Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 768: Old House in the Forest

Chapter 768: Chapter 768: Old House in the Forest

Using the immigration bureau’s online platform, Xu Huo made contact with private detectives near the two families’ residences, commissioning them to investigate the families’ pasts.

The doctor that appeared at Seventeenth Hospital didn’t start by taking several children away. Their deaths all occurred after some period of "growth," so it was clear that the "doctor" wasn’t just focused on one or a few "seedlings"; he was casting a wide net.

Shang Shuming might also have been one of the fish in the net. As for whether the person who later appeared before Peng Ya and the others was the real "Doctor Shang," that wasn’t certain.

Up to this point, he began to feel that the doctor who appeared at Seventeenth Hospital wasn’t acting alone. He likely had numerous companions, and was possibly cultivating successors in a similar fashion. "Doctor Shang" may not have been the same doctor from before, nor necessarily the real Shang Shuming. Psychologist might just be one of their identities as they moved between different worlds.

The only certainty was that Shang Shuming had become one of them, and the next step was to see if any of the children taken from the orphanage were also selected.

As the day grew darker, Xu Huo decided to spend the night there. Just as he was preparing to move a table to use as a bed, a sudden loud banging on the door erupted, followed by a strange smell drifting in. The next second, the scene before his eyes changed dramatically.

In the downpour, he found himself face-to-face with a ghastly pale corpse.

Their eyes met, the figure opposite him motionless as he stared back just as still.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the dim forest. The face of the corpse blinked, its pale lips trembling as it barely managed to speak, "Hi...don’t know if you have any food..."

Xu Huo shifted his gaze, seeing four more people beside him sheltering from the rain beneath trees, each one lacking vitality in both expression and posture. When the "corpse-face" spoke, they all stared intently at him, some even involuntarily swallowing their saliva.

These individuals looked quite pitiful, probably from being drenched for too long, each showing signs of hypothermia.

Opening the "Umbrella of Justice," Xu Huo retrieved some food from the luggage compartment and handed it over. "Corpse-face" grabbed it with trembling hands, biting open one of the plastic bags while tossing the rest to the others. For a moment, the sound of chewing and swallowing drowned out the rain.

After scarfing down the food, they tipped their heads back to catch rainwater to drink, barely satiated. All five pairs of eyes turned a hungry green as they fixed their gaze on Xu Huo.

"If you’re still hungry, you could consider killing someone," Xu Huo remarked casually, wiping rainwater off his face with a napkin while taking in the surroundings. All he could see were the same trees, suggesting a sizeable primeval forest.

"We don’t eat people." "Corpse-face" wiped rain from her face. "If we were Cannibal Players, we wouldn’t be starving like this."

Xu Huo ignored her outstretched hand. "This should be a random copy game site, right?"

"Corpse-face" withdrew her hand without embarrassment and introduced herself, "My name is Lu Zhen. We’ve been in here for several days now, stuck in the woods without receiving any copy notifications, and we can’t find a way out. We don’t know what’s happening."

The others chimed in, exasperated, "This damned game, we don’t even know if it plans to trap us all to death in here. We keep going in circles and end up back where we started!"

"So, you’ve all been out here in the rain for days?" Xu Huo asked after hearing their story.

Their faces were probably so frozen they could barely muster expressions, a touch of awkwardness apparent only in their eyes, their expressions carrying a hint of resignation.

Even new players wouldn’t be unable to find the copy location, especially since random copies generally have no player limit—whomever arrives counts. Xu Huo hadn’t come in with tickets, so the copy wouldn’t be waiting for a set number of players to begin.

Without saying anything, he turned and walked away, prompting Lu Zhen to hurriedly chase after him a few steps, "Are you looking for a way out? Take us with you."

Ignoring the five people behind him, Xu Huo walked on, stopping frequently. Within minutes, he encountered another group of players caught in the rain.

The two groups exchanged a glance, the man at the forefront of the other group in a raincoat nodded at Xu Huo.

Silently and tacitly, both parties proceeded in the same direction. Then, after more than ten minutes, a murky outline of an old villa appeared in front of the forest.

"Why!" Lu Zhen burst out as her companions looked on in disbelief behind her.

However, no one paid attention to their thoughts. Xu Huo and the man in the raincoat led their groups toward the villa, knocking on the front door.

A pretty female player opened the door, greeting Xu Huo and the others with a beaming smile, "Oh my, such a big group! Come in, come in, it’s pouring outside, come warm up by the fire!"

Inside the hall, there were eight other players, half of whom were like the female player with dry clothing, while the other four were huddled around the fireplace, obviously having arrived not much earlier.

These people, including the man in the raincoat and his group of seven, were in relatively good shape, only Lu Zhen’s group looked deathly pale and miserable.

They stood out so much, one couldn’t help but take notice. Under the gaze of everyone, the group showed signs of weakness.

The woman who opened the door pulled Lu Zhen aside gently and patted her hand reassuringly, "Don’t be frightened, sister. We’re not going to eat you. Warm up by the fire, settle your nerves. We still need to get through this game together."

Lu Zhen struggled to pull her hand away, looked at Xu Huo, then moved with her companions toward the fireplace. The living room was spacious, but that didn’t amount to much space to hide—all the players were in plain sight, and in case of trouble, the other players wouldn’t just stand by and watch.

The woman stood still, her gaze sweeping over Lu Zhen and her companions, then moving to Xu Huo. Seeing that he carried an umbrella, she reached out to touch it.

Xu Huo lifted the umbrella slightly and smiled faintly, "This is my treasure, not just anyone can touch it."

A few eyes in the room fleetingly landed on the umbrella then quickly shifted away. The woman played with her hair and said coquettishly, "Come on, brother, don’t be so uptight. We’re all in this together. Getting to know one another is key to better cooperation, isn’t it?"

Xu Huo maintained his smile without responding, and the woman turned away, changing the subject, "Lone wolves don’t get far in this game."

"Enough talking," interjected a young player fiddling with a dagger, sitting near the stairs, "With so many people here, the copy should be starting by now."

Boom!

A great clap of thunder roared outside. The next second, the villa’s front door automatically slammed shut, the locks engaging. The lights inside the house went out all at once, and an electronic screen appeared in the middle of the room:

[Welcome all players to "The Villa with Only One Master."]