February 24th, only one week remained until the end of the Rule period.
In the first few days after the Rule began, the higher-ups of every nation were tense, unsure whether the decision made by the Awakened One would rewrite humanity's fate.
Unsure whether, if Tianshui Star's civilization status changed to "contactable" on the cosmic star chart, it would attract the invasion of a hostile alien civilization.
Small nations lacked the resources to prepare for this, but several major powers had already mobilized a batch of high-yield weapons on short notice, better safe than sorry.
But as days passed one by one, the cosmic star chart, the Star Sea Court database, the Awakened One, the Authority... all remained shrouded in fog.
Despite the relentless online assault against Guan Tong, the higher-ups of every nation and sensible people all understood one thing clearly: whether Guan Tong was truly that Awakened One was still uncertain.
If even the identity of the Awakened One who triggered this Rule couldn't be confirmed, then investing too heavily in that direction would be a waste.
Therefore, after Beixing's officials failed to get a definitive answer from their communication with Guan Tong through the Countermeasures Research Office, they temporarily halted their mission to locate the Awakened One.
What the nations hadn't stopped, however, was cultivating their own Awakened Ones.
After all, with a precedent established, it proved that breakthroughs beyond "Perfect" were possible, making greater investment necessary.
This generally benefited the officially sponsored Ascendants of each nation, who gained access to more resources and could surge ahead in their personal growth at a blazing pace.
As for Guan Tong, after obtaining a tactical nuclear weapon from Yelanka, he had originally planned to use it during this Rule period.
He wasn't the type to believe revenge is a dish best served cold. Settling grudges and scores as early as possible was more in line with his personality.
It was just that after discovering the suspected presence of Han Qiu secretly scheming in Xisiya, that matter had diverted his attention.
Upon returning to Bandzhen, he found traces of Han Qiu's infiltration there as well. Between handling that, communicating with Beixing's officials, and dealing with the spiraling online public opinion, he was too swamped to make time for Suroma.
In order to quell the public opinion storm as quickly as possible, he had posted a warning thread. A day later, when he went online to check, he found the thread had worked spectacularly. The rumor-mongering and harassment targeting him and those connected to him had largely been resolved.
However, one of the top three trending topics, #Super Big Bear King Stands Up to Shadow#, still caught his attention.
He clicked into that blogger's homepage. He hadn't known what to expect, but the moment he looked, his face turned black.
On this "Super Big Bear King's" channel, ever since the Fire Thief descended, eight out of every ten updates, whether videos or text posts, were related to "Shadow."
The content was predominantly slander and abuse. As Guan Tong scrolled through, he discovered that even during the [Earth Dragon Rolls Over] Rule period, this guy had posted a video.
In that video, this overweight, long-haired man said with a grave expression: "Although 'Shadow' does seem to be using the excuse of weakening earthquake damage as a pretext to collect large amounts of Mind Power."
"But regardless, he objectively reduced some of the earthquake's intensity. In itself, that's a good thing."
"However, I personally suggest that the officials should supervise this publicly, and have 'Shadow' provide a detailed breakdown of his Mind Power usage. How much the officials supplied him, how much he used each time—all of it should be recorded in detail, with full transparency..."
Guan Tong was so angry he laughed after watching that video.
In that entire video of over ten minutes, apart from that one sentence acknowledging that "objectively reducing earthquake intensity is a good thing," everything else was speculative slander against him.
Especially the lengthy verbalized account of his supposed psychological state. Anyone watching would think this Super Big Bear King lived inside Guan Tong's head, able to see his every thought without obstruction.
After watching that video, Guan Tong couldn't be bothered to look at the rest.
If this guy could find an angle to slander him even for reducing earthquake disasters and saving a large number of people, the slander in his other videos could only be imagined.
What puzzled Guan Tong was how those videos could be so brazenly published, with consistently high view counts, while neither the platform nor the officials did anything about them.
Guan Tong initially assumed this "Super Big Bear King" had some connections within the official system. But after searching, he found the guy was just a self-media influencer with a decent following who had made his name doing commentary and hot takes during peacetime.
And the confidence behind his open fabrication, slander, and mockery of Guan Tong's warning thread all stemmed from the fact that he was residing in an official shelter.
"So you think just because you live in an official shelter, I wouldn't dare touch you?"
Guan Tong thought to himself. Most other slanderers also lived in official shelters, yet after his warning thread went up, they had their posts deleted and accounts banned one after another.
But this Super Big Bear King had some nerve. Not only did he refuse to delete his slanderous content, he openly mocked Guan Tong's warning thread, completely emboldened and unafraid.
Since someone wanted to be the chicken killed to scare the monkeys, Guan Tong didn't mind obliging.
However...
After thinking it over, he didn't feel that urge to immediately track down which shelter Super Big Bear King was in, barge in, and take care of the problem.
Many people thought that because he had so much blood on his hands, he must be a bloodthirsty maniac. That was a complete misunderstanding.
Guan Tong had always had his own set of rules in this regard. Only those who wanted to kill him and actually acted on it would he kill in return, regardless of how strong or weak the opponent was.
If someone merely disliked him, or even harbored murderous intent, but never made any move, he would basically ignore them. It was a matter of judging by actions rather than intentions.
So he wouldn't kill someone just for cursing at him. However, not killing didn't mean letting it slide. The matter still had to be dealt with.
He opened the Ascendant Home and sent a private message to Li Meng.
On this matter, he wanted to see what the officials' attitude was. If the officials wanted to handle things with dignity, he could grant them that dignity.
If the officials didn't want to handle things with dignity, then he would have to help them achieve dignity.
"Hm?"
After sending the private message, he noticed that a private message he had replied to earlier had received a new response not long ago. It was from Roy, the leader of that resistance force in Suroma.
...
As the head of the intelligence department, Li Meng had been buried in work every day since the new Rule was announced.
At this critical juncture with the Suroma civil war and the world war looming on the horizon, there was already an endless stream of intelligence work to handle daily.
Add to that the previous investigation into the Awakened One, and the large-scale internal review campaign that the decision-making layer had launched after the Zhou Qinfeng incident, and he didn't even have time for a proper night's sleep.
He was currently looking over new intelligence reports sent by department personnel on his computer when he suddenly received a private message notification.
The number of people he followed on Ascendant Home was under double digits. Every single one was important, and any private message warranted immediate attention.
When he saw that the sender was Guan Tong, he was somewhat surprised. Then he instinctively straightened his posture, treating it with full seriousness.
After Fang Qian's suicide, he and Guan Tong had never been in contact again. When the officials needed to communicate with Guan Tong, they would have Zhang Minglu, Silver Fox, and others who had better relationships with him handle it.
Now that Guan Tong was proactively contacting him, it naturally came as quite a surprise.
However, after reading the content of the private message, he understood exactly why Guan Tong had reached out to him.
Shadow: "Section Chief Li, working in the intelligence department, you might be aware of a blogger called 'Super Big Bear King'? This person has been spreading rumors and slandering me online without any punishment from the platform or the officials."
"After I posted my warning thread, he still didn't back off. Instead, he doubled down. I hope that Section Chief Li, as a member of the official system, can take some action on this matter."
"If the officials continue to let this slide, then I'll have no choice but to resolve this problem in my own way."
After reading it, Li Meng immediately tensed up and looked into this "Super Big Bear King." After seeing the latter's homepage content, he couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath.
"This guy really has some nerve..."
He quickly searched the database for this person's registration information. Upon discovering that he lived in an official shelter in Pinglu, he immediately understood why Guan Tong had sent him a private message first to give them a heads-up.
If the officials didn't handle it, Guan Tong would take matters into his own hands. That would inevitably mean breaking into an official shelter, which would only cause a huge mess.
Li Meng didn't waste any time. He immediately went to report the matter to Gao Liangwei.
The latter had previously given specific instructions that anything related to Guan Tong, no matter how big or small, had to be reported to him.
"Many of this 'Super Big Bear King's' videos are outrageous. Why haven't they been taken down by the platform?"
Inside the director's office, after being informed, Gao Liangwei searched on his computer.
As a result, even he, a man who had always been wary of Guan Tong and even somewhat dissatisfied with him, felt wronged on Guan Tong's behalf after watching those videos. Some of the rumors were simply too absurd.
"I checked. It seems he's a collaborating blogger with the official propaganda department. Since he's the largest individual self-media account, the official propaganda department sometimes has him help forward information."
"So he dares to spread rumors and cause trouble with such impunity, thinking the officials will back him up as his shield?" Gao Liangwei raised an eyebrow and asked, his expression turning ugly.
"Director, what do you suggest?" Li Meng could see Gao Liangwei was very displeased, but the specific course of action was still up for discussion.
"Take down the videos, issue a public apology, and then ban the account. Under no circumstances can we allow Guan Tong to break into an official shelter to grab someone. The situation is tense right now. Don't create unnecessary complications."
Gao Liangwei's stance was resolute and brooked no argument. Li Meng nodded and said, "Understood. I'll get on it right away."
Half an hour later.
Several base personnel in uniform arrived at the shelter where Super Big Bear King was staying. Accompanied by the shelter administrator, they had a talk with him.
What was discussed during that conversation, no one else in the shelter knew.
They only saw Super Big Bear King emerge from the talk room with a pale face and unsteady steps, as if he had suffered some violent shock, barely able to stand straight.
Those base personnel followed him to his dormitory and personally watched as he turned on his computer, logged into his account, issued an apology statement, and took down the slanderous videos.
After doing all that, Super Big Bear King begged: "Can you keep my account? I've had this account for over a decade. I worked so hard to build it up to ten million followers."
"No." One of the base personnel said. "It has to be permanently deleted."
"Why..." Super Big Bear King tried to struggle one last time. "Isn't taking down the videos enough? Why does the account have to be deleted too..."
Suddenly, he remembered what that smaller blogger in his influencer group chat had said.
If you were an official decision-maker, who would you rather make an enemy of, Big Bear or Shadow?
Deep down, he had known all along that the smaller blogger was right. He just hadn't been willing to admit it at the time. Now that he was admitting it, it was too late.
In terms of "united front value," he was far, far too insignificant compared to Shadow. Why would the officials offend Shadow just to protect a self-media blogger like him?
As despair washed over him, Super Big Bear King suddenly remembered something. He jolted with a start, the fat on his face trembling.
"I want to report something! All the previous videos were indeed posted by me, but everything I published after this Rule started was paid for by a client who came to me and offered Ascension Coins as payment to post them!"
"Oh?"
The base personnel exchanged glances with looks of surprise.
One of them spoke in a colder tone: "Looks like you weren't honest enough in that talk room just now. Well then, you'll be coming with us to the Countermeasures Research Office for a visit."