Global Collapse

Chapter 425 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year

Mingyue hid in a secluded little hotel, standing by the window with half her face showing as she looked at a few familiar faces passing by below.

Earlier, when she was in the underground parking garage with Caoyuan, she suddenly saw another face of hers in the gap between the cars next to her, staring intently at her from the gap.

Without thinking for more than a few seconds, she immediately turned around and ran away. When she looked back after running a long distance, she saw her own face talking to the grassland.

“It’s a ghost…” Mingyue’s gaze was still on Chu Changge and the others on the street. “The person who turned into my appearance is a ghost.”

Mingyue's mind worked quickly. When she saw the face that looked exactly like her own, she thought that if she ran away immediately, the ghost would most likely not chase her, but would directly use her face to deceive the grassland.
If you warn the prairie that there's a ghost in the garage and then split up to run away, the ghost will randomly chase one of the people, and it might even catch you.

Understanding this, Mingyue chose to abandon the grassland and run away immediately, but she was careful not to run out of the underground garage. Instead, she found a corner to hide in, out of the ghost's sight.

As expected, after leaving the grassland, Ghost immediately drove in the direction she had fled. It seems that Ghost's first target was actually her, but this also shows that Ghost could not pinpoint the exact location of a player.

After confirming that the ghost had left, Mingyue quickly left the underground parking garage. After running out of the garage, she entered a secluded hotel. Since the ghost must have known about their escape plan, Mingyue decided to stay there to distract the ghost.

After entering the hotel, she was puzzled as to why the ghost had found her so quickly.

Logically speaking, the other six people shouldn't have died so quickly.

Around 11 p.m., she saw three familiar people passing by below from her window. She lived on the third floor and could see the ground very clearly.

It's that fat guy, Chu Meiren, and a player who's a fortune teller.

Looking at the fat man sneaking around downstairs like a thief, Mingyue frowned: "They're not dead? Did the ghost come directly to us?"

It doesn't make sense.

How could a ghost possibly ignore the six people gathered together and go directly to them? Besides, at that time, she and the grassland had already separated from Little Rabbit Maru, making them a much smaller target.

Mingyue frowned as she stared at the three people below: "Although it doesn't make sense, the very existence of ghosts in the world is illogical enough. Perhaps the ghosts in this instance are just eccentric and can kill whoever they want first."

There were only three people below at that moment.

The fortune teller glanced at the time again: "Nearly twenty-three hours have passed in the instance now. Prairie should be dead, and Little Rabbit's whereabouts must have been discovered by the ghost. He's probably in grave danger too... Twenty-three hours, almost half of the instance time has passed. There must be more than two dead."

In other words, the other three people may be dead.
The fortune teller was initially considering going down to meet the three survivors, but then felt that the three of them together were too conspicuous, and that they might already be being targeted by ghosts.

"Never mind..." She took a step to the side, "I'll wait and see."

At this moment, the fat man was cowering and hunched over. He leaned close to Chu Changge and whispered, "Brother Chu, we definitely can't shout and yell for me to come and catch me. We have to act scared to attract the ghost's attention."

Chu Changge nodded in agreement.

"So, Brother Chu, you have to act a little scared!" the fat man said anxiously. "Look how convincingly the fortune teller next to you is putting on his act."

The fortune teller, touching his still trembling arm, said, "I wasn't faking it..."

Chu Changge shook his hand expressionlessly.

"Never mind." Seeing this, the fat man didn't want to say anything more and continued walking down the secluded street.

Their activities follow a fairly predictable pattern: they first wander into bustling areas before venturing into secluded, deserted alleyways. This makes it easier for ghosts to spot them and also facilitates the ghosts' movements.

However, such actions could easily appear deliberate, so the group pretended to be looking for other people, and of course, they would take breaks from time to time.

At this moment, the fat man noticed that Chu Changge raised his head slightly. He looked up as well and saw two dilapidated buildings on either side of him, with a few telephone poles standing beside them. Between the two buildings was a pitch-black night sky. The weather was not good today, and neither the moon nor the stars were out.

Just as the fat man looked up at the sliver of dark night sky above, he suddenly heard Chu Changge's voice from beside him: "Tired?"

"Huh?" He turned his neck to look at Chu Changge.

Chu Changge continued, "If you're tired, rest here for a while."

The fortune teller's expression was also a bit strange. Along the way, she had gotten to know Chu Changge's temperament a little better. Caring about whether others were tired was really not Chu Changge's style.

Although she was confused, she didn't show it. Instead, she took a few steps and sat down on the steps by the roadside: "I wonder how the three of them, Usagi-maru, are doing."

As she spoke, she looked at Chu Changge with a questioning gaze, trying to convey her doubts—"Why did you suddenly stop? Did you discover something?"

Unfortunately, Chu Changge couldn't understand her brainwaves, so he just sat down to the side without saying a word.

"What else can we do?" The fat man plopped down on the floor. "The dungeon time is almost halfway over. I reckon the corpses should be cold by now."

At this moment, Mingyue, who was standing by the window, was still secretly watching the people below. The man with glasses who had just looked up startled her, and she thought she had been discovered.

Unexpectedly, he quickly lowered his head, and then the three of them sat on the steps by the roadside as if they were resting.

The three of them were sitting on the steps on Mingyue's side. She saw three people on the street with their backs to her, seemingly talking about something.

"How could they suddenly stop here? What a coincidence." Mingyue pressed her face against the window, watching their backs. Because the three of them were sitting very close to the inn where Mingyue was hiding, she had to press her face against the window to see them below.

What are you suddenly saying while sitting here?

At that moment, she saw the man with glasses suddenly turn his head and say something to the two people next to him, who immediately froze.

They sat motionless, even their mouths stopped moving.

Immediately afterwards, Mingyue saw the two motionless people suddenly twist their necks in unison, slowly turn their heads, and stare upwards with their eyes fixed on the ground.

The moonlight by the window suddenly felt a chill run down her spine: "Are they watching me?"

Did they discover me a long time ago? But why that expression?

Just then, Mingyue suddenly noticed something was wrong with the glass in front of her. The light shone from behind, and the transparent glass reflected her own image.

But before she knew it, someone else appeared behind her.

"Wow--"

It was the sound of breaking glass. The fat man saw the bright moon on the third floor and suddenly rushed to the window and jumped out!

Is today New Year's Day?
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(End of this chapter)