Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 409 Results of the Interrogation

When Lu Cheng opened his eyes, he was met with a pair of fierce, emerald-green eyes.

He was startled. Upon closer inspection, he saw a black beast of unknown origin standing before him, its sharp teeth gleaming coldly in its slightly open mouth.

What kind of ferocious beast is that?!

At first glance, it looks like a black panther, but there are many subtle differences.

When the beast saw that he had woken up, it seemed to be aroused and opened its mouth wide to bite him.

Just as Lu Cheng was horrified, a voice came from afar, stopping its movements.

"Coal briquette, stop."

"Gurgle..."

Lu Cheng recognized Guan Tong's voice. Upon hearing the latter's voice, the beast in front of him immediately withdrew its head and abandoned its attack, but still arched its body with its eyes looking restless.

Is this a ferocious beast that Guan Tong keeps?
My mission failed... Where am I now?

Lu Cheng was overwhelmed with thoughts and tried to move, but found that his hands and feet were tied behind his back and he was powerless to break free.

"If you keep attacking him, how am I supposed to ask you any questions?"

Guan Tong walked over and patted Coal Ball's head.

Lu Cheng looked up at Guan Tong, and suddenly realized what had happened earlier.

The ten powerful parasites sent by the prophet were all killed by Guan Tong in an instant—and Guan Tong, the lecturer who was a year younger than him and whom he had always been somewhat jealous of, was actually the legendary Ascended One, "Shadow".

This fact was even harder for Lu Cheng to accept than the plan failing.

"Now that you're awake, tell me what's going on," Guan Tong said.

"...I have nothing to say, just kill me!"

“If you were a parasite, I would indeed kill you on the spot. But you are still human, so I can still get some information out of you.”

"I won't say anything!"

Guan Tong looked at Lu Cheng's conflicted expression, pondered for a moment, and said, "Lu Cheng, I remember you from the few months I substituted for your class. Your grades were among the best, and the academy and teachers took good care of you. No one wronged you, so how did you become such an ungrateful wretch?"

"..."

Lu Cheng's face turned ugly. Guan Tong had called him an ingrate in a calm tone, and he wanted to refute her but couldn't find a way to do so.

As Guan Tong said, no one wronged him when he was in the academy. Dean Zhou Qinfeng even made an exception and gave him a key to a study room so that he could go to the classroom to study at any time.

Judging from this incident, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him an ingrate.

"You're in charge of luring Shi Jingyi out, and those ten teleported parasites are supposed to be responsible for killing her. Judging from your performance back then, you should know the inside story. Tell me, it's better for both of us if we're straightforward."

Lu Cheng retorted, "So what if I tell you? Will you let me go?"

“No,” Guan Tong said seriously. “Some betrayals can be forgiven, some cannot. What you have done this time is unforgivable. Even if Shi Jingyi lets you go, I will not let you go.”

Lu Cheng sneered: "No wonder she recommended you to be a substitute lecturer back then. It seems your relationship is quite special!"

“That’s right. So in order to eliminate her worries, you must die. But how you die is another matter.”

"Trying to torture me? Hahahaha!"

Lu Cheng burst into laughter, his laughter filled with sarcasm.

"Guan Tong, you underestimate me! Don't you know I'm a severe spore addict? Do you know how painful a spore addiction is? It's more terrifying than any torture! I've endured that kind of pain, why would I be afraid of you torturing me?!"

Guan Tong silently watched Lu Cheng, who was laughing wildly.

A few seconds later, Lu Cheng stopped smiling.

He found that Guan Tong remained unmoved, which puzzled him.

Do you think I'm lying?

“No, I know you’re telling the truth,” Guan Tong said. “Spore addiction can be very painful. I had a friend who was addicted to spores, and she’s dead.”

"..."

"However, it seems you've forgotten one thing."

A sense of foreboding rose in Lu Cheng's heart: "What is it?"

"What is this apocalyptic rule we are currently experiencing?"

"The current rule...!!"

Lu Cheng was startled, his face showing astonishment.

“It seems you understand,” Guan Tong said. “That’s right. I want to test which is more intense: the pain of scarlet fear or the pain of spore addiction. You happen to be a good test subject.”

A week has passed, and the world has gained considerable understanding of scarlet phobia. People know that an ordinary person might convulse and die, or suffer other permanent damage, if they look directly at Scarlet Terra for just a few seconds.

However, those who have transcended, especially those with higher spiritual power, are more capable of resisting fear.

This is also why Guan Tong felt comfortable letting Lu Cheng look directly at Crimson Terra: as an outstanding student in the academy, Lu Cheng's mental strength was already quite high. Coupled with the spore enhancement, he definitely had resistance to the Crimson Fear.

This way, Lu Cheng can be tormented by fear without having to worry that the kid will be too "fragile" and die too easily.

Lu Cheng could no longer ignore Guan Tong's threat.

He had also learned about the latest rule during this time and had seen the tragic state of many people who stared directly at Scarlet Terra—the extremely exaggerated and distorted expressions on their faces proved that those people were scared to death!

While spore addiction is certainly painful, it's not deadly. But that crimson terror…

Guan Tong raised his left hand, and on his wrist was the prop watch that Chen Na had given him for his 20th birthday.

"It will be dark in about an hour, and you still have time to make a choice before then. Once Crimson Terra appears, you probably won't have a choice anymore."

After Guan Tong finished speaking, she turned around and entered the shelter, no longer paying attention to Lu Cheng who was left on the ground outside.

He wasn't afraid of the latter escaping or attempting suicide; the guy's hands and feet were bound by the shadow, making him unable to move at all.

Even if someone wanted to imitate the characters in movies and TV shows who bite their tongues to commit suicide, they would find after trying it that it was just a movie effect. People don't die that easily, let alone those who have transcended.

"Gurgle..."

The coal ball was still moving around Lu Cheng, making dull thuds from time to time.

Lu Cheng broke out in a cold sweat.

He was both worried that the beast Guan Tong was raising might suddenly pounce on him and tear him apart, and he was also terrified of the Scarlet Terra.

Guan Tong said he didn't know which was more painful, the spore addiction or the scarlet fear, and Lu Cheng didn't know either!

The most terrifying thing is undoubtedly the unknown.

As time passed, the sky gradually darkened.

Should we tell you?

Lu Cheng was conflicted.

Guan Tong has already made his point clear; whether he speaks or not, he is doomed to die.

The only difference is that if you confess honestly, you might die a quicker death.

If you don't confess honestly, you will suffer all kinds of torture.

Lu Cheng's initial thought was: since he was going to die anyway, why reveal the information? But the fear of the unknown tormented his mind.

He would rather be cut into pieces in the stadium like those ten parasites—or rather, he would rather have already transformed into a parasite himself, so he wouldn't have to worry about these issues.

Because he hasn't transformed yet and is still human, he still has reservations. True parasites don't have any reservations at all, because the neurons in their brains, modified by the spores, won't betray any information detrimental to their species.

So, should we tell Guan Tong about the prophet sending him to deal with Shi Jingyi?

Lu Cheng couldn't make up his mind.

As darkness fell, he was still unable to make a decision when the Crimson Terra appeared.

"Time is up."

Guan Tong's voice came from behind him. Lu Cheng couldn't turn around to look, so he shouted, "Come on! I'm not afraid of you!"

He ultimately chose to fight to the bitter end.

He knew that Guan Tong, Shi Jingyi, and the academy had not wronged him, but he was still unconvinced and felt that his current predicament was not entirely his own fault.

Even now, knowing he's doomed, he won't reveal the information. He's not that loyal to the Prophet; he's only doing this to annoy Guan Tong!

"Then so be it."

After Guan Tong finished speaking, she did not leave the shelter. Instead, she manipulated the shadows to adjust Lu Cheng's body angle, lifting his chin so that his face was directly facing the crimson sun in the sky.

Lu Cheng initially tried to keep his eyes tightly shut, wanting to hold on to the end. But he couldn't hold on for more than a few seconds before Guan Tong manipulated the shadow lines to forcibly tear them open.

When his eyes were pried open, the scarlet Terra immediately came into view.

Scarlet fear seeped into his body unnoticed.

In an instant, terrifying images formed in his mind.

He saw his most terrifying future: a "Lu Cheng" standing among a swarm of parasites, raising his arms and shouting with the other parasites, "Everything for the spread!"

What he fears most right now is that his consciousness will be replaced by the spores, and his body will become a walking corpse completely controlled by them.

When this scene appeared in his mind with such vivid realism, he almost broke down.

After "Lu Cheng" became a parasite, everything he did seemed so terrifying and disgusting to him, and the extreme discomfort was indescribable.

Anyone who witnesses another consciousness taking over their body, and can only watch like a wandering ghost... can only imagine the feeling.

Just as Lu Cheng was in extreme mental anguish and his consciousness was on the verge of collapse, his eyes were suddenly forcibly closed again.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already inside the room.

"vomit!"

He couldn't help but gag, and even though it was brief, the images he had just witnessed still left him with a huge psychological scar.

"How was it?" Guan Tong asked with a half-smile, "Was the scarlet fear more painful, or the spore addiction more painful?"

Lu Cheng was still in shock from what he had just witnessed, and his reaction was several beats slow. It took him several seconds to understand what Guan Tong was asking.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Guan Tong assumed he could still hold on, so she wasn't in a hurry.

"It's alright, there are still about twenty days until the rules end, we'll take it slow. I'll let you rest for an hour first, then I'll take you out to see. Come back tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and so on until the rules end."

Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng's mental defenses completely collapsed!

This time, he was already in unspeakable pain. If Guan Tong tormented him like this every day for the next twenty-odd days of the rule period, he could not help but tremble all over at the thought of it. It was a kind of tremor from the depths of his soul.

"No! Just give me a quick death!"

Guan Tong's eyes narrowed: "Tell me what you know, and I'll give you a quick death."

"What do you want to know? I'll tell you everything..."

Lu Cheng said in a low voice, he had already resigned himself to his fate.

He had no loyalty to the parasite or the prophet to begin with. Now there was no need to suffer needlessly just to spite Guan Tong.

“The night is long, and there’s plenty of time,” Guan Tong said. “Let’s start from when the rule that brought the spores, the [Extraterrestrial Parasite] rule, was released. I want you to explain clearly how you became addicted and what happened after you left the academy.”

"...Back in school. Back then I..."

Lu Cheng's eyes held confusion and regret.

He recounted how his anxiety about his abilities during his time at the academy, coupled with his desire to advance further, led to his addiction to spores. He also mentioned that he had considered seeking help, but after Dean Zhou Qinfeng casually mentioned that "outstanding graduates have the opportunity to be assigned to the Countermeasures Research Lab," he abandoned his plan to seek assistance in order to achieve that goal.

His addiction worsened, and he knew that Shi Jingyi had discovered it. She subtly pointed it out and expressed her desire to help him, but he couldn't accept the consequences of his addiction being exposed, so he didn't accept her help.

He endured this until the rules ended, and just when he thought the light was in the end, a sudden blow left him in utter despair.

When Lu Cheng got to this point, Guan Tong already knew what that "wake-up call" meant.

"I never expected..." Lu Cheng said painfully, "that the spores wouldn't disappear from this world after the rules ended! And my addiction symptoms haven't disappeared either!"

Yes, that's the key feature of the [Extraterrestrial Parasite] rule.

The rules have ended, but their byproducts have not disappeared and continue to harm humanity.

However, this is not without clues.

Even when the rules were first released, the penalty for failure was already foreshadowed: survival as a parasite.

Before this rule, failure in survival-related rules meant certain death.

This rule states that failure results in the spores surviving as parasites—which explains why the spores did not disappear after the rule ended.

Logically speaking, someone as intelligent as Lu Cheng shouldn't have overlooked this crucial point. However, even the smartest mind becomes incredibly foolish if it chooses self-deception to escape reality.

Lu Cheng continued speaking.

After the rules ended, the spores didn't disappear, but he became severely addicted. To alleviate the pain, he had no choice but to leave the academy and head to the Black Flag Nation, where the parasite had declared its independence.

After overcoming numerous hardships to reach the destination, he obtained the spores, but because he had a high mental strength limit, the conversion speed was not very fast.

This caused him to encounter a bug: although he was still human, he was so addicted to spores that he had to pledge allegiance to a parasite in order to obtain spores.

The parasite leader, "Prophet," exploited this, using a self-inflicted injury to make him pretend to be an ascendant resisting the parasite, thus infiltrating the Human Alliance and gathering a great deal of intelligence.

According to him, he was not the only infiltrator; the Prophet had deployed many infiltrators who had infiltrated key departments of the coalition forces and member states of the Commonwealth of Nations.

As for this action, he felt his transformation was imminent and, seeking a way to preserve his human consciousness, turned to the prophet for help. The prophet tasked him with creating an opportunity for a private meeting with Shi Jingyi.

"The prophet said...the voices told it that there were two threats. One of them was...Lecturer Jingyi."

Guan Tong was slightly taken aback when she heard Lu Cheng's words.

There are two threats, one of which is Shi Jingyi.

As far as he knew, a little earlier in that time, there were also two people who broke through the 1,000-point mental power limit and entered the second stage of sublimation.

They are him and Shi Jingyi.

Moreover, after the breakthrough, they discovered that the mental network was restarted and could be used to identify parasites.

So that means...

Another threat is me?
　Xiaocao has gone back to her hometown. There's no internet there, so I can only type on my phone, which is very slow and I can't update very often. Please forgive me, dear readers.

　　Xiaocao will probably leave her hometown in the third year of junior high school, and then she will resume normal updates.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)