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Chapter 288 Necessary Connection
Ji Bieli never expected that the hunter she had connected with would be so unreliable.

She stopped in her tracks, opened her mouth slightly, but couldn't utter a single word.

After a long while, she finally found her voice:
"Now that we know the ghost in the dungeon belongs to the survivors, the path to survival lies with you hunters. As long as you capture the ghost roaming this city, all of us players will be safe."

Ji Bieli paused for a moment before continuing, "I know the people you're looking for are in our survivor camp. They should be a woman named Chu Meiren and a fat man."

It took Gu Mian a while to figure out who the "Chu Beauty" Ji Bieli was referring to was.

Isn't that Chu Changge, who now sports the "blood-stained school badge"?

Wearing this thing will change the player's nickname to "Chu Meiren". It is said that if all the bloodstains on the school badge are removed, it can play an even greater role. However, Gu Mian and the others have not yet found anything that can wipe the blood off the school badge.

It seems the fat guy was being very careful and didn't get within three meters of other players, probably because he felt his game nickname was too conspicuous.

After all, it's a name that's been listed in announcements many times.

Ji Bieli's voice then came: "Actually, you don't need to look for the two of them. We can deal with the alien spirits in this instance first."

She spoke as she quickly walked upstairs.

She was going up the stairs at that moment.

This is an office building with more than 30 floors, the tallest building she could see within her field of vision.

Such a tall office building should have elevators, but the city's power supply seems to have stopped, and only the streetlights on the street are still barely shining.

Therefore, the elevators in the building are no longer working.

Of course, even if the elevator were to function properly, Ji Bieli wouldn't be foolish enough to use it instead of going upstairs, since elevators are places where paranormal events frequently occur.

If a strange spirit suddenly appears in a confined space, there will be nowhere to run.

Fortunately, her physical fitness has been improved quite a bit, and she doesn't feel tired climbing a few floors, but climbing more than twenty floors in a row is still a bit too much for her.

As she walked up the stairs, she quickly spoke:
"I guess the thing that can improve the score in this dungeon is not the hide-and-seek game between players, but the vengeful ghosts hiding in it. As long as players can work together to deal with the vengeful ghosts in the dungeon, then everyone's score will definitely not be low. As long as other hunters know that the score obtained by teaming up to fight the ghosts is far higher than finding other players, then your two friends in the survivor camp will naturally not be in danger, and you don't have to worry about being found by the vengeful ghosts in the dungeon."

Gu Mian stopped in front of a shop: "So, you want me to inform the other hunters about this?"

Ji Bieli remained silent.

Gu Mian then said, "With you arranging things for me like this, you seem to have a lot of free time."

He understood that Ji Bieli was unwilling to directly confront the other hunters. She also knew that the other hunters were not so easy to persuade. If they not only ignored her words but also pounced on her, the loss would be huge.

Losing both your wife and your army would be a terrible loss.

Ji Bieli's somewhat hurried voice came through the receiver: "Anyway, you are the hunter, and other hunters cannot pose a threat to you, but I am different. If I face the hunters directly, I may be caught and eliminated directly."

Gu Mian frowned. His flashlight was still on, casting a bright beam in the dark night.

At that moment, the light shone through the glass door onto the counter of a shop in front of it, and you could vaguely see the shadow of something moving slightly behind the counter.

He took a step forward and said, "I think your speculation might be wrong."

Ji Bieli was silent for a moment: "What's wrong?"

"As I just told you, the ghost in the dungeon should belong to the survivor faction, which is the premise that the hunter can control the ghost; but have you ever thought that since the ghost belongs to the survivors, it has no way to do anything to other survivors or hunters?"

Survivors cannot hunt hunters in reverse, nor can they hunt other survivors.

If the Ghost is a Hunter, then it's reasonable for it to hunt Survivor players; but since it's also a Survivor, why would it hunt other Survivor players?

Ji Bieli was stunned by what he said.

After much thought, she finally realized something was amiss.

Yeah, if the ghost is also part of the survivors, then there's no reason for it to hunt down other survivors. Is it just to scare people?

As Ji Bieli pondered, she frowned and softly asked, "Perhaps ghosts are not bound by factions when they kill?"

Players actively avoid hunters for fear of being caught, but survivors don't have this concern, so the ghosts will only chase survivors.

“I’m asking you,” she heard the other person’s voice coming through the microphone, “have you ever witnessed a ghost killing someone? Or seen the corpses of other players or anything like that?”

Ji Bieli didn't even need to think before blurting out, "No, isn't it because the instance started too soon and the ghosts haven't had time to kill anyone?"

“Since we haven’t seen the body yet, we can’t rule out the possibility that the ghost, being a survivor, is incapable of killing,” Gu Mian said.

Ji Bieli stopped and pondered for a while: "If it can't kill people, why does the ghost chase after the survivors? Is it some kind of illusion?"

Gu Mian shrugged: "Only the ghost knows the answer to that."

Although he knew the other person wouldn't see him shrug.

Then he heard Ji Bieli's voice coming through the receiver: "What you said makes sense. I will continue to observe, but it is a fact that the ghosts are controlled by you hunters; so I hope that if it comes to an emergency, the hunters can do something."

Gu Mian nodded matter-of-factly: "Of course... Speaking of which, aren't you currently in an office building that's over thirty stories high?"

Upon hearing his words, Ji Bieli nearly dropped the phone.

She instantly covered the microphone, turned her head to look around, searching for Gu Mian who was secretly watching her.

But Ji Bieli racked her brains but couldn't find the eyes that were spying on her. She took a deep breath and put the phone back to her ear: "Why do you say that?"

“We talked for a long time, and you seemed to be doing something physically demanding. I thought you were running or brisk walking, but you just said ‘I will continue to observe.’ In this city, the easiest place to observe is that office building, right? It’s quite far from me, but I can see it because it’s tall,” Gu Mian said, looking at the building in the distance. “And you seemed to be climbing the stairs the whole time. Only tall buildings require that much time to climb.”

Upon hearing this, Ji Bieli suddenly laughed: "I'm a little hesitant to talk to you anymore. I suspect that if we continue talking, you'll know exactly which floor I'm on."

Gu Mian looked at the tall buildings in the distance: "I know without continuing the call, it's probably between the 20th and 25th floors, right?" Ji Bieli's smile froze.

She looked at the number of floors on the staircase above her head, which was twenty-one floors. A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in her heart: "How did you know?"

What did this person base their deduction on?

Gu Mian stared at the building in the distance and said, "It's nothing. I just saw a sneaky figure with a flashlight passing by the window on the nineteenth floor. She went upstairs quietly, as if she was afraid of disturbing someone. Hmm... she was the Hunter."

Thanks to the red spider lily, if it weren't for this idiot randomly shining a flashlight around the building, Gu Mian wouldn't know which floor Ji Bieli was on.

Upon hearing this, Ji Bieli suddenly held her breath.

She pricked up her ears and listened carefully. After listening for a while, she indeed seemed to hear a faint sound coming from below.

Run!

Without thinking too much, she quickly hung up the phone and ran upstairs.

The dungeon hasn't been open for very long yet, and who knows what will happen if she gets caught by the hunters? She can't afford to be eliminated directly, losing her equipment, in-game currency, and attribute points.

But how did the hunter know that he was in this office building?
She was very careful when she came upstairs, making sure no one was following her before going up. Even after she got upstairs, she didn't dare to use a flashlight and was very cautious when passing by the windows.

Why would hunters follow us?

But now is not the time to think about these things. She must first find a floor to hide on, so that the hunters following her probably don't know which floor she's hiding on...

Seeing that the other party had hung up the phone, Gu Mian put her phone back in her pocket.

He turned his gaze away from the distant office building. These days, players are really getting more and more sophisticated.

After he finished his reflection, he turned his gaze to the counter behind the shop in front of him.

A dark figure was trembling behind the counter.

He entered the mobile phone store without hesitation and forcefully pulled out the person hiding behind the counter.

Unexpectedly, the one trembling so violently was not a survivor, but the high school girl Coco, who was a hunter like Gu Mian.

The flashlight beam shone on her face, and Coco shivered again before giving an awkward smile: "I'm sorry, I was just too scared. Even as a hunter, I'm not too comfortable wandering around in dungeons. Mr. Bai Qiong told me to hide here first..."

Gu Mian silently let go, releasing the short high school girl. He remembered that the girl hadn't seemed particularly timid at the beginning of the dungeon, so why was she trembling like a leaf now?

Moreover, Bai Qiong and Ke Ke teamed up from the beginning, but now only Ke Ke is seen.

Bai Qiong should be gathering clues nearby right now?
Sure enough, not long after Gu Mian dragged Coco out, a man with a hideous scar on his neck appeared in his sight.

This player, who appeared to be a young man from the real world, still had a kind and benevolent demeanor, like a villain who had turned over a new leaf after committing countless evil deeds. He looked at Gu Mian by the counter with some surprise: "Doctor? You've found your way here too?"

Gu Mian noticed that Bai Qiong's wording was a bit off.

"I found my way here too?" He stroked his chin. "Did you find some clues and follow them here?"

Bai Qiong nodded, and as he nodded, the scar on his neck also writhed. Most of the scar was visible, shimmering under the flashlight and looking quite ferocious.

Bai Qiong didn't seem to care much. He nodded as he spoke, "We found a phone number in the duty log of the mobile phone store. Strangely enough, there was nothing else in that store except this number. It was probably hinting at something. I originally wanted to make the call using the phone given to me in the dungeon, but the phone given to me in the dungeon can only be used to contact survivors one-way. So the two of us found this place."

He took a breath before continuing, "I told Coco to hide here while I went to find a phone to make calls..."

It seems he found it.

However, Gu Mian wasn't in a hurry to ask about the phone. He glanced at Bai Qiong and then asked, "Have either of you encountered any survivors since the game started?"

Bai Qiong and Ke Ke both shook their heads.

Gu Mian then asked, "Judging from your appearance, you haven't encountered any ghosts, have you?"

Coco looked somewhat surprised: "Are there ghosts in this dungeon?"

It seems we didn't run into them.

Bai Qiong wasn't particularly surprised. He continued shaking his head, "We haven't encountered anything since the beginning. You're the first player we've ever met."

Gu Mian nodded: "What a coincidence."

Bai Qiong asked curiously, "What a coincidence! You haven't encountered any other players besides us so far?"

Gu Mian shook her head: "No, I not only encountered other players, but I also encountered ghosts."

cocoa:"……"

Gu Mian thought for a moment and then said, "So far, I have encountered a total of four players."

"Two of them bumped into each other, and then immediately ran into a ghost in the dungeon. They were both chased by the ghost and ran away in a panic..."

Of course, if Jiuming were present, he would definitely have some reservations about the phrase "pissing and running away in terror," and might even try to change it to something like "wise and mighty."

Although both "escaping with one's butt running away" and "escaping with brilliance and might" involve escaping, the latter sounds slightly more imposing.

Gu Mian continued, "Besides those two who were chased by ghosts and ran away in terror, I know of two other players who also just bumped into each other and were immediately chased by ghosts and ran away in terror..."

This is what Ji Bieli told him.

"The previous two sets of data showed that whenever two players met, a ghost would immediately appear, so I previously guessed that there was a connection between player encounters and the appearance of ghosts; until I met you two here..."

(End of this chapter)