That was it. Guan Tong understood what Shi Jingyi meant.
She probably already knew that he was... Shadow!
After the battle on Holy Grail Island, many of Guan Tong’s abilities had been exposed, including his power to create explosions and manipulate shadows.
And back during the fifth Rule, at the industrial park, Shi Jingyi had personally witnessed Guan Tong bombard the Living Dead with a Silver Hunter No. 3 Bullet. She had also seen him manipulate shadows to eliminate the "Mother Transformer" with an implosion.
Even if she hadn’t realized it at the time, once news of the Holy Grail Island battle spread, she would have certainly connected the dots and, with a high degree of probability, concluded that Guan Tong was "Shadow."
"Still, I really didn’t expect it, hehe," Shi Jingyi said. "You’re a classic case of still waters run deep."
"..."
Guan Tong’s feelings were complicated. He wasn’t particularly worried that Shi Jingyi would leak his identity. Judging from her past actions, she didn’t seem like the type of person who would sell out someone’s secret for personal gain.
It was just that having someone guess his true identity for the first time felt undeniably strange.
"Before we parted ways last time, you said you’d watch my online course. Did you?" Shi Jingyi didn’t dwell on the matter, changing the subject.
"I did," Guan Tong said. "And I’ve been studying it ever since."
"Really? Want me to quiz you?"
"Go ahead."
Shi Jingyi randomly quizzed him on five or six human acupoints. Since Guan Tong hadn’t memorized them all yet, he got three right.
This was enough to surprise Shi Jingyi.
"Looks like you’ve really been putting in the effort. Just by watching the online course, you’re not any worse than the students attending in person."
Guan Tong didn’t feel like mentioning that he was cooped up in his room all day with nothing to do *but* watch online courses.
"In that case, if you have any questions, just call me directly," Shi Jingyi said. "After all, the online course doesn’t exactly have a ’Q&A’ session."
"I can do that? Thanks, then."
"Don’t mention it."
After hanging up, Guan Tong took a deep breath.
He had long known his identity would be discovered one day, but he never expected it to happen so suddenly.
Fortunately, only Shi Jingyi seemed to have guessed so far. Judging by how she deliberately avoided mentioning it over the phone to prevent the call from being monitored, she probably wouldn’t tell anyone else.
But it’s better to be safe than sorry. Guan Tong still had to prepare for the worst-case scenario of his identity being completely exposed.
’As the saying goes, a sly rabbit has three burrows. Besides the shelter, I should find a few more hideouts... I can leave Psychic Power items in those places. If I run into danger, I can use Body Shifting to teleport there and escape.’
’Also... shouldn’t I consider using my advantages to accelerate my own growth, or maybe find a way to mobilize the power of a group for my own benefit?’
Guan Tong casually opened a webpage and stared at it for a while, various ideas forming in his mind.
The core principle was that he could use the internet from his shelter without fear of being tracked.
’Based on this core principle, maybe I could build a website. A site to publish... no, to *sell* high-value information in exchange for large amounts of Sublimation Coins?’
’No, that’s not right. In the world of business, the ones who profit most are always the ’platforms,’ not the merchants.’
’If I just sell information... if I sell it for too high a price, there might not be many customers who can afford it; if I sell it too cheaply, the information becomes commonplace and worthless.’
’But what if I sell an "intermediary service" instead?’
’I could leverage the fact that this website can’t be infiltrated or traced to build an intermediary network for Ascenders to trade information and items, or even post commissions. Then I could take a cut from the transactions. Wouldn’t that be the way to maximize profits?’
Guan Tong felt this was worth a shot.
The reason was simple: people had a need for it. At the very least, Guan Tong himself had this need, and he figured he wasn’t the only one. Many Ascenders who chose to survive alone, and even some small to medium-sized organizations, would have concerns about privacy.
Many people needed to trade items and information, but the end-user market was almost completely monopolized by major organizations and the government. If they traded on a third-party platform, they’d have to worry about their identities being leaked, leading to being tracked and targeted offline.
So, if a dedicated exchange and trading website for Ascenders appeared—one that guaranteed their identities wouldn’t be leaked or traced—it would undoubtedly create a frenzy of use.
"Meow."
Coal Ball hopped onto the desk and lay down on the laptop keyboard. Guan Tong poked its head. "You think it’s a good idea, too?"
Coal Ball started purring, clearly having come over only because the laptop keyboard was warm.
"Whatever, I’ll just build it and see what happens."
Once Guan Tong had an idea, he acted on it. Ignoring Coal Ball’s protesting meows, he picked it up and tossed it onto the bed, then downloaded a website template.
He didn’t know much about web development, but that didn’t matter. In this day and age, there was no shortage of AI tools. Even someone who knew nothing about coding could rely on AI assistance to complete the fool-proof process of building a website with a template.
However, he soon discovered that websites made this way were just a collection of static pages. He still needed a corresponding server to store data. He could use a cloud service provided by another company, but entrusting the data to someone else would obviously defeat the whole purpose of the site.
’If I want to do this website right, I’ll need to get some equipment and put it here in my shelter... That’s definitely not happening during the Blood Plague Rule. I’ll have to figure out a way to get it after this is over.’