Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 1124: The Dead Mycelium

Chapter 1124: Chapter 1124: The Dead Mycelium

Xu Huo’s eyes narrowed, "A player’s total amount of time they experience doesn’t change even when they walk through districts with different time rules."

For instance, he spent thirty days at W37 Base Station to complete the instance, but the countdown at E27 Wormhole Point is seven days. That means, even if he stays in W37 for thirty days and returns to E27, only seven days would have passed. It might seem there’s a discrepancy in time, but it’s not time travel. If he stayed in W37 Base Station for thirty days, then thirty days have passed. His return to E27 doesn’t rewind twenty-three days. Relative to other players who never left E27, he has essentially gained twenty-three days worth of time, aged by twenty-three days.

Of course, he didn’t wait until the deadline to leave. As long as he returns to a district with similar time rules, such a discrepancy is hard to notice in the short term.

So no matter how players travel within the instances, their lifespan won’t be extended, nor will they rejuvenate.

Therefore, it’s impossible what Guan Shu said about Dr. Wu gaining more time than his lifespan allows.

"I only mentioned that perhaps Dr. Wu might have game privileges," Guan Shu said. "Maybe A1 Wormhole Point had already invented a time-travel machine, or there is some privilege or benefit exclusive to the game’s internal staff."

This seemed a bit presumptuous.

Xu Huo didn’t deny his speculation but said, "If time reversal truly exists, is it possible for players to find the game headquarters?"

Guan Shu fell silent.

If time reversal really existed, could someone actually destroy the game?

Wouldn’t the game, having mastered this rule from the beginning, use it to protect itself?

This seemed like another contradiction.

Afterwards, no one spoke. Xu Huo closed his eyes to rest while Guan Shu and the others kept an ear out for any disturbances outside.

Protected by a Spatial Artifact, the Alien lingering outside couldn’t break in, but the ordinary folks who had been living in Xiaohe City and outside the commercial building, none were spared.

If they continued like this, they could last a few days without a problem, but before long, the remaining players who refused to leave Xiaohe City came out calling, demanding entry into the bar.

"What are they joking about?" Zhou Yuanzhu was astonished and let out a laugh, "Do they take us for fools?"

"Brothers just want to find a temporary hiding place, and just so happen we don’t have any Spatial Artifacts on us," a bald man with a studded face laughed maliciously: "If you don’t let us in, then don’t blame us for being impolite!"

Guan Shu showed his face at the window, and the next second, the talking man made a swift sidestep, and the skinny man beside him raised his hand. A lotus-shaped metal barrier unfolded in front of them, catching Guan Shu’s attack. As the lotus closed, it even seized the medical prop!

The bald man laughed boisterously, "A half-crippled Rank-B player, if you’re so capable, come out and fight me one-on-one!"

"And, don’t think I don’t know that the one surnamed Xu is a Super Evolver," he pointed at a piece of metal on his ear, "This is specially used to counter Mental Interference!"

"Is that so?" A voice suddenly rang out behind him, not from their own camp. The bald man stepped back in shock, but Xu Huo had already appeared outside, and he was holding the metal piece he’d plucked from the man’s ear.

Seeing the metal piece turn into powder, the bald man showed a flash of fear and then roared, "Kill him!"

Without a Rank-B player to hold the fort, Xu Huo put on a stopwatch, suppressing all the Spatial Artifacts present with a press, then extended Cubic Spatial Power, forcibly scattering these people and imprisoning them individually, dealing with one after another.

Although the temporarily created Spatial Barrier couldn’t hold players for long, delaying them for a second or two wasn’t a problem; in those couple of seconds, Xu Huo had enough time to send them away in batches. After all, there was still space in the underground parking lot, and the surface Aliens were hungry too – where else would they go?

As for those he couldn’t send away in time, he took care of them personally, killing one by one.

The team of more than a dozen that just gathered was instantly scattered, let alone coordinating an attack; first, they had to face the immediate danger.

The players who were locked underground or sent amidst the Alien Group simply fled, while the few left in the air weren’t so lucky. They were cleanly slain by Xu Huo and, later, Guan Shu and Lin Qiao.

"If I’m going to die, I’m taking you with me!" One of them threw an explosive prop towards the bar.

"This time it’s my turn!" Chi Minghong, standing above the bar, swung a baseball bat and smacked the toy grenade-looking prop out.

"Boom!" The prop exploded amongst the Aliens. It didn’t hurt anyone, but did scare away quite a few Aliens.

"Finally resolved," Lin Qiao said after checking the surroundings with a prop.

A relaxed smile appeared on Guan Shu’s face, "The next few days, everyone can properly heal up."

Back in the bar, they made a fairly lavish dinner with the remaining water and food, and for a time, everyone was in good spirits.

After dinner, Xu Huo gave Guan Shu a business card and asked if he recognized it.

"It’s from someone in our society," Guan Shu didn’t hide it, "responsible for the first round of member screening in District 002, someone must have given you this card."

It was given to him by Shangguan Xi when he left W37 Base, claiming it could get information on Dr. Wu. It seemed now they were from the same group.

"A friend from an instance gave it to me, since it’s your people, then there’s nothing to it," Xu Huo said. He had been hesitating whether to go to District 002 again.

"District 002 is probably a mess right now," Guan Shu revealed a bit of inside information, "The purchase of the large Spatial Transmission Device by Snow City was leaked to the Holy Sword Society by members of the big families. They will likely scrutinize the matter once it’s settled."

Xu Huo’s eyebrows rose, his tone ambiguous, "I didn’t expect there to be good people within the big families."

Guan Shu laughed awkwardly, "There are plenty who hate their own kind."

"Let’s not talk about those unhappy things." Chi Minghong handed Xu Huo a drink, "Even if we can’t drink alcohol, water shouldn’t be a problem. Cheers to us surviving a high-risk instance!"

Xu Huo amiably clinked glasses with them.

Tan Qi, sitting behind him, asked quietly, "Are you going back to District 002?"

"Not for the time being." Xu Huo was seriously injured this time and needed to recover properly, "When the time comes, use the non-player ticket to leave."

As he spoke, he glanced over at the kid behind, "Don’t want to go?"

Tan Qi looked up at him, "After getting off, will I still see you? I smell other scents on you."

Xu Huo was about to reply when he felt a tinge of bitterness in his mouth, spitting lightly into the cup, it was a bit of black mycelium.

Dead mycelium.

You’ve been poisoned. Tan Qi spoke without a sound.

Xu Huo quickly reviewed the entire course of the battle, his mind flashed with numerous possibilities, but in the end, he couldn’t pinpoint the moment of poisoning.

Looking at the black mycelium floating in the cup, he let out a wry smile: Quite the trap it was.