Chapter 3122: The Figure and the Stone
Based on the state displayed by the eye, it seemed to play the role of a manipulator in the little figures' struggle, eventually even devouring the victorious masked figure in the form of a "mouth." But when that eye looked over, Xu Huo suddenly realized that it wasn't controlling the little figures' battle at all—it had been on the side of the masked figure, the one who submitted to it, from start to finish.
Thus, the unmasked figure won repeatedly only to have to start over, until the masked figure finally triumphed in the struggle, bringing it to an end.
However, the masked figure ultimately merged into the eye, while the unmasked figure, even after defeating its opponent, still couldn't touch the eye.
Whether these little figures were enacting a heroic struggle passed down through generations or the helplessness of external intervention, the symbol of the "eye" represented something beyond the little figures' existence.
Carmen Field wouldn't have preserved such a trivial story for no reason. The only possibility was that it held some other meaning.
What did the eye represent? The game? Or the Game Government?
Players in the game world naturally assumed the ultimate goal was the game itself, but the repeated battles of the little figures clearly had another implication.
The concept of curved time wasn't a secret; many had heard of it, though most didn't understand it. But at Carmen's level, with his transcendent evolution in time and space, he couldn't possibly be unaware of curved time...
Thinking this far, Xu Huo frowned. If time power had intervened in the little figures' battle, then the masked figure's journey from defeat to victory became inevitable—no matter how many times they failed, it didn't matter, because time would keep rewinding until they won!
If that were the case, then Carmen's death also seemed inevitable. Had he foreseen his own end?
But that wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that the "eye" seemed to possess the ability to rewind time. So what did this "eye" represent? The game, the Game Government, or something else entirely?
Based on the information Xu Huo had gathered so far, curved time had a great deal of randomness. Even though Dr. Wu could create a place like Pumpkin City, he still couldn't return to the time before his wife and daughter's deaths. Yet the little figures' battle clearly indicated the intervention of curved time. Did the game side have mastery over curved time?
That wasn't right. If the forces controlling the game could use curved time, they wouldn't have failed to capture Dr. Wu... Or was his guess wrong?
The eye formed from smoke dissipated, and the figure that had been there before now stood opposite Xu Huo. It extended its clenched hand, then slowly opened it, revealing an empty palm.
Xu Huo felt a flicker of confusion, but in the next second, the figure began to distort. Its body seemed to be kneaded like dough, taking on the thinness of paper, then becoming ethereal as faint light could pass through it. Then it began to fold—not a simple fold, but every part of its body underwent tiny folds, shrinking and collapsing inward.
However, this state didn't last long either. Soon after, the figure scattered outward, as if it had disintegrated on its own, becoming an even more blurred shadow. In an instant, this scattered shadow contracted again into a bead the size of a fingertip. It seemed darker than its original shadow form, as if it had gained substance.
Xu Huo reached out and grasped the bead. When he opened his hand, the bead had turned into a stone with a faint halo.
Strange. Although this stone also possessed time-space attributes, it was completely different from the Primordial Stones and Subclass Stones he had seen before. Its contained energy wasn't very strong, but it felt exceptionally heavy in his hand, far heavier than any ore he had ever encountered.
Though he didn't know exactly what it was, since Carmen had deliberately placed it here, it must be very important. He casually put the stone into his luggage compartment. At that very moment, a slit was cut open in the black space, and Sen Sen, along with a middle-aged man, strode in quickly. Both of them rapidly scanned the room before turning their gazes to Xu Huo.
Sen Sen let out a relieved smile. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." The black space had been breached, the figure had vanished, and all the changes brought by the mirror item had disappeared. The room had returned to normal.
"What was that just now..." Sen Sen hesitated before asking, "Was there some unexpected situation?"
"There was a figure," Xu Huo said. "It disappeared before you came in. That should be the spiritual power left behind by Mr. Carmen. Haven't you seen it before?"
On this point, Sen Sen truly wasn't lying. Every piece of Carmen's legacy, regardless of size or quality, had been meticulously examined by the Field family's geniuses. But Sen Sen only knew that the mirror had some anomalies, and since she couldn't discern them herself, the family naturally wouldn't inform her. As for what others had seen, she was even less clear.
Still, the fact that this mirror hadn't been stored away but left in the room suggested it probably didn't contain anything too important.
"The figure demonstrates Mr. Carmen's Super Evolution ability," the middle-aged man said at this point. "It's a more intuitive way of showcasing the use of Super Evolution power through spiritual force. Did Mr. Xu gain anything?"
"Hard to say." Xu Huo disliked the Field family's attitude. They seemed eager to extract more from Carmen's legacy but lacked the ability to do so themselves, hence their generous invitation to players from all sides. Yet they couldn't bear to let outsiders take all the benefits, so they had to keep a constant watch, determined to reclaim something to break even.
Since Carmen's death, the Field family had never stopped building up his legend, but it didn't feel like genuine respect for the strong. Instead, it seemed more like an attempt to drain every last bit of his value, making their efforts appear hypocritical at a glance.
Simply put, the Field family still clung to the lofty status of having once possessed a Super Player, but the true Super Player had long since died. The decline in strength and the gap in circumstances had made them both arrogant and utilitarian, yet they refused to admit it.
Of course, this wasn't hard to understand. Carmen Field had been portrayed as too great. If the Field family openly proposed exchanging access to the ruins and viewing the relics for what outer-zone players had gained, it would make them look contemptible. After all, how could a figure like Mr. Carmen be born into a family so obsessed with scheming and profit?
Xu Huo had seen the young Carmen Field through time rewinds and didn't truly believe he was as perfect as the Field family described—even without any direct contact, it was hard to find such a flawless person in the world, let alone a Super Player.
Too heavy a halo inevitably made it hard to stand straight.
The players who had come together generally had a poor impression of the Field family. Li De, in particular, said with feigned surprise, "You don't mean to say that even the insights gained from Mr. Carmen's relics have to be taught to the Field family before we can leave, do you?"