49 Apocalypse Rules

Chapter 300: Chapter 279: Vigilance and the Cosmic Divine Spore Technique

Banzhen City, once the capital of the Andai Kingdom, had now become Sakura Prayer’s administrative center.

Guan Tong infiltrated the city on the morning of December 3rd, discovering that access was already restricted.

Not a single civilian could be seen on the streets, only a few official vehicles. Moreover, brand-new surveillance cameras covering every street and alley highlighted the city’s state of lockdown.

This level of lockdown was comparable to when North Star had entered its wartime management state. Whether this was due to the bombing or some other reason, Guan Tong wasn’t sure.

He was currently at the ruins of the manor he had previously burned down—the former lair of Ba Song and his crew.

After Ba Song and the others died, the place had remained vacant. Guan Tong simply summoned his shelter beneath the ruins as a temporary base, then used his Shadows to investigate.

His method of investigation was the same as when he had investigated Yongzhou Base: using his Shadows to infiltrate important buildings in an attempt to find key individuals.

The most important building in Banzhen City had previously been Lado’s royal palace—the very one Guan Tong had destroyed with a purchased Psychic Power Bomb.

However, thanks to the palace’s prime location in the heart of Banzhen City, it was a natural symbol for the seat of power. So, after the people of Sakura Prayer moved in, they cleared away the rubble and erected a new building on the original foundation to use as a government center.

At this moment, a few inconspicuous Shadow Lines were slipping into the building, probing the situation within.

The lower three floors were filled with junior staff, all wearing identical business suits. But upon reaching the fourth floor, the Shadows’ entry was blocked.

’Looks like the fourth floor and above is the core area, so they’ve used Barrier Items to protect against Psychic Power intrusions.’

As Guan Tong pondered this, he was suddenly startled to find that a Shadow Line he was remotely controlling had pierced the invisible barrier, "melting" into the fourth floor.

What was going on?

He had originally thought they might have coincidentally deactivated the item, or perhaps switched operators—after all, maintaining the effect of a Barrier Item around the clock couldn’t be done by a single person. It required a constant rotation of people to sustain it with Psychic Power.

But he quickly realized something was wrong.

’Could it be because of the spores?!’

A chill went down Guan Tong’s spine, and he immediately withdrew the Shadow Line.

He had never, and would never, dare to let his guard down against the Alien Spores.

They were formless and intangible, influencing people in subtle ways; the slightest lapse in concentration could mean falling into their trap.

Guan Tong knew full well that his Shadows did not—or more accurately, should not—have the ability to penetrate a Defense Barrier without increasing his Psychic Power output. So why had it suddenly worked this time?

His Psychic Power hadn’t increased, and no new words had appeared on the first page of the Wordless Book. For a change to occur when no other variables had shifted, the only explanation could be the influence of the spores!

After retracting all his Shadows, Guan Tong took a deep breath.

He repeated to himself over and over, ’I don’t need an enhancement with side effects like this.’

He had to admit, in the instant his Shadow broke through the barrier, he had felt a surge of excitement, a desire to seize the opportunity to investigate further.

But he quickly suppressed that impulse.

Even though the hidden rules mentioned that using the spores’ power within certain bounds was the act of a wise person, the question was, how could one determine where those bounds lay?

If there were a clear gauge—for every portion of spore-given enhancement, you accumulated 1 addiction point, leading to complete addiction at 100 points—then anyone could control themselves and become a so-called ’wise person’.

But without such a gauge, Guan Tong would never be foolish enough to assume he could control himself.

Many things are addictive after just a few tries. If he were to abuse the enhancement brought by the spores for convenience, he too could fall, no matter how powerful he was.

’...It’s even possible that the stronger a person is, the more dangerous this rule becomes for them.’

Guan Tong figured that most powerful people want to become even stronger, a desire the spores could easily exploit.

After a moment of thought, Guan Tong opened his computer and re-examined the previously pinpointed location of Baqizi’s logged-in device.

The location was within that building, pinpointed to a specific floor—the fifth.

The fourth floor and above were all within the protective range of the Psychic Power Defense Barrier, making it almost impossible to infiltrate with his Shadows. If he tried to force a breakthrough, the moment the barrier was destroyed, the Sakura Prayer leadership would immediately know someone was using abilities to sneak in.

On the other hand, using the spores’ power like he just did would allow the Shadows to enter without destroying the barrier, which seemed like the best way to get in... but Guan Tong refused to use it again.

He would not delude himself with thoughts like, ’Just this once, and never again.’ He knew that all addictive behaviors start with "just once," and he had to cut off any potential psychological dependency at the root.

So, to get to the fifth floor without destroying the barrier or using the spores, he would have to rely on the most traditional method.

Physical infiltration.

A Psychic Power Defense Barrier only works against Psychic Power-related abilities and items; it has no effect on a human body.

Of course, compared to infiltrating with abilities, the difficulty of a physical infiltration was much higher. But where there was a will, there was a way. Guan Tong felt that if he planned carefully, he would have a chance.

...

「Pinglu City, Cangying Ridge」

This place had once been a tourist attraction, but after the "Shen Yun case," it had become a kind of "pilgrimage destination."

A pilgrimage destination for ordinary people, that is.

Many ordinary people believed Shen Yun’s sentencing was a landmark victory for the common person against Ascenders, proving that, at the very least, the government had not yet decided to completely abandon them.

People believed that this case, along with the series of public opinion effects it triggered, had helped pave the way for the introduction of the Apocalypse Rules and Regulations Management Law.

Consequently, many ordinary people made special trips here, and quite a few would bring flowers to commemorate the ordinary people killed by Shen Yun.

But now, hundreds of people were sitting on the mountain, each with a cushion or a folding stool, taking deep, great gulps of air. Some were even muttering incantations.

What they wanted to inhale, of course, wasn’t air, but the spores.

And this collective absorption had a name: the "Grand Training."

According to these people, strengthening oneself by absorbing spores was to practice a technique called the "Cosmic Divine Spore Technique."

It was unclear who had first created the names "Grand Training" and "Cosmic Divine Spore Technique"; they seemed to have originated from a few posts on some internet forum.

The poster claimed that after absorbing the spores, he saw palaces created by an Alien Civilization and even heard an Alien Intelligence speaking cordially with him, telling him that the method for biological evolution was to practice this "Cosmic Divine Spore Technique."

These inexplicable statements, which sounded like the ramblings of a madman, quickly spread across the internet.

Many ordinary people, and even some Ascenders, joined the practice, sharing their training experiences and secrets. The "Grand Training" event currently underway on Cangying Ridge, for instance, had been arranged by numerous people coordinating online.

Every so often, someone in the crowd would let out a low exclamation.

"Whoa, I feel like I’m getting stronger!"

"My mind is getting clearer and clearer, like all my worries have been swept away."

"This feeling is amazing! I feel like I’m becoming a superman!"

"These spores are much stronger than any Psychic Power. Even non-Ascenders can get stronger with them. All those item rewards and things from before... we ordinary people couldn’t use any of it. It was so unfair!"

"Exactly! While those Ascenders practice their Psychic Power Flow, we ordinary people will practice this Cosmic Divine Spore Technique!"

"That’s right! A practice for every person, that’s what’s fair!"

These people’s words and feelings reinforced their behavior, and the act of absorbing more spores, in turn, fed back into their feelings, creating a rapidly accelerating positive feedback loop.

The people within this environment might not have been aware of it themselves.

But from an outsider’s perspective, the atmosphere was undeniably fanatical, verging on unhinged.

"Are we really just going to let them carry on like this?"

Behind Cangying Ridge, a few on-duty officers in official uniforms watched the large group of people meditating on the peak, their gazes filled with worry.

"How do you want us to handle it? Forcing them to stay home is useless. The higher-ups already said these spores are everywhere; you can’t even avoid them in a sealed room."

"That’s still better than letting a crowd gather for some ’Grand Training,’ right? If you ask me, we should just seal off Cangying Ridge and not let anyone up."

"It’s useless. They’ll just find another place and practice together anyway. Forcibly prohibiting gatherings would only incite violent conflict."

"Yeah. Our orders are to watch over them and intervene if anything goes wrong."

"I just don’t get it. Everyone heard the announcement when the rules were released. Fire Thief explicitly said they were Alien Spores. Can’t these people understand? And now they’ve cooked up some ’Cosmic Divine Spore Technique.’ Did their basic education just go to waste?"

"No need to be so harsh. Maybe for them, this is the only life-saving straw they can grasp. If our own panels were shut down one day, I’m sure we’d find it hard to accept, too."

As the on-duty officers were chatting, they suddenly saw a few scattered individuals begin to leave the crowd of their own accord and head down the mountain.

They went forward and stopped one of them to ask.

"It’s too dangerous up on the ridge!" the person said, their face filled with worry. "What if I accidentally fall off and die? I should be practicing in a safe place."

The officers exchanged glances, not understanding why this person was suddenly worried about such a thing.

If they were afraid of falling off the mountain, why had they run up here to "practice" in the first place?

Although this self-contradictory behavior confused them, they still recorded the situation and reported it.

Meanwhile, similar Grand Training events were taking place all over the world. And similar contradictory behaviors were being recorded and reported everywhere.

As the avalanche of reports flooded the computers of the relevant personnel, some analysts immediately reached a rather unsettling conclusion.

Could it be that these self-contradictory individuals were beginning to experience changes on a cognitive level as the degree of spore parasitism deepened?

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!