Chapter 1683: The Opportunity for Super Evolution
Xu Huo's previous control over space rays had been relatively one-sided. For example, the ray barriers he created generally did not form enclosed shapes; in most cases, he expanded the barrier's area to achieve a similar effect, and the same went for the Ray Blade.
Ms. Gong could create a complete, enclosed space body, then layer them one after another until the compression was enough to turn it into something like a bomb.
Once controlling the rays became easier, he could also create the same cubes. Not just cubes, but with a bit more effort, he could make irregular spheres as well. However, cubes were relatively simpler. Without relying on "Cube Space," he could layer about a dozen or so. Within the range of "Cube Space," the number could double. However, the space rays within the instrument's range were not very uniform, requiring more careful operation.
He also tried using ray cubes to wrap around stones, achieving a crushing effect through continuous stacking—wrapping the stone inside and crushing it. He could do it, but the volume he could manipulate was limited; a length and width of two to three meters was the limit.
However, using ray cubes to crush objects was quite interesting. Not just the stones from the temple, but also the nuts, candies, ores, and rare metals he had brought with him, and even items were tested one by one. Of course, items and metals couldn't be crushed; at best, they could only slightly deform the metal.
Once the broken stones around him had been mostly "squeezed," he opened his personal panel to receive messages.
As expected, the Special Defense Department agreed, but they could only issue an IOU for his conditions. Although the military and the Special Defense Department had collected a few time instruments, they really had no time items—not even low-level ones. And those few time instruments had very mediocre effects, certainly not enough to make up the count.
Oral IOUs didn't count. The military side offered a very valuable collateral—the ownership of the safe zone that was nearing completion and had been renamed "North Wind."
The military was willing to rename the safe zone's land to "Painting Woman" until they delivered enough time items.
The "North Wind" safe zone was the one Xu Huo had just moved to.
"Your Special Defense Department really doesn't want to take a loss," Xu Huo said, not mincing words. Of course, he himself knew that asking for three high-level time items was a bit of a stretch, since all he had to do was bring people in, and the Special Defense Department and the military had no other requirements.
But he wasn't in a hurry to get these items, so he agreed to the collateral. Additionally, he requested a list of personnel within the Special Defense Department who had evolved special traits.
"Is there a specific person?" Nie Xuan asked.
"Is Wang Chaoqing still alive?" Xu Huo replied.
Wang Chaoqing had gone with him to Hai City and was later recruited into the Special Defense Department. His evolutionary direction was very interesting; he could split off shadows and let them crawl through network cables to other places.
Xu Huo had never forgotten this person.
Nie Xuan immediately understood what he meant and quickly sent him a document. Besides Wang Chaoqing, there were fifteen other players who had evolved special traits.
Xu Huo only glanced at it briefly before setting it aside. He then contacted Yan Jiayu, Zhou Ning, Liu Jia, and others. Yan Jiayu and Liu Jia hadn't returned from their instances, but Zhou Ning happened to be in Ting City, so he asked the Special Defense Department to bring her along.
After doing all this, he found a suitable place to rest.
While he was resting, the Special Defense Department and the military were not idle. Because he only contacted Nie Xuan and often lost connection, the two sides could only vent their frustrations at Nie Xuan.
First, there was the matter of the three time items. The cost was indeed too high. To put it bluntly, the military and the Special Defense Department weren't very optimistic about the people they were bringing in either. The gap in talent was despairing. Even Nie Xuan had suffered a loss; how much hope was there for others?
High risk, low reward, and a huge cost to pay.
However, they also recognized this as a rare opportunity, so they gritted their teeth and accepted it. They really didn't have any time items. Since Xu Huo hadn't mentioned other high-level items, they weren't part of the deal. To appease him, the military side proactively proposed using the safe zone as collateral. After all, they could see that mortgaging it to "Painting Woman" was the same as mortgaging it to Xu Huo, with the same effect as in Ting City—the safe zone couldn't be moved anyway.
On the other hand, the request Xu Huo made later for the list of personnel with special evolutions caused a major disagreement. The information on players with special evolutions was also one of the classified contents of the Special Defense Department and the military. They had also conducted experiments trying to get these people to undergo super evolution, but none had succeeded. So upon hearing this request, their first reaction was that he had ulterior motives.
In the end, Nie Xuan convinced them. It wasn't actually that hard for Xu Huo to find the list of these people, and besides, he had agreed to bring people in without receiving the items, which was essentially doing them a favor.
The fact that he later asked them to pick up Zhou Ning further proved this point.
Besides Zhou Ning, the Special Defense Department also had to bring over all the players with special evolutions from Zone 014 and those who could make it back in time. Additionally, super evolvers had to be screened. It was certainly impossible to take everyone in, so they divided the personnel into three tiers, with the first tier being the priority.
Zhou Ning was naturally assigned to the first tier.
This infuriated Yu Qingqing, who had discovered the chaos space early on but was now being pushed to the sidelines. The Special Defense Department had come in with a take-charge attitude, and before the items and potions they had promised could be delivered, they were sweeping her and her people away like trash.
And after eavesdropping on their negotiations with Xu Huo to bring others in, her anger reached its peak. When they had previously negotiated with the Special Defense Department, they had made a supplementary request: if the Special Defense Department could bring in super evolvers, at least one member of "Unpredictable" had to go in as well.
Now, the Special Defense Department and the military were naturally leaving them out!
Yu Qingqing was never one to take a loss. She immediately demanded that she be allowed to bring at least two people into the first tier. Unfortunately, neither side paid her any attention. To appease her, the Special Defense Department placed her in the second tier.
"You show no signs of super evolution. The opportunity must naturally be prioritized for super evolvers," a Special Defense Department player said to her. "Everyone here wants to go in, but this operation isn't just for personal gain. Whether it's the people entering or Mr. Xu, they bear greater responsibilities and take on significant risks. We all hope that at the end of this risk, there will be a reward."
"Aren't you Mr. Xu's sister? Don't you know why he's doing this?"
Yu Qingqing was furious. "Don't make it sound so nice. If you're prioritizing those more likely to undergo super evolution, why don't you contact the super evolvers from the player organizations? Don't tell me you don't know who has undergone secondary evolution! They don't have state support, and they have more talent than the people you've picked out!"
Harsh words easily offend people, but soon the Special Defense Department had no time to deal with her, because the information here had been leaked.
(End of Chapter)