"I wonder what the difference between excellent and ordinary is?"
Guan Tong thought he would have to check online later to see whether the White Paper on the Apocalypse Rules had been updated.
But for now, he still had things to study.
First were the new functions unlocked on the Personal Terminal.
There were two in total: [Social] and [Trading].
Their names were easy enough to understand—they meant exactly what they said—but upon closer inspection, he found there was more to them.
The [Social] function showed that duplicate nicknames were allowed.
In other words, Guan Tong could call himself "Shadow," and someone else could use "Shadow" as their nickname too.
The way to tell them apart was through each person's exclusive "Unique Digital ID."
Guan Tong checked his. His Digital ID was 771539268.
To add a friend, one only needed to enter their Digital ID, ensuring they would not add the wrong person.
But aside from adding friends, the [Social] function actually had an option to add a "Nemesis."
Guan Tong looked into it. If he added someone as a Nemesis, that person would receive a notification as well. Once both parties became each other's Nemesis, they would receive a prompt whenever they came within a certain distance of each other.
Furthermore, two people who were Nemeses could not use the "Team Up" function.
Though Guan Tong did not know what "Team Up" was for, he guessed it was something that would become relevant in future rules.
As for the other new function, [Trading], it contained a "Market" option once opened.
Everyone could list Tradable Items on the market and set a price to sell them.
Those who wanted to buy them could spend Ascension Coins.
However, the market currently showed zero items. No one had listed anything yet.
As Guan Tong looked at it, he recalled Fire Thief's voice saying that more products had been added to the Ascension Shop.
He closed the market function and opened the Ascension Shop.
Sure enough, the interface had changed.
Previously, the shop had contained nothing but a search bar. Now, products had appeared.
There were not many, though. Guan Tong looked through the list and found it was only one page long, with just a few items on it.
[Bronze Grade Primary Weapon Crate]: After use, choose one cold weapon of your choice. [Price: 50 Ascension Coins]
[Bronze Grade Primary Medical Crate]: After use, receive a random medical item. [Price: 80 Ascension Coins]
[Bronze Grade Basic Food Crate]: After use, receive 1 unit of basic food. [Price: 20 Ascension Coins]
There were only three products for sale. Guan Tong finished looking through them after a few glances.
His first impression could be summed up in two words: utterly useless.
Take the weapon crate, for example. Opening it allowed one to choose a cold weapon, such as a dagger or machete.
Choosing a dagger from a crate versus buying a knife from a supermarket—the former's greatest advantages were portability and concealment.
That was because man-made objects from reality could not be placed inside the Storage Box of the Personal Terminal.
In other words, he could buy a crate from the Ascension Shop, open it to get a dagger, then keep it in the Storage Box when he did not need it.
Once he encountered danger, he could retrieve the dagger from the terminal's Storage Box in an instant with a thought and use it to deal with the threat.
—That was its only advantage.
It was nice enough, but would Guan Tong really spend 50 Ascension Coins on it? He would not.
On one hand, he was poor, and Ascension Coins could not be spent carelessly.
On the other hand, compared to waving a cold weapon around in a fight, he would rather avoid putting himself in that kind of dangerous situation in the first place.
If he really had to buy something, he would be more inclined to choose the second medical crate.
If it gave him some kind of versatile medicine, it might prove immensely useful someday.
As for the third food crate, Guan Tong found it rather puzzling.
The first two had their own uses, but what was the point of this Food Box?
"If society falls apart and a massive famine breaks out, then spending Ascension Coins on this Food Box for emergencies would be fine. Under normal circumstances, as long as there's still something to eat, no one would buy it."
Everyone knew how hard it was to obtain Ascension Coins.
The only known way to get them was to successfully challenge Apocalypse Rules. Their scarcity was off the charts.
Guan Tong believed that now that the [Trading] function had opened, along with the Ascension Shop's new products, the value of Ascension Coins would become terrifyingly high.
He estimated that even if those big shots in the real world were asked to trade a pound of gold for one Ascension Coin, they would not so much as blink.
Unfortunately, even if they wanted to trade, they could not.
Even if someone wanted to give their Ascension Coins to another person, it would be difficult!
The terminal currently had no "Gift" function at all. To obtain someone else's Ascension Coins, one had to sell that person an item.
Yet it seemed that no one currently possessed any Tradable Items. At the very least, no one had listed any on the market.
The [Sobering Mint Candy] obtained from Rule One could not be traded at all.
The [Gene Optimization Fluid] Guan Tong had just obtained from the crate could be traded, but unless someone had been kicked in the head by a donkey, no one would list such a precious item on the market.
Even if they did, who could afford it? Selling it cheap was possible, but that would be idiotic. And people foolish enough to do that generally would not be able to obtain such a precious item in the first place.
"I should save my coins for now."
After looking through the shop, Guan Tong closed it.
He did not plan to spend anything. There was simply no need.
Saving up and waiting for better items to be added later was the best choice for Guan Tong.
Then, thoroughly satisfied, Guan Tong went to the study and turned on his computer.
He had originally intended to check the White Paper's updates online, only to find the internet flooded with complaints from users.
"Fuck! My Mind Power dropped by 15 points, and my cap got smashed straight down to the thirties!"
"Mine dropped by 7 points. This sucks..."
"I'm devastated! I was originally at 80 and barely got an ordinary rating. Now I've dropped to 72 and become inferior again!"
"Why do people who fail the challenge lose different amounts from their Mind Power Cap???"
"The White Paper was updated. It seems to be related to rule completion. The closer you get to successfully completing the challenge, the less your Mind Power declines."
"I'm crying! The shop got new items, but I have zero coins now and can't buy anything!"
The previous group's challenge success rate had already shown that most people had failed the challenge.
That meant they not only failed to receive Ascension Coin rewards, but their precious Mind Power Caps had also declined.
In Guan Tong's view, that was the truly fatal part.
"Mind Power will probably become increasingly important in later rules. If it isn't high enough, passing challenges will definitely become more and more difficult."
The moment Guan Tong realized this, he knew he could not become complacent.
He could not get carried away just because he had obtained a bottle of Gene Optimization Fluid and used it to raise his cap by 20 points.
The cycle of frantically draining and recovering his Mind Power every day could never stop.
Guan Tong logged onto the official website of the Apocalypse Rules Countermeasure Research Office, intending to check the White Paper's updates.
Unexpectedly, the moment he entered the website, a pop-up window appeared.
[Notice: The Mind Power Development Academy is currently being prepared for construction. Those interested, please call for details.]
Before you continue