Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 854: There’s More to Come

Chapter 854: Chapter 854: There’s More to Come

At the moment they passed each other, the middle-aged woman had already collected all the items on the desk, and she clashed with the Black Epaulettes who arrived subsequently, while Xu Huo retreated to the outer circle of the battle, occasionally supporting.

The Black Epaulettes reacted quickly, rapidly sending two groups of reinforcements, yet the exposed middle-aged woman did not leave Zone 011 immediately; instead, she chose to entangle with the Black Epaulettes.

The commotion here quickly attracted several Black Epaulette captains, including a pair of robots accompanying Ran Ying.

The Black Epaulettes employed an interference device targeting the props, which could render some props ineffective, affecting both allies and enemies, but the Black Epaulettes had combat strategies tailored for such situations, dealing with it adeptly, whereas the middle-aged woman seemed to be restrained at every turn.

However, several players soon appeared from different directions and successively destroyed two interference devices, opening a gap in the encirclement, and they, along with the middle-aged woman, rushed toward the courthouse building.

Xu Huo broke away from the Black Epaulettes team, changed his disguise for a new face, entered the crowd, and observed the movement toward the courthouse building from a distance.

The trial must have been suspended from the moment he escaped the building, as the entire interior was now obscured by a smoke-like black substance. According to communications between the Black Epaulettes, visibility inside the black smoke was not possible from outside, low-ranking Black Epaulettes had been ordered not to enter the building, and news of prisoners escaping had also emerged.

Xu Huo confirmed that the others had obtained tickets but had not yet left, and other members of the Holy Sword Society were collaborating from the side. This indicated that the Holy Sword Society’s objectives in coming to Zone 011 had not been met, and perhaps even the arrest and trial were riddled with much deceit.

"Boom!"

Just then, the ground shook slightly beneath his feet, followed by a loud explosion in the distance, causing the whole city to fall silent.

Limited by visibility, the crowd looked around but couldn’t locate the site of the incident. However, it was quickly revealed through communicators that "Night Orchid Laboratory exploded!"

Night Orchid Laboratory was in a nearby mid-tier city, also the level-three laboratory Qing Cai had mentioned earlier.

Indeed, the box left by Director San Yang was a decoy.

After the explosion, the Black Epaulettes surrounding the building noticeably shifted their focus. Led by Ran Ying, she took half of the captains and a third of the Black Epaulettes out of the fight, rushing to the city of the explosion first.

Shortly after their departure, Ashis Verna and his companions also emerged from the building. They all looked distressed and immediately coordinated their players and government players to chase the escaping members of the Holy Sword Society.

But once these people came out, the scene from earlier repeated itself—players in different locations and conditions began falling dead one by one, over a wide area and some even from behind a building!

Normally, props wouldn’t have such a large lethal range, and even if they did, the effect would be significantly reduced or nullified by physical barriers. Something was definitely wrong here!

"Any players of the Holy Sword Society, or those suspected of being members, upon discovery, are to be executed immediately!" Ashis reacted quickly. Since this prop couldn’t be restricted by space and distance, hiding or retreating was no escape. The best course of action was to kill the prop’s holder!

Xu Huo had already left the crowd.

The technique used previously to kill the Black Epaulettes, and now used to kill government players, was familiar to Xu Huo.

He had encountered this method once in the classified files of Zone 014, once in Zone 009, and counting today, this was the third occurrence.

In the Super Props incident, the Special Defense Department knew only of such a prop and the leakage of a personnel list but was unclear about how the prop actually killed.

In Zone 009, Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu saw several players holding a piece of paper with names written on it, crossing names off to kill players from Zone 009, yet the deceased player wasn’t found with the prop—this might not be the actual case. However, he obtained another clue that the player who kills by marking names on paper might be associated with the Holy Sword Society.

Now in Zone 011, it was undoubtedly a member of the Holy Sword Society, but this time, the prop had passed into the hands of a female player.

While in Zone 014, the Sacred Sword Society Gold Disciple appeared, the Special Defense Department naturally believed that a high-level prop was used to kill; in Zone 009, this prop appeared in the hands of some weaker players. Only a few days out from Zone 009, the same prop appeared in Zone 011 again.

While the middle-aged woman was destroying items in the secret room, Xu Huo saw items placed on the table.

Blood samples obtained from the Black Epaulettes, opened.

Scattered Black Epaulette identity cards.

An ordinary color palette, just recently used.

A bottle of purified water.

A regular pen.

These were what he glimpsed, and although he had never seen the same paper before, these items suggested the method of killing with paper props.

First, it was necessary to know the real name of the victim and perhaps even their appearance.

Next, their blood, possibly requiring some special item to mix into an ink-like substance for writing.

Finally, the real name must be written with this special "ink."

That was the preparation needed before killing.

Now, the Special Defense Department thought they had only leaked a list, but it seemed likely that the elite players’ blood samples had also been taken.

This was necessary to fulfill the conditions for murder.

But since the prop had appeared in the hands of players of varying levels and required substantial time to prepare, it was unlikely that it could appear so soon after appearing in Zone 009 in Zone 011. Although moving the prop wasn’t difficult, this clearly required a lot of preliminary work, and not delivering the prop on time could potentially delay the plan, which was not safe.

Moreover, passing such a lethal prop between different players was not feasible.

Given these prerequisites, and considering the situation of the player who was killed in Zone 009, it was easy to conclude—the paper that killed players by crossing off names was a one-time-use prop.

Thus, it could appear in the hands of different players, appear in different gaming zones within a very short time, and disappear without trace once the holder was killed.

Speaking of killing with paper, Xu Huo first thought of the Paper Servant Master, a Super Player capable of creating props like paper cell phones, so it wasn’t impossible for him to create a killing paper prop. However, the game backend had announced some time ago the grievances between the Paper Servant Master and the Holy Sword Society; it seemed unlikely they had much interaction, suggesting that the Paper Servant Master’s prop wouldn’t be easily stolen by the Holy Sword Society.

Aside from loss, the only other possibility was that it was sold.

Unless the prop wasn’t made by the Paper Servant Master.

However, knowing how the prop was used, there was no need to trace its origins; knowing how to defend against it was sufficient.

Xu Huo found a dead Black Epaulette and took his communicator.