Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 410 Mysterious Teammate
In the Black Flag Country, deep within a mountain cave somewhere in the wilderness.

The prophet sat alone on the stone platform, muttering something to himself.

"The people I sent to assist Lu Cheng were all experts from the parasites. Their failure proves that the plan itself was flawed."

"Your anxiety is useless and won't change the outcome."

The person standing guard in the shadows at the cave entrance looked into the cave.

The guardian knew very well that the prophet was not talking to himself, but was conversing with those voices.

There are millions upon millions of parasites, but the content of the sounds they hear is almost identical.

Only the prophet can effectively communicate with those voices, which is why other parasites revere him as a prophet and are willing to obey his commands.

The prophet is still speaking at this moment.

“In the human world, threats don’t always come true. I never approved of this plan, but you wouldn’t listen to me and insisted on sending people to eliminate the threat.”

"Now do you feel it's necessary to hear my advice?"

After the prophet spoke, he fell silent, seemingly awaiting evaluation.

A moment later, the voices said something to him.

He nodded: "Thank you, I will prove it feasible with a victory."

After the prophet finished speaking, he got up and walked out of the cave.

The guardian in the shadows of the cave entrance gave him an inquiring look as he arrived.

"After lying low for so long, it's time for us to take the initiative. The Allied Forces of the Human Alliance have won one battle after another, and their pride has grown too strong. Let's use this to defeat them."

"..."

"Go and notify all the hidden positions to prepare to follow my instructions."

"Yes." The guardian bowed. "Everything is for the sake of spreading."

"Everything is for the sake of dissemination."

……

Lu Cheng's confession made Guan Tong feel very heavy-hearted.

Earlier, when Shi Jingyi had made a breakthrough and asked for his opinion, he advised her not to try to identify the parasite for the time being.

The reason is the fear that if she does this, her identity will be exposed and she will be attacked by the parasite without any means necessary.

Later, he himself broke through the 1,000-point mental power limit. In helping the Countermeasures Research Office use the mental network to identify the parasites lurking in the base, the person in charge, Gao Liangwei, kept the whole process strictly confidential for his personal safety, using a temporary physical examination as an excuse to check.

The secrecy was so tight that even Silver Fox, who received Guan Tong, was unaware of the truth—after all, she was from the military and belonged to Gao Liangwei's inner circle, so her loyalty was absolutely beyond question.

According to Lu Cheng's account, the parasitic leader, the prophet, already knew the identities of him and Shi Jingyi, the two breakthrough cultivators.

No, according to Lu Cheng's description, the prophet also learned about it from "those voices".

If "those voices" represent some kind of intelligence behind the spores, how did they know about Shi Jingyi and his breakthrough, and determine that they would be a threat to the parasites before they even conducted their tests?

This is a very important issue, but Guan Tong is fortunate that she discovered it early enough.

The prophet's plan to use Lucheng to ambush and eliminate Shi Jingyi was sound, but he failed to consider several variables involved.

First, they greatly underestimated her strength.

Judging from their encounter, Guan Tong felt that even without him, Shi Jingyi could handle Lu Cheng and the ten parasites.

Secondly, the intervention of the "shadow" was completely unexpected.

Guan Tong and Shi Jingyi's relationship has never been exposed. Few people know that the two have a life-or-death friendship, trust each other, and have maintained contact for a long time.

In hindsight, this plan was destined to fail.

And not only will it fail, but it will also send out important information: the spore intelligence or life behind the parasite is aware of the existence of those who can recognize it.

In other words, when an ascendant breaks through the second stage of sublimation and restarts the mental network, the spores will be able to sense it.

But this wasn't the only important piece of intelligence.

Guan Tong also learned from Lu Cheng that the latter had previously stated at the sports stadium that the reason he repaid kindness with enmity was because he did not want his consciousness to be replaced and transformed into a parasite.

The causal connection here lies in the fact that Lu Cheng believed the prophet was human, and the prophet acknowledged and promised him that.

This information greatly surprised Guan Tong.

The parasites' leader, the prophet, is actually a human?
Neither the frontline coalition forces nor the member states of the Federation of Peoples would believe this.

However, Guan Tong believed that Lu Cheng was not lying, and that this information would lead to a problem: the prophet was human, which meant that he could not be identified through the mind network.

When the parasite cannot be identified, the parasite has an advantage over humans.

But once humans can identify parasites, the parasites will be at a great disadvantage.

What the parasite will do after this assassination attempt fails remains unknown.

Continue to assassinate Shi Jingyi... After this experience, she will definitely be more vigilant in the future, making it difficult to succeed.

How about changing the target to Guan Tong?

...and even less likely.

Guan Tong knew that the reason the Prophet chose to target Shi Jingyi first was because she was a world-renowned figure and held a highly certain position.

Everyone knows that Shi Jingyi is a lecturer at Beixing Academy and teaches almost every day, so it's not difficult to find her.

And what about Guan Tong? His whereabouts are always elusive, making it incredibly difficult for the parasite to find him, let alone plan an assassination.

In this situation, taking action against Shi Jingyi first is the only reasonable course of action.

"I've already told you everything I know..."

Lu Cheng's weak voice made Guan Tong pause her thoughts and look over.

"If I may, I would like to ask you one last thing, Professor Guan..."

Guan Tong asked, "What is it?"

"I want to inhale the spores one last time... one last time..."

Lu Cheng's face twitched, he looked pained, and his whole body was trembling; it seemed he was experiencing a spore addiction attack.

His eyes were filled with pleading: "Please, Teacher Guan! Let me... I can't take it anymore..."

"..."

Guan Tong looked at Lu Cheng, whose rationality had been completely overwhelmed by his addictive reactions, and shook her head slightly.

He manipulated the shadow that bound Lu Cheng's hands, half of it remaining solid and the other half becoming ethereal and entering Lu Cheng's body.

"Please! I'm about to... ugh!!!"

Lu Cheng suddenly trembled as a shadow blade pierced through his chest, right at his heart.

Guan Tong manipulated the ethereal shadow to materialize within his body, piercing his heart.

Lu Cheng's eyes dimmed, his head lolled to the side and he fell to the ground, his body quickly growing cold.

Guan Tong kept her promise. Since Lu Cheng had told her everything he needed to say, she decided to give him a quick and clean answer.

Looking at the young man lying dead on the ground with his eyes wide open, Guan Tong felt no pleasure. He felt more sorrow and regret.

Without the rule about spores, Lu Cheng might have had a completely different future. Perhaps, as Dean Zhou Qinfeng said, he could have been recommended to work in the Countermeasures Research Lab as an outstanding graduate of the academy.

But those futures began to drift further and further away the moment he made the decision to accept the spores.

Guan Tong manipulated the shadow to drag Lu Cheng's corpse to the bottom of the valley. After a moment's thought, he contacted Shi Jingyi through the mental network.

He told her all the information he had obtained from Lu Cheng, as well as some of his own speculations.

Shi Jingyi remained silent for a long time after listening.

"So, we've all become targets of the parasites," Shi Jingyi said.

“That’s right. But I think the parasite will change its strategy after this assassination attempt failed.”

"Oh?"

Guan Tong said, "Although we are ahead of the main force, as time goes by, more and more of the top ascendants from various countries will break through the 1,000-point mental power limit. Do you think the parasites can kill all of these people by assassination? If they have such power, they won't have been locked up in the deep mountains by the allied forces for so long."

Shi Jingyi agreed, "That makes sense."

"That being said, you still need to be extra careful during this time."

"You too." Shi Jingyi's voice paused for a moment, then rang out again, "The handling of Lu Cheng..."

“He’s dead. Even if he was a student at the academy before, I can’t let him live after he did something like this.”

“I know. But this is something I should do myself, not something you should do for me,” Shi Jingyi said.

"...It's okay, it's all the same."

After ending the communication via the mental network, Guan Tong already had a plan in mind.

After this mission to worship the Fire Thief Cult is over, his next destination will be the Black Flag Kingdom.

Spores, prophets, parasites... these have already posed a life-threatening threat to him and those around him, and have already taken action... In his principle, any enemy that meets this condition is one that he must eliminate at all costs.

He heard that the Allied Forces of the Human Alliance had previously suppressed the parasites significantly, but the reason they had not been able to completely eradicate them was because the parasites had broken up into smaller groups and hidden in the deep mountains and forests.

This tactic might work for ordinary soldiers, but it wasn't a problem for Guan Tong.

His shadow was perfect for searching the mountains.

……

A few days have passed in the blink of an eye.

Guan Tong stopped wandering around and, before receiving any news from Zhang Minglu or Li Meng, he shut himself in to cultivate himself.

On March 13, Li Meng called him and asked him to go to the base for the first group assembly, which included all members.

Silver Fox picked him up and took him to the base, then to Li Meng's office.

When they arrived, Chen Na, Bai Xuewu, and Yang Ran were all there.

Seeing that only Guan Tong and Silver Fox had arrived, Yang Ran scratched his red hair and asked, "Section Chief Li, weren't there seven people in the team? Why is one missing?"

Among those present, besides Li Meng, only Silver Fox seemed to know who the missing mysterious team member was.

As for Bai Xuewu, who was selected for the official team not long after the rule was introduced, no one knows who that person is.

Li Meng smiled and said, "Hehe, don't be impatient. I called you all here today so that everyone could meet. Come with me, I'll take you to see the last team member."

Li Meng led a few people out of the office to take the elevator.

On the way, he brought up a case investigation that he had been in charge of these past few days.

"You all know about that case of spreading scarlet fear through video games, right?"

Upon hearing Li Meng's mention, Yang Ran immediately replied, "I know, I know! It seems there were many deaths and injuries, and the situation is extremely serious!"

"Yes. I'm in charge of investigating this case, and we've already identified the mastermind. You can try to guess."

Among them, Bai Xuewu was chewing gum, seemingly uninterested. Chen Na, on the other hand, pondered for a while, but appeared unable to guess anything.

Silver Fox smiled, seemingly aware of the situation but choosing not to speak. Yang Ran boldly speculated, "Was it the work of the Fire Stealers Cult? This group attacked the Soma Arena first, and now they're launching a second terrorist attack!"

Li Meng shook his head and looked at Guan Tong: "What do you think?"

"I don't know," Guan Tong answered truthfully. He really didn't know who did it; he had no basis for his opinion and nothing to speculate about.

"Section Chief Li, stop keeping us in suspense and just tell them," Silver Fox said.

"Okay. After investigation, this case is related to parasites."

"Parasitic organisms!" Yang Ran exclaimed in surprise. "Those simple-minded guys can actually crack game software?"

Li Meng frowned upon hearing this: "Yang Ran, who said that all parasites are simple-minded? Don't underestimate them just because most parasites are transformed from ordinary people. Some of the smartest minds among parasites are no less than those of top human scholars, and their brains can even be further developed with the help of spores."

After being reprimanded, Yang Ran looked embarrassed, gave an awkward laugh, and said no more.

Li Meng continued, "A skilled hacker breached the game's distribution platform and remotely implanted malware after the game's release. Due to their advanced skills, the development team did not detect it in time. Later, by tracing the IP address, it was discovered that the address was located within the territory of Black Flag Country, undoubtedly the work of some parasite."

Chen Na then asked curiously, "Uncle Li, there's something I don't understand."

"What don't you understand?"

"Isn't the purpose of the parasites to transform humans? Their motto is 'Everything for the spread'... But spreading scarlet fear will only kill humans, which contradicts their goal."

Li Meng looked at Chen Na with an appreciative gaze and nodded, saying, "Xiao Na, you're very smart. This is indeed a contradiction. In the past, when the parasites captured humans, they wouldn't kill them, but would imprison them and use methods such as brainwashing and coercing them to inhale spores to turn them into parasites... But perhaps the Allied Forces killed too many of them, and out of a desire for revenge, they have begun to kill humans in return."

Guan Tong's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this.

This outbreak of scarlet fear coincided with the time when the prophet sent Lu Cheng to ambush and assassinate Shi Jingyi.

Perhaps what he really wanted was to kill Shi Jingyi, rather than to use scarlet fear to harm humans.

Because for parasites, the threat level of humans that can be identified as themselves is far greater than the threat level of other humans.

In the end, their goal was achieved—no one except the parties involved knew about Shi Jingyi's assassination attempt.

If the assassination had succeeded and Shi Jingyi had truly died, then both the academy and the authorities would have been completely baffled, unaware of the specific circumstances or the identity of the murderer.

"Therefore, if the parasites change their minds and stop seeking to transform more humans, but instead seek to kill more humans, then we humans must intensify our efforts to eradicate them."

As Li Meng was speaking, the elevator arrived at the designated floor.

"arrive."

He led the group to the innermost room on this floor. Guan Tong looked up at the doorplate, which read "Yi Ge".

Li Meng raised his hand and gently knocked on the door. A soft voice came from inside: "Please come in."

As soon as they entered the room, they were all surprised.

The large room was completely empty, except for a wooden chess table in the middle of the room, on which black and white pieces were neatly arranged.

Before the chessboard, a girl dressed in a black cloth shirt, with long, flowing hair, sat in a wheelchair. She was tilting her head to look at the table, her ethereal eyes reflecting the figures of several people.

“She is your last teammate,” Li Meng introduced, “the world Go champion, our Beixing Go master, Wenren Yizhi.”

　Wishing all my dear readers a Happy Year of the Horse and good health!!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)