Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 419: When Darkness Falls, Do Not Open the Door

Chapter 419: Chapter 419: When Darkness Falls, Do Not Open the Door

Chu Yuan rolled his eyes, "How could there possibly be ghosts in the world? You believe in that kind of rumor?"

"Better safe than sorry," Xu Huo said. "What if they really exist?"

Just as Chu Yuan was about to say something, the curly-haired female player standing beside them leaned in with a smile, "Want to buy some charms? They’re specially effective against ghosts, guaranteed to work, or triple your money back."

Xu Huo was slightly surprised. He had never seen anyone associate with supernatural forces since he had entered the game. Were there really players evolving in that direction?

"Revealing Charms, Thunder Charms, Home Protection Charms, Disease Removing Charms, Peach Blossom Charms... Whatever effect you want, we’ve got it." She pulled out a flag from her sleeve, which had various-sized yellow talismans hanging from it.

With just a glance, Xu Huo understood what these talismans really were.

"Static powder, pocket-sized electric traps, electrified door locks, Self-Healing Potions, hormone stimulants... You’ve got the nerve to claim these things specifically work against ghosts?" Chu Yuan also chimed in.

"We evolve with the times," the curly-haired female player, Wan Yunrong, didn’t get angry at being exposed, but instead smiled and said, "They might be called something different, but the effect is top-notch."

"Only a fool would buy..." Chu Yuan’s words trailed off as he saw Xu Huo taking out his money. His eyes bulged and he said, "A fool and his money are soon parted," but he didn’t interfere with their transaction.

The exchange between Xu Huo and Wan Yunrong was just a minor episode. The crew only knew superficial things about the islands, such as common knowledge about toxic flora and fauna, the characteristics of rare minerals, while what the players really wanted to know about the inside of Deep Blue Laboratory remained a mystery. The information that wasn’t available online was also unknown to the crew.

That is to say, even though so many players had visited Deep Blue Laboratory, no one had leaked any inside information about the copies. Maybe there wasn’t a right price, or maybe the copies were too perilous, a matter of life and death, leaving no opportunity to share.

"This is just my luck, why did it have to be this copy? You can find guides for other copies online," Peace Chunsheng complained.

The remaining players didn’t say anything, but their expressions remained tense.

The large ship stopped at the island’s original port, and the players began to disembark.

About twenty people remained on the ship, nine followed the ship away, and only twelve got off here.

Aside from Xu Huo and Chu Yuan, there was the masked player, Mao Wei, the short-haired female player, Miao Yu, Peace Chunsheng, who had fought with her, the "yellow charm" peddler Wan Yunrong, and six others.

"The water is so blue." Wan Yunrong gazed at the sea, "It’d definitely be great for a vacation here."

"Vacation? Did you see what’s behind us?" Chu Yuan said.

A few meters away from them, dense climbing vines grew along containers, forming a series of undulating "hills" on the dock, which connected to a huge primeval forest.

The aggressively growing but oddly shaped flora compressed the landscape inside the island into a uniform darkness. From the dock, it looked like a green hole so dark it was almost black. Movement and noises from animals scurried in the underbrush, intermittent cries of strange birds echoed, and before nightfall, pairs of luminous moving dots could be seen flitting through the depths of the woods.

It didn’t look like a safe place at all.

Xu Huo walked a few steps with Chu Yuan before turning back to watch the large ship as it sailed away. On the deck, Dr. Deng gazed toward the center of Deep Blue Island, whispering with a man and a woman beside him.

The distance was too far, and with the sound of the waves and wind, he couldn’t make out the content, but the remaining nine people obviously knew each other.

"What do you think, could there be mutant animals everywhere here?" asked a fair-skinned and refined middle-aged woman anxiously, "The dock is nearly ten kilometers away from the entrance to the laboratory, isn’t the risk too high?"

"Not necessarily," Miao Yu said, "Someone built a laboratory here before, so there must be some protective measures. If there were no protective measures outside, then most likely there aren’t any large animals. What we really need to watch out for are the poisonous plants and animals."

"Besides, isn’t there a path cleared by players up ahead?"

Her point made sense, and several players nodded slightly.

"What are you looking at?" Chu Yuan tugged on the rope, "The boat will come back sooner or later."

Xu Huo watched the large boat disappear behind the island’s rocks and then turned his attention back, saying, "The copy message has arrived."

[Player Passerby A has entered Deep Blue Island and is consequently participating in the Level D Copy "When Darkness Falls, Do Not Open the Door."]

[Background Introduction: Deep Blue Island was once a natural island renowned for its animal and plant resources. Its intact ecological environment became the perfect research base for scientists, who, according to incomplete statistics, conquered thirteen stubborn diseases after establishing the Deep Blue Laboratory, making a significant contribution to human health.]

[After the start of the world’s evolution, the animals and plants on Deep Blue Island also went through strange changes. Overgrowing plants completely took over the laboratory built underneath the island. In order to protect the mutated flora and fauna, the laboratory staff collected sample data and then sealed the laboratory, leading it to fall into total neglect. Over time, tales of ghosts and monsters began to circulate.]

["This is a scientific world." That was the life motto of Professor Wu, the founder of Deep Blue Laboratory, and it also became the motto of the laboratory members and their juniors. To break the rumors and seek the truth, batch after batch of scholars arrived at the island and started playing the laboratory’s traditional game—Ghost Catching.]

[Players please enter Deep Blue Laboratory before midnight today. Special reminder, the rules of the Ghost Catching game are displayed on the laboratory’s topic board.]

[Level D Copy Task One: Participate in the game.]

[Level D Copy Task Two: Catch the "ghost."]

[Copy Duration: Seven days.]

After reading the game introduction, Peace Chunsheng said with an expression hard to describe, "A game within a game?"

"Just from the game introduction, this copy isn’t exactly an extreme survival copy. Mutant animals might be a bit tricky, but it’s not difficult to survive the seven days," said a middle-aged man dressed like a hippie. "The difficulty probably lies in this ’Ghost Catching’ game."

"The specifics will only become clear after we see the rules of the game," said a gentlemanly middle-aged man with glasses standing behind him, "Let’s set off first. As we go onto the island, let’s introduce ourselves along the way. It would be awkward if we couldn’t even call each other by name later on."

"My name is Ge Pan, I used to be a director."

"Gan Qing," nodded the middle-aged hippie.

The group proceeded into the forest while introducing themselves. Besides Xu Huo and the others he already knew, the rest were the fair-skinned middle-aged woman Zhu Rumin who had spoken earlier, a young woman with a bun named Wu Xiaonan, a man dressed in mechanic’s clothing named Chang Chengyong, and Qiu Xiangdong, who wore a flowered shirt and tropical pants.

Being their first meeting, the players were very cautious with each other. Other than Ge Pan, who was a director, and Wu Xiaonan, who had been a single-player game live streamer before switching to being a copy commentator, no one else revealed much information.