Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 355 Indiscriminate Killing

When asked, Mr. Dong wasn’t clear about the specifics, but Hu Shan told them that Li Chao had some urgent business and had left the ancient castle ahead of schedule, mentioning it to her before he left.

Liu Zhengping was about to lose his temper at that point. Three players had already vanished without a word and the disappeared guests hadn’t been found. Instead of sitting ducks, it was better to strike a blow and directly go after the lair of the boss of the instance.

However, before he could act, a hand reached out and held him by the shoulder on each side, one was You Qiwen, which wasn’t strange considering how close they were, but the other was Xu Huo.

That’s when Mr. Dong spoke up, "Mr. Ma and Mrs. Ma also left last night."

The players didn’t have much of a reaction; the Ma Family Couple had little contact with the other players and were highly likely to be Cannibal Players, so their deaths were seen as a good thing to them.

In contrast, Hu Shan cast a glance at Mr. Dong, her face clearly showing her emotions, "When did they leave?"

"Around midnight." Just as Mr. Dong finished speaking, he heard a servant calling him, so he bowed slightly to the players and left.

Hu Shan had always been unfriendly towards the players, barely maintaining the courtesies that were expected of her, and she sharply warned them, "The third floor has many valuable items, and it would be best for you not to wander up there unless necessary. Otherwise, anything that goes missing will be blamed on you!"

If the players hadn’t seen the rooms on the third floor, they might have disregarded her warning, but it was a room full of potions and collected artifacts that anyone would covet. Hearing her words, even Liu Zhengping with his bad temper held his tongue.

Flay’s expression didn’t look good, "Li Chao must have been killed, he was on the third floor last night."

"What was he doing on the third floor? Didn’t I say that it’s off-limits for now..." You Qiwen stopped mid-sentence realizing something, "Was he there to steal something?"

"Has he gone mad? We haven’t even completed the instance mission yet, what was there to steal?" Liu Zhengping found it unbelievable. It was normal to grab something on the way out once you made sure you were leaving, but to offend the instance boss for no reason was akin to a death wish.

"It seems he was very confident he wouldn’t get caught," sighed Flay.

The others were silent until a few seconds later when You Qiwen said, "It looks like the Ma Family Couple are also dead. By now, we can almost be certain that within this castle, the murderers include at least Hu Shan and Mr. Dong."

"Wait a minute," Liu Zhengping interrupted, turning to Xu Huo, "If you want to join in, you need to provide some valuable information."

Xu Huo had previously declined to cooperate when Flay invited everyone with a Contract, and thus shouldn’t share the information they had obtained through risks.

"I can," Xu Huo was equally straightforward, "I can tell you something definite, this instance contains non-mission players, and the Ma Family Couple were among them."

The people present turned to look at him, when Wei Landeng said, "So you were indeed aiming to alert us? What about the previous banquet?"

"How do you prove what you’re saying is true?" asked Flay, frowning.

Xu Huo took out four invitations, "The signed invitations are given by the game, the ones without signatures I seized from a Cannibal Player."

"The Ma Family Couple came to seek me out on the first day we arrived, probably because they thought I was one of them, due to the scent of corpses on my umbrella."

"Did they mention who invited them?" Liu Zhengping asked quickly.

"They didn’t know either," Xu Huo replied, putting the invitations away, "This should be enough to prove my identity."

"You could have been upfront from the beginning, no need for the secrecy," said You Qiwen.

"What difference does it make?" Chen Nan spoke up, "Whether mission players or non-mission players, haven’t some of both types died already?"

"That I don’t understand," said Liu Zhengping, "If non-mission players are involved, shouldn’t they be targeting us? Why would they be killed too?"

Flay looked at Xu Huo, "Did you kill the Ma Family Couple?"

"Of course not," Xu Huo said, "I’m also a Level D Player, how could I possibly take on two opponents at once? They probably met the same fate as Fang Min."

The Chen Brothers glanced at him.

"Could it be that there is someone in the castle helping us?" exclaimed Wei Landeng, surprised.

"Not necessarily helping us," said You Qiwen, not as optimistic, "The likelihood of indiscriminate killing is higher."

"Let me get this straight," said Flay, "So you’re saying someone in the castle deliberately invited non-mission players to muddy the waters, and then another person is indiscriminately killing players... Are they the same person?"

"It’s hard to say," Xu Huo questioned, "Have you found any clues about the disappeared guests?"

"We’ve looked everywhere outside that we could, and we also checked the back pavilion," You Qiwen said, "There were no conditions for hiding bodies. When we visited the third floor yesterday, I roughly measured the length of the rooms both inside and out, there’s no space for a cavity in the walls."

"What’s left are the rooms He Pu frequently uses, especially the bedroom, resting room, and music room."

"But these places are the most dangerous, and we’d have to lure He Pu down to get there."

"How do we lure him? He’s always up there," said Liu Zhengping.

"Dinner, he comes down for dinner," Wei Landeng said, "We would have half an hour to an hour’s time."

"But we can’t leave our seats at that time," said Chen Tu, "Even if we do, we probably can’t avoid Mr. Dong and Hu Shan."

"I can go," said Xu Huo, "I’ve been dining alone in my room these past two days, so a trip there shouldn’t be a problem."

"But I was attacked the night before last, haven’t you encountered any dangers these past few nights?"

"No," said Wei Landeng, looking around, "We all stayed in our rooms."

"Neither have we," added Chen Tu.

Xu Huo nodded to show he understood and then said, "You all will need to find a way to keep Hu Shan and Mr. Dong occupied during dinner."

You Qiwen and the others indicated that it wouldn’t be a problem.

"Are there any more non-mission players among us?" asked Flay, hesitantly.

Ever since Xu Huo presented concrete evidence, everyone had been avoiding the question.

"Actually, it’s easy to tell who the non-mission players are, by checking the invitations," Chen Tu said calmly, "But at this point, the non-mission players are in the same boat as us, there’s no need for infighting, is there?"

"I agree," said You Qiwen, his dark face looking very serious, "Any in-fighting greatly increases the risk of failing the instance, and this time it’s clear that the difficulty has exceeded its usual scope."

Naturally, nobody objected, given the clear death of one player and four others missing, sticking together was the only way out.

"Then it’s decided," they concluded.

After laying out a simple plan of action, Wei Landeng brought out a pair of stress-relief toy chickens the size of steamed buns, "This artifact can pass along simple messages. As long as the toy is held by two different people, squeezing one end will cause the other to deflate—once for action, twice for retreat, three times for danger."