Free Web NovelChapter 108: Chapter 103: End Reward and Unexpected Situation
October 1st, 8:59 AM.
With one minute left before the rule ended, Guan Tong stood at the door of his shelter, his hand already on the handle.
He would go out the moment the Fire Thief’s voice sounded.
After being cooped up in the small room for half a month without any sunlight, his mental state wasn’t great.
This was especially true for the last two days. After he made the post about the Holy Grail on the website, he hadn’t checked it much, spending most of his time sleeping.
As soon as 9:00 AM arrived, the Fire Thief’s voice appeared, right on cue.
[The Rule Stage has ended.]
Guan Tong immediately stepped out of the small cabin and took a deep breath of the outside air.
The fresh air jolted him awake, and the gentle autumn sun warming his body instantly improved his mood.
The Fire Thief’s voice continued.
[Congratulations on passing the trial of the sixth Apocalypse Rule.]
[Your reward has been delivered to your storage chest.]
[The Sublimation Store has been updated with more items. You may view them through your personal terminal.]
[The seventh Apocalypse Rule will be announced in thirty days.]
This time was rather conventional; no new functions were unlocked after it ended.
Guan Tong found a rock and sat down in the sunlight. He sat there for a while with his eyes squinted before silently calling up his personal terminal in his mind.
[Name: Guan Tong]
[Nickname: Shadow]
[Title: Victor]
[Psychic Power: 137 (137) (3240)]
[Sublimation Coins: 687]
[Overall Bio-Information Assessment: Excellent]
His personal panel hadn’t changed much. His Psychic Power cap had increased normally, and he had managed to save up a bit more reserve Psychic Power over the past half-month.
Because the shelter’s Psychic Power consumption was slower than his own recovery rate, he hadn’t needed to use any of his reserve Psychic Power during this Rule Stage at all.
Opening his storage chest again, he found a new [Silver Level Survival Treasure Chest].
His previous two Survival Treasure Chests had been "Bronze Level." This time, not only had the Sublimation Coin reward increased to 300, but the chest’s quality had also been upgraded by a level, giving Guan Tong the feeling that he had entered a new stage.
He opened the chest.
[Random Item Acquired: Giant Axe Warrior Hoodie]
[Giant Axe Warrior Hoodie]: A black hoodie with a Giant Axe Warrior design. When equipped, you can expend Psychic Power to summon a Giant Axe Warrior to fight for you for five minutes. Its combat power is directly proportional to the amount of Psychic Power consumed, with a minimum cost of 50 points and a maximum of 1000 points. Cooldown: 24 hours. This item is tradable.
’Another summoning item... Did I just stumble into a summoner’s den or something?’
Guan Tong had previously gotten a [Corpse Whistle] that could summon the Living Dead. Now he had a hoodie that could summon a Giant Axe Warrior. If you counted Shadow, he really had quite a few Summoned Creatures.
He took out the new item. It was indeed a black, hooded sweatshirt that fit him perfectly. The chest was printed with the image of a fully-armored warrior holding a large axe, looking extraordinarily imposing.
He equipped the hoodie, temporarily taking off the [Multi-functional Anti-stabbing Suit] he had been wearing.
Guan Tong then expended 50 points of Psychic Power to summon the Giant Axe Warrior.
The design on the chest of his hoodie flashed with black light, and an imposing, fully-armored warrior holding a large axe appeared before him.
Guan Tong ordered the warrior to attack a nearby tree. It immediately strode over and split the trunk in half with a single swing of its axe. The power was astounding.
With a thought, Guan Tong took out the [Corpse Whistle] and blew it twice.
Six of the Living Dead clawed their way out of the ground.
Then, on his command, the six Living Dead began to attack the Giant Axe Warrior.
Guan Tong thought there might be some suspense, but in the first exchange, four of the Living Dead were cut in half at the waist by the axe. The remaining two lunged at the Giant Axe Warrior, clawing and biting, but couldn’t even break through its defense before they too were chopped to death in the next moment.
’Is the gap really that big...? And this was just summoned with 50 points of Psychic Power. If I spent 100, or even dipped into my reserves to spend a huge amount of Psychic Power at once, I could probably summon an extremely powerful Giant Axe Warrior.’
Guan Tong thought to himself that a Silver Level chest was truly on another level; the quality of the item was much higher than what he got from the Bronze Level ones.
However, the Giant Axe Warrior had its flaws, namely that its movements were a bit slow. He wondered if spending more Psychic Power would improve that. For now, at least, the Living Dead couldn’t beat it in a fight, but when it came to a mad dash in one direction, one of the Living Dead was worth two of the warrior.
After testing the Giant Axe Warrior’s combat capabilities, Guan Tong was generally satisfied.
Since he had a lot of Psychic Power and could even store it, he didn’t mind getting more summoning-type items.
An Ascender with less Psychic Power probably wouldn’t be too fond of such items. Even if the Summoned Creatures were powerful, being unable to use them to their full potential due to Psychic Power limitations would be frustrating.
’Let’s see what’s new in the store.’
Guan Tong opened the Sublimation Store on his terminal. There was only one new item listed, and its effect rather surprised him.
[Communication Secret Scroll]: Can be used to communicate with a friend for ten minutes. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
[Price: 20 Sublimation Coins]
[Purchase Limit: 10]
...
After reading the new item’s description, Guan Tong’s first reaction was that it was useless to him.
The friend count on his personal terminal was still zero. Even if he bought them, he had no one to communicate with.
However, he felt the item could be very useful for some people. For example, if two people wanted to communicate secretly but other channels were insecure, using this [Communication Secret Scroll] would ensure their conversation couldn’t be monitored.
It could also be used for long-distance communication if one didn’t have a phone or was in an area with no signal.
What surprised Guan Tong was that the item was actually purchase-limited. Each Ascender could only buy ten.
Ten scrolls meant ten calls, each up to ten minutes long, for a total of one hundred minutes of call time.
Guan Tong didn’t know what the Fire Thief’s intention was in stocking this item. Did it want to give Ascenders another means of secret communication, or would it be useful in the seventh Apocalypse Rule?
’...Even though there’s a personal limit, there’s no guarantee the total supply isn’t also limited.’
Even though Guan Tong had no friends himself, he worried about a situation where he might need them only to find they were sold out. So, he immediately spent 200 Sublimation Coins to buy the maximum limit of ten. He’d store them in his chest for now and figure out when to use them later.
It wasn’t a waste, especially after witnessing how crazy the Ascender market could be. Nowadays, he considered spending a few hundred Sublimation Coins to be frugal. frёewebηovel.cѳm
’The interval is one month this time, with the seventh rule being announced on November 1st...’
Guan Tong thought about his plans for the month. He had about three.
First, continue increasing his Psychic Power cap and keep trying to write on the fifth page of the [Wordless Book].
Second, maintain and develop his "Ascender’s Home" website, and get some necessary storage devices to put in the shelter.
Third, continue studying Shi Jingyi’s "Psychic Power Flow" course. He should be able to reach the introductory level this month.
After their previous phone call, Shi Jingyi had told him he could call her directly if he had any questions. Guan Tong didn’t plan on being polite about it. He would ask whenever he didn’t understand something; mastering more power as quickly as possible was very important to him.
In return, if Shi Jingyi needed help with anything in the future, he would naturally lend a hand.
He felt his plan was perfect. However, an unexpected event that very afternoon completely disrupted his arrangements.
...
’The country is entering a state of war?’
Around noon, Guan Tong sat in front of his computer, watching a live press conference with a flicker of shock in his heart.
The press conference was being held by the government, and the speakers were high-ranking officials.
The main announcement was that ten days after completing preliminary preparations—on October 10th—the North Star Country would officially enter a state of wartime administration.
The official explained in detail why this was necessary, citing numerous statistics. Most of the data supported one argument: the man-made disasters derived from the rules were causing damage no less severe than the rules themselves.
They also showed some videos depicting the chaos caused by saboteurs in some cities. These people were deliberately destroying Gathering Points, damaging transport vehicles, and even setting fire to self-service supply point warehouses.
The official stated grimly that this situation could not be allowed to continue. Once the state of wartime administration began, all survival supplies would be centrally planned and distributed on a per-capita basis. All city personnel would be required to register and be integrated into the management system.
It wasn’t just people living in the Gathering Points who needed to register; urban nomads and drifters were also required to register, with no concealment allowed. Afterward, drones would conduct uninterrupted 24-hour patrols of the cities. Anyone found deliberately avoiding registration would be severely punished.
Furthermore, as the first batch of shelters in major cities were completed, registered personnel would be moved in according to a list. Anyone who refused to move into a shelter would need to provide a valid reason, or their refusal would not be permitted.
At that time, people living in the cities would no longer be allowed to drive out of the city at will without a valid reason. Resources like gasoline and electricity would also be allocated based on need and could not be wasted.
Finally, the official concluded: the purpose of all this was to allow more citizens to survive the world-shattering disaster brought by the Fire Thief. To that end, some sacrifices in other areas were necessary.
Guan Tong watched the entire broadcast, lost in thought for a moment.
Without a doubt, all of his original plans had been thrown into disarray.
What concerned him most wasn’t that all sorts of supplies would be strictly controlled and distributed per capita after entering the state of wartime administration.
What concerned him most was the government’s requirement for all city residents to register. This meant that continuing his current life as a nomad would become a violation after October 10th. If a drone discovered him, he would be immediately pursued and held accountable.
This sudden change left Guan Tong at a loss for a moment.
He wondered, ’What should I do?’
Should he register as the government required and then move into a collective shelter as assigned?
Guan Tong frowned. That was absolutely not something he wanted to do. The whole reason he hadn’t gone to an academy was because, in this era of Apocalypse Rules, he didn’t want to live a life bound by rules and conventions.
Now they wanted him to stay in a collective shelter? Wouldn’t that be even more miserable than an academy? It was completely unacceptable.
Unless he revealed his identity to the government. If they knew he was Shadow, they would probably grant him a certain degree of preferential treatment, and he wouldn’t have to live in a collective shelter like an ordinary person... But at the same time, he would definitely be subject to certain arrangements or have to accept missions.
If he didn’t want to be subject to others’ arrangements, he would have to come up with and execute another plan within this brief ten-day window.
Otherwise, once the ten days were up, the government would be ready, the state of war would be officially declared, and it would be much more difficult to do anything.
’So... what should I do? If I stay in the city, I’ll have to register. Otherwise, it’s impossible to keep avoiding the 24-hour city-wide drone patrols... In that case, should I leave the big city?’
It was clear from the government’s press conference that the state of wartime administration would only be strictly enforced in the cities. As for remote mountain villages and untamed wilderness, it would be impossible to enforce it effectively even if they wanted to.
So, should he go to those places?
Guan Tong had his own portable shelter, so he wasn’t afraid of leaving the city for the wilderness. The only problem was that this had all happened so suddenly. He wasn’t prepared, and if he were to leave, he had no idea where to go.
