Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 781: Painter Jiang Jiang

Chapter 781: Chapter 781: Painter Jiang Jiang

Xu Huo, clad only in boxer shorts, went to open the door and found a beautiful young woman standing outside. Her gaze quickly swept over him and then moved away, her cheeks tinged with red as she looked at the numbers beside the door. "I’m sorry, I got the wrong room."

At that moment, the door across from him opened, and a man in a white suit stepped out. "Jiang Jiang, you’ve gone to the wrong place again," he said.

The young woman chuckled lightly and apologized to Xu Huo again before she headed across to the other room. As she closed the door, she flashed him a smile.

Ignoring the man’s cautious and slightly warning gaze, Xu Huo lingered at the door for two seconds.

The scent of the woman’s perfume still lingered in the air of the hallway, hardly noticeable when face to face, but after she left, it crept into his nostrils.

Looking at the door across the hallway, Xu Huo smiled faintly three seconds later, then closed his door and went back to sleep.

Soon, he learned who the person living across from him was.

The gentleman in the white suit was the youngest son of the Zhou Family, a nation’s magnate. His name was Zhou Zhiyang. That evening, the Zhou Family was hosting a banquet at the hotel to entertain several high-ranking members of the Player Organization, with all hotel guests invited to join.

The young woman who had come to see Zhou Zhiyang was named Jiang Jiang, a well-known artist and also the target of Zhou Zhiyang’s pursuit.

According to the hotel staff, Jiang Jiang had come to discuss the sale of her paintings with Zhou Zhiyang because her agent, who was caught up in an accidental death during a players’ fight, could no longer handle the deal, forcing her to handle it personally.

Jiang Jiang was just over twenty, and she had become famous around the age of fifteen. She debuted with watercolor paintings, which at first did not receive much attention, as many of her works were not of actual landscapes but rather some strange—or perhaps whimsically imagined—scenes. Everything changed when an agent with an eye for talent discovered the special value of her paintings.

This agent had once been a painter himself and had become a player. Under immense mental stress, he accidentally killed his girlfriend in a loss of control and was preparing to commit suicide when he stumbled upon Jiang Jiang’s work. He claimed he saw "colors of hope" in her work, though he never explained clearly what "colors of hope" were. However, through his efforts, Jiang Jiang’s paintings found a market among players. Many players reported feeling calmer when viewing her paintings under high stress.

As players became the mainstream of society, everything began to serve them; hence, the wealthy tycoons, such as the Zhou Family, spent a fortune on Jiang Jiang’s paintings to curry favor with players. Some players obsessed with her work even volunteered to provide her with bodyguard protection, effectively relaying security services since players had to enter game instances—and it was rumored they had even created a duty roster online.

This was the reason Jiang Jiang, as an ordinary person, was still able to travel around Zone 009 for inspirations.

All this information was what Xu Huo had found online, where he’d also taken a look at a few of her works.

He had no real appreciation for art; to him, some paintings were just a blend of colors that brought neither visual pleasure nor emotional resonance—they were merely colored paper.

"Do you also look at my paintings?" Jiang Jiang asked as she came up to him with a glass in hand, smiling lightly. "I’m sorry for the disturbance earlier."

Xu Huo raised his glass, "It’s my honor."

"You’re also a player?" Jiang Jiang seemed eager to chat for a bit and initiated the conversation, "Many players say they can discern hidden meanings in my paintings. Can you?"

"I’m not good at that," Xu Huo responded.

"I figured. Sometimes I don’t even understand what they see in my artwork, but if it brings them inner peace, then it’s a good thing." Jiang Jiang adjusted the long hem of her white dress. "Someone’s calling me."

A gentle smile appeared on her beautiful face, "We’ll talk next time."

Xu Huo felt several gazes from different directions falling on him, but he didn’t care, casually picking some food and starting to eat in a corner of the banquet.

The few high-level players invited by the Zhou Family were obviously too preoccupied to even attend for a meal and had only sent representatives to greet others.

In extraordinary times, it was obvious that those high-level players came back with missions, and at this moment, they would most likely be heading for the dungeon runs.

However, the people present were all happy, as it was thanks to the existence of these players that they enjoyed their current peaceful lives.

But this false sense of stability was soon shattered. Several players smashed through the windows, and with the use of gadgets, they instantly sealed all the ground-to-ceiling windows, leaving only the one directly in front. One among them stomped on the floor, sending several black lines extending automatically toward a distance, hoisting up several meters tall players heading towards him to the ceiling. Then, amid the fleeing guests, they captured the young female painter, Jiang Jiang.

"Jiang Jiang!" Zhou Zhiyang, as an ordinary person, actually wanted to rush forward to save her, but he was kicked unconscious by a player protecting Jiang Jiang after he barely took a few steps, annoyed at him for being in the way. The player then yelled to the front, "The exchange piece!"

Suddenly, the person who had been holding Jiang Jiang by the throat switched places with her. Both were taken aback, but right after, Jiang Jiang got suspended from a crystal chandelier by a black line. The player with the black line used her as bait to attract two attacking players, distracting them while injuring one, and amidst Jiang Jiang’s screams, tossed her towards his accomplice nearby.

That player was obviously the same one who had sealed the windows before. With his hands raised, metal sprouted from beneath the floor, twisting into rough metallic constructs thick as arms and coiled around Jiang Jiang.

The young female artist’s body was squeezed tight; she had just let out a cry of pain when her neck was grasped, and the metal player sneered to the other players fleeing away from the crowd and attacking him, "Come within three meters, and I’ll kill her!"

These three were self-tasked players protecting Jiang Jiang and naturally prioritized her life; they stopped in their tracks at once. However, distance could not fully limit the players. One of them threw a Gyro onto the ground, from his feet a crack wide enough for two opened in the floor, heading straight for the metal player.

At the same time, another player threw something shaped like a balloon into the air. Vapors, like a mist, sprayed from the holes on it. The ones below, Jiang Jiang and the metal player, started sneezing wildly. Seizing the opportunity, a third player lifted a huge magnet, pulling Jiang Jiang from the ground.

The sneezing was everywhere in the hall, but the metal player recovered within seconds. She hurled an electric orb at Jiang Jiang and leaped into the crack on the floor.

The electric orb emitted a beeping countdown timer. The player with the magnet, having caught Jiang Jiang, pinned her down and shielded her with his body. The other two players also dodged to the side. At that moment, however, an opened iron box flew out from the crowd, swallowing the electric orb. After a muffled sound, another player who had barged in caught the box and addressed the metal player hiding beneath the crack, "What are you doing? If you blow up the hostage, what will we have left to negotiate with?"