「August 2nd, 8:00 AM. The community’s property management storage room.」

Guan Tong had returned around 1:00 AM and had just woken up.

The sky outside was still dark because there was an hour left before the rule ended.

"I’m so tired..."

Guan Tong sat up from the folding bed, rubbing his slightly sore right shoulder. He had been holding the Silver Hunter for over ten hours straight. The weapon itself wasn’t heavy, but holding it for so long was exhausting.

He couldn’t recall exactly how many Living Dead he had eliminated.

In the wave at the industrial park warehouse alone, he had taken down at least two hundred. After parting ways with Shi Jingyi, he had wandered the city by himself, eliminating stragglers and small groups of Living Dead.

’I’ll just wait for the terminal’s statistics at 9:00.’

Guan Tong took out his phone and decided to browse the internet for the remaining hour.

From the posts and other information online, it was clear that there hadn’t been many casualties during this latest rule.

Thanks to the fourth rule, "June Snow," many private residences had been crushed, so most people were still concentrated in Gathering Points, banding together to survive.

As a result, when the fifth rule was announced, everyone quickly worked together to build up defenses at the Gathering Points, blocking the entrances and exits with all sorts of objects to stop the Living Dead from getting in.

Afterward, official armed soldiers were quickly deployed. With their overwhelming firepower, the hordes of Living Dead within the major cities were swiftly wiped out.

However, it seemed some smaller cities had struggled to cope initially. Combined with the fact that the Mother Transformer was never eliminated, the number of converted Living Dead grew, and eventually, the survivors could only hunker down and wait for the rule’s duration to expire.

Guan Tong read online that the Mother Transformer hadn’t been eliminated in every region. The creature possessed a degree of intelligence, consciously avoiding large formations of armed soldiers. This, coupled with its immunity to non-Psychic Power Weapons, made it incredibly difficult to kill.

Furthermore, when it sensed danger, it could howl to summon large numbers of Living Dead to its defense, making any attempt to kill it even more perilous.

Guan Tong also saw a post where someone mentioned that soldiers in their area were helping civilians complete the challenge. However, they only helped people get the required 10 kills. As soon as a person reached their quota, the soldiers would move on to help the next, strictly forbidding anyone from getting even a single extra kill.

There were also those who considered themselves powerful, spontaneously forming teams to leave the safe zones and actively hunt hordes to farm Sublimation Coins. The successful ones posted online to brag, but the failures, of course, would never be heard from again.

The hour passed quickly while Guan Tong browsed. At exactly 9:00 AM, the voice of the Fire Thief rang out.

[The rule’s duration has ended.]

[Congratulations on passing the fifth Apocalypse Rule.]

[During this rule, you eliminated 367 Living Dead and have been rewarded with an additional 367 Sublimation Coins.]

[During this rule, you eliminated 1 Mother Transformer and have been rewarded with an additional 500 Sublimation Coins and a random item.]

[Rewards have been sent to your storage box.]

[The Sublimation Store has new items in stock. Please check your personal terminal.]

[The "Team Up" option in the social menu has been enabled.]

[In thirty days, Ascenders holding a "First Ascender Challenge Invitation Letter" will participate in the challenge. Please prepare accordingly.]

[This challenge supports teams of 1-5 members. Those who wish to participate as a team must be in one before the challenge begins.]

[The sixth Apocalypse Rule will be announced in forty-five days.]

As the Fire Thief’s voice faded, Guan Tong got off the folding bed.

What surprised him most wasn’t accumulating over a thousand Sublimation Coins, but the news about the challenge: it was a team-based event for 1-5 people!

Guan Tong had been looking forward to the challenge, but now he couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

He didn’t seem to have any potential teammates.

’Whatever...’ Guan Tong decided he didn’t need teammates. ’Shadow and the Silver Hunter are the only teammates I need.’

’The challenge starts in a month, and the sixth rule will be announced half a month after that... I need to hurry up and get ready.’

Since he had decided to enter the team-based competition as a lone wolf, he would undoubtedly have to prepare much more than anyone else. It was the only way he could compete against other teams by himself.

Guan Tong opened his terminal and checked his status panel.

[Name: Guan Tong]

[Nickname: Shadow]

[Title: Orderkeeper]

[Psychic Power: 96 (128) (50)]

[Sublimation Coins: 1047]

[Overall Biometric Evaluation: Excellent]

His Psychic Power cap had increased by one point. He wondered if it was because of how much he’d fought that day.

The amount of Sublimation Coins was just as he’d calculated. With the 30 he had left, the 150 from completing the challenge, and the 867 from eliminating Living Dead and the Mother Transformer, his total had smoothly broken the one-thousand mark!

The number invigorated Guan Tong. He knew it was nothing compared to what large organizations or government departments could amass by pooling resources, but for a single person, it was an impressive haul.

He then opened his storage box. Inside was a new item—the extra reward for eliminating the Mother Transformer.

[Corpse Whistle]: Consumes 20 Psychic Power. When blown, summons 3 Living Dead that last for up to 15 minutes. While active, they will obey the user’s commands. This item is tradable.

"This..."

Guan Tong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he saw the item he’d received.

’Summoning three Living Dead for fifteen minutes... Considering how they fight like rabid dogs, they have some combat potential, but not much.’ Against elite Ascenders, they would likely be wiped out in an instant.

What made it valuable, however, was that it wasn’t a single-use item. It could be used repeatedly by consuming Psychic Power, and it didn’t even have a cooldown.

’In other words, if I had Infinite Psychic Power, I could just keep blowing this thing and summon a ceaseless army of Living Dead...’

Guan Tong knew that Infinite Psychic Power was just a fantasy. But on second thought, this item was far more valuable to him than it would be to other Ascenders.

Because he could store Psychic Power with the Wordless Book. This meant that in a critical moment, he could indeed consume a massive amount of Psychic Power to continuously blow the whistle and summon a large number of Living Dead in a short time. Calling it an army might be an exaggeration, but creating a small tide of undead was definitely possible.

’I was just complaining about not having teammates for the challenge, and now I get this thing,’ Guan Tong thought. ’Is the system trying to tell me to use Living Dead as my teammates?’

Grumbling aside, he actually thought the item was pretty good. He certainly wouldn’t be trading it on the market; he would keep it for his own use. It wouldn’t be too late to consider selling it when the combat effectiveness of the Living Dead became trivial to him.

However, Guan Tong felt that his current resources were not enough to participate in the challenge. His thousand-plus Sublimation Coins wouldn’t earn interest just sitting there. The wise move was to spend them as soon as possible and convert them into actual combat strength.

’As for spending them... The terminal’s Sublimation Store has new stock, so I can see if there’s anything I need. Then I can browse the market and see if there are any other items worth buying.’