'I wonder what the difference is between "Excellent" and "Ordinary"?'
Guan Tong thought that he should go online later to see if the white paper on the Apocalypse Rules had been updated.
But for now, he had other things to investigate.
First were the new features unlocked on his personal terminal.
There were two of them: [Social] and [Trade].
The names were easy enough to understand at a glance, but a closer look revealed some hidden complexities.
Within the [Social] feature, nicknames were not unique; duplicate names were allowed.
In other words, Guan Tong could call himself "Shadow," but other people could also use "Shadow" as their nickname.
The way to tell them apart was by each person's exclusive "unique numerical ID."
Guan Tong checked and saw that his own numerical ID was 771539268.
To add a friend, you just had to enter their numerical ID, which prevented you from adding the wrong person.
But besides adding friends, the [Social] feature surprisingly had an option to add a "Rival."
Guan Tong looked into it. If you added someone as a Rival, the person added would also receive a notification. Once two people were designated as Rivals, a prompt would appear if they came within a certain distance of each other.
Furthermore, two people who were Rivals couldn't perform the "Team Up" action.
Although Guan Tong didn't know what "Teaming Up" was for, he guessed it was something that would be used in subsequent rules.
As for the other new feature, [Trade], opening it revealed a "Market" option.
Anyone could list tradable items on the market and set a price for them.
Those who wanted to buy could spend Sublimation Coins to purchase them.
However, the market currently showed zero items listed. No one had put anything up for sale yet.
As Guan Tong looked, he remembered the Fire Thief's voice saying that more products had been added to the Sublimation Store.
He closed the market feature and opened the Sublimation Store.
Sure enough, the interface had changed.
Previously, the store had been empty except for a search bar, but now items had appeared.
There weren't many, though. Guan Tong saw that the list was only one page long, with just a few items on it.
[Primary Weapon Box · Bronze Level]: Use to select one cold weapon of your choice
[Price: 50 Sublimation Coins]
...
[Primary Medical Box · Bronze Level]: Use to obtain a random medical item
[Price: 80 Sublimation Coins]
...
[Basic Food Box · Bronze Level]: Use to obtain 1 unit of basic food
[Price: 20 Sublimation Coins]
...
There were a total of three items for sale, and Guan Tong took them all in with a quick glance.
His first impression could be summed up in one word: useless.
Take the weapon box, for instance. Opening it let you choose a cold weapon, like a dagger or a machete.
Comparing choosing a dagger from the box to buying a small knife from a supermarket, the former's greatest advantages were its portability and concealability.
This was because man-made items from the real world couldn't be placed in the personal terminal's storage box.
In other words, you could buy a box from the Sublimation Store, get a dagger, and keep it in your storage box when you weren't using it.
If you encountered danger, you could instantly retrieve the dagger from the terminal's storage with a single thought to deal with the threat.
—And that was about the only advantage.
It was nice, sure, but would Guan Tong really spend 50 Sublimation Coins to buy it? No, he wouldn't.
For one, he was poor; he couldn't afford to waste Sublimation Coins.
For another, rather than brandishing cold weapons and getting into fights, he would much rather avoid getting into such dangerous situations in the first place.
If he had to buy something, he'd be more inclined to buy the second item, the medical box.
If he got some kind of multi-purpose medicine, it could prove immensely useful someday.
As for the third item, the food box, Guan Tong found it a bit baffling.
The first two items had their uses, but what was the deal with this food box?
'If society collapses and a major famine breaks out, then spending Sublimation Coins on this food box for an emergency might be okay. But under normal circumstances, as long as people still have a bite to eat, no one would buy this.'
Everyone knew how hard Sublimation Coins were to come by.
Right now, the only known way to obtain them was by successfully completing an Apocalypse Rules challenge, making them extremely scarce.
Guan Tong believed that now that the [Trade] feature was open, and with new items in the Sublimation Store, the value of Sublimation Coins would become terrifyingly high.
He reckoned that the big shots in the real world wouldn't even bat an eye at trading large amounts of Gold for a small number of Sublimation Coins.
Too bad they couldn't make such a trade even if they wanted to.
Even if someone wanted to give their Sublimation Coins to another person, it wouldn't be easy!
The terminal currently had no "Gift" function. To get Sublimation Coins from someone else, you had to sell them an item.
However, it seemed no one had any tradable items right now—at least, no one had listed anything on the market.
The [Sober Mint Candy] produced during the first Apocalypse Rule was completely untradable.
The [Genetic Optimization Base Liquid] that Guan Tong had just gotten from the box was tradable, but unless they'd been kicked in the head by a donkey, no one would put such a precious item on the market.
Even if they did, who could afford it? They could sell it cheap, of course, but no one would do something so foolish without a very special reason.
'I'd better save my coins for now.'
Having seen enough, Guan Tong closed the store.
He didn't plan on buying anything. There was simply no need.
Saving his coins and waiting for better items to be added later was the best choice for him.
He closed the terminal, went to his study, and turned on his computer.
He had planned to check for updates to the white paper, but the internet was flooded with complaints from other users.
"Holy crap! My Psychic Power decayed by 15 points! My cap got knocked down to the thirties!"
"Mine decayed by 7 points. This sucks..."
"I'm gonna faint. I was at 80, barely got an 'Ordinary' rating. Now I've decayed to 72 and I'm 'Inferior' again!"
"Why is the amount of Psychic Power cap decay different for people who failed the challenge???"
"There's an update in the white paper. It seems to be related to the rule completion rate. The closer you were to succeeding, the less your stats decay."
"I could just die! The store has new stuff, but now I have 0 coins and can't buy anything!"
From the success rate of the previous group challenge, it was clear that most people had failed.
This meant that not only did they miss out on the Sublimation Coin reward, but their precious Psychic Power caps also decayed.
In Guan Tong's opinion, this was the most devastating consequence.
'The later the rules get, the more crucial Psychic Power will probably become. If I don't have enough, passing the challenges will definitely get harder and harder.'
At this thought, Guan Tong knew he couldn't afford to get arrogant or complacent.
He couldn't get cocky just because he'd obtained a bottle of Genetic Optimization Base Liquid and raised his cap by 20 points.
The daily cycle of crazily depleting and recovering his Psychic Power absolutely could not stop.
Guan Tong logged onto the official website for the Apocalypse Rules Strategy Research Room to check for updates to the white paper.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the site, a pop-up window appeared.
[Notice: The Psychic Power Development Academy is currently under preparation. Interested parties, please call for more details.]