Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 40 The Ability to Transform Shadows

After returning from the police station, Guan Tong sat in her room, reviewing the events that had occurred during that time.

Ever since those two gangsters randomly came to his house, his life has become much faster-paced.

In particular, this kidnapping case has far-reaching implications; it is not an isolated incident, but a major case involving multiple cities and remotely directed by an online entity.

On her way back, Guan Tong wondered how such remote control could be achieved. In the post-apocalyptic world, why would gangs in various cities risk kidnapping people and going against the authorities?
It could be an incentive, but it wouldn't be money, which is practically useless these days; it would be gold.

It could be coercion, such as threatening to kill someone if they don't agree.

It's also possible that it's a combination of both, with both carrot and stick approach.

"If it comes to enticement, the entity currently holding the most gold is undoubtedly the government. The next largest group might be some hidden millionaires, large business owners, and big capitalists."

Guan Tongxin used to read news reports frequently. They said that some large business owners or capitalists held a very small percentage of their assets in cash, and instead held more high-quality assets such as company stocks, gold, and prime real estate properties.

Faced with this super black swan event of the apocalyptic rules, even if all these people's money becomes worthless, their gold, real estate in key locations, and other assets will still retain high value.

The value has even increased several times over.

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

Many people believe that in the face of a disaster of this magnitude, only large cities can provide timely and effective official assistance.

Smaller cities and even villages will soon be abandoned. Perhaps the authorities don't want to do this, but it's not a matter of whether they want to or not; it's that with insufficient resources, they can only prioritize large, densely populated cities.

There are reports online that the free housing application policy in Yong'an, the capital city, has been discontinued. This is because the large number of people from all over the country flocking to the capital after the disaster led to an overwhelming number of applicants, causing the vacant houses to be allocated very quickly.

Although the government still supports real estate transactions, people selling properties in the capital now only accept gold transactions.

This has caused the real value of gold to skyrocket. If used to bribe gangs in other cities, it might be able to get them to work.

After all, gangs are made up of people, and people need to address their need for security first. Currently, the city that best provides this sense of security is undoubtedly the capital, Yong'an.

Therefore, perhaps gang leaders from all over the world are eager to acquire a large sum of gold as soon as possible so they can buy a house in the capital and live there.

Guan Tong didn't have many thoughts on that.

Although Yunhua City, where he lives, is not as good as the capital, it is still a large city and is quite good in many aspects.

Furthermore, he believes that the idea that "living in the capital is safer" is more of a psychological comfort.

"Personal terminal".

Guan Tong opened the storage box and took out the [Constant Temperature Technology Underwear - Basic Model] that he had previously purchased.

Because the appearance can be customized, he simply set it to a pair of black boxer shorts.

The underwear felt incredibly smooth to the touch, like silk. He put it on, moved around a bit, and found it to be very pleasant.

“I can use this to replace my everyday underwear,” Guan Tong thought. “When I buy those multi-terrain marching boots later, I’ll have a replacement for my everyday shoes too.”

He thought that later on, every ascendant might be decked out in identical shop items from head to toe. There was no way around it; the shop's products were both comfortable and had special functions.

He then took out the blank book and placed it on the table.

Turning to the first page, the four characters "体体关瞳" (Entity Guan Tong) came into view. "The first experiment of adding characters was very successful, which means that adding characters is feasible."

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

Guan Tong felt that adding the word "invincible" before "physical Guan Tong" would definitely be useless.

The principle is simple: writing words is fine, but making them detach from the pages and become reality requires mental effort.

With his current mental strength cap of 119 points, no matter how optimistic he is, he doesn't think he can turn the concept of "invincible physical Guan Tong" into reality.

"The more exaggerated and powerful a concept is, the more mental energy it consumes to translate into reality. And..."

With a thought, Guan Tong's shadow immediately detached from the book page and stood to his side.

Guan Tong manipulated it to the window and touched the shadow on the window. Sure enough, the ability of the unmaterialized shadow to merge with the shadows of other objects had disappeared.

The shadow now has a physical form, but it has lost the abilities it had in its non-physical state.

"I wonder if it's possible to switch between two states: physical and non-physical? That way, we can switch to whichever state we need."

When he realized this, he mentally commanded the shadow to convert to a non-physical state.

The next moment, he was surprised to see that the shadow quickly "shrunken" and returned to its previous non-physical state in just two or three seconds! It really could do that!
"Return to physical state!"

As Guan Tong gave the order again, the non-physical shadow filled the hollow space again, transforming into a full, solid state.

While Guan Tong was excited, she didn't forget to check her mental energy consumption.

As expected, switching between reality and illusion consumes mental energy, consuming about 20 points instantly each time.

...It's totally worth it!

Guan Tong felt that he could accept anything, not just 20, but even double it to 40!
Because this function of switching between virtual and real is so practical.

He could think of many things right now: for example, to enter a solidly locked room, he could simply let the non-physical shadow go in first, and then materialize it to open the lock from the inside.

For example, when Guan Tong encounters an enemy, he can hide in the shadows and manipulate his non-physical shadow to silently circle behind the enemy, then materialize it to launch a surprise attack, which can achieve remarkable results.

"It seems that any ability that the shadow once possessed can be retained and will not be permanently lost with changes in form... That's really good. From now on, let's call this ability 'Illusion and Reality'."

"Virtual" refers to something unmaterialized or non-physical; "physical" refers to something materialized or physical.

Having developed the ability to blur the lines between reality and illusion, Guan Tong's confidence soared.

He felt that the wordless book in his hand had great potential for expansion, and that as long as it was tested enough times, it would definitely be able to develop more practical and powerful abilities.

There are multiple development directions for just one "shadow", not to mention the many other blank pages.

If it weren't for her lack of mental strength, Guan Tong would really like to write a page a day, and try to create a new ability every day to see if she could achieve it.

"Unfortunately, the interval between rules is too short this time. The Fire Thief will release the fourth apocalyptic rule in three days... I don't have much time left to develop it. I only have today and tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, I have to conserve my mental energy to deal with what kind of new rule it may be."

(End of this chapter)