Players, Please Board the Train-Chapter 280: Baiting at the Door

He turned back and said to Xu Huo, "We discovered there are quite a few such secret passages in the ancient castle. They not only connect to adjacent rooms but also lead to the kitchen and the main hall below."
"The game hasn't started yet, but Jin Chao thinks the game might be related to the castle's layout, so he wants to map out the passages in advance," Peng Ru said. "Splitting up is dangerous, but just the two of us would take too long. How about the four of us split up? I'll go find Miss Yan, and you go with Jin Chao?"
"Alright," Xu Huo didn't refuse, but reminded her, "But be careful. The ones chasing Yan Jiayu and the player I just killed are twins. I don't know if both of them can use that strange characteristic."
Peng Ru showed surprise. "I've never heard of characteristics being duplicated. If they have the same effect, it's more likely to be an item."
Xu Huo's eyebrow twitched slightly. "I didn't engage with them deeply, so I don't know much about it."
Peng Ru nodded and entered the secret passage, walking away.
Then Xu Huo and Jin Chao also entered the secret passage, but went in different directions.
After exploring the secret passages for a while, Xu Huo discovered that most of these passages weren't interconnected. Simply put, they were more like another corridor between rooms. You could enter a secret passage from a room's decorative painting or bathroom mirror cabinet, and the passage would connect to another room's movable wall panel or bathroom, thus linking an entire row of rooms together.
"This pattern feels a bit like a haunted house," Jin Chao pondered.
But right at that moment, the ancient castle shook slightly. The two exchanged glances and hurriedly exited the secret passage. However, the environment outside had undergone a massive change. The previously bright sky was now completely dark, with only moonlight filtering through the windows. The originally empty rooms had become crowded, with vanished curtains, beds, sofas, and wardrobes appearing out of thin air, completely different from what they had seen before. Pushing the door open to go out, the corridor's broken lights flickered, with walls and floors showing dark stains. Some old, broken puppets lay collapsed on the ground or were nailed to the walls, exactly like a horror movie set.
"The hide-and-seek game has begun," a puppet's uniquely shrill voice echoed through the ancient castle. "From now until dawn, only children who aren't caught by the puppets have a chance to get prizes."
"Everyone hide quickly, I'm starting to count! 10, 9, 8..."
The countdown started from ten, but actually, from the moment counting began, the puppets in the corridor started moving. Hanging with broken limbs or missing heads, they crookedly stood up and moved purposefully toward nearby living people.
Xu Huo drew his sword, while Jin Chao beside him warned, "Killing puppets during game time won't make you start over, but they'll drop an especially large number of small hats! Be careful!"
Xu Huo certainly wouldn't randomly slaughter puppets either. He retreated into the room and closed the door, then pushed a wardrobe over to block it. Unexpectedly, however, a recess appeared in the wall behind the wardrobe, and crouching inside was a Stuffed Rabbit that ferociously pounced out!
Kicking the rabbit away, he turned to Jin Chao, who was also being attacked by puppets emerging from various unexpected corners of the room, and said, "We need to find a place to hide."
Tearing off the puppet clinging to his back and throwing it away, Jin Chao turned and ran toward the secret passage, crashing through the wall and running inside.
Xu Huo hesitated slightly, but still entered the secret passage.
The secret passages now were also different from what they had seen before. Jin Chao had already disappeared, and two Plush Bears came pouncing toward him. After avoiding their bear hugs, he leaped up and used piano wire to move to the other side.
They weren't the only ones who had discovered the ancient castle's secret passages, nor were they the only ones wanting to hide in them. But there were also many puppets in the passages, and it was impossible to know where they might appear from. After the wall-high passages entered game mode, even puppets would emerge from the walls above. Being caught simultaneously by two or more puppets meant elimination.
After the initial hour of chaotic fighting, the number of eliminated players climbed, and the ancient castle gradually grew quiet. Those puppets seemed to lose their supporting power and collapsed randomly on the ground, replaced by some giant living creatures rummaging through the rooms.
Xu Huo exited from the secret passage, picked up a Stuffed Rabbit and smashed it against a cabinet, then climbed through the window to the adjacent room, carefully listening to the movements next door.
While the living bear in the corridor broke through the door, the other puppets also regained vitality, all charging into the room together.
He looked out through the slightly ajar door. After a period of rummaging and smashing, the puppets all remained in the room, with only that living bear walking out, continuing to wander the corridor.
The countdown started from ten, but actually, from the moment counting began, the puppets in the corridor started moving. Hanging with broken limbs or heads, they crookedly stood up and moved purposefully toward nearby living people.
His eyes flickered slightly. Xu Huo took out the corpse he had stored earlier and tossed it in the doorway, then hid in the secret passage.
On the second-floor staircase, the slightly shorter of the twins and the beautiful woman were walking upstairs. The shorter one had a head injury, and even though he had used a healing potion, it was still bandaged. Gnashing his teeth, he said, "I'm definitely going to kill her!"
"Give it up. The fact that she could cripple you and still escape shows her strength isn't low. Brother Tu already said it - your twin characteristics need to be used together to avoid others exploiting weaknesses. But you two went and separated, got beaten up by a little girl until you're professionals at it, utterly disgraceful." The woman fearlessly mocked the twins, but her voice didn't attract the attention of the living bear active on the other side of the corridor.
The two reached the second floor and immediately spotted the headless corpse lying in the middle. The shorter twin's face abruptly changed.
"Be careful, it might be a trap!" the woman warned him, but the shorter one paid no heed, setting up a cross-section in front of himself and directly running over.
The woman had no choice but to follow him. When they reached the corpse, the shorter one knelt down, pulled open the clothes of the person on the ground, confirmed his identity, and said painfully, "It's my brother!"
The woman frowned and glanced around. "No head visible. Someone must have taken the head. Let's move the body back first and discuss it with Brother Tu."
But the shorter one looked at her with anger in his eyes. "I want to avenge my brother! He hasn't been dead long - his killer must be nearby!"
"Most likely it's that other man from those two. The timing matches," the woman said. "The old man said he's cunning and full of tricks. He's using the head as bait - don't fall for it."
But the shorter one didn't care about any of that. After storing the body, he said, "If you're scared, you can go hide in Brother Tu's bed and cry."
The woman's expression turned cold, but then she said, "You think this lady only relies on men? Brother Tu said whoever kills those two players gets the windmill. Don't compete with me."
"Don't worry, I just want them dead!" The shorter one tore off the bandage on his head and pushed open the slightly ajar door.