Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!
Chapter 91: Staying Ahead of the Times

Chapter 91: Chapter 91: Staying Ahead of the Times

The sharp scream echoed in the empty streets. Wu Qiuyi and her two companions were on high alert. In less than ten seconds, a white shadow dashed out from the crossroad, so fast it almost created an afterimage. It was slender and nimble, and despite its speed, it came to a steady stop next to the source of the noise—a toy. With one swipe, it cut the toy into several pieces, and its claws even left marks on the ground!

This was the first time Wu Qiuyi had actually seen an Alien. A strange expression crossed her face, a mix of sadness and anger, "Those who eat people are also human."

"Shush." Lin Pei pressed her shoulder as a signal for her to be quiet.

The Alien hadn’t noticed their presence. As it spun around, it stumbled upon several players, whose shrieks filled the air. It scratched furiously in rage, vomiting and venting for a while before suddenly leaping onto the rooftops and running back in the direction it came from.

"Let’s go!" Lin Pei and Wu Qiuyi jumped out of the window one after another, climbing onto the rooftop to give chase.

The two of them leaped across the rooftops, tracking the Alien following the direction Ke Liang had indicated.

Surprisingly, even without eyes, the Alien rarely bumped into obstacles while navigating the streets. Supposedly, only sounds above 60 decibels could catch their attention, and their hearing was also supposed to be diminished, but this Alien would pause every so often along its path, tilting its head as if listening to something.

"What is it listening to?" After several occurrences, Wu Qiuyi was more curious about the behavior of the Alien than worried about being discovered by it.

Lin Pei had no idea, but soon they found the Alien’s landing spot—an old church. They saw with their own eyes it slipping into the space beneath the statue of the deity in the church. Venturing closer, they found a passage below, with circular holes in the metal walls just as Xu Huo had described.

After taking measurements, the two of them left the church to search the nearby area for potential puzzles, before moving on to the next district.

Overnight, when the bus returned to town the next day, the three of them were tired, but they looked much more relaxed.

"I have some good news. There aren’t as many Aliens in the town as we thought," Lin Pei said. "We tried so many places yesterday and only found two, and we’ve already covered two-thirds of the town."

This news buoyed the spirits of everyone on the bus. Xu Huo said, "I’m going to look for safe puzzles near Master Niese’s place later."

"I’ll go too," Gu Yu added.

"Then the three of us will go to the remaining area," Wu Qiuyi said.

"Can you three handle it?" Shen Yi asked. "Otherwise, leave it to us to go out today."

"We had a good rest last night, no problem," Wu Qiuyi said. "The three of us work well together, and we’re also quite familiar with the town; there’s no need to complicate things."

"You can go with Xu Huo and Gu Yu to look for puzzles."

"If you all go, what about us?" Wang Chaoqing quickly said, "It’s not necessarily safe on the bus either, you should leave one or two people behind, right?"

Shen Xin gave him a disdainful look and said to Shen Yi, "Brother, we better stay on the bus, lest they hold us back."

The others had no objection, but then someone’s stomach growled.

Everyone turned their heads. Gu Yu, with a hint of embarrassment, said, "What’s so strange about getting hungry? If you ate grass every day like me, you might not be any better off."

Xu Huo crushed the last lollipop, opened it up, and everyone took a small piece.

Having gone almost two days without food, Xu Huo also felt the pangs of hunger, and drank two bottles of water with the piece of candy.

"After this trip, I’m never dieting again," Gu Yu said, looking pale as she held her water bottle solemnly, "Once we’re out, I want to eat fried chicken and drink cola."

"You’ve become a player, do you still need to work?" Shen Xin looked at her quizzically. "Isn’t the first thing we should be considering how to survive in the game?"

"Why wouldn’t a player need to work?" Gu Yu pouted. "You don’t look at how little we have, how could you bear to trade that for money, yet people need to spend to live, and with money you can also buy items."

"Who would sell their items?" Shen Yi laughed. "Usually, it’s trade, isn’t selling kind of stupid?"

"As long as the price is right, nothing is unbuyable," Gu Yu said with experience.

The other penniless folks on the bus fell silent, Shen Xin sarcastically adding, "It’s great to have money."

"That’s right." Gu Yu tossed her hair and added, "With money, you can even pay someone to carry you through instances."

Lin Pei expressed surprise, "Aren’t the strong players all assigned by the government?"

"It’s about communicating with the government through money," Gu Yu explained. "The government needs a lot of money for its research on players and the game, and they also want to understand the instances better. If your offer is good, they can even take care of the Tickets themselves."

Xu Huo, intrigued by this, asked, "Are there many Tickets for the same station?"

"As far as I know, it’s quite hard for players from the same place to encounter each other in instances," Lin Pei said.

"It’s certainly tough for a city, or a province, but if you look nationwide, finding one or two Tickets for the same station isn’t that difficult," Gu Yu said. "You’re all not from Jing City, right? In Jing City, this isn’t uncommon anymore, some powerful groups have even begun hiring players to explore instances for them, claiming it to be a prospect for the future, to be at the forefront of the era."

The others considered this an eye-opener; they hadn’t expected that, while they were still struggling in secrecy for a Ticket, there were already organized efforts to explore instances.

In Xu Huo’s eyes, this was to be expected.

Evolver emergence was only recent, but keen government agencies and Influential Powers with connections likely started their inquiries at the first opportunity. The game world was worth exploring; leaving aside other factors, just the physical enhancement of Evolvers was enough to spur people on. For thousands of years, humanity has evolved but could not surpass the concept of "ordinary person." The arrival of Evolvers, perhaps the wildest dream, belonged to those with the capital and the power.

Although Gu Yu recognized the validity of money transactions, she scoffed at the notion of becoming a hired player. "Those people don’t realize that every time a player enters an instance, they’re risking their lives. Only lower-level players would be interested in the conditions they offer. Once the Player Level goes up, it’s not certain who has the upper hand."

"That’s true," Lin Pei suddenly chuckled. "The world is controlled by the powerful, and the future powerful will undoubtedly be the players."

Gu Yu agreed wholeheartedly, "So right now, these big groups may put on airs, but there will come a day when they’ll be the ones begging players."

This leveled the playing field for the others, but Xu Huo didn’t quite see it the same way. As long as Evolvers depended on Evolution Potion, whether they could be controlled in the future was uncertain, to say nothing of reversing roles.

Nonetheless, some deep-rooted things were bound to change.

"What’s your evolution rate?" Gu Yu suddenly asked.