Global Collapse

Chapter 299 A Girl with a Dark Side

Gu Mian and the other two did not have a fixed place to live.

After leaving the Heartbeat Hide-and-Seek instance, the weather became even more severe.

The continuous snowstorm has stopped, but the temperature shows no signs of rising.

The snow a few days ago turned this place into a white expanse, with snow piled up on the ground, tree branches, and rooftops.

The car windows were frozen solid, making it difficult to see anything outside.

It's not suitable to stay huddled in the hearse under such harsh weather conditions, unless you want to die right there in this broken-down vehicle.

So Gu Mian found a dilapidated house.

It was less of a search and more of a forced entry.

This is a dilapidated neighborhood in a remote location, with very few people living there.

Gu Mian randomly picked a building that looked deserted and went upstairs with the fat locksmith.

The handrails on the stairs were covered in cobwebs, and it looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

The fat man, wrapped in a cotton-padded coat, trembled as he fiddled with the door lock and asked, "Doctor, aren't we breaking the law?"

Gu Mian nodded: "If you don't break the law, you'll freeze to death outside."

The fat man shuddered: "Luckily, I used to do lock picking..."

Gu Mian asked curiously, "Have you ever been a thief?"

"Pah!" the fat man quickly denied. "What thief? I've worked as a locksmith!"

It has to be said that fat people have dabbled in quite a few industries.

In no time at all, the fat man had managed to pick the lock.

The dilapidated building had only five floors, and the fat man chose the third floor, saying that he wouldn't get cold on the middle floors.

At this moment, Chu Changge also came up from below with Xiao Hong. The two, one human and one ghost, had been packing things down below, and now they had brought up a batch of items.

Chu Changge, empty-handed, piled all the bedding and miscellaneous items on Xiao Hong and watched from the side.

Gu Mian was quite worried that Xiao Hong would be crushed to death.

The fat man had already entered the house.

Because the house had been unoccupied for a long time, all the blankets, mattresses, and sofa cushions that were prone to mold were taken away.

However, the furniture was complete, and there was even a worn-out little air conditioner hanging on the wall, although it had turned yellow.

There is a brand new card slot on the wall to the right of the entrance.

“This should be a card slot for the new power-on card that the game added specifically,” Gu Mian said, looking at the card slot and taking a card out of her pocket. “Now every house should have this card slot.”

He inserted the card as he spoke.

There is currently a global power outage, and the only way to obtain electricity is by purchasing a power card from a supermarket and inserting it into the card slot.

I have to say the electricity cards in the supermarket are really not cheap. They just give you a card and the cashier will charge you the amount of electricity you need to buy.

One kilowatt-hour of electricity costs three game coins.

In the current environment, air conditioning is essential, but one kilowatt-hour of electricity can only power an air conditioner for one hour. In such cold conditions, even without using any other appliances and only running the air conditioner for twelve hours a day, it would still cost thirty-six game coins.

While doing the calculations, Gu Mian looked at the fat man next to her: "I remember you only got twenty game coins when you settled down in the last dungeon, right?"

The fat man lowered his head in shame again.

That's right.

The dungeon was rated 25 points, and I only got 20 game coins, nothing else.

Because he was almost always hiding in the instance.

Speaking of this...

Gu Mian looked at Chu Changge beside her: "How did you know I would pass by the place where Fatty was hiding in the last instance?"

He did indeed go through that process before he was able to reunite with the fat man.

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "You also know that there's a connecting clue in that hide-and-seek instance. As long as you follow that clue, you'll eventually discover the ghost's conspiracy."

"The clues are actually interconnected. For example, you find clue number 1 at location A, which points to location B. You go to location B and find clue number 2, which leads you to the final location C, where the final answer is hidden."

"I hid the fat guy on the only way from B to C. To be on the safe side, I specifically hid him near the last clue, so even if you take a detour, the fat guy will see you as long as you reach the end."

It turns out that Chu Changge had already discovered the entire clue in the hide-and-seek instance.

Gu Mian asked, "Since you know that C is the end point, it means you must have been to location C. Otherwise, it's impossible to determine whether C is a link in the chain of clues or the end point."

Chu Changge acquiesced.

In other words, Chu Changge discovered the ghost's conspiracy from the very beginning, but he did not use the phone that could call all players to inform them of this.

This directly led to unsuspecting hunters wanting to tear the ghost apart, allowing the ghost to roam freely in the dungeon after gaining the hunter's identity, resulting in the tragic deaths of many players.

Of course, the ghost was quite arrogant at first, but it was defeated after meeting Gu Mian.

Chu Changge continued, "Because if all players know about the ghost's conspiracy, no player will actively try to catch the ghost, and the ghost will not be able to become a hunter."

The fat man hesitated before speaking, "In the hide-and-seek instance, isn't it good that the ghosts don't become the hunters? Everyone will be safe."

“No, we need to get close to the ghost to gather information about the instance,” Chu Changge shook his head. “If the ghost continues to possess the identity of a survivor, then Gu Mian must not approach the ghost under any circumstances; we all know that the first hunter to capture the ghost will switch identities with the ghost, and if Gu Mian goes to find the ghost while still holding the identity of a hunter, her life cannot be guaranteed.”

The fat man understood.

Although Gu Mian is almost invincible against dungeon creatures, the hide-and-seek dungeon has survivor and hunter factions. If Gu Mian and the ghost switch identities, and the hunters have absolute suppression over the survivors, who knows what kind of accident will happen.

"The best-case scenario is that Gu Mian and Gui are on the same side. I've considered that it's safer for them to be on the same side as the Hunters, so I haven't informed the other players about this."

Therefore, Chu Changge deliberately concealed important clues, prompting the ghost to transform from a survivor to a hunter.

As for the hunter, Gui did not manage to do anything to Gu Mian, but he did provide the number "seven". Although the number was destroyed after it was spoken, it also signifies the importance of this clue.

The fat man laughed awkwardly: "I didn't expect that Brother Chu, who looks so fair and clean, would be black inside..."

Gu Mian stroked her chin beside her: "So, in future dungeons, similar situations will occur again, right? I have to trick other players to get the clues I want."

Chu Changge nodded: "Not all dungeons will experience this situation, but there is a chance that it will happen again; and you should understand that the dungeons you participate in are one-time events, and once you give up the clues, you will never have the chance to return to the previous dungeon."

(End of this chapter)