Global Collapse

Chapter 279 Gu Mian and Antivirus Software

The snow outside is already up to knee-deep.

The ticket booth door was still wide open, but the wind and snow outside showed no sign of blowing in. Even though there was no wind or snow inside, it was still very cold.

After the fat man came out, he was stunned for a moment before his body started trembling uncontrollably.

Then he realized that the temperature in the real world seemed to be even lower than when they entered the instance.

Just as the fat man was tightly closing his mouth, trying to warm his teeth that had accidentally frozen, a strange male voice suddenly came from not far away—

"I said……"

Outside, the snow was falling heavily, making the roads difficult to navigate. There were only Gu Mian and two others in the ticket booth, and the voice that came from the ticket seller of this instance was the one who made the sound.

Gu Mian looked in the direction of the sound.

The young male ticket seller was sitting behind the window with a sign around his neck. A string of numbers could be vaguely seen on it, which was probably his work ID or something similar.

He was flipping through a notebook in his hand with a suspicious expression.

That expression looked very familiar; Gu Mian remembered that her middle school teacher had the same expression when calling roll.

The ticket seller was flipping through the booklet in his hand. After turning a couple of pages, he showed a strange expression. Then he looked up at Gu Mian and the other two as if he had seen a ghost.

At this point, Gu Mian had already guessed what the ticket seller was holding.

It's highly likely that the player's instance record is in this ticket booth, and the ticket seller probably didn't find the instance record of the three of them just now.

In fact, this ticket seller doesn't usually care much about the players; in fact, you could say he's indifferent to them.

The reason was that he had just taken down the unsightly sign hanging at the door that read "Gu Mian and dogs are not allowed" when these three suddenly appeared, catching him completely off guard.

That's why he became concerned about the instance that these three people entered.

This unfortunate ticket seller never even considered fighting back.

He had heard many stories of heroic predecessors who rose up in resistance, but unsurprisingly, none of them succeeded.

Over time, a tacit, unspoken truth began to circulate within the ticket-selling industry—

"Gu Mian is like a bandit; you either resist or surrender."

Because this global game is a positive game, the words "bandits," which are bloody, violent, and discordant, had to be censored.

Everyone knew they couldn't resist, but lying down... that was out of the question too.

Seeing that the three people were still standing at the dungeon exit, the ticket seller swallowed hard and continued to flip through the dungeon records in his hand.

Originally, this was just a low-level ticket booth. Even if the instance was destroyed, it wouldn't be downgraded much; it would just deduct some of your business points.

But the ticket seller was surprised to find that after these people came out, there was no data corruption error.

Previously, ticket sellers had encountered situations where "Gu Mian came out, but the game didn't crash."

However, that was only a temporary safety measure. The instance did not collapse at the time, but it suddenly and without warning shortly after the three of them left.

Having learned from the previous example, the ticket seller decided to check their records.

But it can't be found.

There's absolutely no record of those three people's last instance...

I clearly saw them enter the instance and then saw them come out, so how could there be no instance record?
Thinking this, the ticket seller looked at the three people with a puzzled expression, then opened her mouth: "I said..."

Gu Mian looked over.

The ticket seller swallowed hard, swallowing a mouthful of humiliation, and then cautiously asked, "Which instance did you just enter?"

He has to figure this out!
Gu Mian looked at the ticket seller behind the window.

He was very interested in the booklet in the ticket seller's hand, and the ticket seller behind the window obviously realized this as well. He couldn't help but shrink back, and then quickly hid the booklet in his hand and sat down properly with it under his buttocks.

"I shouldn't have made that stupid conversation!" He roared silently in his heart, pressing down on the copybook under his butt.

However, one cannot outwardly appear to act in a way that betrays one's principles.

Thinking of this, the ticket seller straightened her back, looking like she was "unyielding to power".

However, in the end, the ticket seller was unable to get the information she wanted.

The largest fat man, with an expression that said "I'm about to freeze to death," successfully attracted the attention of the two people next to him.

At this moment, Gu Mian and Chu Changge had already hurriedly left with the fat man.

A young ticket seller was left all alone, exposed to the wind—along with the copy of the record book under his bottom.

When Gu Mian and the others returned to the hearse, the surroundings were very quiet.

There were no carjackers as expected. Xiao Hong was still quietly waiting for them to return, just like last time—of course, Gu Mian only saw this after opening the door.

Fortunately, they couldn't see anything clinging to the car window from the outside; otherwise, they might have seen several bodies that had died suddenly from shock.

After getting back into the car, Gu Mian first found two thermos bottles in the fat man's bag.

All the electricity is out.

But the supermarket also has hot water, and not only hot water, but also thermos flasks that keep the water permanently warm.

Of course, hot water and thermos flasks cost money.

The fat man specially filled two kettles with boiling water when he went last time, and now they've come in handy.

Gu Mian pulled out a strip of ginger candy powder, tore it open, sprinkled it in, then screwed on the cap and shook it vigorously a few times.

Gu Mian noticed that when she shook the thermos, a look of horror appeared on the fat man's face, which had been frozen stiff.

After he finished shaking it, the fat man finally spoke hesitantly: "Doctor, shaking it like that might cause it to explode..."

Gu Mian: "..."

It was half an hour later when the fat man finally recovered.

To avoid the cold, Gu Mian deliberately drove her car into a dark parking lot.

The wind isn't very strong here.

It's worth mentioning that there were actually people in this parking lot.

After the car drove in, the three of them saw several beams of light in the dark parking lot, and the roar of the engine rang in their ears.

Several cars were started. Each of the cars was packed with people.

The fat man looked at the cars with suspicion: "Are they using the air conditioning in their cars to keep warm?"

It's really too cold outside.

After walking for a short distance, my toes seem to lose all feeling.

Chu Changge also looked at the cars that had started up. After looking at them carefully for a while, he said, "The cars that have started up are mostly large vehicles such as vans and SUVs. And look at the other cars around you. Many of them have their doors open, as if the owners came here not long ago but left immediately. They didn't even close the doors."

The fat man wrapped himself in his blanket and nodded, but what did that mean?

Chu Changge seemed to see through the fat man's question: "This means that the gasoline in all the cars here may have evaporated completely, while some people may have the habit of storing gasoline in oil drums. The gasoline stored in those drums did not evaporate, so these people gathered together..."

The fat man understood.

People who still had gasoline gathered together, looking for large vehicles that could accommodate them, and then turned on their air conditioning to keep warm.

Those who came here hoping to turn on their car's air conditioning found that they had run out of fuel and had to leave immediately, as it was too cold outside to stay any longer.

For some reason, the fat man suddenly felt a little desolate.

If I hadn't met a doctor, I would probably still be silently enduring the cold in the dead of winter.

No, I'm enduring the cold myself now, but this is different...

The fat man sipped his ginger tea from his thermos while lost in thought. Although their car didn't have air conditioning, it didn't feel any worse than those with air conditioning on...

Gu Mian and her two companions' car naturally attracted the attention of other people.

But they had no time to pay attention to others; the fuel shortage was giving them a major headache.

At this moment, Gu Mian had driven the car to a place a little distance away from those other cars and then stopped it.

The fat man was wrapped in three thick blankets and had drunk a large bottle of boiling hot brown sugar ginger water. He was actually feeling satisfied and squinted his eyes, feeling sleepy.

Just then, the fat man, who was dozing off, suddenly heard Gu Mian ask, "Who was An Tusheng saying that to?"

Upon hearing this, the fat man's drowsiness vanished instantly, and he stared wide-eyed at the person in front of him.

The hearse's two headlights were very bright, and the light shone through the windshield, illuminating Gu Mian's profile.

His face was expressionless, and the shadows cast by his brow bone and nose bridge perfectly concealed his eyes, making it impossible to discern his expression.

The fat man looked at Gu Mian's face, which was half illuminated, and then secretly stepped back a distance, almost at the same level as Xiao Hong behind him.

After moving closer to Xiao Hong, he hesitated before asking, "Which sentence?"

He looked like he was a thief with a guilty conscience.

Seeing this, Gu Mian suddenly laughed: "I was just asking casually, why are you so nervous? Although I always feel that the two of you are doing something strange behind my back, it can't be anything bad, right?"

Fatty had seen Gu Mian's smile many times.

But for some reason, the fat man felt that his bright smile was a little scary, even scarier than the grinning of some evil spirits in certain dungeons.

Chu Changge, who was standing next to him, suddenly pinched his brow.

The fat man turned to look at him, only to see that Chu Changge's face was almost completely obscured in the shadows, but at least his mouth could still be seen moving: "What do you think about that dungeon from last time, Gu Mian?"

They directly changed the subject, using extremely crude methods.

Unexpectedly, Gu Mian chimed in: "The fact that the dungeon could generate 'spirits' is truly unexpected. But the two organizers you mentioned earlier... I'll name them Organizer Number One and Organizer Number Two for now."

"The primary organizer is the one who initially launched this global game. It's harmless to players, and its purpose is to promote human evolution... But here, I'll shamelessly add another purpose: to kill me."

Although saying this might be taking himself too seriously, Gu Mian felt that her guess was quite reliable.

"The second organizer is the one that appeared later and took over all the event's organizers. They might even take over some dungeons that would result in certain death later on? The second organizer is obviously opposed to the first organizer, but judging from An Tusheng's situation, this second organizer doesn't seem to have the right to directly modify the dungeons. They might be secretly modifying them?"

Chu Changge nodded: "That's right. There's a crucial point in the Fairy Tale City instance. After An Tusheng awakened, someone gave him a 'pen,' which is why he gained the ability to rewrite the instance, leading to the mutation of the entire instance."

This "pen" could not possibly have been given by the first organizer. To this day, the first organizer seems unaware that a copy has mutated.

Moreover, the organizers are always thinking about the players and will absolutely not tolerate any players being killed.

Furthermore, after the mutation, An Tusheng suddenly appeared and said some unbelievable things to them, and frankly said that he was being dragged into this by someone.

However, before those incredible words could be finished, they were interrupted by a mysterious voice.

Gu Mian remembered that there were eight players in the 'Fairy Tale City' instance.

The three of them took up three spots.

Add a 007, add the strongest supermodel in history that the fat guy meets, and add Xiao Qiao.

That's only six.

Two players have yet to appear.

Was the voice that interrupted An Tusheng from one of the remaining two players who hadn't appeared yet? Or was it from another NPC?

“And doctor…” the fat man suddenly whispered, “have you noticed?”

what?
Gu Mian looked at the fat man who was tightly gripping the thermos.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing, "Didn't An Tusheng forcibly modify the dungeon data? No, perhaps that dungeon isn't even data anymore... What will happen if the game discovers this mutated NPC?"

Gu Mian tilted her head and thought for a moment, then gave the fat man a bright smile: "Like me?"

The fat man felt that Gu Mian had been laughing a bit too much today.

He shivered violently, then buried his head under the covers and stopped talking, exuding an aura that was "more felt than described."

At this moment, Chu Changge, who was standing next to him, was silent for a while, and then continued to speak: "Things that are not included in the plan are destined to be forcibly erased."

Gu Mian turned to look at him: "Why do I always feel like you're talking about me..."

He has faced far too many assassination attempts throughout his life.

As a result, Gu Mian often fantasizes that she is a virus, and the assassins sent by life to kill her are dutiful antivirus software.

However, this antivirus software is a bit weak; it has been trying to kill him for over twenty years without success.

The current global gaming industry is like antivirus software using its most powerful tricks.

Although there may be some differences, they are generally similar...

(End of this chapter)