Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

Chapter 2453: The Instance’s Protective Tendency

Actually, they weren’t too far from the creek. After walking forward for a short while, with their player’s hearing, they could hear children playing by the creek."Big brother, it’s not that I’m afraid of dying and trying to fool you. Those two people who disappeared really vanished without a trace after killing someone." The woman walking ahead was still very worried about her life. Her spatial teleportation device had failed, which meant Xu Huo’s props interfered with her device, making it impossible to instantly create distance, and the chances of successfully fleeing were very low.

"Did they disappear on the same day, or separately?" Xu Huo asked.

The woman paused, "There was a day between them. Initially, others and I didn’t believe in such evil, but we started to believe it when the second person disappeared."

"Many players are staying together. They could have been killed by you or other players," Xu Huo said calmly.

The woman really wanted to argue, but considering that Xu Huo was a Super Evolutionary with Mental Powers, it was indeed possible to achieve such a feat.

So she said, "I definitely can’t."

Xu Huo laughed softly from behind and added, "However, to make a Rank-B player completely unable to resist, an ordinary Rank-A player wouldn’t be enough. Any confrontation would make some noise."

"So big brother, you mean it’s still because of the instance?" The woman ventured, "Like what happened to you just now?"

"Can you see me?" Xu Huo answered with a question.

"Yes, not only can I see you, but I can also hear sounds," the woman realized. "This is different from the situation with those two missing people."

"Exactly, the situation is different, so there are two different interference modes," Xu Huo explained.

His previous encounter was likely similar to Yang Tian’s and the middle-aged man’s situation, where they lost their sense of direction and were trapped in a fixed spot. This could be an effect brought about by a special magnetic field or some unique spatial power, which is hard for players or Evolvers to discover and resolve.

However, this situation isn’t a dead-end. Strictly speaking, they weren’t isolated from others or other places. If someone approached or if the situation in the forest changed, they could be discovered or find their way out.

Based on the currently accumulated information, this situation typically only occurs when one is alone.

The player disappearances the skinny woman mentioned were different. They vanished right under the noses of numerous players, with no idea about how they disappeared, or what happened before they disappeared, which had a bit of difference from the middle-aged man’s departure.

Xu Huo asked the woman if they felt sleepy at night, and the woman firmly told him no. They had night watchers, pairing up two at a time.

"Did the night watchers fall asleep?" Xu Huo pursued further.

The woman hadn’t considered this question, "I dozed off for a while, but I didn’t notice if the watchers fell asleep."

Even if they didn’t fall asleep, she wouldn’t constantly keep an eye on the watchers. Moreover, everyone had defense props or place props, and during nighttime rest, they would surely stay within their designated safe zones.

Being alone might run into a "ghost wall," and over time, they might hear calls, but the buffer period is too long, and it doesn’t necessarily result in death.

This was somewhat reminiscent of the state players were in when they first entered this forest, where they seemed to see shadows everywhere.

The vegetation throughout the forest was quite similar. If there was any real difference, it was that previously they were far from the village, and during the "ghost wall" incident, they were closer to the village, and it only occurred when alone.

However, if the actor killed someone, the difficulty of their predicament would increase, either mysteriously disappearing or mysteriously leaving on their own. This process, whether for an outsider or themselves, seemed hard to interfere with.

Looking at these two situations, the dangers of this instance were likely written in the background introduction right from the start.

First, they can’t kill randomly, neither players nor the local people.

Secondly, they shouldn’t be alone. The more companions there are, the closer they are to places populated by people like the village, the safer it is.

The background introduction mentioned that the Hidden Friend only requires one friend each day, which is actually a supplement to the rule that you can’t kill randomly.

Such an obvious bias makes it hard to say the instance isn’t intentionally protecting the people living here.

The instance’s requirements for actors target other players within the instance, and losing the opportunity to act equates to failing the level, making them just a target for the actor’s call, and there’s obviously no possibility of protecting players. Therefore, the biggest "beneficiaries" from controlling players’ murderous desires and limiting the number of killings are actually local villagers.

As a result, players can’t use villagers to test the instance rules. If someone does this, the instance will prioritize removing that person. The death counts known by the skinny woman’s previous companions and Xu Huo’s group overlap on the timeline, so it doesn’t signify someone died in the forest, nor does it mean the Hidden Friend won’t kill anymore. "One friend per day" constrains both the Hidden Friend and the actor. Only deaths caused by these two fulfill the instance requirements.

Therefore, it’s highly possible that if an actor successfully killed a "friend" on a particular day, the Hidden Friend wouldn’t come out to kill that day. The instance duration is thirty days, but forty-two players entered the instance. In an ideal scenario, there should be one actor per day, as hinted in the instance introduction. In the past seven days, there should have been at least seven actors.

Considering the previous days, some might have wandered aimlessly in the woods without encountering anyone, and nine have died. Among the remaining people, Xu Huo’s team constitutes almost half, so by random selection, someone from their group is likely to become the Hidden Friend next. Therefore, anyone insisting on leaving the group may be randomly picked as the Hidden Friend.

Of course, it’s possible that the middle-aged man really left on his own.

The children, even while playing by the creek, didn’t make too much noise. Apart from various mushrooms, they also caught some small fish and shrimp from the water.

"Look, I wasn’t lying to you. A lot of mushrooms sprouted up after the fog." The little girl remembered what was said earlier and presented her basket to Xu Huo for him to see.

Xu Huo nodded and saw the girl in the painting run over, asking him for the old-fashioned camera. She wanted to take pictures of these children.

Now, in the game, technology is advanced, and the holographic projection of communicators has almost replaced photographs. But for this village, they would prefer actual photos.

Xu Huo bought one and stood by the creek, taking pictures of the group of people standing in the water.

"Why don’t you go over as well? I’ll take a picture of you?" he asked the skinny woman standing nearby.