Shadow's Conversion Ability

After returning from the Public Security Bureau, Guan Tong sat in his room, reviewing the events of the past period.

Ever since those two gangsters randomly found his home, his life had sped up considerably.

Especially this kidnapping case, which had far-reaching implications. It wasn't an isolated incident but a major case involving multiple cities, with a mastermind directing operations remotely.

On his way back, Guan Tong had pondered how such remote control could be achieved. In the Apocalypse Rules Era, why would gangs across cities risk kidnapping people and going against the authorities?

It could be a temptation, but not with money, which was now largely useless. It would have to be gold.

It could be coercion, threatening to eliminate them if they refused.

Or it could be a combination of both, a carrot and stick approach.

"If it's temptation, then the ones holding the most gold right now are definitely the authorities. Next would be some hidden wealthy individuals, major corporate owners, and big capitalists."

Guan Tong used to read reports frequently. They stated that some major corporate owners or capitalists held only a small percentage of their assets in cash, with more invested in company stocks, gold, and prime real estate like shops and commercial properties.

Thus, facing the Apocalypse Rules, a super black swan event, even if all their money turned into worthless paper, their gold and prime real estate would still retain high value.

In fact, that value was multiplying.

Guan Tong had seen online that after transportation resumed, a large number of people nationwide were migrating to big cities.

This was because many believed that in the face of such a disaster, only big cities could provide timely and effective rescue from the authorities.

Small cities and even villages would quickly become abandoned. Perhaps the authorities didn't want this, but it wasn't a matter of desire; with insufficient resources, priority had to be given to densely populated big cities.

There were now reports online that the free housing application policy in the Capital, Yong'an, had been stopped. This was because too many people had flocked to the Capital after the disaster, causing the number of applicants to explode and the vacant housing to be quickly allocated.

Although the authorities still supported property sales, sellers in the Capital were now only accepting gold for transactions.

This had caused the actual value of gold to continuously soar. If it was used to bribe gangs in other cities, perhaps they could be driven to act.

After all, gangs were made up of people, and people needed to first address the security of their survival. Currently, the city that could provide the most security was undoubtedly the Capital, Yong'an.

Therefore, it was possible that gang leaders everywhere wanted to quickly acquire a large sum of gold to buy a house in the Capital and live there.

Guan Tong didn't have many thoughts along those lines.

Although Yunhua City, where he was located, couldn't compare to the Capital, it was still a big city with decent everything.

Moreover, he believed that the idea of "living in the Capital is safer" was mostly psychological comfort.

"Personal Terminal."

Guan Tong opened his storage box and took out the [Thermostatic Tech Underwear (Basic)] he had purchased earlier.

Since the appearance was customizable, he had simply set it as a pair of black boxer briefs.

The underwear felt very smooth to the touch, with a texture like silk. He put it on and moved around, feeling quite good.

"I can use this to replace my daily underwear," Guan Tong thought. "I'll buy the [Multi-terrain Marching Boots] later, and my daily shoes will have a replacement too."

He suspected that in the future, every Ascendant might be fully clad in store-bought items. It couldn't be helped, considering the comfort and special functions of the store's products.

He then took out the [Wordless Book] and placed it on the table.

Opening the first page, the words "Solidified Guan Tong" appeared before his eyes.

"The first attempt at adding words was successful, which means adding words itself is feasible."

"However, anything too outrageous probably won't work."

Guan Tong felt that if he added the word "invincible" before "Solidified Guan Tong," it definitely wouldn't work.

The logic was simple: writing the words was fine, but transforming them from the book page into reality required consuming Mind Power.

With his current Mind Power Cap of 119 points, no matter how optimistic he was, he didn't think he could transform the concept of "Invincible Solidified Guan Tong" into reality.

"The more exaggerated and powerful the concept, the more Mind Power it consumes to become reality. And..."

As Guan Tong's thoughts moved, the Shadow immediately detached from the book page and stood beside him.

Guan Tong manipulated it to go to the window and touch the shadow of the window. As expected, the ability for the Shadow, when non-solidified, to merge with the shadows of other objects had disappeared.

Now that the Shadow had a physical form, it had lost the abilities it had in its non-solidified state.

"I wonder if the Shadow can switch between solid and non-solid states? That way, it could transform when needed."

As this thought occurred, he willed the Shadow to switch to a non-solid state.

The next moment, he was pleasantly surprised to see the Shadow rapidly "deflate," returning to its former non-solid state in just two to three seconds! It actually worked!

"Return to solid state!"

Following Guan Tong's command again, the non-solidified Shadow refilled its hollow form, becoming solid once more.

While excited, Guan Tong didn't forget to check his Mind Power consumption.

As expected, switching between solid and ethereal states consumed Mind Power, instantly using about 20 points each time.

...It was totally worth it!

Guan Tong felt that even if it doubled to 40, he would accept it!

This solid-ethereal conversion function had too many practical applications.

He could already think of several: for example, to enter a securely locked room, he could completely let the non-solidified Shadow go in first, then solidify from the inside to unlock the door.

For example, if Guan Tong encountered an enemy, he could hide in the shadows and manipulate his non-corporeal shadow to silently circle behind the enemy before solidifying and launching a surprise attack, achieving a remarkable effect.

"It seems that any ability the shadow has possessed can be retained and won't be permanently lost with changes in form... That's really great. I'll call this ability 'Phasing' from now on."

Phasing refers to the non-corporeal shadow, while Solidifying refers to the corporeal shadow.

With the development of the shadow's Phasing ability, Guan Tong's confidence soared.

He felt that the [Wordless Book] in his hands had immense potential for expansion. As long as he tested it enough times, he would surely be able to develop more practical and powerful abilities.

The "shadow" alone had multiple development directions, let alone the other numerous blank pages in the book.

If not for his insufficient Mind Power, Guan Tong would have loved to write a new ability every day, one page per day, to see if it could be realized.

"It's a pity the interval between rules is too short this time. The Fire Thief will release the fourth Apocalypse Rule in three days... I don't have much time left to develop. I only have today and tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, I'll need to conserve my Mind Power to prepare for whatever new rule it might be."