After the initial shock, Guan Tong quickly calmed down.
He looked at the black silhouette standing before him. Although it was the same height and build as him, it was just an outline.
It wasn't filled in.
No face, no body.
It looked just like the outline of a shadow.
Guan Tong looked at the black silhouette and willed it to jump.
The next moment, the black silhouette actually jumped.
"..."
'This isn't so much a telepathic connection,' Guan Tong thought, 'as it is an extra arm or leg that I can control at will.'
'Why would something like this appear just from writing my name in the Wordless Book?'
'Could this be the mysterious power hidden within the book?'
'If I had written someone else's name, would their silhouette have appeared instead?'
Guan Tong guessed, but he couldn't be sure without actually testing it.
He looked at the silhouette and said, "I'll just call you 'Shadow'."
Its unfilled silhouette did indeed look just like a shadow.
In the time that followed, Guan Tong constantly tested Shadow to see what it could do.
First, it could stand, sit, run, and jump, but it had no physical form—just like the name "Shadow" that Guan Tong had given it.
Having no physical form also meant it couldn't interact with physical objects.
But Guan Tong didn't know if it could undergo further changes, or if its form was related to Psychic Power.
Another thing was its duration.
Shadow only existed for less than five minutes before dissipating in front of Guan Tong.
Guan Tong noticed that his name, which had previously vanished, had reappeared on the pages of the Wordless Book.
"Looks like when the name leaves the page, it becomes Shadow. When the time is up, Shadow dissipates and returns to the page, becoming a name again."
Guan Tong scratched his head. There was so much about this ability that he didn't understand.
Moreover, the pages of this Wordless Book seemed endless; he could just keep turning them forever.
'If I were to write something on every page, would they all produce a similar change?'
Guan Tong really wanted to try it right away!
But unfortunately, he didn't have nearly enough Psychic Power.
'It took so many days just to write my name. How long would it take to write something more complex? I won't be able to speed it up unless my Psychic Power limit increases drastically.'
Guan Tong closed the book, a slow smile spreading across his face.
'It's good that it's complex,' he thought. 'This way, I can study it slowly. That's part of the fun.'
...
For the next five days, Guan Tong didn't write anything new in the Wordless Book.
He used all his recovered Psychic Power to activate Shadow and conduct all sorts of experiments.
He tried opening the curtains and having Shadow block the sunlight.
The result was that only the outline blocked the sun; the hollow part did not.
He also tried to make Shadow change its shape, but it was completely impossible.
This was a bit of a pity, as he had thought that if Shadow could shapeshift, there would be many more uses for it.
For example, he could have it turn into several black lines on a piece of white paper to serve as a game board.
Finally, Guan Tong thought of having Shadow superimpose itself on his own body. This added a layer of shadow to his outline, creating a strange visual impact.
He figured going out like that would probably scare a lot of people, so he decided against it.
While he was studying the various uses of Shadow, most other people were preparing for the arrival of the second Apocalypse Rule.
In reality, no one knew what preparations to make before a rule arrived.
But most people were anxious, so they stuffed their homes with all sorts of things, both useful and useless.
Even the official Apocalypse Rules countermeasure departments established by various countries were actively preparing.
For instance, preparing all kinds of weapons, medicines, and so on.
But in essence, these preparations were no different from ordinary people hoarding painkillers and alcohol at home—actions driven by anxiety.
Other people, like Guan Tong, spent a lot of time studying the items they had purchased from the Sublimation Store.
They believed that only the derivatives of the rules could be used to fight against the rules themselves.
And these so-called "rule derivatives" were, of course, things like the previous Sober Mint Candies and items obtained from the Sublimation Store.
Beyond that, nothing else created by human society mattered.
Many people agreed with this view. Some even believed that they should completely abandon modern society and embrace the rules and their derivatives in a primitive state.
As the saying goes, it takes all kinds. Faced with such powerful supernatural forces, even more bizarre theories cropped up endlessly.
It was under these circumstances that the second Apocalypse Rule arrived right on schedule.
...
8:59 AM.
At this moment, most of the people around the world who had survived the first Apocalypse Rule were waiting in silence.
Waiting for the Fire Thief to appear and announce the second Apocalypse Rule.
Guan Tong was also at home, waiting silently.
He was also eager to know what the second Apocalypse Rule would be.
At exactly nine o'clock, the Fire Thief's mechanical, cold voice resounded in everyone's mind as expected.
[The second Apocalypse Rule has been issued.]
[Apocalypse Rule 2: Extreme Marathon]
[Rule Content: Within a ten-day time limit, complete one full marathon challenge in under 3 hours.]
[Success Reward: 100 Sublimation Coins]
[Failure Penalty: Failure to complete the challenge within the time limit will result in a decrease in your maximum Psychic Power.]
[Note 1: Humans possess endurance that surpasses most other species. Please leverage this advantage and strive to pass.]
[Note 2: The group function has been enabled on personal terminals. Everyone will be randomly assigned to a group. Results will be ranked and compared within the group. The first-place winner in each group will advance to the final rankings. The top three in the final rankings will receive additional rewards.]
After the Fire Thief's voice faded, Guan Tong was a little surprised.
More than the content of the rule itself, he was pleased by the failure penalty.
This time, the penalty for failure was a decrease in one's maximum Psychic Power, not death.
Although Psychic Power seemed extremely important at the moment, and a decrease was a cruel punishment, it was much gentler compared to death.
'But... the absurdity of this second Apocalypse Rule is no less than the first,' Guan Tong mused.
Unless you were an expert long-distance runner who regularly participated in marathons, for most ordinary people with no running habit, training to complete a full 42-kilometer marathon in under 3 hours within ten days was simply absurd.
Moreover, along with the second Apocalypse Rule, a brand-new group function was enabled on the personal terminals.
Guan Tong didn't check the new function right away. Instead, he opened his personal terminal to view the rule details.
He remembered that last time, this was how he had discovered the existence of a hidden rule.
'Will it work this time?'
Guan Tong stared at the details of the second Apocalypse Rule.
A few seconds later, the text of the rule began to slowly pulse, and its colored particles rearranged themselves.
'It's working!'