Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

Chapter 2461: Clearance

The first point is that the number of players in the dungeon has become 20.The second point is the notification that he has already cleared the dungeon.

When one person clears the dungeon, it signifies the end of the dungeon, and the remaining players all fail to clear it, but they can leave nonetheless.

Upon seeing the message of clearance, Xu Huo realized that having one person clear the dungeon doesn’t mean only one person can clear it, but rather that as long as one person clears it, the dungeon ends. Previous players probably hadn’t realized this and mistakenly thought killing someone was the way to clear it.

Of course, every time the remaining player count in the dungeon updated, Xu Huo also assumed the missing players were dead, killed by fellow players or by the true Hidden Friend.

But the dungeon’s intent is not to kill, so as long as someone sees the dungeon’s hint, it doesn’t even need to result in any deaths.

Unfortunately, players are accustomed to killing in games and did not consider the possibility of a dungeon as gentle as this, like looking in a mirror, the person a mirror reflects is no different from the person looking in.

The Girl in the painting slipped out from behind him, curiously looking at the shadows of people walking around, "These shadows are strange, they don’t let me touch them."

"This should be the effect of the dungeon," Xu Huo said, "To keep the past and reality at a certain distance to achieve the legendary effect."

"They look like real people." The Girl in the painting tilted her head thoughtfully, "At this rate, others seeing them might not be able to distinguish who is dead and who is alive."

She said this while pointing at the Bubble Bean in the hollow of a tree, "He’s like that too."

Xu Huo noticed the smile on her face was about to burst, so he played along and asked, "What are you going to do then?"

Her smile brightening, she took out the Seal Fruit she had previously bought on the train, engraved the words "Was here" on it, then opened the tree hollow and stamped it on the Bubble Bean’s forehead.

The Seal Fruit was a gift from a player selling plant seeds on the train, its liquid being corrosive enough to repeatedly damage human skin, hence if something is engraved and stamped on, it’s unlikely to heal anytime soon.

"If he cuts off the skin on his forehead, will it be okay?" The Girl in the painting asked.

"That I don’t know." Xu Huo said.

"I’ll try it." She genuinely intended to use a knife to dig into the skin on the Bubble Bean’s forehead.

"Enough," Xu Huo stopped her, "Don’t bother him anymore, we still need to go somewhere."

The Girl in the painting regretfully stood up, casually brushed some leaves over the ground, covering the person once more, then followed Xu Huo, asking, "Where are we going?"

"To check out the place where people are hidden." Xu Huo said.

Though players can pass through the dungeon safely without killing anyone, the dungeon would randomly take away locals, and those missing are likely dead.

The concept of "death" and "memory" for the Hidden Friend might differ from humans’, so besides the elderly, it occasionally calls some young people away too. Whether this process is entirely voluntary, no one knows, but it definitely has a designated place for "hiding people."

Which is to say, a burial place.

He led Bubble Bean according to the dungeon power fluctuations to nearby when he sensed a relatively large cavity underground, only slightly deep, easy to miss if not careful.

"This is the place." Xu Huo picked a suitable spot and had a robot make a passage down.

Minutes later, the two reached fifty meters underground.

The robot drilled into a massive root system, and mysteriously enough, this root was hollow, allowing individuals to easily pass through. Moving forward along the root, they soon reached the heart of the cavity.

Creating a hole in the root released a distinctive fragrance that filled the air.

Xu Huo donned his Protective Suit and jumped out from the root, landing on the underground rock.

This place is truly vast, with nearly a hundred meters in depth, and several hundred meters in length. It appears a special plant’s root system hollowed out the underground rock and replaced it, so massive dragon-like roots interweave throughout, their tendrils connecting to each other, and crawling over the entire surface of the cavity.

Xu Huo noticed some mounds covered by tendrils, and upon pulling them aside, found a crouched human figure beneath.

After an unknown amount of time, this person and his clothes had been eroded by some special material, turning brittle as paper, and the corpse itself had been completely absorbed by these plant tendrils, leaving a shell.

"There’s more here!" The Girl in the painting called out from a short distance.

Xu Huo glanced over, she had found another player deceased, looking at the state of the body, it likely wasn’t from this instance.

Such human-shaped mounds were numerous, almost covering the entire cavity, in some places clearly overlapping more than one person.

"Were they hidden by the big tree?" The Girl in the painting wasn’t concerned about the dungeon but knew its content from other players.

Xu Huo examined the surrounding rock, seeing the forest could mutate into this form, it’s conceivable what dramatic changes happened to the soil and rock during evolution, though he hadn’t found any Secondary Stone suitable to be made into a prop.

"There’s so much sludge here." The Girl in the painting stepped onto a tendril and pulled out a foot covered in black, wet mud. In some spots, water seeped out, forming little mud pits where there was soil.

Having circled around without much gain, Xu Huo took out paper and pen to use the characteristics "Home Field View."

The earlier content wasn’t of much interest, mostly his experiences in the dungeon, the latter would be key.

"...When Xu Huo led Bubble Bean into the forest’s depths, he thought he was sensing some special magnetic or spatial force within the instance, but unknowingly, a figure was keeping a not-too-close and not-too-far distance behind him, while his eyes saw it, he didn’t pay attention to whether the figure differed from the other apparition-like plant life."

"However, upon entering the underground cave, the figure did not follow..."

...

"The cave didn’t yield much besides bodies, let Xu Huo down, though this disappointment wholly stemmed from his limited knowledge. Had he recalled the complete guide on mutant plants he’d just read, he’d know that the wet mud was quite suitable for cultivating mutant plants."

Without further ado, Xu Huo packed several barrels of mud into the cargo hold, the seed he previously extracted from the eye of Dou Shengnan sorely needed nourishment.

As he prepared to leave, a gentle breeze caused him to pause, for the paper still continued:

"...The figure appeared before Xu Huo."

Xu Huo squinted, understanding that the "Home Field View" referred figure must be a force within the dungeon venue, also indeed the true "Hidden Friend," which might occasionally take human form, or maybe no form at all. Why was it following him?