# Chapter 290: Space Overlap
Carmen Field was a name Xu Huo had heard in the Skinner's instance, a very famous political figure. The Field Clan also held an important political position at the E27 wormhole point.
He had just encountered Platinum Eye in the amusement park instance, the largest producer of precision instruments. Making an item based on a single sentence—it didn't seem that difficult to create.
However, some items in the game were more like high-tech products with strange abilities, such as the "Omnipresent Strings," which seemed like an object version of Super Evolution, beyond the scope of normal human understanding.
Brother Tu's words had some merit. Whether it was items or Super Evolution, trying to investigate the principles behind such fantastical existences was indeed like chasing dreams.
But there was no need to understand it so thoroughly. Just try to create the conditions that made it happen. As for those conditions, he could ask later.
* * *
Late-night Ting City was shrouded by a sudden, thick fog. While the entire city slept, the Special Defense Department had already quietly mobilized, dispatching Vanguard Players and special police to the East District, where the fog was thickest.
A black sedan stopped before the blockade line. Team Leader Wu and Nie Xuan got out one after another, both frowning as they looked at the fog wall that seemed almost solid.
"Has the technical team arrived?" Team Leader Wu asked, turning around.
"They're here." It was Sima Xiao'er who answered. He said, "They reported earlier. This fog is just ordinary mist—not toxic. But all communication equipment in this area is down, and the network is cut off."
Before coming to the East District, Team Leader Wu had already reviewed some reports about the fog. Although most of Ting City was covered in mist, only this fog wall enveloping the entire East District had detected abnormally active energy. Electronic instruments malfunctioned upon approach, and they couldn't contact anyone inside. Earlier, Special Defense Department personnel had selected several spots outside to call out, but no one from within the fog responded.
Even if the residents were all sound asleep, patrol cars wouldn't be completely unresponsive. With communications down and no one coming out until now, he had a bad feeling.
"Could it be another random instance?" Sima Xiao'er asked.
"All recorded random instance entry points are controlled within a certain range. None have ever been this large." Nie Xuan observed the fog wall through a special telescope. Suddenly he saw something and paused, changing his words. "Does the East District have a building like that?"
Team Leader Wu and several core members of the Special Defense Department immediately followed his gaze. A player with specially evolved vision said, "That looks like a large building. The top two floors are even fenced with barbed wire."
"Call the Planning Bureau immediately. Find out what that place is..." Team Leader Wu said, but before he finished, the technician behind him received a contact and suddenly stood up.
"People at the other observation points also saw this building!"
"Ask about its appearance, the angle, the visible range," Nie Xuan said immediately.
Several observation points were connected. The technician quickly relayed the information about the building seen from other locations. Everyone present fell silent after hearing it, because the building looked exactly the same from every observation point around the East District!
That meant no matter where you stood or how far away you were, the building maintained a single form, like a photograph that worked from any angle.
"It seems this is definitely a random instance," Team Leader Wu said. "The research report from Jing City the day before yesterday included speculation about random instances. The reason ordinary people are indiscriminately sucked into instances like players is that the instance entrance and Zone 014 have experienced space overlap. The temperature difference between the fog wall area and Ting City, just a line away, reaches ten degrees. The speculation is basically correct. The theoretically feasible way to close the entrance is to use energy to impact the space overlap point."
"So-called space overlap has already surpassed Zone 014's current technological level. Whether the overlapping area is stable is uncertain. Even if weapons could be used to strike, there's no guarantee the impact wouldn't produce worse results." Nie Xuan was very pessimistic about these profound theoretical matters. He looked at the building in the fog and said, "Besides, that's based on a small scale. Even if it were feasible, with the East District being this large, it's completely impossible."
"Send people in," Team Leader Wu said, turning around.
The Special Defense Department personnel immediately sprang into action. Nie Xuan put down the telescope and took the submachine gun and magazine from Sima Xiao'er.
"Don't go," Team Leader Wu stopped him. "Your injuries haven't healed yet, and your movement is restricted."
Nie Xuan ignored him. "This situation is clearly different from ordinary random instances. Whether they'll appear on a large scale in the future is hard to say. The sooner we investigate, the better. I'll take a team in."
"I'll go in with Brother Nie," Sima Xiao'er said.
Team Leader Wu hesitated but eventually agreed. However, he said, "I've already requested reinforcements from nearby branches. Be careful."
Nie Xuan nodded. Once the others were fully equipped, he gave a hand signal, and fifteen players filed into the fog one after another.
But in less than three minutes, the building in the telescope suddenly disappeared. Then a person flew rapidly out of the fog, crashing violently into the vehicles parked before the blockade zone!
The sudden noise startled Team Leader Wu and the others. They raised their guns to look and saw that the person who flew out was actually Nie Xuan. His entire body was dented into the hood of a car, his eyes half-open, unclear whether he was alive or dead.
"Nie Xuan!" Team Leader Wu rushed over to check on him. At that moment, the technician urgently reported, "The temperature in the fog wall area is rapidly rising... The temperature difference has disappeared!"
Team Leader Wu couldn't even attend to Nie Xuan now. The disappearance of the temperature difference meant the space within this fog area had vanished. He quickly said, "Call the vanguard team out!"
But the team members who had gone in with Nie Xuan, including players who had entered from other points, were already unreachable. At the same time, the fog wall began to dissipate. Patrol cars requesting reinforcements transferred to the operations team, but the feedback they received was that aside from the phones being down, nothing seemed abnormal...
The Ting City Special Defense Department fell into chaotic busyness. In neighboring Flower City, Xu Huo had a good night's sleep, rare for him, sleeping an extra two hours.
After washing up, he went to knock on Yan Jiayu's door, calling her to go eat breakfast together. Yan Jiayu clearly hadn't slept enough, scratching her head with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other, mumbling vaguely, "You're up so early."
"It's nine o'clock," Xu Huo said.
"But it looks like it's barely dawn outside." Yan Jiayu turned to pull open the curtains. "Oh, it's foggy. Wait for me, I'll be ready soon."
Xu Huo left his door open while waiting, browsing the Vanguard Forum.
It wasn't yet the season for heavy fog, but the weather forecast showed foggy conditions in Ting City, Flower City, and several nearby cities. That was a bit unusual.
Sure enough, there was news on the Vanguard Forum. Some players had seen Special Defense Department personnel mobilized overnight, and the East District had already been blockaded.