Global Collapse

Chapter 169 Rose Night
This place is very large, and you'll come across an antique building every few steps.

The fat man carried the boy on his back, swaying aimlessly like a headless fly.

The two encountered several other players during their time together, but people avoided them after seeing the fat man and the boy on his back.

A night breeze blew by, and the fat man felt the cold wind slipping down his collar and into his clothes; his stomach felt a little cold.

He kept feeling pain in his calves, but he couldn't care less about that now.

The fat man felt a damp, warm sensation on his back; it was the blood that had seeped out of the person on his back, soaking his clothes.

As if afraid the boy on his back would fall asleep, the fat man carried him forward while chatting with him about random things: "You don't look very old, how come you joined the army at such a young age?"

The boy behind him said in a weak voice, "Actually, I'm only a sophomore in high school this year..."

The fat man was taken aback: "So young."

But then he remembered the scene of the boy buying roses and couldn't help but ask, "Early romance?"

Early romantic relationships in high school would be exposed and posted on the bulletin board by the grade teacher. Fatty remembered that when he was in high school, he often found the names of exposed couples on the grade bulletin board.

“Yeah,” the boy on his back chuckled. “Our discipline director is in charge of this. Every Saturday and Sunday when he’s off, he goes around the playground several times and catches couples. He’s incredibly fast. Some people say that the discipline director is a former sports student, so the school specifically hired him to catch people. No one in our school can outrun him. Once someone is targeted, they’re guaranteed to be caught.”

But now that games have become a global phenomenon, schools have closed, and nobody cares about these students dating.

The boy on his back paused for a moment, then continued, "A few months ago, we all hated that school, hated the meddlesome teachers, and I especially hated the discipline director who was always lurking around the playground. Every time I was with my girlfriend, we had to sneak around, and if we got caught, we'd get a good scolding..."

"But now that I think about it, I really miss those days... It's only been a few months, but it feels like years have passed..."

The fat man felt a constant pain in his calf.

The two encountered several more players, but this time the players no longer avoided them upon seeing them from afar.

Two people were watching them from a distance, whispering to each other as if they were talking about something.

The fat man noticed that their gazes seemed to be fixed on the gun the boy was holding.

Seeing this, the fat man quickened his pace.

He didn't seem to have panicked like this before, probably because he never really died in dungeons before, and there were always healers around.

Now they are in the real world, and the doctor doesn't know where he is. He has to face real death and malice from other people.

The fat man walked quickly forward, almost jogging at the end: "I thought that after the game started, the evil spirits in the dungeons would be my biggest fear, but I didn't expect that these people would be my biggest fear..."

The two men were pointing and whispering at the fat man and his companion, seemingly plotting something, but also appearing hesitant.

Fortunately, the fat man ran fast and was out of sight of the two men while they were still hesitating.

The boy on top of them seemed to sense the gazes from the two people and hugged the gun in his hand even tighter.

The fat man noticed that the boy's sidearm was not short, like the bayonet of a Japanese soldier in an anti-Japanese war drama, but the boy's sidearm was not equipped with a bayonet.

The boy's voice came from behind: "Fatty, can I ask you for a favor?" His voice was very weak, as if he had no strength left.

The fat man tightened his grip on his arm again: "Go on."

"If I die, take the gun I'm holding and return it to the army... We seem to be really short of equipment, really short..."

The fat man spat and said, "Stop talking about dying or not, we'll definitely find a doctor."

The boy didn't reply, but continued, "Didn't you just ask me why I joined the army at such a young age?"

"I joined the army after this stupid game came out. Our high school was a boarding school, and many students came from other places. When the game started, we were all pulled into the nearest ticket booth..."

"Several new ticket booths were set up at our school, but they couldn't accommodate everyone, so many people were pulled into the ticket booths outside the school."

"I was lucky enough not to be expelled from school, but more than half of the students did."

"Some of the students who went out ran back to school crying that very day, while others never came back. I think they must have gone home..."

"We high school students haven't seen much of the world. The biggest spectacle we've ever witnessed is two groups of people fighting. When dozens of people get together, we think it's awesome. When this game first started, we were completely terrified."

"Some of us hid in the classroom, and some hid in the dormitory. It took the teachers a lot of effort to find us..."

"Then came the headcount. When we counted the students, almost half the students were missing from each class. I think some students might have gone home... but some students couldn't have gone home."

"I'm a student from out of town. Actually, our school has admitted quite a few students from out of town, and many of them haven't come back... So the school's directors and male teachers are all going out in groups to look for them."

"We searched for them for many days, I don't remember how many days, I only remember that one day the discipline director, who was so fast that no one could catch him, never came back. Only a few students returned, crying so hard they couldn't speak."

"That night, my parents rushed to our school from out of town and took me away. When I left, I saw our discipline director lying motionless in the grass next to a street outside the school, covered in blood. I recognized those shoes. Every time he caught my girlfriend and me and started cursing at me, I would lower my head and look at his worn-out sneakers."

"That's why I recognized him immediately."

"That discipline chief I hated the most, the one who could outrun anyone, is dead. I heard he ran into a pervert with a machete on his way back to school with the students."

"He used to be able to run."

The fat man was silent for a moment: "Then you joined the army?"

"Hmm," the boy nodded, "I don't know why, but when I saw the teacher's body, I felt that I should do something; after the game started, the army was short of people, so I joined."

As he spoke, he tugged at his large sleeves: "But the army's resources are too scarce, so I'm still wearing someone else's clothes."

The fat man quickened his pace, as if he had found a common topic, and suddenly said, "My dad is a teacher too..."

He paused for a moment at this point: "He died for his students."

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(End of this chapter)