Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 738: Unsolved Death

Chapter 738: Chapter 738: Unsolved Death

Xu Huo didn’t wait for the nursery rhyme to finish and headed to the door, but as he approached the entryway, his vision went black, and when he opened his eyes a second later, he was back sitting on the couch.

He took the doll in his hands, gave it a quick check, and found no control snaps, so he immediately twisted off its head.

The inside of the doll had no mechanical joint, as if its head and body were meant to be separate, the neck and jaw were exceptionally smooth, and after being thrown aside, they rolled away from each other.

The things in the illusion didn’t necessarily need to be destroyed by Xu Huo, so after tossing it aside, he thought about going upstairs to check.

However, when he got to the stairway, he found he couldn’t go up, as if the map wasn’t unlocked yet. He stepped onto the staircase multiple times, but a few steps in, the stairs would flip downwards, and in the end, he would return to the living room.

"Ding dong! Ding dong!" The doorbell rang again.

Xu Huo stood before the stairs and didn’t move, but after the doorbell paused for a few seconds, he was back on the couch again.

After trying three times, he had gleaned some information.

First, whether or not he touched or destroyed the doll, when the time came, it would sing on its own, and after the song ended, the doorbell would ring.

Second, regardless of whether he approached the door, whether he walked from the sofa or the kitchen, or simply stayed away, he would die.

Third, he couldn’t go upstairs.

The clues available in the house were pitifully scarce, with the only pointed one being the nursery rhyme sung by the doll.

The content was simple: a child played in the living room; the mother cooked in the kitchen; the father had finished work but hadn’t arrived home; the doorbell rang; the child and mother who went to answer it were killed, while whether the father who returned later was killed varies.

It was obviously a murder. The person outside had directly killed the child and mother. Additionally, the mother might have brought a knife to the door, or she might have died by her own knife, as there was one missing from the kitchen.

If this were a game, being anywhere in the room would result in death, so the way to break it might be self-rescue.

He had to survive this "murder case" first.

Xu Huo tried blocking the doors and windows before the nursery rhyme started, but two minutes later, he had failed. After starting over, not only did he block the doors and windows, but he also hid under the cupboard, to no avail.

Since he couldn’t go upstairs, there was no way to block it off, implying a vulnerability; perhaps this was the key to "death."

But if that were the case, it meant there was an unsolvable death loop, so there must be other breakthrough methods.

He began trying to use the props.

The power of props could manifest in this illusion, and they had a certain physicality. For instance, when he used the "Concentrated Air," what was originally a nearly transparent barrier turned into a solid shield, which could even be placed independently of his hands.

So he decided to use the Concentrated Air Barrier to completely seal off the space outside the patio doors and the stairs to the second floor. Other props like "Harmless Whip" and some trap-setting tools were also arranged, partially sealing the front door and hallway.

Despite being so well-prepared, he "died" after the doorbell rang.

Since sealing all the entrances and exits was futile, he took out Shelter 101 and, taking the doll with him, hid inside. After the song finished, he found himself back sitting by the couch.

Xu Huo sat by the couch, face to face with the doll. He had used all the defensive measures he could think of, but this did not change the inevitable outcome. If the game creator wasn’t toying with him, then the murderer of this game was endowed with special props and abilities like the player, or maybe it was the player themselves.

He attempted to attack the room during the brief time the nursery rhyme played. Staying in the room meant only awaiting death; perhaps he could get out.

But the result was unexpected. The moment he broke the window, he "died" anyway.

Experiencing the trial until now, Xu Huo realized that he had taken the wrong approach. No matter what method he used, "death" couldn’t be skipped, meaning that the mother and child in the house were doomed, a fact. So what was the significance of this scene repeating itself?

"The child is playing in the living room."

"Mom is cooking in the kitchen."

"Dad is on his way home."

"Ding-dong! Ding-dong! The doorbell is ringing!"

"Dad forgot to bring his keys!"

"The child goes to open the door and bumps his head on the cabinet."

"Mom goes to open the door and her stomach hits Little Knife."

"Dad comes home and opens the door, and he lies down beside the child and Mom!"

As the nursery rhyme started again, Xu Huo was instantly at the door and twisted the doorknob; of course, the result was as expected, he ended up back beside the sofa.

In the nursery rhyme, both the mother and the child had died, but the father returning from outside might not necessarily have to. Was this an imagined cycle or remorse for the past?

"Thud!" At that moment, a Glass Bead suddenly fell to the floor and slowly rolled to his feet. Looking in the direction from which the bead had come, he saw that the area above the second-floor staircase was no longer in darkness, but lit up instead.

Not sure where the trigger was, but Xu Huo chose to go upstairs.

The second floor was a study with no desk, and the only chair, with its back towards the staircase entrance, hid the person sitting on it. Only a middle-aged man’s hand was visible, resting on the armrest slightly to the right.

"They’re all dead," the middle-aged man said before Xu Huo stepped into the study.

After waiting two seconds, Xu Huo spoke up, "I also wanted to save them, but I didn’t succeed."

"How I wish time could be reversed," the middle-aged man continued, "If that day I hadn’t lost my temper over a young team member’s mistake, I wouldn’t have called for a brief meeting just before leaving work."

"If I hadn’t called for that brief meeting, I wouldn’t have bumped into the leader coming for an inspection, wouldn’t have been dragged out for drinks."

"If I hadn’t gone for drinks, I wouldn’t have chosen public transportation because I was incapable of driving, wouldn’t have gotten involved in an accidental altercation."

"If I hadn’t gotten involved in that altercation, I wouldn’t have been dragged in to give a statement, wouldn’t have had to repeat my testimony over and over because I wasn’t speaking clearly."

"If I hadn’t wasted time giving my testimony, I wouldn’t have been five minutes late getting home."

"If I hadn’t been those five minutes late, they might still be alive."

It was a simple narrative, but every word was soaked in regret, under the calm it hid a pain as if being cut by a knife day after day, to the extent that each detail, each choice, even every step was filled with remorse.

As such, the existence of this hallucination was still the work of someone wanting to save his wife and child. Unfortunately, time couldn’t be reversed...

As this thought flickered through his mind, Xu Huo suddenly froze. Looking at the hand, he said, "If the fact can’t be changed when the tragedy occurs, perhaps they can be saved before that, as long as time could be reversed."

The middle-aged man stopped repeating himself and then disappeared from the chair.

Xu Huo swiftly walked over, spun the chair around, and there on the cushion was, surprisingly, a tube of Potion!