Chapter 394 - 360: A Difficult Choice

Chapter 394: Chapter 360: A Difficult Choice

North Star, Strategy Research Room.

At the meeting to address the new rule, people offered one suggestion after another.

The suggestions were all more or less the same. Their core idea was to strongly prohibit private battles, on the condition that it would keep Ascenders’ Psychic Power from declining.

The man in charge, Gao Liangwei, listened for a moment before setting the tone for their policy on this rule:

"An Ascender’s Psychic Power is incredibly valuable. Even for the relatively weaker ones, we must do everything possible to prevent the upper limit of their Psychic Power from decreasing. Our official duty is to reassure these Ascenders, to let them know that even if they don’t forfeit, they won’t be attacked and plundered by the strong."

Everyone nodded and voiced their agreement.

"That shouldn’t be too difficult for us in North Star. The vast majority of Ascenders are registered in our system, and almost all have been assigned to fixed shelters or other residences. They’re relatively easy to manage."

"Exactly. And with the city-wide surveillance network, if any Ascender dares to use their strength to kill and plunder others’ points, we can have the Strategy Research Room’s mobile units dispatch immediately to arrest and prosecute them." ℴ

"With a strictly enforced declaration, I think only a few clueless individuals would risk it. No one in their right mind would commit a capital crime like murder for an uncertain ranking reward. That would be foolish."

With its strong official control over society, North Star was certain to prevent this rule from causing too much chaos.

However, this rule was a double-edged sword. Playing it absolutely safe meant withdrawing from the competition.

Han Qiu, understanding this, spoke up. "While we can use our official power to suppress conflict and protect the majority, it will also cost our nation’s strongest Ascenders the chance to compete for the ranking rewards. Surely, everyone can see that?"

"The ranking rewards are themselves a trap set by the Fire Thief to entice people into killing each other," a scholar said, displeased. "Can’t you see that, Academician Han?"

Han Qiu smiled. "Heh, all I see is that the Fire Thief’s goal is to screen for the strongest individuals among humanity. And if our nation withdraws from the competition, we’re just handing the opportunity to become stronger over to the Ascenders of other countries."

"All of humanity is already standing on the edge of a cliff. Is it really necessary to distinguish between ’our nation’ and ’other nations’ at a time like this!" someone exclaimed, completely baffled.

But Gao Liangwei interjected, "As long as the concept of a nation exists, the distinction between our country and others will always be necessary."

"..."

"Academician Han, do you have a proposal?"

Han Qiu looked at the female representative for the entertainment sector. "Actually, I have an idea inspired by the show *Decisive Ascender*."

Everyone in the room was sharp; they immediately understood what he meant.

"You want to have Ascenders fight one-on-one to the death?" Zhang Minglu blurted out.

The reality show *Decisive Ascender* was now in its third season, and every episode was a massive hit.

Its popularity stemmed from the contestants’ method of advancement: simple, direct combat. The duels between these powerful Ascenders were spectacular, something ordinary people never got to see.

But the fights on the show were, to be precise, sparring matches that stopped short of serious harm. Someone might get injured, but no one ever died.

Under the current rule, however, the only way to obtain points was to kill other "competitors." This turned sparring into a fight to the death.

"Correct," Han Qiu nodded.

The room immediately erupted into discussion.

Without another word, Zhang Minglu shot to his feet to state his position. "I am firmly against it!"

Gao Liangwei’s expression betrayed no bias as he said calmly, "Dr. Zhang, please state your reasons for opposing it."

"The reason is simple! If we hold this kind of deathmatch, far too many Ascenders will die. What’s more, the ones who dare to participate will be the strong. Having our strongest Ascenders kill each other off is tantamount to digging up our own foundation!"

"Dr. Zhang is right. How many people would die?"

"This is practically a Gu ritual..."

"This is indeed a huge problem. Besides, encouraging our own citizens to slaughter each other will only tarnish our government’s image."

Those who supported Zhang Minglu chimed in with their agreement. Even those who remained silent mostly nodded frequently.

Zhang Minglu looked at Han Qiu. "Academician Han, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the ancient method for selecting warriors. They would lock all the warriors of a tribe together and make them fight each other. The last one alive was considered the strongest warrior..."

"You’re trying to say that this method is wrong," Han Qiu interrupted. "Because the combined strength of all the warriors who killed each other could easily defeat the single ’strongest’ one. Correct?"

"Correct."

"No, you’re wrong."

Zhang Minglu frowned, waiting for Han Qiu’s explanation.

Han Qiu said slowly, "A few ordinary warriors working together might be able to defeat the strongest one, but at the end of the day, they are still mortals. But are Ascenders mortals?"

"Dr. Zhang, your duty is to screen and train Ascenders. I believe you, more than anyone, understand the power gap between them.

Do you think ten ordinary Ascenders teaming up could even threaten the strongest one? Forget threatening them; I doubt they could even withstand a single blow...

Let me give you a recent example: our nation’s own powerful Ascender, Shadow. Many people saw the footage of him at the Landing Site, fighting dozens of Parasite Ascenders all by himself.

Those Parasites were enhanced by spores, making them considerably stronger than human Ascenders under the same conditions. And what was the result? Shadow completely suppressed and virtually annihilated them almost single-handedly."

Han Qiu paused before concluding, "I’ll make a bold prediction: in the future, the power gap between a top-tier Ascender and an ordinary one might be even greater than the gap between a human and a dog. Since the future belongs to the strong, is it right or wrong for us to forsake the chance to produce a top-tier powerhouse, all for the sake of protecting the weak and saving face by avoiding more deaths?"

The atmosphere in the office grew stagnant. Those who had been firmly on Zhang Minglu’s side began to waver after hearing Han Qiu’s words.

’He’s right. It’s already clear that the power of a hundred ordinary Ascenders can’t match that of a single top-tier one.’

This wasn’t just demonstrated by Shadow. On the front lines in the Black Banner Country, Adam from the Soloma Empire, Bai Xuewu from North Star, and others had all displayed the formidable combat power to take on a hundred foes at once. Ordinary Ascenders couldn’t even hope to catch up.

If one Poisonous Insect King could truly kill all the other Gu Insects, then the question of whether to sacrifice those insects to cultivate it demanded careful consideration.

"...It’s true, the gap between Ascenders is enormous. What you say might have some merit, Han Qiu, but I still firmly object. Other countries can do this sort of thing, but we in North Star absolutely cannot!" Zhang Minglu’s expression was resolute, his stance unshaken.

"Heh... Dr. Zhang is a good man, I can see that. A strong sense of morality is a fine thing, but in the face of survival, everything else must give way." Han Qiu said this while turning to look at the silent Gao Liangwei.

"This is a difficult choice. I ask that the director consider it carefully."

All eyes focused on Gao Liangwei. Just as he was about to speak, someone knocked and entered to give an urgent report.

"Report! The webmaster of Ascender’s Home has posted a thread selling hidden information about the rule!"

...

Ascender’s Home, Webmaster Realm section.

This section of the forum, where only the webmaster had permission to post, had a new thread after many days of silence.

"Selling Secret Intel Related to the 16th Apocalypse Rule"

Details: Intel price is 500,000 Sublimation Coins. Information will not be provided instantly. It will be sent to all buyers simultaneously in 1 hour.

As soon as the thread appeared, countless users who had him on special alert flocked to "pay their respects" and leave comments.

"The Webmaster! Long time no see! Spotted!"

"Holy crap, the price is up to 500,000 now? I remember it was 200k last time, right? He raised it by 300k in one go?!"

"Looks like the Webmaster is short on Sublimation Coins. But that can’t be right, can it? He should have made several million from his previous sales."

"Maybe too few people bought it last time? Did the Webmaster think he lost out?"

"That’s possible! After the Human Federation was formed, the member nations can just buy one copy and share it. They don’t need to buy their own like before. That would cut down demand by a lot."

"I bet the Webmaster isn’t just one person, but a large organization. If you have to support a huge organization, a few million Sublimation Coins split among everyone really isn’t that much."

"Freeloader squad, reporting for duty! Just waiting for the government to buy it and make it public!"

"I’m with the guy above."

Since the webmaster’s account hadn’t been active on the forums recently, this sudden post caused quite a stir.

The people in various national governments and large organizations responsible for monitoring him naturally reported it immediately. And when faced with a 300,000 Sublimation Coin price hike, the decision-makers had a one-word answer: Buy.

It was a pure seller’s market. Unless the webmaster raised the price to an utterly absurd level, they had no choice but to buy, even if it was more expensive.

Moreover, it had only been an hour since the rule was announced, leaving two hours to decide whether to discard the Invitation Letter and forfeit. The webmaster’s post, stating the information would be released in an hour, effectively gave them an extra hour to make their decision.

The buyers quickly contacted the webmaster through his private account to complete the payment.

Currently inside the Sisiya administration building, Guan Tong counted the number of buyers: eight in total. This meant that besides the Human Federation, there were seven other organizations with deep pockets.

’No... not necessarily.’

’It’s possible that while the Human Federation agreed to share, the powerful nations within it would secretly buy their own copies. This would be to ensure the information’s reliability and prevent it from being secretly altered by whichever member nation made the initial purchase.’

’Besides them,’ Guan Tong thought, ’it’s possible the Parasites or the Fire Worship Cult might buy a copy too. As for other large organizations, I don’t really know much about them.’

Of course, it was all the same to him who bought it. They all had to pay anyway.

’Five hundred thousand for one copy, so eight copies make four million. Add that to the four-million-plus I already have, and that’s over eight million in total. That should be enough for me.’

Guan Tong had drastically increased the price this time for two reasons. First, based on the last sale, the number of buyers had decreased, so the "quick returns" part of "small profits, quick returns" was gone.

Second, he had already decided to spend his Sublimation Coins to hire other Ascenders to channel their Psychic Power to him.

He needed to stockpile a massive amount of Psychic Power to increase his strength and continue developing his Wordless Book. This would require a huge expenditure of Sublimation Coins.