After the existence of stable spatial folding passages was made public, people eagerly discussed it for days.
Its popularity was directly linked to how expensive teleportation-type items were. Even among Ascendants, few could afford them, which meant there was almost no opportunity to teleport.
But now, a spatial folding door that even ordinary people could pass through made many eager to try the experience of teleportation.
However, for now, aside from Beixing announcing plans to build passages connecting Tianshui Star and the future space survival base, no other nation had made any statements.
This was because the number of Coordinate Resonance Anchors being produced was far too small.
Setting aside the bound anchor Guan Tong created with the Wordless Book, across the entire month-long Rule Period, all nations worldwide had produced only a little over ten unbound anchors combined.
With such a small number of anchor items scattered across different nations, forming multiple passages was naturally very difficult.
Moreover, all nations had tacitly agreed on one decision: not to publicize the Administrator of Ascendant Home's "cooperation" details.
Even Beixing had temporarily refrained from announcing the Administrator's high-priced passage leasing information.
This was a necessary measure. The officials of every nation judged that once the public learned of this matter, a fierce wave of public opinion would inevitably form.
People would question whether officials had secretly leased passages, or demand that if officials did lease, they must disclose information such as the locations of both ends of the passage.
Beixing in particular—although the officials could mobilize the Ascension Coins of Ascendants within shelters, they were also required to periodically publish disclosures so Ascendants could see where the collected Ascension Coins were being used.
This was the same principle as peacetime governments collecting taxes and regularly publishing expenditure budgets.
Since Ascension Coins had become the global "currency" of the present era, the "taxes" of this era would naturally also be in Ascension Coins.
As for why the small nations didn't publicize it, the reasons were more personal to their decision-making layers.
They didn't want the location of this spatial folding passage to become common knowledge, otherwise, when the day came that it was truly needed, people would likely all surge toward that location.
If a passage was specifically built for escape, then those who built it would certainly hope as few people as possible knew about it, so that when the time for real escape came, there wouldn't be a chaotic scene of crowds fighting over it.
Think about it—in peacetime, when people took the subway or bus, or went to the supermarket to weigh groceries, conflicts from jostling and competing frequently broke out, let alone when facing a life-or-death scramble for an escape passage.
Therefore, the officials of Heilanja, Manchidon, and Namelica all explicitly stated in their private messages to Guan Tong that this transaction must be kept confidential.
Not just the passage location, but even the existence of the leasing transaction itself had to be kept secret.
The previously agreed construction time for the passage was during the Interval Period after the Rules ended, which was the current period.
Guan Tong had taken other people's Ascension Coins, and he didn't intend to renege on his debts. He planned to make a trip to the few small nations before the new Rule was announced, completing the passage construction.
However, he didn't know whether these small nations had already communicated with and obtained permission from the nation at the other end of the passage.
If the door at the other end was placed in Beixing, would it be acceptable to do so without obtaining Beixing's official permission?
Doing it secretly—if discovered, what if they forcibly demolished the door? Then the spatial folding passage would be directly ruined.
Of course, this wasn't a problem Guan Tong needed to worry about. He only provided the passage, not any after-sales service.
....
Suroma, underground laboratory beneath the Hall of Halls.
Beneath the platform in the confidential room, eight Coordinate Resonance Anchors were arranged in pairs.
During the entire effective period of the previous Rule, Suroma had low-priced acquisitions, forced small numbers of citizens to open doors at designated locations, even at the risk of triggering civil war, and had imported large quantities of supplies from other countries for continued experiments... after that whole string of frantic efforts, they had obtained a total of eight Coordinate Resonance Anchors.
At this moment, Bruce and Dr. Haisen stood before the platform, looking at the six anchors.
"These are only enough to build three stable passages," Bruce said. "The gap from my expectations is significant."
Dr. Haisen's face showed helplessness: "Your Majesty, the production rate of these items is simply too low. Six is already a fortunate result. I estimate that the other nations probably can't even manage to scrape together a single pair to build one passage."
Bruce neither agreed nor disagreed.
Theoretically speaking, he knew Haisen was right.
If Suroma had to go through so much trouble just to obtain six, then for other nations to get one or two would be a stroke of incredible luck.
Take Beixing, for example—what good was having a population of over a hundred million? Since the officials issued the "door-opening prohibition," that population of over a hundred million had lost any possibility of producing anchors on their own.
But setting theory aside, back to reality. In reality, the Administrator of Ascendant Home controlled an unknown number of anchors, and judging by the behavior of leasing them at high prices, the total must be considerable.
This was hard for Bruce to accept, after all, Suroma had paid an enormous price for those six anchors.
Dr. Haisen could see what was on Bruce's mind at this moment, and he spoke thoughtfully: "Your Majesty, regarding that Administrator's anchors, I've developed some conjectures over the past few days."
"Oh?" Bruce turned to look at Haisen. "Let's hear it."
"Does Your Majesty still remember that the passages provided by this Administrator are in the form of... leasing?"
"Mm."
"That's exactly the problem. If this Administrator's anchors are the same as ours, why not directly sell them? You know, anchor items can be traded."
A sharp glint flashed in Bruce's eyes as he realized the implication of Haisen's words.
"You're saying, his anchors might be somewhat special and cannot be sold?"
"I can't say for certain, but the possibility is undoubtedly high."
Dr. Haisen paused briefly, then added: "Based on our team's speculation, once a spatial folding passage is established, it cannot be undone. In that case, what meaning is there in retaining ownership of the anchor items?"
Although no practical testing had been done yet, Dr. Haisen and his research team generally believed that Coordinate Resonance Anchors were consumable items.
Once they completed the passage construction, they would become bound to the door of that passage and could not be recovered.
If one attempted to destroy the door, the likely result was that while the passage was damaged, the anchor bound to it would also be destroyed or vanish along with it.
With this in mind, the behavior of "leasing passages" seemed somewhat redundant upon closer examination.
"Perhaps we'll soon have our answer," Bruce said.
"Through leasing?" Dr. Haisen wasn't quite sure. "That Administrator might be on guard against us."
"Who said it has to be through us?" Bruce said casually. "We're not the only party leasing."
Dr. Haisen was stunned for a moment, only understanding after a few seconds.
"Your Majesty, you mean those small nations... I see!"
Although Dr. Haisen spent most of his time in the laboratory and rarely went out, he was still well-informed.
He knew that in the current world structure, aside from Lury, the major nations were increasingly unable to sustain themselves through their own strength and had to rely on small nations.
To be precise, they had to choose between Haisen and Suroma. Although Xisiya was also a large nation, it currently had enough to defend itself, but its reserves were still insufficient.
Naturally, small nations that chose Suroma had an obligation to do things for Suroma... The Administrator of Ascendant Home might be wary of Suroma, but their guard against a few small nations certainly wouldn't be as strong.
This was indeed an opportunity.
"Don't think too much about this matter. I'll arrange for others to handle it," Bruce said. "Haisen, your next task, in addition to continuing to perfect the memory technology, is to add one more item: passage construction."
Dr. Haisen said in surprise: "Your Majesty, have you already decided where to build the first passage?"
"That's correct. The passage door needs to be wide enough, tall enough, to accommodate those giant war weapons you designed."
"I understand. Your Majesty, where will the two ends of the passage be located?"
"One end will be built in New Covenant." A trace of ruthlessness flashed across Bruce's face. "The other end will be at..."
......
February 8th, on the day Guan Tong set off for Manchidon, Beixing's officials formally announced that the new Dean of the Mind Power Development Academy would be Shi Jingyi.
This news caused a huge sensation.
After Zhou Qinfeng's incident, many people both inside and outside the academy had been speculating that the new Dean might be Shi Jingyi.
Because whether within the academy or online, in every vote that had been held, she had won by a landslide.
But when the official announcement came, people were still deeply shaken.
This had to do with Shi Jingyi's age. Although she had been a teacher for several years and had a relatively steady personality, she was only twenty-five or twenty-six this year no matter how you looked at it. Being a Dean still made her seem far too young.
Therefore, people had previously thought the officials might choose an older teacher, or bring in a new Dean from outside.
In the end, the officials went along with the students' voting results, and also went along with the trend of this era where everything was tilting toward youth.
It was just that this news didn't excite the students for long, because what followed immediately was Shi Jingyi's own announcement: after taking office as Dean, she would stop teaching.
The news that "Shi Jingyi will no longer teach" was a thunderbolt from clear skies for many students, hard to accept.
The reason students actively attended her classes wasn't just because she was extremely beautiful—although that was an important reason—the more important reason was that she taught exceptionally well.
Now that she would no longer teach, not only current students couldn't accept it, even those hoping to enroll next year found it hard to swallow.
By the time the next cohort of students arrived, Shi Jingyi wouldn't be teaching anymore—wouldn't she become a one-of-a-kind, out-of-print teacher?
On the day Shi Jingyi made her announcement, students launched a joint petition within the academy, hoping she would reconsider her decision.
But it was no use. Shi Jingyi wasn't the type to drag things out. After announcing, she cleared out her lecturer's office completely, leaving nothing behind.
No matter how unwilling the students were, after making a fuss for a while and finding it futile, they could only accept this reality.
This situation, on the other hand, gave the previous two graduating classes a chance to grab some popcorn and post their thoughts online.
They expressed that having fully experienced Lecturer Jingyi's teaching years was quite fortunate, and future academy students wouldn't have this opportunity.
Such provocative words naturally drew attacks from many, but relatively rational people could understand Shi Jingyi's decision.
And rather than focusing on Shi Jingyi, the new Dean, the Countermeasures Research Office was currently in a meeting discussing another important issue.
"Guan Tong's words must be taken seriously."
Inside the meeting room, the topic under discussion was the stable spatial folding passage matter.
Silver Fox had already reported the situation she learned from Guan Tong, and the Research Office placed great importance on it.
Gao Liangwei continued: "If Suroma is going to build passages, one end is likely to be in Beixing. We must strengthen our vigilance."
Li Meng asked in confusion: "Is Bruce really that confident he can evade Beixing's surveillance and build a giant passage near our core cities?"
"Yeah, where does his confidence come from?"
"A door capable of letting giant mechs pass through, built silently on our territory, right under our noses... it doesn't seem possible no matter how you look at it."
"There are satellite and drone networks conducting real-time surveillance and patrols around core cities. I really can't think of how they could secretly build a giant door."
The attendees' thinking was highly consistent, all feeling this wouldn't be so easy.
Gao Liangwei neither made hasty judgments nor was overly optimistic.
"Suppose Bruce could establish a teleportation passage within Beixing's territory without us noticing." He looked at Zhang Minglu. "Dr. Zhang, in your opinion, at most how many passages could there be of this kind?"
Zhang Minglu thought for a moment and answered: "During the previous Rule Period, our Beixing only obtained two anchors through acquisitions and a small number of experiments...
On Suroma's side, in addition to acquisitions, they also actively conducted large-scale personnel experiments. I judge that their total number of anchors won't exceed eight, meaning at most four passages can be built."
"No more than four..."
"They can't all be built in Beixing, right?" Someone expressed doubt. "With such precious special items, isn't Suroma planning to save them for space exploration? Would they waste them all on this single planet, Tianshui Star?"
"I'm not so sure. How long has it been since Suroma last mentioned their space program? The entire nation, from top to bottom, is obsessed with toying with memories and human-machine modification."
"Right. If Suroma isn't as fixated on space exploration as our Beixing, then they might build all their passages on Tianshui Star to support winning their war."
"Four is still a conservative estimate," someone reminded. "Don't forget Suroma might also cooperate with the Administrator of Ascendant Home to lease more passages!"
"That's true..."
At the thought of that Administrator leasing out passages, everyone felt even more troubled.
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Gao Liangwei said: "What we need to do now is to remain unchanged in the face of all changes. In addition to strengthening reconnaissance and vigilance, we must also increase intelligence penetration into Suroma... Besides that, regarding the passage matter, there's another piece of news."
Gao Liangwei displayed a classified document on the large screen. On it were marked two coordinate locations, and beside the locations were the names of two nations: "Namelica" and "Heilanja."
Everyone was confused at first, then Gao Liangwei said: "These two nations have formally submitted passage construction applications to Beixing's officials. Those two marked points are the requested construction locations for the passage doors within our territory."
"This... are they planning to use the passage to come to Beixing for refuge in a critical moment?"
"That's right," Gao Liangwei nodded. "These two nations, to show their sincerity, are willing to accept the maximum level of supervision.
The passage door on Beixing's end, from its size to material selection and every other detail, they're willing to have it built according to Beixing's arrangements. They've also agreed to allow Beixing's officials to place surveillance equipment around it, monitoring the passage door 24/7."
"I see," Zhang Minglu understood. "The officials of these two nations are worried about Beixing's apprehension, worried that Beixing might see this passage as potentially being used for war, so they're simply handing us full control over that end of the passage."
"That's right." Gao Liangwei looked at everyone. "What are your thoughts on this?"