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Chapter 265 Gu Mian's Thirst for Talent

So, the time Chu Changge was staring blankly at a baseball in the supermarket a few days ago was because he was studying the tag?
Gu Mian turned her gaze to the tag in Chu Changge's hand.

The hangtags all have a "country of origin" section.

However, the country names of the products in this game's supermarket are rather bizarre.

Trembling World Textiles Co., Ltd.

Only a genius in the company would come up with such a name, right?
This sounds more like the name of a dungeon...

Suddenly, Gu Mian seemed to remember something and pulled out a [Dungeon Exchange Coupon (One-Time Use)] from behind.

This is the reward he received after failing his first dungeon run... compensation.

You can enter any copy name to access it. To verify whether 'Trembling World Textiles Co., Ltd.' is a copy, you can find out by entering the name.

However, there's only one dungeon exchange ticket available, and once it's used, it's gone. I don't know if I'll be able to get another one in the future.

This item is currently an extremely rare and special item, so it's best not to use it lightly.

At this moment, Chu Changge took out another empty small bottle. This bottle was exceptionally small, only about the size of a little fingernail. Gu Mian recognized it as the packaging for the drug [Life Type D-Weak Resistance].

He bought three pills in total, two of which had already gone into the fat man's stomach, and the packaging was naturally tossed aside by him.

Unexpectedly, Chu Changge swiped it halfway there.

At this moment, Chu Changge was holding two small, transparent bottles in his hand: "I've also carefully examined the packaging of medicines bought from supermarkets; these small bottles have product labels affixed to the bottom..."

Gu Mian also noticed this.

Because many drugs look the same, they are labeled with their names to make them easier to distinguish.

Chu Changge continued, "I noticed that there are numbers on the label at the bottom of the bottle, like serial numbers. This means that the medicines you bought may have been packaged together in one large package before. This means that the supermarket broke down the large package of medicines and sold them individually."

As he said this, Gu Mian also thought of something: "So this medicine may actually have something like a 'country of origin', right?"

The 'country of origin' of these medicines sold in supermarkets is also very likely a copy.

If we can find this copy...

In an instant, Gu Mian had already decided what kind of medicine she should grab.

Chu Changge nodded and said, "From these clues, we can see that there are many inevitable connections between the dungeons and reality. Some dungeons can even affect reality, and these dungeons that can affect reality must be of paramount importance."

"Moreover, these copies may all have mysterious connections to each other..."

He paused for a moment, then said, "If we want to figure out why Gu Mian's data is abnormal, perhaps we can start with these instances. It's better than running around like headless flies."

The dungeon... let's get started...

When the fat man heard this, he was momentarily stunned. These words made it sound as if they were vicious bandits bullying a weak dungeon.

Chu Changge continued, "However, let's not enter these dungeons for now. I need some time to summarize these production dungeons. Besides, the players that these dungeons accept are definitely not easy to deal with. Gu Mian needs to improve her strength in other ways... at least so she doesn't get stabbed to death by other players."

"But Brother Chu," the fat man asked, puzzled, "is there any way to improve a doctor's skills now?"

The fat man didn't expect Gu Mian to pull out any amazing special items. His luck was what it was; it would be quite remarkable if he didn't pull out a self-destructing bomb when he was drawing items.

The wind was howling outside, and Chu Changge's voice was neither too loud nor too soft: "Gu Mian is still unable to improve her physical fitness, so if she wants to increase her strength, she will have to rely on some external factors for the time being."

The fat man noticed that when Chu Changge said this, he glanced at the direction of the car window behind him.

The fat man followed Chu Changge's gaze and turned around, then saw Xiao Hong looking completely bewildered.

At this moment, Xiao Hong was staring at the scattered snowflakes outside the car window with a silly smile on her face. If she were drooling, she would look exactly like a fool who had escaped from the Third Hospital.

The fat man asked hesitantly and uncertainly, "Recruiting thugs?"

Just thinking about it is exciting.

At this moment, the fat man even put himself in the role of the player who was assassinating Gu Mian.

Just imagine a frail, priceless Gu Sanwan right in front of you; you only need one slash to finish him off and get all the rewards.

But just as he was about to kill this person, a ghost suddenly appeared out of nowhere and chased him so hard that he was running away in a panic...

That was so exciting!
Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "This is the best method right now, so Gu Mian needs to enter more dungeons to get more opportunities to recruit henchmen."

"Although the difference in player skill level won't be too great due to attribute points for the time being, there are always unexpected events, and we need to prepare for them in advance."

As he said this, the fat man suddenly couldn't help but interrupt, "Are you sure it's a recruitment?"

Was it not forced kidnapping?

The fat man still remembers that pitiful Mr. Green from back then.

After being forcibly removed from the instance by Gu Mian, he desperately tried to go back in, but his only chance to return was shattered by Gu Mian's hammer not long ago.

That unfortunate green-clad host is probably weeping somewhere right now.

Chu Changge nodded: "We do need their help in the short term, although they may not be willing to help us... but Gu Mian should have a way to make them submit."

At this moment, Gu Mian surprisingly spoke with a strong sense of justice: "I never oppress others!"

"Alright," Chu Changge glanced out the window, "We can't continue driving now, so let's take this opportunity to enter the dungeon. Gu Mian, remember to seize every opportunity you can, otherwise you'll face the situation of being stabbed to death by other players later."

Gu Mian naturally didn't want to be stabbed to death by other players.

However, catching a living ghost is much more difficult than catching a dead one.

"Let me sort out my thoughts first. You don't mean I should catch the ghost in the dungeon and bring it out, do you?" Gu Mian said, somewhat annoyed.

And even if you wanted to bring it out, you might not be able to.

Chu Changge nodded: "Yes, you don't actually need to catch ghosts. Just do what you normally do in the dungeon. Just pay attention to any special items related to ghosts and monsters in the dungeon."

He paused for a moment before speaking, "Like that IOU from the Nine-Headed Infant, and the pursuit order, these kinds of special items can make you surrounded by ghosts and monsters."

Although being surrounded by ghosts and monsters is not something to be happy about...

Chu Changge continued, "Especially something like a pursuit order. There's still a ghost chasing you right now, but it hasn't come out for quite a while because it's been doing something else."

The fat man took a deep breath of the cold air and began to shout, "Brother Chu, you know so much detail, it makes me think you're the ghost that wanted to kill the doctor..."

Gu Mian asked curiously, "What is it doing?" Chu Changge pushed up his glasses and said, "Do you remember the group of people who set up tents downstairs at our hotel before the event started? The group that showed hostility towards us. Fatty filmed the ghost entering the tent, and someone died in the tent the next day."

"At that time, I was thinking, if the ghost's target was you, why did it also target other players? Later, when the riddle-guessing activity was halfway through, the cloaked man suddenly appeared and told us some information."

"During the event, a malicious person kept following us, and that person was also being followed by something that didn't look like a living person. That thing that didn't look like a living person was very likely the ghost that was chasing you."

"At that time, I suddenly realized something: all the players that the ghost targeted were people who could pose a threat to you."

Upon hearing this, Gu Mian touched his chin. In other words, the ghost that was supposed to kill him not only didn't kill him, but also killed all the people who showed him malice?

He shrugged: "I don't think it was my handsome face that made it turn away from darkness and embrace light."

The fat man couldn't help but spit out, "I've never seen such a shameless person!"

Chu Changge didn't waste time arguing with them, but continued, "I suspect that because its mission is to kill you personally, it's eliminating those who show hostility towards you beforehand. If you were killed by someone else, it wouldn't be able to complete its mission."

"The reason it hasn't attacked you yet is probably because it's waiting for the right moment. It clearly understands that if it acts rashly, it might fail its mission."

Gu Mian was amused; it seemed this was a ghost with a great sense of self-awareness.

Chu Changge glanced at Gu Mian: "Don't laugh. That ghost could suddenly jump out and kill you at any moment, whether in the dungeon or in real life."

"But putting all that aside for now, your main threat right now is other players, so you need to continue collecting these special items of the ghost type. Once you find a way to enhance your physical abilities, you can then eliminate them..."

Chu Changge paused at this point before continuing, "Then we can stop collecting."

Unfortunately, the fat guy was incredibly oblivious to the situation.

"Discarding a used tool after it has served its purpose?"

"Brother Chu, you were just saying you were going to discard someone after they've served their purpose, right?"

Chu Changge had already shut his mouth, seemingly unwilling to talk to this incredibly clueless fat man.

"Alright," Gu Mian said, pressing down on the fat man who was only peeking out from under the blanket. "Stop howling. We're going into the dungeon later."

Recruiting thugs will be very difficult; he'll have to figure it out first.

And ideally, he should be able to unleash his invincible healing skills in the next dungeon.

At this moment, Gu Mian could already imagine the scene of her teammate, whose neck was broken in half, waiting for her to treat him.

After Gu Mian held him down, the fat man pulled his head back: "Going into the dungeon is good, it's warm inside."

After he finished speaking, he subconsciously glanced out the window and saw that the light snow that had been falling had turned into a heavy snowfall. Snowflakes were falling from the dusty sky, and the wind was blowing the snowflakes, which were swirling in the air as they fell.

If the snow continues at this rate, the snow depth on the ground should reach up to their calves when they come out of the instance.

"Such heavy snow in March..."

As the fat man spoke, he shivered violently, and seeing the heavy snowfall outside made him feel even colder.

Not far away, there were people walking quickly. All the players walking outside were wrapped in thick clothes, almost turning themselves into a ball, and not even their faces were showing.

If he were to show his face, it would likely be a haggard one.

Everyone thought the temperature drop would only last a few days, and for the first few days, almost everyone stayed at home, waiting for the cold to pass.

Unexpectedly, the temperature continued to drop, showing no signs of warming up.

People, facing food shortages, nervously left their homes to venture outside and enter the instance.

"Cough-cough-"

A desperate coughing sound suddenly came from not far away.

The fat man's liver ached from listening to it; the coughing sounded like the lungs were about to come out.

The three looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the coughing was coming from a middle-aged man, with a woman next to him, who appeared to be his wife.

The two were not far from their car.

The man was bundled up in thick clothes, but he was still much less dressed than the woman next to him.

The woman next to him was wrapped up in a cocoon-like shape, making it impossible to discern her figure.

At least with men, you can still see a little bit of their original physique.

At this moment, the woman kept patting the man's back: "We're almost there, just a little further on, and it will get warm."

The sound wasn't loud, but Gu Mian could faintly hear it.

The man, who had been hunched over and coughing violently a few times, straightened up. Without wasting any time, he grunted and pulled the person next to him forward quickly.

As he walked forward, he covered his mouth with his other hand, and seemed to cough softly several times.

Faintly, the three seemed to hear a man's voice: "Let's hurry, Ruru is still waiting for us at home."

The fat man's gaze remained fixed on the backs of the two people until they disappeared into the snowstorm before he looked away.

He said with a hint of worry, "Speaking of which, doctor, we seem to have seen quite a few sick people along the way, haven't we?"

That's complete nonsense.

Gu Mian and her companions only encountered about thirty people along the way, which hardly qualifies as "many".

However, proportionally speaking, the proportion of sick people is indeed a bit high.

Of the thirty-odd people, almost half had coughs of varying degrees of severity. Of course, Gu Mian could only tell whether someone was sick by listening to whether they were coughing.

Because the faces of the players on the street were almost completely covered.

Gu Mian could only manage to use the "smell" part of the four diagnostic methods of "observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation."

Chu Changge withdrew his gaze: "This should be the flu... If it's more serious, then it's a plague."

The fat man shuddered.

At this moment, Gu Mian suddenly opened the car door: "Those two people must have come out to participate in the dungeon. If we follow them, we can find the ticket booth."

(End of this chapter)