Global Collapse

Chapter 676 My Dream is to Live Ten Thousand Days

As Gu Mian was pondering, Hao Laoshi began to play the victim.

"It's not easy for me to have survived this long. As you can see, I'm honest, timid, and not very cunning. I'm not very smart, so I can't think of any of the survival strategies you're talking about."

"But I'm very careful and have quick reflexes. I run away as soon as I see something wrong. Plus, I'm pretty lucky. I ran into you in two different instances and got some compensation, which allowed me to save up a small amount of game currency."
"Back when you couldn't really die in dungeons, my wife and I used to go into dungeons often to earn more in-game currency to buy food. Sometimes when we died, the game would deduct money and items, and it hurt so much that my heart would clench."

"Later, if you die in a dungeon, you really die. So I stopped letting my wife go into dungeons. I thought I'd go into the dungeon first because I'm quick and less likely to die. I told her to wait for me at home, so that if I really couldn't go back someday, there would still be someone to take care of the child."

Hao Laoshi started crying as he spoke.

"Every time I enter a dungeon, I don't know if I'll make it out alive. If I die in there, they won't even find my body. I really want to get out alive..."

"Alright, alright, I know." Gu Mian looked at Hao Laoshi, who was about to have snot running down his face, with disdain. "I heard your wish."

He felt as if he had become a wish-granting machine.

Hao Laoshi burst into laughter through his tears, realizing that Gu Mian was not what he had imagined.

"What's wrong with you?" Lemon Not Sour, who was not far away, noticed Hao Laoshi's unusual behavior and came over to hand him a tissue.

"It's nothing," Hao Laoshi wiped away his tears, "I was just thinking about my family outside."

"I see." Lemon Doesn't Sour nodded, her expression somewhat dazed.

At this moment, Hao Laoshi noticed that Chu Changge had spotted him at the back of the group, and immediately ran away with snot and tears streaming down his face.

As Gu Mian watched Hao Laoshi escape, she turned around and saw Chu Changge walking towards her from behind.

"What did he say?" Chu Changge asked.

He was unaware that Hao Laoshi had complained to Gu Mian, saying that he was treacherous and cunning.

Gu Mian summarized it roughly: "He made a wish to me."

Chu Changge didn't ask any more questions and silently followed the group forward.

The intersection was reached quickly, and with Su Lian, the lone wolf, the nine of them were divided into four groups.

Gu Mian, Chu Changge, and Xu Xingcheng are in one group.

Wen Qin talks about wine, Tonight's White, and Hao Laoshi are a group.

Lemons are not sour, Yu Ji is a group.

Practice alone or in a group.

The four groups split up here, with Wen Qin and Tan Jiu's group taking the left-hand path.

Lemon Not Sour and the other person chose the right-hand path.

Gu Mian and the others continued straight ahead.

Su Lian hesitated for a moment when looking at the three roads, then chose to go straight.

She didn't approach Gu Mian and the others, but stayed at a distance.

Chu Changge glanced back at Su Lian but didn't say anything.

Gu Mian also glanced at the female player who was loitering behind them. She saw that this player was holding a small notebook in her left hand and occasionally writing something down in it, probably memorizing the map.

Gu Mian originally planned to go back directly after splitting up, pick up the photos she had thrown away, and print them out directly.

But there was another player with them at the moment, so Gu Mian couldn't just turn back.

"We'll part ways with her at the next intersection and go back to pick up the photos," Gu Mian said to Chu Changge.

Chu Changge nodded.

Xu Xingcheng, standing to the side, became excited: "Great! If we kill a few more dungeons, my memories will gradually return, and then I can tell you about my grand plan."

Gu Mian really didn't think this unreliable evil god could come up with any reliable plans.

He only found Xu Xingcheng's voice extremely noisy.

The next intersection will be here soon.

Su Lian took the first step onto the right-hand path.

Gu Mian led Chu Changge and the other person forward for a few more minutes, pretending to be casual, before turning back furtively. "Speaking of which, this second world is developing quite well, not much different from Earth," Gu Mian said, looking at the shops on both sides of the street.

He was so focused on shaking off the other players that he didn't pay any attention to what shops were open on both sides of the road.

Chu Changge also looked towards the roadside.

There were many snack shops along this street, and he spotted three dessert shops and two milk tea shops at a glance.

There were also vendors selling shaved ice and sugar figurines by the roadside.

“Actually, life in this world wouldn’t be bad if there were no ghosts.” Gu Mian looked at the bustling street. “However, players treat dungeons as just game data and don’t really experience life in these worlds.”

Xu Xingcheng spoke up at an inopportune moment: "There are ghosts in the dungeon. Do you think everyone is like you, treating entering a dungeon like a vacation?"

He's right.

Unlike other players, Gu Mian really enjoys entering dungeons. Entering a dungeon is like returning home, and after returning home, she will also blow up her home before finding the next one.

The ghosts and NPCs in the house often cry and wail because of this.

Many NPCs don't have a good impression of Gu Mian.

They most often used phrases like "discarding the millstone after it has served its purpose" and "smashing the pot after putting down the bowl" to describe Gu Mian.

There's even a "Gu Mian Prevention Manual" circulating in the NPC (player versus player) community.

It's supposed to be a prevention manual, but nobody really has any practical preventative measures.

It mostly contains the complaints of NPCs who have wronged Gu Mian.

And the evaluations of Gu Mian by other NPCs.

Xu Xingcheng had a memory of this book, but he couldn't remember the contents, only the cover.

He still remembers a very true quote on the cover—

"Gu Mian, someone who can't solve the dungeon quest itself, but solves the dungeon itself."

At this moment, the person who strikes fear into the hearts of all NPCs is about to try the shaved ice from the roadside.

But because they didn't have the money, they had to give up.

"Let Fatty do it when we get back," Gu Mian said, turning her gaze away.

The other people in the instance didn't share his enthusiasm.

Wen Qin and Jin Ye Bai hurried along the road, trying to stay as far away from where they had discarded the photos as possible.

At this moment, Jin Yebai had a Polaroid camera hanging around her neck, the same one she had used to take photos before.

"I hope it's okay for me to carry this with me," Jin Yebai frowned. "A ghost can't crawl out of here."

“We still need to be careful,” Wen Qin said, glancing at the Polaroid camera. “This camera can capture ghosts, and I think it must have other uses… If there’s any other way out for this copy, I think it’s related to it.”

People come and go on this road, and cars travel along it.

The two deliberately chose to walk in lively places, hoping to dispel some of their fear.

But they knew that if a ghost wanted to kill someone, it would be useless no matter how crowded the place was.

“We didn’t destroy the photos in time, and the ghost had already crawled out.” Tonight, Bai examined the camera in his hand as he walked. “Do you think if the ghost finds us, and we take another picture of it, can we lock it back into the photo?”

"Could this be another way out? If we take a picture of the ghost, will it really be locked back into the photo?" Wen Qin pondered. It takes time for the ghost to come out of the photo. From the time they took the group photo to the time the ghost came in front of the camera, about an hour had passed.

If a ghost finds them, and they take a picture of the ghost and then destroy the picture, wouldn't the ghost be unable to get out?
No, even if this one is destroyed, the ghost can still emerge through other photos. The group photo is still there.

Even if the ghosts could still appear through other photos, they still gained valuable time to escape.

It takes time for ghosts to appear, and it also takes time to find them.

“If your method works, we should be able to safely get through three days with the remaining four photos,” Wen Qin said, frowning. “But this is just a hypothesis; we need to put it into practice to verify its feasibility.”

Gugu, someone who, unable to solve the problem of not updating, will end up killing himself.



(End of this chapter)