Chapter 100 - Live Test

Richard looked at the table, originally over a meter long, now forcefully folded into less than a meter, causing severe distortion and deformation, and was certain that the “crack” sound he had just heard was not an illusion. He had applied too much force and directly damaged the table.From this perspective, his previous action was somewhat akin to forcefully stuffing the table into a sturdy, small stone cave, where the table naturally got crushed. This side explanation showed that the inner space of the Iron Ring was very robust, and there was no need to worry about it easily bursting.

In that case, anything exceeding one cubic meter in size could theoretically be stuffed into the Iron Ring, as long as one had the ability to compress it into a volume of one cubic meter.

Taking a gentle breath, Richard started the third round of tests.

This time it was simpler, Richard took a small hourglass from the luggage on the ground. He turned the hourglass over to start the timer and then placed it into the Iron Ring.

After waiting for a moment, Richard took out the hourglass and found that a small layer of sand had fallen, just covering one scale.

One scale represented three minutes, which was approximately the waiting time just now.

Many novels describe that time within a Space Ring is frozen, but it seemed there were some discrepancies now.

The normal functioning of the hourglass indicated that time still existed inside the Iron Ring. Moreover, it also indicated that gravity existed inside the Iron Ring, and the magnitude of this gravity was comparable to the outside world.

Of course, if the time inside the Iron Ring was slowed down and the gravity increased, or if the time was sped up and the gravity decreased, the combination could create this illusion that perfectly matched the external world. However, such a situation was highly improbable; this was only a preliminary test and was not considered further.

“Um…”

Without hesitation, Richard quickly carried out the fourth round of testing.

He took a bowl of water and placed it inside the Iron Ring, then shook the Iron Ring.

After a moment, he took out the bowl of water, and not a drop had spilled.

This indicated that although the Iron Ring was influenced by gravity, it was absolutely not the external gravity; otherwise, the force of movement would have also affected the interior of the Iron Ring, and the water in the bowl would have definitely spilled.

So…

“Um…”

With a flicker in his eyes, Richard began to wonder if everything was really stored inside the small Iron Ring or if it was stored elsewhere, with the Iron Ring serving merely as a simple entrance and exit.

He continued with the fifth round of testing.

Many novels have described that living things cannot be placed into a Space Ring, but they have not detailed whether it’s completely impossible or if placing them causes negative changes.

Logically, there is no fundamental difference between living and non-living things; both are simply made up of atoms. If non-living things can be put inside and living things cannot, it would be nonsensical. And the idea that living things would undergo negative changes upon being placed inside also warrants suspicion. Could Space Items even intelligently distinguish between living and non-living things and treat them differently? This seemed as implausible as automatically detecting the life or death of the holder.

So, how to test this?

The simplest method was to place a living creature inside and see what happened. In fact, if it weren’t for being cautious, Richard would have liked to try entering the Space Ring himself to see more, but it would be troublesome if he could get in but not come out. Thus, it would be better to send another living creature inside.

This creature should preferably be somewhat intelligent, obedient, have strong life force to withstand some unknown attacks, and not too large…

Richard’s gaze involuntarily fell on Pandora lying on the bed.

“Hmm…”

One meter twenty in height, body sufficiently flexible…

Very strong life force, being born from a Giant Dragon after all…

Though not obedient, one could coax it…

Somewhat Naive, but definitely not stupid…

Additionally…

In that case…

“Tap tap tap,” Richard walked toward Pandora.

Pandora, leaning against the corner of the bed, seemed to be sleeping, motionless and unaware.

As Richard approached, he slowly raised his hand, his Iron Ring shimmering with an unusual glow, then his hand quickly fell.

“Snap!”

“Squeak!”

A soft sound followed by a scream indicated that Richard had grabbed a rat that was burrowing into the wall of the bed, intending to use it as a test subject.

As for Pandora… well, better not.

Richard thought seriously.

Although Pandora had always lived in the forest and had the mind and body of a child—Naive but certainly not stupid—if Pandora were really put into the Iron Ring, it was likely that upon emerging, it would transform into its human Giant Dragon form and completely rampage, possibly demolishing the entire inn.

Besides, Gregory had not been gone long and had once asked Richard to take care of Pandora. Though promises had little binding force on him, he did not take pleasure in breaking them; it would be somewhat inhumane after all.

So, it was better to use the universally utilized experimental creature of modern Earth—a rat—it was okay to make do with a big rat if no white mice could be found.

Regaining his focus, Richard looked at the rat in his hand, a standard brown house rat. About twenty centimeters long, with a black and thin tail, its body was plump, clearly having stolen more than its fair share of food. Its appearance was sleazy, teeth protruding, adding a bit of repulsiveness. Using it for some experiments was not only without pressure, but also somewhat relaxing.

“I hope you survive a few more tests,” Richard said softly to the rat, carrying it to the side, then sending it into the Iron Ring.

The rat quickly disappeared, successfully sent into the Iron Ring; the next moment it reappeared, being taken out by Richard almost instantaneously. This was mainly to test whether there was a “instantly kill living beings” setting inside the Iron Ring.

When his gaze landed on the perfectly alive rat, Richard confirmed that there should be no “instantly kill living beings” mechanism. Actually, in the very brief process of being placed into and taken out of the Iron Ring, the rat probably hadn’t even realized what had happened and was still in a state of shock and bewilderment from being caught.

In that case…

Richard pursed his lips slightly, reached out and patted the rat’s head, trying to soothe it, then threw the rat back into the Iron Ring again.

This time, he waited about three seconds before taking the rat out again.

The rat that reappeared in the room was visibly more frantic, breathing rapidly, its head swinging wildly as if it had gone through some extremely uncomfortable ordeal.

Richard raised an eyebrow, guessing, “Could the space inside the Iron Ring be extremely unfriendly to living organisms? Like high temperatures, high pressure, or perhaps low temperatures, low pressure? Then, under such conditions, how long could a rat survive? One minute? An hour? A day?”

Richard, with no softening of heart, grabbed the visibly uneasy rat and stuffed it back into the Iron Ring.

This time Richard waited a while, about three minutes, before taking the rat out again, only to feel a weight in his hand—the rat appeared, but was motionless.

Dead?