Global Collapse

Chapter 153 Why did you provoke him? [Thanks to Mu Liunianhua for being the Alliance Leader]

This was the first large-scale event in the world, but not many players managed to get there within the allotted time.

Compared to the world's population, it is indeed not many, but if you take it out and count it separately, the number of people is actually not small.

"There must be at least tens of thousands of people gathered here..." The fat man wiped his sweat as he looked at the densely packed tents.

The weather in February is still quite cool, especially at midnight, when the cold seems to seep into every nook and cranny.

Even the fat man, staying in a hotel, felt a bit cold at night and had to cover himself with several blankets to keep himself completely warm, let alone those of us staying in tents.

Gu Mian also glanced at the densely packed faces, which were quite frightening at first glance.

"Let's go up." Without lingering there for long, Gu Mian walked towards the hotel not far away.

The fat man followed closely behind, and as he went upstairs, he subconsciously glanced back at the group of tents. He had only ever seen such a scene at tourist attractions during major holidays.

People were packed tightly together, like a garbage dump filled with trash.

The crowd filled both sides of the road, stretching as far as the eye could see.

For some reason, the fat man suddenly felt nauseous, so he immediately turned around and followed Gu Mian up the stairs.

"A lot of people."

Back in his rented room, the fat man looked somewhat dazed: "When I looked out the window before, I could only see a small patch, so I didn't realize how terrifying the number of people was. But today, it really looks like a long line... Seriously, can so many people even get into Hengdian?"

“That’s not necessarily true,” Gu Mian said. “Do you remember what the event was about?”

Upon hearing this, the fat man looked at his game panel again.

The event page has always had the event details. He had already read through the event details several months ago, and now that the event is about to start, it wouldn't hurt to read them again.

The world's first large-scale event, the Lantern Festival, is coming to Earth soon.

[Event Location: Hengdian World Studios, China]

【活动举行时间：2019年2月19日晚19:00——24:00】

[Content: On the night of the Lantern Festival, Hengdian District will be decorated with 'blessings from ghosts and monsters']

The 'Ghost's Blessing' will appear in the form of a lantern, with a corresponding riddle from the ghost attached to it. Players who answer the riddle correctly can take the lantern and receive the blessing.

'Blessings' come in many forms, including rare and special items, game currency, and attributes, as well as the resentment of vengeful ghosts and lingering misfortune.

Please choose your light bulbs carefully to prevent unforeseen circumstances.

[Participation Requirements: Hengdian area will be closed during the event; entry is only permitted with a ticket obtained from the premium ticket hall]

After reading it again, the fat man discovered the problem: "Entry is only permitted with a ticket obtained from the premium ticket booth... Holy crap?"

Seeing this, the fat man suddenly remembered something: "Doctor, haven't we gotten the tickets yet?"

“That’s right,” Gu Mian said with a matter-of-fact expression. “So we can deduce that most of the players who came here didn’t get tickets.”

Humans are very proactive creatures; their hearts are always filled with a sense of luck.

Gu Mian was willing to bet that most of the players here were thinking, "Even though I didn't get a ticket, I'll come anyway, what if I get in?"

This behavior is similar to what Gu Mian thought when she was young: "Even though I'm unlucky, I'll still check the bottle cap. What if it's 'buy one get one free'?"

Both of these are unrealistic fantasies.

Gu Mian had never gotten the "buy one get one free" offer.

So after she grew a little older, Gu Mian never had any other thoughts. Buying instant noodles with a seasoning packet was a kind of happiness.

Gu Mian was still recalling when the fat man by the window suddenly opened his eyes wide as if he had just thought of something. He gasped and said, "Doctor, you're not thinking of just barging in without a ticket, are you?"

This was one thing in the past when it happened in a dungeon, but now it's a global event, and there are troops stationed nearby.

Gu Mian might not even be able to pull out his chainsaw before being riddled with bullets by the troops stationed nearby.

Gu Mian sat on the sofa: "Of course I can't just rush in."

The room they rented was small, and even at the exorbitant price of 100 yuan per day, the room facilities weren't particularly good.

The house was a one-bedroom apartment, and the three of them often took turns sleeping on the floor. The sofa in the living room was rather large and didn't match the decor at all, as if it had been snatched from someone's house and placed there.

The sofa made the whole room feel even more cramped. Gu Mian was sitting on the slightly larger sofa when she said, "Actually, I asked about the location of the high-end ticket booth. I heard there's one near Hengdian."

At this moment, the fat man glanced at the calendar next to him. It was February 14th, Valentine's Day.

He opened his mouth, as if to ask, "How did you find out their location?"

But after thinking about it, the fat man swallowed the words he was about to say and changed them to "How close is 'nearby'? The event officially starts in five days... And doctor, haven't you forgotten something?"

"Chen Beidou's matter?" Gu Mian looked up at the fat man: "I just came out of the dungeon and the novelty hasn't worn off yet, how could I forget? I estimate he won't live much longer."

The fat man paused for a moment before continuing, "How did you two come to this conclusion?"

The fat man was very curious. Chu Changge had told him before that Chen Beidou would definitely die, but he couldn't figure out why Chen Beidou would die no matter how hard he tried.

Furthermore, they have not seen any announcements about the crash of the Death Taxi instance, which means that Chen Beidou is still safe.

Why were the doctor and Brother Chu so certain that this guy was going to die soon? Could it be that something happened that they didn't know about?
The fat man was completely confused.

Chu Changge was sitting on a high stool nearby. He adjusted his glasses and said, "We analyzed it before. Games can hardly interfere with the plot development, so it's basically impossible to interfere with the physical condition of the characters in the instance."

In other words, the game couldn't directly heal Chen Beidou, but by the end of the dungeon, Chen Beidou's condition was already dire.

Chu Changge continued, "The instance brought us out to protect Chen Beidou, so we can be sure that Chen Beidou's injuries will recover after we leave."

The fat man was somewhat confused: "Since the game can't directly intervene, how did Chen Beidou recover from his injuries?"

“I suspect—” Chu Changge’s glasses reflected the light: “The game cannot be directly interfered with, but this game can send players into dungeons, so it can also send other things into dungeons. Do you remember the instructions when this global game started?”

The fat man was very honest: "I forgot about it a long time ago."

Seemingly anticipating this answer, Chu Changge continued, "One point in the explanation, which can be summarized simply, is that 'once instance A accepts a batch of players and the game begins, other players who have not yet entered the game will no longer be able to be matched with instance A.'"

A single instance can only accommodate one group of players.

"That's why the taxi instance was in such a hurry to kick us out; once we were kicked out, the next batch of people could enter that instance."

Chu Changge paused at this point: "But it's still unclear whether the next batch of people entering that instance will be players."

The fat man guessed something: "Could it be... a dungeon repair team?"

This was a name he made up on the spot, but it seems to be quite accurate.

"That's roughly the idea," Chu Changge nodded. "The game developers could send a team into that instance and then save the dying Chen Beidou. That's the possibility I've come up with."

At this moment, Gu Mian chimed in: "Chen Beidou should be out of danger now."

The fat man looked at him and saw that he was holding a large object. The fat man took a closer look and realized that it looked like the brick that Gu Mian had taken out in the taxi game. Thinking of this, the fat man suddenly glanced at what Gu Mian was holding.

Now he saw it clearly: "This is not a brick..."

The moment those words left his mouth, the fat man seemed to understand why Chen Beidou had died.

"The maintenance team will leave after they finish the repairs, and then the instance will start running again and accept new players." Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "That instance may already be running again now."

"Half a day has passed, hasn't it?" The fat man glanced at the wall clock.

“Time in the instance is different from that in the real world,” Gu Mian said. “It can be summarized as ‘one day in reality is a year in the instance,’ though I’m using an exaggeration.”

Chu Changge glanced in the direction of the ticket booth: "So now..."

“Even if there is a repair team, they would have left by now, so it should be fine,” Gu Mian added.

As they suspected, the Death Taxi replica did not cease operation.

It was still nighttime in the instance, as if there was no daytime in this instance.

A dilapidated taxi was driving on the road, with a kind-looking middle-aged man sitting in the driver's seat.

There was a passenger in the back seat who looked somewhat flustered.

Yuwen Hao leaned against the rear window, looking out: "It looks like it's going to rain. Driver, could you please hurry up..."

"No problem," the driver's gentle voice came from the front.

"Speaking of which..." Yuwen looked at the driver in front: "Why are you wearing gloves in the car?"

The driver was wearing a pair of thin gloves, which, if meant to keep warm, were hardly enough to block out the cold.

"Oh," the driver's gentle voice continued, "I met a doctor a few days ago. I got a little injured while driving him, on my hand too, and it doesn't look very good."

“Is that so…” Yuwen Hao nodded hesitantly.

He picked up a doctor and got injured...

For some reason, he subconsciously thought of the doctor named "Gu Mian" that he had encountered in the dungeon before.

When this person was matched, Gu Mian's name was not on the wanted list.

The driver spoke again: "Speaking of which, you must have met quite a few doctors, right? What do you think of them?"

Yuwen Hao hesitated for a moment.

He had already changed vehicles three times since entering this instance, and the driver in front of him seemed to be the most normal one. He felt that he had found a way out of this instance.

All the other drivers are ghosts, only this driver is human. I'll be safe once I get in his car.

It's understandable that humans are a bit talkative.

Thinking of this, he continued, "Most of the doctors I've seen work in hospitals, and I can't really diagnose anything; it's just a matter of asking questions and prescribing medicine..."

"However, I recently saw a strange doctor outside the hospital."

At this point, Yuwen Hao recalled Gu Mian's appearance in his mind.

"He especially enjoys saving people..."

The car suddenly swerved, but Yuwen Hao didn't pay much attention to it.

"Whether they are good or bad, as long as they are sick, he wants to save them."

"But the way they rescued people... I can't really praise it..."

Yuwen Hao suddenly noticed that the driver in front of him looked a little stiff. He stared blankly at the driver's increasingly dark face in the rearview mirror, wondering what he had said wrong.

The driver continued, still in a lighthearted tone: "That was quite an interesting doctor. Do you remember what he looked like?"

of course I remember.

Yuwen Hao looked at the driver with some suspicion: "He's very special, the kind of person you can spot in a crowd at a glance. Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the big guitar he carries on his back."

Of course, he knew it wasn't a big guitar.

Just then, he heard the driver in front of him suddenly laugh.

It was dark, and the heavy rain was pouring down. The driver's laughter mingled with the sound, sounding somewhat eerie.

Yuwen Hao became uneasy and swallowed hard.

The driver smiled broadly: "Are you friends?"

“I guess so,” Yuwen Hao nodded warily. “I consider him a friend.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the driver's laughter grew even louder, as if he was about to laugh himself to death.

At the same time, the car suddenly stopped in the rain. Yuwen Hao was shocked and tried to open the door to get out, but he found that the door was locked and he couldn't open it at all.

At this moment, the driver in front turned around with a twisted smile on his face.

His eyes were almost slits from laughing, and his mouth was wide open in a grin.

Yuwen Hao heard his exaggerated tone—"So you guys are friends."

What's going on? Yuwen Hao shrank back: "You know him?"

"More than just knowing it," Chen Beidou laughed, reaching out to pull out something. Yuwen Hao saw that it was a broken axe.

He saw the driver's expression turn ferocious, a terrifying look he had never seen before.

Then he heard that resentful voice:
"Since you're friends—then you should just die!"

A furious shout rang out, followed by the sound of an axe being swung.

Yuwen Hao was horrified. He was shocked and instinctively reached out to block the axe that was coming at him, but the axe did not fall even after he raised his arm.

After a long while, he finally dared to raise his eyes and look ahead.

The driver in front had a large gash on his collarbone, from which blood was gushing out. The seriously injured driver was slumped over the back of the seat, his eyes wide with disbelief as he clutched his wound.

Outside the instance, Gu Mian was poking at the saver in her hand.

[Archiver]

【Function: Save. Press the green button to save the user's current health status, and press the red button to load the save and restore the user's state at the time of the save.】
This saver can only save once a month. If the save is not loaded after one month, it will be destroyed. If the user who saved the save dies, the save will be destroyed and cannot be used to revive.

Two chapters have been combined into one, and I'm already eighty chapters short, awsl!

Thank you to Mu Liunianhua for being the patron (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
Thank you to the reader with the last four digits of their ID (9541) for the donation, and thank you to the reader with the last four digits (1771). Also thank you to the reader who went wandering with a baby bottle for the donation (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
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(End of this chapter)