The video came to an abrupt halt. Ren Yi stared blankly for a few seconds, a thought instinctively popping into his head: Why did it have to cut off right at this moment?
He quickly realized that the classmate who filmed the video had most likely been forcibly repatriated by the Alliance.
The Alliance had never mentioned any rules regarding forced repatriation before. This was likely a special emergency mechanism that only activated at critical moments.
After all, that Calamity had launched a map-wide attack directly on the Royal City, effectively erasing it from the Three Cities World.
While the Alliance might have intended to let some reckless cubs experience the horror of death to teach them a lesson, they couldn't actually let a third of the cubs die off. Did people really think the Parents were pushovers?
As for why they hadn't been informed in advance, it was likely to prevent some overconfident cubs from charging recklessly into the center of a Calamity, thinking they were protected by the Alliance's safety mechanism.
If that happened, the Alliance might not even have time to save them.
Thinking of this, Ren Yi suddenly noticed something strange. The "Calamity Rule" seemed to differ somewhat from the Auxiliary Rules he had encountered within the Instances.
The previous Auxiliary Rules targeted specific Participants who triggered them, but the Calamity Rule seemed to execute based on "regions."
The most obvious evidence was the Inner City of the Royal City. The Inner City itself hadn't been involved in "collective pain," yet it was also consumed by the Calamity. It had clearly been dragged down by the Outer City.
It seemed the range of influence for a Calamity Rule was far more extensive than that of an Auxiliary Rule.
In that case, the cubs assigned to the Royal City were truly unlucky. Their buffet time hadn't even reached the halfway point before they were forcibly repatriated.
But perhaps the unluckiest of all was the Royal City itself. Why did the Calamity spread there so quickly?
As this thought emerged, Ren Yi suddenly paused. Was it really just bad luck?
He carefully reviewed the events in the Royal City again.
At first, it was the inaction of the Royal City's ruling class that caused the Outer City to fall into chaos.
It was easy to imagine that the Anomaly cubs at that time must have caused a considerable amount of widespread panic.
Immediately after, the food shortage plunged the Outer City into large-scale starvation.
So, could it be that this kind of widespread collective pain directly summoned the descent of the Calamity?
But questions followed. If the descent of a Calamity could be summoned by collective pain, why didn't the previous panic trigger it? Why was it hunger that set it off?
No, panic and hunger were actually quite different.
The targets of panic were scattered; they were directed at different Anomaly individuals and had specific focuses. Perhaps that kind of fear didn't count as the "collective pain" mentioned in the rules.
Hunger was different. Hunger was hunger. It was indiscriminate. Everyone affected felt the same kind of pain, with no room for categorization.
Ren Yi recalled the execution of the rules he had seen within the Lu Family Courtyard Instance.
At that time, two Participants were hunted by the Wutong Tree Anomaly because they forcibly tore apart their arms that had grown together, which in turn triggered a rule.
Comparing the two, he felt like he was grasping something.
From the first time he saw the Auxiliary Rules, Ren Yi felt the wording was a bit too broad.
Take this "pain" for example; its range of interpretation was far too wide.
If one were to be pedantic, would a large group of people being forced awake by an alarm clock at eight in the morning count as pain? If someone blinks because their eyes are dry, does that dry sensation count as pain?
In the most extreme case, would everyone with dry eyes who failed to blink simultaneously be judged by the rule as having triggered the punishment?
Judging by the situation within the Instance, at least that specific rule wasn't that extreme at the time.
Ms. Lu Qing had mentioned before that the Calamity Rule was a process of gradual evolution.
This evolution likely didn't just refer to the range of influence expanding, but also to the strictness of the rule's judgment constantly tightening.
Therefore, this "broadness" wasn't because the rules themselves were imprecise, but rather to encompass the manifestations of all stages of a Calamity as much as possible.
So now, two conclusions could be drawn:
First, the spread of the Calamity Rule was not without pattern. Large-scale collective pain would very likely serve to summon the Calamity.
Second, the Calamity Rule was constantly growing stronger, and its judgment on the scope of "pain" and "together" was gradually loosening.
In the end, perhaps the extreme scenario of "being judged for triggering the rule because everyone's eyes were dry at the same time" really would occur.
Hmm... So the Anomalies in the Royal City being repatriated before they could eat much was also their own fault.
Who told them not to control the level of pain? They should have looked at how the seniors in the Instances did things.
That was all the information in the thread for now. Most of his doubts had basically been answered.
However, a trace of unease inexplicably rose in Ren Yi's heart. He felt something was wrong, as if something was missing.
Was... something missing?
Thinking back, the class monitor had told him to check the thread. He had watched the video and spent quite a while analyzing it bit by bit...
The feeling was like when you're engrossed in watching videos and suddenly realize that your child, who went into the kitchen to play, hasn't made a sound in a long time.
Ren Yi looked at the Anomaly Web interface again. The interface was empty, with no new messages.
Where was Lu Zihan?
That guy was famous for his internet surfing speed. No matter what the news was, he was always the first to see it and then call Ren Yi. Why was there no movement this time?
Ren Yi quickly opened his chat with Lu Zihan and scrolled through the logs. The last message was still from before he had set out to clear the first mutant beast nest.
Afterward, things happened one after another and developed so quickly that he simply hadn't had time to chat with Lu Zihan.
He hurriedly sent two messages.
【Old Lu, have you checked the Anomaly Web?】
【It's rare for me to be the one calling you this time.】
However, the messages were met with silence. There was no response from the other side.
Rate on N.U.
