Global Collapse

Chapter 192 Human Physiological Structure

The fat man happily went to pick up the lanterns.

Just as Gu Mian was waiting for the fat man to retrieve the lantern, he saw the door of the green house in the distance suddenly open a crack, and a green figure emerged from inside.

Mr. Green is now truly a green man, because Gu Mian saw that his face had also turned green, as if he was somewhat angry.

He glared angrily in their direction, but his expression softened when he met Gu Mian's gaze.

Meanwhile, the fat man had already retrieved the lantern, and Mr. Green had straightened his clothes and walked over.

The fat man immediately spotted Mr. Green, whose face had changed color: "Hey? Mr. Green is out. What's with that face?"

Gu Mian shook her head sincerely: "I don't know."

As Mr. Green walked towards them, the fat man took a moment to speak to Gu Mian beside him: "Doctor, when I went to pick up the lanterns just now, I noticed that many of the lanterns above us seem to be out of order."

Gu Mian looked up upon hearing this.

Just as the fat man had predicted, most of the lanterns above the three of them, which had been burning brightly, went out.

Gu Mian looked up at the lanterns overhead and saw that the lanterns in the distance did not have this problem; it seemed that only the lanterns on this side were mostly extinguished.

At this moment, Chu Changge suddenly spoke up: "It was already like this when we came out of that green room."

Ugh?
The fat man frowned in confusion. Had it been like that just now? He hadn't noticed.

At this moment, Mr. Green had already trotted up to Gu Mian's side quickly. He seemed to have also noticed the malfunction of the lanterns above his head. He looked up at the lanterns several times along the way. Although he looked at them many times, he did not ask any questions, as if he had expected it all along.

Mr. Green stopped, coughed a few times, and then looked up and asked, "Did you cut her hair?"

Gu Mian looked down at him: "Didn't you go in and look around?"

Mr. Green choked on his words, and his face turned even greener.

Gu Mian then added, "But it wasn't me who made the move; it was Chu Changge."

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses and flicked his sleeve. The sharp-eyed Mr. Green noticed that there seemed to be some hairs left on his sleeve.

“Alright, alright,” Mr. Green waved his hand. “I just wasn’t watching for a moment… You absolutely must never do this kind of thing again. You know this is a real-world activity, and we can’t afford any accidents.”

As he spoke, he glanced up at the extinguished lanterns overhead, a look of lingering fear on his face.

At this moment, Chu Changge's voice suddenly came from the side: "Do you know why all the lanterns above suddenly went out?"

Mr. Green looked at Chu Changge and saw a strange light in the eyes of this seemingly kind man, as if he were plotting some conspiracy.

Seeing Chu Changge's expression, Mr. Green's hair stood on end: "I don't know anything, don't ask me!"

There really is no three hundred taels of silver here.

Judging from his attitude, he doesn't seem like someone who knows nothing.

However, Chu Changge was not in a hurry. He continued slowly, "Just now, the three of us in that green room seemed to have discovered something interesting."

Mr. Green's brow twitched, and he looked up at the group of people in front of him: "What have you discovered?"

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "As far as I know, at least five people have gone in before us, but we didn't find a single living person after we went in. You've also been in, so I suppose you didn't see a single living person either."

Mr. Green seemed to swallow hard.

The fat man stood to the side, holding a lantern, seemingly lost in thought.

Gu Mian looked up at the lanterns still lit above her head.

These lanterns are attached to overhead wires that, at first glance, look somewhat like power lines pulled from telephone poles.

“But then we discovered that the people who went in didn’t just disappear into thin air,” Chu Changge continued, “They didn’t disappear; they were swallowed up by that room.”

He spoke while looking at the green house.

In the darkness, the unattractive house looked like a giant beast crawling on the ground, somewhat disgusting.

"We noticed a patch of ground that was uneven and pitted. Upon closer inspection, we saw a protrusion on that patch that looked like a hand, but it slowly disappeared after a while. I think that must have been a person killed by a ghost, whose body was then swallowed up by the house."

"Actually, I noticed as soon as I entered this event that the layout of this place was different from before..."

Gu Mian started thinking seriously. He remembered that when Chu Changge first joined the event, he mentioned that the layout here was different from before. However, he racked his brains but couldn't recall when Chu Changge had visited Hengdian.

The two met in an orphanage. Although their childhood dream was ruthlessly shattered, they still maintained a good relationship afterward.

Gu Mianzhen couldn't remember when Chu Changge had come here alone.

"Some parts have been changed," Chu Changge continued, "I originally thought it was just a simple change, but now it seems that's not the case."

The modified areas seem to have awakened the 'devour' function.

It can devour the player's corpse.

Gu Mian couldn't help but think of plant growth. Plants need fertilizer to grow, and animal carcasses are the best fertilizer.

This also overlaps with their previous guesses.

This event is indeed sacrificing players to fund some unknown entity.

So what exactly is being supplied?

Mr. Green's forehead was beaded with sweat, and he took a small step back: "Why are you all so suspicious?"

Gu Mian had always felt that Mr. Green's IQ wasn't very high; she sensed it when she first met him in the dungeon.

Because he seems to never use idioms correctly.

He's probably the least intelligent NPC in the game; he can't even lie properly, and all his thoughts are written on his face.

"Alright," Mr. Green said hastily, trying to change the subject, seemingly unsure how to cover it up: "It's already past ten o'clock, you guys go and guess the riddles, I'll follow behind."

The event was scheduled to last until midnight, and at that time there were less than two hours left before it ended.

As Mr. Green spoke, he walked toward the direction of the female ghost behind him, but after only a few steps, he noticed something hanging around the female ghost's neck.

He stared wide-eyed at the small megaphone around the female ghost's neck: "Why did you put that thing on her?!"

Gu Mian shrugged: "I think it looks pretty good."

Mr. Green: "..."

Without further ado with Mr. Green, Gu Mian and the other two began searching for the 'bath' mentioned on the other lantern.

[If you find a pool with skeletons by the water, and you hold the skeletons and sink to the bottom, what will happen to the skeletons?]

It turns out that bathhouses are not easy to find, and those with skeletons are even harder to find.

The group walked a considerable distance but found no bath with skeletons. Instead, Chu Changge seemed to have discovered something else.

Just as Gu Mian was about to crawl into a small room next door to see if there was a bathtub, Chu Changge suddenly leaned over and whispered, "Have you noticed anything wrong with the strings hanging the lanterns above your head?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Mian looked up and glanced at the table; it did seem like there was indeed a problem.

The strings hanging the lanterns were of varying density. Gu Mian looked at them carefully for a long time and then thought of something.

“Like blood vessels,” he stroked his chin. “If this activity absorbs players’ corpses and converts them into nutrients, then those nutrients must be transported through these blood vessels.”

If we connect all the clues we've gathered...

This event devours players' corpses; the lines are like blood vessels; all the lanterns are connected by lines; and a ghost is parasitizing each lantern…

So those nutrients are transmitted to the lanterns through these threads, which then make the ghost stronger!

It turned out to be like this...

Thinking of this, Gu Mian subconsciously asked, "If that's really the case, then where is the heart?"

The fat man's brow twitched, and he immediately glanced discreetly at Mr. Green, who was hiding far behind him.

Fortunately, Mr. Green was far away, so he didn't hear the words that sounded like "I'm going to go straight for the heart".

Oh no, the author's clicks are gone! The author is so sad, only giving me votes can cheer me up.

Thank you Mighty奇, S-Truman, and 鬼姬冥花 for the generous donations (づ￣3￣)づ╭～


(End of this chapter)