Chapter 435: The Eighteenth Doomsday Rule |
Beixing, Countermeasures Research Office base.
In the meeting room, department heads led by Head Gao Liangwei gathered here, waiting for the new rule’s release and deciding whether to immediately launch discussions based on the situation.
As the time drew near, the calm on everyone’s faces couldn’t hide the tension in their hearts.
Even after enduring so many rounds of rules, every time a new one was released, their bodies still trembled involuntarily.
It was an animal instinct when danger approached, and humans, as advanced animals, were no exception.
Gao Liangwei rested his chin on his interlocked hands, his face expressionless, silent.
In this tense atmosphere, the Fire Thief’s voice arrived as scheduled.
[The Eighteenth Doomsday Rule has been released]
[Doomsday Rule Eighteen: Microplastic Infestation]
[Success Reward: 1000 Ascension Coins; Survival Treasure Chest · Silver Grade]
[Failure Penalty: None]
[Note: Did you know? In the Star Sea Court’s pollutant list, the pollution rating of microplastics even surpasses that of radiation dust.]
...
After the rule was released, the entire meeting room fell into a brief dead silence.
Then, an academician from the environmental field hastily stood up: “The toxicity of microplastics greatly enhanced? Are you kidding me? Humans are living in a plastic world!”
Once the silence was broken, the meeting room erupted into an uproar.
Some hadn’t yet realized how severe this rule was. The environmental academician kicked his comfortable chair aside and shouted, “This chair is made of synthetic leather with polyester fabric on it—typical plastic products!”
“What?!”
Hearing this, the others quickly stood up and moved away from their chairs.
Someone was stripping off their jacket while yelling, “My clothes are synthetic fiber, definitely containing microplastics. Ah, I can’t get it off—help me!”
“Still drinking bottled water? Throw away that plastic bottle in your hand!”
“The cap on that marker pen you’re holding is also a plastic product!”
There were too many plastic items around, and fear of enhanced microplastic toxicity threw the meeting room into chaos.
Seeing this, Gao Liangwei barked, “Everyone, calm down!”
At the sound of his voice, everyone found their anchor. Looking at the unflappable leader, their hearts steadied slightly.
Gao Liangwei said sternly, “The rule says microplastic toxicity is enhanced. It doesn’t say it’ll kill humans instantly. What are you all panicking about?”
Everyone exchanged glances. That was true, but who knew exactly how much the toxicity had increased? What if it caused organ failure in just a few minutes or tens of minutes? Then every second would count.
Fortunately, Gao Liangwei realized this too. Without wasting time, he immediately ordered, “Everyone leave the meeting room now. Remove all plastic items from your bodies, then move to a metal-constructed room in the base to continue the meeting.”
To cope with the various disasters Doomsday Rules might bring, the Countermeasures Research Office base had designed numerous shelter rooms with different functions and materials from the start.
Now that the new rule was out, with microplastic toxicity greatly enhanced, rooms made of pure metal or other natural materials would be relatively safer.
In no time, all attendees left the meeting room in an orderly fashion. After quickly discarding plastic items on their bodies (mainly clothing), they moved to a room built entirely of metal to continue the meeting.
This room had no furniture, only a few hastily found solid wood chairs. Since there weren’t enough, no one dared to sit; they all stood. But even so, everyone knew staying here couldn’t completely eliminate inhaling microplastics—they were already dispersed in the air.
Now everyone was wearing pure cotton clothes. Because it was so rushed, many garments had ridiculous cartoon patterns children would love—since a lot of these cotton coats were prepared for the base’s minors.
But no one was in the mood to laugh right now.
“Meeting continues. Academician Qian, you’re the environmental expert. Go ahead.”
After Gao Liangwei announced this, the environmental expert who had kicked his chair earlier launched into an impassioned speech, his face full of horror.
“Head Gao, everyone! This rule is terrifying—in my opinion, scarier than many previous survival rules! The reason is, it’s, it’s because microplastics are everywhere!”
“Food, clothing, shelter, transportation—clothes need no mention. All synthetic fibers are essentially plastic! Even the pure cotton clothes we’re wearing now—the threads, buttons, labels—are plastic or have plastic coatings!”
“Food? Needless to say! Forget just looking at plastic bottled water—any processed food with plastic packaging has microplastics already infiltrated! Even meat, fish… Have any of you watched documentaries about plastic pollution in the ocean? Except for a few deep-sea fish, most seafood contains microplastics!”
“As for shelter, our living spaces are full of plastic—laminate flooring, carpets, wallpaper, wall coatings—all loaded with plastic! Chairs, tables, even electronic device casings and cable sheaths are all wrapped in plastic!”
Academician Qian grew more agitated, ending with utter despair:
“—In short, plastic surrounds human life like air! No, in fact, microplastics shed from plastic items are already floating in the air. We inhale a little with every breath. And now that damned Fire Thief has greatly enhanced its toxicity through this rule—it’s basically trying to wipe us out!!!”
Academician Qian’s expression, paired with his miserable tone, turned many faces pale with fear.
But some weren’t as terrified; they just frowned deeply.
Zhang Minglu spoke up: “Based on our understanding of the Fire Thief, it shouldn’t release a rule that’s guaranteed death. If we can’t avoid microplastic toxicity, reducing contact should lower the level of harm to the human body.”
“Dr. Zhang is right.” Gao Liangwei said solemnly. “Academician Qian, you’d better calm down. Right now, we need you and the environmental department to use your expertise to propose practical and effective measures to protect the people, not wallow in negative and pessimistic emotions.”
Hearing this, Academician Qian was stunned, then showed a look of shame: “I’m sorry, everyone. I… I just realized how terrifying this rule is and lost my composure. Please forgive me.”
Everyone said it was fine and tried to console him.
Academician Qian took a few deep breaths, steadied himself, and said, “First, since the rule mentions microplastics causing organ failure, it means the toxicity has been massively enhanced. But we need experiments to get precise data—that’ll help with quantitative analysis.”
Gao Liangwei operated his personal computer: “I’ll arrange for researchers to handle that right away. Go on.”
Academician Qian continued: “The reason we need to determine the toxic dose is that it directly relates to the most critical issue: food. Don’t forget, after the last earthquake rule, the external environment changed drastically. Large areas of soil became unsuitable for planting food, so most crops are now grown in greenhouse conditions. But the problem is, greenhouse materials are basically plastic!”
Everyone was taken aback.
Indeed, the film covering greenhouses is mainly made of polyethylene, which is itself a type of plastic.
With microplastic toxicity enhanced, it meant that from the moment this rule was released, existing greenhouse cultivation had to be halted, and the crops grown inside would have to be discarded.
“Then we’ll just distribute the previously stored grain this month!” someone said. “That food should be relatively safe.”
Academician Qian frowned: “The food might be safe, but were the containers storing it made of plastic? Could some microplastics have infiltrated? Those are all problems. But returning to my first point, we need to test exactly how much the toxicity has increased to determine which food can be kept and which must be discarded.”
Another head of the acquisitions department said, “I’ve already instructed my team to buy food on the terminal market.”
“Right! Food from the terminal market should be non-toxic and harmless!”
“But it’s expensive…” someone worried. “Not to mention how many food items are in the market, even if there were unlimited quantities, we don’t have enough Ascension Coins to buy enough for over six hundred million people for a month.”
“...”
A heavy silence fell.
According to March statistics, Beixing’s population was still at six hundred million, and the global countable population was around eight hundred million. That meant Beixing accounted for three-quarters of the world’s total.
The advantage of a large population was strength, but the disadvantage was many mouths to feed.
Although Beixing had long implemented a food distribution system, after the earthquake rule, with massive arable land loss, environmental pollution, and other factors, the food problem had become a major issue.
Now, with the new rule, microplastics would certainly contaminate large amounts of food. As Academician Qian said, food safety was paramount and couldn’t be taken lightly.
If they relied on the terminal market, even endless Ascension Coins wouldn’t be enough. Besides, once the rule was released, any Ascendant selling food items would quickly jack up prices or take them off the market for personal use.
“We can’t rely on item food.” Gao Liangwei stated. “And don’t be too pessimistic. Didn’t humans eat before plastic was widely used? Humans used pottery and metal vessels for thousands of years—we can still use them now.”
“The head is right! Depending on the situation, we can store some food in containers made of metal, glass, or ceramic, away from plastic containers. That would reduce microplastic contamination. Didn’t Academician Qian just say deep-sea fish aren’t contaminated? We could send ships to catch them and fill the food gap.”
Academician Qian nodded: “The housing issue also needs consideration. We must notify city shelters as soon as possible to remove all non-essential plastic items from indoors! That includes daily necessities—even toothbrushes and toothpaste should be thrown out, replaced with tooth powder applied by finger. Considering microplastic airborne transmission, ventilation filters and high-performance masks should also be prepared…”
Academician Qian felt exhausted just talking. Plastic products permeated every aspect of human life, woven into the fabric of society. Removing them from daily life was no easy task.
Then someone said hopefully, “Has the Administrator of Ascendant Home released any hidden intelligence on this rule?”
Everyone’s hearts lifted with anticipation.
Though, judging from past cases, Hidden Rules often came with negative aspects, it was all about trade-offs. If a small negative could resolve a major crisis, it would be worth it.
...
After the rule was released, Beixing wasn’t the only one hastily devising countermeasures. All countries in the Human Consortium held intense meetings.
Once internal discussions were complete, they would convene a Human Consortium meeting to share national decisions and discuss multilateral cooperation.
As for the general public, their first reactions to the rule’s release were roughly divided into two camps.
The Industrial faction and the Natural faction.
Shortly after the rule was announced, these two factions were locked in heated debate online.
Many in the Natural faction said: “This rule proves a long-held view of ours: humans should return to nature, to a pastoral life, and stop churning out industrial products. Those garbage items only poison the environment and destroy our home!”
The Industrial faction fiercely countered: “Without industry, how would you be posting online? You didn’t say that when you were enjoying the convenience. During the Nightmare Beast rule, without industrially made walls, you’d have turned into monsters!”
Natural faction: “The earthen walls we built in natural environments were enough to block that fog. We live naturally, eat naturally, and at most, we inhale a little microplastic from the air. Meanwhile, you city dwellers stuck in a plastic-filled environment—you’ll soon be harmed by the rule, right?”
Industrial faction: “Pfft! Do you think we’re all like you, wandering savages with no one in charge? Just wait—the authorities will roll out countermeasures soon. Then we’ll get healthy food and reduce microplastic harm!”
The two sides went back and forth, locked in verbal battle.
Some people, rather than joining the argument, focused more on the rule’s note.
“Did you all see what the Fire Thief mentioned in the note? ‘Star Sea Court’? My god, that means there really is some kind of civilization alliance in the universe!”
“Is that worth making a big fuss over? We already said as much during the alien spores rule…”
“The note during the spore rule only mentioned spores being a universal bestseller. Now we have a clearly existing ‘Star Sea Court’! I really want to see what that court looks like! And what image would the judge have?”
“Could it be humans from another planet or star system?”
“Unlikely… Statistically, the emergence of humans is already a miracle among miracles. Another planet having humans would be too absurd…”
“If you ask me, that court is useless, or maybe it can’t reach our galaxy. Otherwise, why would it ignore us?”
“Exactly. If I were the judge, I’d sentence the Fire Thief to death! That bastard has wrecked us all!”
“You guys sure have wild imaginations. We can’t even save ourselves, and you’re thinking about that. Let’s get through this immediate crisis first…”