Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die! -
Chapter 424: Looking for an Item
Chapter 424: Chapter 424: Looking for an Item
Unlike the simple sweeps outside, the staff’s living quarters were a complete murder scene—minus the bloodstains. Walls, floors, decorations, everything that could be destroyed had been destroyed, including the AI mannequins, whose heads and limbs had all been dismantled.
"This is the work of a psychopath!" Wan Yunrong said. "Even the AI mannequins were taken apart, what kind of grudge is this?"
This wasn’t about a grudge, but about searching for something, and not like the players were looking for valuable items, but specifically for a small object. Otherwise, the limbs of the AI mannequins wouldn’t have been spared.
Xu Huo’s gaze swept across the faces of the other three present. "Maybe there’s something good here."
"Shall we look for it too?" Wan Yunrong said eagerly, rubbing her hands together.
"Forget it, would there still be anything good left for us if there were?" Chu Yuan said without hope.
Wan Yunrong teased him, "Didn’t the AI mannequin in the cabinet just now wait for you?"
Chu Yuan’s face darkened. "If you’re going to look, hurry up! After searching, we’ll go down to the next level!"
The group searched the room and indeed found nothing worth taking. Miao Yu even pried at the wall tiles in the corner, with the same result as the other broken areas that were exposed.
After ten or so instances, players have developed a fixed pattern for dealing with instance spaces. In addition to checking the visible exterior, there were also specialized detection instruments or tools to discover things that can’t be seen on the surface.
Those who were leading, like Mao Wei and Ge Pan, were already operating the equipment.
"With so many rooms, we can’t finish searching them all by nightfall." Chu Yuan glanced at them and said, "There’s more than one smart person here."
Miao Yu and the previously enthusiastic Wan Yunrong headed towards the next room. Chu Yuan was about to follow, but the rope in his hand tightened. He turned back to look at the person examining a torn-up painting. "Is there something wrong with the painting?"
The painting was in a dark art style. A large part of the canvas was covered in black, with a lower perspective looking up at a dark window, on which there was a lighter handprint.
"The painter’s skills aren’t that great," Chu Yuan commented.
Xu Huo casually set the painting aside and continued to check the other rooms.
Among the myriad of rooms, aside from everyday items, AI mannequins and similar paintings were the most numerous. Some of the paintings had been damaged, but they could still be viewed with simple patching.
Some of these paintings were colorful, others were not. There were no signatures on the paintings, but they seemed to be by the same artist. Even the colorful paintings looked very dirty. Most people would find them uncomfortable to look at first glance and wouldn’t want to stare at them for long.
Xu Huo’s inspection of the paintings drew the attention of several players, who shifted their focus to the paintings, only to walk away after failing to find anything of value.
Chu Yuan grew impatient. "Have you seen enough?"
He had asked Xu Huo several times if he had noticed anything, but Xu Huo had ignored him.
"Don’t you think these paintings fit the atmosphere here quite well?" Xu Huo said.
"Yes, equally eerie," Wan Yunrong said, touching the string of beads on her wrist.
"No, that’s not it," Chu Yuan suddenly said. "These paintings must have been hung a long time ago, before the staff of Deep Blue Laboratory left. At that time, the lab wouldn’t have been like this. Why would everyone hang such paintings in their rooms? There must be a hint! Let me look again!"
He snatched the painting from Xu Huo’s hands and stared hard at the terrifying shadow within.
"That’s not surprising," Miao Yu said indifferently, "Deep Blue Laboratory is located on an isolated island. Just look at how many rooms have those dual-purpose simulation people, and you’ll realize there probably aren’t many women. Plus, the work is monotonous and high-intensity—it’s normal for people to have psychological problems."
"Moreover, most of these paintings are likely done by the same person. If that person is the leader, then it’s not hard to understand why there are so many paintings hanging around."
"You should have led with that bombshell," Chu Yuan quickly threw the painting aside, "Mao Wei and the others have already gone to the third sublevel, we better hurry as well."
The four of them headed for the nearest elevator. Just as they walked past it, the elevator came up from below. Chu Yuan was lamenting that they were a step late but didn’t expect that when the elevator doors opened, the seven people who had gone down came back up. Wu Xiaonan and Zhu Rumin rushed out of the elevator first, coughing and wiping the white powder off their faces.
Xu Huo and the others instinctively stepped back, only then noticing that the inside of the elevator was frosted over with white. Mao Wei, Ge Pan, and the others were all dusted with the powder, but besides Mao Wei, who was wearing a mask all along, the rest had inhaled some of it.
"This stuff isn’t toxic, is it!" Chu Yuan immediately donned a gas mask.
Xu Huo, along with Wan Yunrong and Miao Yu, didn’t fall behind either.
Mao Wei and his team had used the antidote immediately. Ge Pan had a blood-testing device, and after waiting for a few minutes and checking his blood, he breathed a sigh of relief only after confirming there was no problem.
"What’s going on down there?" It was only then that Miao Yu asked.
"Didn’t get a clear look," Ge Pan said, "As soon as the elevator doors opened, a lot of dust blew in, with a hint of something rotted."
"There’s a mutant plant cultivation room on the third sublevel, could it be that the plants have withered?" Xu Huo guessed.
"That’s possible," Gan Qing said, "But I think it’s better not to go down. We cannot be sure that all the mutant plants are dead."
They were fortunate to only have been sprayed with a faceful of powder.
"The third sublevel should only have one-third of its area cultivating mutant plants," Miao Yu said, "We can try using a different elevator to go down."
"If you want to go, you go. I’m not going," Wu Xiaonan said, waving her hand at this suggestion. Zhu Rumin was at her side, supporting each other, hesitating before saying, "I’ll pass too, we were lucky just now, but what if it’s a toxic gas or powder... "
Indeed, they had all prepared protective suits before coming, but these suits were intended for mining. Little did they know they wouldn’t even see the shadow of the ores after arriving at the island, and so they hadn’t paid much attention to their gear.
Naturally, this also involved a sense of self-confidence in their evolution. Evolution wasn’t just about physical enhancement; resistance to toxins improved as well.
The players who still wanted to go down now donned protective suits. Wan Yunrong asked Xu Huo why he wasn’t changing into one, "Chu Yuan is going down, aren’t you going?"
The two were invariably tied together, with actions primarily led by Chu Yuan, so they were definitely going down.
"He’s been wearing a protective suit all along," Chu Yuan quipped with a curl of his lip, "It’s like a second skin."
Xu Huo chuckled warmly and then, after putting on his protective mask, said, "I’m afraid of dying."
Some of the players scoffed, others were solemn, but no more attention was given to him.
Zhu Rumin, Wu Xiaonan, and Chang Chengyong decided to stay behind, while the other eight took a different elevator.
Just like Miao Yu had said, they took another elevator down and encountered no powder, but the lighting in the floor didn’t come on automatically like the two floors above.
Chu Yuan set up a powerful spotlight, the strong light piercing through the darkness and landing on something resembling a small mound not too far away.
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