Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

Chapter 2457: The Mist

The funeral in Upper Wood Village was quite simple. After a brief farewell from friends and relatives, the missing person’s family would find a suitable place to bury their favorite items or clothes to send the missing person off on their final journey.This last process didn’t require many people, so most villagers prepared to leave after the meal.

Upper Wood Village originally didn’t have many people, and now it felt even more deserted with everyone gone.

Xu Huo and a few others gathered together, Bubble Bean and Chi Cai shared the information they had gathered.

The first was, of course, news about other players. They had been staying in Zhongmu Village all along, and excluding Xu Huo and the girl in the painting, there were twelve players; the remaining twenty or so players couldn’t possibly have not found a village, could they?

However, the fact was that in the past half month, only three players appeared in Xiamu Village, and they came separately, with the longest stay being just three days before waking up on their own.

Even though communication between the three villages wasn’t convenient, it didn’t mean there was no communication. The people of Xiamu Village definitely knew there were over a dozen players in Zhongmu Village, and the players who had been there should have asked them about it. Smart people would certainly come to Zhongmu Village...

According to descriptions, none of the three players from Xiamu Village matched those in Zhongmu Village. In other words, even with a simple map from the villagers, the three players couldn’t find Zhongmu Village.

Perhaps they were killed halfway or murdered by the Hidden Friend. There were various possibilities. These three were no longer worth pursuing, but they reminded Xu Huo and the others of another possibility: that there might be more than these three villages in this forest. Due to inconvenient transportation and the rampage of mutant species, villagers had never left home too far, let alone explored other parts of the forest. Therefore, they didn’t know there were other people living in the forest.

Given the vast area, it was normal for Xu Huo and the others not to know about another settlement.

In this case, it made sense that at least half of the players had not had any interaction with them.

The next issue was about getting lost and stranded in the forest.

Three of Xu Huo’s group had experienced the kind of "ghost wall" disorientation, while the green-haired female player and six others disappeared together. This suggested that even if villagers traveled in groups, they could still encounter the same situation. If many people went missing together, the legend of the "Hidden Friend" wouldn’t be as it was now.

But Bubble Bean didn’t find any valuable information. An old lady from Upper Wood Village even laughed at his question, responding with a reasonable remark: "If entire groups could disappear just like that, would there be anyone left in our village?"

It made a lot of sense.

When it came to going out for hunting and picking wild vegetables, locals surely did it more frequently, but they never encountered mass disappearances. This situation pointed to two possibilities: either the players had triggered some instance rule, or those seven people left on their own.

"Leaving on their own..." The eyebrow-pierced man pondered for a moment, "Doesn’t this sound like 72?"

was the previous code name for that middle-aged man.

"But this doesn’t make sense," the Yin Yang Master said, "If one person runs, it could be their turn to play the shadow, but why would a group run? Did they discover there’s an actor among us?"

He cast suspicious glances over everyone’s face, finally settling on Chi Cai’s.

"Why are you looking at me?" Chi Cai said displeased, "Do you find it ridiculous to say they left in a group after discovering we have an actor among us?"

A normal reaction would be to capture the actor to extract information after their identity swap.

The Yin Yang Master shrugged, "I was joking."

Chi Cai was quite annoyed, "The instance is off. I think it’s best for everyone not to target each other!"

"Who’s targeting whom?" the Yin Yang Master countered directly, "I was only targeting you. Didn’t you inject Antitoxin into Yang Tian, turning him into a cripple? No one’s wronging you there, right?"

"And about that subterranean robot earlier, weren’t you planning to go find those two named Xu? You’re familiar with them, naturally know their names, so is it strange to target the people you know first?"

These speculations were half nonsensical. With the Yin Yang Master picking on him like this, Chi Cai couldn’t tolerate it any longer and said with a stern face, "Say outright if you’re looking for trouble. If words aren’t enough, I’m up for a fight!"

The two were at odds, almost about to fight, but Bubble Bean had to step in to stop them, "Let’s do something useful. Does killing one or two change our current situation?"

"Yes, it does," the Yin Yang Master stubbornly said, "One less person means more acting opportunities for us."

Bubble Bean gave him a warning glance, "You might not want to pass the instance, but others do."

The Yin Yang Master didn’t care.

The two did have some rapport. After Yin Yang Master’s diversion, he stopped talking, and Bubble Bean apologized to the others on his behalf, bringing the topic back.

But no conclusions were reached. It was impossible to go out looking for people, and since the missing ones couldn’t be contacted, they shouldn’t leave the village. It seemed that waiting was the only option.

With only seven people left and past conflicts between some, mutual supervision wasn’t going to work out as planned. To protect themselves, they would soon scatter apart.

Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master came together, Xu Huo and the girl in the painting were a pair, while the eyebrow-pierced man and Yang Tian had a past conflict, leaving Chi Cai alone as well; staying solo wasn’t an option. Teaming up would be best for them, as joining teams with either Bubble Bean or Xu Huo held risks of being outnumbered.

Eyebrow-pierced man and Chi Cai exchanged a glance and decided to team up, leaving Yang Tian. Not trusting any of them, he found villagers, paid them, and settled in.

"Everyone, whether we survive and leave depends on luck," Bubble Bean smiled at them and went in a different direction with the Yin Yang Master towards the village.

The eyebrow-pierced man and Chi Cai chose the opposite direction and invited Xu Huo to join.

Xu Huo politely declined and went with the girl in the painting to Granny Yi’s house.

Granny Yi’s son and daughter-in-law remained silent, but the two children were slightly more lively than before, considering they were familiar by now.

Xu Huo chatted with Granny Yi for a while, asking about the seasons and the habits of mutant plants.

The locals should know the forest best. Even if they couldn’t go too far, they ought to be aware of changes nearby. Since the dungeon venue was in this forest, if changes occurred, the mutant plants might react.

Granny Yi seemed to guess what he wanted to know. She believed the players’ disappearance was unrelated to the Hidden Friend because, in her view, the "Hidden Friend" was actually some kind of mutant plant. Once a plant matures, its habits are hard to change. Over the years, it only targeted one person at a time and had no reason to treat outsiders differently.

However, she did provide Xu Huo with a clue: sometimes she noticed some out-of-season mutant plants growing.