Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 444 It's Even More Terrifying Outside

In the rainforest, led by Takahashi, the people dug a pit not far from the camp and buried the body of the smoking man.

After doing all this, everyone tacitly packed up their things and left the camp before dawn to continue deeper into the rainforest.

No one could believe that the uncle died so easily.

According to Takahashi, the cigarettes the man was carrying only contained plastic in the filter. So, just a tiny amount of inhalation could kill a middle-aged man within a few hours—it's terrifying.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the uncle was not an ascendant.

The dozen or so people in this group were all ordinary people. It wasn't intentional; it was just that during the two-year-long apocalyptic era, the intersection between ordinary people and those who had ascended to higher realms had become increasingly rare.

The two sides still lived together the previous year, but by the second year, such cohabitation had almost disappeared.

This has nothing to do with discrimination; it's purely a natural outcome. Even if two people are friends, if one is an ordinary person and the other is someone who has transcended worldly concerns, they will only have less and less in common, and eventually they will go their separate ways.

However, this outcome indirectly exacerbated the antagonism between the two sides. Less contact led to a growing misunderstanding of each other's words and actions, making conflict inevitable as the situation continued to escalate.

Fortunately, the People's Federation firmly opposes the escalation of the conflict, so there are not many real-world, physical conflicts between the two sides; most of the arguments take place online.

Having witnessed the destructive power of microplastics, Takahashi and his group are now filled with fear and quickening their pace to venture deeper into the unpolluted rainforest.

"Hey! Who are those...?"

A moment later, the person in front suddenly shouted, and the others looked ahead and were all astonished.

In the open space ahead, there were several large craters, with scattered bones around them. The bones were clearly human, which frightened everyone into retreating.

"What's there to be afraid of bones for!" A young man boldly walked over and noticed something around the skeleton. "These, these look like soldiers'...!"

Soldier?

Upon closer inspection, everyone indeed discovered some debris around the bones, including broken firearms and torn pieces of military combat uniforms.

Someone with sharp eyes noticed something: "Look, there are a lot of metal fragments next to that big hole. This crater must have been made by a bomb!"

Why are there bomb craters and soldiers' corpses deep in the rainforest?
Everyone felt a chill run down their spines, unaware of what had happened there before.

If Guan Tong were here right now, he would probably immediately remember that this was the place where he had briefly stayed in Antai State.

At that time, in order to seize the fragments of Qimo Star in his possession, the military bombed this place with warship missiles and dispatched special forces teams, and the corpses that have turned into bones are the result of that operation.

"Don't come any closer!" Takahashi suddenly realized something and nervously moved away from the pit. "There's plastic in those pieces of clothing. It's dangerous here. We have to get out of here!"

"what!"

"It really is!"

The others also realized what had happened and, without thinking about what had occurred, quickly followed Takahashi in another direction.

They hadn't walked far when a man and a woman in the group started to feel unwell.

"I feel... a little... a little short of breath." The woman patted her chest, her breathing rapid, making it difficult for her to speak.

"My stomach hurts a little, but I don't know why," the man said.

Both of them had a deep fear in their eyes, afraid that their discomfort might be related to microplastics.

The others stood back with grim expressions: "More people have been infected, and this time there are two of them!"

"Don't talk nonsense!" the woman, struggling to breathe, retorted loudly. "I don't have microplastic poisoning, I'm just tired from walking..."

Before she could finish speaking, she felt dizzy and collapsed to the ground. Takahashi immediately went to check on her and saw that both of the woman's calves were swollen.

Takahashi took a few steps back, his face pale: "Difficulty breathing, swollen calves... This, this could be a sign of heart failure..."

"Organ failure! And they still say it wasn't caused by microplastics!"

"What's going on? We've already come to a pristine rainforest environment! Why are we still being harmed by microplastics?"

No one could accept it. If the uncle ingested microplastics because of smoking, what happened now?

"It might be related to that pit we just saw. I don't know, but we have to go deeper." Takahashi didn't know what was going on either, but he knew he couldn't panic. As the team leader and the backbone of the group, if he lost his composure, the team would fall into chaos.

"Then hurry up and leave, but don't take them with you." Someone pointed to the man and woman who were feeling unwell. "Who knows if the microplastics in their bodies might be transmitted to us?"

"What?!" The man with the stomachache cursed angrily. "Damn it! This isn't a blood plague virus, how could it spread to others!"

"Who can say for sure? In short, I don't agree to dangerous people like you traveling together."

"I think so too..."

"Yes, for safety's sake, it's better to let the two of them stay."

Seeing everyone say this, the man with the stomachache panicked and turned to Takahashi for help: "Hey, are you kidding me? If we stay here, we'll only be dead!"

Takahashi was now in a dilemma. Although he was the team leader, he couldn't force others to follow his decision. After much hesitation, he could only suggest a vote.

As expected, the entire team voted not to include the two of them.

"I'm sorry..." Seeing this, Takahashi could only apologize to the man with a desperate look on his face, "The minority must obey the majority, so I can only let you stay here. If you feel better, you can follow the marks left by the group on the trees to walk back, and that will take you out of the rainforest and back to the city."

"……I see."

The man with the stomach ache squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, watching Takahashi and the others leave with a resentful look on his face.

……

If the death of that uncle didn't have such a big impact on the team, then the two who were abandoned later completely affected the team.

Takahashi walked ahead, and when he looked back, he could see that everyone's faces were extremely grim. Regardless of the circumstances, voting to abandon their two companions was tantamount to killing them. Even without organ failure, being outnumbered in this rainforest would be extremely dangerous, making it incredibly difficult to follow the markings back.

Seeing that everyone's morale was low, Takahashi forced out two jokes, but no one reacted. Helpless, he had no choice but to quickly find a suitable place to camp and settle down.

Unlike the joyful laughter of their first camping trip, this time the atmosphere was somber throughout. Few spoke, and everyone worked silently. Once the campsite was set up, everyone lay down to rest, and even the night watch assigned by Takahashi was abandoned.

Knowing that everyone was feeling heavy-hearted, Takahashi thought that a good night's sleep would help him recover, so he went to rest as well.

He felt as if he had just fallen asleep when he was awakened by a piercing scream.

"ah!!!"

"Murder!"

Takahashi was jolted awake. As soon as he sat up, he saw a horrifying scene: a young man was swinging a metal shovel and smashing it down on the head of a sleeping person. The latter was caught off guard and immediately bled profusely from his head!
The one who threw the object was none other than the young man with the stomachache who had been voted out of the group earlier. Clearly, he held a grudge; instead of returning the way he came, he secretly followed the group, intending to ambush and kill them while they slept!
"Let me die, and you bastards won't live either! I'm going to kill you all!" The young man's eyes were bloodshot as he swung his shovel and smashed things as he roared.

Takahashi grabbed a metal rod and shouted, "Everyone, stop this madman!" He then led the charge, followed by several other men. They beat the young man to the ground with sticks and shovels, and he soon collapsed, coughing up blood.

However, the three people who were ambushed by the youth also succumbed to their injuries. These four corpses lying across the camp drove the remaining people nearly insane.

"They're all crazy... I... I want to go back!"

"I want to go back too!" someone cried, covering their face. "I never imagined it would be more dangerous outside than in the city..."

Takahashi took a deep breath, and the anger he had been suppressing finally erupted: "It's all your fault for being so willful! If you had followed my instructions for night watch, this wouldn't have happened! Those of you who want to go back can go back, and those who don't want to go back can continue to come deeper into the rainforest with me!"

After he finished speaking, he quickly packed his things, and the others, seeing this, remained silent for a moment before following suit. Those who wanted to go back exchanged glances, realizing that they were all afraid that without Takahashi to lead the way, the journey back would be just as dangerous... so they could only continue walking in.

……

In the vast ocean, a brightly lit island stands out like a firefly in the darkness.

This island, which looks somewhat like an apple when viewed from above, is Eden Island.

This island is little known; even most Sororo people are unaware of its existence. A few people interested in navigation might know of its existence, but none have ever approached it. This is because it is located within a military base area, and unauthorized personnel are not permitted to approach.

Only a very few people know that this is an artificial island, a medium-sized island created by reclaiming land from the original islets and reefs.

Few people know the original purpose of building this artificial island. Even the Senate only has one impression of it: as a base for implementing the "Eden Project" after the end-of-the-world rules were established.

Watchtowers are built along the edge of the island, and thick beams of searchlights sweep across the sea, making it impossible for even sailboats without electronic equipment, propelled solely by wooden oars, to secretly approach the island undetected.

Adam was fully aware of this and knew from the beginning that he could not land on the island using conventional methods.

If anyone saw him right now, they would be utterly shocked.

Because he is "walking" in the depths of the ocean.

Using his ability to manipulate forces, he created a gravitational field around his body. This force could resist the water pressure from the deep sea, while simultaneously counteracting buoyancy through a downward force, allowing him to walk in the sea.

This is extremely difficult to achieve, because it requires not only a great deal of mental power, but also precise manipulation of that power, which only top-tier ascendants can master.

Adam himself was one of them. Especially after he discovered that he had entered the second stage of sublimation, his physical abilities improved significantly, and his brain's computing power also improved, making him more and more proficient in his mastery of his abilities.

As for why he came here, there was only one reason: he wanted to take his other wives and children from the island.

Through that decapitation mission, he discovered the second objective of the entire "Eden Project".

If the primary, or overt, objective of this plan is to bring together individuals with high spiritual power to produce offspring with innate high spiritual power, then the secondary, covert objective is to use this infant and their partner to control all the ascendants participating in the plan.

Every participant in this program, regardless of gender, is an ascendant of high spiritual power and possesses high value in this era. This value does not depend on external possessions, resources, or weapons… but solely on oneself.

That's right, a powerful being doesn't need any external things to prove its power; its power lies within itself!

In this era where "great power belongs to oneself," it is almost useless to try to control these elevated individuals by offering them benefits, because these powerful individuals can obtain benefits at any time if they want.

To control them, there are only two options left: identification or fear.

Adam now understands that the king's second purpose in launching the "Eden Project" was to artificially create fear in powerful ascendants—that is, to use the wives/husbands the ascendants met in the project and the children they had as vulnerabilities to form a hard form of control.

Even the most powerful beings who have transcended themselves still retain human emotions. As long as they retain emotions, they cannot sever ties with certain important people.

In hindsight, Bruce's approach was correct.

He used this to coerce Adam into carrying out the mission to capture the pope of the Firebringers. The mission ultimately failed due to an unexpected traitor, and Adam seized the opportunity to cut off contact with Bruce, intending to go to the island himself to rescue him.

“Based on my previous observations on the island, apart from the sentry posts on the island’s edge, there are no official soldiers in the interior area… But Bruce warned me not to land on the island last time, which means that there must be some kind of power hidden on the island to suppress the Ascended.”

"After I disappeared, Bruce will probably strengthen the island's defenses. And it's possible he secretly took them elsewhere..."

Adam knew that King Bruce, given his personality, would definitely be prepared. So he had already made a plan: if he could rescue his wife and children, all the better; if they had already been moved, then he would destroy the entire island to force Bruce to the negotiating table.

He manipulated the position, reducing downforce and letting buoyancy carry him slowly upwards. Once his body surfaced, he walked onto the beach, where he used to often lie and sunbathe; his usual sun lounger was still nearby.

After taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

There seemed to be something on that sun lounger.

He walked over and saw a note weighed down by a stone, with Bruce's handwriting on it.

"Adam, you have one last chance to contact me before you see this. Don't try to challenge me, or you'll all end up as fish food."

Adam crumpled the note and looked at the brightly lit townhouses in the distance.

Bruce had already anticipated that he would come to the island, so he had no other choice but to destroy the island.

"Then let's see how you're going to stop me."

(End of this chapter)