Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 434 Prophecy and Public Opinion

Guan Tong sat down: "Yue...may I ask your name?"

“A nickname will suffice. My real name is irrelevant; it has long since vanished with the past. In this new era, a nickname is more likely to reveal a person’s true inner self,” said Moon Key.

Guan Tong raised an eyebrow slightly: "You mean the past era has vanished?"

"The world after the Firebringers arrived is a new world. Our nicknames on the terminal panels are the names of this new world. Just like your nickname is 'Shadow,' it's not just because of your abilities, is it?"

“Then you’re wrong,” Guan Tong said. “My name is simply my ability; it has no other meaning.”

Moon Key smiled but said nothing.

"Let's get straight to the point," Guan Tong said solemnly. "I want to ask you to help me investigate someone."

Upon returning from space, he went straight to find the Moon Key without even taking a break, naturally for the purpose of investigating the Suzuki matter.

He had told Shangyuan Zi that when the clues had run dry, they should look for special methods. A diviner like the Moon Key was one such special method.

Moon Key lightly flicked the crystal ball with his fingers: "My ability is prophecy, which has little to do with finding people."

"That's not necessarily true." Guan Tong took out a tablet computer from her storage ring, brought up the map function, and placed it on the table. "There are 36 administrative districts in Beixing Kingdom. I've decided to start looking for the first one. You can predict whether I can find it. If not, we'll move on to the next one."

Moon Key was taken aback: "Exhaustive search?"

“That’s right.” Guan Tong’s eyes were firm.

He dislikes giving up halfway; once he decides to do something, he sees it through to the end. He won't rest until he gets the results.

"...Do you have any information about the person you're looking for?"

Guan Tong pulled up the photos of the woman taken by the surveillance cameras on her tablet, along with the name "Wei Huo" that she had registered under.

After examining the Moon Key carefully, he pondered for a moment and said, "I can help, but on one condition."

“That makes sense. What do you want?” Guan Tong asked.

"I don't want Ascension Coins or items, I just want you to save one person."

"Who?"

"Adam".

"Save Adam?" Guan Tong frowned. "What do you mean?"

Moon Key looked up, a faint sadness in her expression.

“I saw his death in the prophecy.”

"..."

Guan Tong was slightly startled.

He highly regarded Adam's strength, as the latter possessed a powerful ability to manipulate force fields. Moreover, before leaving Liloan City, he sensed a change in Adam's temperament, suggesting that Adam had entered the second stage of sublimation.

Looking across the entire world, those who have reached the second stage of ascension are extremely rare, each one a top-tier powerhouse. How could such individuals die so easily?
"How exactly did he die? Where did he die?" Guan Tong pressed.

The Moon Key gently shook its head: "I cannot foresee all the details, I only see his body floating in the ocean. If you agree, then finding him and saving him is what you need to do."

“I agree.” Guan Tong did not hesitate. Even without the Key of the Moon, he would not mind lending a helping hand if he saw Adam in danger.

He didn't see the powerful Adam as a rival, because Adam had a long-standing connection with him, was a comrade-in-arms of Bai Xuewu, and there was one more crucial point...

Guan Tong remembered that during the [Misty Nightmare] rule period, Adam and he exchanged private messages and discussed the contents of the "Yamo Star Fragment" quite a bit. From then on, he could tell that Adam, like him, had a strong desire to explore alien civilizations and the truth about the Firebringers.

He had even considered inviting Adam to join his "Origin Tracing Brigade" to explore the secrets together. However, considering that Adam was, after all, an Ascended being officially affiliated with Soromagnetic, he naturally wouldn't extend that invitation.

"Okay, it's a deal then."

After saying this, Moon Key placed his hands on the crystal ball.

She closed her eyes tightly, and a hazy purple light slowly emerged from her palm, shining on the crystal ball. As the purple light filled the crystal ball, it began to rotate, and strange images flashed across its smooth surface from time to time.

Guan Tong watched silently, without saying a word.

He was somewhat curious when he first encountered this prophetic ability.

Because he doesn't believe in fatalism, he finds things like predicting the future somewhat unreliable. But since he came to us on his own initiative, it means his own opinion isn't important, as long as it's useful.

About five minutes later, the Moon Key opened its eyes.

Although her gaze was directed at Guan Tong, her pupils were focused on the distance, as if she were staring at some void behind Guan Tong.

"I saw you travel all over the Northern Star, using your shadow abilities to search everywhere... but you found nothing... Finally, you seemed to have discovered something in... a certain city..."

click!
With a crisp crack, her left index finger suddenly snapped and broke off. Guan Tong immediately stood up.

Moon Key also came to his senses at this moment, glanced at his finger, and casually let his left hand hang under the table. He said to Guan Tong, who looked puzzled, "Some complicated prophecies come at a price. It seems that this time it's just a finger. Don't worry about it."

“…I’m sorry,” Guan Tong said apologetically.

“No need, this is a commission I accepted myself.” Moon Key took out paper and pen, quickly drew a simple sketch with her right hand, and pushed it in front of Guan Tong. “The city I saw was very blurry, this is its general appearance.”

Guan Tong picked up the drawing paper, looked at it for a moment and felt a strange sense of familiarity. When his gaze settled on a tall cylindrical pattern, a flash of inspiration struck him and he recognized it: "This is Yunhua!"

That's right, the city outline drawn by the Moon Key is none other than Guan Tong's hometown, Yunhua City! This is precisely why it felt familiar to him. And that tall chimney is the same towering chimney in the city's industrial park.

"What did you just say I would discover in this city?" Guan Tong looked up at the Moon Key.

"That is the prophecy."

"I can't believe it."

Guan Tong never imagined that this matter would ultimately end up in his hometown of Yunhua.

He hadn't been back to that city in a long time. And he remembered that Yunhua, being a coastal city, had been swept away and destroyed by a raging tsunami during the [Earth Dragon's Reversal] event…

Guan Tong folded the sketch and put it in her pocket, then said to the Moon Key, "Thanks, I'll go there as soon as possible. I'll also try to contact Adam; you can give me his direct contact information if you have it."

He could only contact Adam through a private message on the House of Ascended account, which was certainly not as direct as making a phone call.

“I don’t have a cell phone,” Moon Key said calmly.

"...I can see that."

Judging from the fact that she still lives in a wooden house and there are no electrical appliances in it, she must be the kind of person who likes a low-modern lifestyle.

"In that case, I'll let you know when there's progress."

“I’m leaving New York City soon. If you need to find me in the future, go to the Algan Grasslands.”

Guan Tong asked in surprise, "You're leaving here? So you won't be taking any more cases?"

The reason he was able to find this place is because the address of the Moon Key is published on the commission website, and many people have come to her, which is why she is so famous.

The Moon Key looked at the crystal ball: "I've seen too much of the future, and now I want to see the present even more. There are tribes on the Algan Grassland that revere a natural way of life, and I will join them."

Argan Grassland... Guan Tong had heard of it before. It was a vast tropical grassland in the far east of the world, where in addition to a large number of wild animals, some wild tribes also lived.

Although Guan Tong found it hard to accept that a modern person would experience tribal life, he still understood Moon Key's choice.

"Okay, goodbye then."

After Guan Tong left, Moon Key raised her left hand, looked at her severed index finger, and whispered, "Is the future of 'Shadow' a taboo? Just for predicting a small matter related to him, he has to pay the price of losing a finger... What exactly is his future connected to?"

……

In the past, people would celebrate after each rule was over.

Especially in the most dangerous survival-type rules, people are often overjoyed to have survived another ordeal and tend to have some kind of celebratory celebrations.

Officials in various countries welcome this, seeing it as a way to relieve stress for the public. Otherwise, living in a repressive atmosphere for a long time, even if people are not killed by the rules, they may still go to extremes due to depression and despair, and such incidents have happened quite often.

However, after this rule ended, the celebrations weren't as intense as usual, which was related to the many bad news items weighing on people's minds.

For example, the parasite army's counterattack on the coalition base killed a large number of coalition soldiers, which shocked the people of the coalition countries and made the people deeply fearful and apprehensive of the parasites, which they had previously thought were no threat.

Then there was the incident of the "Mengzhou-1" being destroyed.

Despite numerous efforts and attempts to communicate with Robert, the Consolidated People refused to change their minds. Left with no other option, they ultimately decided to launch multiple missiles to destroy the rocket ship.

After this matter became public, people learned that the deaths of those astronauts were related to Scarlet Fear. The information that "the power of the rules is deployed and takes effect before the rules are issued," which had been known to the higher-ups for several days, began to circulate widely.

But what terrifies humanity the most is the news about the "demon race".

The Associated People (AP) originally did not plan to release this intelligence in the near future, but due to an internal leak, they were forced to publicly acknowledge it. However, the AP clearly stated that the information regarding the "Demon Race" was solely Robert's account, and its veracity remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, this supplementary explanation had little effect. People were shocked to learn that the "Scarlet Fear" was caused by only an individual from one race. The fact that this race had threatened to find humanity's home planet and exact revenge only intensified the fear.

If a single individual can make humans afraid to look at Terra or go online, then if an entire "demon race" comes looking for them, wouldn't humans only have one way out but death?
Following the release of the statement by the Federation of People's Associations, a large amount of related information began to circulate online.

The content of this information is twofold: first, to promote the terror of the "Demon Race," and second, to mention that the "Scarlet Fear" subsided the day before the rules ended, which was the work of the Ascended.

When the two pieces of information are combined, a chain of deduction based on the information begins to emerge and quickly spreads across the internet.

"Who did this? Why did they have to kill that 'demon' beforehand?! Isn't this just bringing disaster upon our Tianshui Star?!"

"Exactly! The rules would have ended in just one more day, so why bother with this whole thing? Now look what's happened! That 'demon' is dead, and now the clan group is coming for revenge. What are we going to do?!"

“If these ‘demons’ wanted revenge, they should have gone after the ‘Fire Stealers.’ Now that we humans have killed this ‘demon,’ they’ll definitely retaliate against us… It’s infuriating…”

There are countless related comments on various social media platforms.

One of the anonymous websites even had people providing crucial information.

"This is just hearsay, I can't guarantee it's true. I heard that it was Beixing's 'Shadow' who killed the 'Demon' and brought the rules to an early end. That's right, it's that 'Shadow' god..."

The moment the name "Shadow" appeared and was linked to this matter, the buzz exploded even further.

Opinions about "Shadow" on the internet were originally mixed, but considering that he had saved many people on several occasions, there were more positive reviews than negative ones. The negative reviews mainly focused on his acts of sabotage and recklessness in other countries.

However, after this incident, his public image plummeted, and a large number of criticisms against him emerged from various platforms.

Even on the Ascended's Home forum, which has many "shadow" fans, numerous posts have appeared questioning his actions.

One of the posts, titled "Did the shadow protect us or bring disaster?", received tens of thousands of replies shortly after it was published.

The author wrote in the main text: "Admittedly, the Shadow God and the people who assisted him in doing this were connected. Their starting point may have been good, but in terms of the result, it seems that they did good deeds but ended up doing bad things."

Whether the rules end a day earlier or later won't have a significant impact on humanity. However, if ending them a day earlier results in the hatred of a powerful life form in the universe, it would be a disastrous, catastrophic loss. The well-intentioned Shadow God might actually endanger all of humanity! Don't we ordinary Ascended Beings have any say in this?

Judging from the time, most of the replies in the front row were posted shortly after the post was published, and the content was mostly in support of the original poster and angrily criticizing the other user.

"Yeah, his shadow might be having a good time doing this, but we humans might all be going to be buried with him!"

"What are the officials really thinking? Why would they agree to something like this?"

"I really don't understand why everyone can't just follow the rules and complete the challenge properly, instead of resorting to underhanded methods to try and break the rules set by the Fire Stealers?! How can humans challenge a god-like being like the Fire Stealers? Doing so will only bring disaster upon themselves!"

"Just like playing a game, some players don't follow the normal path and insist on exploiting bugs to try and beat the game through unorthodox methods. But have they ever considered that if they exploit a bug and crash the game, other players will also be ruined?"

"If all of humanity has to pay the price for Shadow's actions, I absolutely refuse to accept it! He can't enjoy the benefits while the consequences are shared equally—what kind of world is this?!"

"I support this! It's the shadows causing trouble, it has nothing to do with us ordinary people. If the 'Demon Clan' really comes knocking on our door in the future, we should make things clear to them, let them seek revenge on their real enemies, instead of harming us ordinary people!"

(End of this chapter)