In the Qingmei Association's group chat.
The members immediately began to discuss the second Apocalypse Rule after it was announced.
"A marathon, of all things! Isn't this just to screw with us middle-aged and elderly folk? Damn it!"
"Yeah, most young people can't even run a full marathon. It's even tougher for us."
"Are there any members in the group who like to run?"
"I like to run, and I've even done a half-marathon before. But a full marathon, especially in under three hours... Honestly, out of a hundred people who can finish a marathon, only a handful can do it in under three hours."
"It's that difficult?! What are we supposed to do?"
"Let's see if there are other ways, like the information about the candy that Zhao shared last time."
"Right, right! Everyone, try using your own channels! See if you can dig up any hidden intel!"
"What about Zhao? Can we still use his connections?"
"I'm here. I'll ask, but even if my source can get something, it'll take time. They have to do their research, you know."
"Right, right, that makes sense. No need to rush, we have ten days anyway!"
"Yeah, if we can't do it, we can't do it. If we fail, we fail. The punishment for this rule isn't death, anyway."
Liu Yuqiang read the messages in the group. He could sense that, compared to last time, the members weren't nearly as desperate.
This was undoubtedly because the penalty for failure wasn't death.
Even if they failed, it would only result in a reduction of their Psychic Power.
However, the people in the group chat had all relied on eating candy to pass the first rule; their Psychic Power was low to begin with.
For those with a single-digit cap on their Psychic Power, how much could it really decrease?
With this mindset, no one was in much of a hurry.
But Liu Yuqiang was different.
The reason he had been able to build his fortune from scratch was his keen grasp of opportunities and changing trends.
Ever since the government began collecting Psychic Power data on a large scale, he had been keenly aware that a new social class was emerging.
The high-Psychic Power class.
Although it hadn't yet become apparent, it wouldn't be long before people in this class would be at the forefront of the new era, becoming the new elite—or at the very least, a group to be courted and valued by those at the top.
Having realized this, Liu Yuqiang naturally began to strive in that direction.
He knew that the commercial Empire he had built on leisure and entertainment was no longer important. Soon—no, it had *already* been rendered obsolete by this era of the Apocalypse Rules.
He determined that to board the ship of this new era, he had to secure a high Psychic Power score!
'The reward for this rule is only 100 Sublimation Coins, no Psychic Power. But the top three finishers get an extra reward. Could that be Psychic Power?'
'No matter what, I have to give it my all. Forget the top three, I have to at least pass. I absolutely cannot allow myself to fail!'
Liu Yuqiang steeled his resolve. He would not allow himself to be left behind by the times, which meant he absolutely could not afford to lose Psychic Power by failing the challenge!
...
[Hidden Rule 2]
Guan Tong felt a surge of excitement as he saw the words rearrange themselves.
'I hope this is a hidden rule I can actually use.'
If it was like the first hidden rule, requiring him to harm others for his own benefit, he definitely wouldn't use it.
[Hidden Rule 2: Mental Victory]
[Rule Content: The challenge can be completed by flexibly using the Psychic Power obtained from the first rule. This method will count toward your official result.]
[Note: Psychic Power is the root of all strength. Unearth it, use it, and you will be ever-victorious.]
'Mental Victory... The key is Psychic Power...'
Guan Tong read the details of the hidden rule and understood its meaning.
'That's right. If I were to run it myself, no amount of training would get me to a sub-three-hour marathon time in just ten days. It would be impossible even if a world champion marathoner was my coach.'
'This means that if I want to complete the challenge and get a good ranking, I have to make clever use of my Psychic Power.'
Guan Tong thought of his Wordless Book and of "Shadow."
An idea struck him. 'Shadow can jump and run. Would the distance it covers count toward my result? ...It should.'
Guan Tong thought with conviction, 'The hidden rule already said it. Completing the challenge by flexibly using Psychic Power counts toward the official result.'
Now that he had a plan, Guan Tong felt much more composed.
He resisted the urge to test his theory immediately and instead took a moment to check the new [Group] function that had appeared on his personal terminal.
After he selected it, a prompt popped up.
[You will be randomly assigned to a group. Nickname not set. Do you wish to join using your real name?]
'A nickname...'
The prompt reminded Guan Tong that he still hadn't set his nickname.
He immediately selected "No." He had no desire to enter a large group chat using his real name.
He then opened the nickname settings, looked at the blank field, and typed in the name he had given to the silhouette that had leaped from the pages of his book.
"Shadow"
[Nickname confirmed. Note: Nicknames are not unique.]
With his nickname set, Guan Tong selected the group function again.
The next moment, a massive group chat window appeared before him, taking up more than half of his field of view.
[You have been randomly assigned to: Group 9178]
[Current number of members: 20,000]
[Number of members who have completed the challenge: 0]
Guan Tong was a little surprised when he saw the notice.
'Twenty thousand people in a single group?'
He remembered the rules mentioning that only the first-place finisher in a group could advance.
In other words, his marathon result had to be number one among twenty thousand people.
This was both difficult and not difficult at the same time.
It was difficult because most people were at a similar level; very few would have specifically trained for this. If you were lucky and no one in your group had trained, then it was uncertain who might come out on top.
It wasn't difficult because if there was a professional runner in the group, based on probability, they would likely dominate everyone and take first place with ease.
Unfortunately, Guan Tong discovered that there did seem to be a professional runner in his group of twenty thousand.
Someone with the nickname "On the Road" was posting in the group chat.
On the Road: "Haha, what a coincidence. I happen to be an amateur marathon enthusiast. I run about one a year, and I've even broken the three-hour mark a few times. Looks like first place in this group is mine for the taking. My apologies, everyone."
As soon as "On the Road"'s message appeared, the chat exploded with a flood of new posts.
"???"
"How is that fair?! Why don't they put all the marathon runners in the same group?!"
"Show-offs get what's coming to them, just saying!"
"Well, it's over. This bastard has first place in the bag for sure."
"Hold on, do you all actually think you can finish? Forget three hours, I couldn't even do it if you doubled the time to six hours!"
"That's what I'm worried about, too. I think this second rule is even harder than the first!"
"Why is everyone taking this so seriously? It's not like you'll die if you fail this time."
Guan Tong watched the chat scroll by at a frantic pace, then silently closed the window.
It was hard enough to keep up with a chat of a few hundred people, let alone one with twenty thousand.
Besides, he had better things to do than waste time in the chat. He needed to test how effective using Shadow for running would be.