Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 690 High Risk

Chapter 690: Chapter 690 High Risk

The music continued into the night without ceasing. The people from the county and those who were already in this mid-ancient city ceased their parading and commenced the ritual celebration.

Both the dead and the living walked the city streets like normal people. At first glance, there was no distinguishable difference from a typical festival, except that from time to time, one could spot half a corpse lying at the corner of an alley.

Xu Huo approached the vicinity of the Sifang Palace.

The palace was built on a giant platform that towered a dozen meters above the city. The main entrance was adorned with a plaque inscribed with the words "Sifang Palace." The structure was four stories high, each level guarded by sword-bearing Black Armored People. In front of the great doors, an additional six Black Armored People stood watch. Up until now, the noise had intermittently come from a large drum set in front of the main entrance on a wide platform, flanked on either side by a Black Armored Person.

There were also many fervent cult followers gathered at the foot of the high platform of the palace. Despite being people who had lost their reason, they still attempted to climb onto the platform and rush into the palace.

They were, of course, driven back by the Black Armored People. If they accidentally killed someone in the process, the corpse would be dragged into the palace in plain sight without causing the slightest dispute.

Xu Huo stood atop a building not far from the palace, and his brow furrowed as he witnessed this scene. He took out the "Homologous Locator," and the distribution of items within a two-hundred-meter radius immediately appeared on the screen.

Although the palace directly in front of him was not fully encompassed, the information attained was sufficient.

As expected, both the drum and the Black Armored People were props, and they were all Rank-C Items. There were also two props located at the palace’s main entrance — one Rank-C and one Rank-B. Invisible from the outside, they must have been placed within the hall.

Suddenly, a set of overlapping item data appeared at the corner of the screen. Following the indicated direction, he saw a Black Armored Person heading towards the palace.

A genuine Black Armored Person only carried two or three items, but this one was mostly equipped with Level D and Level E Props, clearly a player disguised as one of the Black Armored People.

Xu Huo stood by the railing, watching the other person openly walk through the entrance. But as soon the person stepped inside, the door automatically closed behind them. Then a red light shone through the wooden latticed windows, and in the next second, the Black Armored Person struck the drum forcefully, releasing sound waves that made people dizzy and caused a blackout even for those wearing headphones to block their hearing.

Dizzy, Xu Huo found himself involuntarily walking towards the palace, along with a few other players who had blended into the crowd.

Under the drum’s sound, the crowd that had been partaking in the ritual came to a halt. The few players who had started moving suddenly became conspicuously noticeable, and the crowd turned around, staring them down and then reached out to tear at their bodies. A player, not yet recovered from the disorientation, was torn limb from limb on the spot, and to make matters worse, the crowd began to bite and gnaw at them!

People with such physical strength were certainly not ordinary people from the instance; they were all players!

Once he came to his senses, Xu Huo immediately retreated, stopping only once he reached the city entrance.

Considering the area affected by the drum’s sound, this was the safest part of the whole city.

Of course, entering the county was safer by comparison, but the now-deserted county probably harbored other dangers.

New overlapping item data appeared on the Homologous Locator, and Xu Huo turned and moved towards the woods outside the city.

Several people, including the player in black, Fu Danhong, Yi Pei, and Fang Penghui, were hiding in the bushes, looking towards the misty stone path.

When they had escaped from the Black Armored People, they abandoned the idea of conquering the instance’s boss and decided to withdraw to the county to wait out the instance’s duration. However, with Black Armored People overseeing from every high point in the city and being able to see every direction of the stone paths, stepping onto them would make them perfect targets, so the group had been hiding nearby ever since.

It had just gotten dark, and with the shift of the ritual’s epicenter, the people around the entrance gradually decreased, and the visits from the Black Armored People became less frequent, prompting them to consider waiting until later at night.

However, just as they were waiting for a chance to move, several silhouettes suddenly appeared on the misty stone path, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of footsteps. The group’s complexions changed, and when the figures approached, they turned out to be several Black Armored People carrying a few corpses, who were, shockingly, the players that had previously hidden in the county!

The player in black used a Silencer Prop and said to the others, "It seems no matter where we hide, we can’t avoid the Black Armored People. The instance will definitely harvest all the players during these two days of worship."

"With each drumbeat, the dizziness intensifies, and I fear we won’t last until the end of the ritual," Yi Pei said somberly.

"Who knows what tricks the instance has up its sleeve," Fu Danhong said. "Rather than waiting to die, we might as well join forces to stir up a hornet’s nest..."

"Who’s there!" she didn’t finish her sentence when Yi Pei suddenly leaped up, her gaze sharp as she looked towards the forest behind them.

The others quickly dispersed, and if not for the presence of the Black Armored People nearby, they would have probably attacked first thing.

Xu Huo put away his Invisibility Prop and emerged from behind the trees.

The group’s expressions immediately relaxed. "I didn’t expect you to still be alive," Fu Danhong said.

Yi Pei couldn’t see people clearly, but she could distinguish Xu Huo’s figure as he stood in front of her. She couldn’t help asking, "Did you come from the Sifang Palace side?"

Xu Huo motioned for them to lower their bodies. "I saw the Black Armored People coming from the county, too. The road back to the county is blocked now; we can only stay in Sifang Palace City."

The group understood, of course. Fang Penghui pointed to his bloodshot eyes and said, "The longer we stay in the instance, the deeper the influence of the instance. I’m lucky to have made it this far, but I doubt I can last until the seven-day mark."

"You better hang in there," Xu Huo said. "Those players who didn’t die earlier are now crowded in front of the Sifang Palace waiting to devour people; they’ve already shared three living people among themselves."

Fang Penghui wore an expression as still as wood, "That information doesn’t help me at all."

"It’s very important information," Xu Huo said. "The three players who died entered the instance earlier than me, and by tomorrow night, they would be able to clear it. They have a harder time maintaining their sanity under the drum sound than I do."

"This means there are two factors to reduce risk: first, the shorter the time spent in the instance, the better, and second, it’s best not to hear the drum sound."

Fang Penghui got the point. "If I’m standing in front of the Sifang Palace right now, I’d only have death to wait for."

"There are intervals between the drum sounds," the player in black said. "I’ve roughly estimated it; there’s a fixed interval between each drum beat."

"About ten minutes," Yi Pei said.

"But the impact of the drum sound is more severe with each time," Fu Danhong said. "And we can’t guarantee that this drum has to wait ten minutes before it can be beaten again."

"The drum sound is secondary," Xu Huo revealed information that made the others even more desperate, "The real influence over people must be inside the Sifang Palace. There’s red light within the palace; most likely, the eye that can cause hallucinations is inside the Sifang Palace, or perhaps the entire Sifang Palace could be a prop."