83: Chapter 83 Hidden Rules (Internal Express Version)

An abandoned city floor.

Inside a large supermarket, most of the shelves were overturned, with empty packaging bags and broken glass scattered across the floor.

Zhou Qilin's figure walked slowly through the empty floor, his footsteps sounding exceptionally clear in the silence.

He didn't walk fast, his gaze calmly scanning both sides.

Whenever he reached a shelf or storage cabinet, those heavy metal racks or wooden cupboards would silently flip over on their own, lift off the ground, and hover a few feet away from him, vibrating slightly.

Unfortunately, everything inside—from the snack shelves to the beverage area—had long been scavenged clean; not a single candy or bottle of water remained.

Zhou Qilin had no expression on his face as he continued walking forward.

He didn't really need these supplies; he was just passing through and wanted to take a look.

As he reached the fresh produce area, a dull "thud" suddenly echoed from above his head.

Zhou Qilin's footsteps paused, his pupils constricted slightly, and his Mental Power spread out silently, seeping into the surroundings like mercury.

The noise grew louder. It wasn't just any sound; it was more like the sound of metal deforming under stress, on the verge of snapping, coming from the direction of the pipe shaft deep within the floor.

Whiz!

The sound of something piercing the air suddenly erupted!

From behind a pillar in his blind spot, a rusted fire hydrant cover shot out like a cannonball, tearing through the air and heading straight for his left temple!

Zhou Qilin still stood in place, without even turning his head.

He simply raised his right hand and gave a gentle wave toward the incoming cover.

"Buzz!"

The fire hydrant cover abruptly froze half a meter from his head, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall of gel, instantly losing all kinetic energy and hovering in mid-air.

Only then did Zhou Qilin turn his head to glance at the floating metal cover.

"Grace of Fate?" His brow furrowed slightly.

Under such favor, even a slight lapse in caution could lead to death.

If fighting against others, the danger factor would double.

After all, in such a situation, if one were suddenly "graced" like that and exposed a weakness, they wouldn't even know how they died.

He remained silent for a few seconds, then waved his hand, casually tossing the fire hydrant cover aside, where it hit an overturned shelf with a loud clang.

...

While the clanging of the scrap metal against the shelf still echoed through the empty floor, Zhou Qilin heard a buzzing sound coming from outside.

The sound was low and chaotic, like many engines roaring simultaneously in the distance, growing louder as they approached the building he was in.

"Didn't I just go through a 'favor'?"

Zhou Qilin's brow furrowed slightly. According to the supplementary rules, a single participant should not be selected again in a short period after receiving "favor."

He turned and walked toward a broken floor-to-ceiling window at the edge of the mall.

The massive glass had long since shattered, leaving only sharp remnants embedded in the window frame.

He stood before the gap and looked down.

On the dilapidated street below, several crudely modified vehicles were roaring past. Their bodies were welded with heavy steel plates and spikes, their tires were massive, and their exhaust pipes spewed thick black smoke.

Figures stood or sat on the vehicles, dressed haphazardly but all holding weapons. They were currently speeding toward a certain direction in the city.

"A gang convoy from some settlement?" Zhou Qilin identified them, and the slight doubt in his heart dissipated.

It seemed they were just passing by chance, unrelated to the "gift" of the Assessment.

He relaxed slightly and was just about to turn away from the window to find a place to rest deep within the floor.

Suddenly.

A semi-transparent system prompt box popped up in the center of his vision without warning.

Zhou Qilin paused, startled for a moment, and cast his gaze toward the prompt box.

The source of the message was a group chat set to "Muted for All," showing hundreds of members. The group name was: Civilization Assessment News Notification Group.

This was a group he had joined early on. After obtaining part of the Psychokinesis inheritance, he had been scouted for his potential by certain government departments and pulled into the chat.

Later, during the third Assessment, the interface gained instant messaging, so a new notification group was created there.

However, during the fourth Assessment, under three months of continuous impact, infrastructure was completely scrapped, social structures thoroughly collapsed, and information within the group became scarcer.

In this era, the concepts of nation and government no longer existed.

He thought no more messages would ever pop up.

He hadn't expected another message to pop up just as the fifth Assessment began.

Was it that not long after the fourth Assessment ended, after catching their breath, they wanted to start issuing orders and "wielding power" again? Zhou Qilin couldn't help but wonder.

The publisher's ID was "Shen Jianping."

The message title was eye-catching: "Preliminary Verification and Operational Ideas on Actively Triggering 'favor' to Obtain a Six-Hour Safety Time Limit (Internal Express Edition)."

Below was a short line of supplementary text: "The existence of the 'Equivalent Compensation' rule has been verified. The content is urgent; those who see this please find a way to spread it so every surviving human can see it, but be sure to cautiously assess your own risks. Do not reply to this group."

Seeing that title, Zhou Qilin's pupils constricted slightly.

Without reading the supplementary text below, Zhou Qilin immediately reached out his finger and opened the document in the void.

The document loaded quickly, with a simple format and no redundant decorations.

The important content was marked in bold in the first line: Through experimentation, it has been concluded that actively triggering "favor" allows one to obtain the "Equivalent Compensation" rule, granting a six-hour safety time limit.

Further down were some experimental processes, cases, and theoretical deductions.

After reading it, his eyes flickered slightly.

Closing the document, the prompt box before him also vanished.

Zhou Qilin's gaze, almost inadvertently, fell to his feet.

There were several glass shards still embedded in the broken floor-to-ceiling window frame. Some of the larger shards had formed sharp, cold-glinting blades at the breaks.

He looked for less than a second.

Then, his foot seemed to be tripped by an inconspicuous depression in the ground, and his body staggered forward without warning, losing balance and falling straight toward the pile of sharp glass!

Facing down, his eye socket was aimed directly at one of the sharpest glass spikes!

The speed wasn't fast; it was even somewhat clumsy, just like an ordinary person accidentally tripping in the ruins.

Just as his brow bone was about to hit the glass spike.

"Buzz."

An invisible force emerged out of thin air, supporting his leaning body.

His eyes were less than an inch away from the dangerous glass tip.

Almost simultaneously, a semi-transparent system prompt popped up clearly at the edge of his vision.

[Participant detected actively triggering the 'Equivalent Compensation' rule.]

[Rule in effect. You have obtained the 'Grace Immunity' status, duration: 6 hours.]

The prompt vanished in a flash.

Zhou Qilin's body was slowly straightened by Psychokinesis, and he stood firm once again.

Immediately after, his gaze turned toward the window again—the dust kicked up by those modified vehicles had not yet fully dispersed...

Then, the corners of his mouth pulled into a deeper, more elusive smile, with no warmth in his eyes.

He had just said that in such an Assessment environment, exposing a weakness at random could lead to being targeted by "Grace of Fate" the next second, with the only outcome being death.

And there were so many of them...

What was the second supplementary rule again? The more people there are, the more a chain reaction will occur...