The moment the Fire Thief finished announcing the rules, the once-clear sky plunged into pitch-black darkness.

Devoid of stars and moon, it was as if an impenetrable curtain had been drawn across the entire world.

At the same time, strange, shrill cries erupted from all corners of the globe.

The sound was like a whistle—sharp and piercing, it tore through the night sky, echoing across the land.

And with this sound, certain entities began to stir.

In a temporary morgue in Yunhua City, several staff members had gathered under the lights of the break room, discussing the newly announced rules.

"What the hell are Living Dead? Zombies?"

"Who knows... Let’s just wait for the officials to release a guide."

"You get an extra Sublimation Coin for every Living Dead you kill when they tally the score! If you take out a hundred or so, won’t you make a small fortune when this rule ends?"

"I’ll be satisfied if I can just kill ten, complete the challenge, and prevent my Psychic Power from decaying." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Same here. The Fire Thief might have called it a ’bonus stage,’ but it’s still one of the Apocalypse Rules. Do you really think it’ll let us farm coins that easily?"

THUD!

As they were talking, a loud crash suddenly echoed from the glass door. Startled, they whipped their heads around, and a single glance filled them with horror.

A figure was plastered against the door, its face contorted and its eyes glowing with a sinister, crimson light. But what terrified the staff most was the gray robe it wore—the standard shroud for the bodies kept in the temporary morgue.

’The dead have come back to life?!’

"No, no, no, no!"

They instantly realized that if the "Living Dead" in this new rule weren’t just appearing out of thin air, but were reanimated corpses, then the temporary morgue they were in was, without a doubt, the most dangerous place to be.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The very next second, their fears were realized. A horde of corpses in gray robes swarmed the entrance, pressing forward in a crush of bodies. The glass door quickly gave way under the pressure and shattered with a deafening crack.

"W-We’re done for!"

The instant the glass shattered, their minds went blank. They couldn’t even muster the will to fight back.

"ROOOOAR!!!!"

Dozens of Living Dead flooded into the break room. Roaring like beasts, they lunged at the staff members, tearing their lives, and their despair, to shreds.

Meanwhile, the piercing shriek continued to propagate through the night sky.

Soon, it traveled beyond the city, reaching the suburbs, the villages, and the outlying counties.

Villages that had been buried and vanished during the blizzard of the fourth Apocalypse Rule had recently reemerged as the snow melted.

Along with the villages, countless corpses reappeared, steeped in the melting snow and ice.

With manpower stretched thin, the city had spent the last month focused solely on its own disaster relief, cleanup, and survival-focused reconstruction. They hadn’t been able to spare any resources for the outlying villages, where many of the bodies had been left soaking in the water for days.

Now, as the piercing shriek reached them, these corpses began to twitch... before rising from the water one by one.

Some were already grotesquely swollen from the water, while others were mangled, their limbs crushed by collapsed houses. But they all shared one feature: a pair of eerie, crimson eyes that glowed with a sinister red light.

After a moment of silence, these newly risen Living Dead erupted in a collective roar and began to swarm, a frenzied tide rushing toward the distant Yunhua City, which was now a constellation of countless lights flickering to life in the darkness.

...

In the storage room of the residential complex’s property management office, Guan Tong also heard the ear-piercing shriek that followed the Fire Thief’s announcement.

The sound, which came from far to the south, was indescribable and deeply unsettling.

’This rule only lasts for twenty-four hours, the shortest one yet... And the Fire Thief specifically called it a ’bonus stage’...’

Guan Tong felt it wasn’t that simple. ’If this were really a bonus stage, why not just give every Ascender a thousand Sublimation Coins or so? Why disguise it as a rule?’

He glanced at the sky, which had turned pitch-black in an instant, and felt a sense of unease. He first secured the door, then quickly opened his personal panel to check for hidden rules.

He focused his gaze on the fifth Apocalypse Rule. Soon, the colored particles on the panel rearranged themselves, and the hidden rule materialized.

[Hidden Rule Five: Transformation Source]

[Hidden Rule: In this rule, eliminating Living Dead with items or abilities unrelated to Psychic Power will not count toward your kill total. In addition to the Living Dead, a special ’Mother Transformer’ also exists within a certain regional radius. The ’Mother Transformer’ can convert human corpses into Living Dead by emitting a piercing shriek. Eliminating the ’Mother Transformer’ grants a substantial special reward and will prematurely end the creation of Living Dead in that region.]

[Note: For the 24 hours this rule is in effect, the "Mother Transformer" will periodically emit its shriek, converting human corpses into Living Dead. If you decide to hunt it down to end the transformation, remember: it cannot be killed by items or abilities unrelated to Psychic Power. It possesses immense power and is an exceptionally dangerous foe.]

’Using anything other than Psychic Power to kill Living Dead won’t count toward my total. That much I expected,’ Guan Tong thought. ’It’s not just me; most people probably figured that out as soon as the rule was announced.’

What truly took him by surprise was the existence of the "Mother Transformer."

After reading the hidden rule, Guan Tong finally understood. The deeply unsettling shriek he’d heard right after the Fire Thief’s announcement must have come from this Mother Transformer.

’With just that one scream, how many human corpses were turned into Living Dead?’ Guan Tong felt a knot of dread in his stomach. ’So many people died during the fourth Apocalypse Rule. It’s impossible that all the bodies were cremated. There must be tons of them still in temporary storage at morgues and places like that...’

’And according to the hidden rule, the Mother Transformer will be shrieking periodically over the next twenty-four hours. If the people killed by the Living Dead are then continuously turned into new Living Dead... then...’

The consequences, Guan Tong realized, were unthinkable.

’Especially since the note in the hidden rule says the Mother Transformer can’t be killed by anything unrelated to Psychic Power. That means even if the authorities find it and try to use military weapons to stop the transformations, it won’t work!’

’An Ascender has to be the one to kill it, using an item or ability related to Psychic Power. Only then will the transformations stop!’

That left Guan Tong with two choices.

He could find a good defensive position, hunker down, and eliminate any Living Dead that came his way. Or, he could take the initiative and risk hunting down the Mother Transformer.

Guan Tong looked at the Silver Hunter in his hand. After a moment of silence, he made his decision.

’The shriek I heard earlier seemed to come from the south... That’s where I need to go.’

’But I can’t be reckless. First, I need to figure out how strong these Living Dead are.’

Guan Tong needed to know: were the Living Dead like the shuffling, slow-moving zombies of classic lore? Or were they like rabid dogs, monsters that would lunge and bite at the first sight of a person?

The difference between the two was enormous, putting them on completely different levels of danger.