In the end, Xu Huo bought two items from Deng Xuan: one was a "Self-Producing Textile Machine," and the other was the "Glare Dance Ball."
The former, as the name implies, is a not-so-large textile machine that can produce a meter-long piece of cloth each time, and how much it produces each day is up to fate. The Glare Dance Ball is a magical party artifact that, once touched to any space, will immediately emit the colorful lights found in nightclubs, capable of impairing vision.
The price he paid was not low, but Deng Xuan felt a bit embarrassed to continue selling other items to him, so he left his contact information and hinted, "If you want to buy other things, you can find me privately. However, copies at the station exist independently, and may not necessarily be brought in."
Xu Huo waved his hand and boarded a low-altitude public transportation vehicle.
This type of small vehicle was also unmanned, with only six seats inside, each of them an enclosed individual pod. Once a person sat down, the spherical glass door would automatically close, and the curved interior surface would display a menu button, including a brief introduction to Garden Castle Station.
He listened to it from beginning to end.
The city where the train stops is called Central City, the most avant-garde city of Garden Castle Station. The Game Government has an office here, so technology from other worlds has been brought in, and development has been rapid.
At the same time, this is also a world where player acceptance is relatively high. Players can engage in any occupation, and there are people willing to hire players, with better companies even offering safe tickets in their employment terms—these are copies of tickets with a higher success rate and lower risk.
White Notes and the local currency are both accepted; every street has an intelligent service terminal where one can easily convert currencies if needed through simple operations.
Moreover, at this station, the sale and purchase of potions are legal, unlike the drugs Xu Huo originally understood. Here, the potions are byproducts of Evolution Potion development, capable of stimulating the brain to secrete happiness hormones without harming the human body.
In addition, there are various player-specific contests, competitions, and adventure activities that are also quite popular.
There is not much information about the Game Government here, but both ordinary people and players live in this city. The government has also erected a few handsome and beautiful player figures who attend various events and celebrations, just like mascots.
In short, in this city, players are not much different from ordinary people.
Of course, there are also stringent laws targeting players, especially regarding the disturbance of ordinary people.
In a city with highly developed technology, every person is under full surveillance, and any sign of trouble will be reported.
"If you violate the Central City laws and regulations, you will be warned the first time, and the second time, the duty team will arrest you. Please be aware, players."
At a glance, this seems to be a very livable city.
Xu Huo quickly got off the vehicle, found a service terminal at random, and checked the information about renting and buying houses. The prices were so high that they were daunting. Even renting a small house on the edges of Central City would cost a staggering five thousand White Notes per month, and the closer it was to the government base building, the more expensive the rent.
He also searched for information on Level D Copies at Garden Castle Station, but the quantity was too large and mixed, and he didn’t know which copy he had to enter before arriving at the copy’s location. Because the opening and closing of copies are irregular, it simply means that the same place next time might not be the same copy.
So he randomly picked a few strategies for Level D Copies that were closer and bought them to check out.
With a plan in mind, Xu Huo followed the game’s directions to the city where the copy was located.
Taking the express train took only a few minutes. After getting off, the first thing he saw was a modern scenery not much different from where he lived, and he also received a game prompt:
[Welcome to Garden Castle Station, a city known for its garden castles. According to incomplete statistics, there are over a dozen castles of various sizes within the city, each with its own historical sediment. The oldest castle has a history of over five hundred years, mysterious and ancient.]
[Many famous personalities have rated this place as an excellent spot to trace the past, claiming that one can’t help but immerse oneself in the ancient times when visiting here.]
[However, the antiquity implies that transportation and communication here are somewhat outdated, making it a hotbed for crime...]
[Player Passerby A, please proceed to Rose Castle to complete the copy "The Missing Guest."]
[Copy Mission One: Find the missing guest. (Any)]
[Copy Mission Two: Unravel the truth behind the guest’s disappearance.]
[Copy Time Limit: Five days (game time). Players are requested to arrive at Rose Castle with an invitation before midnight (game time) tonight.]
Below was an attached invitation, and not far from there, there was a bus stop sign where he could see the bus timetable that went directly to Rose Castle.
Not in a hurry, Xu Huo found a snack bar and struck up a conversation with the patrons there.
He found out that Rose Castle was a two-hundred-year-old castle, whose owner had once been a very famous philanthropist but had retreated from the public eye in recent years.
Now was the time for the rose flowers to blossom. If it had been a few years earlier, the castle would be opened to the public at this time, and everyone in the city would go to admire the roses. But now, the castle owner rarely appeared due to illness, and the castle no longer entertained guests.
"Has anything strange happened at the castle?" Xu Huo asked. "Usually, these old buildings have their own legends."
"You’re quite funny to talk to, young man," the old lady laughed. "There used to be nothing, but in the past two years, there have been rumors that someone saw bones in the soil when they sneaked over the wall to pick the roses—ooh, they described it so vividly, claiming it was a human head!"
"When I was young, I went to the castle every year and never encountered anything unusual. All these young people must have been scared silly by those Evolvers and players."
The other patrons also joined in the laughter.
However, a middle-aged man in the corner sighed, "My neighbor’s niece came especially to see the rose blossoms during the summer break, only to go missing."
"Did she go missing at Rose Castle?" Xu Huo asked.
"Not exactly. Someone found her bag in the southern part of town and reported it to the police who sent it back."
"That southern part is the only way to Rose Castle. That place is chaos," the patrons clicked their tongues and warned not to linger outside after dark, as the old city had decent public safety during the day, but at night, Evolvers and players might appear.
Noticing their accustomed yet unafraid attitude towards copies and players, Xu Huo paid and left, then found a nearby internet cafe and discovered that this small city had no information about random copies.
Copies that could directly threaten the lives of ordinary people simply wouldn’t appear in this city!
Could it be because the Game Government built a base at this station?