Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 1236 - 1237: Tracker

Chapter 1236: Chapter 1237: Tracker

"The night is still long; we have room to make mistakes." Xu Huo wasn’t in a hurry. "If we encounter someone along the way, we can ask them."

Mu Yan understood and nodded, motioning for Li Cheng, who was behind her, to move forward.

Unexpectedly, for a long stretch afterward, they didn’t meet anyone. Shrouded in the mist, the isolation made them feel abandoned in a place cut off from the world, seemingly without any exit.

"Why don’t we rest until daylight before we continue?" Mu Yan suggested. "We haven’t rested all night. You both must be tired too."

The trio stopped to rest. Until dawn, nothing unusual occurred—but when the sun was supposed to rise, the maze remained dimly lit. The sky, gray and dreary, was hardly brighter than the night.

Had the instance changed its rules again?

The three exchanged glances without wasting words and continued along the path they’d taken the previous night.

The thick fog severely impacted the players’ senses, muffling both sight and hearing. The long maze corridors often stretched so far that they couldn’t even discern what lay at the end.

The trio had no choice but to slow their pace.

After walking for a while, Xu Huo stopped, glancing back over his shoulder.

"What is it?" Mu Yan and Li Cheng also halted, but they didn’t sense anything behind them.

"Nothing for now." Xu Huo didn’t doubt his judgment, though their pursuer had appeared briefly before vanishing again. With such a long corridor behind them, where could anyone hide?

Or... was it not a player after all?

Seeing the seriousness in his expression, Mu Yan and Li Cheng heightened their vigilance, subtly adjusting their positions to maintain some distance.

Despite modifying their formation slightly, they didn’t speed up. Yet two minutes later, Xu Huo’s pace slowed again. He turned back once more but looked away as if nothing had happened.

Three minutes later, the presence trailing them reappeared, acting bolder this time, drawing closer until even Mu Yan and Li Cheng noticed it.

Their first reaction was to toss props, but the props failed to activate—and the figure vanished once more.

After a few rounds of such fruitless attempts, Li Cheng grew restless, using the silencing prop before asking Xu Huo, "Is there really someone behind us?"

"Keep moving forward," Xu Huo gestured with his chin toward the path ahead. "Since they haven’t shown themselves, let’s pretend we don’t know."

But their stalker remained undeterred. Before long, they appeared again—this time even closer, seemingly confident the trio wouldn’t catch them.

In fact, Xu Huo had already enveloped the area, including the maze walls, with spiritual power the second time the pursuer drew near.

The one teasing them repeatedly was clearly alone, using the invisibility prop to trail them unnoticed.

Yet it was peculiar. Whenever they turned around or Mu Yan and Li Cheng used their props, the figure would cling to the edges of the maze walls without agitating the mutant plants growing there.

Moreover, one of Mu Yan’s props, which Xu Huo had seen before, should have had a range wide enough to cover the stalker. But the figure, seemingly without using any props themselves, simply stood still and avoided its effects entirely. They even sauntered forward smugly when the prop failed, moving through a brief stretch Xu Huo couldn’t detect.

Logically speaking, no matter how advanced a hidden prop might be, the figure’s complete disappearance within the space was impossible. Yet Xu Huo’s senses still intermittently lost track of them despite knowing they hadn’t gone far.

This was intriguing. Either they possessed an extraordinary stealth prop or had some kind of anomalous characteristic.

Unfortunately, their morals left much to be desired—they picked up an empty water bottle Li Cheng had discarded, unscrewed the cap, and licked it indulgently. They even sniffed exaggeratedly at spots Mu Yan had passed.

Xu Huo opened a doorway directly in front of them and kicked them forcefully through it.

The figure, in the middle of stashing the empty bottle as if it were a prize, was caught off guard and stumbled, falling knees-first right behind Li Cheng.

This one was certainly a character—rather than attempting to flee, they reflexively buried their face against Li Cheng’s back in their kneeling position. But they forgot they were dealing with a player; Li Cheng had already turned around and slapped them hard across the face!

It wasn’t until the slap landed that they remembered to retreat, but Xu Huo preemptively grabbed the back of their neck, smiling faintly. "Where are you going? Let’s have a chat."

He forcefully removed their invisibility prop as he spoke. Upon losing the prop, the figure instinctively raised their hands to cover their face but changed their gesture halfway, reaching toward the rear instead.

Xu Huo didn’t flinch as he snapped their arm. Realizing brute force was pointless, the figure swiftly faded from view again.

"Where did they go?" asked Mu Yan and Li Cheng, arriving just in time to see the person vanish. They began searching the area frantically.

"Still here." Xu Huo stomped sharply forward, eliciting a pained groan from the empty air.

"They can’t escape!" Mu Yan tossed a small seed onto the ground. With the wind, it sprouted into sprawling vines two or three meters long, quickly claiming the passage. Amid the tightly packed foliage, one section revealed an empty gap.

"There!" Li Cheng threw a flying knife prop toward the void. But before the blade could land, the figure had already fled.

Xu Huo created spatial ray barriers both in front and behind. When the figure hit the barrier, Xu Huo sensed it vividly.

After some thought, he thinned the barrier, dividing it into three layers. Strangely, under these conditions, the traces left by the figure grew less obvious.

Using the spatial ray to pull them back, Xu Huo asked, "Is that a prop or a characteristic?"

The figure remained silent, prompting Xu Huo to change his approach. "A broken arm still lets you walk. With broken legs, how will you get out of the maze?"

Their pursuer’s lips curled into a sneer. "You can’t take a characteristic away. Kill me if you think it’ll make a difference!"

"Really?" Xu Huo arched a brow. "The more powerful a characteristic is, the stronger its limitations. I noticed you’ve used it at least six times just now. Hiding your presence to evade detection, even influencing spiritual power itself—such a characteristic without any restrictions? I don’t buy it."

"...Believe whatever you want!" After that retort, the figure suddenly broke free from Xu Huo’s grip, bolting out of the corridor.

They fled through several passages before slowing down slightly, chuckling smugly to themselves. "Idiots..."

"Oh, really?" A ghostly voice came from behind them.

They turned abruptly, retreating several dozen feet in an instant, yet the spot they had just stood displayed no sign of anyone.

Uneasily scanning the surroundings, a hand suddenly landed on their shoulder!

Reacting instantly, they slashed backward with a knife, but it cut through empty air—and the presence behind them was still missing!

Realizing their opponent might wield a similar prop, the stalker no longer dared to hold back, feigning before breaking into a frantic escape.