Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 89 Unique Reward

The Holy Grail has been held for 30 minutes.

As the fire-stealer's voice rang out, all the surviving teams on the island stopped moving.

"The Holy Grail... has never changed hands even once."

Almost everyone believed that the Holy Grail would change hands at least several times due to the extremely fierce competition, but that did not happen.

The team that initially found the Holy Grail held onto it until the very end.

All the teams that didn't join the fray or compete were thinking the same thing: Was that team really that strong? How come no other team could defeat them and take the Holy Grail?
But that doesn't really concern them. If there is anything to it, it's that the duration of this challenge has been significantly reduced.

The challenge, which was originally scheduled to last 24 hours, ended in less than 10 hours.

The team that will claim the Holy Grail has been confirmed; the first Ascended Challenge has concluded.

After the Firebringer finished speaking, all the surviving Ascended were drawn away from the ground by gravity and flew into the sky, just like when they had been teleported there.

Teams have been ranked based on their total points.

[First Place: Shadow]

[Second Place: Adam, Marty, Elisa, Amanda, Claire]

[Third Place: Dragon Soul, Black Shark, Flying Eagle, Night Owl, Silver Fox]

[Fourth Place: Yamata no Murasaki, Tsuki no Mikoto, Muyan]

Fifth Place: Snow Without a Trace

……

The list of the top ten teams was displayed to each participant, causing great shock among them.

"Shadow? Could it be the shadow who came in first place during the second apocalyptic rule?"

"It's him again?!"

"His team only has one person? He's number one in points by himself? How did he do that!"

Somewhere in the air, the four women in Adam's team, who were ranked second, were astonished when they saw the list of the top ten: "Lucifer isn't in the top ten? And those guys from the Tulip Federation too..."

"They failed in the battle for the Holy Grail, didn't they? With their strength, it would have been easy for them to make it into the top ten if they had played it safe. It's a pity." Adam sighed. "So, as they say, those who love war will perish, and even the strongest are no exception."

"However, this 'shadow' is terrifying! It seems it will be a formidable enemy for you, Adam!"

"Don't say that, Amanda. I don't like making enemies. If I could, I'd like to join forces with him to fight against the rules of the apocalypse."

"...Adam, you're too kind; you'll be taken advantage of later!"

Adam didn't say anything more, he just smiled.

The five members of the third team are also discussing the rankings at this moment.

Captain Long Hun said, "Of the five post-apocalyptic teams in the Countermeasures Research Lab, only our first and fourth teams made it into the rankings; the second, third, and fifth teams didn't make it at all."

"Teams three and five have already lost twice in a row. Will they be eliminated?" Silver Fox asked.

"It's hard to say. But the captain's decision not to compete for the Holy Grail is undoubtedly the right one," Black Shark said. "With so many people fighting, the risk is just too high. Luck is more important than strength."

In a chaotic multiplayer battle, even a strong squad has limited strength. If four or five squads gang up on you, you could still be caught off guard and lose.

Therefore, Captain Longhun made the decision to give up competing for the Holy Grail and prioritize gaining points to maintain his ranking.

In retrospect, this decision has at least secured a place in the top three for the Northern Star Kingdom.

“Black Shark is right,” Captain Dragon Soul said, “but I believe that ‘shadow’ was definitely not just a matter of luck.”

The other four nodded in agreement; luck alone couldn't hold onto the Holy Grail for 30 minutes.

"During the period of the second rule, I remember there were many videos online... saying that they believed 'Shadow' was a person from our Northern Star Kingdom and hoped that he would reveal the secret to clearing the game. That 'Shadow' and this 'Shadow' should be the same person, right?"

"Not necessarily. Only the numerical designation is fixed; nicknames can be changed at any time. There are probably at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, ascendants named 'Shadow'."

At this moment, Night Owl, who had been silent all along, slowly said, "After this challenge, the whole world will definitely want to find out who 'Shadow' is. Moreover, in order to protect the Holy Grail, his abilities and items have definitely been exposed to many Ascended... If he uses his abilities easily in the outside world afterward, his identity will likely be identified."

"Hehe, Night Owl, it's rare for you to talk so much. What, are you trying to find him?" Silver Fox asked with a smile.

Night Owl said, "Of course. Who wouldn't want to see a strong person? And if he really is a citizen of our Northern Star Kingdom, the higher-ups would definitely want to recruit him into the official team."

The ranking rewards for the top ten teams have been distributed.

[The team led by contestant "Shadow" received an additional special reward for acquiring ownership of the Holy Grail.]

[The first Ascended Challenge has concluded. Teleportation is now open.]

As the fire-stealer's voice faded, just as they had arrived, a black hole appeared before them, and they were sucked into it.

When light returned, they were back at their original location before the teleportation.

Guan Tong stood in the supplies storage room, looking at the sunset outside, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

"It was definitely worth participating in this competition."

Without a doubt, he is the biggest winner of this challenge, bar none.

Even though his abilities as Silver Hunter—smoke bombs, high-explosive bombs, and shadow abilities—have been exposed to some extent, inevitably leading to a high-level search, it's all worth it compared to the rewards he'll receive!
He used the fourth page of the [Wordless Book] and obtained a personal, portable sanctuary; he also enhanced Shadow's five senses and Silver Hunter's electronic interference capabilities... all of which were huge improvements for him.

And that's not all he gained.

"Personal terminal".

Guan Tong brought up the terminal panel.

Name: Guan Tong

Nickname: Shadow

Title: Lawkeeper

[Psychic Power: 134 (134) (3120)]

[Ascended Coins: 387]

Overall Bioinformatics Evaluation: Excellent

After about 8 hours of this match, his mental strength limit increased by 2 points. This was undoubtedly exaggerated compared to the previous average increase of 1 point every 7 or 8 days. Guan Tong knew that this was related to the frequency of battles, something he had previously speculated about. The more intense and frequent the battles, the faster the mental strength limit would increase.

But that's not the point. The point is that he used the Holy Grail buff to accumulate more than 3,000 points of mental energy!

This enormous reserve is enough for him to use for quite some time. If he really encounters danger, he can use it to turn the tide and even temporarily form an army to suppress multiple enemies.

Besides his mental energy reserves, Guan Tong also stored up a lot of Silver Hunter bullets. He looked at the electronic screen, and the numbers on it were truly reassuring.

1号弹*97；2号弹*58；3号弹*215；4号弹*136；5号弹*61
He had to use his mental energy to store these bullets, and he didn't know how long it would take. Now, with the Holy Grail buff, he felt that these generated could last him at least half a year.

If the battles don't happen frequently in the future, it shouldn't be a problem to use it for a year or two.

Aside from these self-generated rewards, Guan Tong still has real rewards to be found.

He opened the terminal's storage box, and two more treasure chests appeared inside.

[First Ascendant Challenge Champion Chest - Glory Level]: Open to receive random rewards.

[Holy Grail Ownership Chest - Unique]: Opening this chest grants a random reward; items obtained from this chest are unique.

"Finally, I've seen a Glory-level item again..."

Guan Tong remembered that the last time she got the Glory-level treasure chest was when she got first place, which was during that marathon.

The [Gene Optimization Essence] he found in the box not only significantly increased his mental power limit in one go, but he could also feel his body being continuously optimized afterward, which made him very satisfied.

I wonder what good stuff I'll get this time.

Moreover, the quality of the second box was "unique," something he had never seen before.

"The description says that the items obtained from the opening have a unique characteristic, meaning that what I get, no one else can get again, right..."

"Come one by one."

Guan Tong opened the first champion's treasure chest.

Title Awarded: Winner

title?

Guan Tong was somewhat surprised. Apart from the survival chest he opened after the first rule change, he finally saw a title reward again.

However, unlike the previous "Order Keeper" or "Order Breaker", this title is no longer just a title, but has additional attributes.

[Winner]: Wearing this title increases the natural recovery speed of mental energy by 100%.
It actually doubled the speed of mental energy recovery!

Guan Tong was very satisfied with the title's attributes.

For a lone wolf like him, the speed at which mental energy recovers is actually very important. Recovering just one more point at a crucial moment could very well determine the outcome of a battle.

Although he currently has over 3,000 points of reserve mental energy, and doesn't have an urgent need for immediate recovery speed in the short term, it's clear that this title will definitely be useful later on.

Guan Tong immediately chose to wear it without saying a word.

His "Lawkeeper" title on his panel has been up for months; it's time to change it.

After changing her title, Guan Tong opened the unique quality treasure chest again.

He was eagerly anticipating what unique item might be found among them.

[Gained Ability: Teleportation]

"He's activated his abilities?"

This was the first time Guan Tong had ever unlocked her abilities from a box.

After checking the details of his ability, he took a deep breath.

[Teleportation]: Consumes 10% of your maximum mental energy to swap positions with an object related to your mental energy. Cooldown time: 10 seconds. This ability is unique.

"This... is absolutely perfect."

Upon seeing the skill's effect, Guan Tong almost immediately realized that he could use this ability to swap positions with his "shadow" at crucial moments! It could be used to dodge enemy attacks, launch unexpected surprise attacks, or even travel long distances.

Moreover, its usage cost is not high. Using 10% of your maximum mental energy to exchange for a chance to save your life at a critical moment is a huge win no matter how you look at it.

"As expected of its unique ability, the effect is really too strong."

Guan Tong liked the abilities more and more as she looked at them, and wished she could get a few more unique treasure chests to open and see.

"Since this is the 'first challenge,' there should be a 'second,' 'third,' and so on in the future, right? I must try my best to get the hidden reward and the unique reward again."

Although the next challenge seems far away, Guan Tong has already made up her mind.

After a period of excitement, he gradually calmed down.

Although I got first place and the hidden reward this time, at this moment, that's all in the past.

In another two weeks, the new post-apocalyptic rules will be released. Until then, we need to do more preparation and must not become complacent or slack off just because we won this challenge.

"Rather than anything else, I need to test the 'fully functional shelter' written on the fourth page of the wordless book."

After Guan Tong finished writing it, he successfully materialized it, but only glanced at its appearance before putting it back into the book.

Because at that time he was holding the Holy Grail and was just focused on successfully materializing it, he didn't have time to go inside and take a look, let alone carefully study how this shelter was "omnipotent".

Now that we've returned from the Holy Grail Island, the most important thing is to first study this shelter, and then we need to consider where to place it.

Although it can be summoned from the [Wordless Book] at any time and returned to the pages at any time, this process consumes mental energy. According to his tests on the island, summoning it once requires consuming the maximum mental energy limit at that time.

Therefore, unless there is a need to leave, it is best to keep it in one place temporarily.

However, we can consider the placement later. Let's summon it and go in to take a look first.

Guan Tong thought for a moment and went outside. There was hardly anyone else in his neighborhood except him, so he simply summoned it in the open space between the two collapsed buildings.

The moment the shelter hut appeared, Guan Tong's maximum mental energy of 134 points was reduced to only 2 points, and materializing it consumed a total of 132 points.

"...Without the Holy Grail buff, it really feels a bit strange."

Guan Tong shook her head, trying to stop herself from thinking about how exhilarating it was to play "Unlimited Power," and strode towards her shelter cabin.

(End of this chapter)