Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 1342 - 1343: Heaven’s Ladder’s Warm Reception

Chapter 1342: Chapter 1343: Heaven’s Ladder’s Warm Reception

The three people had already gotten into the vehicle, using props to lighten their own weight without adding load to the vehicle. After receiving a hint from Qiu Ming, Xu Huo asked them about some details regarding the instance, and further inquired about their occasional escort of Dr. Duor up the "Heaven’s Ladder".

The three were fairly honest and briefly explained the situation. They came together as six people, plus one "Dr. Duor", but before dark, one companion had died from a deadly poison. The toxin was so potent that the person died before they could even swallow the antitoxin. The other two died respectively in the mouth of a Man-Eating Flower and under the claws of a Mutant Beast. As for "Dr. Duor", when they were attacked by the Night Owl earlier, the three were busy dealing with it and upon turning back, found him missing, leaving only a large hole in the ground inside the Defensive Barrier.

They suspected he was dragged away by some kind of ground-burrowing alien, but the situation was urgent, and they couldn’t scatter to look for him. Even if they were willing to risk their lives to search, they’d probably only find a corpse.

It’s just an instance, no need.

"Besides, I suspect the Dr. Duor we met wasn’t the real one," the Buzz Cut player who had earlier warned Xu Huo and others to be cautious said. "Although his appearance and documents seemed fine, once we entered the Heaven’s Ladder, I realized his knowledge of gene research was far from expert. But we were already halfway through; it was hard to turn back then."

Turning back would only cause more trouble; the commotion they created earlier would attract more mutated flora and fauna, so moving forward, even reluctantly, was the only option.

There was a moment of silence in the vehicle, then Xu Huo said, "You just stay on the vehicle."

The three didn’t ask many questions, introduced themselves for convenience. Buzz Cut was called Fan Zhigang, the other two were Gou Wu and Wei Dong.

Although mentally prepared before entering, none of the people present expected that the attacks from mutated flora and fauna would be almost constant. Just after the Night Owl had passed, a new situation arose: a section of deadwood embedded in the middle of the road suddenly stretched out from underground, flipping the vehicle over. If Fan Zhigang didn’t happen to have a prop that could suspend heavy objects for a short time, the vehicle might have been totaled.

This time they weren’t hit undeservingly because there were a dozen such trees growing underground in this area; their crowns just flattened out. In a hurry, who would notice they could pop out from underground... After the car was flatly pushed forward to land, a swarm of mutated pangolins burst out from underground!

These small aliens might not have strong individual attack power, but once they gather in numbers, they are even more troublesome than large aliens. Xu Huo and others didn’t choose to confront them directly but used a Defensive Barrier outside the vehicle, maximally protecting it while allowing the pangolin swarm to chase and bite.

"Luckily they can’t break through the Defensive Barrier..." Qiu Ming hadn’t finished expressing his relief when a giant black bear charged out of the woods. After extreme mutation, its skin grew thick armor with a metallic sheen, making it look like it was clad in armor, and its claws and teeth had become exceptionally longer and thicker - a single swipe could possibly breach the barrier, and if there were a few more, they might even tear the vehicle apart!

"Buzz!" Fan Zhigang and the other three outside the vehicle initiated the attack first, yet unexpectedly, the Sword Qi slashes couldn’t cut open the black bear, not even leaving a mark!

"That’s impossible!" Fan Zhigang blurted out, "No matter how much they’ve evolved, it’s impossible to ignore prop damage!"

"That’s a prop!" Xu Huo reminded, "Didn’t you notice each black bear has a differently colored armor plate on its chest? It might have been taken from players, don’t get tangled with them, just shake them off."

The last line was directed at the household mechanical being. Xu Huo then left the vehicle, used "Velocity Match Flight" to fly alongside the vehicle which had been accelerated by props, and managed to deal with the nearest two black bears.

Fortunately, the black bears weren’t fast and were soon shaken off, and those persistent pangolins were mostly scattered after the vehicle made a high-speed turn, the remaining few were cleared by Fan Zhigang and the others.

However, during a turn uphill, a large cluster of fist-sized beetles came tumbling out of the grass ahead. There was no time to explore what species they mutated from, these creatures were not only as hard as iron but also automatically bounced up when rolling. With the aid of speed and distance, they hit with the force equivalent to cannonballs!

Xu Huo and others no longer had any long-lasting defense props to shield the vehicle, so they could only rely on people blocking the front of the vehicle, using personal Defensive Barriers to protect it.

Fan Zhigang contributed the prop he used earlier to dodge the Night Owl, which could cover the front, just enough to withstand the beetle attack. But they hadn’t moved much further when they realized that the beetles weren’t targeting them because there was a herd of Mutated Wild Boars behind chasing after these beetles!

"Damn it!" Qiu Ming shouted, "Are there so many strange creatures here, and nobody finds them valuable? That bear earlier, now these bugs, they could be used as weapon materials if taken outside, yet here they are growing into a disaster!"

"The District Government isn’t interested in alien resources at all!" Dai Song surprisingly replied, "They even use advanced materials for the screws in their lights, how could they be interested in these things!"

In the midst of their questioning and answering, the battle with the boar herd had already commenced. Fortunately, the boars showed little interest in them, chasing after the beetles after passing the vehicle.

Xu Huo took the opportunity to grab a pig leg, "This looks edible."

Mutated animals aren’t all poisonous, nor are they all polluted; more often they naturally evolve like humans, and what changes occur after evolution depends on luck.

But Xu Huo used the "Appraisal Fork" to test it, confirmed it was non-toxic before bringing it back to the vehicle with relief.

Fan Zhigang was also a bold one. Hearing this, he immediately jumped off the vehicle to haul up the boar he killed, using a prop to wrap a membrane around it outside to prevent the smell of blood from attracting more aliens.

"Brother Gou Wu has a chef’s certificate, and I brought spices," he said.

"Can you cook in this situation?" Dai Song couldn’t help but feel disappointed in their attitude, thinking they were giving up after losing the instance target. Not to mention there was nowhere safe to stop and rest, and even if there was, the smell of the food would attract more aliens. Indulging for fun was fine, but it could only make their situation more difficult.

"We’re relatively safe now; don’t be so tense," Fan Zhigang was unconcerned, asking from the roof: "Do you guys have a venue prop? If so, we could cook tonight!"