Chapter 1583: Ungraded Space Instrument
This space instrument had no grade, but its description was quite interesting. It wasn't surprising that it could point out the holder's hometown—what was surprising was that it mentioned "person or corpse." Did this mean that even if the holder died, it would still point toward the holder's hometown, unchanged by the instrument changing hands?
Having no grade and being difficult to find an identical match—this in itself was very telling.
Unfortunately, directions within the Dimension Rift game were notoriously hard to discern. The orientation within a district had no connection to the district's actual location, and it was unclear whether wormhole points overlapped—this information could only be obtained by the Game Government Base and those powerful districts capable of traveling between different wormhole points and spaces.
Given Xu Huo's status as a contract staff member of the 011 District Game Government Base, his maximum authority was limited to following the Orbital Supply Department to the train passages and getting some internal discounts when purchasing items. Everything else was limited to viewing past records of orbital incident handling.
For example, weather conditions that might appear near the tracks could only be purchased at a high price, and even then, they weren't necessarily accurate.
From this, it was clear that some key information about the game was deliberately withheld from the lower levels. The Game Government went without saying, but the Eternal Star Group, as a force deeply cooperating with the game—perhaps even a part of the game itself—could know about weather changes near the tracks.
Of course, disasters like Dimensional Storms could appear and disappear extremely suddenly, perhaps belonging to aspects even the Game Government couldn't control.
But this space instrument...
Xu Huo released the quadrangular pyramid, watching it float up quietly and steadily, then drift to the same direction as before.
Someone was coming.
Grabbing the quadrangular pyramid and putting it into the luggage compartment, he looked up at another corner of the station.
A heavy smell of blood spread in all directions as a figure appeared. It was a middle-aged woman who was seriously injured. After entering, she first activated a defense item, then warily sized up Xu Huo before walking alone to a corner, sitting down facing him to heal her wounds.
Xu Huo looked at the projection screen in the middle of the station. The next train was arriving in two minutes.
In the following minute, four more players arrived one after another. Two were lightly injured, while the other two were in a similar state to Xu Huo, presumably having rested enough before coming to the station.
Soon, one of the lightly injured players boarded his train.
One left, two more arrived. The players entering the station this time were all very cautious, keeping their distance from each other and not provoking anyone until their respective trains arrived one by one.
Xu Huo's train came in four minutes.
Boarding with him was a female player with a buzz cut. She wore glasses and a shiny earring on her right ear. After meeting his gaze, she politely and distantly nodded slightly at him.
Xu Huo responded briefly and found a seat to rest. As soon as he touched the sofa, the front carriage door opened, and the seriously injured female player from the station stumbled in, crashing forward.
Chasing after her were two players from the front carriage. One of them viciously sliced off the female player's left arm, and the severed hand flew into the aisle.
The blood on the ground was somewhat dark in color, but the edge of the severed hand had familiar-looking pustules, and half a flesh worm was visible at the cut.
In that moment, the two players had already blocked the middle-aged female player from front and back. Severely injured and missing a hand, she was powerless to resist. After a furious but futile counterattack, she suddenly begged for mercy, "I can give you all my items and potions, just spare me! My child is seriously ill—I have to go back and see her!"
The two players showed no reaction, not even bothering to mock her for coming up with such a lousy excuse—after all, players in the game had seen too many people making up lies at the brink of death. Her words sounded fake.
But just because they didn't believe her didn't mean everyone wouldn't.
Xu Huo came up behind one of them and reached out to grab his shoulder. "Why make things difficult for a mother?"
The player he held down changed expression instantly. The next second, his companion moved to assist, but was directly slammed against the front carriage door. Feeling a cold object pressed against his neck, that person also stopped moving and stood obediently by the door.
The other players in this carriage silently pressed themselves against the walls on both sides.
But the deadly fight they imagined didn't happen. After three seconds of silence, Xu Huo let go.
The player in front of him quickly turned around, then backed away step by step until he reached the door. Once the carriage door opened, he immediately retreated out.
"Don't pick it up!" The middle-aged female player saw Xu Huo about to bend down and pick up her severed hand and immediately stopped him. She quickly walked over, picked up her arm, and stepped back. She attached the severed limb to her arm, used a surgical item to quickly stitch it up, and then said, "My hand is poisoned—it spreads fast."
Xu Huo nodded and sat down in a nearby seat.
The female player glanced around the carriage and ultimately decided to stay. She sat in the farthest corner and quietly thanked Xu Huo.
"It was nothing." Xu Huo looked at her condition and didn't say anything more.
The woman was very embarrassed. After barely reattaching her hand, she didn't even take a self-healing potion but curled up and went to sleep.
When meal service came, she only ordered a glass of water.
Xu Huo ordered a meal for her according to his own menu. The woman seemed to dislike accepting favors from others, and even with the food placed in front of her, she wanted to refuse.
"Aren't you going back to take care of your child?"
The woman was stunned and stared straight at him. "You believe what I said?"
"Why wouldn't I? You weren't lying." Xu Huo placed a B-grade self-healing agent on the tray. "You remind me of a friend."
"I don't have anything valuable to repay you with, nor anything useful..." the woman murmured. "You're so young, you definitely wouldn't be interested in an old, faded woman like me..."
"Consider it pity for the child," Xu Huo interrupted.
The woman couldn't believe he truly had no demands, but in her destitute state, there was indeed little a player could take from her. After hesitating for a moment, she grabbed the food and the self-healing agent and wolfed them down.
Xu Huo stopped paying attention to her. After finishing his meal, he began flipping through the collected materials on toxic fungi.
He had gathered some of these books before, but the most comprehensive one was the one he obtained in Clown City. It recorded many local fungi species from Clown City. The fungi purchased from other districts had a much wider variety, ranging from edible to ornamental to medicinal, fundamentally different from those in Clown City.
Among them were also some related materials from District D07-013.
However, the source of these materials wasn't players but the Game Government.
(Chapter End)