Guan Tong's Choice

"By using violence to force another person into a state of sleep, one can obtain a 'Sobering Mint Candy'..."

"Using this item allows one to remain absolutely awake for three hours..."

Guan Tong frowned as he paced back and forth in the Living Room.

"If this Hidden Rule is real and applies to everyone, someone will surely discover it very soon."

"There are tens of billions of people in the world, all doing different things at any given moment. When the Apocalypse Rules were announced, who knew how many people were fighting? If someone had just knocked another person unconscious and immediately received a 'Sobering Mint Candy,' they would quickly realize that this was a Hidden Rule."

"To maintain their advantage, people who discover the Hidden Rule would likely choose not to report it. But since the trigger condition isn't particularly demanding, it will be exposed and spread sooner or later... Once large numbers of people learn of it, what will happen? A nationwide free-for-all?"

"No, that's not right... From a national perspective, once the authenticity of this Hidden Rule is confirmed, those in power would definitely suppress the news to prevent widespread chaos, forbid people from going out, and might even temporarily shut down the internet to stop people from fighting each other."

"Looking at it that way, if someone wants to profit from this Hidden Rule, the best approach would be to knock out as many people as possible and obtain enough 'Sobering Mint Candy' before the news spreads and people are forbidden from leaving home. Then they could lock themselves inside and use those Mint Candies to get through the seventy-two hours safely."

"This kind of thing..."

Guan Tong shook his head. He had no intention of doing it.

Knowing full well that people would die after falling unconscious, he considered such a method no different from deliberate murder.

And it would not mean killing just one person.

Once he started, he would not be able to stop.

After all, one "Sobering Mint Candy" could only keep him awake for three hours, while the "Sleep Deprivation" rule would last seventy-two hours.

In other words, to ensure a one-hundred-percent survival rate by eating one every three hours, he would need twenty-four in total. Even cutting that number in half meant twelve, equivalent to taking twelve lives.

"To increase your own chances of survival, would you choose to deprive others of their right to survive?"

The note beneath this Hidden Rule had made the essence of the matter perfectly clear.

Guan Tong's answer was "no."

"Ding-dong, ding-dong-dong."

At that moment, his phone began to ring. It was not a regular call ringtone, but the voice-call notification unique to a Social Media app.

Guan Tong glanced at it. The call had actually been initiated through the class group chat. Somewhat surprised, he answered. "Fang Qian?"

An anxious female voice came through the phone. "Guan Tong, are you at home? Are you alone?"

Fang Qian was Guan Tong's classmate, a delicate-looking girl with thin-framed glasses. Her grades were excellent, and she had never fallen out of the top three in their class.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Guan Tong, I... My parents are at a research institute out of town. Transportation everywhere has stopped, so they can't come back at all. I'm the only one at home. The official recommendations said that it's best not to be alone during these seventy-two hours, and that keeping a conversation going with others is one of the best ways to stay awake... So I, I thought of you, because you..."

Guan Tong understood.

Everyone in class knew he was an orphan, so it was perfectly normal for him to be home alone right now.

As for Fang Qian's parents, they were a pair of well-known scientists. They spent all year traveling between academies of science across the country, and everyone in class had heard about that too.

With an emergency disaster suddenly breaking out and Fang Qian's parents unable to return from out of town, it was not strange that, in her fear, she had thought of Guan Tong.

"Do you want to get through these seventy-two hours with me?" Guan Tong asked directly.

"Mm... Is that okay?"

"Yes. Come straight to my place. I'll send you the address."

"That's wonderful! Thank you, Guan Tong."

"No need. Having someone to talk to will also help me stay awake."

"Mm... I'll head over right now!"

Guan Tong ended the call and sent Fang Qian his home address.

About half an hour later, the doorbell rang.

After confirming through the peephole that it was Fang Qian, Guan Tong opened the door and let her in.

"Guan Tong, sorry to bother you..."

Fang Qian was still wearing her white-and-blue-striped school uniform. Carrying two bags in her Hands, she stepped into the room and looked at Guan Tong somewhat nervously.

"It's fine. Sit wherever you like," Guan Tong said.

"Mm... I brought some food. Ah, and this too."

Fang Qian took a box of instant coffee sticks from one of the bags. There were still more than a dozen packets left inside.

"Sometimes when I stayed up late doing practice papers, I'd mix one with water and drink it. I didn't expect it to come in handy now."

Guan Tong said, "School didn't let out from evening study until nearly nine, right? And you still stayed up doing practice papers after getting home. No wonder your grades are so good."

A little embarrassed, Fang Qian pushed up her glasses, then sat down with Guan Tong in the Living Room.

Seeing that he had not turned on the television or played any music through the speakers, she asked curiously.

"There's no need yet," Guan Tong explained. "It's like the coffee you brought. It doesn't create energy out of thin air. Its essence is still overworking the body. If you drink it now, while you aren't tired, you won't have anything left for when you really are tired, because you'll have exhausted it all in advance."

Fang Qian suddenly understood. "I see. Mm, that makes sense. Listening to music is the same, then. If we play it so loudly while we aren't tired, it won't be nearly as effective once we're exhausted and sleepy."

"Exactly."

After exchanging a few simple words, they had nothing else to talk about.

They had not been particularly familiar to begin with. Over three years of high school, they had not even spoken a hundred sentences to each other.

Guan Tong picked up a book and read, while Fang Qian anxiously kept scrolling through her phone, occasionally glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

He was actually this calm...

Information online and the conversations in the class group chat had already exploded into chaos, yet Guan Tong barely paid any attention to them and still had the mood to read. It was really...

Fang Qian thought that the reason she had thought of Guan Tong, found his Social Media account through the class group chat to call him, and had even worked up the courage to come to his home was because of how he had acted before leaving school.

Earlier, he had slapped Xu Beipeng in class to confirm that the latter was no longer breathing, then disregarded the homeroom teacher and taken the lead in leaving school... All of that had inexplicably made her feel safe around Guan Tong.

After they had remained silent for more than an hour, Fang Qian bit her lip and took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Guan Tong, who was reading, using information she had seen online.

"Guan Tong, did you know? A lot of people online are demanding to go to hospitals now."

"Go to hospitals?" Guan Tong raised his head and looked at her.

"Mm," Fang Qian said. "It seems some medical students said that people could stay awake by taking medicine or getting injections containing stimulants... Do you think that could really work?"

"Maybe. But even if people can endure it that way, not everyone will be able to use it. Those medicines and injections must be limited. There's no way there would be enough for everyone."

"That's true. Ah..." As Fang Qian spoke, she saw something on her phone and said in disbelief, "There are actually people thanking Fire Thief!"

Guan Tong guessed, "Probably people who wanted to kill themselves."

Fang Qian looked at Guan Tong in surprise, then nodded. "Mm. The person who made the post said they had cancer before this and had been suffering from cancer pain the whole time. They had thought about leaving several times, but never had the courage. Now, they only need to sleep once to leave this world peacefully and without pain... So they were very grateful for the Apocalypse Rules brought by Fire Thief."