Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 701: New Zones and Game Integration

Chapter 701: Chapter 701: New Zones and Game Integration

The Girl in the Painting ran upstairs, holding the communicator Mr. Dong had temporarily given her, and, pointing at the projected sets of matching outfits, indicated she wanted them all.

Xu Huo was truly generous this time, nodding directly to let her buy.

The Girl in the Painting silently cheered, her fingers moving quickly, and also brought up some jewelry and shoes she’d seen.

Xu Huo checked the prices and nodded again.

Influenced by him, the Girl in the Painting had learned to be frugal, so once she had nearly enough, she stopped picking and opened the food channel, choosing quite a bit of food in one go.

Compared to the expense of clothes and jewelry, the food wasn’t much, and Xu Huo said nothing to spoil her mood, allowing her to make her selections.

The high-end restaurants in Zone 011 not only delivered, but they’d also send chefs along to cook and eat on the spot, so before long, in addition to the delivered food, four chefs arrived at Rose Castle, bringing fresh ingredients to perform.

Sitting at the newly replaced dining table, Xu Huo wasn’t interested in the performance, but the Girl in the Painting applauded enthusiastically, and Mr. Dong, ever understanding, suggested, "You could hire chefs to work at Rose Castle, with a salary generally one and a half times that of the restaurant."

Having just received his title, and according to the general configuration for nobles, Rose Castle still needed a certain number of servants, including those to help in the kitchen and to manage the gardens.

Most of these tasks were being done by Mr. Dong.

"We don’t need too many people," Xu Huo wasn’t opposed.

The Girl in the Painting was more proactive than Mr. Dong, deciding then and there to keep all four chefs, with the specific details to be discussed by Mr. Dong.

After a night’s rest, the next morning Xu Huo contacted several trading venues to express his intent to purchase a batch of Tickets and props, and after concluding the deals, prepared to visit each one.

Unexpectedly, at the very first one he visited, he ran into two acquaintances.

One was the recently widowed Duchess, and the other was the Cultist gamer, Selin, whom he had met on the hunting ship.

The latter was still in a black robe, but his posture with the Duchess was ambiguous, attracting quite a few onlookers’ attention.

However, neither of them seemed to care about the opinions of others, with the Duchess showing no signs of mourning her deceased husband, while Selin not only comforted her but also occasionally struck up conversations with the noblewomen speaking to the Duchess, both parties quite enjoying themselves.

Because of the "Lady’s Folding Fan," the Duchess had a favorable impression of Xu Huo and took the initiative to introduce him to Selin.

Xu Huo and Selin both stated it was their first time meeting each other, and while going to select wine and desserts for the Duchess, Selin spoke first, "More than once, the Duchess has mentioned the heir to Rose Castle. I never thought it would be Mr. Xu."

"I also didn’t expect you to return to Zone 011. Is the Cultist’s business scope so broad?" Xu Huo looked meaningfully at the Duchess.

Selin replied with an appropriate smile, "As a Cultist, how could I refuse a believer’s plea for help? I am merely responding to the Duchess’s innermost desires."

Xu Huo glanced at him, "That explanation is quite refreshing and elegant."

Selin’s smile deepened, "I knew Mr. Xu would be a kindred spirit."

Xu Huo remained noncommittal, waiting until the manager brought the selection then returned to his seat.

With a deposit laid down, this time he was able to see the catalog of Rank-B props, and there were some good ones, but not what he was looking for.

Instead, the Duchess next to him picked out two for Selin, and told Xu Huo that if he liked anything, he could put it on her tab.

Xu Huo wasn’t short on money now, so he bought two sets of prop dresses for Little Pink Hat—that had been agreed upon before.

"Did you also go on the ship this time?" the Duchess said, "Or did you go with Ran Ying?"

"Black Epaulette is getting more and more outrageous," she said with a look of disgust, "actually using nobles for their amusement."

All three present understood the subtext, deciding not to mention the official news statement as Selin brought up the pending expansion of Black Epaulette.

With White Epaulette being suppressed and Black Epaulette taking the lead, it was normal to recruit more people. However, the scale of this expansion was a bit large, with elite players from other government departments also being transferred in, looking like they were planning something big.

"A new gaming zone is about to be merged into the Game System," the Duchess revealed the inside information, "At that time, a large number of instances will be born."

To merge a new zone into the game, there are two steps, starting with the zone entering the Game System, which will continuously spawn players. At that time, the new zone is in a semi-isolated state from the game. Players from the host zone can travel between instances and the new zone using Tickets and Return Tickets, but players from other zones can’t enter the real world of the new zone through its instances.

Of course, this separation isn’t absolute. Players can buy Spatial Artifacts to enter the borderlands of the new zone from an instance. However, those Spatial Artifacts are expensive and come with significant restrictions and are essentially single-use, so players generally won’t enter a profitless new zone in this manner.

The incident with the Super Prop in Zone 014 is an exception.

As for how the major forces of other zones divide up a new game zone, that’s another story.

Once the number and level of players reach a certain threshold, the new zone will be fully integrated into the game. At this stage, in addition to the previously mentioned instances, a large batch of instances will be born, and instances Level D or higher will no longer be separated from the new zone. Instead, like Zone 011 and Rose Castle, players can travel freely in the absence of active instances.

However, how many instances are spawned by a new zone and the levels of those instances depend on specific circumstances, as instances will show some variance in numbers. So, it’s difficult to tally such data.

If a zone has a Super Instance, then that zone won’t have random instances, just like Zone 011. Apart from fixed instances that require Tickets, there’s no worry about accidentally stepping into a random instance when walking out the door.

The props in the game are not all crafted by Artifact Makers; some props are naturally formed without owners—whomever comes across them, gets them. These tend to appear at the onset of an instance’s opening, so entering an instance early might yield some prime props, but as time goes on, the chances of snagging a bargain lessen.

If one could know in advance about a game zone’s integration and prepare the necessary Tickets, it would be like picking up a bargain for free.

"Right when an instance first appears, there might be high-level props just waiting to be found. That sure beats achieving rewards through clearing instances," said Selin, "I’m feeling quite envious."

The Duchess glanced back and forth between the two, "You are both players; you could give it a try. It’s probably impossible to buy Tickets now in Zone 011, but I have a few here you can use."

"Which gaming zone is it?" asked Xu Huo.

"Zone 009."

Zones are generally named in numerical order, but since 011 merged the original zones 07 to 13, only keeping the name of 011, the numbers 07, 08, 09, 10, 12, and 13 were re-released for later zones to occupy, resulting in zones that have earlier numbers but came later in strength.

Ultimately, the strength and degree of integration of a zone depend on the evolutionary level of the zone itself, not necessarily on whether it appeared earlier or integrated faster into the game.