Chapter 288: Time Difference
Realization quickly dawned upon Xu Feng once the difference in time was brought up.
If he spent an hour or so in the Arcane Trial, but in reality, it had only been less than 10 minutes since he was gone from Carmen's perspective.
Then there was a high possibility that the Arcane Vein itself was also operating in a different time than the outside world.
Everything would have been fine if the time functioned the same as Arcane Vein toward the Arcane Trial.
However, what if it wasn't and the time in Arcane Vein was actually sped up in contrast to the outside world.
'I can't be contacted in this separate dimension either.' He worryingly thought. Find more to read at empire
Being cut off contact meant that not even his employee, Tracy, could warn him in time.
"We need to leave now, Carmen." Xu Feng said solemnly.
"Huh? But what about the Arcane Vein and the ores here?" Carmen held a look of astonishment on her face. "Are we just going to return empty-handed after all the efforts?"
She was clearly bewildered and baffled by his decision to call for a retreat all of a sudden.
After all, her guild leader was a profit-orientated guy who refused to let go of any golden opportunity. He was a through-and-through cunning, manipulative, money-grubber type of person.
Meanwhile, Xu Feng sighed softly and proceeded to explain the situation to her, allowing her to understand the severity.
Shortly after, Carmen nodded in understanding.
"I see how it is! Guild Leader obtained something called an Authority so we can always return here." She clasped her hands in joy, seemingly amazed by his actions.
Although she didn't know how Xu Feng spent an hour or so during the trial, she only knew that she had waited for less than 10 minutes.
And that was enough for her to understand. As for the other complicated stuff, she had no interest in trying to fry her brain.
What was the point of needing to know them when the result had been achieved already?
With that said, Xu Feng granted access to Carmen before opening up the Authority interface.
He glanced at himself and Carmen's name in the list, having highlighted them two. Afterward, he chose to teleport them out of the Arcane Vein.
Naturally, if Xu Feng failed to succeed in the trial, the two would be promptly removed automatically by the system out of the Arcane Trial.
By then, they would need to redo the entire process to return to the Arcane Vein.
As the two were teleported outside of the Arcane Vein, they found themselves back at the empty cave.
Meanwhile, Xu Feng wasted no time to open up his contact, as well as the current time.
To his surprise, a day had already gone by, and Tracy had sent him numerous emergency warnings.
'As expected, the time difference is really bad.' Xu Feng sighed exhaustedly.
Thankfully, Carmen had given him a quick reminder, otherwise, he couldn't imagine the consequences of missing the competition.
It wasn't going to be the end of the world if he missed the competition, but it would surely put a halt to his plan temporarily.
"It's already so late," Carmen knitted her brows, still ignorant that the time was no longer on the same day.
"Um, Carmen, a day has already gone by." Xu Feng took a deep breath and broke the news to her. He decided it was better to inform her now than to have her figure it out later.
Sure enough, Carmen gasped in shock. A look of horror could be seen in her expression.
"W-W-What do you mean by that, Guild Leader?" She asked nervously, her complexion turning paler by the second.
Xu Feng calmly adjusted his glasses and said in a clear voice, "I meant that we have spent a day inside the Arcane Vein."
"But that's just in the Divine World, right? I heard that the time operated differently when one game in the Divine World compared to the outside world." Carmen smiled awkwardly, clearly trying to come up with a logical reason.
"I mean like 1 day in the real world is actually 2 days in the Divine World. Hence, many elderly were also joining the game to experience more time." She continued, hoping that Xu Feng was miscalculating, just like earlier when he thought he was gone for an hour or so, but was actually less than 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, reality and truth are always very harsh to people.
"You can try to log out now to confirm my words. It's fairly safe to log out now that we're back in the empty cave." Xu Feng informed her, and that the last statement needed to end her fantasy.
Having received such a shock, she plopped to the ground with a lifeless expression.
"It's over… I missed the appointment date for my work that required all remote employees to show up." She began muttering to herself. By not showing up, she was indirectly declaring to the company that she resigned, given that the warning was quite stern and severe this time.
Even if she decided to show up later, she doubted it would salvage anything.
After all, an important individual was supposed to show up on that particular day, with a huge announcement that determined their company's future in the next 5-10 years.
Seeing Carmen in such a state, Xu Feng realized she must have missed some important arrangement. What made it worse was that there was nothing else he could do to make up for the lost time.
Time was not something one could purchase.
Once missed, it will always be missed and you could only regret it.
"This was my fault, Carmen." Xu Feng stepped forward and apologized for the blunder.
"I didn't factor in the possibility of a time difference when it was related to separate dimensions. I was clouded by the objective in my mind and neglected an important factor." He continued, admitting his fault without trying to make any excuse.
Excuses were only made by incompetent or weak-willed individuals.
And Xu Feng was by any means any of those two, so he would naturally man up and take responsibility for his mistake. Overall, he was human in the end no matter how experienced or knowledgeable he was.