule was announced, the academy posted a handwritten notice: all courses requiring network devices were suspended for the duration of this Rule Stage, but all other classes would proceed as usual.

"This handwriting is..."

Guan Tong stared at the crooked, messy script on the notice posted to the wall. ’The person who wrote this definitely can’t live without the internet,’ he figured.

In this day and age, very few people actually wrote by hand. Even students used tablets in class; only those specializing in calligraphy as an art would practice deliberately.

"Mr. Guan." A student passing by greeted him. "Is your class still being held as usual, Mr. Guan?"

"Of course," Guan Tong replied with a nod.

’He’d love to take a month off if he had the choice, but his class didn’t require network devices, so it was business as usual.’

When he arrived at the classroom, it was already quite full.

Guan Tong scanned the room. He recalled some students from previous classes being absent today.

’Maybe they failed the rule and were in a bad mood, so they just decided to skip class. Whatever the reason, attending was their own business. Guan Tong certainly wasn’t going to waste his time tracking them down in their dorms to ask about it.’

After all, the academy didn’t do things like "roll call." Whether a student came to class or skipped to sleep or have fun in their dorm was their own choice. It was just that few chose to skip, since studying here wasn’t about finding a job—it was about bettering their chances of survival.

"Today..."

"BZZZT BZZZT, BZZZT BZZZT."

Guan Tong had just started to speak when the sound of a phone vibrating echoed through the classroom.

The students all turned in shock toward the source of the sound, only to see a boy awkwardly pull out his phone and silence it.

"Are you crazy? You’re still using your phone?" someone challenged.

The boy looked helpless. "I accidentally used a smart device this morning, so I’ve already failed this rule’s challenge. So..."

"Then don’t bring it to the classroom! What if you make someone else fail, too!"

"Yeah, it’s too dangerous!"

"Get it out of here!!!"

The students protested fiercely, even though they wouldn’t be judged as having failed so easily as long as they didn’t use it themselves.

But they were worried about the one-in-a-million chance. No one wanted to bet against such a low-probability event.

Guan Tong pointed to the lecturer’s podium. "Anyone who has already failed the rule and is carrying a smart device, place it here for now. You can retrieve it after class."

The boy obediently placed his phone on the podium. Soon after, three more people took off their smartwatches, rings, and other devices and put them up there as well. It seemed quite a few people had already failed the challenge on the very first day.

Guan Tong remembered the students’ evaluations of him that he’d seen on the forums. Wanting to appear more approachable, he offered a smile and tried to comfort them. "A single failure is nothing. You can just train hard to raise your maximum capacity back up again."

"..."

Seeing the students’ dead silence, Guan Tong felt he was just asking for embarrassment. He immediately dropped the unnatural smile from his face and proceeded with his regular lecture.

After the class ended, the students filed out.

Guan Tong specifically called out to Yelena Stasia. "Stasia," he said, "I’ve thought of a way to help you speed up your mastery of Psychic Power Flow."

Yelena’s amethyst-colored pupils widened slightly. This was clearly very important to her. "What method is it?"

"Actual combat."

"Actual combat?"

"A soldier gains more experience from one day on the battlefield than from a month on the training grounds. The same principle applies to Psychic Power Flow," Guan Tong said. "If you want to master it quickly, you need to do it through actual combat."

Yelena agreed wholeheartedly. She nodded. "When do we start?"

Guan Tong thought for a moment. "Class just ended, so take a half-hour break. Meet me at the gymnasium in half an hour. I’ll go find a spacious training room first."

Yelena nodded in agreement.

「Half an hour later.」

When Yelena arrived at the gymnasium, it was already crowded.

With network devices banned, many students had returned to traditional forms of entertainment, gathering to play sports.

Her appearance in the gymnasium immediately drew numerous stares. Although she was dressed much more plainly today, no longer as "decked out in jewels" as she was on the first day of class, her brilliant golden hair and silvery-white eyelashes were still too striking to hide her radiance.

One boy worked up the courage to approach her and invite her to play badminton, but she refused, saying she was busy.

Before long, Guan Tong came over, said something to her, and the two of them walked off together.

Seeing this, the others stopped playing and started to gossip.

"What’s going on?!"

"Isn’t that the substitute lecturer from the Psychic Power Flow class?"

"How shameless! Hitting on a student when he’s a lecturer!"

"Hey, don’t talk nonsense. If he hears you, you’ll be in for it..."

"You think he’s giving her private lessons? Isn’t that unfair to the other students?"