Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 1214: Labyrinth at Night

Chapter 1214: Chapter 1214: Labyrinth at Night

It’s worth mentioning that while the maze is bright during the daytime, there’s no visible sun, let alone sunlight angles. Looking upward from the bottom of the maze, what you see is the same kind of dim blockage as the maze’s starting point.

"Are there no mutated animals or insects in this maze apart from plants?" Xu Huo asked.

"No animals, but there are insects." The female player slid the video’s progress bar and located a black vine. "This stinking vine attracts a small insect called Blackwing. Blackwing bugs lay their eggs on the seeds of the vine. As long as the vine successfully sprouts, the insects rapidly reproduce into hundreds or thousands. They’ll stay attached to the same vine throughout their lives, moving on to find another host when the vine dies. If no suitable host is nearby, they’ll gradually perish."

"By observing their growth stages, you can infer the stinking vine’s growth period... The Blackwing bugs around this vine are mature, so these stinking vines should be about two months old."

"Judging by the number of Blackwing bugs, this section of the maze walls is probably overgrown with stinking vines. However, the growth environment isn’t great, so the vines are about a third smaller than those cultivated elsewhere..."

She stopped here, hesitated for a moment, and then said with slight annoyance, "The effect of the Truth Serum lasted longer than expected!"

Xu Huo chuckled and brought the conversation back. "Mutant plants have short growth cycles and are not demanding in terms of conditions. The plants in the maze should update and renew themselves rather quickly."

"That’s true." The female player replied, "The maze’s ecological system is already established. As long as nutrients are continually infused, the mutant plants here can propagate endlessly."

"Can the state of plants on the maze walls be used to deduce players’ walking paths?" Xu Huo suddenly asked.

The female player immediately shut her mouth, pursing her lips before replying, "You’re trying to trick me."

"Just a guess. You said earlier that you try not to trigger the maze walls, but without clues, you’d need a method to determine direction." Xu Huo took down the video, turned around, and poured her a cup of hot water from the room. Then he said, "Since you know so much about plants, I figured you might use this method to navigate."

Players moving ahead would filter out correct pathways. She only needed to find maze walls where the plants updated frequently or had irregular growth cycles.

"But it’s not exactly easy," Xu Huo sat down again. "Do you work in this field?"

The female player poured a packet of nutrient powder into her cup, drank half of it, and then said with her head lowered, "I used to be a mutant plant researcher."

"Unfortunately, my country’s incompetence dragged even clerks like me onto the battlefield."

"I’d rather die in an instance than on the battlefield."

With that, she laughed self-deprecatingly. "Many times, I almost died but somehow survived. I even managed to advance all the way to a Rank-C Player. By the time I turned around, even the capital was gone."

"I hardly see the point of staying alive in the game."

"But you can’t just decide to die because life feels meaningless."

Xu Huo glanced at her. "If you’re still alive, there’s always a reason to survive. Or perhaps you could find a place to pause your player status and start over."

The female player gazed at the towering maze walls opposite her and said flatly, "As long as we’re in the game, it doesn’t matter where we live—it’s not really a fresh start."

Her state was common among players. After transitioning from excitement to fatigue, many became numb.

"Ever considered delving into mutant plant cultivation? Hengxing Group has related subsidiaries." Xu Huo suggested.

"I understand what you mean." The female player smirked faintly. "Unfortunately, my talent doesn’t reach that level."

Such is the ordinary reality for people forced to accept their fate.

"Someone’s coming." Xu Huo looked toward the passageway.

Jiang Zifeng also emerged from his tent.

The two exchanged a glance and took positions on either side of the corridor.

There was only one person approaching from the other side. Both sides were within each other’s sensory range, but the player hiding in the thick fog stopped twenty meters away without attacking and instead shouted toward them: "Rainbow Diamond Chain!"

If he had shouted something else, Xu Huo and Jiang Zifeng might have assumed it was about Characteristics or Props. But since he shouted a card name, neither of them acted immediately. Then they heard him call out all the face cards in one breath:

"Flower Scepter, Black Stone Holy Sword, Gemstone Cloak, Pure Gold Boots, Throne!"

As odd as this was, by this point, Xu Huo and Jiang Zifeng had caught on—it was likely the other person had some special cards, using this tactic to test them out or even trying to steal cards from them. To their surprise, this could be an unexpected gain.

Without a word, the two moved to block him. However, the other player had clearly anticipated this and avoided approaching from the start, having already planned his strategy. When they acted, he quickly retreated into the thick fog.

Even in a dense mist, Xu Huo and Jiang Zifeng wouldn’t lose track of their target easily. Within mere breaths, they had cornered him. Jiang Zifeng launched a flying carpet, sweeping the player onto the ground and wrapping him tightly.

Yet the moment the player was pinned to the ground, he slipped out like a mudfish and began crawling in a bizarre manner, swiftly pulling away from them—only to be blocked again within ten meters by the spatial barrier Xu Huo had raised.

"Open sesame!" the player shouted, and a door-like opening automatically appeared on the spatial barrier, leading into another maze passage.

Knowing he was about to run, Xu Huo quickly used Psychic Power to envelop the corridor, opening a new door before the man could step inside the Prop’s passageway.

Seeing Xu Huo emerge through the door in front of him, the player immediately leaned back, vanishing on the spot, leaving only a set of clothes crumpled in midair!

Xu Huo grabbed at thin air, then looked toward Jiang Zifeng—while Xu Huo had been engaged, Jiang Zifeng had positioned himself ahead of the passageway. Unless the player used Teleportation Props, he’d have to pass by Jiang Zifeng.

The player who shed his skin like a snake disappeared briefly before colliding with a ripple in the air in front of Jiang Zifeng the next second!

"Get out here, you!" Jiang Zifeng charged forward, his muscular arm seizing the invisible player and slamming him onto the ground!

The other player likely hadn’t anticipated such brute force; both his body and Props hit the ground loudly, with the Invisibility Prop falling to one side.

The player, clad in a full-body latex suit, tried to retrieve his Prop but was kicked several meters away by Jiang Zifeng, revealing his appearance:

A scrawny man, whose head was completely covered to match the Prop’s effects, leaving only his eyes and nose exposed. He looked like a slippery human specimen.

Jiang Zifeng, always blunt, expressed his disdain both physically and verbally. "Didn’t expect someone your size to have such a peculiar fetish."