# Chapter 352: The Master of the Ancient Castle (Bonus for Tipping)
The third floor of the ancient castle had nearly twenty rooms. Apart from He Pu's bedroom, lounge, and music room, there were over a dozen remaining rooms, but Hu Shan only showed the players a mere four of them, and sternly warned them that unless He Pu or she permitted, guests could not enter the rooms on the third floor at will.
Xu Huo heard her mention that there was also a study on the third floor and wanted to go in and take a look.
Hu Shan kept a straight face and refused to agree, but at that moment He Pu walked out and directly said, "Except for the rooms I use, open all the other rooms for the guests to see."
Since He Pu had spoken, even if Hu Shan was unwilling, she had no choice but to comply, taking out the keys and opening the third-floor rooms one by one.
After a cursory glance through these rooms, the players all understood why Hu Shan looked at them as if they were thieves—He Pu's family wealth was too vast!
The art collection they had seen earlier was child's play. There were entire rooms filled with precious jewelry, entire rooms of antique calligraphy and paintings, entire rooms of weapons and firearms, and even a storage room specifically for potions, a prop room, a specimen room of rare animals from other game zones, and an underground pool where mutated crocodiles were raised.
When they saw the potions and props, all the players' eyes turned red, but after seeing the pool, their hearts sank halfway. The missing guests had probably all been fed to the crocodiles, right? Where could they even look for them?
"So many good things, just looking at them is overwhelming." Li Chao's eyes burned with enthusiasm, fixed on those room doors, unable to look away.
Although the other players didn't say it out loud, their thoughts were similar.
Even if they couldn't clear the instance, if they could grab some things and walk out, they could still get a ticket!
Xu Huo went to the study on the third floor. The study on the third floor clearly had more books than the second floor, and it even involved histories and languages from different worlds.
After entering the game, there was no barrier for players in speaking, communicating, or writing text. It was equivalent to being proficient in one language, and all other languages and scripts would switch to that same language.
Of course, before this, Xu Huo had rarely even encountered people of different nationalities; most players had similar physical features to him.
He took a closer look at the history section.
The historical records concerning Rose Castle were especially detailed. E27-0 had begun evolving twenty years ago, but this was not the result of a single game zone's evolution; rather, it was a collective term for the fusion of seven game zones.
Starting from the original Zone 00, Zone 007 successively annexed Zones 9, 0, 1, 2, and 3. Later, Zone 0 within it launched a coup, replacing the original Zone 007 government, and after reaching a cooperation agreement with the Game Government, formed today's Zone 0 Government Base, turning the original Zones 7 and 1 into sub-sectors under the large game zone of Zone 0.
In other words, the Garden Castle Station was just a station in one area under Zone 0. There were other parallel spaces that could not be reached by ground transportation; only Dimension Trains could travel between them.
The original designations of Zone 007 and other zones were inherited by newly generated game zones. Therefore, game zones were generally ordered by the timing of their evolution, but there were exceptions. This made Zone 0 a crucial hub for the five zones under the E27 wormhole point.
It was worth mentioning that the Game Government did not set up bases in every zone. In other words, they couldn't be bothered with small places. The power transitions within game zones were mostly initiated by local humans, and during this process, there was also covetousness from forces in other zones.
Zone 0 was a rather special place. It was not entirely controlled by the Game Government but coexisted with an alliance regime established by local players. This coexisting alliance regime also granted ordinary people considerable rights.
That's right, the management of most regional affairs was still handled by ordinary people—or rather, ordinary people who had taken potions.
Apart from Evolution Agents, many other potions had the effects of strengthening the body and extending lifespan. Therefore, after the Zone 0 alliance regime reached a cooperation agreement with the Game Government, they began to comprehensively improve the basic quality of the entire zone's human population. It was said that people with better physiques were more likely to produce offspring with high-quality evolution.
They now had comprehensive detection facilities, capable of checking from infancy whether a person was suitable for evolution.
Seeing this, Xu Huo couldn't help but silently admire the foresight of Zone 0 players.
Whether there was a solution to the Evolution Agent trap was still unclear, but ensuring the number of players while preserving the seeds of normal humans prevented them from falling completely into the game's grip.
The urban area around Rose Castle was also good evidence. Although players had permeated the lives of ordinary people, it had not caused polarization.
However, more detailed records of the annexation war were not available.
He found some other books with annotations and discovered that He Pu was self-studying potion-related knowledge.
He was a very knowledgeable scholar, using notes full of complex chemical formulas. These must have originally come from different people, but every single one had his annotations, indicating the results of experiments.
Most of the annotations were from five years ago. Over the past five years, there had been some sporadic additions, but very few.
His gaze lingered on these notes for a moment, and Xu Huo suddenly let out a sigh.
"These are notes I wrote in the past. What, are you also interested in making potions?" He Pu had silently entered the study.
Xu Huo closed the book and set it down, smiling as he said, "I just regret not having met Mr. He earlier."
Proficient in potion science, knowledgeable in sculpture, calligraphy, and painting, fluent in multiple languages, a historian—he was a learned and wise elder.
A smile appeared on He Pu's pale face. "Mr. Xu flatters me. After I fell ill, my physical strength failed me, and I abandoned all my former hobbies."
"In recent years, I haven't added any new books, but Mr. Xu is welcome to browse the existing collection at his leisure."
Xu Huo expressed his thanks and then said, "Hu Shan mentioned that Mr. He is also skilled in musical instruments."
"Not at all, just fiddling around for fun," He Pu said. "Do you play as well?"
"I'm ashamed to say I have no talent in the arts," Xu Huo quickly replied. "I came here out of admiration and managed to get an invitation from someone else."
He Pu had already sat down behind the desk. He stared at Xu Huo for a few seconds before gently tapping the small bell on the table. Soon, Hu Shan arrived.
"Take Mr. Xu downstairs. He's been reading for so long; let him have some afternoon tea. But it's almost dinner time, so prepare only a little."
Hu Shan nodded and gestured for Xu Huo to leave.
Xu Huo bowed slightly and walked out of the study, but his expression darkened slightly. He Pu didn't care whether he had come with an unsigned invitation.
This meant that the existence of non-instance players wasn't that important. Figuring out the exact number of people or which players corresponded to the unsigned invitations was irrelevant.
Was he simply interested in watching players kill each other?
"Mr. Xu?" Hu Shan stopped when she saw him pause.
"Nothing, I just suddenly remembered the ceramic vase I saw in the painting room earlier. It was very beautiful, and I wanted to borrow one to arrange some flowers," Xu Huo said.
Hu Shan folded her hands in front of her abdomen. "I'll fetch one and send it to you later."