Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 1445 - 1446: Fairy Tale Creations and the Gaming World

Chapter 1445: Chapter 1446: Fairy Tale Creations and the Gaming World

With previous experience in the castle, Xu Huo once again sent Vertical Pupil inside to first understand the situation in the house.

Aside from the Jewel City resident who had once secretly spied on him in the street and the elderly lady who owned the house, there were two other bedraggled men in the room. They had just crawled out of the basement and were devouring the food the man had brought.

"Eat slowly." The elderly lady brought some water and gave a cup to the man who brought the food, "Wan En, thank you for bringing the items over."

The man called Wan En shook his head, "It’s been hard on Ai Li and Ai Shan these days since you can’t buy too much food conveniently."

Ai Li and Ai Shan were the two who emerged from the basement. Their names were similar, but one had red hair and the other brown, and they looked very different from each other.

After quickly finishing what was in his hands, Ai Li took a couple of sips of water to steady himself before asking, "What’s the situation now, is it still forbidden to go out of the city gates?"

Wan En nodded, "I’m afraid you’ll have to hide here for a while longer, and recently more outsiders have arrived in the city. These outsiders are strange, each seems very powerful..."

The expressions on Ai Li and Ai Shan’s faces changed; the former quickly asked, "Do they look like dolls?"

"Not exactly, but they resemble those dolls you described. They can disappear in an instant and then reappear far away, they can even fly." Wan En’s negative answer did not relax the two’s expressions. Ai Shan even showed fear, "They must be the ones Father mentioned, those doll-like people who can appear anywhere like magic and kill at will, even the King can’t do anything to stop them..."

"It’s not that the King can’t stop them, the King is in league with them!" Ai Li clenched his fists, eyes filled with hatred as he said, "Father saw with his own eyes that the servants in the castle took out a lot of dolls, and every so often, many people in the city go missing. It must be the King allowing those doll people to do this. The missing people might have been turned into dolls!"

"Ai Li," Wan En signaled to him to calm down, "it’s impossible for people to turn into dolls."

"Yes, it is!" As Ai Li argued, he pulled out a thumb-sized Black Gemstone and placed it on the table, "In these days, have you seen anyone with this kind of Black Gemstone? I saw it with my own eyes when I sneaked into the castle; I saw the Queen’s maid remove the Black Gemstone from a doll’s chest, and the living doll immediately became immobile!"

"Father must have been turned into a doll by them too, but I hadn’t found where the dolls are hidden before I alerted the Guards."

Ai Li painfully grasped his hair, "If I had acted a bit faster, I might have found Father..."

"Don’t blame yourself too much," Ai Shan said with sorrow but clarity, "even if you found Father turned into a doll, it wouldn’t mean you could bring him out. If the King really is involved in all this, he certainly wouldn’t let us out of the city."

"Uncle Wan En, do you still not believe in any of this?" Ai Li looked up at the man across from him, "It wasn’t just my father who saw the doll people!"

Wan En looked at him awkwardly, "By the time I heard about this, all the uncles and aunts living near you who had gone to the castle had all disappeared one by one, and shortly after, their families were also gone. Everything I know, I’ve learned from you guys."

"But recently, many outsiders have come. I’ve seen some of them carrying things similar to your Smoking Pipe."

Upon hearing this, Ai Li quickly took out a metal Smoking Pipe he had tucked at his waist, "This metal is very unusual, something that Jewel City has never had."

"Indeed, very unusual," Wan En said with a complex expression, "I saw someone use the same material to chop down three houses."

He was referring to the player pursuit from the first night.

"Doesn’t that make sense now!" Ai Li got excited, "Father said that doll man took a lot of strange items like this one to the King. The King must have turned Father and the others into dolls to get this powerful metal!"

As if having proof, he stood up and began pacing, then said, "We must tell everyone about this, or everyone might be turned into dolls!"

"Calm down first. With just a few of us saying this, how many people will believe it?" Wan En held him back, "Think it through carefully; first, we must ensure your safety."

They sat back down and began discussing how to spread this information. Previously, there was no way, but now, with so many strange outsiders in the city, there will surely be someone who uses their mind to think.

After listening to their conversation, Xu Huo also pieced together the backstory of the craftsmen’s disappearance.

The general course was that Ai Li’s father and other craftsmen accidentally stumbled upon the King making a deal with a doll-like person after they started working in the castle. The bargaining chips involved various Props — the Smoking Pipe Ai Li had stolen was one such Prop, while what the King presented seemed to be dolls made from Jewel City residents.

Turning living people into dolls and then using these dolls to trade for tools had surpassed the understanding of Jewel City’s residents, resulting in a certain degree of awakening. At least Ai Li and the others were no longer as naïve as other residents, understanding suspicion and resistance.

However, from Xu Huo’s perspective, the matter was easier to understand. fre/ew.ebnovel.c om

First, there were those dolls in the Queen’s workshop, evidencing that these dolls were indeed made by the Queen. It’s possible that all inhabitants of Jewel City were once evolved from such doll Props in a specific instance environment, hence "people turning into dolls" doesn’t exist.

Therefore, the craftsmen who stumbled upon the deal were most likely killed and then remade or discarded.

Secondly, breaking it down, it’s merely Prop trading for Props— the King traded the Queen’s doll Props and dolls with the doll person for Props that ordinary Players might use.

The identity of the doll person aside, it is a little strange that the King traded for the Props. The King and the Queen rarely leave the castle; they do not seem to use the Props themselves and seem unaware of their function — even the Codex Pen was stuffed in a corner, and when the King was asked for it, he had no hesitance. What do they need so many Props for?

Purchasing doll raw materials?

From the data placed in the castle, the core material used by the Queen in making doll Props, the Black Gemstone, was likely mass-produced, implying they’re not short of this stone... unless it’s to make higher-level dolls.

"Interesting."

For a moment, Xu Huo had various possibilities flash through his mind, all eventually settling on the doll person.

This instance hasn’t been open for long, yet the gem theft occurred a month ago, indicating that for a long period prior, the King and Queen were trading with the doll person. Regardless of whether this instance world exists in a fantastical Fairy Tale World or in reality, one thing is certain: at least one of the King or Queen has been in contact with the game world for a long time.