Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 457: Insecthole Flower

"After we landed on the island, we haven't encountered any large animals. So what's making those strange roars from the legends?" Miao Yu also asked Dr. Deng.

"Maybe the animals are also avoiding the rain," Chu Yuan said. "That rain was falling like hail. Any animal with half a brain wouldn't come out to get hit."

"That's a plausible reason for now," Dr. Deng smiled. "But it's also possible that because we're in the middle of it, we just can't spot these wonders."

"Some things that look incredibly miraculous up close turn out to be just ordinary, with no real technological marvel to them."

Dr. Deng, adopting the posture of a scholar, went on to explain these naturally occurring phenomena to the group, and even pointed out which plants were more valuable or had peculiar functions.

Xu Huo wasn't interested in the others, but he was very intrigued by a small red flower. "This flower looks somewhat familiar. I think I've seen it somewhere before."

He thought carefully and said, "It was probably in an online science photo, but that flower wasn't pure red, and it would change colors from time to time."

"You're talking about the wormhole flower, right?" Chu Yuan knew this one. He leaned over and said, "The wormhole flower looks similar to this, but it's smaller. Sometimes it turns purple, and most of the time it's half red, half purple."

"Wormhole flower?" Xu Huo vividly remembered the pot he took from the Little Flower Red Red Building—the one with the purplish-red flower mixed among the same-color mutated plants. After he brought it back and planted it, he noticed the red faded a lot and the purple increased. The Painting Woman had seen it, but she didn't know what it was.

"The wormhole flower is a plant that can visually indicate the evolution level of a game partition," Dr. Deng explained. "The more red pigment in its roots, stems, flowers, and leaves, the higher the evolution level of the players in that game partition."The other two, like Xu Huo, were hearing about the wormhole flower for the first time. Gan Qing asked, puzzled, "How can a plant be linked to player evolution?"

"You can think of it this way. The first Evolvers appeared because the environment changed. A special substance appeared in the environment, causing changes in those who adapted. The better the environment, the better the evolution—just like plants grow better facing the sun than in the shade. The better a game partition's environment, the more suitable it is for player evolution."

"The wormhole flower is a type of mutated plant. Its value lies right here," Dr. Deng said.

"Would the wormhole flowers in those A-level wormhole points that entered the game very early turn completely red?" Miao Yu couldn't help but ask.

"Close to it," Dr. Deng replied.

"The wormhole flower color in an E-level wormhole point definitely wouldn't be that red, right?" Gan Qing said with a hint of worry. "Can the wormhole flower change?"

"Didn't I already say?" Dr. Deng replied. "It changes based on the environment. If the game partition evolves as a whole, of course it will become redder."

"There are also game partitions that regress, right?" Xu Huo glanced at the similar mutated plant.

Dr. Deng nodded, but he seemed reluctant to say more on this topic. He changed the subject, "If you have this kind of flower, you should cultivate one. If a game partition becomes unsuitable for survival, you can move to another partition."

"Then let's hurry and look for one," Chu Yuan immediately turned around to search.

Xu Huo walked beside Dr. Deng. "Under what circumstances would the game abandon a new game partition?"

Dr. Deng looked somewhat helpless. "I'm not too sure."

Xu Huo glanced at him. Dr. Deng shivered for no reason. Meeting Xu Huo's calm gaze, he unconsciously swallowed. "A new player gap. The players in a new partition usually consist of two types: those who evolved naturally, and those who were artificially pushed to evolve. Many game partitions take a considerable amount of time to reach the second step. The stages of questioning, investigating, and experimenting waste a lot of time. Although naturally evolved players will keep appearing, if they suffer a devastating blow at the very beginning, it becomes very difficult to reach the second step."

"Although a game partition's population isn't small, naturally evolved individuals are an extremely tiny minority. If this group dies or abandons their partition, the Game Government's calculation system will judge this partition as lacking value."

"The consequences are just that—being reasonably utilized by the Game Government, or being annexed by other partitions or forces. The former is more common."

Dr. Deng's flat, unemotional tone made the whole thing sound even more horrifying. "This isn't anything new. It's just that your levels aren't high yet. Your game partition should still be relatively young. After some time, maybe you'll also want to go check out new game partitions."

"To do what? Kill and loot?" Gan Qing said with disdain.

Dr. Deng glanced at him. "When the number and level of players in a game partition reach a certain point, that partition's train tickets will be distributed to other partitions at the same wormhole point. High-level dungeon locations are no longer sealed off. Newly born dungeons often have unexpected rewards. No player wouldn't want to get a piece of the pie."

"If a high-level dungeon is born and our partition doesn't have many high-level players, won't all the benefits be taken by players from other partitions!" Chu Yuan said.

Dr. Deng advised, "Others rob you, you go rob others. The game just cycles like this."

The group was left speechless. After a moment, Chu Yuan finally said, "Fuck! So it's endless!"

This was the truly despair-inducing part of the game.

Unfortunately, even more despairing things lay ahead. Besides the never-ending dungeons, the flawed evolution agents would eventually become a ticking time bomb for players.

"There are footprints here," Xu Huo stopped walking, looking at the trunk of a nearby tree.

"So there really are other people on the island!" Chu Yuan immediately roared into the forest, "If you've got guts, come out!"

The forest responded with nothing but bird calls and the sound of wind.

"Could it be people from the Bolun Family have arrived?" Dr. Deng instinctively moved closer to Xu Huo. Suddenly, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground. After trying to get up twice and failing, he exclaimed in shock, "There's glue on the ground!"

Xu Huo turned back and saw Dr. Deng's hands and coat covered in sticky glue. The glue connected to the ground and was covered by fallen leaves, only revealed after he rubbed against it.

Chu Yuan used a stick to poke around nearby. "There's some here too!"

"Over here as well!" Miao Yu called from another direction.

At this moment, they realized the glue had already surrounded them from under the dry leaves, they just hadn't noticed.

"It's that player who killed Wan Yunrong, right?" Gan Qing said. "The glue that sealed the elevator was probably his doing too."

"The Kong Siblings called him Tong Jian," Miao Yu added.

"Should we leave?" Chu Yuan was already prepared. "Even though going to the station is dangerous too, it's better than being surrounded by players from the Bolun Family."

"Give me a hand!" Dr. Deng hurriedly shouted.

Xu Huo went over and helped him up, saying, "It's not exactly a surround. If there were many people coming, he wouldn't have needed to set up this trap in advance."