Chapter 1145: Advantages and Defects
"Eternal Time" is a very high-quality Subclass Stone, with its internal time attribute already tending toward stability when excavated.
This is like any game district; its internal rules of time and space are extremely stable and cannot be easily broken. Even if influenced by temporal or spatial props, it is impossible to disrupt its internal stability. Therefore, such a stable space can be said to be tolerant or compatible with any temporal or spatial props.
A Subclass Stone like "Eternal Time" can be seen as a very small-scale version of such a temporal-spatial structure. It can interact with the effects of other temporal or spatial props as an independent entity without being affected itself. This is similar to how Xu Huo, after equipping "Three Seconds of Life," is also unaffected by time powers.
Of course, this type of Subclass Stone can also be used as material for crafting props, but since it can be used directly, crafting it into a prop might not yield such miraculous effects. Therefore, many players simply use it as a defensive prop to protect themselves from being affected by other players' time props at critical moments.
Speaking of time props, the first and only time Xu Huo directly faced a powerful time power was during the attack when he left District 011. At that time, players in District 011 used time power to control the city, slaughtering some players who were completely defenseless under frozen time. He, on the other hand, had "Three Seconds of Life," which gave him the chance to hide in advance.
In reality, one doesn't necessarily need to equip such a high-level temporal-spatial prop to avoid the influence of temporal-spatial powers to a certain extent. There isn't a clear level correspondence between this self-protection and the prop's effect. Generally speaking, the higher the level of the equipped prop, the greater the intensity of temporal-spatial power it can withstand.
A Subclass Stone with a time attribute is more effective than ordinary temporal-spatial props. Its inherent stability allows it to shield the surrounding space from influence within a certain range, so players wearing it can also become immune to time powers.
Items like "Eternal Time" are rare and hard to come by, which is why their selling price on the Under Dimension and the Game Bounty Platform is exceptionally high.
Looking back at Mr. Kang now, although it's unclear whether the time chaos in Xiaohe City was caused by the Cube Space, he was holding "Eternal Time." He might not have been affected by time at all, and naturally wouldn't age faster like other players... He had truly considered every aspect, preparing thoroughly to become a local tyrant in Xiaohe City.
Speaking of Subclass Stones, Xu Huo now has quite a few in his possession.
Apart from the one left to him by He Pu, the reward for clearing the Instance "Encrypted Information" at W37 Base Station also included a Subclass Stone, though its quality wasn't as good as He Pu's.
Later, at the government laboratory in Only Night City, District 002, he obtained four Subclass Stones, one of which had a time attribute.
Finally, during the high-risk Instance, he snatched a massive Subclass Stone from Jiang Wenzhang—though it's uncertain whether it's a genuine Subclass Stone. Even if it is, in the environment of a high-risk Instance site, the stone that formed might not be as useful. So after obtaining it, he stored it in a specialized prop box and placed it in his suitcase, never opening it since.
Without proper protection, he wouldn't casually open it either.
High-level props with temporal-spatial attributes are hard to buy and extremely expensive. The higher the level and the better the effect, the more costly they become. Fortunately, he now has specialized Subclass Stones on hand and can find an Artificer to custom-make props that suit his preferences.
Additionally, he has two Perfect Evolution Potions.
One is the P2S Injection found in Dr. Zhang's residence at Bai Xueji's villa.
The other is the P1S Injection obtained through a trade with the Holy Sword Society.
Xu Huo's evolution rate has reached 40%, and he has already been injected with the P2S Injection, so these two injections are currently useless to him. Of course, he can't fully trust the origins of these two injections—whether the potions are problematic is hard to say—so they can only be used as experimental samples.
He currently has no leads on the P3S version of the potion and will have to wait until he reaches District 011 to make further plans.
More importantly, during this Instance, he obtained information about Dr. Zhang and Dr. Wu.
He is almost certain that Dr. Zhang, who acted as an observer and facilitated the outbreak of the W37 epidemic, is the same doctor who conducted drug training on him at the Seventeenth Hospital. As his mental evolution progresses, his memories are slowly recovering, and a concrete image of "Dr. Zhang" has formed in his mind, even if that image might not be real.
Further clues will need to be found from the materials brought back from the District 002 laboratory and from Tan Qi, another child selected by Dr. Zhang.
As for Dr. Wu, progress has been limited. It has only been confirmed that he spreads the Perfect Potion across different game districts and may understand the rules behind the Dimension Rift game.
Naturally, confirming these two points makes some of his actions predictable—such as the places where he might distribute the Perfect Potion and the repeated accounts of his wife and daughter's death in various forms, which should also be an important clue.
However, if anyone knows Dr. Wu better, it would be his enemy—the Game Government.
Xu Huo's eyes darkened: It seems that after leaving District 014 this time, he must go to District 001.
After sorting all this out, he packed up the props he had cleaned out and didn't plan to upgrade, selling them to the game platform. This transaction brought his personal savings back to over a hundred million White Notes.
As for this money, he felt it still wasn't enough to spend.
A decent B-grade prop could sell for millions of White Notes, and A-grade props naturally cost even more. Some props with usage conditions and limitations could reach tens of millions, let alone high-quality props that could be reused indefinitely and were durable, like "Life Core," which might not be buyable even for tens of millions.
There are many ways to obtain props. Since Xu Huo entered the game, the two most reliable channels for acquiring high-quality props have been clearing Instances and killing advanced players.
Clearing Instances, in particular, ensures that maintaining a high standard of clearance and obtaining high ratings will reward players with good props that are hard to buy and suit their needs.
As for killing advanced players, whether good props drop depends entirely on luck, though this method carries slightly higher risks than clearing Instances.
Xu Huo currently has many A-grade props in hand, with strong defensive and offensive capabilities. However, he still feels something is lacking. First, "Inviolable Domain" cannot defend against weapons formed by Space Rays. Second, after "Eye of the Dead," he lacks a suitable melee prop—one that is both practical in combat and capable of breaking stable space barriers.
Mr. Kang used space to trap him in Xiaohe City, and the Magician created a spatial partition on the plane. Although neither reached the stability of an Instance space, ordinary props could hardly break them. And without sufficient spatial evolution, using Space Rays wouldn't achieve the effect of destruction either.
Therefore, it's best to use props to compensate for this shortcoming.
(Chapter End)