Chapter 436: Hidden Rule Eighteen |
In Yunhua City, inside the lobby of an abandoned shopping mall, Guan Tong and Uenoshi were waiting.
Throughout the entire Interval Period since the previous rule, they had been combing Yunhua City for any trace of Wei Huo. Guan Tong’s Shadow had practically run through every block and every underground shelter in the city, yet they found nothing, which made him doubt whether Moon Key’s prophecy had been wrong.
Still, he hadn’t left — he planned to wait a little longer.
Now that the new rule had been announced, Guan Tong and Uenoshi exchanged a glance.
They didn’t, like many others, immediately strip off their clothing the moment the rule dropped. Neither of them was wearing anything made of plastic.
From the inside out, every layer Guan Tong wore, even his outermost trench coat, was a Mind Power item — not ordinary clothing at all.
Uenoshi was even more extreme. The scales covering her body could serve as “clothing” by themselves; after all, clothing’s basic functions are warmth and coverage, both of which her scales provided. But she wasn’t at the point of strolling around flaunting her scales everywhere, so she still wore a lightweight latex suit on top.
Latex, being a natural material, fortunately contained no plastic.
“Let’s get out of here first,” Guan Tong said, “there’s too much plastic in this mall.”
Guan Tong led Uenoshi to a wide open area, then summoned the Wordless Book shelter.
Uenoshi looked at the two-story building that appeared and was a little surprised. “It seems different now.”
As a core member of Guan Tong’s organization, Uenoshi knew he had such a shelter tool; she had entered it once before, but that time the shelter was only a single story, not the two-story house it had become.
“That’s right, this shelter can be modified. Now the outside air contains microplastics as well, so let’s go inside first.”
They entered the shelter. Guan Tong took a few breaths. “The shelter is generated by Mind Power, so the air inside should be clean. Even if some outside air comes in when people go in and out, the impact won’t be large.”
Uenoshi nodded. “It’ll be very safe to stay in here.”
A shelter like Guan Tong’s was a specialized countermeasure against environmental pollution rules. During the Blood Plague outbreak last time, he didn’t leave home at all and passed through that rule with zero risk.
With this rule raising microplastic toxicity, he could handle it the same way as before. But unlike last time, he was tied up with many matters now; staying inside the shelter for a full month didn’t seem realistic.
While Uenoshi examined the shelter’s new features, Guan Tong opened the terminal panel and checked the Hidden Rule for this announcement.
[Hidden Rule Eighteen: Symbiotic Scavenger]
[Hidden Rule Details: During the Rule Period, actively injecting high-density microplastics into the body carries a 50% chance of causing some cells to become bound with microplastics, triggering a plastification reaction. This reaction alters physiological functions, conferring immunity to and the ability to purify and absorb microplastics entering the body. Once the plastification reaction occurs, reproductive capability will be permanently lost.]
[Note: Star-sea pollutant ratings are determined by purification difficulty. In the universe, there are multiple ways to handle radioactive dust; purification difficulty is far lower than for microplastics. When microplastics can practically only be biodegraded — are humans prepared to become ‘microplastic scavengers’?]
Reading the Hidden Rule made Guan Tong feel a chill.
What shocked him was not the fifty-percent conversion probability, nor merely the content of the Hidden Rule itself, but the information in the note.
“Microplastic scavenger” — it practically read like the Fire Thief labeling humanity’s role under this rule.
That became clear from the detail that, after a successful plastification reaction, humans would lose the ability to reproduce forever.
Although reproducers were already rare in the Doomsday Rules era, that rarity had been a choice born of “love.” Which parent would want to bring a child into such a horrific age?
Given the current rotation of Doomsday Rules, people believed there were at most three years left before all forty-nine rules cycled through. Many thought in terms of gritting their teeth and surviving those three years; if they were still alive afterward, they could reproduce. If they didn’t make it, or if humanity went extinct, then whether to have children would be irrelevant.
So a Hidden Rule that imposes “permanent loss of fertility” was absolutely not a cost the general public could accept lightly.
But billions of people with differing thoughts existed across the world. Perhaps many would accept survival at any cost and willingly give up fertility. Perhaps many simply didn’t want children even in peacetime, so the cost would be bearable to them.
Therefore he should release this intelligence to the public, to give those willing to accept the cost another option.
Guan Tong sat at a computer and logged into Ascendant Home, posting a new thread in the Administrator’s Domain.
“For Sale: Confidential Intelligence Related to Rule Eighteen”
Details: Intelligence price 500,000 Ascension Coins, not delivered instantly, disclosure in one hour.
The price matched the last time. Within a minute of posting, a few clients privately messaged him. The number matched the previous sale exactly — eight buyers, no more, no less.
Guan Tong took in four million Ascension Coins from the sale, and with the six million-plus he already had, his total Ascension Coins crossed ten million for the first time.
He felt none of the imagined excitement or elation. If this had happened early on, he might’ve been ecstatic.
But now, ten million Ascension Coins was about equivalent to ten million Flowable Mind Power, which when converted into reserve Mind Power became two hundred thousand — not even as much as the three days’ total the Beixing government had fed him before.
Masses have power — that was the principle.
Beixing now encompassed three-quarters of the world’s population. Even if only tens of millions among six hundred million people were Ascendants, their coordinated force would be terrifying.
Still...
Guan Tong thought, “This new rule is a huge threat for Beixing. With so many people, most ordinary, the consequences if food and water are contaminated would be disastrous.”
At that moment Uenoshi came downstairs from the second floor and said, “Troupe Leader, since Black Star and the others are already members, should we let them stay in the shelter to avoid microplastic exposure?”
Guan Tong closed the computer, considered, and said, “Yes.”
This shelter had initially been created to counter rules. After he founded the Trace Origin Travel Troupe, he planned to use it as the organization’s mobile base.
As a mobile base, every member joining the organization had the right to know about it and to use it to hide from rule harm — though each person’s privacy still needed to be respected.
Uenoshi seemed well aware of this and volunteered, “Since it’s divided into two floors, we can split it into two spaces. Troupe Leader uses one, the members use the other. I think an organization should have that sense of boundary.”
Guan Tong nodded. “Then I’ll move to the second floor and the members can use the first floor.”
After moving his computer and other items upstairs, he made a video call to Black Star.
“Troupe Leader?” Black Star answered, addressing Guan Tong just as Uenoshi had.
“The new rule’s out... where are you?”
On the video, Black Star was sitting in a vehicle. His sister White Star sat beside him.
“We’re heading to a shelter!” Black Star said. “Once the rule came out, the bar was no place to stay; too many plastic objects. White Star and I plan to get Aaron out of the city and find somewhere sparsely populated to spend this month.”
Fewer people meant fewer man-made objects and thus less plastic — the most straightforward countermeasure. But since microplastics can travel through the air, only places like the Antarctic, historically scarcely trodden by humans, would be truly safe.
“Come here,” Guan Tong said. “I have a shelter formed by Mind Power that can effectively block outside microplastics.”
“Really?!” White Star exclaimed.
“That’s perfect, Troupe Leader!” White Star moved forward to thank him. “Where are you now? Is it far from us?”
“It’s far. You’ll need to use a teleportation-type item. I’ll send you the coordinates.”
Guan Tong sent the shelter coordinates. Soon a teleportation glow appeared.
Black Star, White Star, and the boy Aaron in their arms materialized, and the first thing they saw was Guan Tong wearing a high-grade filtration mask.
“Let’s go.”
He led the three into the shelter. White Star examined the interior, her face full of astonishment. “This house is formed by Mind Power? It has its own electricity and water source — this is incredible... Troupe Leader, a tool like this must be outrageously expensive, right?”
Black Star snorted. “White Star, don’t ask everything.”
“I’m just curious...”
“As expensive as it may be, this kind of tool can’t be bought on the market. It’s priceless.”
As a top broker, Black Star understood how rare such an item was better than White Star did.
If the collective teleportation tool they had just used was expensive, compared to this shelter it was nothing.
“How’s your brother doing?” Guan Tong removed his mask and asked. “He still hasn’t woken?”
Half a month earlier, Guan Tong and Shi Jingyi had cooperated on treatment. At that time the boy had shown a slight eyelid movement, but after half a month he remained unconscious.
“Maybe he still needs more time,” White Star said. “Though recently his limbs twitch occasionally. He should wake during this Rule Period!”
“That’s good. Then you can stay here for the rule.”
Uenoshi added, “The second floor will be the troupe leader’s room. You can use the bedrooms on the first floor, I’ll stay in the living room.”
Black Star and White Star shook their heads. Black Star smiled, “We can’t make the deputy leader stay in the living room — we’ll stay in the living room!”
Uenoshi looked puzzled at being called deputy leader. Since when had she become the deputy leader?
“That’s fine, we’ll stay in the living room. It’ll be more convenient to look after Aaron. Deputy leader, don’t be shy,” White Star added.
Guan Tong thought back to when the organization had only been him and Uenoshi — a leader and a member. Now that more people had joined, making her deputy leader wasn’t a problem.
“All right then,” he told Uenoshi. “Don’t be shy.”
Uenoshi accepted her “deputy leader” role and nodded indifferently. “Fine.”
After they settled Aaron, Black Star and White Star took out some supplies.
Black Star opened a large suitcase packed with metal canned food. “When this rule dropped we knew normal food would be contaminated, so we only brought this kind of metal can. These cans contain no plastic and have strong seals, so they should be fine.”
“Good.” Guan Tong nodded. “I also have some metal canned food. We can drink the shelter’s tap water directly; it won’t be contaminated.”
Black Star’s mind lit up. “Troupe Leader, the water produced by your shelter is absolutely clean. Couldn’t we bottle it and sell it? Rich people would fight over it!”
White Star showed displeasure. “That’s not very right... And brother, didn’t we agree that after Aaron’s cured we would stop being middlemen? Aaron will wake soon, and we’ve joined the troupe, so stop always thinking about making money!”
Black Star was taken aback and scratched his curly hair embarrassedly. “It’s true. Occupational habit — whenever I see a good deal I get greedy.”
Their exchange made Guan Tong thoughtful.
“They’re right. The shelter’s water is clean. If microplastics severely contaminate external water sources, we could bottle the shelter’s water in non-plastic containers and distribute it to help others. But whether to actually do this, and how to handle toxicity and logistics — that requires more study and discussion.”
Black Star and White Star exchanged glances and nodded. Uenoshi supported Guan Tong’s idea as well.
Food wasn’t a major issue for Ascendants like them, because Mind Power could transform bodily endurance. Guan Tong had reached the second phase; Uenoshi, Black Star, and White Star could all go three days without food without major problems.
Ordinary people, however, needed at least one meal a day. Food problems would hit the largest population group the hardest.
Guan Tong had previously told Uenoshi that once they finished their matters in Yunhua they would hold an organizational meeting. Although their Yunhua tasks were not yet complete, the members were all present, so there was no point waiting.
The four sat in the living room and Guan Tong got straight to the point: “Our organization is called the Trace Origin Travel Troupe. Our goal is to investigate the Fire Thief, Doomsday Rules, and the secrets behind them. To do that, we must first guarantee our survival, to live through each rule.”
The three listened silently with serious expressions. From Guan Tong’s tone they could tell the organization wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing; it had long-term goals and planning.
“I’m sure you all know how fragile human life is in the Doomsday Rules era. So we need to protect each other and be lights that guide one another. As troupe leader, I will do my utmost to ensure every member survives the rules. Likewise, every member must do everything they can for the survival of others. This is the troupe’s first and most important rule: Be each other’s light; watch over and assist one another.”
“Be each other’s light; watch over and assist one another.” Although unspoken before, all three repeated the rule Guan Tong set.
He continued, “Next, every member must never forget the troupe’s founding goal: to keep seeking the secrets behind the rules. So the second rule is: Trace to the source, pursue the truth.”
They spoke it in unison: “Trace to the source, pursue the truth.”
“Third rule.” Guan Tong’s tone turned suddenly severe. “The first two rules — mutual protection and pursuit of truth — are founded on our trust and ideals. Trust and ideals are precious and must not be desecrated. Therefore the third rule is: Those who betray us will face total annihilation!”
The three felt a jolt in their hearts, sensing the finality in Guan Tong’s words. They had no doubt that anyone who betrayed or sold out the troupe would be hunted by him without end.
“Those who betray us will face total annihilation!”