Chapter 2298: Open and Honest
Xu Huo currently had no intention of discerning whether his words were true or false, so he directly grabbed the tattooed woman and injected a dose of truth serum into her body.
After confirming the drug had taken effect, he asked her about the truth of Old Cai's account. The tattooed woman answered somewhat numbly, then personally added a supplement—among them, some were of the opinion that they should kill that programmer after ending one-third of the game.
The other party claimed that only he himself was alive, and he had also told them his identity, but whether this was true or false was unknown. However, considering the situation in the city center, it was unlikely that one person could live there long-term, especially since basically no players were willing to go in anymore. Food replenishment was a problem, and according to that programmer, if the Water Cube continued unchecked, the city center would definitely disappear completely. By then, whether the one-third game would spiral out of control or vanish entirely was uncertain.
This was also why the players from the city government were willing to exhaust themselves to enter the city center. If One-Third City could maintain its current state forever, they might still scrape by, but the changing state of the Water Cube was like an untimed bomb—it could explode at any moment. How could they just wait to die?
"Aren't you afraid that person deliberately tricked you into going in?" Xu Huo said. "The buildings on the edge of the city center have already been swallowed by spatial gaps. Where else could you go inside?"
"We have a photo." Old Cai pulled out a blurry photograph, on which some buildings could faintly be seen, but further away, they were replaced by deep pits.
"You can communicate with each other, but you can't photograph the appearance of the Water Cube, nor can you take videos for you. Only this one blurry photo exists," Xu Huo said.
"He said most of the usable instruments were broken. This is barely a repaired old-fashioned camera," Old Cai looked at him. "We've always wanted to verify it, but we don't know if the photo is real or fake."
Xu Huo didn't hide anything and gave him a definite answer. "At least the edge of the city center does have such pits."
Old Cai breathed a sigh of relief. "So it's true. If it weren't to solve the Water Cube problem, why would he trick us into going in?"
"On the other hand, regardless of his purpose, the city center seems to be mostly destroyed. We suspect this is the price of activating the one-third game. After all, it's a place where time and space are chaotic. Once the city center is completely devoured, the situation might really change."
"Have him take a photo of the Water Cube," Xu Huo said. "Didn't he say there's a Water Cube that has always been stranded? It must be different from the others, right?"
Old Cai said helplessly, "You know as well as I do that instruments can't be used near the Water Cube."
"Drawing, verbal description—one of those should work," Xu Huo said flatly. "And what route did he plan for you?"
Old Cai could give him the route map now, but the shape of the Water Cube was impossible.
"Then can you let my companions go?" Old Cai pointed at the people lying on the ground.
Upon hearing this, Xu Huo withdrew his spiritual realm. Except for the tattooed woman, who hadn't come to her senses, the others were actually less injured than they appeared—at least not with all their limbs broken.
"I've slightly restricted your mobility," he said. "Please don't mind."
Though he said this, there was no hint of apology on his face. These players naturally didn't dare say anything more; he had already shown mercy. If they fought again, the outcome would only be worse.
The injured certainly couldn't become candidates for entering the city center. So, aside from the tattooed woman and another player whose body had undergone secondary evolution, only Old Cai remained. The three of them waited together for news from the city center.
Old Cai had personally seen the Water Cube before, of course, the original version. After the Water Cube was accidentally triggered, it changed. He and his companions only had time to flee outward, with no energy left to inspect it.
"It was similar to the Water Cubes that occasionally appear in Buliucheng, but it looked metallic. When we first saw it, we all thought it was an instrument. Since the cause of its appearance was unknown, none of us dared to touch it, so we sealed it off separately for research."
"Later, we detected time power and space power on it, and we dared not touch it even more. We originally planned to invite experts from the district government, but unfortunately, before the message could be sent out, the cube was accidentally triggered."
"After that, the matter was left unresolved."
Xu Huo caught his unspoken meaning—this incident had probably never been voluntarily reported to the city government. The city government had lost so many elite players here with little gain. If they found out it was caused by people from Buliucheng, mere anger would be enough to make them suffer.
"Actually, the district government has never really trusted us," Old Cai said euphemistically.
Due to the special formation of the city, the district government's requirements for this city were much lower than for others. Privately, it meant that as long as they didn't cause major trouble, the government wouldn't bother to expend real manpower and resources to deal with them.
Since the district government didn't trust them much, they naturally didn't trust the district government either.
"What was the name of your original player organization?" Xu Huo suddenly asked.
"Newborn," Old Cai replied after a moment of silence.
But unfortunately, before it could get off the ground, most of the organization's players had died in the game.
"Regarding the game content of the one-third game, have you gained any other insights?" Xu Huo continued.
"Much less than the city government documents you obtained," Old Cai said. "But regarding the ultimate purpose of the Water Cube's appearance, I have a personal guess."
Xu Huo gestured for him to continue.
"The Water Cube is clearly a hyperdimensional product. Only the Dimensional Rift Game Company can create such a thing. If it were accidentally lost, the game would definitely send someone to retrieve it. Since there's been no follow-up for so long, it means they did it deliberately."
"A deliberately created test site?" Xu Huo interjected. "But I don't think Buliucheng has that kind of value."
"That's not what I mean," Old Cai denied. "Have you ever heard of the theory that time-space forces attract each other?"
"You mean items?" Xu Huo had once heard Bai Kou mention it, back when District 011 was attacked, but it wasn't as clear as the rule that "time-space items are mutually incompatible." In his subsequent experiences and studies, it could be said to be merely an unverified rumor.
"Items are included," Old Cai continued. "I've done some research. Although I've never seen a wormhole with my own eyes, the gravitational force within a wormhole is special. Due to evolution, many game districts have experienced a technological explosion, allowing them to observe the surrounding space. A scholar once published a research paper stating that the Dimensional Rift game allows trains to withstand the gravitational pull of wormholes, but there's no empirical evidence whether they actually travel through wormholes. The only thing that can be confirmed is that ores carrying time-space power can cause greater storms within wormholes, so there is a certain attraction between them."