Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 545 The True Essence of the Game

Chapter 545: Chapter 545 The True Essence of the Game

"You’re overestimating me," Xu Huo denied, "I just want to plant the flag on the wall on the other side."

Zhuo Wangsun was silent for two seconds before analyzing, "Isn’t the risk too high? Once we enter the cleaning zone, Clown City is very likely not to allow us back, and getting close to the protection wall might be difficult. Besides, the terrain ahead is probably very dangerous. We might also encounter an Alien tide. Just to increase a rank seems too risky."

"Fortune favors the brave," Xu Huo said.

Zhuo Wangsun had nothing to say in response. He slowed down his pace, fell behind a few steps, but then caught up again, "I’ll accompany you, might as well broaden my horizons."

"Welcome," Xu Huo expressed his joy with a smile.

Zhuo Wangsun stared at his face, looking somewhat embarrassed.

They didn’t need to kill people for money; their main task was to hurry along. If they encountered Aliens or people from Clown City, they would mostly try to avoid them. Only if avoidance was impossible would they fight.

They were already moving quite fast, but this jungle was more complex than the previous one, almost like a small hill. Some areas couldn’t be crossed directly, so they had to take detours.

"This fog contains trace amounts of toxins." While stopping to rest, Zhuo Wangsun used his tool to measure the fog in the woods, "The situation is similar to the one we came from."

This was also reassuring. If both sides mainly deployed ordinary people, then the difficulty inside the cleaning zone should be balanced.

With this, reaching Clown City on the opposite side wouldn’t be difficult.

Xu Huo looked around at the surrounding grassland, "There are especially many fungi here, many mycelium on the ground."

Zhuo Wangsun saw them too and was about to check with his tool when Xu Huo stopped him, "Be careful of the poison."

With that said, Zhuo Wensun didn’t dare to touch them anymore, hesitating, "These white mycelium are as ubiquitous as spider webs, they can’t all be highly toxic, otherwise there should be many poisoned to death."

Xu Huo was quite impressed with the words "Clown City" and "fungi." The diary found in the Xiaohua Honghong Building instance mentioned these two terms, even describing fungi with the phrase "underworld," indicating that Clown City underground had a significant amount and area of fungi growing.

Having mycelium capable of generating defensive abilities would make it unsurprising to find poisonous ones.

However, it was not clear whether the diary referred to today’s Clown City or the city before the cleaning zone was formed. If it was the latter, the underground of the cleaning zone might have an underground world composed of fungi.

"Just to be on the safe side," he said, "we’ve been able to move so smoothly thanks to the holographic glasses not classifying us as Alien. It would be very troublesome if we rashly touched other objects and became Alien ourselves."

Zhuo Wangsun pushed aside the lush grass behind him and saw a large patch of white fungi with an obvious gap nearby. He laughed, "It seems someone has already helped us test it. Someone must have picked them to eat..."

He hadn’t finished speaking when he was suddenly pulled back by Xu Huo, who yanked at his neck. Zhuo Wangsun’s head shrank back just in time to see a person crash down in front of him. The whole person was buried into the bed of white mushrooms, kicking up a large cloud of spores, but the person got up quickly and dashed forward without looking back!

The frantic rush could only mean one thing: escape. Xu Huo also heard the distant rumble at that moment and, turning back, saw the jungle undulating wildly, the trees shaking in tandem!

"An Alien tide!"

Without a word, Xu Huo and Zhuo Wangsun sprinted forward, glancing back only to soon make out the features of the charging Aliens—they were the genuine article, with some animalistic characteristics developing on their skin, moving faster, stronger, and having no trouble jumping and climbing!

Seeing the Different Species Group ramming through even the massive trees, Xu Huo didn’t seek shelter inside the refuge. Using his special ability to increase his speed, he overtook Zhuo Wangsun and caught up with another player ahead.

The player was severely wounded; otherwise, he wouldn’t have landed so heavily on the ground, and his pace was starting to slow.

Up ahead was a large sloping ground with no suitable hiding spots. Xu Huo turned back and gestured to Zhuo Wangsun, then tossed over a metal-weighted "Harmless Whip."

Zhuo Wangsun picked it up and ran to the side, winding one end of the thin rope around a tree trunk.

Xu Huo did the same, winding around several trees until the "Harmless Whip" became a cutting blade, then he leaped up into a tree.

The onrushing Aliens couldn’t stop their momentum, or perhaps they had no concept of it, and as they passed through the rigged whip, they were cleanly sliced in half—at first, rows of Aliens fell one after another under the thin blade, but it didn’t last long as the trees were also cut through from the tension and soon after, the blade was knocked flying. The running Aliens, tripping over each other, managed to take down quite a number as well, and in the end, the whip fell to the ground and reverted back to rope, ending this bout of self-slaughter.

Xu Huo killed a few Aliens that had leaped up into the air, then used the piano wire system on the "Harmless Whip" to retrieve the tool.

His position was too conspicuous, and as a number of Aliens halted and lunged upward, the tree started to totter. He quickly added another Sword for support, then took advantage of the direction in which the tree was falling to jump toward the front of the Alien group—with the recent turn of events, a concave arc had formed in the midst of the otherwise uniform Alien wave.

Zhuo Wangsun and the injured player were directly ahead of this arc, and while they had not been caught up by the Aliens from behind, they were now being cornered by those from the sides.

Suddenly, one of the Aliens leaped at the wounded player from the side, and Zhuo Wangsun, without a moment’s hesitation, swung his sword. Although he didn’t kill the Alien, he enabled the player to escape; unfortunately, he had worse luck, as the falling Alien collided with him. As he was about to be caught by the Aliens behind him, a long whip flew from the hand of the player, winding around him, and together, they were catapulted off the ground like cannonballs!

This was the effect of the tool; the two were immediately freed from the surrounding Aliens, but while it was easy to ascend, descending was harder. As they started to fall through the branches and brush, they were still more than ten meters above the ground!

Zhuo Wangsun, inexperienced, was plummeting headfirst. Fortunately, Xu Huo behind them used a kite string to catch him; he stuttered in mid-air, and the player below also stopped, avoiding a direct landing. Instead, they were swung back by the kite string for some distance.

The piano wire could only bear the weight of two, but the kite string, having lightened Zhuo Wangsun’s load, also comfortably accommodated the third person.

However, as the movement and reach of the piano wire were limited, they still had to run. After landing, Xu Huo said, "There’s a ditch up ahead; let’s hide there!"

He originally meant to place "Refuge 101" in the ditch so it wouldn’t be easily overrun by the Different Species Group, but to their surprise, when the three jumped down the hillside, they stumbled upon a spacious cave.

They immediately scrambled inside, and Xu Huo erected "Severance Gate" just in time to block the entrance. Peering through a gap on the side, he saw the Aliens that had jumped into the ditch continuing their relentless charge forward. Only then did he turn back and nod at the two behind him.

Zhuo Wangsun and the other player silently stowed their shields; the former asked, "Adversity makes us friends. My name is Zhuo Wangsun, what’s yours?"