Global Collapse

Chapter 545 'I Accidentally Sat on a Fish'

“So destroying the doll is not an option,” Liu Yiji said, taking a few steps back as if afraid Gu Mian would pull out a lighter and cremate him. “Actually, I found this in my room just now.”

As he spoke, he pulled a folded newspaper from his pocket and unfolded it: "I originally thought I was the only one in the house, and I wanted to take this as a clue. Since you're all here, let's take a look together."

Liu Yiji handed the unfolded newspaper to Huaixin Zhenyue.

Huai Xin Zhen Yue took the newspaper and examined it carefully. The front page read, "Multiple people have mysteriously disappeared recently; police suspect it's related to a supernatural game."

Below is an explanation of "hide-and-seek with one person" and a recent case.

In the past few months, many people have mysteriously disappeared. An investigation revealed that all of the missing people had played this horror game.

Below this report are other minor, unimportant news items—

Villagers in Lüjiagou witnessed a bizarre scene: dozens of sows lined up to jump into the river.

Two men dug up their boss's ancestral grave to curry favor with him, planning to reap the rewards once the boss couldn't find them.

"Employees at the toy goose food factory called the police, reporting that an alien had fallen into the warehouse and was walking around."

A man found an entire tilapia inside his body: "I accidentally sat on a fish!"

Gu Mian glanced at it briefly; it was all hasty news, like something out of a comedy novel.

He couldn't help but laugh.

The others who were seriously staring at the newspapers looked up at Gu Mian, their expressions as if they were looking at a pervert.

"I'm sorry." Gu Mian suppressed her smile and put on a serious expression.

“These must be players who entered this instance before us,” Liu Yiji said, his mind completely absorbed in the list of missing persons, not paying any attention to the things below. “Judging from the number of missing persons… this instance seems very dangerous.”

Huai Xin Zhen Yue nodded in agreement: "Even before the global game started, I felt that this 'hide-and-seek for one' was a very dangerous mailbox. I never thought that I would be dragged into this instance later."

"Let's discuss how to survive this instance first. As long as we don't get caught by the ghosts, it'll be fine, right?" Bai Wu had finished reading the newspaper and looked away.

“That’s true, but I suspect the ghosts in this instance will try every means to find our location,” Liu Yiji frowned. He looked at his watch; it was 7:15, and a quarter of the safe time had already passed. “Moreover, we don’t know if the dolls can communicate with each other. If they can, then there is a great risk in us being together.”

“Let me give you an example,” Liu Yiji thought for a moment, “For example, if we always stay together, then as long as one of the dolls finds us, it can notify all the dolls of our location.”

Indeed, Bai Wu nodded solemnly: "Also... I recently participated in the college entrance exam instance, and I discovered... some ghosts can impersonate players! So contacting other players might expose your location!"

She shuddered as she said this, as if she had remembered something terrible.

Upon hearing this, Liu Yiji and Huaixin Zhenyue were not surprised: "We have indeed encountered ghosts that can transform into the appearance of players, but those ghosts seem unaware that we have a player panel. We can tell whether the other party is an imposter just by looking at the player panel."

"No!" Cold sweat beaded on Bai Wu's forehead. "The ghosts I saw... could also open player panels, and they all had nicknames and numbers!"

what?
The two male players widened their eyes.

"How is this possible! You must be seeing things."

“I couldn’t be mistaken!” Bai Wu shook his head and said, “I saw three ghosts with nicknames and numbers in the cafeteria during the college entrance examination activities. Two of our teammates died at their hands…”

At this moment, Gu Mian's voice suddenly came: "Indeed, I have also seen these three ghosts. Their names are Liu Xuan, Feng Zitao, and Wang Longxiang."

Gu Mian remembered these three names clearly because they had contributed three precious school badges.

Bai Wu nodded emphatically: "Yes, it's those three!"

Seeing that both Bai Wu and the doctor had encountered the three ghosts with nicknames, Liu Yiji broke out in a cold sweat: "Wouldn't that mean we wouldn't even be able to tell who the real players are!"

“You’re right,” Gu Mian’s voice came softly, “Maybe an hour from now, a ghost with a nickname will be mixed in among us.”

Liu Yiji took a step back from Gu Mian and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down: "In that case, it's better if we separate."

The others nodded in agreement.

Liu Yiji glanced at the time again: "There are only forty minutes left in the safe time. I suggest that we each go to different places to hide, and..." As he spoke, he took out a cell phone, which was given to him after entering the dungeon. It had the phone numbers of several other players on it: "If anyone calls us after we split up, you can answer, but you must not reveal your location, because you don't know if the other party is a person or a ghost."

“Speaking of which…” Bai Wu also fumbled to take out his phone, “There’s something strange. At first, I didn’t know this doctor was there, so I didn’t pay attention. Now that I think about it, I only have five phone numbers in my phone book.”

She turned on her phone and opened her contacts. From top to bottom, the names were: "Anonymous," "Chu Beauty," "Yu Ji's Suicide," "Holding Her Heart to the Moon," and "Liu Yiji."

Aside from herself, there was no other person with the title "doctor".

"Excuse me," Bai Wu asked tentatively, "is this 'Anonymous' your nickname, Doctor?"

of course not.

Gu Mian knew Xie Bi'an's nickname was Red Anonymous, and this was Xie Bi'an's phone number.

As for himself...

"I don't think I got my phone," Gu Mian shrugged. "Do you all have one?"

The other three nodded in unison.

That's great, really great.

Gu Mian felt he was being treated specially, but he was already used to it.

He grew up receiving special treatment.

At this moment, the other three looked at Gu Mian with even stranger eyes. They secretly turned their attention to the bulging guitar bag behind Gu Mian and began to wonder what was inside.

"In short—" Liu Yiji was the first to look away, "We'll all run away! Whatever you do, don't reveal your location, even if other players call to ask, don't tell them your location!"

As Liu Yiji spoke, he looked at Huaixin Zhenyue and said, "Even if I call you, don't tell me your location."

Huai Xin Zhen Yue nodded solemnly.

"Alright, let's split up and run!" Liu Yiji looked at the ticking second hand. "Run as far away from here as possible! We can't waste any more time. If you find anything, you can communicate by phone, but be careful not to fall into any traps. We must always be suspicious of whether the person who calls you is a human or a ghost."

After saying that, he took two steps back, walked to the living room door, and opened it: "Go one by one. I'll go out first, and then the next one will go in two minutes. That way, neither of us will know where the other is going."

After Liu Yiji left, Bai Wu was the next to leave.

She left with a worried look on her face.

The third to leave was Huaixin Zhenyue. Normal players wouldn't want to be the last to leave because the last person to leave would have to be alone in the room with those giant plush toys for two minutes.

Gu Mian wasn't afraid of that, so he told Huai Xin and Zhen Yue to go out first.

As Huai Xin Zhen Yue left, she gave Gu Mian a grateful look.

After everyone else left, Gu Mian began poking at the teddy bears in each room, gouging out their eyes, tying them up with a bed sheet and hanging them outside the window, and emptying the refrigerator and stuffing it with the soaked dolls.

By the time I finished doing all this, it was already 7:30.

The teddy bear will move in half an hour.

Gu Mian didn't continue his act. He looked back at the room with lingering reluctance, then waved his sleeves and left without a trace.

When we got downstairs, the three people in front of us had all disappeared.

Gu Mian first checked the group chat messages and found that the fat man was crying and complaining that he was the one who had been abandoned.

He ignored the fat man crying in the group chat and sent a message directly asking where Chu Changge was.

After waiting for a few minutes without receiving a reply from Chu Changge, he probably wasn't looking at the group chat.

Thank you GreyUmbrella for the generous donation!
Today was another day of struggling for those who had drafts saved up.

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(End of this chapter)