Global Collapse

Two broken squares are only in danger when two or more pieces enter the same room.

The pieces in the second group are for single-player actions, and to him, there is no difference between a two-spaced piece and an empty space.

However, if Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan were to enter this grid...

Well, there's no danger.

007 snapped out of his thoughts and continued to observe the movements of the other groups on the chessboard.

After the second group of pieces finished their turn and entered the two-space break, the third group of pieces also began to move. However, the third group of pieces had reached the "good tired" space in the previous round, so they had to pause for one round this time.

The squares containing the three sets of pieces display the words "Skip this turn".

The fourth group quickly took action. In the previous round, the first piece of the fourth group unfortunately stepped into a trap square and died on the first move. In this round, the fourth group sent out its remaining piece.

Moving downwards is a trap square, and the players in the fourth group certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to let the remaining piece repeat the same mistake. This time, the fourth group's piece moved one square to the left.

The square that the four sets of pieces entered was also a two-space grid; if multiple pieces entered, only one would survive.

007 looked at the positions of Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan, and then at the positions of the four sets of chess pieces. The two were already very close, with only two squares between them.

If they continue to hedge their bets like this, they will meet in the next round.

All four sets of pieces have finished their moves, and now it's time for another minute's rest.

In the group chat, 007 described the specifics of this round to Gu Mian and the other person, and asked for their opinions.

[007]: Do you want to meet with the people from Group Four?

The people in Group Two don't seem to want to go this way, but Group Four might not.

007 also remembered that the Evil God had appeared as a player before, and it's possible that the Evil God was mixed in with these three groups of players. In that case, it would be good for him to meet the players from the other groups.

[Gu Mian]: Let's go to room 605 as planned first. If there's really someone special among the players, they should come looking for me.

007 makes sense when you think about it.

At this moment, Liu Ruyan sent a message in the group chat.

[Liu Ruyan]: Haven't we encountered a single empty space in the other groups yet?

[007]: Yes, I also find it strange, it seems like all the empty spaces are surrounding us...

The third round is about to begin. I wonder what the third round will be like. I can't expect Gu Mian and the others to encounter empty spaces again in the third round, can I?
007 had long known that Gu Mian was unlucky, and she had even guessed that Gu Mian would enter some kind of "grid that you will definitely die as soon as you enter" but she did not expect that Gu Mian's luck was so good this time that she actually entered a grid with every step.

No, it might also have nothing to do with luck...

Just as 007 was thinking this, the one-minute break countdown ended.

The third round of operations has begun.

007 reached out and tapped the dice on the left side of the screen. The electronic dice spun vigorously for about ten seconds before stopping.

The number 1 is displayed above.

"This time you can only move one space." 007 then moved Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan one space to the right, so they were now only one space away from the four groups of pieces on the right.

She quickly saw the two figures representing Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan on the chessboard move one square to the right, and then an introduction appeared on the square they were now on.

[Space]

[Unexpected, isn't it? No surprises, no shocks... What's going on here? Why are there so many empty rooms? I remember this place wasn't like this before.]

At this moment, Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan fell silent as they looked at the empty room in front of them.

After a moment of silence, Liu Ruyan suddenly spoke: "You did something wrong?"

"What tricks could I possibly play? I only learned about this instance today." Gu Mian shrugged.

"That means the evil god did it."

At this moment, the two of them also saw the introduction sent by 007 in the group chat. This time, the introduction was different from the previous three, and included the word "father".

Judging from the description of cursing, Gu Mian roughly understood that these empty spaces were probably not empty spaces before, but rather that someone had tampered with them.

He nodded: "It must be the evil god who did this."

The situation on this side of the board was so bizarre that people in the other groups' initial rooms also stopped to watch the spectacular sight of four empty pieces lined up on the board.

007 thinks the players in the other three groups are probably cursing Group One for cheating right now.

Despite the criticism, the actions cannot be stopped.

A minute later, 007 saw that the second set of pieces had moved down one square, and he had entered a "good tired" square, meaning he would have to take a break for the next round.

Next came the third group's action.

The third group rolled a two, and their pieces moved up two spaces.

Fortunately, Group 3 rolled a two this time, because his first move was to a trap square. 007 saw the little piece that entered the trap square pause for a moment, and then ran to the next square like lightning.

Then the content of the next square also appears on the chessboard.

【Step by Step】

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Hey, you, you've taken too big a step!

The pieces that remain in this room can only move forward one number at a time for the next three rounds.

This third group was really unlucky. At the start of the game, they entered a "very tired" square and were stuck for a turn. The second step was a "small step" square, and for the next three turns, they could only move forward one step each time.

It seems like the people in Group 3 are even more unlucky than Gu Mian in this instance.

After the three groups of pieces have finished their moves, the fourth group of pieces begins their turn.

The four sets of pieces moved forward two steps this time. If he keeps moving to the left, he will be able to reach the square where Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan are now.

However, the people in Group Four were clearly unwilling to see Gu Mian and the other person. He only took one step to the left, which was almost right next to the square where Gu Mian was, but then he went down and did not continue to the left.

Two more squares of information appeared on the chessboard.

The first square that the four sets of pieces pass through is a question-and-answer square, where there is a ghost that likes to play "I ask, you answer". The second set of pieces passes through this question-and-answer square.

The four sets of pieces are currently positioned on [Honest Squares] [Honest Squares].

[Next time, will you take one step or two steps?]

[In this room dwells an honest ghost who refuses to be deceived. Each chess piece entering the room must answer within one minute how many steps it intends to move in the next round. In the next round, the honest ghost moves alongside the chess piece. If the answer matches the number of steps to move in the next round, the piece receives a reward from the honest ghost; if the answer differs, the piece is killed by the deceived honest ghost.]

"Is this a matter of honesty or dishonesty?" Gu Mian was speechless as she looked at the message 007 sent in the group chat.

“When a piece enters an honest square, it has no idea how many moves it will make in the next round,” Liu Ruyan said, looking at the messages in the group chat. “It’s all about guessing what number the player in your group will roll next round, and it really has nothing to do with honesty.”

Pieces from other groups cannot communicate with their players, and pieces must give an honest answer within one minute of entering an honest square. Even if pieces and players could communicate, players cannot control what number they will roll in the next round.

Next, there's another one-minute halftime break.

But before the countdown could even appear on the LED screen above their heads, the game panel suddenly popped up in front of them.

"What's going on?" Gu Mian subconsciously thought the instance was about to crash.

It wasn't until I looked at the contents of the panel that I realized it wasn't like that at all.

[Dungeon Mid-Game Suspension Notice]

[Dear players, due to a minor issue in the dungeon, this dungeon will be temporarily unavailable for ten minutes. Please be patient and wait for ten minutes. The game will resume after ten minutes.]

[Game time will also pause when the instance is paused, so please don't worry about the rule that you can't stay in a single room for more than ten minutes.]

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by this maintenance suspension. Each player in the instance will receive 60 game coins as compensation.

"What's going on here?" Liu Ruyan looked at the game panel in front of her with great interest. "The dungeon crashed, but not completely. It's only half-crashed, so it can still be repaired, right?"

Gu Mian thought that the evil god's plan might have been discovered by the dungeon team, which was why they had to make emergency repairs.

"Could the dungeon kick out the evil god?" Gu Mian wondered to herself.

Although the announcement stated they should wait ten minutes, no ten-minute countdown appeared. This suggests that the ten minutes mentioned in the announcement was only a rough estimate of the time needed to repair the instance, and the actual waiting time might be longer.

The most difficult thing right now must be the four sets of chess pieces. He's still in the Honesty Grid with the Honesty Ghost, and it's unclear how long they'll stay together.

At this point, Liu Ruyan discovered that the "10-person group chat" was no longer available.

"Can you still open the group chat? I can't even seem to open my own game panel." She looked at Gu Mian.

Can’t open?
Gu Mian also tried to open his game panel, only to find that he couldn't open it either. Not only that, all his special items were malfunctioning, just like when he entered the Paradise World last time.

What's going on? Has the evil god blocked the signal in this area again?
Now it's time for the evil god to make his grand entrance.

But after waiting for half a minute, Xu Xingcheng didn't appear. He was left staring at Liu Ruyan in the room.

"Maybe the instance is fixing a bug, which is why special items are temporarily unusable." Liu Ruyan thought back to when the bug fix announcement came out, she was still reading the group chat, but the group chat wouldn't open after she finished reading the announcement.

Gu Mian thought that they probably used some kind of special item shielding device, just like the shielding device in the match-3 game dungeon. It was probably to prevent players from misusing special items during the dungeon repair process and causing some problems.

"What do you think of the other three groups of players?" Liu Ruyan asked Gu Mian.

Since we're just killing time anyway, we might as well chat for a bit.

"Group Two has low intelligence, Group Three has lost its luck, and Group Four is barely surviving," Gu Mian summarized.

"So only our group is mentally sound, lucky, and full of energy, right?" If she could communicate with the other three groups now, Liu Ruyan would be more than willing to pass on Gu Mian's assessment to the players in the other three groups.

Unfortunately, everyone on the chessboard is oblivious to what's going on, and to this day she doesn't even know who the players in the other three groups are.

"You mentioned Renle Mountain before entering this instance. Do you think he might be in one of the other three groups?" Liu Ruyan asked after a moment of silence.

Gu Mian then recalled the actions of the other three groups: "If Ren Leshan really entered this instance, then I think he is more likely to be in the third or fourth group."

He paused at this point, then added, "The possibility is greatest in group three."

"Why?" Liu Ruyan asked curiously.

Liu Ruyan had never entered the match-3 game with Ren Leshan, but Fatty kept telling everyone how cunning and treacherous Ren Leshan was. As a result, even though Liu Ruyan had never entered the same game with Ren Leshan, she knew that Ren Leshan was a quick-witted and ruthless person.

“If Ren Leshan really enters this instance, given his personality, he will definitely want to be the chess player. If he wants to be the chess player but the other two disagree with him, he will definitely eliminate the other two directly.” Gu Mian thought about the situation when the second group was preparing.

"Should we eliminate the other two in the initial room?" Liu Ruyan nodded. "That's one way. Once the other two are eliminated, he'll be the only one left in the initial room, and only he can decide his own identity."

"Do you remember the rules of this instance?" Gu Mian recited one of the rules of the instance word for word, "If all the pieces on the field are dead or unable to move, and the treasure chest has not been found, the surviving player and pieces on the field will automatically leave the instance."

"So even if both pieces in a group are killed, the player in that group will not be in any danger."

Although losing two pieces at the start of the game prevents him from achieving final victory, Ren Leshan, as the player holding the pieces, is absolutely safe. For Ren Leshan, his life is far more important than any gain.

Liu Ruyan recalled the scene of the three little figures wrestling in Room 2 during the preparation: "Given Ren Leshan's way of doing things, he probably wouldn't participate in the fight, but would instead stab the other two in the back."

Therefore, if Ren Leshan enters this instance, he will definitely not be in room number two.

"How did you choose Groups Three and Four?" Liu Ruyan asked. "Why did you think that if Ren Leshan were here, he would most likely be in Group Three? Is it because Group Four lost a piece at the start compared to Group Three? But that seems to be related to luck, not anything else."

“Of course it’s not because of that.” Gu Mian closed her eyes, thinking about the trajectory of Groups Three and Four from the beginning to the present. “It’s related to their direction of action.”

Just as the two were talking, the game panel reappeared in front of them.

[Greetings, players. The runaway employees have all returned to their posts...]

The first sentence has a bright red horizontal line drawn across it, so it should be an obsolete draft, but I don't know why it was posted here.

The following is the official announcement.

[Dear players, the minor bug in the dungeon has been fixed. Please continue playing the dungeon. 60 game coins have been sent to your mailboxes. Please claim them in time.]

"What the heck is that first sentence?" Liu Ruyan looked at the sentence crossed out in red on the first line with great interest and realized something. "So it wasn't about fixing bugs, but about urgently recalling runaway employees?"

After reading this sentence, Liu Ruyan finally understood why she and Gu Mian had four consecutive empty rooms.

It's highly likely that the ghost in the nearby room heard that Gu Mian was coming to their room and, not wanting to receive her, ran away in the middle of the night carrying their post.

However, according to the announcement, all the employees who ran away have been recalled, so when they take action next, they should not encounter empty rooms.

Then I found that I could open my game panel and group chat again, so it seems that the dungeon had indeed blocked their game panel.

Meanwhile, 007 in the initial room had already rolled the dice and made his choice. Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan saw a door leading to the next room appear on the wall. (End of Chapter)