Guan Tong withdrew Shadow after discovering that this commission was actually an official attempt to bait him.

Not long after, he directly posted a statement on the website, declaring zero tolerance for deception, false commissions, and fraudulent transactions.

As a case example, he publicly banned the commissioner "Flying Owl" and the previous account that claimed to be a warehouse manager.

As soon as the post went up, replies immediately surged.

"What's going on here?"

"So these two were engaging in fraudulent transactions. I did think it was pretty bold to resell food from a supply warehouse just for some Ascension Coins."

"Ban them! Good! We finally have a platform for normal communication; we can't let these scammers mess it up!"

"Support Administrator. Best to ban their IPs as well, so they can't just register new accounts."

Users overwhelmingly supported Guan Tong's decision. As the Doomsday Rules continued to deepen, relationships between people were becoming increasingly strained, and tolerance for scammers was dropping lower and lower. Everyone desperately hoped for a platform that was honest and reliable.

After the two accounts were banned, personnel from the official Network Department discovered it immediately. The message was relayed and delivered to the First Squad, who were still waiting at the trap camp.

Captain Dragon Soul was somewhat taken aback upon learning this, unsure how the Administrator had discovered it.

If someone had come to scout the location, there was no reason they wouldn't have noticed.

Because the camp was not only equipped with various electronic detection and scanning devices, but team member "Night Owl" also possessed a special reconnaissance ability that could sense others' "gaze" within a certain range.

Under these circumstances, they couldn't understand how the trap was discovered.

However, they soon had no time to dwell on this issue, as Dr. Zhang urgently sent a message.

(Team Five is in danger seventeen kilometers from you. Go support them immediately!)

Seeing the message, Dragon Soul said nothing and immediately led the team members into their vehicle, heading for the target location.

On the battlefield between Team Five and the Qingmei team, both sides had suffered casualties after one round of engagement.

Team Five's breacher, Old Tie, was severely injured by the headphone-wearing young man and then killed by the Sound Hunter.

In the Qingmei team, the young man wearing glasses was killed by a saturation attack of offensive items.

Both sides now had four members left each. It seemed evenly matched, but in reality, it wasn't.

Xu You stared at the opposite side. His Mind Power was almost completely drained by the headphone-wearing young man. Moreover, judging from the latter's performance, he could switch between "absorption" and "release" states.

When his pupils were black, he could absorb Mind Power through eye contact—not just from people, but even attack energy related to Mind Power could be absorbed.

When his pupils turned white, he released Mind Power in the form of "Inch Rays." The fact that Old Tie, who was naturally tough-skinned and thick-boned and had several defensive items, still couldn't block them and was severely injured, nearly killed outright, showed just how astonishing the attack power of those Inch Rays was.

Such a bizarre and powerful ability truly made him feel troubled.

Among the other three, Gu Fei was fast with incredible close-combat ability. Without Old Tie, once he got close, Xu You, Zhang Qian, and Liu Ze would all be in great danger.

Then there was the teenager in the sweater, who could combine building block items into multi-form weapons. Judging by his ability to hold off Xu Wei, his strength was also quite formidable.

Finally, there was the little girl...

Xu You looked at the girl standing by the car at the rear, who appeared to be of elementary school or early middle school age, and frowned.

That girl hadn't made a move yet, so her abilities were unknown. She might be support personnel, but they couldn't let their guard down until that was confirmed.

At that moment, the headphone-wearing young man's eyes changed from white to black. The four members of Team Five immediately averted their gaze to avoid eye contact, which would lead to their Mind Power being absorbed.

Xu Wei gestured to Xu You, asking what they should do now.

Xu You's decision-making on Holy Grail Island last time had nearly wiped out the squad. He wouldn't repeat that mistake this time. Without a way to counter the headphone-wearing young man's ability, they could only retreat first.

Otherwise, continuing to fight might allow them to eliminate some enemy personnel, but they would inevitably suffer casualties themselves, which wouldn't be worth the loss.

He gave the retreat signal. Although the other three were reluctant, they immediately obeyed.

Xu Wei used some unknown ability, suddenly becoming extremely fast. She picked up Old Tie's corpse, carried it to the vehicle, and drove away with her teammates.

Seeing this, Gu Fei wanted to give chase, but after running a few steps, he turned his head to look at the headphone-wearing young man. The latter picked up his phone and glanced at it, as if having received a message.

Then the headphone-wearing young man raised his phone, showing the message content sent to him: (Official forces have dispatched the First Squad for reinforcement. They are on the way. Do not engage further.)

Seeing the message, Gu Fei's heart skipped a beat: What kind of organization had he joined that could even detect the movements of the First Squad?

He knew the First Squad was different from the other four squads. The members of the other four squads came from various sources, but most were selected from registered civilians.

However, the five members of the First Squad, led by Dragon Soul, were all from military backgrounds—the most reliable backgrounds, the strongest in ability, and receiving the most resource cultivation.

If they truly had to choose only one team from the five to represent Beixing Country as the national team, it would undoubtedly be the First Squad.

This team's operations had a very high level of secrecy. When Gu Fei was still captain of Squad Three, he heard Dr. Zhang mention once that within the entire base, besides himself, only the person in charge had the authority to know the First Squad's movements. The other few people with the authority to know were all outside the base.

Could it be that the organization he had joined was connected to one of these people?

Gu Fei didn't have time to think more. The other team members were already in the car. Following the headphone-wearing young man's signal, he stuffed the unlucky glasses-wearing guy's corpse into the trunk, then got in the car and left.

Not long after, the retreating Team Five encountered the First Squad coming to support them.

After the two teams joined up, they returned to the battle site, but the enemies were long gone.

The five members of Dragon Soul's squad had already received some intelligence in the vehicle. They inspected the battle scene again, collected traces of the enemies' blood left on the ground to take back for DNA comparison and verification.

Afterwards, both teams terminated their original plans and returned to the base together.

...

[Rule time has ended]

At 9 AM the next day, the "Nationwide Silence" that had lasted for a month was finally declared over as the voice of the Fire Thief sounded.

[Congratulations on passing the test of the Seventh Doomsday Rule]

[Reward has been sent to the Storage Box]

[The Eighth Doomsday Rule will be announced in thirty days]

After listening to the Fire Thief's announcement, Guan Tong felt this one was exceptionally concise.

Thinking back carefully, he realized no new items had been added to the Ascension Store this time.

That was somewhat strange. Could it be that the Eighth Rule would be special?

But that was a month away; there was no need to think too much about it now.

Finally able to speak freely, Guan Tong removed the makeshift gag made of electrical tape and cloth, feeling his mouth was somewhat numb.

"Coal... Coal Ball."

Having not spoken for a month, Guan Tong found his own voice somewhat unfamiliar when he spoke again.

Although a month didn't seem long, he clearly felt that speaking had become more difficult.

This reminded him of news he'd seen before: some people experienced degradation in language ability due to prolonged silence, leading to a certain rigidity in their thinking ability.

... One could only say it was fortunate the rule only lasted a month. If it had lasted half a year or a year, everyone would probably need a considerable adjustment period just to get used to speaking again after it ended.

"Meow?"

Coal Ball, who was scratching a tree to sharpen its claws, heard Guan Tong's voice and quickly ran over, emitting a sound that seemed to carry a question. Its large, jade-green eyes curiously stared at him.

Presumably, Guan Tong not calling it for a month and suddenly speaking now also confused its small brain capacity.

Guan Tong rubbed Coal Ball's head. "This rule is finally over... I bet a lot of people were tortured badly."

Although he lived on the mountain, he wasn't isolated from the world.

Once online, he could see what was happening around the world.

Over this past month, especially in the latter half, many people posted saying they couldn't take it anymore, or that someone in their gathering point or shelter had a mental breakdown screaming and shouting, or even took their own life.

On Guan Tong's own website, a user with the nickname "Free Cloud" in his complaint thread had his last updated content saying he was utterly disillusioned with this world and wanted to leave it.

Many initially thought he was joking, but later someone from the same shelter revealed the truth. This person's real name was Wu Yun, and he had indeed taken his own life in the shelter's restroom.

Once the news broke, many people in the thread expressed condolences. Guan Tong also used the Administrator account to post a "Rest in peace."

After he posted the reply, some users replied under his comment, saying they were grateful he had created the "Ascendant Home" website, where they could still chat about related matters in the Casual Chat section and vent their emotions. Otherwise, they might have taken the same path.

There were many similar replies, as many users discovered that on other social media sites, topics related to "self-termination" seemed to be blocked, impossible to view or discuss.

In Guan Tong's view, this seemed like an attempt to prevent people from taking extreme measures in the era of Doomsday Rules, but it actually felt like trying to cover things up. After all, hiding a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. To solve a problem, one must first acknowledge its existence.

Moreover, in Guan Tong's opinion, the harm this rule inflicted on the human population might have long-lasting effects. It was like a wound that leaves a scar; it's not just fine once it heals.

"Personal Panel."

Guan Tong spoke to summon the panel. This was usually done by silent thought, but now that he could finally speak, he verbalized it almost as compensation.

[Name: Guan Tong]

[Nickname: Administrator of Ascendant Home]

[Title: Victor]

[Mind Power: 145 (145) (2950)]

[Ascension Coins: 413,620]

[Comprehensive Biological Information Evaluation: Excellent]

The Mind Power increase was stable, up by 4 points compared to before the rule.

The increase in Ascension Coins, however, was a super leap, jumping directly from three digits to six digits. Undoubtedly, this was all from selling Communication Scrolls.

With over four hundred thousand Ascension Coins, Guan Tong finally had the confidence to shop in the terminal market. But he wasn't in a hurry right now; he'd open the reward first.

Opening the Storage Box, he found a Silver-grade Survival Chest from passing this rule. Opening it yielded a ring.

[Storage Ring]: Possesses 1 cubic meter of storage space. Can store items related to Mind Power and non-Mind Power items. Can be traded.

"Isn't this a spatial ring?" Guan Tong was somewhat surprised by the item he obtained. "But the volume is only 1 cubic meter... Well, it's a Silver-grade chest, so that's understandable."

One cubic meter wasn't actually small; you could stuff three or four adults in there, or quite a lot of things. But Guan Tong thought about it: his supplies and such could just stay in the shelter.

However, summoning the shelter consumed a significant amount of Mind Power, whereas this ring didn't require Mind Power to store or retrieve items. This meant he could keep some frequently used items inside.

Guan Tong thought for a moment, put on the ring, and then placed his "Silver Hunter" firearm inside.

He used this gun very frequently. However, because returning it to the [Wordless Book] would empty the ammunition, he had always carried it with him. Now, putting it in the ring was perfect; the bullets would remain when he took it out.

Buzz... Buzz...

Just as he finished testing the ring's storage and retrieval function, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Taking it out, he saw the caller ID was actually Wang Yan.