Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 733: The Hidden Time Rules of the Copy

If the stories between the venues are interrelated, then what’s happening in Museum City isn’t just the disappearance of people. Captivity, abuse, torture, and human experiments—these are likely the true facts hidden by the disappearances.

"For some reason, someone in Museum City is detaining a large number of people for human experiments. These people suffered inhumane treatment before their deaths, not solely because of the experiments. Given the themes of the venues, it could either be deliberate revenge or religious factors involved, leading to the victims being buried in the same place after their beheadings."

"Besides, they force the detained individuals to become pregnant, and the children born are also part of the experiments."

Xu Huo submitted this answer, and the completion of the mission jumped to 3/6. He opened the progress to check, and the following showed the corresponding mystery-solving locations: first was the Wax Figure Gallery, second Insanity Prison, and third the Doll Costume Shop.

This means his speculations about Museum City were correct; on the surface, the mystery of the disappearances refers to those who vanished intermittently in Museum City, but in reality, it’s about unveiling the enigma of the venues.

However, the enigma of the venue’s content seemed a bit far from the mystery of disappearance required by the mission.

He turned the question over in his mind but then put it aside for the moment—at least his current direction was correct. There were many more venues left, and perhaps the themes of the later venues would fill in the missing information.

Removing the "Silent Figurine," he leapt down from the upper floor in a soft voice, pushed open the door of the shop, and whispered, "The mannequins are searching this way, let’s circle around to the shops they’ve already searched."

Like a game of hide-and-seek, they dodged the mannequins and circled back near Insanity Prison.

Xiao Ling thought of going to the crossroads because there were the most venues and shops in between, making it easy to hide, but Xu Ruosi disagreed. The mannequins in some of the venues of Insanity Prison could move at night, and it’s uncertain if other venues might have something active. They now had some understanding of the mannequins, but that might not be the case in other venues.

"What time is it now?" Xu Huo suddenly asked Xu Ruosi.

Grasping his intention, Xu Ruosi took out the timing tool, "It’s almost twelve o’clock."

The group huddled under a counter, fixated on the timepiece, watching it pass midnight without any change in date.

"It’s very unlikely the tool is malfunctioning," Yu Guangnan spoke up at that moment. "If the date doesn’t change, there must be something wrong with the instance."

"What kind of problem could there be if the date doesn’t change?" Xu Ruosi frowned, "We haven’t lost our memory, and the instance hasn’t restarted; it doesn’t affect us at all."

"It does affect us," Xu Huo said. "If the date in the instance stays on the first day we entered, we might never be able to leave here."

"What!" All reacted with varying degrees of surprise, and Xiao Ling’s gaze grew heavy, "Time in the Game System is moving forward, but the instance isn’t. If we can’t pass the instance within seven days, and we remain on the first day every day, we’ll never experience the day of a failed clearance."

Normally, players can leave an instance even if they fail to clear it, only missing out on Return Tickets. As Level D Players, tickets wouldn’t be an issue, but if the instance time is always on the first day, then they would never reach the seventh day and the option of "clearance failure" would be blocked off.

If the option of failing to clear the instance isn’t available, and they can’t clear within the Game System’s seven days, they would be stuck in The Solar Museum City indefinitely!

"Does that mean the instance would stay open forever?" Jie Ling’s face turned pale, "If it goes on for three months, even if we get out, it would be a dead end anyway!"

"Hold on," Xu Ruosi interrupted, "That doesn’t make sense. The game gives us seven days to clear the instance, how could it possibly stay open indefinitely? After seven days, if we clear, does it even count as a clearance?"

"If clearing after seven days doesn’t count as a clearance, then it’s calculated by the Game System’s time, and once seven days pass, even if the instance time is still on the first day, we should still be considered to have failed to clear, right?"

Conversely, if the instance’s time is the standard, they would always be on the first day they entered, which means whatever time they clear the instance, it’s still within the first day, and there’s no failure.

"This is indeed a contradiction," Xu Huo said. "But you can look at it from another angle. No matter which time is considered, the Game System’s time is moving forward. If we surpass seven days, we fail to clear; if we exceed a month, we are at risk of a high-risk random instance; if over three months, it’s equivalent to direct suicide by entering a high-risk instance."

"So, we’ve got to clear it within seven days. In other words, this is an instance with only the option to clear because no one knows what will happen after seven days."

In fact, according to his view, the instance is most likely based on Game System’s time. There’s no problem with considering seven days as the time to clear or fail, but whether the new ticket can be used is another matter, because while this instance stays open, it’s basic knowledge that new tickets cannot be used inside an open instance.

If players can leave after seven days by successfully solving the mystery, even if it takes some extra time, it’s not a big deal. But if the players’ clearance is judged by Game System time, and the instance is detached from the game rules due to its special time structure, then there’s a high chance that players will never escape this instance unless it’s destroyed one day.

No matter the outcome, exceeding the time frame carries the risk of entering a high-risk instance.

"What kind of cursed instance is this!" Xu Ruosi clenched her fists, "Just when Zone 009 has been fully opened, we run into such an instance—such bad luck!"

"Look on the bright side," Xu Huo suggested again. "With so many shops here, if we can’t leave, we can take a place and start a business. It’s first-come, first-served. We might settle down here later and perhaps escape the fate of constantly moving through instances."

Xiao Ling glanced at him, "Are you serious?"

"Let’s not talk about whether the instance will actually remain open, what if a high-level Player comes along? Isn’t this time bomb ticking away all the time?"

What kind of escape from fate is there? It’s practically living with a knife to your throat.

"I was just joking," Xu Huo said with a slight smile.

"That’s not funny at all," said Jie Ling, looking at her legs. "Let’s find a way to clear the instance. The venues we’ve just been to, do you guys have any clues?"

"All I could see was about the human experiments," Xu Ruosi shook her head. "But when I submitted my answer, I didn’t... didn’t clear the mission."

"Apart from human experiments, there’s also the captivity of living people," Xiao Ling looked at her with a smirk, "Keeping people captive for human experiments earns you one-sixth of the progress."

Having said that, she looked towards Xu Huo, "You guys got some progress in the Wax Figure Gallery, right? It’s only fair to share. What about that one-sixth?"