Global Collapse

Chapter 436 Global Hunt
“It was a car accident,” Chu Changge said, looking at the lake surface under the sunlight. “Gu Mian should have mentioned it to you. Twenty-eight cars were involved in the collision. The three of us were in the middle of the taxi.”
"Our car braked in time and didn't hit the car in front, but the car behind us hit the back of our car and pushed it forward; Gu Mian was sitting between the two of us, and just as our car was about to hit the car in front, she opened the car door and pushed Gu Mian out."
"Then they pushed me out again at the last moment. Just as I was out, our car crashed into the rear of the car in front. The huge impact from behind almost crushed our car into a pancake. At that time, I still had one leg stuck in it, but luckily it was just a fracture and I didn't have to have it amputated."

"Ah..." the fat man looked at Chu Changge, "And then?"

Chu Changge continued, "The incident occurred just two streets away from the hospital. Gu Mian was knocked unconscious when he was wheeled out. I saw passersby carry him and run towards the hospital."

"...And what about you?" The fat man wanted to ask Lin Xiaowei how she was doing, but he swallowed the words back down.

"Me? I was stuck there watching the cars behind me crash into each other. It all happened in an instant. By the time I reacted, all 28 cars were already in one line."

The fat man was still thinking about Chu Changge's leg that was stuck in the car: "Didn't it hurt back then?"

"It hurt, but there was nothing I could do. No one could help me pull my leg out of the crushed car. At that point, I thought I could only wait for the police or firefighters to rescue me..."

"But I didn't expect Gu Mian to come back so quickly. I saw him find two sticks somewhere and he staggered back, followed closely by people who wanted to take him to the hospital. But he just kept running this way without looking back, trying to rescue us."

The ending is already obvious: Chu Changge is still alive, but Lin Xiaowei is gone.

The fat man looked at Chu Changge sitting next to him and, still clinging to hope, asked one more question: "Where is that girl?"

"Dead." Gu Mian's voice suddenly came from behind.

The fat man felt a chill run down his spine and turned around to look.

Gu Mian was already sitting next to him, holding a small, wet red bag in her hand: "Died on the spot, without even a chance to be saved."

The fat man swallowed hard and looked at Gu Mian in front of him. Although there was no particularly sad expression on his face, the fat man still kept his mouth shut.

“There’s no need to look so guilty,” Gu Mian said, putting Xiao Hong aside and looking at the fat man. “It’s been about ten years since that car accident. Even if I bring it up again, I won’t burst into tears or bang my head on the ground.”

"Yes," the fat man said somewhat absentmindedly, "ten years is indeed a long time. No matter how painful it was at the time, it will fade after ten years."

“But at that time I suspected that Chu Changge was seriously traumatized,” Gu Mian said, “because I saw that he was actually quite happy at that time.”

Although ten years have passed, Gu Mian still remembers the scene she saw when she returned.

Chu Changge's leg was stuck in the car and was bleeding, but instead of crying like the other children, he smiled from the bottom of his heart.

After that, Gu Mian began to suspect that Chu Changge had developed some kind of mental illness because of the car accident.

In his grief, he would take his surviving friend to see a psychologist, but the conclusion was that Chu Changge was mentally healthy and had no illnesses.

The psychologist's conclusion once made Gu Mian suspect that what he had seen was a hallucination. A smile was not an expression that Chu Changge would easily display.

Apart from that car accident, Gu Mian couldn't recall ever seeing Chu Changge smile again.

“Let’s not talk about that,” the fat man quickly changed the subject. “We’ve noticed before that there’s a subtle overlap between the dungeon world and the real world, right? I think even dead people can be seen in there. Yuan Qinghua died in the real world and then reappeared in the dungeon world, didn’t he? Maybe we can see the people we’ve always wanted to see in the dungeon world.”

As the fat man spoke, he began to dream: "Actually, there's someone I also want to meet..."

“No,” Gu Mian suddenly spoke up just as the fat man was daydreaming, “If someone I know really appears in the dungeon, I won’t accept it.”

The fat man was stunned: "Why?"

“Because they are different,” Gu Mian said matter-of-factly. “Regardless of whether their appearance and memories are the same, the people in the dungeon are not the same as the people in the real world.”

"But...but Doctor, weren't you quite curious about your twin brother?" The fat man was a little puzzled. He could accept someone exactly like himself appearing in the dungeon, but couldn't accept someone else?

At this moment, Chu Changge's voice reached the fat man's ears: "Gu Mian has always been quite lenient with herself."

Fatty: "..."

"Alright, stop talking nonsense," Gu Mian pressed down on Xiao Hong's restless head to prevent water droplets from splashing on her. "Today is June 1st, and the dragon boat race will start in a week. Have you prepared any plans? Don't just ramble on like this."

"What we just talked about was serious business," the fat man said guiltily, "but it was serious business concerning the dungeon world!"

At this moment, Xiao Qiao was still pulling up willow branches not far away, and she had almost pulled the entire willow tree bare.

If media personnel had happened to pass by and taken photos at that moment, tomorrow's headlines might have been: "Popular superstar Joe suspected of suffering from depression after a breakup, frantically tearing at willow trees and verbally abusing passersby by the lake."

Unfortunately, Toutiao should be bankrupt by now.

My friends in the media have also lost their jobs.

Without paying much attention to the nearly bare willow tree, Gu Mian pondered and said, "Since it's an event for the entire game, there will definitely be many players participating. What I'm more concerned about is that quite a few people actually know that I'm Gu Mian... I checked the leaderboard again a few days ago, and now I have 50,000."

Actually, not many people know Gu Mian's true identity, but the real fear is that some idiot might recognize him and shout at other players, "That green-clad doctor is Gu Mian!"

At that time, Gu Mian will face a situation where she is hunted down by the entire nation.

(End of this chapter)