Kaidan Game Train: Abide Rule or Die!

It took Xu Huo half an hour to finish reading the information about the National Treasure.

Not because there was so much of it—in fact, Yu Country’s Collection of Information Terminal isn’t much better than Yongta Country’s—but because there are many different versions of the National Treasure’s story, and some of them can be traced all the way back to their source, which takes time.

The theories are all over the place.

Some people think the "National Treasure" is actually the wealth the former Chief Governor looted; if it could be handed down to the current Chief Governor, the country’s overall strength might jump a level—making it a National Treasure in the most literal sense.

But more people think it’s a kind of token. This idea originates in the religious faith of the Supreme God: supposedly, at a certain point in history, a group of particularly outstanding members of the religion set up a set of rules and agreed that other members and their descendants would abide by them. Their faith didn’t erode with time; instead, as their families grew stronger, it became deeply rooted. In other words, the "National Treasure" is the token that can command these forces hidden inside the country.

This theory is widely accepted. Someone even did a dedicated analysis: when the Supreme God Sect was expanding nationwide, it must have amassed a huge amount of wealth. That wealth would be enough to keep the core members’ descendants rich for several hundred years. At the same time, these people are an important force in Yu Country; when you stack strength and willingness together, the argument is quite convincing.

Of course, there are people who refute it, because the previous Chief Governors apparently never used this "National Treasure," which is why the country has remained chaotic. By the time of the last Chief Governor, people’s patience ran out, and they simply used force to kick him out.

This can also be taken as proof that the previous Chief Governors did use the "National Treasure," because up until the last-but-one Chief Governor, Yu Country was at least able to keep things steady, without driving its citizens into massive displacement. Aside from the fact that the previous Chief Governors were relatively decent people, there should also have been the efforts of these hidden forces.

As for why the last Chief Governor crashed and burned, "informed sources indicate" that his procedures weren’t very legal; the previous Chief Governor’s death was connected to him, and after taking office he wildly accumulated wealth, used power however he pleased, and didn’t give a damn whether people lived or died—so naturally no one cared about his life or death either.

The third explanation with a sizable number of supporters is that the "National Treasure" is actually a particular person—to be precise, a particular Player.

Regarding the "National Treasure," according to an expert who once specialized in history and posted on the Collection of Information Terminal, the earliest mention can be traced back several hundred years to the ruler who reversed the Supreme God Sect’s monopoly on believers nationwide. That ruler was extremely capable and very farsighted; he believed no person could stay wise forever. External factors, health, and personal likes and dislikes could all turn a person muddle-headed, which was bad for the country’s development. So he created a new position: "supervisor," specifically to oversee the ruler. The first supervisor was his close friend, and he jokingly called him the "National Treasure."

Although the position was forcibly abolished by later rulers after only a few generations, the reason the first supervisor was able to hold that post was because he and his family were exceptionally skilled in Body Techniques. The family was naturally more flexible and agile than ordinary people, with faster reactions. On top of that, one of their ancestors had been an assassin, and those techniques were passed down. Combined with special training methods, they were already highly proficient at killing even before Evolution.

Only strong martial ability could ensure that the "supervisor" position had real power. In the era of cold weapons, this was perfectly logical.

Later, because of power struggles among the successors, once the "supervisor" identity was abolished, that family also faded from sight.

However, over the course of several hundred years, there were a few incidents where muddle-headed rulers were assassinated. In two of them, based on the wounds on the corpses and the method of infiltration at the time, combined with modern scientific analysis, historians believe they were the work of that assassin family.

But that being the case, the importance of the "National Treasure" takes a major hit. Its existence can no longer restrain the many Player forces in the present. Besides, from Xu Huo’s perspective, the Illusory Spark instance shouldn’t be about having Players dig up that family and reestablish the "supervisor" post to keep Governors in check.

The clear condition in the instance mentions that the treasure was taken away by the former Chief Governor. From the way it’s described, it also shouldn’t be a person.

And in the end, the former Chief Governor escaped from Yu Country under the protection of his trusted followers.

In the game world, it’s actually quite easy for Players to flee. The reason no one caught the former Chief Governor was that he slipped into a Prop to shed his body and get away. After that, it’s said he went back to Zone 039, gathered a group of people, and with the covert support of Yongta Country and Moon Corner Duchy, tried to seize back power.

But neither Players nor ordinary people stood on his side. Even though Yu Country had been in civil war ever since he was driven out, when he showed up, all factions tacitly halted the fighting and took care of the people around him first.

Only after that did the former Chief Governor truly disappear. Some say he’s been wandering through different countries; some say he already used non-Player Tickets to go to another nation; some say he’s actually dead already... In any case, ever since then his whereabouts have been unknown, and many forces opposing the current Chief Governor under the banner of the "National Treasure" have been looking for him.

Of course, they haven’t exactly been looking very hard.

In the last twenty years, there were a few times when Player forces launched a sweeping publicity campaign claiming they’d found the "National Treasure." The final confrontation stage was never made public, but every time it ended with the current Chief Governor’s victory, and the main members of those Player forces were killed or disappeared, eventually fading out of sight.

The most recent news about the former Chief Governor’s possible whereabouts was three months ago. Someone claimed to have found a man in an abandoned city who looked very much like him. Later, Yu Country Government officially confirmed the news was fake. They even brought the person back: a man whose face had already been destroyed, nowhere near similar, and the DNA didn’t match either.

Older rumors aren’t worth mentioning; broken bits of information plus inaccurate addresses leave no way to verify them.

After going through all this information, Xu Huo took the Girl in the painting to visit that historian.

The historian’s name was Shi Qing, and he now lived in a regular apartment building in Capital City.

Xu Huo found out where he lived while asking for directions: Shi Qing’s home was in a "senior building"—the city had been bombed repeatedly, and many housing complexes only had one or two buildings left that were still habitable. These places weren’t demolished; in the end, they were rented out to people without much money, most of them elderly. Over time, these buildings were gradually abandoned by the young.

When he actually arrived downstairs, he realized how bad the environment was. A single thirty-plus-story tower stood between two main roads, where later expansions hadn’t bothered with proper surfacing, so dust billowed everywhere. There was also heavy traffic, so living here meant you couldn’t even count on basic safety when going out.

"Young man, looking for someone?" An old lady beamed at him through the window’s burglar bars. "Do you have family living here?"

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