Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 109: The Seventh Apocalypse Rule
Apocalypse Rules Strategy Research Room.
After the nation declared a state of war, relevant data was compiled and discussed here.
A data analyst reported, "The first batch of 18,819 shelters has been completed nationwide, with an estimated capacity of about twenty million people. The second and third batches are currently under construction. A portion of the second batch should be finished before the seventh rule is announced on October 31st."
"Have the population figures been tallied?" an expert asked.
One of the reasons for conducting preliminary personnel registration during the state of war was that the government wanted to confirm the nation’s current total population. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Since the first rule, subsequent rules—the blizzard, the Living Dead, and the Blood Plague—had all caused casualties. The blizzard and the Blood Plague, in particular, resulted in massive loss of life.
However, due to a shortage of manpower, it had been impossible to compile detailed statistics. This was especially true for the many villages that had essentially gone dark after the blizzard rule, making it unclear how many people had survived.
The data analyst checked and replied, "The current registered population across all major cities nationwide is approximately 713,456,200."
"Just over seven hundred million..."
Everyone in the conference room fell silent.
The North Star Country’s population had once reached 1.6 billion. Now, in just half a year, less than half remained. The cruelty of this outcome was enough to horrify anyone.
"This is only the registered population," the data analyst added. "There is also a certain number of unregistered individuals living outside the cities. If we include them, the total population is estimated to be around eight hundred million."
"Eight hundred million is still only half of what it was!" Gao Liangwei said gravely. "Only six rules have passed, and our population has been halved. Gentlemen, this shows just how grim the situation we’re facing is!"
"Indeed... but things should get better. The earlier rules gave us too little time to carry out large-scale construction. Now that a large number of professional-grade shelters are being built in batches, the casualties shouldn’t be as tragic going forward."
Someone then spoke up: "Should we take action regarding those living outside the cities? According to our intelligence, it seems many people have formed organizations, established camps, and even developed what appear to be religious groups... If this continues, could it become a problem?"
"I don’t think that’s necessary," said Dr. Zhang. "Those who choose to live outside the cities are either powerful individuals confident in their abilities, people who are averse to communal living, or non-Ascenders who feel discriminated against... Forcing these three groups into the cities would only cause chaos."
"Besides, these people lack sufficient resources in the wild; they’d be lucky to be self-sufficient. Even if they build camps, it’s just to band together for survival. They’re unlikely to pose any threat to the cities."
"Correct," Gao Liangwei said. "Forcing everyone into shelters will only make the resistant ones fight back, causing internal strife. Since they chose to go outside the cities, let them. What we need to do now is focus on taking care of the seven hundred million people inside."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Gao Liangwei then added, "Also, I want to remind everyone of something. You all know about the new Communication Secret Scrolls in the Sublimation Store. They can be used for private conversations between friends."
The Strategy Research Room tested the item as soon as it became available after the sixth rule ended.
The test results showed that when using a Communication Secret Scroll, the entire conversation takes place in the mind. The users don’t need to speak aloud; they communicate directly through thought.
This undoubtedly presents a new challenge for highly classified departments.
"You all know how high the security level is here. So, although there are still twenty days until the seventh rule is announced, I’ll lay down the law now... If anyone tries to use a Communication Secret Scroll to secretly contact the outside world and leak classified information, the Strategy Research Room will show no mercy once you are discovered!"
The crowd’s expressions turned solemn as they replied in unison, "Understood."
...
October 30th. One day remained until the announcement of the seventh Apocalypse Rule.
In the morning, Guan Tong was sitting in the small courtyard he had cleared in front of his log cabin—or rather, the courtyard his Living Dead had cleared. He had simply acted as a hands-off manager.
A wooden fence encircled the small yard. The reason for this was that a few days ago, wild animals had started to appear, scratching at his cabin door in the middle of the night and making a racket.
Guan Tong had thus been motivated to modify his surroundings.
He first summoned a Giant Axe Warrior to chop down some trees with its axe. Then he summoned a horde of Living Dead, having them clear a small courtyard and build a fence with the felled and split logs.
Now, any small wild animals would be stopped by the fence first, no longer able to come right up to Guan Tong’s cabin and cause a disturbance.
At this moment, Guan Tong was meditating with his eyes closed, circulating his energy.
Ever since Shi Jingyi sent him the course materials on energy circulation, he had spent a significant amount of time each day studying and practicing.
Compared to simply memorizing acupoints, circulating energy was far more difficult, testing one’s control over their own body. It took Guan Tong half a month just to sense the existence of his qi, and another half a month to try and control it, guiding it to flow through his body.
It wasn’t until just a few days before the end of October that he finally succeeded once, making that stream of energy pass through various acupoints.
So today, he was eager to try manipulating the flow of his Psychic Power in the same way he circulated his energy.
He had come outside at 6 AM, breathing the fresh mountain air and meditating. Now, at just past nine, more than three hours had passed, but he still hadn’t succeeded.
After another failure, Guan Tong opened his eyes. ’Am I being too hasty? Maybe I should try focusing on a single point first.’
He calmed his mind, no longer aiming for a flow of Psychic Power, but simply trying to manifest it as a single point.
As soon as he lowered his expectations, the results appeared immediately. In less than half an hour, Guan Tong successfully made a point of Psychic Power light appear on the tip of his right index finger.
It only lasted for about two seconds before dissipating. Even so, Guan Tong was very satisfied.
This proved his training was effective, and that was enough. If he continued, he would sooner or later be able to circulate it throughout his entire body, enhancing his physical functions.
’That’s enough for today.’
Guan Tong stood up, stretched, and gazed into the distance.
The location he had chosen for his shelter was on a mountainside, offering an excellent view of distant villages and towns.
This high vantage point, allowing him to gaze far into the horizon, put him in a good mood every day and reaffirmed that he had made the right choice.
If he had moved into a shelter or the faculty dorms, all he would see every day would probably be walls, a bed, and skyscrapers. That kind of life would have been torture for him.
’The new rule will be announced tomorrow... I’m more or less prepared.’
Over the past month, Guan Tong’s Psychic Power capacity had increased by 4 points as expected, rising from 137 to 141.
With every point gained, he would open the Wordless Book and try to write on the fifth page, but all four attempts ended in failure.
During this time, he also considered whether he should add more writing to the previous pages for further enhancement. However, after thinking it over, he couldn’t come up with any good ideas and decided against it.
Thus, he divided his daily regenerated Psychic Power into three portions.
One portion was used to maintain the shelter’s existence. The shelter consumed 1 point of Psychic Power every ten minutes, totaling 144 points a day.
It seemed like a lot, but after equipping the "Victor" title, Guan Tong’s Psychic Power regeneration rate had reached a high speed of 1 point every 2.5 minutes. Over 24 hours, he could recover a total of 576 points.
Subtracting the 144 points consumed by the shelter, he was left with 432 points. He split this remainder in half, converting one part into reserve Psychic Power and the other into Silver Hunter Bullets.
After a month of this, his reserve Psychic Power had reached 3,890, just over a hundred shy of four thousand.
As for the Silver Hunter’s bullets, the current quantity was also staggering: Bullet Type 1 x105; Bullet Type 2 x102; Bullet Type 3 x315; Bullet Type 4 x141; Bullet Type 5 x68.
With so many bullets stockpiled, he would never recall the Silver Hunter into the Wordless Book unless it was an absolute last resort. Having them all wiped out at once was something he couldn’t accept.
In addition, he had also taken the time to test the "Giant Axe Warrior."
Previously, when he summoned it to chop trees, the minimum 50 Psychic Power was sufficient. To test its higher combat capabilities, he later conducted tests using 100 and 200 Psychic Power respectively.
The Giant Axe Warrior summoned with 100 points was slightly larger, approaching 2.5 meters in height, and its strength was significantly greater. A single swing of its axe could split a large boulder on the mountain.
When summoned with double that amount, 200 points, its size and strength didn’t change much, but it was faster, moving at the speed of a normal adult male. With this speed, its combat effectiveness had jumped more than one level.
Guan Tong didn’t test summons that would cost even more points.
For one, it would waste his reserve Psychic Power, and for another, he didn’t feel it was necessary at the moment. The creature supported a maximum summon cost of 1,000 Psychic Power, and Guan Tong was currently unwilling to spend that much of his reserves just for a combat test.
Additionally, during this time, he would log into his "Ascender’s Home" website every day to check the posts and messages.
Ever since society entered a state of war, his website’s traffic had been surging daily. One user brought in two, two brought in four, and the number of registered users was doubling.
As of today, the number of registered users had exceeded twenty thousand. Compared to the vast population of the North Star Country, twenty thousand might not seem like much, but this rate of growth was a clear sign of the website’s bright future.
If it continued to grow like this, it wouldn’t be long before it broke one hundred thousand, and even reaching a million wasn’t out of the question.
However, with the surge in users, Guan Tong was starting to feel the strain of management. He was finding it difficult to handle everything by himself unless he dedicated all his time to it, which was impossible.
Therefore, he had recently been considering recruiting a few administrators. There would be no salary, of course; it would be purely voluntary. He figured someone would probably be willing to sign up—if no one else, that "Mask" fellow definitely would, as he had posted several times expressing his hope to become one of the site’s admins.
However, with the new rule about to be announced, selecting administrators would have to wait.
After a night of rest, Guan Tong was in perfect condition the next day. He gazed into the distance, silently waiting for the Fire Thief to announce the new rule.
When the time came, the rule was announced.
[The Seventh Apocalypse Rule has been announced]
[Apocalypse Rule Seven: Silent Moment]
[Rule Content: From the moment this rule is announced, all humans are forbidden from speaking. This includes any meaningful words or names uttered from the mouth. Whispering, crying, laughing, and groaning are also included, but the sound of breathing is not restricted. This rule will last for 30 days.
If you speak and violate the rule, the challenge is immediately judged a failure, and the speaker will be hunted and attacked by "Sound Hunters."]
[Success Reward: 300 Sublimation Coins, Survival Treasure Chest · Silver Level]
[Failure Penalty: Decrease in Psychic Power capacity]
[Note: Do not blindly test the limits of the rule, and do not attempt to provoke the Sound Hunters with meaningless roars. If you want to live, then try to become a silent, breathing statue.]
