Chapter 2540: The Situation in the Portal Space
"Is there a pattern to the intervals?" Xu Huo asked.
"We made multiple predictions for the third time based on the first two, and assigned people to each time point, but none matched, so we missed the real opportunity." Qiu Xiangming couldn't help but sigh as he mentioned it. He paused for a moment before continuing, "So the instrument's unsealing probably has no pattern."
"It's controlled by someone," Xu Huo said.
Qiu Xiangming nodded. "That possibility can't be ruled out."
"And what about the time power?" Xu Huo pressed on.
"There are unusual fluctuations of time power within the portal space. We can only detect the general range, but we don't know the specific effects of the time power," Qiu Xiangming said. "However, we speculate it might be related to the places guarded by the outer zone forces."
Every time their people approached these locations, they would inexplicably be teleported away without any memory of the teleportation afterward—this served as supporting evidence.
"Are the places controlled by the outer zone forces related to the inheritance of the super instance?" Xu Huo asked directly.
Qiu Xiangming clamped his mouth shut, as if weighing how to answer this question.
"The portal space can swallow up thousands of elite players. It can't be that you're all just lining up to cross the threshold," Xu Huo said. "Some of you are responsible for obtaining items and other inheritances from other space sites, and there must be others acting as seed players to conquer the instance inheritance. The deceased super players must have placed something crucial in the portal space, which is why you've been lingering there for so long."
"The places you're fighting over—are they suspected of having instruments deployed, or did the super players set something up there?"
From the start, Qiu Xiangming and the others hadn't spoken clearly and deliberately blurred some things. They were actually hiding key information. Compared to clearing an instance, anyone would think the inheritance of a super instance was more important. What was the point of staying behind?
Someone who could obtain both temporal and spatial evolution and super items—couldn't they find a way to escape a stranded instance site?
"These people and their ancestors are just full of trouble!" Bubble Bean couldn't help cursing. "Can you just say it all at once? Are you hiding things to find a way out, or are you using us as minesweepers?"
The middle-aged man and the others showed faint anger but didn't refute. Qiu Xiangming was more direct. "We're more worried that you might cooperate with those from the Holy Sword Society."
Given his abilities, the Holy Sword Society, which accepted all comers regardless of scruples, might invite him to join on the spot. As for the places they had entrenched, Xu Huo could naturally pass through unimpeded. Then they wouldn't have gained an ally but added another lock on the door!
"So you knew that all along," Bubble Bean laughed in anger. "With your attitude, even the best temper would be worn out!"
Xu Huo spoke up at this point. "It seems it's fifty-fifty. The outer zone forces have both obtained some key locations related to the instance inheritance and actually deployed instruments in different parts of the portal space."
"Since you're worried about the inheritance issue, let's skip those places and just talk about the instrument locations."
"Brother, you're just letting this go?" Bubble Bean was indignant, as if he couldn't understand his calmness.
"Do you still want to clear the instance or not?" Xu Huo said. "From now on, the conflict between local zone players and outer zone players will only get worse. Zone 001 is no longer a suitable place for outer zone players to settle."
Bubble Bean paused, then suppressed his anger. Qiu Xiangming and the others, however, had dark clouds on their faces. They clearly knew that the future of Zone 001 was turbulent. A peaceful transition, with just the intensifying conflict between outer zone and local zone players, would already be considered good—because with the ownerless super instance, who knew if some superpower or super player might suddenly come knocking?
Xu Huo signaled Qiu Xiangming to continue.
The middle-aged man took out a hand-drawn rough map. It was so rough that they had only marked the general terrain and landforms—mountains were written as "mountain," rivers as "river"—and the instrument deployment locations were marked with circles, only roughly indicating the positions.
"These six locations are the ones the outer zone forces are focusing on," Qiu Xiangming said. "The time power fluctuations we detected are also mostly concentrated in these six places."
Xu Huo looked at the map and asked, "Are you sure the time power was emitted by the outer zone forces after the space blockade, rather than being an emergency protocol of the portal space, or something inherent to the portal space itself?"
This question caught Qiu Xiangming off guard. There certainly weren't any abnormal time power fluctuations in the portal space originally, so they had naturally assumed this power came from the outer zone forces...
He quickly caught on. "The outer zone forces can enter and leave the portal space."
"If they've really blocked the game channels, it's not strange for people to come and go," Xu Huo skipped over this point and turned to another. "What's your existing plan for opening an exit? Whether you've used it or not, tell me."
For the players of Zone 001, there were only two feasible plans. One was to completely destroy the outer zone forces' instruments and break the blockade, allowing everyone to leave. The second was to seize partial control of the instruments. Considering that the instruments would unseal for a very short time at intervals, and the outer zone forces had deployed multiple locations, they could choose one place to focus on breaking through and seize control.
During the second space unsealing, they had already tried three of the locations, captured one, but didn't find the instruments. After they withdrew, the outer zone forces reoccupied that place, and the space blockade remained uninterrupted during that time.
"You didn't find the instruments. Any other clues?" Xu Huo frowned.
"I'm not too clear on the specifics. I'd need to enter the portal space to find out," Qiu Xiangming said.
"I don't know much about super instruments," Xu Huo said. "What kind of blockade instrument requires simultaneous cooperation at multiple locations?"
The non-game area simulator used in the district where he fought Dou Shengnan could only cover a very small area. That did require multiple instruments working together to take effect, but those were clearly mass-produced instruments and couldn't compare to super instruments. What could truly be called a super instrument was something like the "Cube Space" or "Water Cube," which had absolute suppressive power. The outer zone forces had blocked the entire portal space. If they were using large instruments to cooperate, how big would those things have to be to bring in?
Under the attacks of thousands of elite A-level players from Zone 001, there had been no sign of weakness. It was hard to associate this with instrument cooperation—or perhaps it was a more advanced instrument from a zone with more advanced technology?
On this point, the district government did have some data. "Some districts have already deployed similar instruments in key cities, cutting off entire cities from the game. Although no instruments capable of blocking an entire space have been found yet, the ability to maintain it for a long time suggests it's likely a product from an A-level wormhole point."