49 Apocalypse Rules

Chapter 94: Chapter 89: Book Page Sanctuary

Apocalypse Rules Strategy Research Room.

After the first Ascender Challenge Tournament ended, Director Gao Liangwei met with Dr. Zhang alone for a short meeting in his office.

"How did our five teams perform?"

"Quite well, I think," Dr. Zhang said. "The first team, Dragon Soul, took third place. The fourth team took fifth."

Gao Liangwei nodded. "With so many teams competing, having two of ours place is decent. Especially that little girl. I didn’t expect her one-person team to actually pull it off."

Dr. Zhang replied, "To be honest, I’ve never seen a Psychic Power item more powerful than her Mecha... If there’s any flaw, it’s that the child is young and not very mature. She’s also a loner and can’t get along with others, which is why we let her form a team by herself."

"Let’s put her aside for now. Tell me about the eliminated second, third, and fifth teams. How were they taken out?"

"I’ve already asked," Dr. Zhang said, going through them one by one. "The second team was just unlucky. They ran into the Tulip Federation’s Wolf Pack Team. They were outnumbered and had no choice but to be eliminated."

"The Wolf Pack Team?"

"Yes. The Federation’s teams all agreed on a meeting point before the competition. After entering the island, they all rushed there. Once they grouped up, they used their overwhelming numbers to eliminate teams from other countries."

Gao Liangwei said coldly, "Leave it to them to come up with something like that. But I have to admit, it’s an effective strategy."

"It is. If their ’Alpha Wolf’ hadn’t died, they definitely would have placed... In any case, the second team fell to them. The third team... the circumstances of their elimination were rather unusual."

Dr. Zhang recounted the events as he’d heard them from the team members. When he finished, Gao Liangwei’s expression was grim. "If that’s what happened, then as the captain, Gu Fei bears an undeniable responsibility!"

"I agree... I chose him as captain because he showed considerable talent in close-quarters combat, and he had a daring, aggressive spirit. It seems now that was the wrong choice. It was my mistake."

"What about the fifth team?"

"According to the report from the fifth team’s members, they were defeated by ’Shadow’ while trying to secure the hidden treasure, the ’Holy Grail.’ This ’Shadow’ also managed to survive until the end, taking first place and the hidden reward."

"Who in the world is this Shadow? Can we find out who he is as soon as possible?" Gao Liangwei asked.

Dr. Zhang thought for a moment. "Because he fought against multiple people, some of his powers have been exposed. First, he can summon the Living Dead that appeared in the fifth Apocalypse Rule. Second, he can create explosions and smoke in a small area. And third, he can manipulate shadow-like things to kill..."

Gao Liangwei immediately ordered, "Disseminate this intelligence to all relevant personnel. Tell them to keep a sharp lookout. If anyone with similar abilities is discovered, they are to report it immediately."

"Yes, I’ll get on it right away."

"Shadow was first, and Dragon Soul’s team was third. Who took second?"

"The second-place team was Adam’s team."

"Adam?" Gao Liangwei seemed to have heard the name before. "Could it be..."

"Yes. He is a member of the ’Eden Project’ initiated by the Soloma Empire. According to a covert investigation, all participants in the project were sent to an island called ’Eden Island.’ The process of gestating the ’Son of God’ is being conducted on that very island.

As for this person named ’Adam’... he’s supposedly the most favored candidate for the role of the ’father.’ His four teammates are apparently also his wives, and they will bear his children."

"..."

Gao Liangwei was momentarily speechless, not knowing what to say.

But this was a project of the Soloma Empire, after all, so it was out of his hands. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Do we have a count of the participants in this tournament?"

Dr. Zhang shook his head. "No, we don’t. But there weren’t as many participants as we expected. Many qualified individuals in various countries chose to discard their Invitation Letters—after all, before the tournament began, no one knew what format it would take. If it turned out to be a real life-or-death battle, some people weren’t willing to take that risk."

Gao Liangwei could understand that.

It was as the old saying goes: "The son of a wealthy family does not sit under the eaves." Some people of high status and position were unwilling to participate in a competition with an unknown format. They preferred to deal with the Apocalypse Rules one by one in a methodical manner, backed by concentrated resources. That gave them a greater sense of security.

"In any case, the Ascenders who participated in the tournament are ultimately a minority. The majority of people don’t really care about this competition. They’re more concerned with whether they can survive the next rule, and that is also our primary mission."

With that, Gao Liangwei added, "Also, as of today, remove Gu Fei from the apocalypse team training program. His performance was too disappointing!"

"...Understood."

...

Guan Tong walked to the entrance of the sanctuary but didn’t rush inside. Instead, he first studied its exterior.

To be honest, it was a far cry from the sanctuary he had imagined. From the outside, it was just a small wooden cabin, not much larger than the property storage room he was currently living in.

"A sanctuary made of wood... How very ’reassuring.’"

Guan Tong muttered as he walked inside. The scene before him felt like stepping into a 30-yuan-a-night motel room.

Inside was a bed, a wardrobe, a wooden table with a stool, and a bathroom. There was nothing else.

’...Isn’t this a little too crude?’

Guan Tong picked up the [Wordless Book]. It definitely said "All-In-One Sanctuary." How did this even qualify as "all-in-one"?

’Could it be like what happened with the "Shadow Outline" at the beginning? Did I get a super-shrunken version?’

Guan Tong thought it was very likely.

However, he wasn’t completely disappointed.

Because Guan Tong quickly discovered a few bright spots.

There were outlets in the room that had power; the faucet in the bathroom had running water; the toilet flushed; and the shower worked.

But just as he finished testing everything, thinking the sanctuary had an unlimited supply of water and electricity, he noticed that his Psychic Power had silently dropped from 2 points to 1.

"...?"

Guan Tong froze for a second before it dawned on him. ’The sanctuary consumes Psychic Power while it’s active?’

He immediately tested it and found that was indeed the case.

After the sanctuary was summoned, it consumed 1 point of Psychic Power for every 10 minutes it existed. ƒrēewebnovel.com

In other words, if Guan Tong wanted to maintain it for 24 hours, he would have to spend a fixed 144 points of Psychic Power every day.

’I used to recover 1 point of Psychic Power every 5 minutes on average. After equipping the ’Victor’ title, that dropped to 1 point every 2.5 minutes, which comes out to 576 points in 24 hours.’

He could afford to live here, but having to constantly pay "rent" was still somewhat annoying.

But he was in desperate need of a mobile sanctuary, and having water and electricity was indeed very convenient. At least he could take a shower every day.

However, he wasn’t satisfied with the sanctuary’s low defenses. It was made of wood; he didn’t even need to think about other attacks—a single fire would burn it to ashes.

This confirmed his suspicion that it was a downsized version of the All-In-One Sanctuary. Perhaps when his maximum Psychic Power increased, summoning it again would result in some upgrades.

’My Psychic Power cap... I need to raise it as soon as possible.’

Guan Tong’s current cap of 134 points was certainly a lot compared to an ordinary person, but he still felt it was far from enough.

However, methods to increase it were extremely rare. So far, Guan Tong had only discovered two: one was through a Genetic Enhancer, and the other was by stimulating it through frequent, intense battles.

Not only was the former something you could only hope to stumble upon by chance, but the latter was the same.

Aside from special situations like the Challenge Tournament, there generally weren’t that many combat scenarios in the real world.

Not to mention, Guan Tong wanted to avoid taking action recklessly as much as possible right now.

He knew that after the battle to defend the Holy Grail, many people had a partial understanding of his abilities. Who knew how many people were now searching the world for him? It was better to keep a low profile.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Guan Tong decided to take things one step at a time and wait for the sixth rule to be announced.

’I should rest for a bit.’

Guan Tong had been in a state of high tension for almost the entire eight-hour tournament. Now that he could relax, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

He lay on the sanctuary’s bed, looking at the Wordless Book in his hand. He thought, ’If I recall the sanctuary back into the Wordless Book while I’m still inside it, what will happen? Will I go into the book along with it?’

’...Never mind.’

Guan Tong wasn’t about to risk his life on a random experiment. What if he went in and couldn’t get out? If he really wanted to test it, he should just buy a mouse, put it inside, and try it while he was safely outside.

Lying on the bed, drowsiness washed over him, and he soon fell asleep.

The night passed uneventfully.

The next day, he woke up, took a shower, and browsed his phone while waiting for his hair to dry.

There wasn’t much discussion online about the tournament that had ended yesterday, but there were a few popular posts.

One of them, with over ten thousand replies, was about none other than him.

The post’s title was: "In-Depth Analysis of Champion Ascender ’Shadow’s’ Ability Composition!"

Guan Tong clicked on it. The original poster was someone who had participated in the tournament and claimed to have taken part in the fight for the Holy Grail, eventually dying to the "Black Thorns."

Guan Tong knew that the "Black Thorns" the poster was talking about were the materialized form of his "Thorn Shadow Killing Array."

The poster then went on to analyze everything with great authority, some of which was right and some of which was wrong. He was right that the "Black Thorns could change shape," but wrong in his analysis that Shadow had "laid landmines all over the ground" or something to that effect.

However, what made the post go viral wasn’t the poster’s analysis, but rather a comment within the thread.

A user with the ID "Snow White Traceless" commented: "Shadow is just a pervert who’s into tentacles and poop!"

When Guan Tong saw this comment, he was almost certain it was from the person who piloted the Mecha.

He wasn’t the only one who recognized her; many other tournament participants recognized the ID as well.

"Snow White Traceless! The master who ranked fifth in the tournament?!"

"The white Mecha!! I saw it too!"

"Great God Bai Xue, do you remember me? I’m the one you killed with one slash of your Light Saber!"

"I saw that Mecha too! It’s seriously the coolest Psychic Power item I’ve ever seen. I’m so jealous!"

Quite a few participants who had seen the Mecha on the island chimed in with replies.

Guan Tong, of course, had no intention of replying. He thought it was bizarre that someone who dared to charge at people with a Power Sword could be scared off by a few disgusting things.

Besides, the one he was truly concerned about was Lucifer. The latter had called his wings the "Fallen Angel’s Wings," and they were indeed powerful, even acting as a counter to his shadows.

Although the guy was a foreigner and he probably wouldn’t run into him normally, Guan Tong was someone with a strong sense of crisis awareness. He couldn’t stop thinking about how to deal with an enemy who could counter him.

Previously, relying only on his Hooked Claw, he definitely couldn’t have outrun the winged "Birdman," Lucifer. But now with the "Teleportation" ability, combined with a vision-enabled shadow, he could have the shadow quickly move to a distant spot far outside his own line of sight. By activating the ability then, he could achieve an ultra-long-distance escape via Instant Teleportation.

But there was no future in only thinking about how to run away; he still had to figure out how to win.

Guan Tong mulled it over for a while. Once his hair was more or less dry, he set the matter aside and headed out to run his sanctuary experiment.