Global Collapse

Chapter 358 There's shit in the candy
Chu Changge and his companions were dungeon players whose bodies had been enhanced. Even if their attribute points weren't directly allocated to their bodies, after experiencing so many dungeons, they wouldn't just think about eating.

Although Gu Mian did not receive any enhancements, he never really had any concept of eating. He would not feel hungry if he ate too little, and he would not feel full if he ate too much.

But the NPCs in this instance are different.

Li Yibai, in particular, didn't eat dinner last night and had been running around all night, so he hasn't been able to eat anything since.

Gu Mian even suspected that he hadn't had time to drink water during this period.

Meanwhile, Yuan Qinghua and Guo Jimei, who are also NPCs in the instance, had already eaten breakfast, so they weren't as hungry as Li Yibai.

The sound of footsteps rushing towards food outside the window seemed to make Li Yibai even hungrier.

He was holding his stomach with his hands, and his face looked very uncomfortable.

The Yue woman spoke first: "I ate at home this morning, so I'm not hungry yet, but you guys who didn't sleep last night must be very hungry."

She certainly wouldn't say things like, "We're gamers, we're in great shape, we don't need to eat," even though that's the truth.

On the surface, you still have to put on an act, lest you be too special and get mistaken for a ghost and thrown out by the NPCs.

She continued, "Why don't we go to the cafeteria first? The ghost will probably make another move tonight, and it won't have the strength to act if it doesn't eat."

The thought of what might happen after 8 p.m. made everyone present tense.

Yuan Qinghua, sitting opposite Gu Mian, did not have that solemn expression, probably because she was not present last night and therefore could not understand that feeling of fear.

However, Li Yibai seemed too weak to move due to hunger.

After a brief discussion, the group decided to send a few people to buy food and eat it, while the others would stay in the classroom.

Gu Mian, one of the few who stayed up all night, pretended to be exhausted and sat there, waiting for the others to bring back the food.

It's lunchtime now.

Yue Nu, Yuan Qinghua, and 007 went to buy food. Guo Jimei seemed a little worried about letting Yuan Qinghua bring food, so she went along too.

The rest of Gu Mian and the others stayed in the classroom.

It is 5:30 pm now.

There are still two and a half hours until eight o'clock.

Gu Mian noticed that Li Yibai was squatting alone in the corner of the room, seemingly fiddling with something in his hand.

It was obvious without even guessing that it was what Yue Nu had just given them.

Gu Mian had already opened the small paper cube and looked inside. There was nothing inside; it was just a blank piece of paper folded into a cube, without even a punctuation mark.

Chu Changge, who was standing next to him, didn't seem to have taken the thing apart from beginning to end; at least Gu Mian didn't see him do it.

Coco, who was standing by the window with her back to them, also fiddled with things by herself for a while, but it's unclear whether she managed to come up with anything of note.

In short, when she turned around, Gu Mian couldn't see any special expression on her face.

Li Yibai, who had been alone in the corner for a while, seemed to have finished. He put the things in his pocket, then turned around and walked towards the table, without any passionate expression on his face.

Gu Mian couldn't determine whether either of the two had won the lottery.

Seeing that the two had finished their tasks, Gu Mian finally had a chance to speak: "Since Guo Jimei and Yuan Qinghua are both not here, I want to say something..."

"What's the matter?" Li Yibai had just sat down on a bench not far away when he heard this and turned his head in this direction with some curiosity.

Coco turned her gaze to Gu Mian: "Are you going to talk about something related to the two of them? You're going to talk about it when they're not around." Gu Mian nodded: "It is related to the two of them. Don't you think these two are too strange? They've been causing us chaos since this morning. Guo Jimei saw a ghost in broad daylight. We all know that ghosts pose no threat to us during the day."

But Guo Jimei still insisted that she saw the Yuan blue and white porcelain turn into a ghost.

Li Yibai also chimed in with a puzzled look: "Yeah, if what she said is true, then why would that ghost jump out in broad daylight? Just to scare people?"

“I guess it’s to confirm their identities,” Gu Mian suddenly said.

"Confirm identity?" Li Yibai repeated, puzzled.

“That’s right,” Gu Mian nodded. “The three ghosts don’t know each other’s identities. In order not to accidentally kill their companions, they will try their best to find out the identities of the others.”

Li Yibai still didn't answer: "If a ghost wants to find out other people's identities, why would it jump out in broad daylight to scare people?"

“Think about it,” Gu Mian continued, “If you were a ghost in this game, and you could only kill people in fear because you didn’t know the identities of the other two ghosts, how would you react if you discovered another ghost in broad daylight?”

"Of course I'm... happy..." Li Yibai said with some difficulty, "If that ghost hadn't appeared in front of me in such a terrible form..."

He paused again, as if thinking about something: "No, even if that ghost appears in front of me in a very unsightly way, I won't scream like Guo Jimei did, screaming until we walk from one end of the corridor to the other... At most, I'll scream once, and then quickly shut up..."

At this point, Li Yibai suddenly seemed to realize something: "You mean the reason ghosts appear during the day is to determine our identities by observing our reactions when we see them?"

“That’s right.” Gu Mian nodded.

Moreover, the ghost in this game is very good at choosing its targets. If it chooses to scare Chu Changge, then no matter whether Chu Changge is a human or a ghost, he will put on a poker face that remains unchanged even if Mount Tai collapses in front of him.

Gu Mian thought to herself, what if it was scaring her...

You might even unexpectedly discover a beautiful piece of guitar music?

At that moment, Coco's voice came from the side: "If that's the case, then Yuan blue and white porcelain is a ghost, isn't it?"

“That’s not necessarily true,” Chu Changge suddenly said. “First, what we just said was only an assumption, an assumption that ‘Guo Jimei’s words are the truth.’ In fact, what she said may not be the truth.”

"Secondly, even if Guo Jimei is telling the truth, do you remember Li Wentao last night? Keke, you and Pan Yue also saw Li Wentao who seemed to be a ghost last night, but it turns out that he was not. The ghost was someone else."

Coco fell silent: "You mean ghosts... can disguise themselves? Disguise themselves as other people to interfere with us?"

“That’s right,” Chu Changge pushed up his glasses, “Even if Guo Jimei is telling the truth, what she saw could be a ghost disguised as Yuan Qinghua porcelain.”

Gu Mian glanced at Chu Changge: "Speaking of which, I don't remember ghosts having the ability to disguise themselves in the games I've played before."

Li Yibai shrank his neck: "I've never had any real deaths when I played these kinds of games before. Anyway, anything can happen these days, so we'd better be careful..."

“Getting back to the main point,” Gu Mian withdrew her gaze, “The reason I brought up those two here is because I suspect one of them is a ghost.”

"What?" Coco looked at Gu Mian.

"As I just said, if Guo Jimei wasn't lying, it means there's a ghost trying to identify the others by scaring them. The six of us were all together when Guo Jimei saw the ghost; she didn't have time to commit the crime."

"Excluding Guo Jimei, the scary ghost lies among Yuan Qinghua, Zhang Pingfan, and Pan Yue;"

"If Guo Jimei is lying, then there is a very high probability that she is one of the three ghosts. You all know that in this kind of game, the ghosts will do their best to make their identities resemble those of ordinary people. As for how to make their identities resemble those of ordinary people... like Guo Jimei; the poor girl who was scared by the ghost, if she could produce evidence that she did not vote last night, everyone would think that she was a poor ordinary person."

Li Yibai seemed to understand but not quite: "What you said earlier made me think that ghosts were like Yuan Qinghua, but now that you say it, I think ghosts are more like Guo Jimei..."

Gu Mian continued, "The main reason I was certain the ghost was between Yuan Qinghua and Guo Jimei was the voting paper in Yuan Qinghua's hand..."

Just then, the group heard footsteps coming from the corridor.

(End of this chapter)