Chapter 183: Totodile + Archeopteryx = ?
Unsealing the Soul Equipment did indeed use the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs arcade board and the MapleStory 3 cartridge, but they only took a trip inside the Dragon Soul's belly. After completing the unsealing mission, they were spit back out by the Dragon Soul.
Not only were they completely intact, but they also came with an unadvertised bonus: the arcade cabinet and the Famicom console, which shouldn't have existed, were spit out along with them. This genuinely made Cheng Mouren's eyes light up. He had spent three weeks in the arcade, more than once envying the rich boss's financial power.
He did have a Famicom in his collection, but it wasn't the original version, and he rarely took it out to play. When he wanted to play, he mostly used an emulator or an online battle platform.
As for an original Cadillacs and Dinosaurs arcade cabinet, not only did he not have the connections to get one, but even if he did, there was basically no space for it at home!
He wasn't the type to rent a garage and set up a small arcade. There was simply no room for such a large, space-consuming machine.
It was precisely because of these real-world limitations that Cheng Tian resisted the urge to pull it directly from his inventory. Then he noticed that these two items spit out by the Dragon Soul were currently in a state of "real-world items temporarily packaged as props by the Space."
Once taken out, they couldn't be put back.
Cheng Mouren, wearing his boxer briefs and dragon scale chest armor, wiped a non-existent bead of sweat from his forehead. He was somewhat glad he hadn't acted impulsively. Otherwise, transporting that arcade machine home would have made the shipping cost a minor issue; he would have truly been heartbroken if it got scratched or bumped.
After all, just looking at its condition, the arcade machine returned to Cheng Tian was even much better than the one in that rich guy's shop. And it was highly unlikely to suffer from common arcade problems like a malfunctioning joystick's "forward-forward" input or unresponsive attack buttons.
After a moment of consideration, Cheng Tian decided not to bring the machine home. Instead, he planned to take it directly into the Space and place it in his personal space, which would make his time in the Space more colorful.
But just as Cheng Tian was logging into the Space, a series of prompts popped up.
"Your items held in the real world have been forcibly unequipped."
"It is detected that the two composite attribute items you possess have spatiotemporal limitations and cannot be brought into Heaven's Chosen Space. You can choose to preserve their original form and retrieve them upon logging out of the Space, or have the Space directly deposit them into your private property in the real world."
Cheng Tian, who had successfully teleported into his private space, was right in the middle of the crossfire between the War Elephant Mammoth and the Archeopteryx, who had been attacking each other with water guns and thrown fish for three weeks straight and still hadn't stopped.
But even as fresh water and fishy smells assailed him simultaneously, Cheng Tian maintained the posture of a thinker.
His gaze constantly sweeping over the "spatiotemporal limitation" on the Space's prompt, Cheng Tian suddenly realized something.
Normally, when Heaven's Chosen Players traveled between the Space and reality, the items they carried were not interchangeable.
Space equipment and items couldn't be taken into reality, and most things from reality couldn't be brought into the Space.
The novice trial was the only exception; pure novices, starting with nothing, could use the items they brought when they were first captured to increase their chances of survival. But after the novice trial was completed, this privilege was gone.
Of course, some people would use a little ingenuity, for example, by modifying their clothes and shoes in reality to carry small knives, lighters, bulletproof plates, and such. These small items could be brought in, but large cold weapons, firearms, chemical agents, and so on could not.
Correspondingly, only items produced in the Space that had the "Soul Equipment" tag could be brought into reality. This was a new rule that Cheng Tian had only recently learned.
But even though the console and arcade machine spit out by the Dragon Soul were already in his inventory, they were still not allowed into the Space, and he was given a "spatiotemporal limitation" explanation. This couldn't help but make Cheng Tian suddenly recall something that had always been overlooked in his mind.
That was why other players could only obtain detailed game blueprint information by purchasing other people's data, instead of searching for it in the real world beforehand.
Cheng Tian himself was a hardcore gamer, that was true, but looking at the whole world, there were many players of his caliber.
And even people who never played games, knowing that the dungeons they encountered in the Space were based on games, and understanding that this was a matter of life and death, should force themselves to start engaging with the world of video games.
The internet was so developed; a quick search would bring up all sorts of strategy videos on various websites. Although the number of games was vast, and the time and effort required to start from scratch were daunting, there was even a possibility of studying data for an entire month only for the monthly trial to still be an unknown blueprint... but at least when tackling bounty dungeons, they could have a head start and not be completely clueless.
Previously, Cheng Tian simply thought that these people hadn't diligently searched for strategies, or perhaps they were simply looking in the wrong direction for information. After all, video games had developed for decades, with countless works emerging, and it was perfectly normal for outsiders to go astray.
But now, it seemed the underlying reasons were not what he had thought. His intuition told him that this "spatiotemporal limitation" prompt might be the answer.
And just at this moment, Eileen arrived, and she came with a "surprise."
Just one day prior, her Archeopteryx egg had finally hatched.
Despite having the exact same origin, being a clone egg that Cheng Tian had obtained using his Kulu-Ya-Ku skill, and Eileen herself having ridden her motorcycle around her space many times, her Archeopteryx egg still hatched so much later than Cheng Tian's. This showed how significant the Sun God Gem Shard's acceleration bonus for hatching was.
Since Eileen had failed in the last true main quest dungeon, her total Space retention time for last month and this month combined was only 7 days. So, the cumulative time she actually spent participating in the hatching was only 6 days. She even gave up on invitations to bounty missions from her familiar player team just to hatch the egg.
Cheng Tian's previous behavior of frantically playing arcade machines in the arcade and rarely returning to the Space made Eileen think that Cheng Tian might have been entangled in real-world affairs. So, she came with her Archeopteryx, intending to show off in front of Cheng Tian.
However, as soon as she entered the dungeon, she was teleported next to Cheng Tian, and she immediately noticed the adult Archeopteryx circling above Cheng Tian's head, feeling a bit guilty for throwing fish torpedoes.
Looking at that fierce and powerful big guy, and then at the very cute and miniature little one in her arms, which had merged with the Totodile gene, Eileen opened her mouth, speechless for a moment.