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Chapter 406 Truly Stingy

A sudden gust of wind swept through the darkness.

The fat man, who was anxiously trying to figure things out in the bookstore, shivered from the wind.

"This strange wind, has something happened?" He looked outside, feeling as if a terrifying monster was lurking in the darkness.

Meanwhile, 007, holding a lighter, was still examining the strange material under the floor. The gust of wind blew away most of the remaining smoke in the room, making the air around her a little fresher.

007 looked up at the door with concern. She had just seen Gu Mian, covered in blood, pass by her door not long ago: "I wonder how Gu Mian is now. This special instance is so difficult..."

The book in Chu Changge's hand rustled in the strong wind, and several yellowed pages were suddenly turned over before stopping on a blank sheet of paper.

He reached out and turned the page back to its original position before turning to look at the dark doorway. He saw thick smoke billowing from the direction Gu Mian had gone, and the shrill screams pierced through the stone wall, faintly reaching his ears.

"Is it over?" Chu Changge looked at the darkness and fell silent.

Only Gu Mian knows the details of this change in the instance. As the person involved, Gu Mian is currently chasing after a group of skinny people. These people were just moments ago excited and their eyes were shining, but now they are being chased by Gu Mian. It's really undignified of them.

After Gu Mian successfully transformed, the monster that had just managed to squeeze through the gap only glanced in her direction before turning away, leaving Gu Mian with its fleeing back view, as if it had seen something extremely terrifying.

Gu Mian was chasing after them. He saw that 'himself' was moving much faster, and there was a hazy black mist swirling around the screen, which seemed to be related to the changes in the Holy Maiden.

"Am I surrounded by a black mist? Black mist is definitely an essential scene for a character's transformation into a villain." Gu Mian said as she moved forward quickly.

"Run! Run!"

Everyone screamed in terror as they ran desperately towards the outside. Some had already run into the widened crevice, where darkness concealed their figures.

But after all, they were a group of people who usually didn't have enough to eat, and even if they ran as fast as they could, they were only about as strong as a weak puppy.

Gu Mian caught up with the last few people without much effort. They struggled desperately with wide eyes in terror, and were finally swallowed into the dark fog with whimpers. Seeing this, Gu Mian suddenly remembered the Holy Maiden's dead parents, brother, and friends. They must have had similar reactions when they died.

Thinking of this, Gu Mian suddenly sighed. Isn't this just the usual plot of a genius being abused by his sect, eventually becoming a powerful figure and destroying his entire sect? It's quite dramatic.

Perhaps with further expansion, it could be adapted into a prime-time TV drama?
However, Gu Mian had no interest in expanding the writing now, and he easily passed through the widened gap and chased after it.

There were about a dozen remnants of the Crusader. By this time, a small portion of them had been swallowed by the black mist and could no longer make a sound. Of course, the screams of the living were still there, and even Gu Mian, who was at the save point, could hear their roars.

After passing through the gap, the first thing Gu Mian saw was the corpses of Curly and the others lying haphazardly on the ground. Further ahead, she saw the backs of a group of people fleeing in panic. Gu Mian excitedly chased after them.

But at that moment, he suddenly noticed that the computer seemed to be becoming unresponsive. A few seconds later, the character completely broke free from his control, as if it had entered an auto-play mode, and the saintess in the game started fighting monsters on her own.

At the same time, he heard something breaking around him, like a chick in an egg hearing its shell crack.

Gu Mian looked up and saw a crack that had appeared above him at some point. Looking up through the crack, he could see the pitch-black night sky right above him.

Several pitiful screams came from afar, finally dissipating in the biting wind. Gu Mian stood up from the pile of weeds, glancing down at the black books and guitar case that had been reduced to pieces at his feet; he was out, transformed back into a human from the save point, and had finally entered the game.

Feeling the cold wind, Gu Mian gently hugged her shoulders: "Could this be a conspiracy?"

If the player transforms the saintess back into a devil, and then throws the player into the game to be killed by the devil, then this game is quite unsolvable.

As Gu Mian pondered this, she took a few steps on the rugged dirt road: "No matter what happened, I have to go check on my friends first."

The fat man had already received a call from 007; in fact, he received the call just seconds after hearing the screams.

"You heard that too, didn't you? Those screams." 007's slightly doubtful voice came through the microphone.

The fat man heard her heavy voice and finally let out a long sigh: "This instance is really strange. Although no one has died so far... this situation is still worrying. I hope Gu Mian has nothing to do with these screams."

The screams echoed through the night. Hearing these terrifying sounds, the fat man couldn't lie. He anxiously tugged at his hair and finally uttered a very firm statement: "We must trust the doctor."

Chu Changge was closest to Gu Mian, and Gu Mian quickly arrived at Chu Changge's save point amidst the gradually decreasing screams; however, he still couldn't see what was inside the dark room, nor could he go in, as it was eerily quiet. After confirming that the save point was intact, Gu Mian turned and headed towards the next save point.

Meanwhile, the fat man, who was still trying to calm 007, caught a glimpse of a white figure out of the corner of his eye.

That sacred white coat.

That fancy guitar case, who else could it be but a doctor?

Just as Gu Mian reached the save point, she heard an excited voice coming from the dark room—

"doctor!"

So you could hear the sounds inside. Gu Mian was a little puzzled. What was Chu Changge doing inside when she passed by earlier? Was he just staring at her without moving?
"Doctor, how did you get in here... Wait, shouldn't you be controlling the character?"

Gu Mian stood in front of the dark house. It seemed that Fatty and the others had deduced a lot of things. At the very least, they knew that they were save points and that the Holy Maiden was a manipulated character.

Gu Mian looked at the house in front of her, cleared her throat, and tried her best not to look like a lunatic talking to himself: "Actually, I don't know why I came in, or to be precise... I don't know how I got out."

The screams coming from afar were steadily decreasing, it seemed that the saintess would soon be able to defeat all the monsters.

"Come out?" The fat man suddenly changed the subject as if he had remembered something. "By the way, doctor, what were those sounds?"

"Oh, I basically created the screams in the first half, but my character learned to AFK just as everyone was screaming... This should symbolize that a game is about to come to an end." As she said this, Gu Mian suddenly realized why she had come out of the save point.

Since the Holy Maiden is invincible and cannot die, these save points are naturally useless and were released without warning.

Gu Mian just didn't understand why she was the only one who was released.

At this moment, the fat man in the darkness spoke in a somewhat weak voice, seemingly provoked by Gu Mian's words. Gu Mian heard the fat man chuckle awkwardly twice: "I was worried with 007 that some of the screams might be coming from your character... It seems we were overthinking it."

"It seems 007 is still alive. Although it was expected, I was still quite worried that something unexpected might happen." Gu Mian tightened her coat in the darkness.

At that moment, a very faint voice came from the darkness in front of her. It was 007's voice. Gu Mian listened carefully and heard that her voice was somewhat hollow, as if it were coming from a microphone:

“I’m still alive, nothing happened, I was just frightened by the screams you made… there was a little incident in between.”

The fat man explained, "She burned the floor of her save point with a lighter, almost suffocated from the smoke, and said she discovered that there were reflective stones underneath."

Gu Mian put her hands in her pockets and carefully examined the room in front of her.

There was a telephone, a lighter, and wooden floors inside. Compared to this place, where I was was a real slum.

The cries in the darkness had almost disappeared. Gu Mian turned to look into the distance and saw steep mountain walls stretching into the night, almost encircling the entire village, forming a natural cage.

But Gu Mian remembered that it wasn't like that in the game.

As his perspective followed his brother's movements, he saw a babbling brook flowing beside the village and a flat road leading into the distance.

As he followed the girl as she fled, they passed through a dense forest filled with brightly colored, dangerous mushrooms.

But there was nothing around this village except endless cliffs, making it impossible for anyone to escape.

Just then, a faint, weak cry suddenly reached Gu Mian's ears. He frowned and turned to look in the direction from which the sound came.

The sound... is very close.

The fat man looked at the doctor in the white coat standing outside the door. The wind blew up the corner of his coat, making the white robe look a little messy. Gu Mian was looking in one direction, and he didn't know what she was looking at. Just as he was about to say something, everything suddenly went black.

It wasn't a fainting spell or a power outage; rather, it was as if someone had suddenly pulled down the black security door, and the fat man could no longer see what was happening outside.

He called out twice more, but received no response from the person outside; 007's voice came through the microphone: "What's wrong?"

The fat man quickly ran to the phone and picked it up: "The doctor is right outside my door, but I suddenly can't see or hear anything outside."

After a moment of silence, 007 on the other end of the line spoke: "Perhaps something is about to happen outside that you can't know about."

Something I can't know? The fat man was a little confused.

The night wind swept through the narrow alley, and a staggering person ran through it. Although he was running, he wasn't actually very fast. Gu Mian saw him stumble out from not far ahead and it took him about twenty seconds to reach her.

At this moment, he recognized the man as the one who had raised the saint's father's head as a flag in his parents' memories. He was surprised that the man had not been killed.

Even though he had long been emaciated from hunger, he still managed to survive... even though a thick black fog was following closely behind him, ready to devour him at any moment.

Gu Mian looked at the cloud of mist behind him, which should be the saintess who had successfully transformed under her control.

At this moment, the fog was gradually spreading towards him. The man running ahead seemed to be the last survivor. Gu Mian saw him stumbling and falling in front of her.

Seemingly surprised to see someone in front of him, the man looked up in astonishment.

Gu Mian looked down at him, smiled slightly, revealing a row of white teeth;

"Help...help me!" Although he didn't know where this person came from, her radiant smile clearly rekindled the man's hope. He grabbed Gu Mian's trouser leg and hugged her tightly. "Help me!"

Gu Mian looked down at him.

This person clearly couldn't recognize that the previous Holy Maiden was being controlled by Gu Mian, and half of the public's screams were also due to Gu Mian.

At this moment, the unsuspecting man looked up at the doctor in front of him with a longing gaze, his smile as bright as the sun.

At the same time, the black mist behind suddenly stopped moving forward. It surged in the narrow alley like a restless black hamster.

Gu Mian glanced at the black mist that had suddenly stopped, then bent down slightly, extended her hand, and said gently, "Okay."

The man seemed bewitched; he stared blankly at Gu Mian for a moment, then placed his somewhat dirty hands in the doctor's, letting the doctor pull him up. However…

"I'm going to your mother!"

The man never expected that people could change their attitude so quickly. One second he thought the person in front of him was a gentle doctor; the next second he felt like he had been kicked hard by a strongman, his stomach cramping.

If it were just a kick, it wouldn't be so bad, but there was black mist behind him; it quickly wrapped around him, and the black mist surging from behind filled the man with fear. He watched helplessly as he was surrounded by the black mist, his mouth agape as he looked at the white figure in front of him, but he couldn't utter a sound.

The man's狰狞 face gradually disappeared from Gu Mian's sight; he was the last living person in the entire game.

As the man's figure disappeared, the black mist in front of him also stopped surging, stopping about a meter away from Gu Mian and no longer advancing.

With the death of the last person, Gu Mian finally sensed that the game was about to end.

He heard an emotionless voice echoing in the sky, and he saw several lines of large characters appear out of thin air in front of him—

[Angel Redemption Game Complete]

[Achieving the ending of "not giving a single penny"]

(End of this chapter)