Chapter 2798

(To be revised later.) He’d thought he would have to wait a while, but "Book Worm" replied that very night, bluntly telling him: "Information of this level is not something you can buy with money."

Not something you can buy with money—that meant he really knew.

"Name your price," Xu Huo replied.

The response came quickly: "Find a way to have AS-01CL ore put on the banned list."

"Is there more detailed information?"

"This ore is only sold at Wormhole Points B11. Once you’re done, you can get the detailed addresses of three Hengxing Group secret laboratories."

After reading it, Xu Huo frowned, sent another message, but the other side no longer replied, and very soon that account went into hiding and vanished. It made him doubt whether he had really contacted "Book Worm."

Still, he could wait and see how things played out. After all, there was no urgent need to track down Stellar Medical Group’s secret laboratories; everything would have to wait until he advanced to Rank-A.

He had not yet come into contact with the true core of the Dimensional Rift game. Hengxing Group, Doctor Zhang, Dr. Wu, or Book Worm—those were the ones closest to the game’s core. Compared to them, he was still not strong enough.

Unconsciously tightening his right hand, Xu Huo closed his personal panel and returned to his residence. Through the Zone 022 Collection of Information Terminal, he found some information on AS-01CL ore. This ore was also on Zone 022’s import list, one of the materials used to make certain instrument chips. It was not an irreplaceable material; its wide sales range was mainly because, compared to similar materials, its price was relatively low.

Not an irreplaceable material—the ban would probably impact B11 more heavily. Was Book Worm at Wormhole Points B11?

No, that couldn’t be certain either. Perhaps this was just a means to an end, and the real key didn’t lie in the ore’s direct ban effect.

Quite a few companies purchased this ore, and Xu Huo quickly obtained the information of the interfacing company.

It was a raw materials company at B11-009.

For the moment, he jotted down that company’s information and shifted his focus back to the current instance.

Early the next morning, he took Bo Chunfeng’s aircraft to Snow Valley first.

Snow Valley was a city covered in snow all year round. Bo Chunfeng had a fixed preaching spot here and had just arrived recently. When he heard Xu Huo was coming to Snow Valley, he enthusiastically invited him to listen to his preaching lecture.

The preaching site was a small private residence, likely provided free of charge by a local. People trickled in, more than a dozen in total, each bringing their own water and food. It looked like the preaching session would not be short.

What slightly surprised Xu Huo, though, was that Righteousness Teaching wasn’t the only religion here. From far off he could see five or six people in different religious garb soliciting Believers along the road, and quite a few Players were following them to listen.

Bo Chunfeng was very familiar with these people, greeting them constantly. Someone even joked that he should go listen to their sect’s doctrine.

Bo Chunfeng brushed them off with perfunctory nods, and once they reached the preaching house, he solemnly introduced Xu Huo to the Believers: "This is our new friend."

*

The introduction of "My Heart is Dark" was extremely simple, but with the little girl’s demonstration, Xu Huo quickly mastered how to use it.

First was that black force. It was indeed a kind of power that could wrap around other people and shift them to wherever the holder wanted to go. And the larger the area covered by this black force and the longer the duration, the greater the deviation in perception and basic judgment. To a certain extent, it could even swallow Space-Time Power. The introduction of "My Heart is Dark" was extremely simple, but with the little girl’s demonstration, Xu Huo quickly mastered how to use it.

First was that black force. It was indeed a kind of power that could wrap around other people and shift them to wherever the holder wanted to go. And the larger the area covered by this black force and the longer the duration, the greater the deviation in perception and basic judgment. To a certain extent, it could even swallow Space-Time Power.

But this didn’t mean Space-Time Power was completely nullified. Any power, in a clash, has to take quantity into account. For example, an ordinary Spatial Barrier can’t interfere with Time Force, but Dimensional Space Power can, and this black force is the same.

Second was its coverage range. It basically used the building space the holder was in as its main body, but once you were ferried through by the black force, it was no longer Spatial Evolution’s mode of traveling inside a special spatial passage, but entering another space—or rather, a spatial corner. When the item was activated, the holder would be taken into another black space. You could think of this black space as being adjacent to the current space; once you slipped into it, it was equivalent to temporarily leaving the original space, though not completely leaving, because the time staying in the black space couldn’t be too long. If you stayed too long, the black space would automatically spit the holder back out.

Xu Huo guessed this was a restriction set up to match the instance. Entering the black space didn’t mean truly detaching from the current space, so it was still impossible to exploit it to escape the instance the way you would by directly crossing Districts or Wormhole Points.

Of course, its function wasn’t merely to ferry others. More importantly, it had a very peculiar defensive capacity. Since it could swallow Time Force, that implied that most Characteristics would fail to take effect when encountering it, and even if they did, they could be easily interrupted.

Xu Huo tested how long it could sustain at maximum coverage. Once the darkness formed, as long as he didn’t use it to devour others, it could go on indefinitely. But if he followed it into the black space, the darkness outside would fade, and he himself could stay in the black space for no more than five seconds.

That was for the holder. What about other people?

He looked at the little girl—Lei Jie Lian.

Lei Jie Lian was already squatting on the ground. After running back and forth with Xu Huo through the black space several times, she looked even more exhausted. But the moment she met his dangerous gaze, she couldn’t help saying, "You’re not thinking of throwing me into the black hole, are you?"

"What happens if you throw someone in?" Xu Huo asked.

"They disappear forever," Lei Jie Lian said. "I advise you not to do that."

"I’ve thrown quite a few people in before," she said. "The ones thrown in never appeared again. Even if I went back in immediately, I couldn’t find them. And the more people you throw in, the larger the darkness grows. The broader the range the darkness can cover, the more it drains you."

"When I first got this item, I wasn’t this weak."

"You’ve done research on this item?" Xu Huo asked. He meant the District Government and the Chief Governor.

"That’s my secret. Why should I tell anyone?" Lei Jie Lian said as a matter of course. "There’s plenty of data in the district library—you can look up whatever you want."

"So you think the black space is very similar to a black hole?" Xu Huo pressed. "Why?"

"So you think the black space is very similar to a black hole?" Xu Huo pressed. "Why?"