Chapter 475: Emergency Shelter 101
Xu Huo put down the invitation letter. The other letters were visiting cards from several young nobles of aristocratic families who wanted to stay at Rose Castle for a short time.
Rose Castle was nothing special among the many castles in the ancient city district, and those second-generation heirs couldn't possibly be coming for the flowers. They were here for Butterfly Lady.
"Has Butterfly Lady mentioned when she plans to leave?" Xu Huo asked casually. Mr. Dong's current attitude toward Butterfly Lady was somewhat similar to his earlier stance with the fake He Pu—outwardly not falling out, but finding fault in daily trivialities.
"She will live here permanently," the butler said, clearly unhappy about this matter as well.
Xu Huo smiled. "She won't stay long."
After a pause, he asked again, "Can I rent one or two of those props in the third-floor rooms? For self-defense."
Mr. Dong responded with silence.
That meant no. Xu Huo didn't press further and instead said, "I'm resting today. I saw someone delivering flowers earlier. I'll plant them with you."
Mr. Dong nodded and took the initiative to ask, "Does your injury need special treatment?"
"Just superficial wounds. I've already used medicine," Xu Huo said.
Afterward, the two went to the garden to plant the rose saplings. Xu Huo picked it up quickly, and they worked at a decent pace, filling up a third of the garden in no time.
During this, Butterfly Lady came out, sat down in the small pavilion, and had the kitchen send over some snacks. She fanned herself while watching them work.
Wiping his sweat, Xu Huo said to her, "Want to help?"
Butterfly Lady lifted her delicate chin slightly. "Not interested."
Xu Huo continued working, while Butterfly Lady propped her chin up and watched him for a while. "Didn't go smoothly in the instance? You seem pretty irritable."
"I ran into a super player," Xu Huo said without stopping his movements, speaking lightly. "Lawrence Li."
"Oh, him." Butterfly Lady's tone drew out. "You're lucky. Lawrence Li is one of the more normal super players. His only hobby is probably doing some human experiments."
"But he's also pretty pitiful. He developed sequelae before becoming an A-rank player."
Xu Huo turned to look at her. "Do you have any signs of sequelae?"
Butterfly Lady's expression paused slightly as she stared at him. "What are you trying to pry out of me?"
"If I ask, will you tell me?"
"No."
What was there to say then? Xu Huo poured all his enthusiasm into planting flowers.
Just then, Butterfly Lady stood up. "I can go with you to the gathering in five days."
Xu Huo looked up, but she had already turned and walked away. Her long red dress swayed, and her bare feet lightly stepped across the grass—she wasn't wearing shoes.
He only glanced once before looking away. After he and Mr. Dong replanted the garden in front of the castle and the botanical garden in the back, he changed into clean clothes and went to the base to report.
Before entering the instance, he had informed Shi Youzhi. Seeing him back, Shi Youzhi, who was about to return to his office, took the opportunity to walk with him.
Shi Youzhi had recently been investigating the destruction of the station. Besides the main district where the base was located, several other districts in Zone 011 had also experienced station damage. The base was quick to act and soon found some clues, which were also related to recent events in Zone 011. Some rumors circulated that a batch of firearms from Rongxin Group had issues with their handover, and the station destruction was mostly caused by this.
"The base isn't going to get involved in this anymore," Shi Youzhi said as he filed the documents. "After all, Zone 011 isn't entirely under the base's control."
That made sense. The Game Government couldn't meddle in any affairs of the game zones, and during the investigation, the base had likely reached an agreement with the Zone 011 government regarding the station destruction.
"Your evolution rate has increased quite a bit." After finishing, Shi Youzhi turned the topic to him. "Are you here to buy props today?"
Xu Huo nodded. "I want to find two props with strong defensive capabilities."
"That's simple." Shi Youzhi opened the internal system. "Here's a catalog and introduction of purchasable props. You can look through it yourself. Once you've chosen, you can apply with Sanyang. I heard you have a Light Gentleman medal, right? That makes the application easier."
Shi Youzhi had other matters to attend to, so he left Xu Huo in the office to browse on his own.
Xu Huo first looked at B-rank props. The base's prices were cheaper than those at the external exchange, but even after using the employee and medal discounts, the prices were still steep.
Among the B-rank props, he had his eye on two. One was "Emergency Shelter 101," an explosion-proof escape prop. It looked like a mobile prefab house, but the description claimed it could withstand nuclear-level attacks. The structure of this prop was also unique—the outside of the room was actually the inside of the prop.
In other words, the internal and external structures of this prop were reversed. The area enclosed within the room was considered "outside," while everything else was "inside."
This was an interesting way to put it, like drawing a circle on the ground—you could say everything outside the line was contained within the circle.
However, this was just a matter of perspective or interpretation. The internal-external distinction of "Emergency Shelter 101" also affected how the prop was used. The "inner" room's outer walls had extremely strong defensive capabilities, while if no one opened the door to the "outer" enclosed space, it was very difficult for those "inside" to destroy the room. However, those within the enclosed space could relatively easily destroy the prop.
Another feature of this reversed prop was that if someone wanted to enter the enclosed space to take shelter, they had to pay supplies to the holder. In other words, this prop could accommodate multiple people seeking refuge, whether they were players or non-players.
However, the interior of this prop wasn't large—just over twenty square meters.
Compared to others, this was the prop with the strongest defensive capabilities Xu Huo could currently obtain. Although it was inconvenient to move, it was impervious to fire, water, and radiation, and had super-strong defense. The minor flaws were negligible.
The other prop was "Reversed Space," a space prop that could invert everything within a small area—sky became earth, earth became sky. More intuitively, the direction of gravity was reversed, but people would experience disorientation and discomfort from the head-foot inversion. It was very useful in special scenarios, such as spiritual realms.
Each of these two props cost over a million white notes even after the discount, so Xu Huo could only choose one.
Then he looked at C-rank props and picked out an offensive one called "Hurt Others, Not Yourself." It was a thin rope made of special metal strips that could switch between an ordinary rope line and a super cutting strip under the holder's control, with a thickness of about three millimeters.
He also had his eye on a C-rank water knife gun and a pair of C-rank diamond gloves. The former was a standalone attack weapon, while the latter was used in conjunction with the cutting rope.
For the final two B-rank props, Xu Huo chose "Emergency Shelter 101," along with "Hurt Others, Not Yourself," the water knife gun, and the diamond gloves. The four props cost a total of 2.4 million white notes.
(End of chapter)