Global Collapse

Chapter 289 Gugu said, "Let there be light."
"As it turns out, there's no guarantee that a ghost will appear when two players meet, unless the two players meet a certain condition."

Bai Qiong held the object in her hand: "Coco and I have been together since the beginning of the instance, but we haven't encountered any ghosts. Is it because we don't meet the conditions for ghosts to appear?"

Gu Mian nodded: "I noticed that the two groups of players in the previous game met in different factions, and then the ghost would appear shortly afterward... I guess the ghost only appears when two players from different factions meet and clash."

Bai Qiong and Ke Ke both belong to the hunter camp, so even if the two of them get together, they can't play any games like eagle catching chicks.

Since no conflict occurred, the ghost naturally did not appear.

Coco looked a little confused: "What's the point of a ghost doing this?"

Gu Mian shook her head: "I don't know, but I previously speculated that the ghosts in this dungeon, like the players, also have factions..."

Bai Qiong was somewhat surprised upon hearing this.

He frowned and asked, "Do the ghosts in this instance also have factions?"

Gu Mian nodded: "Yes, the ghost in the dungeon belongs to the survivor camp, and it is subject to the hunters; if the hunters and survivors run away separately, the ghost will not even look at the hunters, so we will not be in any danger for the time being, and may even play a key role in critical moments."

Coco was shocked for a moment and then thought, "Does this mean that even ghosts are afraid of being caught by us hunters?"

“Although all the clues indicate that the ghost is controlled by the hunter, we still shouldn’t act rashly,” Gu Mian said, “because I still don’t understand why the ghost appears so hastily whenever the hunter and the survivor meet…”

Is the ghost helping other survivors?

Not too possible.

At this moment, Bai Qiong suddenly spoke up: "By the way, I searched this street carefully and found a cell phone that can dial phone numbers. I don't know what this thing has to do with the game of hide-and-seek, but you guys can take a look."

As he spoke, he raised his hand, and Gu Mian saw the phone he was holding.

"I just dialed the only number we found at the service center using this phone. The other end answered, but there was no sound... well, not exactly no sound, you'll understand once you listen..."

As Bai Qiong spoke, she pressed buttons on her phone screen, seemingly entering a phone number, and then turned on speakerphone.

After a brief beep, Gu Mian heard a sound similar to a phone being answered, but no one spoke on the other end.

Only the howling wind passed by.

Gu Mian listened to the sound of the wind for a while before Bai Qiong whispered, "Wait a minute, there will be other sounds later."

Upon hearing this, Gu Mian listened attentively again.

Sure enough, just a few minutes later, a faint sound of flowing water suddenly came, like the sound of a babbling brook.

But the sound of flowing water didn't last long before it disappeared, and then the faint sound of wind took over the microphone again.

Gu Mian glanced at the time on her phone and gestured to Bai Qiong not to hang up.

The time is now 9:41.

Gu Mian listened for a while after the sound of water stopped and found that the sound of water appeared again at around 9:48, with a seven-minute interval in between.

Bai Qiong said, "When I dialed the number just now, I subconsciously calculated the time between the sounds of water, and it was about seven minutes."

Coco said, "Do we need to find the place where the other party is answering the phone? We can hear the sound of water every seven minutes... Could it be near a timed water tap?"

She looked a little guilty as she said this, probably because she thought that a "timed water tap" was something she had never heard of or seen before.

Bai Qiong shook her head: "This sound doesn't sound like a tap, it sounds more like a river."

That's really strange. What kind of river makes a sound one minute and then stops making a sound the next? And the intervals are very regular, always seven minutes.

The two were immediately confused. Where exactly did the other party answer the phone?

Gu Mian stroked her chin, pondering the clues in this instance, which was quite strange.

On the surface, this instance appears to be a battle between two factions of players, but inexplicably, ghosts have infiltrated it, specifically ghosts from the survivor faction.

Strange clues are scattered throughout the dungeon, as if they are guiding players to find something.

As Gu Mian pondered, she looked at Bai Qiong, who was deep in thought: "You guys better be careful. There is no absolute safety for players in a dungeon. A dungeon cannot make one side invincible from the very beginning."

Bai Qiong came to her senses and nodded.

The current situation is indeed too strange.

If Gu Mian's guess is correct, and the ghost belongs to the survivor faction, and the survivors need to avoid the hunters, then the hunter players in this instance will not be in any danger.

It's absolutely impossible for a copy to do that.

why?
Why exactly would you put a ghost belonging to a survivor in a dungeon?
Why do ghosts always appear just in time when hunters are chasing survivors?

What exactly do the clues found in the dungeon mean?
Gu Mian still doesn't understand these things.

As he pondered this, he glanced at Coco beside him. The high school girl seemed to be thinking about something, though what she was thinking about—it certainly wasn't a math problem.

Gu Mian withdrew her gaze: "And there's something else you should pay attention to. I don't know exactly how many ghosts are in this instance, but I just got a clue—it's at 9:15."

"Not long ago, a player named Ji Bieli witnessed a ghost chasing a survivor from upstairs in the hotel until both the person and the ghost completely disappeared from her sight. The ghost disappeared shortly before 9:15."

"At around 9:15, I saw a shadow standing on the roof of the teaching building. Without a doubt, it was a ghost."

No player would be so bored as to go to the top of the tutorial building in the horror dungeon to enjoy the panoramic view.

The ghost that appeared later proved that the shadow that had been standing there earlier was indeed a ghost.

"If there are multiple ghosts in this instance, that's fine, but... if there's only one ghost in this instance..."

Gu Mian paused at this point.

He looked at the two people in front of him.

Bai Qiong and Keke clearly understood that Gu Mian was implying something.

Bai Qiong frowned: "From the restaurant to the school rooftop, it must be at least several hundred meters away, right?"

Gu Mian shook her head: "I have carefully observed the area around the school, and there are no restaurants nearby, at least not within sight."

Bai Qiong's brows furrowed even deeper: "If there's only one ghost in the dungeon, and you saw the ghost's shadow almost at the same time Ji Bieli watched it disappear, this means... the ghost can teleport?"

Bai Qiong gasped as she said those words.

Coco, who was standing next to her, was clearly also taken aback. She gritted her teeth and hesitated before asking, "Teleportation?"

This is even scarier than having multiple ghosts in a dungeon.

A ghost that can teleport; it can go anywhere at any time.

Whether you're hiding in a closet or under a bed, you could look up at any moment and be confronted with a terrifying face.

This would be the most terrifying copy she had ever seen!

Gu Mian said, "Of course, the idea that there's only one ghost in the dungeon is just speculation. Although the timing is somewhat coincidental... But even if the ghost really can teleport, at least it hasn't used that skill to do anything bad so far." If suddenly jumping out from some corner to scare players is considered doing something bad, then Gu Mian should already be a notorious villain.

Gu Mian put her phone away: "I suspect that hunters and survivors are meeting right now, I need to hurry over and check the situation..."

As he spoke, he looked toward the office building and saw that the flashlight beams were gone; Manjusaka, who had been chasing the escapees, had turned off her flashlight.

Bai Qiong nodded: "Then let's go find the location where the other party answered the phone. There's a sound of running water every seven minutes. This is a special condition, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "And Doctor, you said the ghost in this dungeon is controlled by the hunter. But if it really can teleport, it will be very difficult for us to catch it. I suspect that the clues the dungeon gives us are to help the players catch this ghost."

Only by finding the location indicated by the clues can we discover more important clues there.

Gu Mian didn't linger there. She only told him to "be careful" before leaving and heading towards the office building.

In the pitch-black office building, Ji Bieli was hiding under a desk. This was an office not far from the 23rd floor, which was so messy that she almost overturned several chairs when she came in. Fortunately, the dim light from her mobile phone screen could provide illumination; she dared not use a flashlight.

Ji Bieli dared not run any further up the stairs, fearing that she would be caught by the hunters who were coming from behind, so she had no choice but to find a floor to hide on first.

There really weren't many good places to hide in the office building, but luckily this building had many floors, so the hunters chasing her from below had no idea which floor she was hiding on.

As she thought about it, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, she knew in advance that there were hunters following her, otherwise she would have lost a lot of things if she had been eliminated.

After Ji Bieli breathed a sigh of relief, she began to pay attention to the sounds on the stairs. As long as the hunters did not search this floor after a while, she would immediately run out and leave the building.

This location was chosen for its ease of observation, but a haunted watchtower is hardly a good place.

It seems like a long time has passed, yet it also feels like not long at all.

Footsteps could be heard coming from the other side of the stairs.

Ji Bieli held her breath.

Someone's coming up!
In the darkness, the sound of stairs rising and falling grew louder and louder, and her heart pounded in response, the heavy thumping echoing in her ears as if her heart was about to burst out of her eardrums.

It didn't take long.

The footsteps stopped.

It stopped at the top of the stairs.

Ji Bieli prayed silently to heaven, but heaven didn't seem to care about her prayers.

Some heavy steps began again, and footsteps moved forward in the corridor!
Someone has started searching the rooms on this floor!

Ji Bieli's heart pounded wildly, and she secretly regretted choosing a room so close to the stairs!

If I had known that person would stop searching on this floor, I should have stayed far away from the stairs and rushed to the opposite staircase to escape while that person was searching other rooms.

But it's too late to regret it now.

Even the all-powerful game marketplace doesn't sell a "regret pill."

Ji Bieli could only secretly pray that the hunter would not discover her.

This office is extremely messy; if you hide it well, it's possible to go unnoticed.

She clutched her heart and tried to catch her breath. A few minutes later, the footsteps stopped at the office door.

Ji Bieli held her breath; the night was utterly silent.

It was so dark and quiet here that one couldn't help but wonder if they had become blind and trapped in a cage.

Therefore, the strange sound of the door being pushed open seemed very eerie.

"Squeak-"

The sound of the door opening was so loud it hurt people's ears, but Ji Bieli didn't care at all.

She hunched her shoulders, holding her breath and watching the people outside intently.

The sound of footsteps was amplified infinitely in the dark and quiet environment.

Without the slightest hesitation, the footsteps took a few steps forward, then pulled out a chair, seemingly checking if anyone was crouching behind it.

of course not.

Immediately afterwards, footsteps continued to sound, and the sound of chairs or tables being pulled out kept echoing.

Ji Bieli opened her eyes wide, listening to the sound of tables or chairs being pulled out outside.

It was still pitch black in front of her, without a single ray of light.

wrong!

There is no light!
Without light, how can people outside move freely in such a messy room!
Thinking of this, her body trembled violently.

No… the people outside might not be hunters at all, but ghosts…

The sound of footsteps continued.

There wasn't a single scratch or bump.

The mechanical dragging sound filled Ji Bieli's ears, and the terrifying sound made her brain tremble.

No, we have to run!
By this time, footsteps could be heard coming from the desk where she was hiding.

Even in the darkness, Ji Bieli could imagine a pair of blood-soaked feet standing in front of her, and looking up, she could see a face slowly approaching under the table as she bent over.

If we don't run, we'll die!

She suddenly slammed into the chairs behind her. The stack of chairs behind her was very heavy, but Ji Bieli somehow mustered tremendous strength and smashed the chairs behind the desk, then suddenly darted out.

Run!

Ignoring the pain, she didn't dare to stop after crawling out. She quickly turned on her flashlight to find her way and rushed towards the door.

run! Run!

The footsteps behind me sounded again, but this time they were more hurried.

Ji Bieli ran frantically, wishing she could jump off the window of the twenty-third floor to escape the ghost's pursuit, but she knew that jumping from here would surely mean certain death.

She ran desperately up the stairs and then rushed downstairs.

She didn't know how long she ran, but by the time she was too exhausted to stop, the sounds behind her had disappeared.

Ji Bieli dared not stop in place. She glanced around and quickly hid behind a large door before daring to rest and catch her breath.

The author isn't going to change the supernatural setting anymore; he's stubbornly sticking to writing about ghosts! [Throws a tantrum and pounds the ground in tears]



(End of this chapter)