Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 156: Trapped in a Secret Room

Chapter 156: Chapter 156: Trapped in a Secret Room

Xu Huo remained motionless, his breathing unchanged, as he faced the puppet.

After about ten seconds, the puppet twisted its head and clattered back upstairs with its tapping steps. Before long, the sound of chopping meat echoed from above.

In silence, Xu Huo returned to the ground floor, climbed the stairs and looked up at Tao Chengxin who was stuck on the corner of the ceiling; he gestured her to come down with a crooked finger.

Tao Chengxin landed lightly like a cat, and in the faint light from the window, she inspected Xu Huo’s expression. Finding that his emotions hadn’t fluctuated in the slightest, she pulled a self-mocking smile.

The two avoided the meat-chopping puppet on the second floor and returned to the fifth. Xu Huo kicked open the door to one of the rooms. It was empty, with no signs of the bedding being used.

Tao Chengxin searched around, knocking and tapping, then crawled out from under the bed, "There’s a secret passage here."

Xu Huo moved the bed aside, lifted the ring on the floor, and a staircase appeared underneath.

"Shall we go in?" Tao Chengxin asked, "There might be more puppets below..."

She didn’t finish her sentence before Xu Huo had already started descending. She paused, then hurriedly followed.

To their surprise, the tunnel led to a very pleasant dining room.

The walls, casually lined with red bricks, hung various block-shaped scented candles and baskets of flowers. Warm colored spotlights shone on the four corners of the room, where a skull-shaped decoration was placed in each corner, their mouths each holding a scroll.

In the center of the room hung a massive chandelier, beneath which was a dining table about ten meters long, covered with red cloth and with a three-armed candlestick in the middle, and chairs at both ends.

"What is this place?" Tao Chengxin asked instinctively, while Xu Huo turned to look behind them, frowning, "The door’s disappeared."

They had just emerged from the passageway; the door should have been two meters behind them, but it had turned into a wall in the blink of an eye.

Tao Chengxin went up to the wall to knock it down, but found it solid and unbreakable.

"Let’s search around." Xu Huo said.

The two started to feel their way around the room, knocking and tapping everywhere, even using props, only to confirm one fact: they were truly trapped.

All the walls, including the ceiling and floor, were solid. Their earlier descent was nothing but an illusion.

"Is this a trait of a high-level player or a prop?" Tao Chengxin searched the room with her gaze, "There’s not even a window or a hole, how do we get out?"

Xu Huo was also unclear, but the girl in the white dress had specifically lured him here; it likely wasn’t just to trap him.

"We need to figure out the rules of this place." He looked around and then his eyes landed on the scrolls in the skulls’ mouths in the corners.

"Don’t touch!" Tao Chengxin immediately stopped him the moment she saw his action, her face grave, "You dare to mess with things in the instance, what if it’s a trap?"

"Do you have another idea?" Xu Huo countered.

"That’s not an option!" Tao Chengxin said, "Think again, there might be a way. Don’t touch anything here unless it’s absolutely necessary!"

Xu Huo did not argue, acknowledging her words and withdrawing his hand. However, at that moment, his vision blurred, and he found himself sitting at the dining table.

His reflex was to stand up, but his body was restricted by some inexplicable force, keeping him from leaving his chair, and even his arms were fixed to the armrests. Only his fingers could move.

Tao Chengxin opposite of him was in the same situation; she struggled and looked over, "I can’t move!"

"Same here," Xu Huo replied with a slightly heavy gaze. He controlled the strings hidden under his chair with his fingers and threw the Dual-color Cube at his feet.

Tao Chengxin caught his action, focused intently for a moment, when out of nowhere, a life-sized realistic frog appeared before her. The frog, the size of a human head, made a "croak" sound and then started circling her as if swimming.

"Croak!"

"Oof!"

Three frogs leapt out in succession, each giving a croak before opening their mouths wide to join the swimming squadron circling around her.

Despite having taken basic defense measures, Tao Chengxin still attempted to break free from the chair’s restraints, but it was all to no avail.

"Still keeping it together, huh?" she looked at Xu Huo. "Aren’t you afraid someone will take advantage of us being immobilized to play dirty tricks?"

"Afraid," Xu Huo answered tersely, but his expression remained unchanged.

Tao Chengxin cursed under her breath and turned her head to scan the surroundings, shouting, "Is there anyone still breathing out there to come out?"

"Tying us to these chairs, are you planning to starve us to death?"

"Give us a straight answer about what you’re planning!"

...

"Got the guts to do it but not to admit it, are you too ugly to show your face or something?"

"Grandma here has a strong heart, I’m not scared of the ugly ones, come out and I definitely won’t laugh at you!"

"Coward! Scaredy-cat..."

She kept yelling and cursing like this for five minutes, and after receiving no response, she exhaled and reverted to her normal tone, "I knew this level wouldn’t let anyone get through it so easily."

With that, she glared at Xu Huo opposite her, "I really shouldn’t have followed you in here!"

"You were the one who wanted a bargain, don’t blame others when you’re duped," Xu Huo glanced at her indifferently, then nodded toward the Skull, "Any way to get the scroll over here?"

"Looks like you knew I was tailing you," Tao Chengxin said irritably. "I don’t get it, why did you come to Bear’s Paw Restaurant?"

"You didn’t even stay here last night."

"Same as you, following someone else, fell into the trap," Xu Huo finished and repeated his earlier point, "The scroll."

"You’re pretty good at giving orders, but I can’t do it," Tao Chengxin said without a second thought.

"Use the equipment you had hanging outside the window yesterday," Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, "Don’t tell me you don’t have a single long-range tool."

Startled, Tao Chengxin’s face fell, "How did you recognize me?"

Indeed, she was the "female ghost" who had gone to bother Xu Huo last night.

"It’s not hard to recognize you, get the scroll over here and I’ll tell you," Xu Huo offered the deal.

Tao Chengxin stared at him silently, her gaze flickering with dangerous light.

But Xu Huo seemed oblivious, adding, "We are allies now."

He had recognized her that morning at the door of the Yongxing Clubhouse; she had the same scent as the "female ghost," likely from something she applied to her face which the Cleansing Potion hadn’t completely removed.

"I know you’re strapped for cash, otherwise you wouldn’t dare to rob a place without even entering," he said. "Afraid Yongxing Clubhouse will make you pay up?"

Since Yongxing could contract out a train’s kitchen and open a shop inside the game, of course, it feared no player defaults, even if the player had no money, they surely had their ways of collecting debts.

"Yongxing rips off customers with ruthlessness, and you’re not far behind, why bother being a player? Consider switching to business instead."