Chapter 2029: Time Box
Xu Huo returned safely to Rose Castle. After presenting generous gifts, neither the Vilna family nor the other nobles arranged any tracking or surveillance, as if they regarded him and everything that had happened that night as nothing more than an ordinary trivial matter.
Mr. Dong helped carry the gift boxes down from the car and delivered them to the study, waiting until Xu Huo had washed up before opening them.
The blue box was the year-end gift package from the Vilna family. Inside the small square box was a certificate of shareholding in a mining company, along with a specially customized badge from the Vilna family.
The shareholding certificate guaranteed Xu Huo a substantial amount of White Notes from the company every quarter or even every month, while the badge served as identification, allowing him free access to the company. According to Roy, this was considered a "lucky" gift package.
The mining companies under the Vilna family all had good revenue. Even a small share was enough for an entire noble family to live comfortably for a lifetime.
"Quite generous." Xu Huo set the items aside and opened the black box.
Inside the black box was a very small house model. When he touched it, the game panel displayed a notification:
[Time Box: This is an expandable location-type item created by a Super Player specifically for time evolution training. The size of the location will increase as the user explores it. Theoretically, the longer one explores within it, the more time boxes there will be. Moreover, the added boxes will not reset to zero when the item changes hands; they will only continue to increase on the original foundation.]
"Time Box..." Xu Huo picked up the item. Clearly, this small model was the square courtyard with four states that he had accidentally stumbled into last time. Not only did the Vilna family know it was him who had entered the courtyard, but they had directly given him the item as a gift.
While being open and honest, they also subtly expressed their approval of him. This was also telling him not to harbor any lingering concerns about accidentally trespassing into the courtyard.
"It seems the Vilna family has extended an olive branch to you." Mr. Dong stood to one side, offering his opinion on the shareholding certificate.
"Do you have any suggestions?" Xu Huo asked.
"If you have any needs." Mr. Dong did not interfere with his decision.
Although the castle had been renovated, due to Mr. Dong's personal preferences, some of the original castle's style had been preserved. For example, the lighting used at night was generally turned off in areas where Xu Huo didn't need it. In the study, he had also left only one lamp on, making the room's light somewhat dim.
The shareholding certificate and the item lay under the desk lamp, standing out prominently in the light.
This wasn't a bad thing.
Regardless of the Vilna family's intentions, for now, it wouldn't have too much impact on him. However, it meant he wouldn't be able to return to Zone 014 for a long time.
Xu Huo reached out and fiddled with the items on the table. After a moment, he said calmly, "I think Zone 011 is quite nice. I plan to live here long-term."
He took the item and asked Mr. Dong to put away the shareholding certificate. When it was time to collect the money, Mr. Dong would handle the accounting on his behalf and then allocate a small portion of the company's payments to support Dr. Deng's research.
Everyone knew what players were. Especially after Xu Huo obtained the black key, the reactions of Ashis and other Vilna family members had also made something clear to the other nobles: the top-tier nobles were paying close attention to this newly arrived minor noble in Zone 011. Out of goodwill and a desire to build connections, the other noble families began to extend their own goodwill to Xu Huo.
Previously, the invitations Xu Huo received were mostly for fundraising banquets. Gatherings among noble cliques or more formal events generally didn't include him. But after the New Year's Eve party, he would be formally accepted into the noble class.
Starting the next day, Xu Huo began to frequently receive invitations to various gatherings, though they weren't formal invitation letters. If it were a formal invitation agreed upon by the nobles, the invitee would be considered disrespectful unless they had a compelling reason not to attend. After a couple of such refusals, the friendship might capsize. Informal invitations were more flexible; attending or not was fine, and explaining the reason was even better. This flexibility was also because Xu Huo was a player, giving him some leeway.
The Vilna family made no further moves. The matter of the time courtyard was considered settled. Xu Huo had no free time to attend banquets for now; he needed to resolve the aftereffects of his mental evolution before the next instance. So he asked Mr. Dong to politely decline invitations from all sides, staying in the castle to communicate with his shadow personality.
Because the shadow personality was materialized, he had recovered many memories about Dr. Zhang. This also allowed him to re-evaluate his childhood self. Being able to personally complete a dissection proved that, like Xue Lang and others, his personality had already been altered by Dr. Zhang. His later amnesia might have been due to Dr. Zhang tampering with his memories, or perhaps because his childhood self didn't acknowledge himself, which led to the multiple personalities that emerged after his mental evolution.
Completely releasing his childhood personality carried certain risks for Xu Huo. The more memories he accepted, the less he would be the "Xu Huo" who was once addicted to gambling, caused trouble, and then turned over a new leaf at adulthood due to his brother's death. Instead, he would become someone who had inherited part of Dr. Zhang's ideology. As a child, he couldn't reconcile with himself. Now that he was an adult, it didn't mean the impact caused by "Dr. Zhang" could be fully accepted.
Xu Huo was very satisfied with who he was now and didn't want to lean toward Xue Lang or Zheng Yuci.
Naturally, this became a difficulty he found hard to overcome. On one hand, he needed to accept the shadow personality; on the other hand, he feared that accepting it might lead to irreversible consequences. So whether it was communicating with the shadow personality or trying to complete this process, he remained hesitant.
After several days of trying, not only had he made no progress, but the frequent use of his mental power had actually worsened the aftereffects, which had only just begun to ease.
Coming out of the sealed space Mr. Dong had created once again, Xu Huo casually tossed the handkerchief, now completely soaked with nosebleed, into the brazier that had been burning beside him.
The Painting Woman had been playing in his room the whole time. Propping her chin on her hand, she stared at the slowly burning handkerchief, then raised her communicator with the other hand. "Bleeding that much, won't you die?"
Xu Huo slumped wearily into his chair, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. "I think I'm about there too."
"Hee hee!" Hearing this, the Painting Woman immediately scooted closer to him, then pulled a packet of blood-red liquid from her pocket. "Drink this, so you don't run out of blood."
Xu Huo caught the smell of blood and turned his head to look at her. "Where did you get this?"
"Someone gave it to me." The Painting Woman pulled out two more packets, her eyes narrowing into crescent moons. "A lot of people came to play with me. They asked what gift I wanted, and I said I wanted blood. Fresh blood."
"This much should be enough!"