Three hours after the new rule was released, the Beixing government issued an official announcement.
The announcement mentioned the classified intelligence information, and also noted that the probability of obtaining a "Coordinate Resonance Anchor" was not high, prohibiting personnel residing in official shelters from attempting it.
For the small number of Beixing citizens outside the shelter system, the government could not forcibly stop them from opening doors, but strongly advised them not to entertain any hopes of getting lucky.
To make people understand the severity of the consequences, the Beixing government also released multiple videos captured by cameras, showing people who met with misfortune after opening doors:
One person was instantly sucked into space by the pressure difference upon opening the door; another was overwhelmed and helpless as seawater gushed in from behind the door; one opened the door to find quicksand and mud, choking to death on the spot; the most tragic case was someone who opened the door directly into a molten steel furnace, with the pouring molten metal melting them instantly.
The gruesome scenes in these videos were horrifying, far more realistic than any horror movie, enough to make the vast majority of people decisively abandon any thoughts of taking a gamble on opening doors.
As for the survival problem that would arise from not opening doors for a month, the government also provided a solution in the announcement.
When the rule was released, the vast majority of Beixing citizens were staying in official shelters, more specifically in their dormitory rooms.
Since food was normally distributed at set mealtimes and eaten in the cafeteria, there was no food stored in the dormitories.
For current-stage Ascendants, going a month without food wouldn't necessarily be fatal; relying on physical constitution to tough it out was possible. Moreover, as Ascendants, if they couldn't hold out, they could still use Ascension Coins to purchase food items from the terminal market.
But for the massive population of ordinary people, food had to be supplied externally; otherwise, a month without eating or drinking would mean certain death.
The government's solution to this problem was not to break through walls and dig holes.
Because the cost of damaging shelter walls was too great, and repairing them afterward would be extremely troublesome.
Even just drilling a small hole in the wall large enough for canned food to pass through would compromise the wall's overall structural integrity, greatly reducing its defensive performance.
Moreover, Beixing had dozens upon dozens of official shelters, with Ascendants residing in only a few dozen of them; the rest were occupied by ordinary people.
Drilling holes in the dormitory walls of so many shelters was an extremely massive project, requiring large numbers of Ascendants and equipment.
But the even more troublesome point was that these Ascendants and equipment would need to enter each shelter to do the work—they'd have to open the main doors first to get in, which circled the problem right back to square one.
No one could guarantee that what lay beyond the opened door would be the shelter's interior, rather than some random folded space.
Therefore, to solve the food supply problem for dozens of shelters, the government proposed a "Lifeline Plan."
This plan was simple:
The engineering department would rapidly manufacture dozens of small remote-controlled machines, having these machines carry specially designed "nutrient tubes" to crawl into the shelters' ventilation duct systems, delivering them to different dormitory rooms, and extending them through the extremely thin flat vents into the dormitories themselves.
This way, personnel inside the shelter dormitories could suck nutrient fluid through these thin flat tubes to survive the month.
One could imagine how low the flow rate of a single small flat tube would be, and the taste of nutrient fluid certainly couldn't compare to canned food, but at a time like this, survival and not damaging the walls were what mattered most.
These tens of thousands of ultra-thin flat tubes were the lifeline maintaining the survival of citizens in tens of thousands of shelters, which was why the plan was named the "Lifeline Plan."
After the announcement was released, the public had no complaints about the plan; at most, a few grumbled about the nutrient fluid tasting bad.
Everyone understood clearly that this was the limit of what the government could do, and there was no better alternative.
Besides, avoiding drilling holes in the walls was a good thing—who knew what the next rule would be?
What if it was an alien monster invasion? Then any holes in the walls wouldn't have time to be repaired, and the alien monsters would crawl right through them into the shelters. The consequences of that would be on a completely different level from eating nutrient fluid for a month... Not to mention the probability of something like that happening—no one could fathom the Fire Thief's way of thinking!
Before Li Meng's government officially proposed the "Lifeline Plan," Zhang Minglu's government quickly followed up.
As for the other national governments, they each adapted to their own circumstances.
The Suroma government's response was vague, merely saying they would actively respond, without mentioning any specific countermeasures at all.
People had gradually grown accustomed to this. Ever since Bruce's massive purge of the Senate, Suroma had become increasingly closed off, with several major cities undergoing full-scale cyberization.
In the words of some Suromans, "No one even knows how many real humans are left in the entire city." The actual population count had become a complete black box, with the entire nation sprinting headlong down the path of mechanical modification.
Among the other small nations, Lury faced little pressure because its citizens had a habit of stockpiling, with households hoarding large amounts of food—easily lasting a month without going out.
Heilanja, being a mountain city nation, had many citizens accustomed to living outdoors and sleeping in tents. It had the largest outdoor-surviving population of any existing nation, which could greatly reduce the impact of the "doors."
The other two small nations, Manchidon and Namelica, faced relatively greater difficulty. Both governments publicly appealed for help from other nations at the earliest opportunity.
The most attention-grabbing move came from the Manchidon government, which directly brought up Guan Tong on their official channel, calling out to him across the distance for help.
The Manchidon government stated that Guan Tong had once saved Manchidon from the clutches of the parasitized forms, and hoped that as the holder of the highest honor, "Manchidon Hero," he could once again help save a large number of Manchidon's ordinary citizens from starving to death.
In truth, it wasn't just the Manchidon people who thought of Guan Tong—the Beixing government also had intentions of cooperating with him.
The reason was that while shelter personnel could sustain themselves through the "Lifeline Plan," certain critical facilities and locations required continuous operation.
For example, some important laboratories, some precision factories that couldn't stop running for 24 hours, and so on.
These places had special circumstances; once operations ceased, it would severely impact many important plans, and a full month of shutdown was almost unacceptable.
To keep them running during the Rule Period, options included frequently using teleportation-type items for personnel entry and exit, destroying walls, or relying on Ascendants with special abilities or items to assist.
For instance, the Countermeasures Research Office base had an official Ascendant whose ability was "Phase Shifting." They could consume Mind Power to temporarily phase their body, allowing them to pass through walls, floors, and other sealed structures to directly enter sealed laboratories.
But these individuals were few in number, their abilities weren't strong enough, and their utility was limited.
This made the Beixing decision-makers think of Guan Tong immediately.
More precisely, they thought of his "Shadow" ability that could penetrate anything, believing that with this ability, they could enter sealed spaces without "opening doors or drilling holes."
There was even a deeper line of thinking—using Guan Tong's special ability to conduct door-opening experiments, attempting to construct a safe door-opening scenario, and obtaining Coordinate Resonance Anchors through multiple attempts.
That's right, even though Beixing had prohibited citizens from opening doors, they still had a demand for Coordinate Resonance Anchors.
And it wasn't just Beixing—every nation, upon learning of the anchors' existence, immediately arranged for dedicated personnel to purchase them globally.
The purpose wasn't merely to "fix the space behind a door," but rather for what the anchor itself might represent—spatial folding stabilization technology.
The Fire Thief had made it very clear in the rule's notes that many intelligent civilizations had been destroyed by the disasters brought by spatial folding technology before they could even figure it out.
So could this "Coordinate Resonance Anchor" item possibly contain the key stabilization technology hidden within?
For the sake of this research, not only did they want to purchase them, but every nation's government also had to find ways to produce them.
The only way to produce such anchors was by opening doors.
So how to open doors safely, stably, and methodically became the focus of research for every nation. To this end, all national governments immediately searched their databases for any suitable Ascendants capable of handling this work.
Using non-human mechanical constructs like robots to open doors wasn't entirely out of the question, but every government suspected that anchors might not be produced if a non-human opened the door.
While they couldn't be certain, they still leaned toward having real humans do it.
On the Beixing side, when the decision-makers' will was conveyed to the Countermeasures Research Office, the personnel involved all felt a headache coming on.
In the meeting room, Gao Liangwei and the others hadn't left yet, temporarily working remotely through tablets and other devices.
When Gao Liangwei learned that the decision-makers intended to have the Countermeasures Research Office cooperate with Guan Tong on experiments, he brought the matter up in the meeting room.
The moment he finished speaking, he immediately noticed that Zhang Minglu and Li Meng, who were familiar with Guan Tong, both had unpleasant expressions on their faces.
Li Meng shook his head: "I think if we make the proposal, Guan Tong will most likely refuse."
"I think so too." Zhang Minglu shared the sentiment. "His relationship with the Countermeasures Research Office is pretty average."
Gao Liangwei knew the reason, but he didn't give up: "No need to talk about personal connections. Just handle it as official business. If he's willing to assist with the experiments, the Countermeasures Research Office will pay adequate compensation."
Zhang Minglu and Li Meng exchanged glances, both seeing the hesitation in each other's eyes.
Zhang Minglu thought for a moment, then said, "Director, from my understanding of Guan Tong, he's precisely the type to prefer handling things through personal connections. Without any rapport, he'd be even less likely to help if we just approach it as cold official business."
Gao Liangwei: "..."
"There is one thing right now, that if you permit it, Director, might help ease the relationship somewhat."
"What is it?"
"It has to do with Duan Weifeng." Zhang Minglu said. "If the Director agrees to handle him seriously, perhaps..."
"Impossible." Gao Liangwei interrupted without a moment's hesitation. "I've already said this about Duan Weifeng's case—he's a combat hero. What he did wrong was a result of his post-battle trauma, and there's no need to pursue it excessively."
Zhang Minglu's expression turned helpless upon hearing this: "Then I have no way either."
"Give it a try. If it doesn't work, so be it." Gao Liangwei said. "Beixing has so many Ascendants; it's not like we can't do the experiments just because we're missing one Guan Tong."
"Alright... I'll make the arrangements." Zhang Minglu picked up his tablet and contacted Silver Fox.