December 1st, Beixing, Mind Power Development Academy.
Inside the meeting room of the administrative building, a faculty meeting was underway.
"As of today, half of this Rule has passed. Although our academy has maintained strict control, casualties have still occurred."
The white-haired Dean Zhou Qinfeng glanced at the statistical data.
"These students either took a gamble or failed to thoroughly check, privately keeping products with electronic chips, which led to dangerous outcomes."
One teacher said, "I know of one case where a student had his eye blinded by a laser pointer. That student had no idea the pen contained an electronic chip."
Zhou Qinfeng took over: "That's right. There are several similar cases, like a female student's makeup mirror, the printer toner cartridge in the resource room, and the water purifier that exploded in the sports equipment room a few days ago—the filter element was left behind during removal, and that also had an electronic chip inside. These are all results of carelessness."
In all aspects of daily life, there were too many devices with built-in electronic chips. Even with centralized clean-up and removal, some would inevitably be overlooked, posing threats to personnel.
"For the next half month, it's best if we don't have similar cases." After speaking, Zhou Qinfeng turned his gaze to a tall man sitting in the corner of the conference table.
"Teacher Duanmu... I think it's better to discuss this openly."
At his words, everyone present looked toward the tall man.
Since the Practical Combat Class was upgraded, this newly assigned teacher, Duanmu Feng, had shown strong teaching abilities. Under his instruction, the students' practical combat skills were indeed rapidly improving.
Even some teachers felt it was going a bit too far.
As the Dean, Zhou Qinfeng couldn't ignore these voices.
He had originally wanted to speak with Duanmu Feng privately, but the latter was cold and aloof, only coming to the academy for his classes and not speaking a word to other teachers—extremely difficult to approach.
Zhou Qinfeng had no choice but to openly address the issue during this mandatory faculty meeting on Rule discussions.
"There's nothing to discuss." Duanmu Feng's face was expressionless.
"Even so, there are still targets!" Zhou Qinfeng frowned, pressing the issue.
"I know. My class hasn't been optimized to that number yet."
Duanmu Feng's words made the teachers' faces fill with shock.
Ouyang Shanyue, who taught Philosophy of Mind Power, asked, "Does Teacher Duanmu think it's fine as long as casualties don't exceed the target? And from what you're saying, are you even trying to get closer to that target?"
The way Duanmu Feng used the word "optimize" inevitably made others feel he wanted the casualty numbers to get as close to the upper limit as possible.
But what shocked everyone even more was that he directly admitted it.
"That's right," Duanmu Feng said. "The closer to the target, the better. Only then can the students' potential be pushed to the maximum."
"Nonsense!" Zhou Qinfeng couldn't help but use a harsh word. "Teacher Duanmu, do you even know that your methods have already caused student protests?"
Duanmu Feng said in a deep voice, "What I want to grind away is precisely this kind of weak, protesting behavior. If these students oppose me, they can band together and knock me down in class. But they don't dare. This cowardice will get them killed on the real battlefield."
"Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous." Ouyang Shanyue shook his head repeatedly. "Students banding together to knock down a teacher in class? How can he even say such a thing?"
"Yeah! The students respect you teachers! How could they possibly do that?"
"Teacher Duanmu's ideas are too extreme, completely unacceptable."
Zhou Qinfeng tried to soften his tone to persuade him: "Teacher Duanmu, I know you once served in the Joint Force, fighting on the front lines against countless parasitized forms, but the Practical Combat Class is not a battlefield..."
Faced with all the criticism, Duanmu Feng stood up before Zhou Qinfeng could finish speaking.
"If they're afraid of dying, they can skip class or drop out. But if they're going to attend my class, they can't be afraid of death."
With that, he directly left the meeting room, leaving the other teachers dumbfounded.
Zhou Qinfeng's face instantly darkened, and he remained silent for a long time.
...
At the same time, at the Countermeasures Research Office, a mid-Rule meeting was also underway.
Chief Engineer Xu Hao, who was setting the development direction for this Rule, was reporting on the current results.
"...Multiple projects in energy, livelihood, artificial intelligence, and other areas have gained algorithms that greatly improve efficiency, with some increasing by more than ten times. The engineering department has fully recorded and adapted these algorithms, and they can be practically applied after the Rule ends. In fact, we've already started using some of them now, and the results are excellent."
Gao Liangwei nodded: "Mm, using the Rule to accelerate development is indeed yielding good results. Director Chen Shi of the Space Agency called me yesterday. He said the 'Tiangong Project' has benefited greatly from this Rule, with overall efficiency potentially increasing by dozens of times."
Everyone present felt their spirits lifted upon hearing this.
Beixing had invested most of the nation's resources into the "Tiangong Project." With such a huge boost now, it was equivalent to having dozens of countries with Beixing's scale pushing it forward together.
This would undoubtedly greatly advance the completion timeline for the "Space Base," and future constructions like the "Orbital City" and "Meltstar Exploration Spaceship" could be realized much faster. It was truly exciting.
"In the second half of the month, we'll conduct some more aggressive technological emergence iteration experiments," Xu Hao said. "Some of these experiments will be conducted in a space environment, which also prepares for future major plans."
"Mm, go ahead full force. The Space Agency will cooperate."
After Xu Hao sat down, Gao Liangwei glanced at one of the attendees and called him out: "Li Meng, don't zone out during the mid-Rule meeting."
"Oh, sorry, Director." Li Meng, who had been frowning and staring at the table, snapped back to reality with an apologetic look.
Zhang Minglu asked curiously: "It's rare to see you distracted. Did something happen?"
Li Meng looked at Gao Liangwei, who thought for a moment and said, "Although it's not part of this meeting's scheduled agenda, there's no harm in mentioning it."
"Alright, since the Director says so, I'll bring it up." Li Meng paused, then said, "I've received some intel from my intelligence channels, and it's related to Guan Tong."
"Guan Tong?" Zhang Minglu suddenly became interested. "What has he done now?"
Li Meng said seriously: "He's suspected of causing destruction all over Suroma. Several newly built energy stations in Suroma have been destroyed by him."
"..."
The room fell into silence.
Even Gao Liangwei was very surprised: "How come I didn't know about this?"
"It was received just before the meeting started, and I haven't reported it to the Director yet," Li Meng explained. "Also, due to the influence of this Rule, information flow is extremely poor. The intelligence we obtained cannot yet be verified as true or false."
Zhang Minglu scratched his head: "If the intel is true, is he retaliating against Bruce in this way?"
"It seems so," Li Meng said. "Perhaps he wants to use solo guerrilla warfare tactics to destroy Suroma's key industrial facilities, thereby preventing the energy needed for 'Memory Digitization' from being supplied normally."
Everyone had varied expressions upon hearing this.
Someone questioned: "Even if he wants revenge, shouldn't it be directed only at Bruce? Damaging energy facilities is questionable. Won't this affect ordinary people?"
"Indeed, there are some issues. Besides the technology related to Memory Digitization, all other industries need ample energy supply, right?"
"Doing this will only make more enemies. It might turn many Suromans who originally didn't hate him against him."
Zhang Minglu scratched his head even more vigorously: "Actually, I've thought about this before. For an Ascendant as powerful and uniquely capable as Guan Tong, once they start solo guerrilla warfare in a big city, it's almost unsolvable."
"Yeah," Li Meng agreed deeply. "His Shadow ability is truly pervasive... He can strike any facility at any time. No matter how many war weapons Suroma has, they can't guard against it."
"...He is doing something very dangerous." Gao Liangwei finally spoke slowly.
Everyone could tell from his expression that he held an extremely opposing stance on this matter.
Gao Liangwei said solemnly: "Strictly speaking, this is already a lone-wolf type of terrorist action. It is absolutely forbidden worldwide. If the intel is true, it must be stopped."