Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 168 The Aging Girl in the White Dress

Chapter 168: Chapter 168 The Aging Girl in the White Dress

Xu Huo lifted the light-blocking cloth from the cage, revealing not only a dead cat but also a ball-shaped wooden puppet sticking to it.

The other players, including Tao Chengxin, watched in astonishment.

"Found it in the Bear Claw Restaurant Secret Room, it was poisoned to death," Xu Huo said to the girl in the white dress.

"So that’s what happened," the girl in the white dress sighed, shaking her head, "I’ve already warned it not to eat things recklessly. The faint toxin in the Cannibal Player’s corpse is a deadly poison to ordinary small animals."

After finishing her words, she glanced at the wooden puppet and laughed, "You really thought of a clever way to deal with the smiling puppet."

"It was just luck," Xu Huo said. "This puppet seems to have quite a background."

"Judging from its craftsmanship, it’s very rough, not comparable to even the least skilled Artifact Maker in the game, but its owner is formidable. If you want to use this puppet, it’s best not to let its corners of mouth turn upwards." The girl in the white dress looked outside at the sky, "It’s dinner time, what will you all have?"

"No need!" Sun Jirou immediately said, "We all ate before coming."

"Don’t be nervous, little girl, I’m just making some vegetable soup." The voice of the girl in the white dress was slightly hoarse as she got up and walked out; there was a small vegetable patch outside the yard.

"I’ll help you." Xu Huo followed her out, with Tao Chengxin closely following behind.

As the three of them left, Wang Qiao and Gao Baimei immediately stood up to keep watch and then turned to nod at Tang Yuan.

In his hand, Tang Yuan produced a potion, quickly adding two drops to the teapot.

"What are you doing?" Sun Jirou lowered her voice in surprise.

Tang Yuan made a silent gesture towards her and sat back down just as Xu Huo and the others came back through the door.

The open kitchen was right behind the sofa, where Tao Chengxin and Xu Huo helped wash vegetables while the girl in the white dress chopped them for the soup.

With her back to everyone, she suddenly said, "It’s no fun just sitting around waiting; how about I tell you a story?"

The complexion of the people behind her changed slightly, but Xu Huo remained unperturbed and agreed.

The girl in the white dress continued to chop vegetables while she began telling the story of a king and his knights.

Sun Jirou and the others exchanged glances, uncertain if there was a hidden message in her words, but ultimately, they decided to endure it. Meanwhile, Tang Yuan quietly slid the access card into the crack of the sofa.

They had already heard the story of the king and the knights during the day, so when Sun Jirou heard her reach the part where the knight hesitates whether to reconcile with the king after driving away the external enemies, she said, "What’s the point of fighting with the king at this time? It’s the common people who will get hurt in the end."

"They will still get hurt?" Tao Chengxin disagreed, "When the knight was initially driven away, no one spoke up for him; instead, they repeatedly reported and attacked him, and colluded with the external enemies to harm their own people. Do these people deserve pity?"

"What’s the reason? Just because they outnumber the others?"

"Is the life of ten people a life, but not the life of one?"

"That’s true, but what can the knight gain from continuing to resist the king? It’s nothing more than the perpetuation of hatred," Sun Jirou said. "Enemies and friends are defined based on current interests. If the age of hatred continues, to put it bluntly, an entire race might be exterminated."

"I have a question," Xu Huo turned to look at Sun Jirou, "If you come across a bear in the wild that has killed a person and is eating the corpse, what would you do?"

"Of course, I would kill it," Sun Jirou didn’t hesitate.

"Why?"

"Because a bear killed people, what else could it be for?" Gao Baimei retorted sharply.

"There’s a theory that once a bear has eaten a person, the instinct that ’humans can be food’ gets etched into its genes, and its offspring will also eat people. That’s why such genes must not be allowed to continue," Sun Jirou roughly explained, understanding Xu Huo’s point, and then said, "In this story, most people are coerced and don’t really want to commit evil."

Xu Huo neither agreed nor disagreed and turned to help the girl in the white dress cook soup.

After waiting for a while, Sun Jirou couldn’t help but speak up, "What exactly do you mean? Just speak clearly!"

"What do you think about the people in Fairy Tale City?" Xu Huo asked.

Rendered speechless, Sun Jirou considered that although the people in Fairy Tale City did not directly consume humans, eating the things that grew from the bodies of the Alien kind was almost the same as cannibalism. As fellow humans, they felt no pity for their former compatriots and even developed their tourism using it as a selling point... Being intelligent beings, it was much easier for them to continue this "cannibalistic" genetic trait than for animals!

The room fell silent; after a while, Tang Yuan picked up the teapot, "We’ve talked so much, let’s have some tea."

Yang Sheng helped to take the cups for the girl in the white dress and Xu Huo, but as he approached, he suddenly noticed that the girl’s hair had turned significantly grayer. Puzzled, he saw her turn around and stepped back in shock, "How did you age so suddenly!"

The girl in the white dress, originally in her early twenties, now looked at least in her forties or fifties. Spots and wrinkles had appeared on her previously smooth skin, and her eyes had lost their former brightness, surrounded by bloodshot whites.

"Player characteristic." The girl, whose voice aged along with her appearance, pointed to the broken cup on the floor, "Clean it up."

Before the other players could recover from the shock of her sudden aging, Yang Sheng unconsciously started sweeping as she commanded.

The others twitched, and Tao Chengxin quickly grabbed Xu Huo, who was moving towards the girl, "Don’t go over there!"

Xu Huo showed no particular reaction to the girl in the white dress’s "reverse aging" ability. He touched the teapot, lifted the lid, and poured out all the leftover tea, "It’s cold, let’s brew some more."

The others, especially Tang Yuan in front, were nearly grinding their teeth, but the girl in the white dress cheerfully said, "The soup is ready, let’s drink."

"Auntie, how should I address you?" Xu Huo asked, lending a hand while making casual conversation.

"My surname is Bai, you may call me Granny Bai," the ’girl in the white dress,’ who was still aging, replied.

"The elderly person we met today during the day was?"

"He’s my cousin. He got a bit disturbed and his mind hasn’t been quite right ever since. He goes to bed early in the evening," she explained.

"Is it just the two of you living here?"

"That’s right. All the family and friends in this house are dead; only we two old things are left. In about ten more days, he will die too, and then it will just be me."

"I see you’ve planted a lot of flowers outside; did you used to run a flower shop?"

"My husband and I both liked to garden. We used to have a flower shop, but I closed it after he died, and now I just tend to my own yard."

"Haven’t you thought about going out? Fairy Tale City is too small."

"I can’t leave this place; I can only wander around nearby," she explained.

The bowls of soup were ready, and when the old lady turned around again, her face had changed once more. Sun Jirou jumped to her feet, "You’re the old person from the tour bus!"

Granny Bai smiled warmly as she placed the soup on the table, "The young lady’s vision is not so good; the young man traveling with you recognized me long ago."