Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 1203: Black Faction Camp

Chapter 1203: Chapter 1203: Black Faction Camp

The female player running at the front bore the brunt. Even though she used a defense prop to block the impact, she was still pushed back over ten meters, landing behind Xu Huo and Da Hu, who were slower.

"Is this your so-called ’little surprise’?" Da Hu dodged the attacks of the mutant plants while speaking. "This is way too dense! Any random wall can open up a big one?"

"What’s the significance of the first card?" Xu Huo asked as he saw vine branches lunging toward him. "Can it be opened anywhere?"

"The first card is obviously concentrated near the entrance," Da Hu replied. "What if a good card gets opened by someone else?"

The so-called "good cards" are mentioned in the fifth and sixth rules of the game.

Twelve floral cards allow players to enter the nearest correct path, effectively choosing the right track and skipping the initial exploration phase.

The fifth and sixth rules stand side by side, implying that among the remaining numerical cards, there are similar effects that can help players clear the instance.

Thus, the earlier the cards are grabbed, the higher the chance of getting a good one.

While speaking, Da Hu casually touched the nearby passage. A massive number "17" card appeared—Black Faction Camp.

Within their current passage, there were three accessible walls. One was triggered by Da Hu, another near the turn in front had been triggered by the first player, and the third had also been triggered into a mutant plant by the same player. As a result, Xu Huo and the remaining two players could only trigger their first cards after passing through the initial bend.

Another male player used a prop to slice the mutant plant into pieces and successfully entered the next passage.

Xu Huo and the other two followed closely, but the next passage was not long, spanning only about twenty meters. By the time they entered it, the male player was already disappearing past the next corner—neither he nor card number "10" had touched the other maze wall within this passage.

Their target was also no longer the remaining maze walls. When they entered a long passage next, the male player ahead had already triggered a maze wall. Unfortunately for him, his luck was bad; instead of a card, a living wall emerged!

The entire maze wall came to life. Branches and vines, previously compressed together like mud and stone, transformed into countless tentacles, darting rapidly toward the opposite wall. Xu Huo and the others, arriving moments later, managed to retreat from the passage in time. However, in the blink of an eye, the entire passage in front of them was fully blocked by plants, as if two maze walls had merged together.

The plants on the two maze walls pulsated, behaving like living creatures. The sight was not only shocking but also oddly repulsive.

The plant activity lasted for ten seconds before dispersing, leaving no trace of the male player.

"Did he die?" Da Hu asked.

"No," Xu Huo responded. "When the maze wall came alive, he was already near the edge of the passage, so escaping wasn’t too difficult."

At that moment, light appeared from the corner of the passage. Both Da Hu and the female player showed slightly somber expressions. Da Hu remarked, "Too bad we couldn’t see what his card was."

It was a numeric card, "21," White Faction Camp.

Xu Huo didn’t reveal this but instead asked, "Can everyone see each other’s cards?"

"Only players starting at the same point can see each other’s cards," the female player replied. "Once all five of us who started together have triggered our first cards, subsequent cards triggered or obtained by killing players will no longer show their faces."

"So each player can know a maximum of only about ten cards," Xu Huo commented. "The maze’s starting points must be far apart. If one starting group triggers its first cards, other groups can’t possibly see them."

The female player nodded. "This was the rule for Level D instances before. I’m not sure if it’s still unchanged."

"It’s definitely unchanged," Da Hu responded confidently. "The rules are already twisted enough. If they’re altered, who could possibly clear the level?"

"Hard to say." The female player frowned. "Haven’t you noticed that there are more traps on the maze walls? Usually, at the starting point, we wouldn’t encounter so many trap walls. We’ve only crossed three passages, and two of them already had trap walls."

"Let’s keep moving. We haven’t triggered our first cards yet," Xu Huo urged.

The three continued forward, but this time they slowed their pace. First, it was likely difficult to catch up to the player ahead since there were already intersections. Second, moving more slowly meant the players ahead couldn’t set them up for traps.

After passing through two more passages, Xu Huo and the female player both triggered their first cards—both numeric cards. Xu Huo got Black card 1, while the female player got Black card 5.

"Great, we’re on the same team!" Da Hu grinned, then addressed the female player. "Since we’re traveling together, we should at least know each other’s names."

"Lin Qian," the female player replied, her expression distant.

Xu Huo and Da Hu also introduced themselves, and the three continued onward as a group.

With White card 10 and White card 21 gone ahead, no one else crossed paths with them in this initial section. Instead, they hit two dead ends and had to double back.

"The game rules seem simple, but winning won’t be easy," Lin Qian remarked. "Although the instance only requires reaching the endpoint, everyone is aiming for the maze’s extra rewards. Whoever reaches the endpoint will surely want to win."

"However, the players’ factions aren’t entirely fixed; soon, we might randomly change factions."

The rules clearly state that if one faction’s player count drops below two-thirds of the other faction’s count, some players from the larger faction will randomly switch sides. For example, if the Black Faction remains intact while the White Faction drops below 18 players, then a random faction change will be triggered for the Black Faction. Based on the basic math of adding ten players, at least five players from the Black Faction would switch to the White Faction to balance the numbers.

"Triggering the second rule is not easy in practice," Xu Huo added. "Even if one faction suffers no losses, the other faction would still have to lose one-third of its players for a random faction switch to occur. Under normal circumstances, the player counts in both factions should decrease gradually, making the likelihood of a one-third discrepancy very low."

Players will inevitably compete for cards to speed up the level clear, and in the process, deaths are unavoidable. At least for a long stretch, the random faction change likely won’t happen.

"I think we don’t need to overanalyze this," Da Hu suggested. "Even if you don’t worry about it, the player count will eventually dwindle. By then, whichever faction has more players will have the upper hand."

He chuckled, "Let’s focus on figuring out how to get more cards."

Xu Huo nodded in agreement.

"Currently, there are two ways to obtain playing cards."

"One, trigger a maze wall to acquire them."

"Two, kill other players."

"Aside from providing level-clear bonuses, playing cards can also be used to access safe maze wall channels corresponding to their suits."

"Theoretically, the more cards obtained, the safer the route and the faster the completion time."