Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 573: Return to Zone 014

Xu Huo stood still, having contemplated the mindset of this Super Player somewhat.

His belief in "destiny" was predicated on wanting to understand what destiny’s ultimate point was by going with the flow, much like how he’d obtained parts of "Feld’s Battle Angel" and had gotten some information, but he himself didn’t place much importance on the Super Prop; what he sought to explore was the reason for the Super Prop’s re-emergence.

The other party didn’t reveal any more information. Xu Huo couldn’t start guessing without extra clues, but one thing was clear: he was not in immediate danger. If there really was another player who had come looking for parts of the Super Prop, he could hand it over to the Paper Servant Master accordingly.

However, he had the "Angel’s Tooth" for quite some time now, and during this period, no one like the Paper Servant Master had shown up... Perhaps they had but he was unaware, yet this indirectly corroborated the Paper Servant Master’s words.

There was no longer any reason to stay in Clown City, so he opened his personal panel and took out the Return Ticket.

*

It had just gotten dark in Ting City, the street lights were still on, but there was no one walking around. Xu Huo had just removed his mask and stepped out from the alley of the teleportation hub onto the main street when he felt two pairs of eyes in the darkness fixed on him.

"Ting City emergency broadcast: In recent days, criminals have been spotted in the downtown area. Please, citizens, try not to be out and about after dark!"

Temporary broadcasts were installed throughout the streets, and the same announcement played three times in a row. By the time Xu Huo reached another street, the emergency broadcast sounded again.

He glanced at the surveillance cameras, knowing it was a deliberate reminder for him. Looking around, he chose an inconspicuous alley and walked in.

Soon, the two people who had been following him appeared. With their heads covered, they sneakily dodged the surveillance cameras. After communicating with hand signals, they advanced from both sides of the alley to surround him.

Half a minute later, only two clunks of heads being cracked open could be heard in the alley. Soon after, someone emerged from the darkness.

After Xu Huo cleaned off the bloodstains on his hands with the Cleansing Potion, he continued along the broad and deserted streets toward the residential area where he rented an apartment.

There were no pedestrians on the streets at this time. After he dealt with the two players, the people from the Special Defense Department also didn’t come out to clean up, indicating that the situation in Ting City was not good.

He charged his phone and turned it on. Hundreds of messages surged in, most of them from Yuan Yao and others. Yan Jiayu had invited him to explore random dungeons twice. Hu Wenhao fell for a trap set by players in a dungeon and got infected with the Alien toxin; he had gone to Jing City with Zhou Ning to participate in drug trials.

Liu Jia told him someone had seen a person resembling Professor Han in a dungeon. She said she would seek confirmation from the Special Defense Department, but there was no follow-up within a month after this message.

Yu Qingqing asked for his help in reviewing dungeon processes to figure out how to improve their rating. Tang Guangbo also sent a message of condolence, asking him to visit Lady Fang if he returned because she was worried he might die in the game after receiving external information.

There were also messages from people like Professor Lan and Huang Junjie.

Professor Lan urged him to participate in player experiments. Huang Junjie mentioned a very important piece of information about the international situation in Zone 014: major powers began to wage frequent wars to consolidate resources, and in the past two months, three more small countries had completely disappeared.

Xu Huo then scrolled to messages from Nie Xuan and Chief Wu. Both mentioned the same thing, asking for his support at the border.

Without going into detail, he exited the interface and opened the news, only to find out that the country had fought two defensive battles at the border. The scale was not large, but players from both sides had joined the battle. Certain traits and props could cause weapons to fail, resulting in heavy casualties.

Domestically, the situation was also unstable with many foreign players infiltrating the country. These people caused disturbances, and simultaneously others took advantage of the chaos. Two cities had been subjected to terrorist attacks, suffering heavy casualties. Under the encouragement of some players with ulterior motives, entire cities of people began to flee.

Elite players were required to be on the frontlines, so a large number of armed forces were deployed to suppress the players who had emerged.

However, this only eased the situation temporarily. People with various intentions kept causing trouble from time to time, leaving everyone on edge. To reduce damage, some city governments urged citizens to limit their outings, and absolutely not to go out at night.

Compared to other countries, this was still not too bad; every country in Zone 014 lived in a state of panic, with conflicts breaking out almost every day regardless of whether they were large or small. In addition to violent attacks, there were also heinous acts like poisoning water sources to cause Alien transformations.

News flooded all online platforms, constantly refreshing.

Although he had anticipated this kind of situation developing, the rapidity with which it unfolded had taken Xu Huo by surprise. In normal thinking, at this stage, all countries should be busy training their own players. Investing forces and resources in warfare prematurely did no good for anyone.

Unless something had happened that forced the major powers to act in this way.

As he walked, he quickly skimmed through these messages and finally went to see Yuan Yao’s messages. Most were nonsense except for two points:

One, Li Chun had been tricked away by Yu Qingqing.

Two, his former residential area had been burned down, and he had moved his belongings across from the Special Defense Department.

Following the new address, Xu Huo had not yet reached the building when Chief Wu’s call came through. Upon answering, Chief Wu was genuinely relieved, "Xu Huo, you really came back! I couldn’t believe it when I received your signal!"

"Is the situation that difficult now?" Xu Huo frowned. A player, even a Rank-B player, actually couldn’t play a decisive role in a war waged by nations, let alone a lower-level player. Chief Wu’s hasty phone call indicated that the situation might be more difficult than Xu Huo had anticipated.

"You’ve seen the news already, right? Now, many players have gone to support on their own," Chief Wu’s voice was heavy. "But that’s not the urgent issue. The biggest crisis right now is the spread of the Alien toxin."

"The Alien toxin can affect not only players but also ordinary people. Some players brought the Alien toxin to the battlefield, willing to trade one for one just to spread the toxin. Moreover, someone refined and upgraded this toxin, using special channels to pour it into reservoirs, causing a large number of ordinary people to be poisoned."

"The symptoms of poisoning vary. Some will slowly weaken until they die in bed, but others will transform into Aliens, especially players... Right now what we’re defending against at the border is a large number of players who have transformed after being infected, they’ve been concentrated and deployed here."

Xu Huo understood; this was about pulling everyone into the fray.

"What was the trigger?"

"A group of players from a small country," Chief Wu explained. "Now their country has disappeared."

"I’m contacting you to ask if you’ve got any new Antitoxins from the dungeons. Currently, the Antitoxin we’ve developed can only delay symptoms and postpone death. The quantity of Antitoxin brought back from the dungeons is too little, and it can’t completely eliminate the toxin either."