Chapter 1704: Emerald Building
Forty days—this was the longest instance Xu Huo had ever done so far. Compared to District 014, the time difference was thirty days. In other words, spending forty days in this instance meant only ten days had passed in District 014. The time conversion no longer followed the previous seven-day system. This was a signal—perhaps future instances would have increasingly unstable time.
The instance required arriving at Dingding Flower Town before midnight. It wasn't a difficult place to find. The craze for finding the "Ember Maiden" surged every year. As the former hometown of the painter Solan, Dingding Flower Town was a must-visit for every treasure hunter. By now, it had been turned into a tourist town while preserving its original architectural appearance. Even people without treasure-hunting intentions came to see it out of curiosity, so it was specially marked on the map.
After learning some information about Dingding Flower Town, Xu Huo headed to the Emerald Building.
The main body of the Emerald Building was a flat, elongated circle, somewhat resembling a flat round pot or an unidentified flying object. However, it wasn't suspended in the air but supported by a cylindrical structure at its center, standing only about two hundred meters above the ground. Because the building's "head" was relatively large, there were no tall structures nearby.
Passing through rows of shops selling souvenirs and local products, Xu Huo entered the first floor. It was already packed with people. Besides ordinary tourists, there were many players. These people were tagged with numbers in the order they entered, and only when their number was called could they step forward to choose seats.
When Xu Huo entered, a green number 277 appeared on his chest. He looked up at the rows of instruments installed on the ceiling of the first-floor hall. These instruments were responsible for assigning numbers to those entering, but the numbers didn't stay visible permanently. Only when the lighting fixtures moving through the hall occasionally swept over a person did the number reappear. Once assigned, the number couldn't be changed.
The numbers on the chests of people on the first floor were almost all white. Xu Huo and a few tourists who entered after him were led by floating instruments to the elevator. Their seat selection area was on the second floor.
During the process, the instruments explained the rules for seat selection. Simply put, it was "respect the clothes, respect the person." The instruments judged each person's financial status based on their attire and then assigned them a seat selection area. The clothes purchased at the station came in handy here. Guests who bought discounted items or the cheapest sets were kept on the first floor, their numbers white.
For someone like Xu Huo, who had a bit more financial means, his number was green, allowing him to go to the second floor for seat selection. There were also third, fourth, and fifth floors, each corresponding to different groups of people.
Seat selection also had its nuances. Because the main arena of the Emerald Building was flat, the seats were arranged in rings around the central support pillar. The competition area had a total of twenty-five rings, equivalent to twenty-five ring-shaped structures nested together. With the guarantee of technology, guests in every ring could see the matches in the central arena.
However, six arenas held matches simultaneously every day. From the twentieth to the twenty-fifth rings, guests could only watch the five sub-arenas in their corresponding areas. These six rings' audiences all came from the first floor and couldn't watch the main arena's central matches. To watch the main arena or other sub-arenas, one had to buy at least a seat in the nineteenth ring. But seats from the nineteenth ring onward could only be purchased by guests from the second-floor selection area and above.
Thus, the guests in the outermost six rings had very limited viewing options for the competition arenas, but the advantage was the low price.
Starting from the nineteenth ring, audiences could freely switch between the six arenas' feeds. However, ticket prices varied here because the Emerald Building had a rule: the closer the seat, the higher the chance of being randomly selected as an on-site guest—meaning they could watch the player matches up close without virtual equipment. On-site seats for the five sub-arenas could be bought at a high price, but seats for the main arena could only be selected by the Emerald Building itself.
Player matches weren't strictly elimination rounds. The five sub-arenas ran in parallel. The winners from these sub-arenas, after ranking changes, had the top two become the main arena's protagonists. So the main arena matches were one day later than the five sub-arenas. For those not following the matches continuously, watching any arena was the same.
The challenge matches counted as additional rounds. The winners from all six arenas could consider whether to accept a challenge from a B-rank player, with additional prize money.
As for the rules for purchasing seats, although starting from the nineteenth ring one could watch any arena's matches, since all matches started at the same time, a single seat purchase only covered one round of matches until all six arenas finished. If one wanted to continue watching the next round, they could add tickets on-site. As long as they had money, they could even sleep inside. Food and drink were, of course, unlimited.
The floating instruments provided a seat selection map, but the edge seats were already taken. The nineteenth ring was the cheapest, then each ring upward added one thousand white notes. From the tenth ring, each ring added two thousand, and from the fifth to the third ring, each ring added five thousand.
With virtual instruments, sitting anywhere to watch the matches made no difference. It was just that the closer one sat, the higher the chance of getting an on-site seat. Otherwise, one had to pay more to buy an on-site seat.
It was worth noting that by the third ring, a single seat's ticket price had reached fifty thousand white notes, and that was only for one round of matches. To continue watching, one had to pay more.
Xu Huo spent twenty-three thousand to buy a seat in the sixteenth ring.
The elevator could take guests directly to their corresponding ring. After exiting the elevator, they just followed their seat number.
The technologically advanced building wasn't as monotonous and cold as depicted in films and shows. Every few steps, there was a decoration; every few more, a small scene. Even the corridors of the Emerald Building were meticulously decorated, worth a look. Of course, these small arrangements weren't essential. If guests didn't want to walk, they could summon the collapsible chairs passing by at any time. Made of thin yet sturdy metal, these floating chairs could assemble in three seconds, pushing the guest like a VIP to their designated room.
The golden-eyed player also followed Xu Huo to the second floor. However, seat selection had privacy protection, so the other party probably didn't see which seat Xu Huo chose. But after Xu Huo reached the sixteenth ring, the golden-eyed player still followed.
The golden-eyed player didn't have the certainty for a one-hit kill, so he couldn't make a move inside the Emerald Building. He had to go to his own seat first.
What was called a "seat" was actually a sizable single room. The room was fully equipped with a table, bed, restroom, and everything else. Closing the door, one could lie down and enjoy the holographic projection service. Even from a distance of over ten rings, the viewing experience was immersive. Every move of the players, including their expressions, could be seen clearly. Adjusting the viewing angle and zooming in on character details were trivial matters. There was also a dedicated match analysis commentary, providing a comprehensive understanding of all visible and invisible processes during the matches.
(Chapter End)