Life Game In Other World
Chapter 611: The Ruins Open, Starry Sky (Two-in-One Super Large - for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 611: Chapter 611: The Ruins Open, Starry Sky (Two-in-One Super Large Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

"So, Ao, you’re heading to the relic site, huh? Hahaha, truly worthy to be my little Ao, even the director has such high hopes for you. Come closer and let your sister take a good look."

In the modest computer screen, Wu Lan had her face close to the camera, carefully examining He Ao.

"Alright,"

Yang De, who was closer to the camera, pulled her back. He gazed past the screen at He Ao, "The transport machine to Eren has already left. I applied for a prop to be brought over for you. The relics are not safe, take care of yourself."

"Hmm."

He Ao nodded slightly.

"Hahaha, Ao, you have to thank Minister Yang this time. The item brought this time is a transcendent item that Minister Yang risked his life for. Initially, the director promised Minister Yang that although this item belongs to the Research Institute, only Minister Yang could use it."

Wu Lan leaned forward again, saying with a grin.

"What?"

He Ao was stunned.

"Alright, stop causing trouble."

Yang De, somewhat impatiently, dragged Wu Lan back. He looked at He Ao and smiled, "It’s just a C-level transcendent item, not particularly precious. You might find it useful, just use it with ease, don’t feel too burdened."

Then he paused, "I heard from the World Tree that the information about this channel opening mentions that C-level can only bring a maximum of three transcendent items. Have you decided what to bring? Are the transcendent items you have still useful? If not, I can still try to help you get two more transcendent items with less severe side effects."

"It’s enough."

He Ao nodded. In fact, the relic channels had always restricted the transcendent items that explorers could carry. Previously, the limit for D-level and below was five items, but now at C-level, this time it was only three.

However, under normal circumstances, the transcendents who entered usually brought only one or two items, or didn’t bring any transcendent items at all.

This was because nearly all transcendent items had side effects, and with so many unknowns in the relics, if one brought unfamiliar transcendent items issued temporarily, the danger of these items often outweighed their safety.

The Research Institute had specifically calculated that explorers who took unfamiliar transcendent items into the relics had a much higher mortality rate than those who brought familiar transcendent items or none at all.

Based on the accounts of those who had taken unfamiliar transcendent items into the relics and then returned safely, the Research Institute’s current conclusion is:

Transcendent items ’activate’ upon entering the relics due to the dense transcendent force present, causing their contaminating properties to be enhanced, and the likelihood of attracting abnormal monsters to increase, which significantly ups the overall mortality rate.

Someone who has possessed an item for a long time, being familiar with its properties and having their own methods to counter the side effects, could control the transcendent item well. Such individuals usually have stronger abilities, resulting in a higher survival rate.

According to this conclusion, someone who has just started owning or shortly owned a transcendent item would find it a danger, not an aid.

Therefore, later the Research Institute inclined to let relic explorers bring technologically advanced weapons with no side effects rather than distributing transcendent items.

Indeed, even for people who are very familiar with transcendent items, the Research Institute does not recommend bringing too many into the relics, because one person cannot possibly be familiar with every transcendent item.

However, this restriction doesn’t affect He Ao much.

The transcendent items he plans to bring into the relics are the Miracle Wand, the contaminated Mechanical Core, and the Pirate Treasure Box.

The Miracle Wand was brought out from the relics; He Ao is already very familiar with it in relic conditions.

The contaminated Mechanical Core is not strictly considered a transcendent item; its main issue is the inherent contamination, which He Ao is somewhat resistant to.

As for the Pirate Treasure Box, it is a storage item. Its side effect is that if you want to take something out, you have to put a transcendent item in. If there are no transcendent items to put in, then a soul must be offered instead.

But He Ao never opened it when using the Pirate Treasure Box; he always used his ability to "Retrieve objects from the air" to bypass its rules for depositing and retrieving items.

And if he could bring the Pirate Treasure Box inside, it was undoubtedly necessary to do so, because He Ao needed to control "Hao Yi’s clone" through the Puppet Crystal Ball.

The interior space of the Pirate Treasure Box seemed to have some kind of isolating effect, which could to some extent protect the Puppet Crystal Ball from the influence of the relic’s environment.

Of course, bringing stored Transcendent items through the relic passage was a loophole-exploiting act, and He Ao didn’t know if it would work. If the Pirate Treasure Box couldn’t be brought in, he was ready to go in just carrying the Puppet Crystal Ball.

These items were also choices He Ao made after weighing possible risks; their side effects were controllable and would enhance his strength more than the troubles they would bring.

"Okay,"

Yang De nodded, then seemed to remember something, "Right, that thing has arrived. Take a look and see if you can handle the side effect. If it’s too much, no matter how good the item is, don’t push yourself."

"Mhm."

He Ao nodded in response.

"Ao, take good care of yourself. You still need to come back and stay up late online with your sister. Let me tell you, you remember you agreed to let me use your photo for publicity? You are quite famous inside the Research Institute now..."

Wu Lan looked at He Ao and blinked with a smile, "And don’t lose Minister Yang’s stuff, that’s his lifeblood... mmph..."

Yang De reached out to move her out of the frame, smiling at He Ao, "Take care of yourself, don’t be a hero. If you lose something, you lose it. Your life is most important. The director gave you this slot since he sees you have the potential to advance to B-level. The financial issues of our field operations department will be on your shoulders in the future."

"Alright!"

He Ao nodded with a smile.

Although he wanted to ask Wu Lan what ’famous’ meant, he didn’t think it was anything special after thinking it over.

After the incident with the Mysterious Shadow ended and since he had already been exposed to the World Tree and Moonlight, He Ao’s identity was no longer a secret. At that time, Wu Lan indeed asked if she could use his photo for publicity, and He Ao, without asking for details, had readily agreed.

After all, there were only a few ID photos of him, posted on the official website of the Research Institute. Once it was no longer confidential, it was not a big deal as long as internal staff could see it.

"That...," Ji Po scratched his head. He had been watching the chat the whole time but hadn’t spoken. After a brief pause, he addressed He Ao, "Good luck! When you’re back in Central Earth, it’ll be my treat, I’ll take you out for a meal!"

"Ji Po, you penny-pincher, actually splurging..." Wu Lan rushed back into the frame, roaring as she charged towards him, "We’ve been colleagues for so many years, and every time we go out to eat, I’m the one paying. Have our feelings faded, huh? Is it not enough love, huh? Ao gets treated but I don’t, is that it..."

He Ao smiled as he watched the two bicker. He turned his gaze to Yang De, "Minister Yang, there were two slots this time. Who got the other one?"

"Oh, right, I was just about to talk to you about that,"

Yang De slapped his forehead, "It’s another young talent from the Research Institute in the past few years, though not from our field operations, but from the internal staff... Zhang, Zhang Ansha, they are from internal staff.

"The lad who’s been selected this time is quite good too. But you haven’t been in the Research Institute long, and you’ve been on assignment all this time, so you probably haven’t met him. His name is Ye Yun, he’s in charge of the Nandu branch."

"Don’t listen to Minister Yang bragging,"

Wu Lan leaned in again, "Minister Yang really dislikes that kid. The internal staff has always boasted about that kid, calling him a ’young talent’, the fourth B-level of the Research Institute. They suggest our field operations department doesn’t have anybody. Every time Minister Yang comes back from a meeting with the internal staff, he’s puffing and staring."

While speaking, Wu Lan pinched her fingers as if reciting a spell, her tone mockingly exaggerated to imitate the internal staff’s way of speaking,

"Before, when Minister Yang went to meetings with the internal staff, he would walk with a sullen face, speaking with sighs and groans.

"Ever since you came along, especially after the Velora incident, where you dashed in to save people and counter-killed so many C-level from the World Tree and Moonlight, Minister Yang has been strutting out to the meetings full of vigor. He doesn’t even eat beforehand, and when he comes back, he delights in describing to us the frustrated faces of the internal staff during the meeting."

"So you’re the one with a rich vocabulary, huh."

Yang De finally picked up Wu Lan and tossed her out of the camera frame.

"Um..." Yang De turned back and looked at He Ao with some embarrassment, and finally, he said softly, "Be careful."

"Yes!"

He Ao nodded.

The meeting ended.

He Ao raised his head, looking out the window at the sunset falling at the edge of the city.

Night had fallen.

——

Meanwhile, in a coffee shop in a corner of Eren.

He Ao’s Hao Yi clone logged into the database jointly established by the three organizations that Li Cheng had given him.

At that moment, the database only had a rough framework. Most of the content was still uploading, and only some very old materials could be accessed.

Many of the materials inside were even less comprehensive than what He Ao could directly access with his own Undersecretary privileges on the Research Institute’s intranet.

Of course, not all organizations were fools, one cannot take everything He Ao said at face value. What they offered now were essentially empty promises.

They would certainly only start to fulfill their promises after the artifact site was opened.

He Ao logged out of this website and accessed the Research Institute’s official site with the account Li Cheng had given him.

The Research Institute was indeed sincere, all materials were open, but they could not be copied or k-copied, nor could one browse too quickly.

The data from the Research Institute was updated very quickly, likely managed by a dedicated research team.

Compared to the other two organizations, Moonlight and World Tree, the Research Institute spent the most on research each year, even several times more.

And, indeed, these funds justified the Research Institute’s name.

The initial purpose of this organization was to study Transcendent events and strange phenomena. However, in the process of research, it continued to expand and became a comprehensive organization.

Even so, the Research Institute still maintained some of the styles from its early days, such as heavy investment in research and the simplicity of the relationships among senior executives.

Even in the face of external impacts, and the most grievous risks and entanglements of interests among the field operations department, the senior ministers maintained relatively simple interpersonal relationships.

Rather than colleagues, it would be more apt to call them friends.

Of course, He Ao himself preferred to be in such relationships compared to the cutthroat internal power struggles.

He casually clicked on a few of the latest updated documents.

And started to read them quickly.

Most of these documents pertained to the study of the current artifact site portal, from the region of its opening, to the timing, to the process, covering the range.

Yeah, most of them were useless materials, with no actual conclusions, just obviously riding on the hype, grabbing any hot topic to swindle funding.

However, He Ao did notice an issue that was mentioned in many papers.

The artifact site portal was opening much faster than before.

According to the Research Institute’s previous experience, from the appearance of signs of an artifact site to portal opening, most required half a month’s time, with the shortest being no less than thirteen days.

Even in the event of major changes, it only fluctuated by an additional day or two beyond the fifteen-day basis.

And the situations with raised maximum level restrictions for entry typically corresponded to longer opening times. According to records from the Research Institute, those took about seventeen days to open after signs emerged.

But this time, it opened in less than ten days.

All the papers acknowledged the anomaly, but no one could reach a precise conclusion.

He Ao turned to look at the night outside the window that had now turned completely dark.

This could already involve the core factors that affect artifact site portal openings.

Something was influencing the timing of the artifact site openings.

——

Deep within Rodan National Park.

A figure shrouded in the darkness of night bypassed the gendarmerie’s station, stepping through all blind spots of the soldiers and flickered into the center of the large crater.

He walked up to a charred corpse and looked down at the writing left by the body.

This unfinished writing had already been circled and protected by the gendarmerie.

It was a word written in Rodan’s local language, with a simple meaning—

[Rodan]

What did it mean? Was this incident related to the locals of Rodan?

Seeing this word, the figure was somewhat perplexed.

"Who’s there?"

A beam of flashlight shone over.

That was one of the patrolling gendarmes, his gaze swept over the area where the charred body lay following the beam of his flashlight.

There was nothing there, completely empty.

——

10:00 PM sharp.

The full moon hung over the ancient city’s zenith.

He Ao himself was standing atop a high-rise, glancing once more at the city beneath the night sky.

The roaring winds brought about by the helicopter’s propellers brushed against his face and hair.

A huge helicopter was gently descending to where He Ao was standing.

This building was one of the few in Eren City with a large helipad atop it.

He Ao watched as the helicopter came to a halt in front of him.

As the pitch-black transport helicopter steadied, a man in a grey shirt and work pants was the first to jump down. He immediately spotted He Ao standing unmoved under the wings, which were still slowing down from spin.

"You’re He Ao, right?"

He approached excitedly, extending a hand, "Ye Yun."

"Hello."

He Ao shook his hand briefly.

Ye Yun was about the same height as He Ao, appeared to be in his mid-twenties, with a broader face and a slicked-back haircut, exuding an aura that hovered between maturity and youthful greenness, with a hint of sharpness barely discernible.

Behind him, several Transcendents who seemed to have won their spots were disembarking from the helicopter; a few Research Institute staff members were organizing them, while others were moving cargo from the helicopter.

At that moment, Ye Yun looked around cautiously, making sure no one was watching this direction before lowering his head, leaning in, and whispering to He Ao, "Could you give me an autograph?"

He Ao: ?

"It’s like this, my sister is your fan."

Ye Yun looked around again before adding, "She wants an autograph of yours."

He Ao: ?

"Why my, signature?"

He Ao pointed at himself, a bit bewildered.

"Don’t you know?" Ye Yun looked more clueless than He Ao, "You’re now famous at the Research Institute. In our department alone, many girls use your photo as their desktop wallpaper."

"What desktop wallpaper photo?"

He Ao was even more baffled.

"This one."

Ye Yun took a paper photograph from his pocket and handed it to He Ao.

The photo showed a bloodied young man standing under a clear sky, mountains draped over his shoulders. Half of his cheek was stained with blood, the howling wind blowing his hair, sketching the firm contour of his resolve.

He stood there, looking back at what lay behind him, where it seemed thousands of troops and nature’s fury were unfolding, yet he stood unflinchingly, like a young warrior who had battled to the last, gazing upon the final battlefield.

The entire composition emanated a sense of a heroic youth, an air of noble sacrifice and vigor.

He Ao: ?

He Ao recognized the scene as the valley where he acquired the Velora, and when he looked back, it was to see the effects of his first use of Mountain Collapse Tsunami.

But at that moment, he was holding Luo Luo and stood beside Yang De, none of whom made it into the picture.

Furthermore, if the camera had angled slightly lower, it would have captured his ragged clothes from the battle.

...

So this is the art of photography.

"Look, this photo was featured in the promotional soft article by the Operations Department."

Ye Yun flipped open his phone and handed it to He Ao, "It’s been in the top ten of the hot list for two days in a row now."

He Ao saw the post Ye Yun opened, which also included a soft article detailing the achievements of the Velora, posted by Dusk Delayed.

Dusk Delayed was Lin Chichi’s ID; that girl had a knack for publicity writing.

"Don’t you usually browse forums?"

Ye Yun was somewhat puzzled.

He Ao shook his head.

These past few days, whenever he had free time, he was either practising Qi, dealing with the aftermath of the Mysterious Shadow, or playing in the Copy World; he had barely any time to browse forums.

Besides, he was not someone who enjoyed surfing forums.

"Was this photo taken by Wu Lan?"

He Ao looked at Ye Yun.

He finally understood what Wu Lan meant by ’famous’.

"Yes, yes,"

Ye Yun nodded, as he took a pen out of his pocket with a slightly embarrassed smile, "He Ao, could you do me a favor? My sister found out I was coming and waited at my door for a whole day. I couldn’t say no to her; she really likes you a lot, and just wants an autograph. Just sign on this photo."

It seemed he truly felt awkward.

According to the information He Ao received, Ye Yun was a man of decisive action.

"Okay."

He Ao took the pen, turned the photo over, quickly signed his name on the back, and handed it back to Ye Yun.

"Wow, that’s beautiful," Ye Yun looked at the signature on the photo, "Did you have someone design this for you?"

"No, I designed it myself."

He Ao spoke slowly.

With the artistic memory he inherited from Vian, designing a signature was an easy task.

"Impressive."

Ye Yun gave He Ao a thumbs-up.

"Minister He, this is something Minister Yang asked us to bring to you."

At this point, a cargo handler with a briefcase came forward.

Ye Yun hurriedly stuffed the photo and pen back into his clothes.

"Okay, thank you."

He Ao took the briefcase and slowly opened it, revealing the items inside.

It was an old-looking can with a pull-tab, its lid slightly open, resembling a can of food.

He Ao reached out and took the can, the packaging on its body seemed to have fallen off a long time ago, revealing the silver body of the can.

At that moment, He Ao was feeling the information being transmitted into his brain by the can.

The can’s name was simple, it was called "Nutritional Canned Food."

Every twelve hours, the can would produce a chunk of nutrient meat.

In one can, at most three chunks of nutrient meat would be retained. Eating one would heal at least half of the injuries, but it would also cause a great sense of hunger, necessitating a large intake of food. If one couldn’t eat enough, there would be an intense craving for flesh, and the previously healed injuries would gradually reappear.

Consuming two chunks at once would immediately heal at least eighty percent of the injuries. If one did not satisfy the urge to eat within two hours, they would instantly enter a state of near-death.

The information did not specify what would happen if three chunks were consumed; perhaps there would be no effect, or perhaps the effect would be even more terrifying.

However, this can was only effective for C-level individuals. For B-level, the effects would greatly diminish.

"What’s this can?"

Ye Yun looked over with some confusion.

"Something Minister Yang brought for me,"

He Ao smiled and put the can into his bag.

Ye Yun didn’t know, it must be because the can was highly confidential.

As He Ao spoke these words, Ye Yun understood and didn’t continue to inquire.

He Ao patted the can in his pocket. This was his first encounter with a medical Transcendent item, which itself was extremely rare. He hadn’t expected Minister Yang to insist on giving it to him to use despite potential opposition.

After all, it was possible for such an item to be lost upon entering a relic.

——

Onboard the Velora

He Ao leaned against the cabin door, watching as the words on the monitor slowly changed to

[Startup Complete]

"8753, have you previously made my human predecessor retrieve the Spacetime Beacon from the relic?"

He gently asked.

The first time he encountered "Boss’s" henchmen at the tower, "Boss" was attempting to take the "Spacetime Beacon" from within it.

Later, this Spacetime Beacon fell into He Ao’s hands, though it was damaged.

"······ Checking Information ······ Data Error ······ Unable to Answer," the mechanical voice of 8753 reverberated in the cramped space, "Human Excellency, 8753 can only provide information, not suggestions."

"All right,"

He Ao watched the monitor, pondering for a moment, "I need the methods to repair and use the Spacetime Beacon."

"To repair the Spacetime Beacon, you need a basic equipment detection device······a Space Positioning Corrector······"

——

23:55

Locklen Street

A huge old-fashioned train emerged from the void, He Ao’s clone jumped out of the train and landed on a balcony not far from the street below.

This was the place where the relic pathway was making its advent.

At this moment, He Ao could clearly feel a stream of detailed information flowing into his mind.

As he had predicted, the space-time anchor of the relic pathway itself would not be brought into the relic, even if it was integrated into a living person.

Now, as long as He Ao stayed within this range, the relic would open normally.

At this time, the selected Explorers were all standing on the street.

Most showed clear signs of nervousness, with only the three people at the front maintaining stability.

These were the three C-level individuals who had earned the spots to enter the relic.

He Ao himself, Ye Yun, and the World Tree’s Ivier.

Moonlight had given up the C-level spot in exchange for more lower-level spots.

As He Ao’s clone observed these people, the people below were also looking up at him.

Clearly, most were intrigued by this suddenly appeared "Hao Yi".

He Ao also exchanged a look with his original self.

As the seconds ticked by.

The chime of midnight struck on time.

A massive and profound force descended upon the street in an instant.

——

Creak——

The sound of electrical arcs flowing reached He Ao’s ears.

He Ao in his original body slowly opened his eyes and looked ahead.

An old, historically tinged, huge sign appeared in his field of vision.

The sign was written in many languages, though it was extremely damaged, He Ao still recognized the line in the middle, belonging to the Second Federal District, the texts from the current Copy World,

[Welcome to Navigator]

Behind this sign was the dark expanse of the cosmos.

Beside He Ao, one by one, people with dazed expressions also slowly opened their eyes.