Chapter 448 - 401: Spreading Fear

Chapter 448: Chapter 401: Spreading Fear

"Game on, game on!"

In a North Star shelter, a young man woke up one morning. After eating his rationed food, he sat down in front of his computer.

He picked up his controller, ready for today’s grueling battle.

The young man was very happy after this Rule was announced.

He liked this kind of low-danger, survival-type Rule. As long as he stayed inside the shelter, he didn’t have to worry about getting hurt.

The Rule Stage would last a month. Spending every day playing games in the shelter was quite comfortable.

What’s more, a new and highly anticipated game was being released today.

Since the dawn of the Apocalypse Rules era, the entertainment industry had been in shambles. No one was producing new content, so people just consumed old media. Even classic games, movies, and TV shows grew tiresome after being replayed and rewatched countless times.

But recently, the government proposed a plan to develop the entertainment industry. They not only personally produced variety shows, with *Decisive Ascender* leading the charge, but also approved special salaries of Sublimation Coins for creators. As a result, some Ascenders slowly began to get involved in making new content.

As for the ordinary people who made up over 80% of the population, they had no need for Sublimation Coins, so the only way to incentivize them was with gold.

Most countries in the world now operated on a dual-currency system: Ascenders traded with Sublimation Coins, while ordinary people used gold.

Ascenders used to accept gold, but now they almost exclusively demanded Sublimation Coins.

As time passed, they came to realize more and more that for Ascenders, the most important thing was always Psychic Power, followed by Sublimation Coins.

What the young man was looking forward to right now was the fruit of the government’s development support—a new masterpiece co-developed by several Ascenders and ordinary people, an FPS game called *Apocalypse Frenzy*.

The game’s content was very straightforward. Players would take on the role of armed squad members to fight against the villainous organization led by the "Fire Thief."

This wasn’t just an allusion; it was a direct copy of the real world. The only change was that humans were no longer powerless against the Fire Thief.

This modification was very necessary. People had had enough of the Fire Thief’s abuse in reality, and they didn’t want to suffer it again in a game. Even knowing it was fake, being able to put a bullet in the Fire Thief’s head in-game would be satisfying enough.

"The download is live!"

The young man, timing it perfectly, immediately downloaded the game.

The shelter’s internet speed was extremely fast. The game downloaded successfully in no time and a notification indicated that a temporary update had been completed.

The young man paid no mind to the "temporary update" notification and eagerly launched the game.

The screen went black, and then a large icon appeared.

A mottled sphere, glowing with a crimson halo, floated silently in the center of the screen.

In the first second, the young man thought, ’Is this the game developer’s logo?’

In the second, he thought, ’No, that’s not right. Games are free now, and the concept of companies is gone. What’s the point of a logo? Is it a cutscene? But why isn’t it moving?’

When the third second hit, his thoughts were replaced by a series of rapidly changing, terrifyingly realistic images that flooded his mind.

The time he slipped while climbing a tree as a kid, his body plummeting to the ground!

Hiding under the covers in fear after reading a ghost story, a huge, bloody hand suddenly ripped the blanket away, a ghoulish face shoved right in front of his!

His parents arguing over trivial matters, suddenly rushing to the kitchen, grabbing knives, and hacking at each other, before finally turning on the child together!

"AHHH! AHHHHHHHH!"

The young man’s terrified screams soon echoed throughout the entire shelter.

When the others arrived, what they saw was a face slumped sideways on the computer desk, eyes bulging and features twisted in horror.

"What happened?!"

"Look at his computer screen! That’s—"

"Don’t look!!"

"Everyone, get back!"

One of the shelter’s managers grabbed an iron rod and smashed it into the monitor.

CRACK! CRUNCH!

With one strike, the monitor shattered, and the image on it flickered before disappearing completely.

"Hah, hah..."

The manager glanced at the young man, who was slumped over the desk, dead with his eyes wide open, and roared in anger, "Shortly after the Rule was announced, I told all of you not to go online and not to look at pictures people send! Do you have no memory?!"

According to the hidden intelligence released by the government: during the Rule Stage, besides looking directly at Crimson Terra, viewing its image, refraction, reflection, or other representations would all subject a person to the power of Crimson Fear.

Therefore, to prevent some malicious people from deliberately spreading videos or images of Crimson Terra, the governments of all nations had warned their citizens that it was best not to go online and to only view local content.

A direct, government-level internet shutdown was not realistic. The "Digital Detox" Rule Stage had caused massive disruption to human society, forcing many important production jobs to halt. Besides, a voluntary, human-led internet shutdown would never be as absolute as one enforced by a Rule.

Thus, the government recommended that if people absolutely had to go online, they should stick to legitimate websites. They were warned against visiting small, unregulated sites or illegal ones. More importantly, they were told not to casually chat with strangers online or accept files from them, because you never knew if they might send you an image of Crimson Terra.

"He said a new game was coming out today and he wanted to play it..." said the dead young man’s roommate, still shaken.

"But, but it was just a single-player game. We thought it would be fine... But why would a single-player game have... have a picture of Crimson Terra?"

The manager’s expression changed in alarm upon hearing this. "This is bad! Someone put its picture in a game released today! I have to report this to the higher-ups immediately!"

At the same time, a large number of players who had been highly anticipating *Apocalypse Frenzy* and chose to download it the moment it was released, were all caught off guard by the ultra-high-definition photo of Crimson Terra that appeared on the game’s launch screen.

Some fainted, had stress reactions, or died on the spot. Others, in their extreme terror, fell into a frenzy and began indiscriminately attacking those around them.

Only a very small number of people with extremely fast reflexes managed to look away and destroy their screens in the first second, preventing the fear effect from taking hold.

But this "very small number" was far too small.

At least several million players worldwide were affected, and immense chaos erupted in various places.

...

「March 4th, Sakura Prayer Banzhen City.」

Guan Tong and Shangyuan Zi met outside the administrative building.

After Suzuki’s funeral, Guan Tong had returned to North Star, while she had remained in Sakura Prayer to investigate.

Although the two kept in touch by phone, Guan Tong felt it was still better to meet in person periodically.

"Your... condition has worsened?"

Guan Tong looked at Shangyuan Zi, who was wearing a tight-fitting mask. She hadn’t worn a mask when they met alone before. This could only mean the scales had spread further up her face.

"Yes, they’ve reached my upper cheeks," Shangyuan Zi said.

"Do you feel any discomfort?"

"No. On the contrary, the natural growth rate of my Psychic Power limit has increased. I also seem to be getting a grasp on the ability that Mizusawa Chun once possessed."

His companion was getting stronger, which should have been a good thing.

But Guan Tong wasn’t particularly happy, because the price of Shangyuan Zi’s growing power was obvious.

If she continued on like this, sooner or later she would be covered in scales from head to toe. When that happened, she wouldn’t even be able to show her true face to people.

"Don’t worry about me," Shangyuan Zi said. "I’ve uncovered some intelligence in the past few days."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Do you remember when Mizusawa Chun wanted to deal with you, she first had Suzuki use her ability to create a Profile of you? The goal was to find you and simultaneously Profile your abilities."

Guan Tong nodded. Of course he remembered.

"That wasn’t the first time she Profiled you," Shangyuan Zi said. "While I was investigating the Sakura Prayer Public Security Bureau’s archives, I discovered that before Mizusawa Chun, there was a major bombing in Antu City that destroyed half a street. Suzuki was working for the Antu Public Security Bureau back then. The chief ordered an investigation into the incident, and she Profiled the scene once, becoming aware of your existence."

Guan Tong recalled that battle. "The Antu bombing... it was caused by a guy named Wu Wang. His ability was Detonating Metal. He tried to take me down with him but failed. Is there a connection?"

Shangyuan Zi said, "The intelligence I found is that the files related to Suzuki’s two Profiles of you were accessed by an anonymous party some time ago."

"Someone accessed them?" Guan Tong’s heart skipped a beat. "You mean..."

"It’s possible someone wants to use her to get to you," Shangyuan Zi said. "Whoever it is, they must be very powerful. They can anonymously access the Sakura Prayer Public Security Bureau’s archives, and they can also operate in North Star and find the detox center where Suzuki was staying."

Guan Tong’s brow furrowed. When she mentioned "very powerful," a name flashed through his mind.

Jiang Lanying.

When she was alive, she was undoubtedly immensely powerful. When she turned traitor, she still had several Death Warriors following her, and she even hired Lucifer as her extraction.

However, that power had long since vanished with her death.

The moment she died, all personnel associated with her would naturally have been purged.

’Then who could be after me?’

"Did you think of anyone?" Shangyuan Zi asked.

Guan Tong shook his head. "No one comes to mind. But I don’t think it has anything to do with the Strategy Research Room."

He was currently in a close, mutually beneficial partnership with the Strategy Research Room. The Room had no reason to move against him; doing so would only be a lose-lose situation.

"Then you need to be careful. A spear in the open is easy to dodge, but an arrow in the dark is hard to defend against."

"The one who should be careful is the person behind the scenes," Guan Tong said. "Sooner or later, I’ll drag them out and repay blood with blood."

Shangyuan Zi nodded. "I’ll stay in Sakura Prayer to continue the investigation until I go to Fahe late this month."

"Okay."

Guan Tong had already mentioned to Shangyuan Zi that he was going to Fahe to deal with the Fire Worship Cult, and she had insisted on coming along after hearing about it.

After some consideration, Guan Tong agreed. However, he didn’t plan to have Shangyuan Zi join the Human Federation’s joint operations team, but rather to have her act independently as support.

This way, if something went wrong with the joint operations team, she could avoid getting caught up in it and could also provide outside assistance.

Just then, Shangyuan Zi’s phone rang. She picked it up and looked. "It’s Yoshino."

She answered the call. "Chief Yoshino, what is it?"

After hearing what was said on the other end, Shangyuan Zi quickly hung up and looked at Guan Tong. "Something’s happened. Someone is mass-distributing images of Crimson Terra."