Challenge Complete

Guan Tong's exploration of how to use Shadow had helped him find a way to clear the rule.

But merely clearing it was not enough. He could now make use of Shadow's fusion trait to strive for a high ranking.

Although Guan Tong did not particularly enjoy competing with others, if he had a chance to obtain the extra rewards for placing in the top three, he certainly would not give up without trying.

"The key is making use of Shadow's movement distance."

Guan Tong left the self-service gym and walked home, pondering the issue.

The speed he could achieve by linking to a treadmill was already very fast, but in his view, it was still nowhere near the limit.

There had to be other ways to further increase the speed at which he completed the forty-two-kilometer distance.

And it was not just him. Others would surely use the power of Mind Power to improve their results as well.

Even if they did not think of it at first, someone would definitely mention it online.

Therefore, as long as they were quick-witted enough and had a high enough Mind Power Cap, quite a few people should be able to clear Rule Two.

But to achieve a good result, it would depend on whether the items they bought from the Ascension Shop were suitable.

Guan Tong did not spend too much time thinking about others. He remained focused on how to improve his own result.

After returning home, he looked up some information about Shadow online.

If he had not looked, he would never have known. Once he did, he was shocked.

It turned out that under certain special conditions, Shadow could reach astonishing speeds.

It could even surpass light through clever tricks!

But Shadow's speed was not important to Guan Tong at the moment. What he cared about more was movement distance.

After researching for half a day, Guan Tong came up with an idea.

At noon the next day, when the sunlight was strongest, he took a selfie stick he had bought that could rotate automatically and went up to the roof of his apartment building.

The sun was blazing overhead, and the light was exceptionally strong.

Guan Tong set up the selfie stick at the edge of the building. After adjusting its angle and position, its shadow stretched onto the distant street.

Then Guan Tong issued the "rotate" command from his phone, and the selfie stick immediately began spinning automatically.

As it spun, its shadow spun rapidly as well, crossing streets and buildings at incredible speed in an endless cycle.

When Guan Tong saw this, he could barely suppress his excitement.

The speed was too fast, and the distance too great!

At that movement speed, Shadow could travel a kilometer in just a few seconds!

Without another word, Guan Tong stepped forward and lowered the selfie stick's angle, drawing the shadow back nearby.

He then took out the Wordless Book and released his own Shadow, bringing it into contact with the selfie stick's shadow and fusing them together.

Feeling that sense of control, Guan Tong raised the selfie stick, and its shadow immediately moved along the rooftop, building, walls, and streets at high speed.

Then Guan Tong issued the "rotate" command on his phone and set the speed to maximum.

Bzzzz!

The selfie stick began rotating automatically at top speed, and the shadow spun along with it at a furious pace!

At that moment, the challenge time and distance figures before Guan Tong's eyes began changing at an utterly outrageous rate!

"Phew, phew, phew..."

A middle-aged man stopped on the stadium track, gasping for breath.

A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the displayed distance and time.

Current distance: 42,198 meters, current time: 2 hours 37 minutes 56 seconds

"I did it, I did it!"

The middle-aged man chuckled. Though he was exhausted, the exhilaration in his heart was beyond words.

This result not only meant that he had cleared the challenge of Rule Two of the Apocalypse Rules, but also that he had surpassed his personal best.

Back when he ran full marathons, even when he managed to finish within three hours, he had basically only just scraped by.

Several times, he had finished in 2 hours 58 minutes or 57 minutes. Even his best time had been 2 hours 52 minutes.

But this time, he had beaten his previous best by a full fifteen minutes!

That was not a minor improvement. It was a massive one!

Naturally, such a huge improvement was inseparable from his use of Mind Power.

The middle-aged man happily glanced at the pair of black running shoes on his feet.

They looked utterly ordinary, but they were actually a special item he had purchased from the Ascension Shop.

Wearing them not only increased his speed, but also reduced his physical exertion.

The only flaw was that when he used their ability, his Mind Power was consumed rapidly.

Once it was depleted, the running shoes lost their special bonus and became no different from ordinary shoes.

Though the middle-aged man felt somewhat regretful and thought that he could have achieved an even better result if he had more Mind Power,

he was already very satisfied with his current result.

"I definitely won't make the final top three, but taking first place in my group should be easy!"

The middle-aged man knew very well how formidable the world's top runners were.

The previous world record holder had already achieved the terrifying time of exactly two hours for a full marathon!

One could imagine that if those elite runners were still alive, even if not all of them were, as long as some had survived, they would undoubtedly have a great chance of breaking two hours with Mind Power assisting them.

So the man would not make a fool of himself by competing against them. He would be perfectly content with taking first place in his group.

The man drank a few sips of water, found a bench to sit on, and summoned his Personal Terminal.

His nickname was "On the Road."

He opened the group and sent a message.

"How's everyone's progress? I've already finished the challenge, with a time of 2 hours 37 minutes 56 seconds. It can't compare to top runners, but I think it's pretty good myself, haha. There's still some time left, so I plan to run it again in a few days and see if I can improve a little more!"

He had previously mentioned in the group that he was an amateur marathon enthusiast, which had already drawn quite a bit of attention. The moment he sent this message, it immediately received numerous replies.

"Amazing! Respect!"

"You cleared it on just the second day? As expected of an amateur pro!"

"Damn... With someone like that in our group, how is anyone else supposed to fight for first place?"

"When the mountain has no tiger, the monkey becomes king! This result can only take first in our group. There's no chance of making the final top three!"

"Boss, can you share some tips? I ran five kilometers this morning and collapsed from exhaustion."

On the Road looked at the group messages. Seeing those jealous and envious remarks, he could not help feeling pleased.

He saw someone asking for advice and considered sharing something, but the messages that followed made him abandon the idea.

"Why ask an amateur like him for advice? The officials already invited a marathon champion to write a guide!"

"Yeah, I read the champion's guide too, but it didn't seem very useful."

"What good is a champion? This isn't a math problem where you can just copy the answer after knowing it. In the end, you still have to run it yourself!"

"Sigh, it's hard."

On the Road looked at the messages and was about to check online to see whether any top runners had announced their results.

But before he could close his Personal Terminal, a message popped up in the group.

That message was like a bomb, leaving everyone in the group completely stunned.

On the Road's eyes widened as well. He thought he had misread it, or perhaps was even hallucinating.

[Group member "Shadow" has completed the challenge in 21 seconds]