Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 425: The Third Underground Level

Chapter 425: Chapter 425: The Third Underground Level

"Are those... plants?" Wan Yunrong asked, not quite certain.

A "mound" stood just a few meters away from them, where tall stem plants were arranged like trees, albeit all white in color, including their crowns. At first glance, it looked as though a mushroom was perched atop each one, but upon closer inspection, those "mushrooms" were layers of overlapping petals, shedding white powder with the "mound’s" breathing.

"Everyone, stop moving!" Ge Pan commanded, "These must be the plants that sprayed the powder just now!"

The players began to move more cautiously, only daring to walk slowly along the edge of the "mound," and such "mounds" nearly occupied the entire third underground level.

As Xu Huo looked towards the bottom of the "mound" along the plant stems, his expression subtly changed after a careful examination—these so-called "mounds" were filled with corpses!

Because they were wearing gas masks, they couldn’t smell the outside air and only realized after a while, "If I’m not seeing things, that should be a human head, right?"

When Chu Yuan spoke, he shone the light at the spot he mentioned, and everyone followed his gaze, indeed seeing a black, hairy, round object held by the stem of an outer plant. The black hair was undoubtedly human hair, and upon closer inspection, they could see the purplish, somewhat desiccated face turned downwards.

"This person hasn’t been dead for long, quite a bit of flesh has been consumed," Miao Yu remarked.

"Hey, it looks like there are corpses under all these plants!" Chu Yuan exclaimed in shock, pointing at the "mound."

Just in their immediate view, there were seven or eight "mounds." Assuming thirty bodies per "mound," that was at least two hundred counting upwards.

Even in a game where killing and being killed was frequent, the sight of so many corpses fermenting together was enough to send a chill down their spines. The upper floors were fine, but who would have thought the situation would change so drastically here, turning into a mortuary!

"So many corpses, could they be staff from before?" Wan Yunrong wondered.

"Doesn’t seem like it," Xu Huo said, squatting in front of one of the mounds for a closer look, "Judging by their clothes and the degree of decay, they should be players."

"Players?!" The realization hit the players like a shock.

"Who else would come here besides players?" Xu Huo countered.

That made sense. The deceased players were used as fertilizer here, and the upper levels were unnaturally clean. So who was transporting the bodies here?

"There can’t really be ghosts, right?" This time, Gan Qing was the one who spoke.

"No wonder there’s no guide for this instance online. It turns out none of the players who came here lived to leave," Mao Wei said, shaking his head slightly.

"Are we still going in?" Wan Yunrong asked.

There was a field of "mounds" ahead, all made up of players, and everyone present could feel the chill creeping up their spine.

"I think we should take a look," Xu Huo said, "Whoever brought the bodies here definitely wasn’t a player; it could be someone hiding in the instance."

This theory wasn’t baseless. The instance was on an island, and the island wasn’t completely isolated. Anyone could come, and if they hid in the woods, they wouldn’t be easy to find. For safety, it was best to confirm if someone was hiding on this level before proceeding.

However, Xu Huo’s purpose wasn’t just that.

The likelihood of someone hiding here was very slim; he wanted to check if this level had blocked passageways like the ones above.

He casually released two small flying surveillance drones.

As they carefully made their way through the territory of the mutant plants, they found that the corridor ahead was completely blocked by corpses and mutant plants.

Xu Huo moved closer to inspect the bodies, different from the ones they’d passed earlier. The "mounds" encompassed a wide range of time, but the corridor contained older corpses.

From top to bottom, all three levels had this spot blocked.

The cryptic warning texts on the metal walls of the upper floors were nothing to worry about, but because of this barrier, Deep Blue Laboratory was split in half. That meant the players were only exploring half of the laboratory.

The floorplan showed that the other side had a similar layout, complete with a large door. The three doors of the laboratory were separated from the outside, and now that the interior paths were blocked, reaching the other side would require going around from the outside.

Not only Xu Huo wanted to check out the other half of the laboratory. Qiu Xiangdong said, "We can now be sure that aside from the players who entered this time, there are no others on this side. But we’re not the only ones in this instance; the non-instance players could be hiding in the next room. This so-called game could just be toying with us. The instance requires participation in the game but doesn’t require victory."

Putting that aside, the game changed from "killing ghosts" to "catching ghosts."

"He’s got a point," Ge Pan said, "Failing to catch a ghost would merely mean not passing the game, but if we were to fight each other to the death, few would survive in the end."

"Whether the game demands it or not, now that we know there’s someone here aside from the players, it’s best to find that person first," Miao Yu agreed.

After exiting the third underground level, Ge Pan relayed everyone’s thoughts to the other three people. In the end, they decided to temporarily pause the game and head to the other half of the laboratory.

On the first underground level, Miao Yu, Ge Pan, and a few others took turns using their props to make holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling but couldn’t. After searching around for a potential secret mechanism and finding nothing, they gave up and returned to the surface via the elevator, planning to walk around the outside of the laboratory.

However, the main door was blocked by an invisible force, making it impossible to leave.

Gan Qing hammered against the unseen wall, "Why can’t we enter or leave, but the non-instance players can!"

"Others might not be able to either. They only need to wait for the instance to end to come in and collect the bodies," Miao Yu responded with a shrug.

This brought them back to square one, and they had to continue playing the "human catch ghost" game.

"How about a gentleman’s agreement?" Ge Pan suggested, "The board game is about humans catching ghosts, with the goal being to remain human and win. But the instance doesn’t require that. Maybe we can ignore the results of this game and avoid fighting to the death."

"Your suggestion would only work if the ghost isn’t a player," Mao Wei pointed out coldly.

The instance didn’t dictate winning or losing, but since they participated in the game, winning was obviously better, and they might even get an instance reward.

"Then it’s simple, we just catch the ghost," Wu Xiaonan said, "Grab anyone, and we’ll know if it matches what the instance requires."

"We can try it tonight," as Miao Yu suggested, they would all stay in one room that evening, taking turns to try.

With two ghosts present, as long as the "ghost" wasn’t completely killed off, a new "ghost" would appear, erasing the worry that only one person could pass and the "ghost" might disappear, preventing a new "ghost" from emerging.