I Am Also An Extraordinary Creature
Chapter 1078 - 788: Sell Some Information

Chapter 1078: Chapter 788: Sell Some Information

"No wonder there are so many people here." Zheng Yichen looked at the Dusk Cathedral seats filled to capacity. He couldn’t find a place to set foot. Dusk mercenaries? Maybe they’re hiding somewhere, or perhaps they’ve just left, thinking there’s no hope anymore.

After all, once Proxy Agents are involved, their mission rewards are drastically reduced—getting even a bit of merit points is already quite difficult.

Even if the Proxy Agents later show up, work extra hard, and solve the matter collaboratively, it’s still tough to earn extra merit points.

Dusk’s intentions were clear: with Proxy Agents involved, you mercenaries can leave the stage now.

For Dusk mercenaries, there’s no point risking failure alongside Proxy Agents. Before the Proxy Agents arrive, they still have some time to collect items from the local area—that’s sufficient.

The time wasted here could be better spent in another world.

If they get lucky and encounter a world where the Dusk Faction holds a clear advantage, even if they miss the hottest moments, a little hard work can still earn them merit points. That’s certainly better than sitting around here waiting for complete failure.

No sign of Dusk mercenaries here—but plenty of ordinary people. These ordinary folks wore skin-tight clothing, though not the kind that makes men and women feel awkward.

This clothing was snug-fitting, with visible indicator lights and ports scattered on it.

Of course, some people were dressed in casual attire. Because of this, Zheng Yichen and Tanshia Firlo didn’t appear out of place here.

The primary topics of conversation among people here revolved around the Virtual World—who triggered a special storyline somewhere, who successfully got into a Magic Academy, or whose child joined a powerful Immortality Cultivation Sect.

Then there were people casually discussing other stuff, like how someone caught a twenty-pound golden fish in a Virtual World river but ended up getting lost afterward.

Disaster-related topics were seldom discussed. Over fifty years have passed since the disaster, and for most of the young people in Dusk Cathedral, their first interaction was with the Virtual World.

While disaster-related events can be learned in the Virtual World’s schools, the firsthand emotional impact of such tragedies is weak.

Real-world topics ranged from the launch of new rockets to astronauts sending back news firsthand.

There was talk of how difficult it was for the space domain to recover to its current level—the disaster had caused significant losses of technological personnel. Even with foundational technologies preserved, this field suffered terribly.

"It’s not easy," Zheng Yichen remarked as he noticed someone vacate a seat. Seeing no elderly grandparents nearby, he immediately took it. Since there was just one seat, Tanshia Firlo promptly sat on Zheng Yichen’s lap.

The two began browsing online shopping orders. The city’s tech-driven development had made online shopping incredibly advanced, with delivery now handled entirely by urban transport frameworks rather than personnel.

In each city, there’s hardly any place left untouched by technology. In the Pure Land environment, every square inch is precious—there’s no such thing as abandoned areas.

Abandoned? That must mean local government negligence—strict investigations would be conducted!

"An A3-Class gaming pod comes with residential requirements, huh." Since he was here, Zheng Yichen naturally started looking at the best gaming pods. In this world, gaming pods were categorized by level.

The least advanced ones were C1-Class, while the most sophisticated were A3-Class gaming pods. Regarding S-Class pods, those were exclusively for high-end personnel.

Performance-wise, the gap between A3-Class and S-Class pods wasn’t huge. Still, even this little difference mattered greatly to high-end researchers, whose simulation experiment results depended on it.

Moreover, S-Class pods allowed greater memory and computing power allocation in the Virtual World.

This was something A3-Class gaming pods couldn’t compete with. All gaming pods below S-Class are designed for "players." No matter how ambitious players get, they don’t utilize memory and computing power like real researchers do.

Even researchers typically found B2-Class to A3-Class gaming pods sufficient. Within a research institute, very few researchers had access to S-Class pods.

Essentially, S-Class gaming pods were equivalent to a type of research privilege.

If you’re not conducting research or pushing boundaries but just hoping to experience the Virtual World and learn reality-linked knowledge, a C1-Class gaming pod is more than enough. Pods like C2 and C3 simply offer greater comfort.

But for research, the minimum gaming pod requirement starts at B1, though those with the means tend to choose B2-Class.

C and B-series gaming pods don’t have high residential requirements. As long as you own a 20-square-meter home, that’s sufficient—you don’t even need a bed with these pods!

A-Class gaming pods, meanwhile, require a 40-square-meter "luxury home."

Anyone who owns such a large house already has the means to get an A-Class gaming pod. However...

"Mador, disasters lower housing prices in other worlds, but here they skyrocket like rockets?"

Zheng Yichen knew these outcomes were shaped by different circumstances. Housing prices were regulated by local authorities, with a strict allocation system in place. Generally speaking, houses under 20 square meters were reasonably priced.

However, prices for houses above that size saw rocket-like increases.

Plus, there were stringent restrictions on buyer qualifications—you couldn’t just buy two 20-square-meter houses to bypass the system. Doing that would cost far more than buying a single 40-square-meter home directly.

"So we can’t use A-Class gaming pods?"

"Of course we can." Although he didn’t own any property in this world, his internal space had a built-in usage area of 55x55x55.

However, that couldn’t be revealed. He still needed to find a suitable living space.

No point thinking about public rental housing—it didn’t have a single unit over 10 square meters. Still, public rental zones included public restrooms, communal kitchens, and shared laundry facilities. The amenities were complete.

"Let’s take a stroll first." Carrying Tanshia Firlo, Zheng Yichen left the Dusk Cathedral.

Time was on his side for now—this time he had over two months to work with, which seemed pretty ample.

Besides, the map related to his task was in the Virtual World. Without a gaming pod, he wouldn’t be able to complete the task properly.

Since gaming pods were a necessity, using low-tier ones wasn’t an option.

Zheng Yichen already had a plan for obtaining an A3-Class gaming pod. S-Class pods were out of the question—his plans definitely wouldn’t work to achieve that.

Based on the information available, those high-tier pods came with extra permissions and were accessible exclusively to big names in the research field. Unless he somehow managed to impersonate an elite researcher, there was no shot.

Even if he did impersonate one, he’d need a whole series of certifications, correspondence, and contributions to secure an S-Class pod. Time wasn’t on his side for that; he’d better focus on what was attainable first.

Only in extreme circumstances would he consider stealing one. With Lilith’s capabilities, single-use permissions for S-Class pods could even be hacked.

If they could acquire the design schematics, they could build a DIY version themselves.

"You’re not planning to send me to some lab, are you?"

"What’s going through your head? I’m thinking of selling some space exploration data." Zheng Yichen rubbed Tanshia Firlo’s head as they walked down this world’s streets. Zheng Yichen felt a distinct sense of congestion here.

No matter how empty the streets seemed or how spacious the roads were, the transport devices mounted on the urban infrastructure made the place feel stifling.

The oppressive feeling didn’t stem solely from urban constructs but also from the unique "restricted mobility law" almost impossible in a normal world.

After leaving the Dusk Cathedral, a countdown appeared in Zheng Yichen’s Illusory Eye display: four hours—the daily allowed mobility time for an ordinary citizen.

Of course, within public rental zones, mobility allowances were extended by an extra two hours. This extra time was explicitly for residents to handle chores like laundry, cooking, and restroom use.

As for the Dusk Cathedral, there seemed to be no mobility restrictions there. Well, it was likely thanks to people experiencing the "power" of the Dusk Cathedral.

If he couldn’t find a suitable place within four hours, he’d be sent back to the public rental zone. Having no money wasn’t an issue; the zone would provide appropriate labor work.

But that labor work wouldn’t extend his allotted mobility time; instead, it would occupy it.

"Space exploration data?" The small white dragon wasn’t familiar with this topic. In her view, traveling to space involved simply grabbing a protective sphere and flying—how hard could it really be?

"That’s something I have in abundance." Zheng Yichen grinned. The team researching the Cosmic Spaceship in the world of the World Tree worked day and night.

A copy of every research material they produced was sent to him. Zheng Yichen himself couldn’t understand most of it, but Lilith certainly could.

With Lilith tailoring research materials to fit this world’s space exploration level, creating relevant reports was more than feasible.

All Zheng Yichen had to do was familiarize himself with this world’s storage devices, then locate a local research base.

No need for a personal appearance—simulated fake identities would suffice for transactions, with Lilith handling hacking-related matters.

Four hours... That was plenty of time!

An hour later, Zheng Yichen returned to the Dusk Cathedral. The local aerospace research base held an emergency meeting in the Virtual World’s chatroom.

The matter concerned critical space exploration research data and warranted urgency. This world had been rebuilding for fifty-plus years, but aerospace development had only resumed less than twenty years ago.

Prior to this period, humanity’s focus was on rebuilding survival environments—it was the foundation of everything. Without a stable living environment, everything else was pointless.

Aerospace development? Without a robust survival environment, pursuing this seemed ludicrous—it evoked memories of wartime catastrophes involving targeted strikes on such facilities. If they couldn’t progress together, then all would perish together...

Pursuing aerospace with unstable living environments was a recipe for disaster, sparking recollections of war-era calamities. Additionally, early post-disaster recovery saw considerable resistance to this field’s research.

It wasn’t until about twenty years ago that a pivotal shift occurred.