Global Collapse

Chapter 434 Gu Mian in the World
“Anything is possible,” Gu Mian said knowingly. “Anyway, countless coincidences of fate have happened to me. Do you think the probability of eighteen flowerpots you’ve never met hitting you on the head one after another is greater than the probability of your mysteriously disappeared parents leaving you with a twin brother?”

The fat man pursed his lips: "I think... the latter is more likely."

But it's also possible they aren't twins.

The fat man's mind raced: "After all, even you, Doctor, don't know who your parents are, and the person who looks exactly like you clearly exists in a dungeon world, which is a bit strange... But speaking of which, does that person only exist in the Death Image dungeon world?"

Gu Mian looked at the two ghosts in the water, which were now almost turning into water ghosts. He stared at the two heads in the water and said, "Actually, I had a guess, but this guess is questionable."

The fat man looked at Gu Mian strangely: "What guess?"

Gu Mian gazed at the water's surface: "I think perhaps the instances we entered were in the same world?"

What? The fat man's eyes widened slightly.

Gu Mian continued, "I think those instances might all be in the same world, just scattered in different locations. If we investigate carefully, we might be able to find information about one instance within another."
"For example, the Death Image instance is a rare instance that can be accessed online, so I used Chu Changge's home computer to search for Songwen Academy, and I actually found it."

"Found it?" The fat man's eyes widened slightly. He remembered that Songwen Academy was the school where they played the game in the "Close Your Eyes When It Gets Dark" instance.

I never expected to be able to find the location of another instance within one instance.

The fat man cautiously asked, "Is it possible that we just happen to have the same name?"

Gu Mian had certainly considered this possibility: "You know that when you search for a school's name on a computer, there will be photos in the entries. I've seen the photos of Songwen Academy that came up in the search results, and it looks exactly like the school we play games with."

"Ah—" The fat man slightly opened his mouth and made a barely audible sound, "Then this is quite strange. We can find buildings that exist in dungeons in the real world, and now we can find the location of another dungeon in one dungeon; putting aside the first point, just looking at the second point, Doctor, your guess should be correct. The dungeons we enter are all in the same world. I wonder if other players have discovered this..."

“But there are also strange things,” Gu Mian continued, “I found that the worldviews of many dungeons are contradictory. For example, the Death Image dungeon we just went through has a worldview similar to the worldview before we started the game: a society ruled by law and a technological age.”

"The Killing Game instance couldn't possibly exist within the Death Image instance's worldview; and the Mr. Green word-guessing instance we experienced together, as well as the Sweet Lovers instance I entered myself, are both variety show-based and don't fit into the Death Image worldview, nor do they align with the Killing Game worldview; while the Angel Redemption instance is game-based and doesn't seem compatible with the first three worldviews I proposed." Just as Fatty was listening with wide eyes, Chu Changge pushed up his glasses beside him: "Indeed, although we can find locations in the Darkness Please Close Your Eyes instance within the Death Image instance, the instances we've experienced so far can't be integrated into the same worldview, so Gu Mian, you should have another guess."

Gu Mian nodded and said, "I suspect the instance we entered comes from several different worlds; we can deduce at least four different worldviews."
"I don't really care how many worlds there are. I'm just curious. This global game is supposed to help humanity evolve, but so far I haven't seen any significant evolution in humanity. This might be related to time; after all, only half a year has passed. But let's put that aside for now..."

"I'm a little curious about where these worlds came from."

Gu Mian stroked her chin: "If this is just a simple game, the organizers don't need to divide the dungeons into different worlds before letting players enter. They can directly turn the dungeons into separate mini-games, just like the mini-game websites we played when we were kids."
"But the game goes to great lengths to divide the worlds into different realms before letting players enter the dungeons. I think there is only one explanation for this... that these worlds originally existed, but for some reason, they became dungeons in the game."

The fat man nodded, seemingly understanding for once: "What you're saying, doctor, makes me feel like it's a parallel world. Could it be several parallel worlds of Earth?"

How did parallel worlds become a game?
Gu Mian pondered, "If it's a parallel world, then those worlds are on the same level as ours, and our world doesn't have the ability to turn them into games."

The fat man frowned: "Could it be... a lower-dimensional world?"

But dungeons do improve players' physical abilities. Is that something a low-dimensional world can do?

Seemingly sensing the fat man's thoughts, Chu Changge suddenly spoke up: "Don't underestimate lower-dimensional worlds. Sometimes, the lower the dimension, the more terrifying it can be."

"Huh?" The fat man looked puzzled.

“If it’s a lower-dimensional world…” Gu Mian suddenly pulled a book out of her white coat; it was a book about the second world.

The fat man stared at the book in Gu Mian's hand: "How did you hide it in your clothes?"

Ignoring the fat man, Gu Mian looked at the book in her hand and said, "I suspect this book is a world."

(End of this chapter)