Global Collapse

Chapter 697 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year

“This instance lasts for three days. Based on general experience, instances won’t put players in danger from the start,” Chu Changge said, looking at Zhao Tiankuo’s reply. “The instance will restrain the ghost, keeping it as far away from the player as possible. As time goes on, the instance’s restraint on the ghost will weaken. If you ask him to come again after three days, he will definitely come to meet you, if he really is a ghost.”

But Gu Mian didn't know if the instance would have a "three-day delay".

He always thought the game developers were incredibly unethical, constantly creating shoddy, low-quality dungeons. These dungeons were always having minor issues, and whenever something went wrong, they'd yell, "Ah, I'm going to die! I'm doomed! Get out of here!" As a result, after the global game's release, he almost always ended up rolling out of dungeons.

Coco was looking at the bloody photo that Zhao Tiankuo had sent her. Even if Zhao Tiankuo wasn't a ghost, he was still extremely dangerous. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if he met "Xiao Mianmian" and found out that she was a man.

Not wanting to be left out, Gu Mian took out Chu Changge's phone again, leaned against the railing on the fourth floor, and started sending messages to Xia Yutong.

"Silly girl, what did you eat for lunch?" Gu Mian wanted to trick the other person into sending her a picture of the food, hoping that she could figure out which restaurant she went to from the photo.

But Xia Yutong was probably busy weaving a green hat (a metaphor for being cheated on) and did not reply.

Chu Changge had no interest in his girlfriend and was currently staring out the window.

Coco stared at the phone in Gu Mian's hand for a while, and when she saw that there was no reply, she looked away out of boredom. Before meeting Gu Mian, she had never thought that she could feel "bored" in a dungeon.

In the past, even amidst a bustling crowd in dungeons, and even when no danger was imminent, she could hardly enjoy a moment of peace. Ghosts could appear from any corner—perhaps the sewer beneath her feet, behind a curtain that moves without wind, or even one of her own teammates turning into a ghost.

Now she doesn't have to worry about that anymore; now she feels very safe.

Coco looked up at Gu Mian while thinking, but she realized something was wrong as soon as she raised her head halfway.

The person standing in front of me is not Gu Mian at all!

It was a woman, wearing low-cut boots and a pale white long skirt, and above that, a plaid shirt embroidered with patterns. Coco's eyes were fixed on the woman's face, a stiff, expressionless face, devoid of any emotion, as if the person who wore the face had died at that moment.

Coco recognized her; it was Xia Yutong.

What's going on? Why did Xia Yutong suddenly appear? Where is Gu Mian?
Coco turned to look in Chu Changge's direction, and something even more terrifying happened. She discovered that Chu Changge hadn't disappeared either; in his place stood a woman also dressed in a pale white dress—also Xia Yutong.

Two identical dead faces stared at her, motionless.

Two, two Xia Yutongs.

Coco looked around in a panic, and then she saw a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth...

She was on the verge of a breakdown.

Everyone was wearing that eerie white dress, and they all had the same face, grinning at her with grotesque smiles.

Coco took a few steps back, tripped over her calf, and fell backward.

"What's wrong with you?" Gu Mian grabbed Coco, who was falling towards the railing.

This is the fourth floor. If she fell from here, she probably wouldn't even have time to shout, "Xia Yutong pushed me!" before she was dead. Coco finally came to her senses. With that pull, the women in white dresses in front of her seemed to disperse like reflections in water, and Gu Mian's big face appeared in her line of sight, looking at her curiously.

"I, I..." Coco gasped for breath as she looked at the two people in front of her, repeatedly clicking on the player panels above their heads to confirm before she finally felt relieved. She realized that what she had just seen might have been an illusion. "I just saw Xia Yutong."

Then she recounted what had just happened to Gu Mian. After she finished speaking, she looked back with lingering fear. If Gu Mian hadn't pulled her back, she probably would be stuck to the ground floor right now.

“It’s an illusion.” Chu Changge frowned. “This time, the ghost can confuse people’s vision.”

Gu Mian stroked her chin and looked at Coco: "So it was just an illusion. I thought you were going to gloriously sacrifice yourself for our career of seducing Xia Yutong."

“But we don’t need to seduce her anymore. A ghost can’t cause people here to hallucinate from thousands of miles away. Since it can cause Coco to hallucinate, it can’t be too far away from us. It’s most likely in this school.” Gu Mian looked around but didn’t see the woman in the pale white dress with the deadpan face that Coco had described.

There was indeed a man with a deadpan expression; Chu Changge was standing next to him.

"Haunting among these people?" Coco asked softly. She looked at the crowded people in the cafeteria. There were so many students in the cafeteria that it was impossible to tell who was who.

Actually, it would be quite simple to tell them apart: just make a cut on each of them with a knife, and the one who doesn't bleed is the ghost. However, considering that doing so might get them arrested, Gu Mian suppressed this simple idea.

"What should we do?" Coco had no idea.

Gu Mian sat down at an empty table next to her: "Since we can't tell which ghost it is, we can only discuss it here. By the way, Chu Changge, were you hallucinating just now?"

Chu Changge also sat down and shook his head.

"That's a bit strange. Xia Yutong is your love interest; even if she were to hunt you down, she should be hunting you down. But why is she targeting Coco? If Coco had fallen just now, her head would definitely have been split into four pieces." Gu Mian pondered, "Indiscriminate attack?"

Coco touched her head and felt a tingling sensation on her scalp.

“That might be true, but I didn’t expect the ghost to show its murderous intent so early.” Chu Changge tapped the table. “Ghosts are usually suppressed by the dungeon rules and won’t kill people right away. This situation means that the dungeon’s suppression of the ghost is gradually crumbling.”

Gu Mian thought of the game's two organizers, one favoring the dungeon world and the other favoring the human world. Perhaps the power of the organizer favoring humans was gradually weakening, allowing the ghosts in the dungeons to gradually overthrow and suppress them.

Coco was still pondering the issue of indiscriminate attacks by the ghosts: "There were five of us in the dungeon this time, and we were matched with five ghosts. If the ghosts really do attack indiscriminately, wouldn't it be possible for all five ghosts to attack one person at the same time?"

Gu Mian nodded: "Theoretically speaking, that's how it is."

Five ghosts are attacking the same person; if he comes, he'll get punched twice.

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "Everything has its own rules. If I hadn't done something particularly outrageous, I wouldn't have been this unlucky."

Of course, this excludes Gu Mian. With his level of bad luck, even if he were lying in bed sleeping, a ghost might fall from the sky and hit him on the head.

Happy New Year everyone! [Afraid to peek out][Discover no one][Run away underground][Get caught] Waaaaaaahh ...


(End of this chapter)