Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

Chapter 2446: Mutual Suspicion

Chi Cai caught up to the three young men to ask something, but they said they didn’t encounter any other players and had always been traveling together as a group of three."Could it be that he went to find someone else?" Yang Tian said, "His cooperation with that eyebrow-piercing guy when chasing me was seamless, he wouldn’t turn against me so easily."

Regardless, Chi Cai decided to follow these three young men for a while to prevent them from dying in confusion.

Yang Tian’s injuries hadn’t healed yet, his first reaction was to return to the village, even though Xu Huo treated him poorly, they wouldn’t stand by and watch other players kill.

Chi Cai hesitated, and Yang Tian couldn’t help but mock, "I don’t believe you’re truly a good person."

Chi Cai did not argue, "Then you can go alone."

Yang Tian sneered and turned to head back, disappearing into the mist in just a few steps.

As for the three local young men, they didn’t want to get involved in player affairs, but they waited for Chi Cai because they were curious about outsiders and wanted to ask some questions. Chi Cai, being easygoing, was the best choice.

Not long after, they too walked into the mist one after another.

A mutated ant the size of a little finger crawled over the mark left by a player on a tree, and the next second, a figure suddenly strode out of the space—shockingly, it was the middle-aged man who had left earlier.

He stood in front of the tree, face grim, looking at the mark on the tree. Then, angrily, he punched the tree trunk. After pulling his hand from the hole he made, he reopened the Spatial Artifact and vanished from the spot.

About five minutes later, he returned to the same place, looking at the same mark, the same tree hole. The veins on his forehead throbbed, and in the end, he had to give up the idea of using the Spatial Artifact to leave, honestly walking toward Zhongmu Village.

He felt that the direction he was walking in was not wrong, but he couldn’t find the location of the next mark for a long time—this was very abnormal. Yesterday, when searching for people, they clearly marked several directions nearby, it was impossible for some to have disappeared overnight...

The middle-aged man stood still, took out a metal Que Niao from his item box, activated the mechanism on its wings, and the metal Que Niao flew straight in one direction like a real bird, trailing a kind of blue smoke, which lasted long enough to become an accurate directional marker.

The middle-aged man followed the blue smoke and quickly found the next marking point. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he suddenly heard someone shouting at him from not far away with the voice of the eyebrow-pierced man.

The two of them had parted ways, going in different directions. The eyebrow-pierced guy couldn’t have crossed the Mist Forest to find him. The middle-aged man’s pupils quivered, and he quickly grabbed the metal bird and used a Spatial Teleportation Device to leave.

Seconds later, the eyebrow-pierced man, accompanied by Bubble Bean and Yin Yang Master, came over. The blue smoke hadn’t completely dissipated, proving that the person they saw earlier was indeed real.

"Why did he run?" Yin Yang Master wondered, "Didn’t he see us three?"

Bubble Bean sneered, "He probably got startled when he heard the sound. Do you think he’d dare turn back to look at us?"

"My guess was right. He went out alone and didn’t seek out others, which only leads to one possibility. That is, he must have taken on the identity of the Hidden Friend. Otherwise, he wouldn’t leave the group to act alone. This way, he can safely call upon people."

The eyebrow-pierced man’s brows furrowed, "We need to inform the others."

"Why inform them?" Yin Yang Master said, "As long as they’re targets, we’re safe."

"We can’t let him find his friends." Bubble Bean said, "Only one person can clear this instance."

He then glanced at the eyebrow-pierced man, "Even if I can’t clear it, I shouldn’t let others clear it easily."

With this logic, they changed direction to find other players.

However, with the forest being so vast and their numbers so few, it’s not easy to regroup once dispersed, unless they return to the village.

So Yin Yang Master came up with a plan to muddy the waters, which was to mark certain trees with common game signals, warning others that the middle-aged man was currently playing the role of "Hidden Friend."

After they left, the first to see these signals was Chi Cai, who was following the three young men. Having exchanged contact information with Yang Tian, he informed Yang Tian of this information.

Yang Tian hadn’t returned to the village because he too had gotten lost. He felt he was circling the same area, having used several props without finding a way out. So, he thought of a crude and simple solution: cutting down trees. Along his path, he chopped down all the surrounding trees in an attempt to make a clear path. By the time he received Chi Cai’s message, he had already chopped several hundred meters.

Upon seeing the message, his first reaction was disbelief. Chi Cai couldn’t be trusted enough, and it was hard to say who left the message—it could just be the middle-aged man acting alone, with no witnesses nearby. If anyone acted against him because of this, it would conveniently eliminate two competitors.

Yang Tian didn’t take this message seriously. Just as he was about to continue finding his way, he caught a glimpse of a figure in his peripheral vision. Startled, he turned and immediately widened the distance from the figure, but the next second, the person said something, and he halted, his expression relaxing.

A sudden gust of wind blew in, bringing a dense fog that gradually covered this area of felled trees.

At lunchtime, only Chi Cai and the three young men returned to the village. Seeing the Girl in the painting still playing a game at the door, he asked, "Hasn’t Mr. Xu gotten up yet?"

The Girl in the painting shook her head.

Chi Cai first nodded, then frowned, "There’s been no sound from him all morning?"

Not waiting for the Girl in the painting’s response, he quickly returned inside, kicking open the door to Xu Huo’s resting room!

The door crashed against the wall with a "bang," and Xu Huo stood behind it, maintaining a slight distance from the door, as if deliberately leaving space for it to be kicked open.

"Is something wrong?" Xu Huo asked him.

Chi Cai was a bit embarrassed, "No, I just saw there was no movement from you, so I thought something might have happened."

"You underestimate me," the Girl in the painting expressed dissatisfaction.

Chi Cai quickly apologized, then asked about Yang Tian. Learning that he hadn’t returned to the village, Chi Cai became somewhat suspicious, "He went out and came back, he should have arrived long ago... I saw signals on the trees and sent him a message, but he didn’t respond. Could the signals have been left by him? Did he intentionally separate from me?"

"Not necessarily," Xu Huo washed his face, refreshing himself before saying, "He might have simply gotten lost. This Mist Forest is very strange, props can’t necessarily determine direction."

"It’s a pity we don’t have contact with others, otherwise we could warn them to be careful." Chi Cai thought for a moment and said, "When others return, we should know who left the signals. Hopefully, they’ll have enough luck."