49 Apocalypse Rules

Chapter 110: Chapter 105: New Home in the Wilderness

"Guan!"

Hearing Guan Tong’s voice, Chen Na let out a soft cry. She hadn’t expected the call to be from him.

Guan Tong asked, "Na, I saw your family’s vehicle in the development zone parking lot. Didn’t you go to Yong’an? By the way, what were the results of your mom’s hospital check-up?"

"I... We... My mom, she—"

Chen Na wanted to say they hadn’t gone to the Capital and that her mom’s test results were very bad, but the words caught in her throat. She remembered the short-haired woman. frёewebηovel.cѳm

The woman had specifically warned her when they parted ways after their first meeting not to mention them or the assessment to anyone.

If she found out the information had been leaked, the previous invitation would be rescinded.

Chen Na couldn’t accept that; this was the last straw she could grasp to save her mother.

"My mom’s fine... We went to the Capital. We took the high-speed train... We just abandoned that big vehicle," Chen Na said in a low voice.

"Is that so."

"Guan, I... I have something to do, so I’ll hang up now."

"Okay."

Quickly ending the call, Chen Na’s face flushed red. Even though it was just over the phone, the act of lying still made her flustered.

"I’m sorry, Guan..." she whispered to her phone. "I didn’t mean to lie to you, but I have to get that medicinal item to cure my mom..."

Meanwhile, back in the parking lot, Guan Tong put away his phone. He felt that Chen Na’s tone had been a little strange. She also seemed to be in a hurry to hang up, ending the call after only a few sentences.

But since she said she’d taken the high-speed train to Yong’an, Guan Tong didn’t overthink it. He said to the parking lot attendant, "The owner of this vehicle has already left Yunhua. I guess they’ve abandoned it."

"Abandoned it? I’ll have someone haul it away later, then."

Guan Tong returned to his car and continued toward his destination.

Along the way, he saw that the villages by the roadside were still in a state of collapse from the snow disaster. It seemed no one had cleaned them up in the past few months.

’The authorities must be stretched thin due to manpower shortages and other factors. Just ensuring the cities’ supply lines, building shelters, and maintaining order is already taking all their effort. They simply don’t have the spare capacity to deal with the villages outside the city limits.’

As a result, even the villages near the cities were now completely devoid of human presence, utterly silent and dead.

However, the original corpses had all disappeared. They had likely been "resurrected" during the Living Dead rule and had run off to attack the cities.

There were quite a few cars on the road, but most were heading in the opposite direction. Their owners had likely evacuated to the countryside to take refuge during the Blood Plague Virus rule. The survivors were now starting to return to the cities after the rule had ended.

He drove on, arriving at his destination, Mingdao Mountain, at a little past ten in the evening.

Just like his last visit, the place was completely desolate. The only sign of human life was the small campsite he himself had previously set up.

That’s right, his small campsite was surprisingly still there, though the surrounding wooden stakes had all collapsed. A simple camp like this wouldn’t last more than a dozen days without maintenance.

It was already dark, so Guan Tong didn’t go up the mountain, choosing instead to make do and spend the night in his car.

After sunrise the next day, he drove his car into the woods at the foot of the mountain, then proceeded to climb Mingdao Mountain on foot.

During the snow disaster rule, he had lived here for a long time but had never been up the mountain because it was sealed by snow. It was a slight regret.

This time, after ascending the mountain, he found it was much as he had imagined. Since it was undeveloped, it was covered in weeds, scattered rocks, and trees that grew crookedly in every direction.

Before the age of the Apocalypse Rules, backpacking enthusiasts would occasionally come here to hike, but after the rules began, no one had the leisure for such things.

Guan Tong walked around the mountain for a while, looking for a suitable spot to place his shelter. Before long, he found a flat area with good sunlight and decided to put it there.

But before placing it, he had to do some prep work.

The pattern on Guan Tong’s sweatshirt flashed with black light, and the Giant Axe Warrior appeared.

Then, he took out the [Corpse Whistle] and blew it continuously. A few Living Dead clawed their way out from underground.

"Giant Axe Warrior, chop down those few trees. Living Dead, clear away all these weeds and loose rocks. Then haul away the fallen trees."

After giving his Summoned Creatures their orders, Guan Tong sat down to one side, leisurely watching them work.

’This is the first time I’ve really felt the benefits of having multiple summoned creatures. At least from now on, I won’t have to do all sorts of odd jobs and manual labor myself.’

He thought back to the snow disaster rule. If he’d had these resources then, he wouldn’t have had to struggle and toil every morning to clear a small path. He could have just sat in his camp and let his summons do the work.

Soon, the Giant Axe Warrior had uprooted and felled the few trees taking up space, and the Living Dead had hauled away all the weeds, rocks, and fallen timber, clearing out a clean, empty plot of land.

Guan Tong then took out the [Wordless Book]. Since summoning the Giant Axe Warrior and the Living Dead had consumed a good deal of his Psychic Power, he had to tap into his reserves to manifest the high-cost shelter.

After the wooden cabin materialized and settled, Guan Tong had just turned the doorknob when Coal Ball shot out with a SWOOSH.

"Meow!"

It leaped onto Guan Tong’s shoulder, lying flat and looking around warily. The change in environment seemed to have left it a little unsettled.

Guan Tong patted its small head. "You and I will be living on this mountain for a while. Better get used to our new home."

Standing in the doorway, Guan Tong looked inside. He had stuffed so many supplies into it before setting off that there was barely any room to stand.

He had a few of the Living Dead start moving some of it out. It was October now, so the weather was no longer hot; some supplies could be left out in the open without any issue.

Even after moving out eight or nine boxes, there was still a lot inside. Guan Tong sighed. "I wonder how high my Psychic Power limit needs to be before I can expand this shelter."

His current goal was to have something like a two-bedroom, one-living-room layout. One room for living, one as a storage room for his things. Unlike now, where he only had one room that became a mess whenever he piled too much stuff inside.

Once everything was organized, Guan Tong went to the bathroom, took a shower, dried his hair with a hairdryer, and then sat down at his desk and turned on his computer.

Being able to use electricity and running water on a deserted mountain without any external generator was, without a doubt, the most satisfying thing. Compared to that, the small space wasn’t such a big deal.

Guan Tong first checked the academy’s online courses, but there were no new updates.

During the Blood Plague rule, the academy had naturally suspended all classes, with instructors and students isolating in their respective dorms.

There were surely a fair number of Infected, but the situation was likely much better than in the outside world.

Just as Xu Xiaotian had said on the phone, the authorities placed great importance on the academy. The students had all received professional-grade protective suits and oxygen masks immediately after the rule was announced, greatly reducing their chances of infection.

This was understandable. After all, everyone who could enter the academy was an Ascender with a Psychic Power limit of at least 80. To the authorities, these individuals were being cultivated as a core force and could not be lost.

Next, Guan Tong logged into his "Ascender’s Home" website. He was shocked the moment he opened the admin dashboard.

’So many people have registered accounts?’

Before, besides his own administrator account, the only registered user had been "Mask." But after just two or three days of not checking, the number of registered accounts had already surpassed eight hundred and was approaching the one-thousand mark.

He figured someone must have driven traffic to the site; otherwise, it wouldn’t have grown so quickly.

Returning to the website’s homepage, he opened the intelligence section.

The post he had made about the Holy Grail already had over two hundred replies.

"Infinite Psychic Power? Is this information reliable?!"

"HOLY SHIT! No wonder Lord Shadow was so freaking strong back then, slaughtering hundreds of contestants like pigs. Turns out he was buffed with Infinite Psychic Power!"

"Actually, a lot of contestants were already discussing this. Everyone felt that Shadow was just one person and couldn’t possibly have enough Psychic Power to continuously use items and abilities. Now it seems it was all because of the Holy Grail’s buff."

"I feel like you’d need the right abilities or items for it to matter. If you gave me Infinite Psychic Power, I wouldn’t be able to do much with it anyway."

"+1 to the post above. My item is actually pretty powerful, but it has a cooldown. Even with Infinite Psychic Power, I can’t use it if the CD isn’t up! If I get surrounded, I’d still just be waiting to die."

"Curious where the site admin got this info? Does the admin know Lord Shadow?"

"Admin, admin, don’t tell me you’re Shadow, are you? If you are, please allow me to express my worship and pledge my loyalty!"

Guan Tong read through the user replies. Most of them found his claims believable but were curious about his source.

Guan Tong wouldn’t expose himself by admitting he was Shadow; that would ruin the mystery. Even if people suspected him now, as long as he didn’t admit it, they could never be certain.

With the influx of new users, they had also started making their own posts on the site.

There were already over twenty posts in the intelligence section. Guan Tong skimmed through them. Most were just irrelevant public information; there wasn’t a single one he felt was worthy of being "featured."

In the commission and trading sections, while there were a few posts, they were all skeptical. The posters believed it was unsafe for Ascenders to conduct commissions or trades on such a small, unreliable website.

Guan Tong wasn’t surprised by this. However, he believed that with time, everyone would soon discover that his website’s security was indeed guaranteed.

Finally, there was the "General Chat" section. When Guan Tong clicked on it, he found it had the most posts, already exceeding one hundred.

What he found strange, however, was that many of the posts were discussing topics related to cybersecurity technology.

He clicked on a few to read and finally understood what was going on.

It turned out that over the past two days, a bunch of hackers had tried to crack the website and trace his IP address as the site administrator. Naturally, they had all failed.

Many of these hackers were well-known in their circles, with top-tier skills. The fact that even they couldn’t breach it served as an indirect testament to the website’s high level of security, which in turn had drawn in some new users.

And the hackers themselves, finding the website so secure, had unexpectedly started using it as a tech forum to discuss all sorts of related knowledge.

Guan Tong even saw that "Mask," the user who had sent him the website optimization package, had dropped the act. He had made a post detailing his failed attempts to crack the site using tools and to infiltrate it with a trojan horse.

Guan Tong had known from the start that "Mask’s" unsolicited help was a sign of ill intent, but he hadn’t paid it much mind due to his shelter’s unique network properties. It now seemed likely that this guy was the starting point; he alone had brought a horde of hackers, and the hackers, in turn, had brought in some regular users.

But since this guy had both burned the midnight oil to create an optimization package and indirectly helped drive traffic to the site, Guan Tong’s evaluation of Mask was thus: ’His intentions were bad, but the execution was great.’

Just then, however, a particular post caught his attention.

The post’s title was: "Regarding Questions About On-Site Trading".

Guan Tong clicked on it. In the body of the post, the author expressed their confusion.

"The website was just created, and its features are still rudimentary, but its security does seem quite good for now.

"However, this security only applies online. If users want to conduct trades, they will inevitably have to meet offline. How can user safety be guaranteed then? Furthermore, after the 10th, the country will enter a state of war. Ascenders in the cities will have their movements restricted, so how can we ensure that trades can even proceed smoothly?"