Players, Please Board the Train

The third floor of the ancient castle had nearly twenty rooms. Aside from He Pu’s bedroom, lounge, and music room, there were over ten remaining rooms. However, Hu Shan only showed the players a mere four of them and sternly warned them that guests were not to enter the rooms on the third floor casually unless permitted by He Pu or herself.

Xu Huo heard her mention that there was also a study on the third floor and wanted to go in and take a look.

Hu Shan’s face tightened, and she refused to agree. However, at that moment, He Pu came out and said directly, ”Apart from the rooms I use, open all the other rooms for the guests to see.”

Since He Pu spoke, Hu Shan had no choice but to comply, however unwilling she was. She took out the keys and opened the rooms on the third floor one by one.

After a cursory glance through these rooms, the players all understood why Hu Shan looked at them as if they were thieves—He Pu’s family wealth was simply too immense!

The art collection they saw earlier was child’s play. There were entire rooms filled with precious jewelry and ornaments, entire rooms of antique calligraphy and paintings, entire rooms of weapons and firearms, even specialized storage rooms for potions, item rooms, a specimen room housing rare animals from other game partitions, and even an underground water pool where mutated crocodiles were kept.

When they saw the potions and items, the players’ eyes all turned red with greed. But after seeing the water pool, their hearts sank halfway. The vanished guests had probably been fed to the crocodiles, right? Where on earth were they supposed to find them?

”So many good things, just looking at them all is overwhelming,” Li Chao said with fervent eyes, his gaze glued to those room doors and unable to move away.

Although the other players didn’t say it out loud, their thoughts were roughly the same.

Even if they couldn’t clear the dungeon, just grabbing some of these things and getting out would probably be enough to secure a train ticket!Xu Huo went to the study on the third floor. The study on the third floor clearly contained far more books than the one on the second floor, covering topics including the history and languages of different worlds.

After entering the game, there were no barriers to communication or written language between players. It was equivalent to being proficient in one language, and all other languages and scripts would automatically switch to that same language.

Of course, before this, Xu Huo had rarely even encountered people of different nationalities. Most players he met had similar physical characteristics to himself.

He took a closer look at the section concerning history.

The historical records regarding Rose Castle were especially detailed. E27-011 began its evolution twenty years ago, but this was not the result of a single game partition’s evolution. It was the collective designation after the fusion of seven game partitions.

Starting from the original 008 District, District 007 successively annexed the following Districts 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Later, District 011 among them staged a coup, replaced the original District 007 government, and after reaching cooperation with the Game Government, formed today’s District 011 government base, turning the original District 7, District 8, and other areas into sectors under the larger game partition of 011.

This meant that Garden Castle Station was merely one station within a certain region under District 011. There were other parallel spaces, inaccessible by surface transportation, and only reachable via the Dimensional Train.

The original designations like District 007 were later inherited by newly generated game partitions. Therefore, game partitions were generally sorted according to the chronological order of their evolution, but there were exceptions. This led to District 011 becoming a crucial hub among the five districts under the E27 Wormhole Point.

It’s worth mentioning that the Game Government does not establish a base in every partition. In other words, they can’t be bothered with small places. Power transitions within game partitions are mostly initiated by local humans, during which there is also covetousness from forces of other partitions.

District 011 is a rather special place. It is not completely controlled by the Game Government but exists in parallel with a coalition regime established by local players. This parallel coalition regime also grants ordinary people considerable rights.

That’s right, those managing most regional affairs are still ordinary people, or rather, ordinary people who have taken potions.

Apart from the evolution agent, many other potions have effects that strengthen the body and extend lifespan. Therefore, after reaching cooperation with the Game Government, the District 011 coalition regime began comprehensively improving the basic physical qualities of all humans in the district. It is said that the offspring of people with better physiques have a higher probability of becoming high-quality Evolvers.

They now have complete testing facilities, capable of checking from infancy whether a person is suitable for evolution.

Seeing this, even Xu Huo couldn’t help but silently admire the foresight of the players in District 011.

Whether there is a solution to the evolution agent trap is still unclear. Ensuring the number of players while preserving the spark of normal humanity is the way to avoid being completely coerced by the game.

The urban area around Rose Castle is also good proof. Although players permeate the lives of ordinary people, it hasn’t caused extreme polarization.

However, there were no records of the more detailed process of the annexation wars.

Looking through some other books with annotations, Xu Huo discovered that He Pu was self-studying knowledge related to potions.

He was an extremely erudite scholar, using notes filled with complex chemical formulas. These notes likely came from different people, but each book had his annotations, indicating the results of experiments.

Most of the annotations were from five years ago. Over the past five years, there had been some sporadic ones, but very few.

His gaze lingered on this handwriting for a moment before Xu Huo suddenly sighed.

”These are notes I wrote before. What, are you also interested in making potions?” He Pu had entered the study without a sound.

Xu Huo closed the book and put it down, smiling and saying, ”I was just lamenting that I didn’t have the chance to meet Mr. He earlier.”

Proficient in pharmacology, knowledgeable in sculpture, calligraphy, and painting, fluent in multiple languages, a history scholar—truly an erudite senior.

A faint smile appeared on He Pu’s pale face. ”You flatter me, Mr. Xu. After falling ill, my physical strength waned, and I had to give up my previous hobbies.”

”There haven’t been any new additions to the collection in recent years, but Mr. Xu is welcome to browse the existing books at your leisure.”

Xu Huo expressed his thanks and added, ”I heard from Hu Shan that Mr. He is also skilled in musical instruments.”

”Not at all, just fiddling around for fun,” He Pu said. ”Can you play?”

”I’m ashamed to say I have no talent in the arts,” Xu Huo quickly replied. ”I came out of admiration and managed to get an invitation from someone else.”

He Pu had already sat down behind the desk. He stared at Xu Huo for a few seconds before lightly tapping a small bell on the desk. Hu Shan soon arrived.

”Escort Mr. Xu downstairs. After reading for so long, have some afternoon tea. However, it’s almost dinner time, so prepare a little less.”

Hu Shan nodded and gestured for Xu Huo to leave.

Xu Huo bowed slightly and walked out of the study, but his eyes darkened slightly. He Pu didn’t care whether he came with an unsigned invitation or not.

This meant that the existence of non-dungeon players wasn’t that important. Figuring out the exact number or which players corresponded to the unsigned invitations wasn’t crucial.

Was it simply a desire to watch the players slaughter each other?

”Mr. Xu?” Hu Shan stopped as well when she saw him pause.

”It’s nothing. I just suddenly remembered that the ceramic vase I saw in the art room earlier was very beautiful and thought of borrowing one for flower arranging,” Xu Huo said.

Hu Shan clasped her hands in front of her abdomen. ”I will fetch one and send it to you later.”