49 Apocalypse Rules

Chapter 294: Chapter 273: One Debt Collected

"Hello, everyone. This is the North Star News Flash."

"Today’s top stories are as follows."

"First, the ’Apocalypse Rules and Regulations Management Law’ has been formally introduced. Second, the astronauts selected by the Human Federation’s member states for the Terra immigration plan have been confirmed and will soon begin centralized training. Third, with the fourteenth Apocalypse Rule about to be announced, here are the government’s official suggestions and reminders..."

On November 28th, the North Star Country’s daily 12:00 PM news flash aired as usual.

Although people now prefer to get their latest news from various online platforms and forums, some more traditional individuals, or those who find social media platforms chaotic and noisy, still prefer to watch news channels like this one that consolidate major stories.

And today’s news flash was undoubtedly a big one. Both the announcement of the new law and the space immigration plan were topics of extreme interest to the general public.

"To reasonably and legally protect the rights and interests of all citizens, the government has formally passed a resolution to introduce the ’Apocalypse Rules Management Law’."

"The ’Apocalypse Rules Management Law’ is our country’s first piece of legislation concerning Apocalypse Rules and Ascenders. It includes articles directly relevant to the general public, such as ’The Crime of Disrupting Apocalypse Rules,’ ’Ascender Behavior Restriction Regulations,’ and ’Regulations on the Management of Psychic Power-Related Items’."

"The full details of the law have been published on all official channels and are available for viewing. We also ask all citizens to abide by the new law. The government will handle any violators with the full force of the law, as we are determined to protect the safety and interests of the people in this special era."

"Next, we have news regarding the Terra immigration plan."

"A total of two manned rockets are scheduled for launch in this plan: North Star’s ’Dream Ship One’ and the Soloma Empire’s ’Imperial Pioneers’. In addition to their own country’s astronauts, each rocket will carry five to eight astronauts from other Human Federation member states."

"The launch date is set for December 27th. The launch will be broadcast live, so please stay tuned."

"Next up is..."

Before the news anchor could finish, he suddenly paused, listening intently to his earpiece. Then, with a serious expression, he said, "We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news. A massive explosion has occurred in the central district of Antu City in Sakura Prayer. It is suspected that someone detonated a super-explosive device."

The screen cut to the scene in downtown Antu City. More than half a block was scorched black, with wisps of gray smoke continually rising. Sirens wailing, ambulances and fire trucks streamed into the street one after another.

"Sakura Prayer officials currently state that the nature of the explosive is still unknown, and an investigation is underway to determine if the explosion was man-made. This program will continue to follow the story and provide timely updates to our viewers..."

...

At the site of the explosion in Antu City, firefighters were busy extinguishing the flames while paramedics rushed to treat survivors pulled from the buildings.

Just then, several black government cars pulled up. Men and women wearing overcoats with the word "Investigation" printed on them stepped out.

"This explosive was that powerful? Almost half the street is gone."

"It doesn’t look like a natural explosion. Someone must have deliberately detonated a device."

"But why? There aren’t any important targets on this street."

"It could be a demonstration. While there are no high-value targets, this is a street with heavy traffic. An explosion here would attract a lot of attention."

"But for a demonstration, someone has to claim responsibility... No organization has claimed responsibility for this explosion yet, right?"

"That’s enough chatter," said the officer leading the investigation team. "Everyone, investigate thoroughly. First, identify the explosive. Was it a conventional explosive, or some kind of Psychic Power item? Then determine if it was man-made."

"Yes, sir!"

The investigators fanned out and began their individual investigations.

Some of them used traditional investigation methods, while others used their own abilities or items to assist.

The officer looked at the devastation, thinking, ’This case might be related to Ascenders.’ Before the massive explosion, someone had called to report a car suddenly exploding here.

But before the official public security officers could arrive, the massive explosion occurred, erasing a vast amount of evidence and traces from the scene, making them difficult to recover.

"Chief Yoshino! I’ve found something over here!"

An investigator waved him over. Yoshino walked over and saw the man holding several Steel Balls in his gloved hand.

"Steel Balls?"

Yoshino picked one up and examined it closely.

The steel ball looked unremarkable, but it certainly wasn’t something that would just appear in a place like this.

"Put them in an evidence bag. We’ll check them for DNA back at the lab."

"Yes, sir."

"Chief Yoshino, this is what I sketched after using my ability." Another investigator, a woman, handed him a sketch. It depicted a person at the epicenter of the blast, with their arms in a hugging posture.

Yoshino looked at it and asked, "So we can confirm it was a man-made detonation. This posture..."

This female investigator possessed the [Profile] Psychic Power, which allowed her to reconstruct a past scene with maximum accuracy based on the current situation.

"Yes, the posture is wrong," the investigator said uncertainly. "My ability shouldn’t be mistaken. It looks like there must have been a second person at the epicenter when the explosion happened, but there’s no trace of them at the scene... It’s very strange."

"’A second person, you say.’ Yoshino nodded. ’Unless that person used a Teleportation Item to leave instantly, there’s no way they could have escaped the blast radius in such a short time.’"

"Exactly."

"Collect all the DNA you can from the scene. We must identify everyone involved in this bombing."

...

Inside an abandoned warehouse in a remote area of Antu City, Guan Tong’s shelter was hidden.

He was currently in his room, connecting Wu Wang’s camera to his computer to view the videos.

There were hundreds of videos of various lengths on the camera. Most of them contained elements like "exploding metal objects," "terrified expressions," and "fleeing crowds."

The "exploding metal objects" in particular were a feature in every one of Wu Wang’s videos. While this exposed his ability, it also served as a signature for the videos he sold.

After all, explosions, especially real ones, have always been popular with people. Otherwise, explosion scenes wouldn’t be a standard feature in all sorts of action movies.

The more of these videos Guan Tong watched, the more horrified he became.

Every video had at least one victim of the explosions, and some had dozens or even hundreds, which was enough to show the depraved nature of Wu Wang and his gang.

After watching these videos, Guan Tong even felt a twinge of regret.

’I should have made them suffer a lot more before they died.’

Among these videos, three in particular caught his attention.

One was set in a hospital, apparently filmed during the Blood Plague Rule Stage.

Wu Wang pretended to be one of the Infected and filmed in first-person as the Infected stormed the hospital, trying to seize serum from the Blood Plague Adaptation Bodies and clashing with armed soldiers.

Another was a video record of Wu Wang and his gang attacking the Lado Team. It documented the entire process, right up to the point where Lado was knocked unconscious.

The last one was also related to Lado. It seems that after being tortured, he surrendered all of his Sublimation Coins and items. Once every bit of value had been squeezed out of him, Wu Wang used him to film one last video, titled "The Prince’s Exploding Flesh Bomb."

Guan Tong watched it. The content showed Wu Wang ordering his men to force Lado to swallow several Steel Balls, then activating his ability to detonate them.

Even though Guan Tong held a grudge against Lado, he couldn’t feel any joy seeing him die such a miserable death.

Still, he had finally eliminated this group today. Although the process had been brutal, it was better than letting Wu Wang live to carry out more bombings.

As for these videos...

Guan Tong’s first instinct was to delete them, but after thinking it over, he decided he could hand them over to the North Star government.

There were two reasons for this.

First, if the authorities saw the videos of Lado, they would know that "Shadow" had been framed and had nothing to do with the deaths of Lado and his people.

Second, although most of the victims in the later videos were Andai People, the victims in the earlier ones, up until the Blood Plague Rule Stage, were almost all North Star People.

These North Star victims might still have living relatives, and those relatives have the right to know who killed their loved ones. If the government had the videos, they could use victim identification to find those people and tell them the truth.

Having made his decision, Guan Tong bundled all the videos into a single file to send later to the official public account used for collecting information from civilians.

He didn’t send them immediately because he figured that as soon as the government got the videos, they would likely conclude that the explosion in Antu City was related to Wu Wang and might assist Sakura Prayer in a wide-area investigation.

Guan Tong himself was still in Antu City. To avoid any extra trouble, it was better to create a time delay.

Then, after a moment of thought, he took something out of his storage box: a palm-sized golden card.

This was an item with the "Indestructible" trait that had dropped from Wu Wang’s body after he died. The moment Guan Tong saw it, he had immediately sent Shadow to retrieve it.

The effect of this card was the very same Light Shield that had continuously protected Wu Wang from Shadow’s attacks during their fight.

[Gilded Guardian]: When this item is placed in the storage box, it will automatically generate a Light Shield to defend the holder when they are hit by a Psychic Power-related attack. The defense limit is ten times the user’s maximum Psychic Power. Each Light Shield defense is effective for 10 seconds and consumes a fixed 5% of the user’s Psychic Power. This item is tradable and indestructible.

’No wonder Wu Wang said this was a top-tier defensive item he got from Lado... The effect is indeed impressive.’

Most defensive items have very limited effects and are destroyed by a single powerful attack.

But this item’s defense limit was ten times the holder’s maximum Psychic Power. Taking Guan Tong as an example, if he held this item, an enemy would need to unleash an attack of nearly ten thousand points of Psychic Power to break through his defense.

Currently, very few individual Ascenders could achieve that. It would take the cumulative power of multiple people attacking at once.

Furthermore, the fixed 5% cost per use wasn’t much. All told, it could defend against twenty consecutive attacks. At 10 seconds each, that added up to a full 200 seconds—more than three minutes.

If an enemy didn’t know these specific numbers, they might get discouraged and retreat after attacking for ten or twenty seconds to no effect.

Guan Tong placed it in his storage box. Although it was unlikely he would need it, it was always good to have an extra layer of insurance.

WEE-WOO WEE-WOO WEE-WOO—

Another wave of sirens passed by on the street outside. Guan Tong thought to himself, ’The sirens haven’t stopped since I got back. The impact of the explosion must have been huge.’

’It makes sense. Half a street was destroyed, so the casualties must be high. The Yingqi People only just moved here a few months ago; they’re bound to investigate a major case like this thoroughly.’

Guan Tong opened a news website and saw that, as expected, the bombing was the top headline. Sakura Prayer officials had also issued a spokesperson’s announcement.

"...We have dispatched an investigation team composed of numerous professionals to investigate the incident and will release the findings as soon as possible. This explosion has caused significant casualties among the citizens of Sakura Prayer. If it is determined to be man-made, those involved will be severely punished!"

’Hmm... finding the truth probably won’t be easy,’ Guan Tong thought after reading the announcement.

The scene had been almost completely destroyed by the explosion. Wu Wang, who had self-detonated, was vaporized without a trace. Guan Tong himself had been inside his Shadow Armor the entire time and later commanded the battle remotely, so he wouldn’t have left any trace of himself at the scene.

’As for the significant casualties... Wu Wang caused those, too. I don’t think I’m at fault for any of it.’

Just as he would never accept Wu Wang’s threat to use hostages, he believed the perpetrator alone must bear the weight of their sins.

’And with that, one debt is settled.’

Of the four debts Guan Tong had to collect, three remained. The next debtor was the person on the Sakura Prayer side who had made the decision to bomb him.

To find that specific person, he first needed to locate Baqizi, who was under house arrest, and get some information from her.

He mulled it over for a moment and decided to wait a couple of days.

He would wait for the fourteenth Apocalypse Rule to be announced and then plan his next move based on its content.

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