Chapter 199: Chapter 189: An Idea Outside the Box At the Central Earthquake Monitoring Bureau, all employees were glued to the seismograph reading screens.
Ever since the eleventh Apocalypse Rule was announced, this once small department had been flooded with new personnel.
Their mission was simple: work in 24-hour shifts to ensure that the moment an earthquake occurred, they could pinpoint its epicenter and report it up the chain of command.
At 6:20 PM, the five staff members on duty suddenly noticed an abnormal reading on the instruments, immediately followed by an automated alert.
"An earthquake is occurring!"
"It’s a micro-quake. It must be a level 1 earthquake from the rules. Report the epicenter’s location, now!"
The on-duty staff immediately reported the situation. Less than ten seconds later, the phone on Gao Liangwei’s desk rang.
Based on the epicenter’s location, he immediately contacted the Commander of the nearest local armed forces unit, ordering them to proceed to the position directly above the seismic focus—the epicenter—without delay.
He also demanded that the personnel dispatched to the area find the "Earth Vein Pillar" and attempt to make contact with it before the earthquake ended.
The earthquakes caused by the rules only lasted for five minutes, posing a tremendous challenge to their deployment capabilities.
Without adequate deployment capabilities, even if a group of Ascenders were willing to sacrifice themselves by touching the Earth Vein Pillar, they might not reach the epicenter in time.
Therefore, at Gao Liangwei’s suggestion, the higher-ups agreed to establish rapid deployment points in various locations, equipped with the fastest helicopters available. This would ensure that as long as an epicenter was near a human settlement, they could reach it at top speed.
Upon receiving the order, the armed forces unit near the epicenter deployed immediately, arriving at the target coordinates in less than two minutes.
It was an open-air soccer field in the city. Having been abandoned for over a year, it was already in a state of disrepair.
From the helicopter, the soldiers spotted the black cylinder standing in the center of the field at a glance.
It was the Earth Vein Pillar!
The soldiers immediately fast-roped to the ground. Since this was a level 1 micro-quake, they could barely feel the ground shaking after landing.
Two and a half minutes had already passed. The Commander immediately ordered, "Everyone, approach the Earth Vein Pillar, remove your gloves, and make contact!"
"Yes, sir!"
The soldiers rushed forward. The Earth Vein Pillar was a pure black cylinder, devoid of any patterns or designs. It was so thick that it would take three to five people to encircle it, and it was at least five meters tall.
Upon reaching it, the soldiers placed their palms on the black pillar without hesitation. As professional soldiers, they had made commitments and received protection in return; if a time came that required dedication and sacrifice, they were willing to step up.
For a soldier, obeying orders is their duty, and the Commander was no exception. He was the first to press his palm against it.
When their many hands touched the black pillar, everyone immediately felt the same sensation.
"The pillar is vibrating!" a soldier blurted out.
That’s right. Everyone touching the black pillar could feel it vibrating. But it was impossible to tell just by looking; the sensation was only present on contact, as if the vibration was originating from within the pillar itself.
At the same time, some soldiers noticed their Psychic Power caps were decreasing.
"Report! My Psychic Power cap is decaying!"
"Mine too!"
The Commander glanced at his Terminal Panel. After less than ten seconds of contact, his Psychic Power cap had already decayed by a full 20 points! That was an average of 2 points per second—an astonishing rate.
He gritted his teeth. "Do not remove your hands, even if it drops to zero! This is our mission!"
"Yes, sir!"
Time ticked by. In less than a minute, some soldiers could no longer hold on. Their faces went pale, and they slumped to the ground.
"Report... My Psychic Power cap is depleted. My personal terminal has shut down..."
Soon, the other soldiers followed suit.
Only the Commander held out to the end, but his Psychic Power cap wasn’t enough to last until the earthquake finished. Soon, his hand also dropped limply.
Just then, several CRACK sounds echoed out. Everyone looked up to see large pieces of the pillar’s outer shell cracking and falling away, revealing a flowing, dark brown liquid within that resembled liquefied earth.
A soldier murmured, "Commander, is... is that what we got for draining all our Psychic Power?"
The squad had a total of twelve members, and every one of them had depleted their Psychic Power cap to the point their personal terminals shut down. All they had to show for it was a few cracks in the "Earth Vein Pillar’s" shell.
The Commander was silent for a moment before reporting the situation.
Meanwhile, the Earthquake Monitoring Bureau also reported the real-time data changes from their earthquake detection.
Upon receiving the various sets of data, analysts in the Strategy Research Room immediately began their analysis, building models and using AI assistance for comparison.
At the same time, level 1 earthquakes also occurred in other member nations of the Human Federation.
However, not every country had the same deployment and operational efficiency as North Star. Nearly half the nations failed to dispatch personnel to the epicenter to make contact with the Earth Vein Pillar within the five-minute window. Of the remaining half, some only made contact for a mere ten-odd seconds.
In the end, only seven or eight sets of high-value data were collected. In accordance with their agreement, the nations made their data public for each other to use in their respective model analyses.
At 8 PM that night, the analysis report was on the conference table in the Strategy Research Room.
An analyst explained, "We’ve built a model by combining the data provided by all the nations. According to the model’s analysis, when an Ascender touches the Earth Vein Pillar, their Psychic Power cap will decay at a rate of 1 to 3 points per second."
"Additionally, based on the monitored tremor amplitude, energy decay, and waveband changes from the Earthquake Bureau, we can make a basic judgment: the ratio of Psychic Power cap loss to the reduction in earthquake destructive force is approximately 1000:1. In other words, sacrificing 1,000 points of Psychic Power cap can reduce an earthquake’s destructive force by 1%."
The result announced by the analyst stunned everyone in the conference room.
"1,000 points only reduces it by 1%? That’s way too little..."
"If this model is correct, then to weaken a level 10 mega-quake to a manageable level, how much Psychic Power would we need? How many Ascenders would it take?!"