Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

Chapter 2451: The Hidden Person

The seventh day’s dawn arrived.The villagers couldn’t understand why they would choose to stay in a drafty pavilion when they had houses, yet they showed respect. Over the past couple of days, some children and young people who had become familiar with the Girl in the painting even brought them a bit of breakfast.

Xu Huo benefited from this, sparing himself from dry food.

Other players began cooking as well.

When traveling, fresh vegetables are few and far between, as cooking takes time. Instead, there were more convenient packaged foods and meal kits.

The rich scent of food wafted through the village.

A few children standing nearby were almost drooling, but the players didn’t share with them. Unlike candy or snacks, ingredients in the meal kits might not be suitable for everyone. An allergic reaction would be a liability they preferred to avoid.

"We’re going mushroom gathering later," said a little girl nestled beside the Girl in the painting. "Yesterday it was foggy; today’s mushrooms must be growing well."

"Did it fog yesterday?" the Girl in the painting asked curiously, "I saw fog everywhere."

The little girl, having some life experience, replied, "When the fog moves, that’s fogging; normal fog doesn’t move."

In the forest, the air flows slowly, and without wind, the fog seems to be suspended in the air. Moving fog could be due to players using props in the forest.

The little girl invited the Girl in the painting to join them in mushroom gathering. Children aren’t allowed to venture too far without adult accompaniment, even for mushroom gathering, so today they were accompanied by several elderly village women.

"Sure, sure." The Girl in the painting agreed readily, and wanted to call Xu Huo along.

This drew the attention of players who had agreed not to leave the village last night, with Bubble Bean and the Yin Yang Master carrying a hint of malicious hope, while others were simply observant. Chi Cai voiced a word of caution.

Two people went missing yesterday; one allegedly went mad and disappeared, while the other returned half-paralyzed. Staying together seemed safer.

"I’ll go out with the villagers; there will be plenty of people." Xu Huo gently refused the offer.

Seeing his apparent lack of fear, Bubble Bean glanced towards the green-haired female player and the Big Man, making it clear – if he wants to go, does he not care about anybody else?

The green-haired female player and the Big Man weren’t oblivious. It wasn’t necessary to stop someone who repeatedly emphasized they weren’t dungeon players, especially when someone was helping to scout the way.

"Why don’t we divide into groups and go together?" Chi Cai suggested, "Safety in numbers."

"Why do we need to accommodate him?" The Yin Yang Master, less outspoken than before, said through clenched teeth, "Shouldn’t the minority yield to the majority and he stay in the village obediently?"

This succeeded in grabbing Xu Huo’s attention, who cast a thoughtful glance at him.

The Yin Yang Master fell silent.

Regardless, Xu Huo was about to leave the village, but before doing so, he kindly reminded the others, "From the past couple of days, the Hidden Friend may not be a tangible entity. Whether villager or outsider, the shadows people see are highly subjective; with the magnetic field disruptions here, what the eyes see may not be real. There’s a difference from Mental Interference."

He smiled, "Good luck to you all."

Watching his silhouette disappear into the fog, the Yin Yang Master questioned again, "Is he really a dungeon player?"

"It’s not that important." The green-haired female player’s face was grave. "But he made a valid point. We haven’t encountered any player pretending to be the Hidden Friend these days. Yan Tian’s experience is likely from encountering the actual Hidden Friend, which not only deceives us with shadows but also unknowingly causes people to lose their way."

"In that case, even a group going out could suddenly disappear like those before."

The middle-aged man vanished because he used a Teleportation Prop, but Bubble Bean and others knew how Deng Guang disappeared.

"Could there be a Folded Space here?" The eyebrow-pierced man pondered, "But Detectors haven’t found suspect Spatial Power fluctuations."

"Folded Space?" The Big Man, who wore a constant smile, now had a serious expression, "This would make the instance hell difficulty."

In an instant, jumping from a suspected Spiritual dungeon to a Spatial dungeon left everyone present struggling to accept it. Spiritual dungeons can be endured to some extent, but in a Spatial dungeon, especially with the elusive Folded Space, it’s unknowingly falling into another space, their skills having limited use.

"Could this be the real reason behind players being summoned?" Chi Cai muttered.

Thankfully it’s a time-limited dungeon.

Meanwhile, after joining the mushroom gathering group, Xu Huo slowly distanced himself from them. His aim was to test the instance’s hidden forces or see if it could lure out the Hidden Friend. Being alone provided ideal conditions, so after saying goodbye to the Girl in the painting, he followed the group at a distance.

Initially, everything seemed usual; even though he could only see blurry images of the children not far away, he could clearly observe each child’s state. That is until half an hour later when the leading woman suggested resting by a brook. The children quickened their pace and then slowly vanished from Xu Huo’s perception.

It was as if the people in front had disappeared through a door into another room; once the door was closed, those outside naturally wouldn’t know what was happening inside. But this wasn’t as neat as a door closing; where the children vanished felt like a transition zone.

Xu Huo immediately moved over; upon reaching the children’s location, he found that including the Girl in the painting, they had all vanished!

He took out the "Cubic Space" to observe the surrounding Spatial Power status. Unexpectedly, at both the point where the group just disappeared and his surroundings, the space was relatively stable; within the ray range formed by the "Cubic Space’s" various densities, no unique or sudden Spatial Power had been inserted.

But still, if the force affecting this instance wasn’t some small tangible entity, but instead existed like air or space, it was almost equivalent to district space. The "Cubic Space" could absorb and integrate well, making it difficult to observe more specific details.

Without controlling the "Cubic Space’s" range, Xu Huo allowed it to cover more of the forest, while attempting to return to the village like Yan Tian.

Upon seeing his marked spot the second time, he realized he had been caught; it wasn’t the children who vanished, but him.