Chapter 404: The Agreed Time and Place |
Guan Tong stood at the entrance of the shelter, holding the [Wordless Book] in his hand.
"Retract."
The pages closed, and the shelter before him vanished without a trace.
Ever since he returned from Sakura Prayer Country, entered the Pinglu mountain valley, and summoned the shelter, he had never recalled it back.
Now, he needed to test whether the shelter had undergone any changes after his Mind Power upper limit had broken through the one thousand mark.
After retracting the shelter back into the book's pages, he transferred another one thousand units of reserve Mind Power into flowable Mind Power... there was no choice, the one thousand he had converted earlier had been used to generate the No. 6 missile for Silver Hunt.
Fortunately, he could purchase large amounts of flowable Mind Power daily for conversion. Otherwise, just the daily consumption would be significant, let alone conducting such frequent and intensive experiments.
He injected one thousand units of Mind Power into the fourth page of the [Wordless Book].
With a brilliant flash of light, a shelter materialized out of thin air on the empty ground ahead.
Guan Tong's eyes lit up as he looked at the noticeably taller new shelter.
The area had increased, not horizontally, but vertically.
That's right, it had changed from a single-story structure before to a two-story one! An additional large balcony with glass railings had appeared, seemingly addressing the previous pain point of having nowhere to hang laundry to dry.
He couldn't wait to enter and see what changes the interior held.
Upon entering the house, he was surprised to discover that an internal elevator had actually appeared on the right side of the interior.
"It's only two stories... is an elevator really necessary?"
Guan Tong looked at the elevator and suddenly realized something; it looked somewhat familiar.
The metallic color and style of the elevator closely resembled the one inside the Countermeasures Research Office base.
He suddenly realized: the changes to the shelter were based on impressions from his subconscious mind.
Even though the clothes he wore were all Mind Power items and basically didn't require manual washing, his subconscious still believed a home should have a place for washing and drying clothes. Hence, the new shelter featured a large, well-lit second-floor balcony.
As for the elevator's appearance, it was because he had just visited the Countermeasures Research Office in the past two days and was deeply impressed by its dozens-of-stories elevator... that impression might have influenced his subconscious, leading to the appearance of an elevator in his own shelter.
"If that's the case... then when I modify it later, I should design a shelter that truly suits my needs based on my own requirements."
Guan Tong thought to himself as he familiarized himself with the new shelter.
Aside from the addition of a spiral staircase and the elevator, the changes on the first floor were minimal; it was still the previous two-bedroom, one-living-room layout.
He took the elevator to the second floor and found that it was purely one large open space.
Without walls for separation, the several dozen square meters were completely open. The room was almost empty of anything; a minimalist enthusiast would be absolutely thrilled to see it.
"...Was this also influenced by my subconscious?"
Since the advent of the Doomsday Rules era, not just Guan Tong, but many people had actively or passively become "minimalist," or more accurately, had stopped hoarding supplies.
It wasn't that they didn't want to, but that they couldn't.
After people moved into the shelters built by the authorities, daily necessities were provided officially. Other personal belongings could only be stored in a metal locker about the size of a student dormitory room.
After all, the interior space of the shelters was incredibly precious, with no extra room to provide each resident with a large storage warehouse for personal clutter.
Under this forced minimalism, people naturally owned fewer and fewer things.
This was even more true for someone like Guan Tong, who frequently traveled all over the world.
However, his portable storage space was much larger than others. Besides the shelter, he also had the Storage Ring for storing items. But even so, apart from a very few special supplies like gasoline, what he stored were basically only daily necessities like food and water, with no other miscellaneous items.
Before, he used to keep some common tools in the Storage Ring, but later he found it unnecessary. Whatever tool he needed, he could just have Shadow transform into it. Shadow could completely transform into a hammer, a screwdriver, etc., according to his needs.
Looking at the clean, spacious second-floor hall now, Guan Tong simply lay down, placing his hands on his chest.
He had thought before that if the shelter's area kept increasing, one day in the future it might serve as a mobile base for the Trace Origin Travel Troupe organization.
Now it seemed the rudimentary form was already taking shape.
The organization currently only had two members: him and Uenoshi. Assigning one floor to each of them would be just right.
"Now only the 'Opening Power' on the fifth page and the 'Domain' on the sixth page haven't been enhanced... I really can't think of an enhancement direction for the former right now."
The "Opening Power" on the fifth page was originally written to break through the special restriction of the Mind Lock. The fact that it could later be used to damage and weaken the Geomantic Pillar was an unexpected bonus from exploring its applications.
But since the [Earth Dragon Rolls Over] rule, this power hadn't been used again.
Guan Tong had once wondered if he could use this power to help others break through their Mind Locks. But later, people discovered that after becoming proficient in Shi Jingyi's Mind Power Flow cultivation, one could break through the Mind Lock restriction.
Those restricted by the Mind Lock were almost all powerful individuals, and these powerful individuals had almost all either enrolled in the academy or followed the online courses to learn Shi Jingyi's Mind Power Flow when the academy first opened.
Dragon Soul from the Countermeasures Research Office base was an example. Although he didn't enter the academy, his study of the courses hadn't lagged; he studied them more deeply than the vast majority of students.
So he was among the earliest batch of Ascendants to use Mind Power Flow to break through the Mind Lock.
Other powerful individuals basically all took this path, so they didn't need Guan Tong's help.
Actually, even if Guan Tong wanted to help, others might not be willing—that would mean they had to lower their bodily defenses, allowing Guan Tong to manipulate Mind Power to directly impact their brains. Few powerful individuals would be willing to take that risk, entrusting their lives to someone they weren't familiar with.
Therefore, how to reapply this "Opening Power" was a problem for Guan Tong to ponder.
"If we consider it from the perspective of its essential nature... the essence of 'Opening Power' described in two words should be 'release' or 'undo.'"
Whether breaking through the Mind Lock or destroying the sturdy shell of the Geomantic Pillar, both were processes of releasing or undoing.
So, expanding its scope of release based on this essence seemed like a path with considerable potential for extension.
"Release all forms of locks? That seems a bit narrow-minded. Think more broadly... if I use this power to disarm others, to undo their weapons or powerful defensive items, I wonder if that would be feasible?"
Imagine in combat, if he could use this power to suddenly disarm an enemy's weapon or undo a powerful defensive item, it would give him a huge advantage.
Perhaps I can try it in the next battle. If successful, I'll have gained another method.
With that thought, Guan Tong flipped to the sixth page of the [Wordless Book]. The characters "Domain" written there represented another key ability he was developing, besides Shadow.
Just then, Shi Jingyi's voice suddenly sounded in his mind through the Mind Network.
"Guan Tong, I have set a meeting time and place with Lu Cheng. 10 AM on the 8th, at the sports field on South Street of Academy Road."
Hearing this, Guan Tong sat up.
"Did you set the time and place, or did Lu Cheng?" he asked.
"I set the time; I have no classes that half-day. He chose the location."
Guan Tong quickly searched his memory. He had served as a substitute teacher at the academy for several months and was somewhat familiar with that Academy Road.
"South Street Sports Field... I remember that although it's an open sports field, hardly anyone usually goes there. I think there's a problem with Lu Cheng choosing that location."
"Possibly. But it's also possible he feels his identity is sensitive, so he doesn't want to meet in a crowded place."
Guan Tong thought for a moment and replied, "On the 8th, I'll go scout the location in advance. If anything seems off, I'll alert you immediately."
"Alright."
After ending the communication, Guan Tong checked the time. Today was the 4th; there were still a few days left.
He should have nothing urgent these next few days. Although the incident of Scarlet Fear being spread through a game had caused quite a stir, it didn't have much to do with him; the official departments would handle it.
"These next few days, I need to focus on researching and developing the enhancement for 'Domain,' and then... decide what to write on the seventh page of the [Wordless Book]."
...
"Currently, the authorities have classified this incident as a terrorist attack and stated they will spare no effort to identify the perpetrators and punish them severely."
In a certain mountainous wilderness, the latest report from a Beixing news anchor came from Lu Cheng's phone screen.
Hearing the words "classified as a terrorist attack," he recalled the explosion incident that occurred at the Suroma arena.
That was also a terrorist attack. Not long after that event, Bishop Hiss from the Fire Thief Worship Cult released a video claiming responsibility for the attack.
But this time, the Fire Thief Worship Cult had been silent, so many netizens believed this Scarlet Fear spreading incident wasn't the work of those cultists.
Then who could it be?
Lu Cheng was also somewhat curious.
Almost the next second, a figure with short green hair surfaced in his mind.
"Could it be... the Prophet?"
Once this thought emerged, it quickly expanded and became increasingly entrenched.
Because he realized this might be the Prophet helping him... helping to divert the attention of the Beixing authorities.
"If the Beixing authorities focus their attention on investigating the game spreading incident, they'll neglect other aspects, including the academy. That would undoubtedly benefit the action I'm about to undertake here..."
Lu Cheng turned off the news and pulled up the messaging interface.
The latest message was the one where he and Shi Jingyi agreed on the meeting time and place.
"Before I came, the Prophet said he would help me. I only needed to create an opportunity to meet Lecturer Jingyi alone... Is this incident part of that help?"
Lu Cheng didn't know.
All he knew now was that there was no turning back once the arrow left the bow. Things had progressed to this point; he could only continue forward.