Chapter 470: The Twentieth Doomsday Rule |
June 10, 8:30 a.m.
Half an hour remained until the new Doomsday Rule would be announced, and survivors around the world were suffering in anxious anticipation.
Anything left unresolved breeds anxiety, even if the pending matter is ultimately good. For example, if someone wins fifty million on a lottery, the time between confirming the win and finally seeing the money land in their bank account is bound to be nerve-racking.
But the Doomsday Rule release day ratchets that anxiety to the absolute limit. For humanity, a Doomsday Rule is never “good”; it’s just less bad or worse.
So people now only hoped the Fire Thief would issue fewer survival-type rules. If another rule like Digital Detox appeared, they’d pop champagne in celebration.
Yet the short interval after the last rule did not pass as smoothly as imagined.
Over the past few days on Ascendant Home’s forum, many people had posted that those around them had been affected by the Dialoguer’s quota theory and had turned increasingly hostile.
The typical descriptions in those posts said these people looked at everyone with extreme vigilance, even roommates in shelters — as if everyone nearby were competitors for clearance slots.
In severe cases it wasn’t just attitude: fights broke out, even poisonings occurred. After their momentary rage, the perpetrators inevitably paid serious consequences.
Even though governments tried to eliminate these influences, society slowly and continuously split apart.
A popular forum thread classified the population.
Official divisions labeled people only as Ascendants or ordinary humans.
The thread’s author subdivided further: living dead (affected by Five Senses Elimination), parasitized forms (affected by Outland Parasitism), the Truth-Bound (affected by The Liar’s Self-Punishment), plastic people (affected by Microplastic Infestation), and clearance candidates.
That last group, “clearance candidates,” was the author’s own list, naming several world-famous Ascendants believed to be strong contenders for the clearance spots.
At the end of the post the author wrote: “As long as I’m alive, I will keep tracking the Ascendants on this list and update their status based on survivability reports.”
A commenter replied: “Don’t worry. If you die while compiling the list, I’ll take over your work and keep tallying.”
Others condemned the list as harmful, firing back angrily: “Just keep it to the official division of ordinary people and Ascendants. Why subdivide? The more categories you create, the more division you cause. It’s like saying there are two genders but then insisting on a dozen extra gender-tags — it’s just asking for trouble!”
More comments flew back and forth, sharp as blades. Guan Tong shook his head repeatedly and closed the site.
He had been taking a break from work to surf the web before the new rule release, hoping for any important intel. There wasn’t much; the platform was full of arguments.
“Even if the planet were about to explode, many people would probably still be arguing online in the last moments,” he muttered.
Guan Tong stood and went outside.
The rest of the troupe weren’t around. That was normal; there was no rule in the organization requiring every member to be together when a new rule released.
He opened his Terminal Panel. After more than a month, his data had grown significantly since early May.
[Name: Guan Tong]
[Nickname: Shadow]
[Title: Intermediate Civilization Observer]
[Mind Power: 1310 (1310) (1,186,800)]
[Ascension Coins: 3,120,100]
[Overall Biometric Rating: Perfect]
....
What stood out most wasn’t the Mind Power upper limit, but the amount of reserve Mind Power.
Since early May, Guan Tong had been dumping 200,000 Mind Power daily into buying flowable Mind Power and supporting Uenoshi’s Serpent Hair Society construction.
Now, a month later, his reserve Mind Power had again surpassed the million mark. With his 1,310-point upper limit, his reserves equaled 905 times his personal cap.
It looked like a single person, but he could mobilize the force of almost a thousand versions of himself — a hopeless prospect for any enemy.
Of course, such rapid growth came at the cost of Ascension Coins flowing out like water.
Even with Guan Tong taking high-paying jobs and selling expensive intelligence, he had only three million Ascension Coins left. At his current spending rate of 200,000 per day, those three million would be gone before the month’s end.
So he faced two choices: increase income and tighten spending, or sharply cut back on purchasing flowable Mind Power.
“...When the new rule releases, check the Hidden Rule first. If it’s sellable, sell it — that should bring in a few million and get me through June,” Guan Tong thought, taking the Wordless Book from his inventory and holding it.
He flipped to page seven; there sat the lonely character for “anchor.”
After creating the Mind Stability Anchor totem with it, he hadn’t deeply developed anything else from that page. Mainly, he lacked time, since he was focused on developing Shadow, with Shadow Domain as a supplement.
He turned to page eight and stared at the blank page. He couldn’t help wondering, “When will I be able to put pen to this page?”
Only after his Mind Power upper limit surpassed one thousand and entered the Second Stage of Ascension could he inscribe on page seven. From a 1,000 cap to the present 1,300, he had tried several times and still couldn’t write on page eight.
This matched his judgment: each successive page of the Wordless Book required a much higher Mind Power cap to activate. He estimated page eight would require at least a thousand more points, possibly even up to a 2,000-point cap.
Two thousand! In the past, Guan Tong would have thought that number an utter fantasy — how could he ever reach it?
But time changes things.
With steady, incremental growth over time, the rate of Mind Power cap increase accelerates. That once-unreachable number no longer felt so distant.
At his current gain of three points per day, a 700-point gap would need over two hundred days to close. But the speed will likely increase, since three per day was only his current rate — visibly set to rise.
It wasn’t just him. Other top Ascendants entering the Second Stage of Ascension would also accelerate their growth.
One couldn’t rule out that someone like Yelanka, backed by national faith power and favorable conditions, could overtake others by taking a curve and surpassing them.
“And then there are children like Adam’s daughter... second-generation Ascendants.”
Even now, the thought of Adam’s daughter being born with a base Mind Power upper limit over 200 still amazed Guan Tong. That kid didn’t just have a head start; to be blunt, they were almost at the finish line at birth.
When he and Shi Jingyi had discussed the Eden Project initially, both had thought it unlikely: infants are mentally immature; what could they accomplish?
Now his thinking had changed — drastically.
Mind Power amplifies physical constitution across the board; that’s accepted worldwide.
So a child born with a base Mind Power cap above 200 will develop intelligence and cognition far faster than an ordinary child.
Some gifted ordinary children can speak simple words before age one and recite poems by age two... what level of early development could a genius among second-generation Ascendants reach?
Guan Tong couldn’t help thinking: “Adam’s daughter might actually become some kind of demonic prodigy.”
No wonder Adam worried about his daughter being brainwashed and rushed to rescue her. A blank-slate super genius raised by someone with Bruce’s character — molded into a little Bruce — would be a disaster.
Second-generation Ascendants weren’t limited to Adam’s child. Eden Island likely had many newborns in that category. Other countries, including Beixing, certainly had some too, though the oldest among them were still under three and hidden from public view.
[The Twentieth Doomsday Rule Has Been Released]
While Guan Tong still thought about second-generation Ascendants, he missed the clock striking nine and the Fire Thief’s voice sounded on time.
[The Twentieth Doomsday Rule Has Been Released]
[Doomsday Rule Twenty: A Bright Moon Rises Over the Sea]
[Rule content: Twenty-four hours after the rule release, a glowing gravitational sphere will slowly rise vertically from the deep sea bed in the central Lanyang Ocean, and over thirty days it will ascend to its highest point. Preventing this sphere from reaching its highest point is humanity’s trial; otherwise humanity fails. This rule lasts 20 days.]
[Success reward: 2,000 Ascension Coins]
[Failure penalty: Mind Power upper limit decay]
[Note: The poem reads, “A bright moon rises over the sea; we share this moment across the ends of the earth.”]
“What?!”
Guan Tong jumped up in shock when he saw the rule, his expression frozen.
His attention focused not primarily on the rule’s content but on the note.
Why would the Fire Thief annotate it as a “poem reads”? Although one character was altered — swapping a character to change life to rise — it was plainly a poem from Earth, his old home...
.......
“A bright moon rises over the sea; we share this moment across the ends of the earth.”
Countermeasures Research Office in Beixing, rule discussion meeting.
Zhang Minglu repeated the note, chewing over its implications.
“The first half is straightforward, but does the second half have a deeper meaning?”
“That’s not the point!” The physics expert in the conference room looked frantic. “The glowing sphere referenced in the rule carries gravity! If its mass is large enough, the gravitational tide it creates will... will cause unimaginable disaster!”
The geographer frowned and added, “And that ‘bright moon’ is located in the Lanyang Ocean, which is currently the world’s busiest transoceanic shipping lane. Beixing and Suroma route most of their material transport through that channel. If the lane is blocked by this rule, many large construction projects will be forced to suspend.”
“What’s a shipping lane compared to this?” The physics expert raised his voice. “If that rising ‘bright moon’ has enough gravity, the resulting tsunami is one danger. It will also act like a giant mixing paddle, forcibly disrupting ocean currents, causing shifts in coastal climate zones. Maybe it’ll change summer weather so drastically people freeze solid! Or boiling seawater might surge inland and cook people alive!”
“Is that really so exaggerated?” someone asked skeptically. “The failure penalty is Mind Power upper limit decay, so it’s not a survival-class rule.”
“No.” Zhang Minglu spoke up. “Survival-class rules, strictly speaking, affect all humanity; if the challenge fails, everyone dies. But some rules only affect part of the human population. If those fail, only the affected regions suffer fatalities.”
“Yes.” Li Meng added. “In this rule, if humans can’t stop that ‘bright moon’ from reaching its apex, perhaps only people living on the continental coasts near that ocean will be in mortal danger. Those far from that continent might only experience Mind Power cap decay.”
“Beixing and Suroma both border the Lanyang Ocean,” the geography expert said.
......
Silence filled the room.
Gao Liangwei then spoke solemnly: “For this rule, the Human Consortium must cooperate fully. We cannot allow that ‘bright moon’ to reach its apex. Also, all departments must prepare defenses against tsunamis and related disasters.”
“The Earth Dragon Rolls Over rule caused mass populations to move away from coastlines into higher-altitude cities. The immediate urgency now is the large number of ships at port; they must be moved to safe waters quickly,” Gao Liangwei said.
He continued: “The ‘bright moon’ will only appear and start rising in 24 hours. We have one precious day.”
He paused and added, “As for how to prevent the ‘bright moon’ from rising...”
The physics expert, having calmed, offered a suggestion: “From the rule wording, the ‘bright moon’ will continuously rise and reach its apex in thirty days, meaning its gravity will strengthen over time. That implies its mass increases over time... I think if we want to stop it, we must strike as early as possible!”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
It was like beating a pig by hand: it’s far easier to beat a pig when it’s a piglet weighing a few kilograms than when it’s market-ready at a hundred kilos. In the former, a human can thrash the pig; in the latter, the pig might thrash the human.
The rule followed the same logic. The consensus held that the best chance to stop the “bright moon” would be the moment it first appears — when it’s weakest. Every day, every second of delay would only make it stronger.
“I will notify the highest decision-making body to prepare high-destruction weapons,” Gao Liangwei said, glancing at Zhang Minglu. “Dr. Zhang, prepare to assemble an Ascendant action team. If Mind Power attacks are the only way to damage the ‘bright moon,’ your action team will be critical.”
“Yes!” Zhang Minglu stood. “I’ll go immediately.”
Gao Liangwei likewise rose. “I will go to the Human Consortium meeting now to finalize cooperative measures. Time is tight; everyone get to work.”