Chapter 2107: Pick Up a Super Item
Over the next few days, aside from resting, Xu Huo spent most of his time training to trigger time power. Unlike mental evolution and spatial evolution, this wasn't an ability one could use freely once breakthrough and mastery were achieved. Instead, it required constant skill refinement to ensure that every use of time power wouldn't backfire.
As for Wang Ling, Meng Wenguang, and the others, since the time in Pumpkin City no longer refreshed but instead repeated the same past day, they had relocated to Little Star Company to see if they could find more interesting information from the content set up by Dr. Wu.
As for Yue Rui, she was indeed hardworking and, in a sense, talented. After failing to achieve time evolution, she began her body's secondary evolution. Perhaps influenced by the venue, her evolved basic ability was to rapidly restore her body to its peak physical state. In other words, whether she was extremely fatigued or injured, unless her bodily functions had severely deteriorated, she could autonomously activate her body to fight another round.
"I told you Yue Rui had talent," Meng Wenguang said, overjoyed at the result. After all, secondary evolution was no small feat. Countless players in the game had tried every method and venue without success, so Yue Rui's serendipitous breakthrough was a pleasant surprise. Regardless of temporal, spatial, or mental evolution, the ability to quickly recover her body alone was enough to make her survival rate far exceed that of ordinary players.
Meng Wenguang was a very generous person. Although Xu Huo had refused his items on the first day, after Yue Rui successfully underwent secondary evolution, he once again brought out his A-grade items.
In truth, Xu Huo hadn't done much. The spiritual realm he displayed was merely an imagination of time power, not something that could actually make Yue Rui feel it. It was a small favor, hardly worth exchanging for several A-grade items.
But Meng Wenguang was insistent. He felt it was well worth it. In the end, Xu Huo accepted one A-grade item and gained a friend.
"Remember my player nickname. If you ever need a hand in the future, I'll be there!"
"How do you know you'll still remember him after getting out?" Long Jianfeng poured cold water from the side.
"Good point." Meng Wenguang stroked his chin and said, "We can set a code word, something only my friends would know. Then when you say it, I'll believe you for sure!"
With that, he pulled Xu Huo aside and secretly told him a piece of private information.
After hearing it, Xu Huo fell silent. "That's not really necessary."
Meng Wenguang didn't feel embarrassed at all. "I wouldn't tell this to anyone unless we were sworn brothers. It's not shameful to be known by a friend."
In just a few words, their relationship had gone from friends to sworn brothers.
The ten-day limit had arrived, and the virtual cityscape of Pumpkin City began to disappear. Kong Ying and the others vanished one after another, while Xu Huo went to retrieve the Time Tower.
[Congratulations, player Passerby A, for picking up a super item.]
[Time Tower: A time-type super item born in chaos space. Because its creator only needed it to function between 9:17 PM and 12:03 AM, it was designed from its inception to only be effective during a fixed time period. Between 9:17 PM and 12:03 AM, it can transform the current time-space into a special time venue, making it easier for the holder to manipulate time power.]
[Note: A special time venue also means time is more prone to chaos. Please be cautious, holder.]
It was a simple item description. Of course, Xu Huo didn't expect the Time Tower to be the entirety of Pumpkin City. The venue likely had other settings, which allowed it to continuously connect to curved time through the Time Tower as a medium. He had also roughly understood the tower's function: it made it easier for evolvers to connect to other times, meaning the barriers between different spaces were more easily broken, and time power was relatively less stable.
Manipulating time power within the item's coverage area would require more caution than in normal space.
As the Time Tower disappeared, Pumpkin City's streets shrank from twenty-three to seven, and the remaining streets continued to dissipate until the twelfth street... Feeling a jolt of electricity pass through his body, Xu Huo found himself standing back in the engineer's house.
The Painting Woman was no longer there. The engineer was outside, arguing with some people. Several middle-aged men were pushing a plastic statue into the engineer's yard, repeatedly saying, "We've told you, the new Passerby A sect doesn't require you to offer money. We'll even give you money! Our new leader is a true god!"
The engineer kept shoving them out. "I know your tricks. The money you give today, you'll demand double tomorrow. I'm telling you, I have no money, no money! You'd even scam an old man's money—do you have any conscience..."
Xu Huo glanced at the various religious artifacts displayed in the engineer's room, then changed his face and left. Walking onto the street, he saw that the once-ubiquitous cockscomb flower symbols and images had been replaced with a figure of a man in a black coat and leather shoes, standing tall but featureless. Many places were busily replacing statues, swapping the original rooster for this human form.
"Why are they erecting a statue of this person?" he asked a random passerby.
This person was also a believer and enthusiastically guided him. "Don't you know? Our Cockscomb Flower City has been renamed Passerby A City. As long as you believe in Passerby A, you can go to the sect envoy to collect an initiation fee without giving anything in return! Look, many people are even imitating the leader's attire! But to show respect, we can't copy it too closely... Your outfit is wrong."
Xu Huo followed him to the so-called "Passerby A Sect's" office. Inside a massive hall of unknown origin, blending traces of multiple religions, the Painting Woman sat woodenly behind a large table. She raised a communicator to the people queuing up before her and repeated the same phrase:
"You know, right?"
Beside her stood two people, handing out white notes to those in line, registering their names, and requiring them to recite the freshly minted sect doctrine.
At the center of the hall stood a humanoid statue about ten meters tall. Every person who received money would devoutly bow to it before leaving with a beaming smile.
Xu Huo reached the entrance. The previously listless Painting Woman's eyes lit up immediately. She rushed out, happily grabbing his arm. "You're finally out!"
"What's going on?" Xu Huo asked. Though he knew about the "faith turnover" in Cockscomb Flower City, he hadn't expected it to shift to him.
"I don't know either," the Painting Woman said, a bit frustrated.
(Chapter End)