Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 426 The Unspeakable Reason

March 24th, with only about a week left until the end of this rule period.

Three weeks later, people gradually went from being curious and afraid of the rules to adapting to them.

Humans are highly adaptable creatures, which is one of the reasons why they are at the top of the food chain.

In short, as long as you stay indoors at night and don't go out or use the internet, and instead engage in some single-player entertainment, you can avoid 99% of the possibility of encountering scarlet phobia. The remaining 1% is only encountered in extremely unlucky circumstances.

This led to a significant decrease in attention to the rule, while pure audio devices such as retro radios experienced a small surge in popularity.

Because people have a need for news, and are worried about being "suddenly exposed" with images of Scarlet Terra when watching TV and using smart devices to access the internet, like in the previous maliciously implanted single-player game, many demands for "single audio reception without video" have emerged.

Officials from various countries have done their best to meet the needs of the people, and shelters in North Star have also distributed radios and other audio equipment so that people can stay informed about the latest developments.

Inside a shelter, a young man got up, picked up a radio, and took it to the bathroom. He turned it on, tuned it to the "Daily News" channel, and listened while brushing his teeth.

"Breaking news: The Human Alliance's allied base on the front lines of the Black Flag Nation was attacked last night by a legion composed of a large number of parasites. The base was severely damaged and many allied soldiers were killed or wounded..."

"puff!"

The young man sprayed a mouthful of toothpaste foam onto the bathroom mirror in front of him, and his shocked expression was reflected on the mirror.

"Now, let's move on to the detailed report..."

Following the press release, the news quickly spread throughout the country and the world.

This was undoubtedly a blow to many people—because in the past, news about the coalition forces had been all about their victories.

In people's minds, the main force of the parasite that announced the establishment of the so-called "Seri Kingdom" has been scattered, with only small groups hiding deep in the mountains. Even if they cannot be completely eradicated in the short term, they will eventually perish due to lack of food supplies and other problems as time goes by and the area is sealed off.

Everyone had forgotten the threat of the parasites, but then these guys suddenly launched a counterattack and severely damaged the coalition base, which was truly baffling.

On the Ascended Ones' Home forum, related discussions have already flooded the page.

Nowadays, almost everyone who dares to use internet-connected devices will come to this website, because everyone knows that this website is the safest.

Since the site administrator announced that the image and video functions would be suspended during the rule period, they will definitely be suspended. Unlike some other social media apps, which also announced that only text functions would be retained during the rule period, but were still hacked and had images appear.

Since it concerns life and safety, a single breach of trust will cause users to lose all trust, which is why the number of visits to Ascendants' Home is astonishingly high every day.

"Everyone knows about the parasite attack last night, right? I heard it was a terrible attack, with at least tens of thousands of parasites emerging from the deep mountains!"

“Under normal circumstances, even 100,000 parasites wouldn’t be able to severely damage the coalition base; the two sides’ weapons and firepower are not even on the same level. It was the parasites that used the power of Scarlet Fear’s rules to wage an asymmetric war.”

"I thought the parasites were all gone, but I didn't expect them to have such a large mobilization force..."

"As long as their leader, the 'Prophet,' lives, the parasites will never be finished. I think we should behead this Prophet first, rather than carrying out a decapitation operation against the Fire-Stealers Cult."

"The decapitation operation against the Fire Thief Cult was actually a failure... inside information. However, tens of thousands of Fire Thief Cult members were subsequently eliminated, and they probably won't be able to cause trouble in the short term."

"No matter what, parasites are the most dangerous! Don't forget they're not human; they're monsters possessed by spores!"

Compared to concerns about rules and cults, people are undoubtedly more worried about the parasites after the news broke, even more so than about the apocalyptic rules.

Even though many experts and scholars believe that the fire-stealer possessed subjective will and was not a pre-programmed "rule-issuing machine," most people still regard it as a "program" because the fire-stealer never showed itself or communicated with humans in any form other than those rules.

For humans, no matter how terrifying a program may be, it is not as frightening as a parasitic spore-like monster that takes over the human body. Just like missiles and venomous snakes, the former is a hundred or a thousand times more destructive than the latter, but most people are more afraid of the latter.

The public's anxiety about this matter will also be amplified to the top levels of various countries.

The People's Federation held an emergency remote meeting early in the morning.

The meeting began with a presentation of the previous night's battle. Due to the presence of numerous Crimson Terra images on the battlefield, the current summary was presented entirely in text form.

Representatives and committee members from various countries gasped in shock upon seeing the data.

"The total number of dead and injured has exceeded nine thousand! Is it really that serious?!"

"The coalition's frontline bases were almost completely destroyed, and the frontline commander was even killed..."

“What’s even more troublesome is that a large number of parasite prisoners have been rescued!” Commissioner Thoraft of Sisia frowned. “As a result, the parasites’ manpower has been somewhat restored.”

One committee member couldn't help but slam his fist on the table: "We should never have made the policy of imprisoning prisoners in the first place! All the parasites should have been executed!"

"That's not entirely true. Didn't the rules for 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' utilize parasites? What if future rules have similar applications..."

"What if, what if, you know it's just a possibility? Now that a large number of prisoners have been rescued, we don't know if the 'what if' you're talking about will actually happen, but the fact that they will pose an even greater threat to humanity has already occurred! How foolish!"

"Let's stick to the facts; there's no need for personal attacks!"

The casualty figures were so bad that the committee members, feeling annoyed, started arguing after only a few words.

Gao Liangwei stopped them, saying, "Everyone, calm down. Now is not the time to argue."

At this moment, Mary, the representative of the Somali delegation, spoke coldly: "I think it's because too many victories have made the allied forces arrogant and complacent. Otherwise, how could they have suffered such a crushing defeat after the Federation of Peoples had given them advance warning?"

"Looking at the summary report, it seems there's a situation of collusion between insiders and outsiders." Gao Liangwei, without letting personal emotions interfere, simply sorted out his thoughts based on the written report. "There are a large number of parasites lurking within the allied forces, and cultists were also involved in this operation. This shows that the leaders of both sides, the Prophet and the Pope, had planned this long ago, intending to use a two-pronged approach to severely damage human confidence."

Mary was slightly surprised upon hearing this: "You mean, there was a connection between the attacks on the city of Soroma and the coalition base?" Gao Liangwei nodded: "I guess their plan is likely to first destroy your city of Soroma, a city with a population of one million. This step will definitely shock the whole world. Once everyone's attention is focused on your Soroma, the Black Flag Nation will launch a surprise attack, with the aim of annihilating the entire coalition forces on the front lines of the Human Alliance."

Upon hearing this, everyone felt a chill run down their spines and broke out in a cold sweat.

If what Gao Liangwei said comes true, the consequences will be unimaginable.

“Their plan was quite good, and they successfully infiltrated the Soroma Action Team, but there were problems with the execution,” Gao Liangwei continued. “The cult legion’s attack was delayed by several of our brave Ascendants from North Star, which allowed the ‘Annihilators’ to arrive and take over the battlefield.”

Although Mary's expression wasn't very pleasant upon hearing this, she still nodded in acknowledgment: "We really have to thank those Ascended Ones from North Star this time. But after the Cultist Legion's defeat, are the Parasites still going to launch an attack as planned?"

“This series of plans is massive, and once it starts, it can’t be stopped just because you want to,” Gao Liangwei said. “We should be glad, because the failure of the cult legion’s operation has also affected the parasitic legion’s operation from the side… In any case, the allied forces were not completely wiped out and some of their strength has been preserved.”

The People's Alliance sent approximately 20,000 troops to Black Flag Country. Over 9,000 were killed or wounded, and about 10,000 retreated. Once they regroup, they may well be able to win again.

“The 10,000 that are withdrawn probably won’t have much combat power left,” Torraft said. “According to statistics, one or two thousand of them are affected by scarlet fear and are experiencing stress reactions. The others will also need psychological counseling and personnel rotation.”

Gao Liangwei said, "We need to reorganize a coalition army, but this time we should focus on quality, not quantity. We must learn from our mistakes and select soldiers we can trust."

His gaze fell on Mary as he said this.

Mary awkwardly turned her wrist and took the initiative to say, "I know you are all very concerned about the defection of our Solmar Action Team. We have now found some results from the investigation, and I will tell you about them now."

After organizing her thoughts, she explained: "Peter is a Soromanian who had previously lived in France and later returned to his homeland. We believe that before his return, he had been secretly brainwashed or mind-controlled, becoming a follower of the Fire-Stealers cult, and becoming one of the four bishops by virtue of his powerful ability to manipulate lightning."

"As a bishop, he infiltrated Soroma with the aim of providing the Pope with important intelligence. After the rules of the 'Death Race' were released, whether it was on his own or at the Pope's behest, he seized the opportunity to advance through the ranks based on his strength, all the way to the finals, successfully attracting a lot of attention."

“We believe that the bombing during the final was orchestrated by another bishop, Heath, with the aim of interrupting the match. If the match had continued, regardless of whether Peter survived to the end, he would have been under excessive scrutiny, which could have led to his identity being exposed.”

Everyone listened attentively, and when Mary got to this point, Committee Member Lu Ruiguo asked, "Several people survived that competition, so why did you specifically choose him to join the action team?"

Mary hesitated, as if the reason was something she found difficult to say.

But she seemed to hear something in her earpiece and gave her reason.

"There were two reasons for him joining the action team. First, a senator in the Senate made the suggestion. Afterwards, we investigated and found that this senator had secretly contacted an intermediary and received huge sums of money from a mysterious client. Now it seems that the mysterious client is very likely a cultist."

"There's another reason... because of Miss Ishan's various activities. Miss Ishan favors him, and after contacting him privately, she was deceived and wants him to participate in this operation to gain merit and obtain an important position."

“Ishan?” one of the committee members exclaimed in surprise. “Ishan Bruce? Isn’t that your king’s daughter?!”

Mary nodded silently.

"..."

Everyone was speechless.

No wonder Mary had looked embarrassed earlier. It turns out that the Senate, the highest decision-making body in Solmar, and the King's daughter were both in trouble, which led to a cultist joining the action team. This is undoubtedly a major scandal.

Mary took a deep breath: "We, Solmara, are willing to admit our mistakes and will also compensate the members of the action teams from various countries."

She had barely finished speaking when she noticed Gao Liangwei looking at her with a scrutinizing gaze.

This made her immediately sense that something was wrong.

Sure enough, Gao Liangwei said the next moment, "I think what you Soromagato should clarify is not why you selected spies to join the action team, but why you secretly sent your team into the cathedral. Was your purpose to make contact with the Pope ahead of time?"

Mary felt a chill run down her spine.

She had intended to downplay the issue and divert the attention of the committee members by focusing on the scandals involving the "King's Daughter" and the "Senate," but Gao Liangwei still managed to expose her.

The other committee members also came to their senses upon hearing this.

Yes, letting a spy into the team was an unintentional mistake, but the fact that the Soro team's teleportation point was different from the other teams' was a deliberate arrangement by Soro!
“…Indeed, we want the team to find the Pope ahead of time.” Faced with everyone’s gaze, Mary had no choice but to continue.

"Because we believe that if the Pope were to lift his mind control over the cult members, they could be brought back to normal."

“If that’s the case, why not discuss it within the Human Alliance? If mind control truly exists and can be broken, I believe everyone would agree to capture the Pope alive, rather than beheading him on sight,” Gao Liangwei said.

"Yes, that's definitely negotiable."

"We would definitely agree."

Mary said apologetically, "We were too cautious, which is why we acted on our own. We have realized our mistake, please forgive us."

"..."

Gao Liangwei always felt that Mary was hiding something, but now that things had come to this point, he couldn't get any more information out of her without any evidence.

Regardless of the circumstances, this incident has inevitably created some rift within the People's Alliance.

After a moment of silence, Gao Liangwei broke the silence.

"Besides the issues of cultists and parasites, we at North Star have another plan to announce at this meeting. In the final week of the rule period, we intend to conduct a closed test to make a final effort to explore the source of that unknown fear."

　There will be one more update today!
　　Also, thank you all for your votes and donations! I've been giving general thanks before, but I feel that's not good enough, and it might seem a bit disrespectful to everyone's support. So, I've decided to compile a separate list of thank-you notes at the end of the month!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)