Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 531: Something’s Not Right

Chapter 531: Chapter 531: Something’s Not Right

That was a clearly mutated alien, its skin on the top of its head pale and cracked, forming twisted traces that at first glance looked like an exposed brain after the skull had been stripped away. Its face and eyes also showed signs of albinism.

After being driven out by Xu Huo, the alien lay prone on the ground, baring its teeth and hissing threats at him, but it did not attack.

Xu Huo hesitated for a moment, then threw out the kite string, intending to capture it alive. Unexpectedly, the alien was astonishingly quick, using a nearby pillar to dodge the string and escape into the distance. But before he could chase it, a miniature bomb flew from the front left, blasting the alien into a bloody, unrecognizable mess with a loud boom.

"Haha! Sorry about that, I got ahead of you!" Kang Yongjie then leaped out from behind the pillar, tapped the eyepatch with his finger, "That’s another one."

With Kang Yongjie were Hao Mei and Zhuo Wangsun. The female player Ergou and Siming, as well as the warrior they had taken hostage, were nowhere to be seen.

Compared to Kang Yongjie’s smugness, Zhuo Wangsun’s face looked rather grim.

"I didn’t expect you to get here so quickly." Kang Yongjie glanced back at Jin Dong, then asked, "Are Yi Mao and the others dead?"

"No, they went back to Clown City." Xu Huo kept it brief and nodded slightly toward Zhuo Wangsun before asking, "Did you just see the tide of aliens?"

"Of course, we saw it. That was no small event." Kang Yongjie stood in the distance, "You’re lucky you didn’t get caught up in it. I saw quite a few people get trampled to death. Where are you planning to go?"

"We’ll stick to the original plan and sweep the area." Xu Huo said, "It’s just that this Stone Forest Area isn’t marked on the map, so we’re not clear on the exact route."

"This is a maze," Zhuo Wangsun said at that moment. "This is my third time winding back here."

"Is there a dead end up ahead?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, "From the look of it, it shouldn’t be."

The Stone Forest was quite scattered and, although there were septa below, heading in the same direction shouldn’t have resulted in repeatedly hitting a dead end and having to turn back.

"But it is." Zhuo Wangsun shrugged his shoulders and mentioned the female player and Siming, who had been separated from them during the aftermath of the alien tide.

"If that’s the case, finding a path is the top priority." Xu Huo pointed to a fork in the path beside him, "I’ll go this way. My new friend here will come with me."

Zhuo Wangsun looked back at Kang Yongjie, "Splitting up is more efficient. I’ll take another path and leave markers along the way."

Kang Yongjie had no objections and said cheerfully, "We’re all companions here, just don’t sneak off on your own once you find the way."

Neither Xu Huo nor Zhuo Wangsun responded as Kang Yongjie laughed. But as he laughed, his expression turned gloomy, and he walked away first with Hao Mei.

Zhuo Wangsun didn’t split up as he had said, but followed Xu Huo, his voice low, "Be careful, his eagerness earlier could mean he has tampered with your gear."

"Have you been marked by him?" Xu Huo asked.

Zhuo Wangsun nodded, "I don’t know how he did it, but after entering the Stone Forest Area, I tried several times to shake off those two and they always found me. They must be using some special item."

Xu Huo kept moving, feeling the direction of the airflow as he continued forward, then asked, "Is that warrior you took dead?"

"He’s dead." Zhuo Wangsun’s face was stern, "He died at the hands of Kang Yongjie, who has no morals whatsoever. Moreover, I suspect he’s a Cannibal Player, far more physically capable than I am. It would be best to lose him."

"Did you receive a completion notification for your mission?" Xu Huo asked, "My glasses are broken."

Zhuo Wangsun was fairly forthright, "The game’s first mission objective probably doesn’t mean ten aliens. I’ve killed far more than that number of aliens and haven’t received any notification."

"Could it be that, because it’s a sequential mission, the game won’t notify you if only part of it is completed?" Xu Huo suggested.

"That’s possible, but I still find this sweep mission very strange." Zhuo Wangsun analyzed, "Not to mention the weapons supplied by Clown City to each warrior aren’t very good, even the maps are outdated. Moreover, we encountered an attack in the Gobi Zone. I feel that wasn’t from another warrior; the trajectory of the bullets was all wrong."

"Furthermore, when I ventured deeper into the cleanup area, I found something wrong with the soil."

"According to the detector, the soil contains a high concentration of an unknown element that even alters the growth of the surrounding plants. Staying in areas with high concentrations of this element for too long can affect you; some people who went into the jungle became agitated and developed a tendency for violence."

Xu Huo looked at him with a hint of surprise, "You’ve found so many clues. Do these have anything to do with clearing the game?"

Zhuo Wangsun hesitated, then shook his head, "I’m not sure. But the tasks in this game instance are strange. According to the game background, we’re supposed to be killing aliens in the cleanup zone. Why aren’t ten aliens the first mission objective, but instead ten targets?"

"Contaminating the water source can be said to kill aliens, but the third mission is odd, planting a war flag. That seems more like a war. Only after winning a war would you plant a war flag on the enemy’s territory."

"Maybe it’s not a war," Xu Huo said, "It reminds me of a technologically advanced sector I’ve been to before where holographic gaming was mature. Does it resemble the glasses we’re wearing?"

Zhuo Wangsun immediately reacted and tried to remove his glasses, but Xu Huo stopped him, "No rush. Maybe what people with and without glasses see is different."

Xu Huo also believed that the ten objectives mentioned in the mission weren’t just ten aliens. Although the cleanup exclusively had warriors and aliens as opposing parties, there were actually two other types of people involved.

First were those like Jin Dong, previous entrants to the cleanup zone who might have devolved into aliens but remained human despite the infection. With glasses on, they were categorized as aliens, but without the glasses, they were just infected humans.

Second were the warriors participating in the cleanup mission.

Yes, it was the warriors themselves who became a faction opposed to their own. If there were an element of self-destruction within the cleanup mission, fellow warriors could also be counted as targets.

If glasses were worn continuously, then people like Jin Dong wouldn’t appear different from ordinary aliens. The likelihood of seeing them as targets would be low because there could be a significant number of warriors in the cleanup zone who had devolved into aliens. Differentiating them might not be meaningful.

Thus, it seemed more likely that the companions were the targets.

However, there remained the issue of the third task. Although it was referred to in a vague manner as "designating target locations," if passing the game was seen as being akin to winning a war, then the unspecified locations provided by the game could naturally be regarded as the enemy’s stronghold.

The key to the words "enemy stronghold" lay in "enemy," implying that within the cleanup zone, two camps would be designated: us and them.