Chapter 2398: Chapter 2398: Striking It Rich This Time

The Girl in the painting certainly remembered. Her earliest memory was inside a box. She had originally been a painting; showing up in a box was perfectly normal.

Xu Huo didn’t press for more details. The very fact that the Girl in the painting could change from a sheet of paper into a person was already unusual—just like that Tentacle Tool, which itself was nothing more than an aggregate of some special materials. They possessed intelligence in the same way as the plants in the Goddess Replica instance had acquired thought; all of them were Props, all of them the result of non-reproducible processes. Otherwise Stellar Medical wouldn’t be devoting itself to researching Wise Variants across so many zones, and their research direction was probably about letting Variant-ified humans regain thought, or granting mutated animals more Advanced cognitive abilities. Whether those Variants were originally human or animal, they had always been living beings—unlike the Girl in the painting and Little Pink Hat, whose original forms might have nothing whatsoever to do with living organisms.

The activation of Super Props like "Three Seconds of a Lifetime" actually had traces one could follow. Even if it didn’t hold under previous understandings of Time Force, once curved time was understood, it became tenable.

But how was the Girl in the painting formed?

A painting—even if it was drawn with extremely special materials—shouldn’t be able, after "birth," to be just like a real person, able to learn, able to think... Was this also something the Dimensional Rift tacitly allowed?

Was it the game’s tacit approval, or was it that the game couldn’t interfere, or rather, had someone interfered with the game’s process of editing naturally born Props?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The Girl in the painting pretended to be shy and brushed her hair.

Xu Huo ignored that and instead asked another question, "Can you become a Prop that can be stored in the Prop bar?"

The Girl in the painting had followed many Players, and among them there must have been no shortage of people who tried to force her into the Prop bar. Why had none of them succeeded? Was it her power and uniqueness that caused the Players to fail, or was it that her ability to freely assume human form made the game judge her as a living creature?

"Why should I be put into the Prop bar?" The Girl in the painting found this question very strange. "Being hung on a wall is already boring enough, so why would I want to crawl into a cage?"

Xu Huo was momentarily speechless. He understood that this wasn’t a question he could reason out an answer to right now. Maybe, just like the gene editing in many zones: when people tried to use known methods and technologies to screen humanity, human genes would, ten or dozens of years later, smack them in the back of the head. Gene mutation didn’t follow human imagination. Likewise, perhaps, after several centuries of progression, the Dimensional Rift game had also started producing things humans couldn’t control.

After he put away the Props and returned to the room, he lay down on the sofa, while the Girl in the painting played games beside him and kept watch.

The messages on the Communicator kept refreshing. At first many Players were eager to watch the spectacle, but as more and more people were affected, more of them chose to hide in their rooms. You needed to stay alive to watch a show.

Key information on the Communicator gradually decreased, as if the Shark masks searching outside were slowly disappearing, and the Fish Banquet Building was returning to its former calm.

Early the next morning, Xu Huo didn’t rush out. Instead he bought several expensive removal Props to check whether he had been tracked. Sure enough, there were traces of other Props left on him, but while Prop effects were easy enough to eradicate, Characteristics were not. The Props and instruments he bought also couldn’t reliably identify every possible force that might be locking onto him.

The Girl in the painting also checked herself, and likewise found the effects of other people’s Props on her. Normally, Props targeting humans didn’t work on her, but unexpectedly, tracking Props seemed to function as usual.

After modifying his appearance once again, it was noon by the time Xu Huo left the room.

This time he didn’t comb the building floor by floor with the Girl in the painting. Instead he went toward a crowded area, planning to act together with them.

Apart from the hunting game, some small spaces were also well worth exploring. Bored during the day, some Players would want to try their luck in small spaces; with good luck, the gains would be much greater than going door to door looking for empty rooms.

"Pocket Doors are easy to enter and hard to exit. If we go in and can’t get out..." Xu Huo voiced his concern.

The one making the proposal was a group of young people he had previously met once in passing, and the dry, skinny Ma Family Elder was still with them. Clearly they hadn’t suffered any harm these few days; not only were they all present and accounted for, but their mental state looked pretty good.

"If we run into a closed space, Uncle Ma will take us out." One young man wearing gemstone studs in his ears said, "There’s nothing fun in the Fish Banquet Building anyway—just opening door after door. Better to go into a sealed space and broaden our horizons."

"If that’s the case, why don’t you go by yourselves?" A female Player who was also among the invited said, "After all, with too many people, it’s hard for you to tell who’s harboring ill intent."

Counting Xu Huo and the Girl in the painting, plus the female Player, these young scions had invited a total of thirteen Players to enter the sealed space together. Adding themselves, the headcount already reached nineteen.

"Of course we’re not inviting you for nothing." The man with the earrings said, "We need you to protect us after entering the sealed space. After all, Uncle Ma is only one person and may not be able to look after so many of us. As long as you help us block some minor dangers along the way, all the items you obtain for yourselves inside you can keep; we absolutely won’t take a cut. On top of that, we’ll pay you a fee, and we guarantee that when we leave the sealed space, we will definitely bring you out as well."

In the end, ten of the thirteen decided to go along. Those unwilling had one main concern: that they might not get out. Some sealed spaces could rival sealed instances, and though the young scions’ group spoke breezily now, when things really got critical, they would definitely prioritize themselves.

"Let’s just go together. There’s strength in numbers; we’ll be fine." Among the crowd, a slightly chubby man was also energetically coaxing the others. "Besides, the young master and young miss want to go have some fun; we lend a hand along the way and can earn a bit of extra money—what’s not to like?"

His words did sway a few people. In the end, the participants increased to fifteen; counting the young scions’ group, there were twenty-one people.

Xu Huo and the Girl in the painting were among them.

After agreeing on the advance payment, the group went to a lounge on another floor. They moved away a storage shelf in the corner, and the faint glimmer of light behind it was the Pocket Door—the entrance to the sealed space they were heading into.

The Ma Family Elder went in first, the five young scions followed, and only then did the other Players proceed.

Xu Huo brought up the rear. Watching the slightly chubby Player go in with a face full of joy, he then lifted his foot and stepped through the Pocket Door.

There was no Easter egg behind the door, but a castle with a retro artistic ambiance. The castle’s décor was extremely luxurious; brightly colored gemstones and precious metals were visible everywhere, and the floor of the main hall was actually paved entirely with Secondary Stone. Even if they didn’t have special attributes, these ores were important raw materials for crafting Props, yet in this castle they were merely flooring. One could imagine how valuable the other objects displayed openly must be!

"We’ve hit the jackpot this time!"