Chapter 2286: Top-Secret Classified File
"Does this count as a pattern?" Zhu Xiaojin said from the side. "If we know when and where the Water Cube appears, does that mean other places are safe?"
"How could that be," Old Cai immediately said. "After I entered the instance, I basically stayed near the city center. Although some people might have witnessed the Water Cube's appearance, time-space power is formless—under normal conditions, it shouldn't be visible. The part of the Water Cube that appears is only a very small fraction of it."
Xu Huo nodded. "Buliucheng's time-space has always been somewhat chaotic, and space-type items often fail. Since the entire city is unstable, the city center can't possibly be that stable."
Even if it were stable, this pattern change would definitely be something players couldn't observe.
Based on previous evidence from Lou Zigui and other players, Xu Huo should soon enter his second third-game. And the number of people he needed to clear it was too large—even counting the people Old Cai had brought, there was still a significant shortfall. Moreover, at this point, he couldn't casually count either the people Old Cai brought or the wanted criminals provided by the city government toward his clearance number.
Although he had successfully come out of the first game, the second game might not be so easy to pass. Otherwise, local zone players wouldn't have basically given up on Buliucheng. A place so convenient for time-space evolution—without absolute risk, no district would willingly abandon it.
Even the time-space chaos site that had accidentally appeared in District 014 back then had the Special Defense Department arranging large numbers of people to queue up and enter.
"Brother Xu, don't worry. With your abilities, nothing will happen," Zhu Xiaojin comforted him.
Xu Huo looked at him. "You should leave as soon as possible. If you get pulled into the game again, it won't be worth it."
Zhu Xiaojin glanced outside, then grinned. "It's fine. I understand."
Xu Huo put away his notebook and said to Old Cai, "Let's wait for news from the local zone players."
Old Cai had no objections. "I just want to try my luck at the city center. If it really doesn't work, I'll give up."
Xu Huo nodded and entered the back room to see the captured female player.
"It's almost ten o'clock. Has your companion prepared the materials?" He looked at the woman sitting against the wall. The Painting Woman was crouching beside her, and there were suspicious red marks on the woman's face—it was unclear whether she had been hit.
The female player glared at him angrily. "A warrior would rather die than be humiliated! And you think you can cooperate with me and get information from me like this?!"
The Painting Woman had long been ready and raised her communicator matter-of-factly. "She tried to run."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and asked the female player, "Is that so?"
The female player showed no guilt. "My hands and feet hurt. Can't I even move a little?"
"Less nonsense. Did you get the materials?" Xu Huo pulled a chair over and sat down across from her.
The female player moved her hand and tossed out a recorder. "Guaranteed authentic."
Xu Huo opened the recorder on the spot. Inside were photographed paper documents. The cover bore the words "Top-Secret Classified," followed by records concerning the first third-game.
The first third-game was a prison game involving "guards" and "prisoners." The game's stakes were the players' "Past," "Present," and "Future." Upon entering the game, these three were ranked. The first game's stake would default to the least important of the three rankings—which was also the reason most players lost their memories after losing the game. Because they generally considered "Future" and "Present" more important than "Past," "Past" was the first thing lost.
This was the conclusion drawn from experiments by multiple players who had memorized text codes before entering the game.
If the first third-game lost was "Past," the player would lose most memories of their past life. If it was "Present," the player would lose recent memories—that is, the period around the time of entering the instance, ranging from a few months to several years. But regardless of which was lost, memories of the game itself were not retained. These things were pieced together from digital notebooks the players carried with them.
The special case was "Future." After learning about the three options, subsequent entering players adjusted and placed "Future" as the least important option in third place. Strangely, players who lost "Future" showed nothing special—they merely lost their memories of the game. The district had tested them with various instruments and found nothing unusual.
This issue was ultimately left unresolved.
Of course, the description of the prison space was very detailed, roughly outlining a venue with chaotic time-space yet a special order. Players basically dared not make any major moves inside.
The description of the space core made Xu Huo think of the enhancement in his space evolution after he came out. The inspiration for the doubled-power Space Ray and the instantly formed yet gradually released, lethality-skyrocketing Space Entity should have come from this space core.
There was also the description of the Water Cube. However, the personnel dispatched by this district lacked Temporal Evolvers, so they could only barely describe its appearance and the fact that the Water Cube was responsible for killing rule-breakers.
Beyond that, the district government had made guesses about the game's origin. They believed it was highly likely a Super Device left behind by an advanced wormhole point. Because prop effects tended to be singular and time-limited, while the third-game was clearly more stable and fixed. This could only be made by companies controlling dimensional rift games or forces from the earliest evolved wormhole points—it had merely been accidentally left here.
For this reason, the district government had not publicly disclosed the relevant content. Because "lost item" was their more positive interpretation. If something went wrong, it could very likely lead to the district's extinction.
Of course, considering the third-game's high level of restriction, some also believed it was a special experiment from the dimensional rift. Because players who left the instance could not properly record content related to the third-game on either the Bounty Platform or Under Dimension. Being able to vaguely mention one or two related rules was already quite good.
This was very abnormal.
"This is very abnormal." Xu Huo frowned. A mere chaotic game venue causing players to lose their memories was one thing, but how could it even prevent the Bounty Platform and Under Dimension from being involved? This was no longer an effect achievable by time or space power alone. It must be tied to the dimensional rift—the core of the game itself. But whether this thing was released by the game side or by an anti-game side like Dr. Wu was unknown.
But this made it even stranger. The game's purpose seemed to be merely killing people. And killing people—such a worthless act—why place it here?