49 Apocalypse Rules

Chapter 151: Chapter 141: Guan Tong and Jiang Ming’s Battle

Guan Tong was a man of his word; he hadn’t spared a single member of the base’s management.

After leaving Liu Yuqiang’s room, he went from one department’s room to the next, eliminating everyone inside.

Now, he arrived at the squad dormitory area.

Before committing suicide, Liu Yuqiang had said that former business magnates like them had lost all their value after the country entered a state of war.

The factories and assets they once owned had been commandeered by the government to prioritize production for national survival.

Having lost their factories, connections, and resources, how could these people—most in their fifties and sixties and entering their twilight years—compare to the young and able-bodied in terms of value under the Apocalypse Rules?

That was why Liu Yuqiang had said the old guard of the Qingmei Association was no longer valued by their leader. Now, she was focused on cultivating the Ascender squads that had passed her selection.

Chen Na was one of them.

Standing at the entrance to the squad dormitory area, Guan Tong thought about what Chen Na had told him about her teammates.

The one who concerned him most was the young man named Jiang Ming.

Chen Na had said Jiang Ming could absorb the Psychic Power and stamina of others, which meant his Shadow’s attacks wouldn’t necessarily be effective. Furthermore, his encounter with Han Ling had once again proven that his Shadow was not omnipotent.

If someone possessed a defensive item that could resist Psychic Power attacks, then the Shadow’s infiltration and attacks would be rendered useless. Fundamentally, the Shadow was a product of Psychic Power, whether tangible or not.

Therefore, to deal with this kind of person, it was better to rely on a man-made kitchen cleaver rather than anything related to Psychic Power. Or...

Guan Tong glanced at the pistol in his right hand.

It was the gun Liu Yuqiang had used to commit suicide. There were still several bullets left—more than enough.

He walked into the squad dormitory area and went to Chen Na’s room, the one farthest down the hall. He knocked softly on the door.

Chen Na opened the door. Seeing the strange woman standing in the doorway, she froze for a moment before realization dawned, a look of shock appearing on her small face.

"Could you be... the Station Chief?"

"I am."

"Ah..."

Chen Na could hardly believe her eyes. She knew Guan Tong might come to help after they spoke, but she never expected him to be so fast.

And she couldn’t fathom how he had managed to get inside this heavily fortified base, let alone find her.

"Chen Na, stay in your room and don’t come out. I’ll come get you after I’ve eliminated the threats in this base."

"But—"

Suddenly, an unexpected voice cut in. "So the base has been infiltrated. I guess this place isn’t as safe as I thought."

Guan Tong turned toward the voice. At the far end of the hallway stood a young man wearing headphones, his expression cold.

"Jiang Ming!" Chen Na cried out in alarm. "How did you..."

Guan Tong was also curious. ’How did Jiang Ming detect me, the intruder? He must have some sort of detection item.’

Jiang Ming said coolly, "Chen Na, you betrayed the organization. You should know the consequences."

"I..."

"Get inside."

Guan Tong pushed Chen Na back into her room and shut the door.

Then, he drew the Silver Hunter from the Storage Ring on his left hand, pulled the trigger, and fired several rounds.

HISS—

A thick cloud of smoke billowed out, rapidly filling the entire hallway until nothing was visible.

This was the effect of the Silver Hunter’s #4 Smoke Bomb rounds.

"It seems Chen Na already leaked my intel to you," Jiang Ming said, staring into the smoke. "So you’re creating a smokescreen to avoid eye contact, to keep me from absorbing your Psychic Power and stamina?"

Guan Tong was inside the fog, but he could use his Shadow to see.

Ignoring Jiang Ming’s taunt, he manipulated a Shadow Line to shoot toward Jiang Ming in a test attack.

However, the moment the Shadow Line touched Jiang Ming’s body, it immediately went inert and broke from Guan Tong’s control, as if it had been completely absorbed.

This confirmed it for Guan Tong. ’So, besides actively absorbing through eye contact, he can also passively absorb Psychic Power attacks... A truly formidable ability.’

Jiang Ming wasted no more words. He activated his ability, his pupils instantly turning from black to white.

A massive amount of Psychic Power, converted into beams of white light, shot out from his pupils in a sweeping attack that covered the entire hallway.

Guan Tong channeled his Psychic Power, creating a thick, solid Shadow Wall in front of himself.

The initial beams of white light were blocked, but the ones that followed showed signs of breaking through.

Guan Tong was surprised. He had spent a full 100 points of Psychic Power to solidify that Shadow Wall, already dipping into his reserves.

If Jiang Ming’s Psychic Power attack could penetrate this Shadow Wall, it either meant his ability was incredibly destructive, like the innate power of Lucifer’s Fallen Angel’s Wings, or he was simply using more Psychic Power.

After a moment’s thought, Guan Tong first fired an EMP round from his Silver Hunter to jam communications in the area. He then took out the Corpse Whistle and summoned multiple Undead, packing them together behind the Shadow Wall as a meat shield to block the white beams that were piercing through.

Jiang Ming’s attack lasted for about ten seconds. When his pupils returned to black, he still couldn’t see his enemy through the thick smoke, but he was confident the fight was over.

His psychic flash attack was powerful and covered a wide area. No enemy had ever endured it for more than five seconds. He had just blasted this intruder for a full ten seconds; it was more than enough to obliterate them.

Just as he was thinking this, a warning from his sensory item suddenly flared, and he jerked his head to the side.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Four bullets whizzed past his face. He dodged the first three, but the fourth shattered the headphones he was wearing with a sharp CRACK.

He stared blankly at the broken pieces of his headphones on the ground, his perpetually cold expression instantly twisting into a mask of rage.

"DIE!"

He lunged forward, simultaneously activating multiple defensive items to protect himself from any more non-Psychic Power attacks.

Watching Jiang Ming fly into a sudden rage, Guan Tong wondered what had set him off. ’Were those headphones that important to him?’

Still, those last few shots confirmed that Jiang Ming had an item that provided attack warnings. Otherwise, he would have been dead from a headshot already.

Seeing Jiang Ming charge at him, Guan Tong knew the man intended to leverage his ability’s unique properties in close-quarters combat.

He commanded his remaining Undead to intercept the charge.

Midway through his charge, Jiang Ming’s pupils contracted as several Undead emerged from the smoke, clawing and biting at him.

"Creating smoke, summoning the Undead, and that black object you tried to ambush me with... You’re Shadow?"

Ever since the battle on Holy Grail Island, Guan Tong’s abilities—his control over shadows, his creation of smoke and explosions, and his power to summon the Undead—had all been exposed.

Anyone who had been paying attention would know about them. Seeing such a complete collection of "Shadow’s signature moves," Jiang Ming immediately identified the intruder.

The Undead threw themselves at Jiang Ming, and once again, a shocking scene unfolded before Guan Tong’s eyes. The bodies of the Undead rapidly withered, as if they had been drained dry.

His advance only momentarily halted, Jiang Ming sneered. "It’s useless, Shadow. I can infinitely absorb any and all types of Psychic Power attacks. Nothing you do will work on me."

Guan Tong’s brow furrowed at his words.

He didn’t believe Jiang Ming. If an Ascender could truly absorb an infinite amount of Psychic Power attacks, they would be practically invincible among their kind.

’If that were true, why didn’t he participate in the battle for the Holy Grail? With an invincible ability like that, all he would have had to do was join the fight and absorb everything. Even my ’Infinite Psychic Power’ buff would have been useless.’

The most effective lies are the ones that are half-true.

’It’s true Jiang Ming can absorb Psychic Power attacks. The ’infinite’ part is just a bluff.’

With that thought, Guan Tong decided to stop holding back his Psychic Power.

He instantly drew a full 500 points from his Psychic Power reserves and used his Giant Axe Warrior Hoodie to summon a Giant Axe Warrior. Unlike the Undead, which had a fixed cost, the more Psychic Power poured into summoning the Giant Axe Warrior, the stronger it would be.

The moment the fully armored, axe-wielding warrior appeared, it advanced on Guan Tong’s command.

It quickly met Jiang Ming in the fog and swung its axe down!

Seeing the Giant Axe Warrior, Jiang Ming snorted. "You have quite a few Summoned Creatures. But like I said, as long as it’s a Psychic Power attack..."

His face suddenly changed mid-sentence as the axe fell upon him!

CRACK!

One of his defensive items shattered. Jiang Ming immediately fell back, his face a mask of shock.

Through his Shadow’s vision, Guan Tong saw it too: this time, Jiang Ming’s ability had failed to absorb the Giant Axe Warrior’s attack!

"How is this possible?" Jiang Ming muttered in disbelief. "I should be able to absorb any attack that doesn’t exceed twice my maximum Psychic Power... Could this Summoned Creature..."

His voice was quiet, but Guan Tong, using the Shadow lurking at Jiang Ming’s feet, managed to overhear this crucial piece of intelligence.

’So that’s how it works...’

The limit of Jiang Ming’s absorption ability was that he could only absorb attacks with a power less than double his own maximum Psychic Power.

Guan Tong thought, ’If his maximum Psychic Power is 100, then he can’t absorb any attack containing more than 200 points of Psychic Power.’

’My earlier materialized Shadow Line, and even the Undead I summoned, cost very little Psychic Power. That’s why they couldn’t harm him.’

’But the Giant Axe Warrior is different. I invested a full 500 points of my reserve Psychic Power to summon it. Even if Jiang Ming’s maximum Psychic Power is high, there’s no way it’s 250 at this stage. Of course he can’t absorb the Giant Axe Warrior’s attack.’

Now that Guan Tong understood the mechanics of Jiang Ming’s absorption ability, he had nothing to worry about. He commanded the Giant Axe Warrior to slash wildly at Jiang Ming!

Empowered by 500 points of Psychic Power, the Giant Axe Warrior’s speed surpassed that of an ordinary person. Combined with the massive range of its axe, Jiang Ming had no room to dodge in the narrow corridor.

He was forced back again and again, activating and shattering one defensive item after another. If not for those items, he would have already been hacked to death by the giant axe.

"Damn it..."

After using up his last defensive item, Jiang Ming saw that the Giant Axe Warrior still hadn’t vanished and resolved to destroy it himself.

His pupils instantly flashed from black to white as he prepared to unleash his psychic flash.

But the Shadow lurking at Jiang Ming’s feet had already discovered his secret: black pupils absorb, white pupils release. The instant his pupils turned white, Guan Tong acted.

The Shadow at Jiang Ming’s feet shot up his legs.

’Shit!’

Jiang Ming’s sensory item alerted him instantly. In that split second between life and death, he had no choice but to play his final trump card.

A mirror suddenly appeared in his right hand. A blue light burst from it, enveloping his body and pulling him in.

SLICE—!

At the last possible second, Guan Tong had the Shadow on Jiang Ming’s legs transform into a sharp Shadow Blade and slash.

When the mirror’s light faded, Jiang Ming was gone. All that remained were the two legs severed by the Shadow Blade and the shattered mirror on the floor...

"A teleportation item, huh? Tsk."

Guan Tong felt a pang of regret that he hadn’t managed to kill Jiang Ming, only leaving his legs behind. The man’s abilities were certainly tricky; there would likely be another fight in the future.

But he couldn’t worry about that now. Though his battle with Jiang Ming hadn’t been overly destructive, it was more than enough to cause a commotion in the squad dormitories.

Besides Chen Na, the other two squad members, Gu Fei and Chu Xiaoyuan, had come out of their rooms.

They saw the hallway was filled with thick fog and the stench of blood and knew at once that something was wrong.

Just then, a piercing alarm began to blare throughout the entire base.

"Warning! The base has been infiltrated!"

"Warning! The base has been infiltrated!"

Guan Tong was surprised. ’What triggered the alarm?’

’Was it Jiang Ming after he teleported away?’

He figured it was highly likely. After teleporting away, Jiang Ming must have contacted the relevant base personnel immediately to sound the alarm.

’Since it’s come to this, I’d better end this quickly.’