On the morning of February 1st, the Fire Thief's voice rang out in the minds of every surviving human on schedule.
【Congratulations on passing the trial of the 25th Doomsday Rule】
【Rewards have been delivered to your Storage Box】
【The 26th Doomsday Rule will be announced in fifteen days】
"Finally, we can go out!!!"
When the Rule ended, countless people across the globe shouted the same words with the same accompanying action of throwing open their doors.
A month cooped up indoors had truly driven many people stir-crazy.
For those with electricity, internet access, and food reserves, this Rule had actually been quite simple. As long as one didn't let greed get the better of them and gamble on opening doors for anchors, there was no danger to life.
But for those without food reserves, this month had been far more difficult to endure.
Even for the Beixing residents protected by the "Lifeline Plan," having to subsist on nutrient fluid meant purely to sustain life for an entire month, the experience was easy to imagine.
So the moment the Rule ended, people in every Beixing shelter rushed into the cafeterias, where canned food that had once tasted bland now seemed like a rare delicacy.
Compared to the major nations, the small countries had all suffered considerable losses under this Rule.
However, midway through the Rule Period, apart from Lury, the leadership of the other three small nations all made the same decision: export ordinary citizens to Suroma.
Yes, Bruce's proposal to import ordinary people from other nations using Ascendants had been approved by these three small countries.
Large numbers of ordinary people from those three nations were taken away by the modified Ascendant legions dispatched by Suroma, who broke through their walls to take them.
The entire process saw no large-scale resistance, and even Beixing and Xisiya didn't issue strong condemnations.
The reason was that many ordinary people in those three nations had gone voluntarily.
Indeed, in the face of the flood of criticism online, all three small nations, from official channels to the general public, provided explanations.
The root cause was that their governments simply couldn't solve the logistical problem of transporting enough food for the massive ordinary population during this month.
So rather than let these people starve to death, it was better to sell them to Suroma.
And many ordinary people themselves, while fully aware that going to Suroma likely meant becoming expendable resources, felt that as long as there was even a sliver of hope, it beat dying of starvation.
This made it difficult for nations like Beixing to say much.
Namelica's government explicitly stated during the Rule Period that if Beixing couldn't help solve their ordinary citizens' food supply problem, then Beixing should stay out of their internal affairs.
Also today, two hours after the Rule ended, the Human Consortium's official account released a post, publicly disclosing the contents of the remote meeting held during the Rule Period.
All eight nations attended this meeting. Even Suroma, which people had expected to be absent, sent committee member Mary to participate remotely.
The meeting primarily revolved around Suroma's ongoing civil war.
Committee members from Beixing, Xisiya, and Sakura Prayer Country jointly demanded that Bruce immediately cease his suppression and other acts of persecution against his citizens, step down from his ruling position, and submit to an independent investigation by the Human Consortium.
Suroma's committee member Mary naturally opposed this, and rallied Namelica and Heilanja to form an opposition bloc, counter-accusing the nations led by Beixing.
The accusation was that Suroma's civil war had only broken out because ignorant citizens had been deliberately provoked by foreign powers.
To that end, Mary demanded that Beixing stop its smear campaign against the Suroma government's propaganda, and also demanded that Xisiya return Yishan to Suroma.
The two factions of committee members engaged in a fierce war of words at the meeting, neither side giving an inch.
Lury and Manchidon maintained a neutral stance, unwilling to offend either side. They simply wanted to stop the disputes and continue advancing the grand plans for safeguarding humanity's collective future that the Human Consortium had originally formulated.
The meeting ultimately failed to reach any consensus. In fact, the contradictions were so severe that they couldn't even agree to disagree, and the meeting ended on a sour note.
This was the first announcement ever released by the Human Consortium that contained no substantive decisions whatsoever.
More than the announcement itself, its symbolic weight was heavier. Everyone who read it believed that until the current contradictions were resolved, the Human Consortium would likely not hold any further meetings.
....
*Knock, knock, knock.* Guan Tong rapped on the door. "May I come in?"
"Please, come in."
He pushed the door open. In the simple, unadorned room, Moon Key sat quietly at a wooden table.
The table before her was scattered with thick stacks of white paper, covered in various drawings.
Having not seen her for a full month, Guan Tong noticed that Moon Key had grown considerably thinner.
It seemed she still hadn't fully recovered from the consecutive blows of Adam's death and the annihilation of the Children of Argan Tribe.
"Haven't you been eating much this past month?" Guan Tong asked, eyeing her slightly sunken cheeks.
He'd heard from Uenoshi that Moon Key had stayed in her room for the entire Rule Period.
During that time, Uenoshi had asked from outside the door whether she should break down the wall to send in some food, but Moon Key had refused.
Guan Tong knew that even at an Awakened level like his own, where he had perfect control over his body, he still needed to intake energy from external sources. He couldn't achieve the "fasting" or "absorbing heaven-earth spiritual energy" from cultivation novels.
Compared to other Ascendants, the advantage of the Awakened level lay in a more complete and thorough absorption of energy.
For instance, with the same portion of food, Guan Tong could fully absorb all its energy after eating, while other Ascendants might only absorb a portion, with the rest lost.
So even someone as powerful as him, after going a month without food, while not fatal, would still fall into an extremely weakened state.
Let alone Moon Key, who still had a long way to go before reaching the Awakened level. After a month without eating, it was visible to the naked eye that she was now severely listless and in poor health.
She raised her eyes to glance at Guan Tong, saying feebly, "I'm not really hungry."
"This isn't about being hungry or not. It's about what our bodies need," Guan Tong said. "Haven't you noticed that when your body's energy is depleted, the natural growth rate of your Mind Power and the recovery speed after consumption both slow down? That's very bad for you."
"...I understand."
Guan Tong breathed a sigh of relief at that.
He wasn't Moon Key. He had no deep emotional bonds with the Children of Argan Tribe, so he couldn't truly empathize with her pain.
But he believed that given more time, she would be able to move past it.
At that moment, Moon Key pulled a few sheets from one of the stacks of paper on the table and set them at the edge.
"Take these with you."
"What are these?"
Guan Tong picked up the papers. On them were lifelike scenes, drawn in a style resembling realistic comics.
"They're images related to Bruce that I repeatedly verified through prophecy over this past month."
"You... you've been pushing yourself too hard."
Guan Tong looked at Moon Key in surprise. He'd thought she would spend the month resting, but instead she'd poured all her time and energy into prophecy.
"It's nothing much, and this is all I'm capable of doing." Moon Key lowered her gaze dimly. "The hardest parts are the battles, the killing. I can't do anything about those."
"No, don't forget you're a member of the Trace Origin Travel Troupe. Since we're a team, we naturally have a division of labor. You've done your part excellently. Leave the combat roles to the others."
Moon Key nodded. Guan Tong then found someone from the Serpent Hair Society to bring food, while he himself carefully studied the prophecy paintings.
Moon Key's artistic skill was highly realistic, but some of the content was quite abstract.
The most straightforward painting among them showed massive war mechs queuing up to march into an enormous door, with a silver diamond-shaped mark at the top of the doorframe.
Though the mark was blurry, Guan Tong recognized it at a glance: a Coordinate Resonance Anchor.
With that, the meaning of this prophecy painting became clear.
"Bruce is sending an army of war mechs through a stable spatial folding passage built with matched, stabilized coordinate anchors... but where's the other end of the passage?"
The painting only showed the one giant door. The door at the other end of the passage wasn't depicted. Whether Moon Key hadn't been able to prophesy it or something else was unclear.
"If this painting foretells war, could the other end of the spatial folding door be on Beixing? But to secretly build such a massive door in Beixing, wouldn't Beixing discover it?"
Guan Tong was highly doubtful.
If it were a construction crew sneaking into Beixing with teleportation items to secretly build a small door, that could evade the Beixing government's attention.
But building a giant door in Beixing's territory large enough for war mechs dozens or even over a hundred meters tall to pass through? The difficulty of doing that undetected was extremely high.
"Building it secretly in an uninhabited zone might be possible, but then would it still have the effect of a surprise attack?"
Guan Tong figured that if war broke out, these war mechs would only be effective as a surprise attack or blitzkrieg if they suddenly appeared around Beixing's core cities.
If they appeared in an uninhabited zone, they'd be spotted by satellites en route to the core cities, failing as a surprise attack while also being bombarded by Beixing's long-range firepower.
Guan Tong couldn't figure it out for now, but he planned to find time to notify Beixing's officials so they could heighten their vigilance.
Aside from that painting, the other prophecy paintings were too abstract. He couldn't make heads or tails of them at first glance and could only study them slowly.
Then, at noon that day, he received a Mind Power communication from Shi Jingyi.
"Xiao Tong, after discussing with the officials and the other teachers, I've decided to accept the Dean position," she said. "Come see me this evening if you're free. We'll talk in person, and I'll also tell you some of my findings from my exploration of Authority."
"Alright." Guan Tong agreed.
He wasn't too surprised by Shi Jingyi's choice.
The students adored her, and the other teachers recognized her abilities. There wouldn't be much objection to her becoming Dean. Besides, she'd been at the academy for three years and was already accustomed to that environment.
His only concern was whether taking on the Dean position would mean a lot of extra work.
Being just a teacher meant that outside of teaching hours, the rest of her free time was flexible, available for rest and cultivation.
But being Dean inevitably came with administrative matters to handle.
Unless... Guan Tong thought of a possibility and figured that might be exactly what Shi Jingyi wanted to discuss with him in person.
.....
Afternoon.
Every time a Rule ended, nations would begin tallying casualties and losses from the Rule Period, disclosing the figures to a certain extent.
In the past, the time needed for this tallying varied depending on the Rule's complexity. Sometimes it took a day, other times a week or even half a month.
Since this Rule had kept most people indoors, it was easy to calculate.
Each shelter's administrator just needed to count their personnel numbers, report to the Data Department of the Countermeasures Research Office, and after aggregating and analyzing, the results came out the same day.
So at 2 PM, Beixing's government released the announcement with the data.
Total casualties under this Rule were approximately 26,000. Of those, around 24,000 were deaths or disappearances caused by spatial folding, while the other 2,000 were from other accidents.
This was by far the lowest casualty count among many Rules. If not for many people being reckless or greedy, ignoring warnings and opening doors, the numbers could have been even lower.
Beyond the casualty data, Beixing also officially publicized the special effects of the Coordinate Resonance Anchor.
They also stated that once the time was ripe, they would use this special effect to establish a stable spatial folding passage between Tianshui Star and the upcoming "Tiangong Space Survival Base."
The moment this news broke, it drew enormous attention.
Many people who had felt there was no hope of boarding a spaceship suddenly found renewed hope.
Spaceships could only carry a limited number of people, but this spatial folding passage was accessible to everyone. During the previous Rule Period, large numbers of ordinary people had already verified this with their own lives by opening doors.
People believed that if the space survival base was large enough and numerous enough, everyone might have a chance to fold across through the passage and realize the dream of Space Migration!