Chapter 451 - 404: The Appointed Time and Place

Chapter 451: Chapter 404: The Appointed Time and Place

Guan Tong stood at the entrance of the shelter, holding the [Wordless Book].

"Retract."

The book’s pages closed, and the shelter before him vanished without a trace.

He hadn’t retracted the shelter since summoning it in Pinglu Valley upon his return from Sakura Prayer.

Now, he needed to test whether the shelter had changed after his Psychic Power limit broke the one-thousand mark.

After retracting the shelter into the pages of the book, he converted another one thousand reserve Psychic Power into Flowing Psychic Power... He had no choice. The previous thousand had already been used to generate Silver Hunter’s No. 6 missile.

Fortunately, he could acquire a large amount of Flowing Psychic Power for conversion every day. Otherwise, his daily consumption alone was substantial, to say nothing of conducting such frequent and intensive experiments.

He infused one thousand Psychic Power into the fourth page of the [Wordless Book].

Amid a brilliant flash of light, a shelter materialized out of thin air on the empty ground before him.

"Just as I thought..."

Guan Tong’s eyes lit up as he looked at the new, much taller shelter.

Its size had increased—not horizontally, but vertically.

That’s right, it had gone from one story to two! It now had a large balcony with a glass enclosure, which seemed to solve the previous problem of having nowhere to dry clothes.

He eagerly entered, wanting to see what had changed inside.

Upon entering, he was surprised to find that an elevator had appeared on the right side of the room.

"It’s only two stories... Is an elevator really necessary?"

Guan Tong looked at the elevator and suddenly realized something. It looked somewhat familiar.

The color and style of the metal were very similar to the elevator inside the Strategy Research Room’s base.

He suddenly realized that the shelter’s transformations were based on his own subconscious impressions.

Even though his clothes were Psychic Power items and didn’t really need to be manually washed, his subconscious still believed that a home should have a place for washing and drying laundry. That’s why the new shelter included a large second-floor balcony that got plenty of sunlight.

The elevator’s appearance, on the other hand, was due to his recent visit to the Strategy Research Room. He had been deeply impressed by their elevator, which serviced dozens of floors... Perhaps that impression had seeped into his subconscious, causing an elevator to appear in his own shelter.

’If that’s the case... then the next time I modify it, I’ll need to create a shelter that’s truly suited to my needs.’

With that thought in mind, Guan Tong familiarized himself with the new shelter.

Other than the addition of a spiral staircase and the elevator, the first floor hadn’t changed much; it still had the same two-bedroom, one-living-room layout.

He took the elevator to the second floor and found it was simply a large, open-plan space.

There were no dividing walls, making the space of several dozen square meters completely open. The room was almost empty. A minimalist would have been ecstatic.

’...Is this also the influence of my subconscious?’

Ever since the era of the Apocalypse Rules began, it wasn’t just Guan Tong. Many people had, whether by choice or by force, become "minimalists"—or to be more precise, they no longer hoarded supplies.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to; they simply couldn’t.

Once people moved into the government-built shelters, daily necessities were provided by the authorities. Any other personal belongings had to be stored in metal lockers about the size of those found in a student dorm.

After all, space inside the shelters was worth its weight in gold. There was no extra room to provide every resident with a large storage unit for their personal belongings.

Under this forced minimalism, people naturally owned fewer and fewer things.

This was even more true for someone like Guan Tong, who was constantly traveling all over the world.

However, his personal storage space was much larger than most people’s. In addition to the shelter, he also had a Storage Ring. Even so, aside from a few special supplies like gasoline, he mostly stored only necessities like food and water, with no other miscellaneous items.

He used to keep common tools in his Storage Ring, but he later realized it was unnecessary. If he needed a tool, he could just have Shadow transform; Shadow could turn into a hammer, a screwdriver, or anything else he required.

Guan Tong gazed at the pristine, spacious second-floor hall, then simply lay down and folded his hands on his chest.

He had once thought that if the shelter’s area continued to increase, it might one day be usable as a Mobile Base for the Origin-Tracing Expedition.

It seemed that vision was already starting to take shape.

The organization currently had only two members: him and Shangyuan Zi. Assigning one floor to each of them would be a perfect arrangement.

’All that’s left to strengthen is the Power of Opening on the fifth page and the Domain on the sixth... As for the former, I really can’t think of a direction for enhancement right now.’

The "Power of Opening" on the fifth page was originally created to break the special restriction known as the Mind Lock. Its later application in destroying and weakening the Earth Vein Pillars was a welcome, unexpected bonus.

But ever since the [Earth Dragon Flipping Over] rule took effect, this power hadn’t been used again.

Guan Tong had once wondered if he could use this power to help others break their Mind Locks. However, it was later discovered that becoming proficient in Shi Jingyi’s Psychic Power Flow allowed one to break the Mind Lock’s restriction.

Nearly everyone restricted by a Mind Lock was a powerful individual, and almost all of them had either enrolled in the academy or taken online courses to learn Shi Jingyi’s Psychic Power Flow as soon as the academy opened.

Dragon Soul from the Strategy Research Room’s base was a case in point. Although he didn’t enroll in the academy, he certainly didn’t slack on the coursework; he learned it more deeply than the vast majority of students.

Thus, he was among the first group of Ascenders to use Psychic Power Flow to break through their Mind Locks.

Most other powerful individuals went down this path, so they didn’t need Guan Tong’s help.

In reality, even if Guan Tong had wanted to help, others wouldn’t necessarily have been willing. It would mean lowering their body’s defenses and allowing Guan Tong to channel Psychic Power directly into their brain. Few powerful individuals would be willing to take such a risk and entrust their life to someone unfamiliar.

Therefore, figuring out how to reapply this "Power of Opening" was a problem Guan Tong needed to solve.

’If I think about its fundamental nature... the essence of the Power of Opening can be described in a single word: Dispel.’

Breaking a Mind Lock, destroying the sturdy shell of an Earth Vein Pillar—both are processes of dispelling.

So, building on that essence, expanding the scope of what it can dispel seems like a very promising path forward.

’Dispelling all forms of locks? That seems a bit small-minded. Let’s think bigger... What if I used this power to disarm opponents or disable their items? Would that be possible?’

’Imagine being in a battle and suddenly using this power to disable an enemy’s weapon or a powerful defensive item. That would give me a huge advantage.’

’Maybe I can try it during my next fight. If it’s successful, I’ll have one more trick up my sleeve.’

Finished with his thoughts, Guan Tong turned to the sixth page of the [Wordless Book]. The single word written there, "Domain," was another key ability he was developing, second only to Shadow.

Just then, Shi Jingyi’s voice suddenly echoed in his mind through the Mind Network.

"Guan Tong, Lu City and I have set a time and place to meet. It’s at 10 a.m. on the 8th, at the stadium on South Academy Road."

Guan Tong sat up at her words.

"Did you set the time and place, or did Lu City?" he asked.

"I set the time. I don’t have any classes in the morning. He chose the location."

Guan Tong quickly searched his memory. Having been a substitute teacher at the academy for several months, he was fairly familiar with South Academy Road.

"South Street Stadium... I remember that even though it’s an open sports field, almost no one ever goes there. I think it’s suspicious that Lu City chose that spot."

"That’s possible. But it could also be that he considers his identity sensitive and doesn’t want to meet in a crowded place."

Guan Tong thought for a moment before replying, "I’ll go scout the place out ahead of time on the 8th. If anything seems wrong, I’ll warn you at once."

"Alright."

After ending the communication, Guan Tong checked the date. It was the 4th, so he still had a few days.

He should be free for the next few days. Although the incident with Crimson Fear being spread through a game was causing quite a stir, it had little to do with him; the official departments would handle it.

’For the next few days, I’ll focus on researching how to enhance and develop my ’Domain,’ and then... I need to figure out what to write on the seventh page of the [Wordless Book].’

...

"At present, officials have classified this incident as a terrorist attack and have stated they will spare no cost to identify the culprits and punish them severely."

Somewhere in the wilderness, the latest report from a North Star news anchor played on Lu City’s phone screen.

Hearing the phrase "classified as a terrorist attack," he was reminded of the bombing at the Soloma Arena.

That, too, had been a terrorist attack. Not long after the incident, Bishop Heath of the Fire Worship Cult had released a video claiming responsibility for the attack.

This time, however, the Fire Worship Cult had remained silent, leading many netizens to believe that this incident involving the spread of Crimson Fear was not the work of those cultists.

’Then who could it be?’

Lu City was a little curious himself.

An instant later, the image of a figure with short green hair surfaced in his mind.

’Could it be... the Prophet?’

The moment the thought appeared, it quickly took root and grew, becoming more and more convincing.

He realized this might be the Prophet’s way of helping him... by diverting the North Star officials’ attention.

’If the North Star officials focus their attention on investigating the game incident, they’ll neglect other things, including the academy. That will undoubtedly benefit the operation I’m about to launch... ’

Lu City closed the news and pulled up his messages.

The most recent one was the message confirming the time and place of his meeting with Shi Jingyi.

’Before I came here, the Prophet said he would help me. All I needed to do was create an opportunity to meet with Lecturer Jingyi alone... Is this incident part of that help?’ ℯ

Lu City didn’t know.

All he knew was that he was past the point of no return. Things had already progressed this far; his only choice was to see it through.