Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

The puppet was not taken away by Xu Huo, but rather left for other players to discover.

Because the instance description included a hidden rule that seemed to prohibit destroying the puppet, other players did not seize it either, and eventually the puppet ended up in High Ponytail’s hands.

"Why is it incomplete?" High Ponytail frowned at the puppet in her hand. Earlier, she had already searched everywhere nearby but couldn’t find the missing arm.

"Maybe it was incomplete from the start," Xu Huo said, "The castle owner is the one who makes the puppets, and he and the servants are the ones who first interact with the puppets. The servants are unlikely to defy the owner’s intentions." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Are you saying the castle owner intentionally didn’t make the arm?" High Ponytail didn’t understand what this meant.

"Perhaps he made it, but then deliberately removed it," the sweet girl said with a smile at this point. "Others have artistic pursuits, and you can’t guarantee success every time. Redoing things is quite normal."

This notion can’t be completely ruled out. The key question is why the puppet appeared randomly in the corner of the painting room. What is the castle owner’s purpose for placing it here? Was dismantling the arm from the start a sign that this puppet would never become one that the puppet maker is satisfied with?

This isn’t good news for players, especially for High Ponytail, because among the various scenarios of obtaining a puppet, striving for one’s own puppet is the most legitimate and convenient.

If she can’t get her own puppet, she’ll have to take someone else’s puppet.

High Ponytail subconsciously shifted her gaze from the puppet to the other people present.

"Instead of imagining others, why not think about yourself?" Fluorescent Powder said. "The first puppet was of a dead player, the second puppet was of the person who went out last night. I wonder if this counts as the castle owner’s punishment."

High Ponytail gripped the puppet tightly and didn’t even dare to place it in the luggage compartment, but followed the crowd back to the guest room area.

The players didn’t return to their rooms but instead accompanied High Ponytail, the Girl in the painting, and the middle-aged man in the open rest area. High Ponytail already got her puppet; the next puppet might be the Girl in the painting or the middle-aged man.

"What did you do last night?" the long-coated man asked the middle-aged man about his outing process last night. If the first day’s puppet was made according to their appearance, it suggests that their actions somewhat angered the castle owner. But the freedom to come and go was verified by the servants, so it might be something special they did.

The middle-aged man also wracked his brain, recalling his process of going in and out, but before he could speak, the Girl in the painting interrupted, "Let me say it, let me say it."

She then recounted what she did last night under everyone’s attentive gaze.

She started by playing games and went out only after she had her fill. Initially planning to go to the kitchen to fetch something to eat, she found no leftovers there. So she decided to check the castle owner’s studio to see if there were any snacks to satisfy her cravings, but the door didn’t open.

Initially, she intended to break in, but before she acted, she saw High Ponytail emerge from the display room. When the two crossed paths, the middle-aged man came out of the painting room, followed by the cat from the painting.

Later, when the black cat attacked the middle-aged man, High Ponytail slipped away amidst the chaos. The Girl in the painting found it interesting and abandoned the snacks to chase the black cat, giving the middle-aged man the opportunity to escape.

The black cat, after having its front paw injured by the Girl in the painting, ran away. Since it wasn’t a real cat, hiding wasn’t difficult. The Girl in the painting circled around twice without finding it, only to discover the 25th player killed.

Seeing the black cat kill, she became even more intrigued. After a scuffle, she injured the cat’s ear and chased it back into the painting room, where she only saw the cat on the painting paper.

"Why didn’t you just tear the painting apart?" Zuo Yu couldn’t help but ask.

"Why tear it apart?" the Girl in the painting looked at him with a strange expression. "The cat returned to the painting paper, meaning it surrendered. If it surrendered, why still fight it?"

Zuo Yu was speechless.

"What happened afterward?" Xu Huo asked.

"After the cat surrendered, I left, feeling leaving the dead person in the corridor wasn’t appropriate, so I moved him to the dining room." The Girl in the painting said, with a somewhat unnatural expression, sheepishly adding, "I also took a few props from him."

No one cared about those ownerless props. After thinking for a moment, the long-coated man said, "If today’s puppet corresponds to the people who went out last night, we can establish a pattern, which is the castle owner might choose the puppet’s object based on who he dislikes the most."

"Did the servant deceive us?" The middle-aged man felt somewhat annoyed.

"Whether the servant deceived us is hard to tell," the long-coated man said, thoughtfully glancing between him and High Ponytail.

From the Girl in the painting’s description, High Ponytail and he emerged from the display room and the painting room, respectively. Who knows what they did inside? If they destroyed anything they shouldn’t have, it was understandable for the castle owner to choose them.

Of course, the Girl in the painting wasn’t an exception. She not only attempted to pry open the door but also damaged the black cat painting.

However, compared to High Ponytail and the middle-aged man’s anxiety, the Girl in the painting was much more composed, calling over Number 1 to order a table of desserts and snacks.

During the subsequent time, players occasionally left the rest area to check other rooms for any new puppet appearances, but until evening, near dinner time, the third puppet still hadn’t appeared.

"Guests, please take your seats. Dinner will begin in five minutes," the four servants reappeared in the dining hall.

In fact, there was no need to wait until then; the players had already arrived to occupy seats early. This time, Xu Huo arrived quite early, sitting in the middle, while the Girl in the painting happily took the first seat on the left, inviting High Ponytail to sit opposite her.

High Ponytail didn’t even want to appear in the dining hall because she was holding an incomplete puppet in her hand. Who knows how the castle owner would react upon seeing the puppet?

"If you don’t give the puppet to the castle owner, how will he attach the right hand?" the Girl in the painting said.

High Ponytail closed her eyes briefly, ignoring her, and remained seated.

Soon the puppet maker appeared, simultaneously revealing the whereabouts of the third puppet—he appeared holding a puppet, which, judging from the visible parts, depicted the middle-aged man, but was missing a leg.

To show respect to the castle owner, the players stood up. However, as everyone rose, the middle-aged man seated at the end of the dining table suddenly let out a scream. The crowd quickly turned around to see his lower body suddenly spewing blood into the air, followed by his whole body seemingly compressed as if by some high-pressure force, flattening in mid-air. The sickening sound of bones breaking and grinding only lasted for less than a second before being abruptly drowned out by the sound of blood splattering and the deformed body sliding against chairs and tables!