"We're forbidden from going outside now..."
Fang Qian finished reading the notice. 'Good thing I left early,' she thought. 'Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get to Guan Tong's place after the announcement.'
The thought of having to endure these 72 hours all alone at home was terrifying.
Fang Qian looked over at Guan Tong and saw him frowning. She asked curiously, "Guan Tong, what's wrong?"
"...Nothing."
Of course, Guan Tong wasn't about to mention the hidden rule.
It was a rule that harmed others for one's own gain. He would never use it himself, nor would he spread it.
"Fang Qian, are you hungry? It's about time for lunch."
"Ah..."
Fang Qian glanced at the clock on the wall. Without realizing it, it was already 12 PM.
She hadn't felt it until Guan Tong mentioned it, but now she realized she was a little hungry. This was when she usually ate lunch.
"A little... But didn't the official recommendation say that staying hungry helps maintain alertness?"
"Then we'll just eat until we're about half-full," Guan Tong said. "Staying hungry doesn't mean skipping meals entirely. Otherwise, what if you don't fall asleep from exhaustion but faint from low blood sugar instead? That would be putting the cart before the horse."
Fang Qian smiled. "You have a point. Should I cook then?"
"You can make dinner. I'll handle lunch."
After saying that, Guan Tong went into the kitchen. Just then, Fang Qian's phone suddenly rang.
BEEP BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP BEEP.
It was a video call. Fang Qian glanced at it and immediately answered. Two of the most familiar faces she knew appeared on the screen.
"Dad! Mom!"
"Qianqian, how are you? Are you okay?" Fang Qian's mother was fraught with worry. "I'm so sorry, your father and I really can't come back..."
"It's okay, Mom. I'm fine."
"Qianqian, where are you?" Fang Qian's father, however, noticed from the wall behind his daughter that she wasn't at home and immediately asked.
"Dad, I... I'm at a classmate's house right now. He's also alone, and since the official recommendation said that staying with others helps maintain alertness, I came to find him..."
"Your classmate is home alone too? That's good, then." Her father nodded. "You did the right thing, Qianqian."
"Mom, Dad, how are things on your end?"
"We're at the research institute. The government has already gathered researchers from various fields to study the Apocalypse Rules and figure out how to deal with them. We have to go to a meeting soon... Qianqian, you have to hold on and not fall asleep, you hear me!"
"I know, Dad. You and Mom have to hang in there too..."
After the call ended, Fang Qian's eyes were red.
She didn't know if she and her parents would all make it through these 72 hours. But worrying was useless; all she could do was take care of herself.
However, what her parents said on the phone—that the government had gathered researchers to start studying the Apocalypse Rules—gave Fang Qian a glimmer of hope.
If all the scientists and scholars could work together to understand what the Apocalypse Rules were and what kind of being the Fire Thief was, then maybe everyone could be saved...
Before long, Guan Tong had prepared a simple lunch.
There were two dishes—scrambled eggs with tomato and stir-fried green peppers with eggplant—along with a small bowl of rice for each of them.
"Guan Tong, I didn't know you were such a good cook," Fang Qian said after a few bites. "This is way better than my cooking."
"Is that so? Then you can eat more after we survive this rule."
"Deal! Oh, right, my parents called just now. They said they've received an official notice to gather professionals from all fields to study countermeasures for the Apocalypse Rules."
Guan Tong asked, "Do your parents think they'll get any results?"
"They didn't say." Fang Qian shook her head. "I hope so... That Fire Thief said there are forty-nine Apocalypse Rules in total! If every single one is this difficult, humanity is in for a terrible time."
"Yeah."
They talked as they finished lunch. Around 1 PM, they both glanced at the countdown timer in the sky.
67:52:49
Although it had only been a little over four hours since the countdown began, a sense of fatigue was already starting to creep in.
As the saying goes, "Drowsy in spring, weary in autumn, and napping in summer." It was currently April, the peak of "spring drowsiness." Moreover, most high school students were used to taking a nap at noon. After a morning of intense classes, they usually took a short rest to recover their energy.
Without a doubt, this napping habit had now become a source of danger.
Fang Qian and Guan Tong decided to watch a couple of episodes of a fast-paced TV show to get through their usual hour-long nap time.
Guan Tong turned on the TV, and Fang Qian suggested screen-casting from a video app on her phone, since it had a wider selection.
"Hold on, I need to subscribe to a membership first," Fang Qian said.
Guan Tong guessed, "Do you still need a membership? I bet all the major platforms are free right now."
"Ah... Huh? You're right!"
Fang Qian opened the app and discovered that all the content was indeed free to watch, without even needing to log into an account!
"This must be the government's doing, right?" Fang Qian said in surprise. "I saw someone in our class group chat say that a lot of games you used to have to pay for are free to download now too."
"The government probably made the content providers do it," Guan Tong said. "Think about it. At a time like this, what's the use of money? What the governments of every country want most right now is for more people to survive... After all, people are the foundation. Without enough people, everything else becomes meaningless."
"I see... So everything that can help people pass the time has been made free."
Fang Qian sighed with emotion. "Guan Tong, do you think all those billionaires out there wish they could trade their money for time right now? If a hundred million could buy one more hour, they'd probably do it without a second thought!"
Trading money for time...
Fang Qian's casual words sparked an idea in Guan Tong's mind.
'I wonder... can an item like the "Sober Mint Candy," which keeps people awake, be traded?'
...
In the Jule Company building, before a massive floor-to-ceiling window in the chairman's office.
Liu Yuqiang, a man with a stern face and temples streaked with white, stood by the window, looking down at the city.
As a massive conglomerate spanning multiple fields and sectors in "food, drink, fun, and games," Jule was one of the North Star Country's most famous national corporations, with immense financial power.
The chairman of the Jule Group, Liu Yuqiang, was one of the very "billionaires" Fang Qian had just mentioned.
His favorite thing in this office was the giant floor-to-ceiling window before him. Every time he stood here, looking down on most of the city, a sense of pride would swell within him, a thrilling feeling of being in control of everything.
But now, everything had changed.
Liu Yuqiang looked up. The giant red countdown in the sky ticked down, bound by no one's will.
Looking at it, a deep sense of frustration rose from within him.
He could look down on the city, but he himself was being "looked down upon" by the countdown.
The countdown, and the "Fire Thief" behind it, were the true entities looking down from on high, presiding over everything.
One could even call them "gods."
Liu Yuqiang was famous for his daring and relentless drive. In the past, when drumming up business, he could go two days without food, sleeping with his phone clutched in his hand and setting an alarm every hour just to wake up and check for messages from clients.
This die-hard work ethic not only allowed him to build the Jule business Empire before the age of fifty but also earned him the title of "Iron Man Entrepreneur" in the business world, a name his peers always mentioned with genuine admiration.
But now, Liu Yuqiang, the "Iron Man," felt a profound sense of powerlessness as he stared up at the countdown in the sky.
'Have I struggled for half my life, finally built an enterprise, and was just about to expand my territory in the business world, only for it all to be ruined by this ultimate black swan event?'
Resentfully, Liu Yuqiang clenched his fists. Just then, he heard a short "BUZZ—BUZZ" sound. It was his phone on the desk.
This was his personal phone, not for business; very few people knew the number. And that vibration pattern—two short and one long—was the exclusive notification sound for a special app used by a small, private circle.
Liu Yuqiang walked to the desk and picked up the phone. A single glance was enough to make his pupils contract and his breath catch in his throat.
The message was short, but shocking.
"Informing all members of a way to cleverly bypass the first Apocalypse Rule. Warning: This method is top secret! It must not be leaked to anyone outside of your immediate family!"