Article 19: Apocalypse Rules Symposium |
The nineteenth Doomsday Rule symposium was in full swing.
Little Grass: “Day four’s discussion, let’s begin now!”
Dialoguer (smiling): “Yes, children, I’m back.”
Everyone: “…”
Guan Tong (serious face): “Should I devour this alien intelligence?”
Adam: “I have no objections.”
Silver Fox: “I have no objections either.”
Dialoguer: “I came to attend the meeting, what are you planning to do?”
Little Grass: “Hey, hold up, let’s just talk about the plot.”
Mary: “Pay back the money you extorted first before saying that!”
Gao Liangwei & Torafuto: “Agreed.”
Scarface: “Uh… Just a few million, a drop in the bucket for you folks.”
Han Qiu: “As everyone knows, villains in various works usually come in groups of three. As one of our villain groups, you shouldn’t be offlined that early.”
Little Grass: “??? Villain trio? What the hell is this, and how come I didn’t know?”
Your Holiness: “Looks like this group is me, Han Qiu, and Scarface, the three of us.”
Adam (jerking his chin toward Bruce): “I think you’re forgetting a heavyweight figure.”
Scarface (smile freezing): “…”
Han Qiu (unfazed): “As everyone knows, a trio is usually four people.”
Bruce (crossing his arms with a dark, disdainful look): “Don’t lump me in with you. A true villain never deigns to walk with sheep and cattle.”
Your Holiness: “Scarface, see, problem solved. Someone’s voluntarily dropped out of the trio competition.”
Scarface: “Good!”
Little Grass (with a face full of black lines): “Hey, you guys, did I give permission for you to form a group?!”
Guan Tong (arms crossed): “Don’t worry, I’ll take action.”
Yelanka (star-eyed): “I, the ice magic swordsman, will be on support duty!”
Zhang Minglu: “Hyah! Every crime will eventually be brought to justice!”
Little Grass (rubbing forehead): “…That’s enough. I’ll have to do the summary. Ahem, like I said in the last meeting, we need to control the length of each Rule going forward, unless there’s important main plot—no more wasting dozens of chapters on a single Rule. This Rule is 17 chapters, not too long, not too short, just right. With two updates a day, it’ll take about a week to finish one Rule!”
Guan Tong: “That’s roughly the idea, but you’ve also dug a whole bunch of new pits. Things like the quota for passing, the Fire Thief being neither a program nor an intelligence, the mystery of Dialoguer’s human suit, why Dialoguer became a Rule entity, the suspected hallucination of Mars as a new planet, Meltstar… I can’t even count them all.”
Everyone (nodding in unison): “That’s right.”
Little Grass: “Well… digging pits is digging pits, but I’m also filling them in! For example, the pit about Tianshui Star’s missing matter that I dug before, the pit about why some people’s Mind Power increased so fast, the half-pit about the Eden Project… digging and filling, that’s how you advance the plot!”
Yelanka: “Mhm, I strongly agree!”
Sigaochin: “You only ‘strongly agree’ because you unlocked a new skin in this Rule…”
Yelanka: “…”
Silver Fox (resting her chin on her hand): “I’m wondering why the skin Yelanka unlocked is a green dress?”
Guan Tong: “Just look at someone’s name and you’ll know.”
Little Grass (alert): “What do you mean?”
Guan Tong (shrugging): “Grass green, grass green.”
Everyone: “…”
Little Grass (smiling): “Don’t think you can be arrogant just because you’re the protagonist. Heaven’s justice is always watching!”
Fire Thief (voice echoing in everyone’s mind): “Someone thinking about me?”
Everyone: “!!!”
Little Grass: “Mom, it’s a ghost! Meeting adjourned, adjourned!”
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