Global Collapse

Chapter 447 The Class System in Slave Society
"No need for that." The fat man silently watched the direction in which the female ghost disappeared.

Between Xiao Qiao and Liu Ruyan, Gu Mian chose the former without hesitation.

Given Liu Ruyan's penchant for stirring up trouble, Gu Mian suspected that she would carve a few holes in the dragon boat.

The event started at 7:00 AM, but the third challenge was completed at 1:00 PM.

So when Xiao Qiao appeared, the warm sun was high above them.

The moment Xiao Qiao boarded the ship, she was immediately drawn to Chu Changge. She stared at Chu Changge's face for several seconds before uttering two words: "Fake."

"What?" The fat man looked at Chu Changge in confusion. "Brother Chu is a fake?"

The fat man repeatedly checked Chu Changge's player panel to confirm: "It's true, the nickname clearly says the three words Chu Changge."

As everyone knows, ghosts don't have a player panel.

Xiao Qiao stared at Chu Changge's face and repeated, "It's fake."

The fat man patted Chu Changge on the shoulder and said, "Brother Chu, say something."

Only then did he realize that the person in front of him had been strangely silent. Before the fat man could react, the person's face suddenly became dry and withered, like old tree bark, as if all the moisture had been sucked out.

His body also quickly became thin, skin and bones, his whole body like a skeleton.

Gu Mian heard the skeletal thing make a sound, and then it plunged into the water.

When I peeked out again, it had vanished.

The fat man leaned over the edge of the boat, staring at the water and swallowing hard. "Holy crap, it really is a ghost? Where did Brother Chu go?"

A steady voice came from behind him: "I'm here."

The fat man turned around and saw a familiar face right in front of him. He had just seen that face wrinkled from dehydration.

Gu Mian pushed Xiao Qiao in front of the newly appeared Chu Changge: "Is this real?"

Xiao Qiao stared at the face for a while before nodding: "It's true."

The fat man looked at Chu Changge with lingering fear: "What just happened? A ghost was impersonating Brother Chu... and I could even open that ghost's player panel. Brother Chu, how did you get back?"

"I don't know, I just saw it jump in when I arrived," Chu Changge said succinctly.

"Ah, you don't know what happened yet, do you? Let me tell you what just happened..." The fat man patted his thigh.

Chu Changge spoke quietly: "You already said that."

The fat man recalled his previous statement and realized that he had indeed summarized it.

"So what's going on now?" Gu Mian recalled the ghost's appearance just now, "They're playing Werewolf with us, and we can only get real teammates by killing the werewolves? Is this only targeting us, or is it the same for other players?"

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses: "If a ghost is impersonating me, then there's a high probability that others can also be impersonated... What I mean is that there might still be ghosts on our ship right now."

“Yes, there is.” Gu Mian reached out and scooped up Xiao Hong, who was pushing the boat with all her might. Xiao Hong turned her neck to look at them, her ugly face full of confusion.

Then he reached out and scooped up his brother, whose head was soaking wet: "And there are two more." The brother, whom Gu Mian had grabbed, looked up and called out, "Sister!"

Chu Changge withdrew her gaze from her brother: "From this, we can conclude that Gu Mian is real."

“Ah,” the fat man rubbed his thigh, “So now only Miss Qiao and I are suspects.”

Chu Changge looked at the fat man: "She is real too."

The fat man didn't quite understand why Chu Changge could verify his identity empty-handed. He paused for a few seconds before believing Chu Changge's judgment: "Then how can I prove myself?"

Gu Mian glanced at the two who were "mutually attesting to each other's innocence," then looked at the fat man: "How about this, I'll ask you a question, and if you can answer it correctly, it means you're genuine."

"Then ask away." The fat man was already prepared to answer what color his underwear was today.

Gu Mian asked, "When you were in third grade, you tore your pants and cried loudly during a long-distance race. What place did you get in that race?"

“Third,” the fat man answered instinctively, but then he realized what he meant, “How did you know?”

Gu Mian gave him a meaningful look: "You said that in your dream."

The fat man suddenly realized: "Would I say this in my dream?"

After confirming the fat man's identity, Gu Mian and the others continued to move forward at a steady pace.

Xiao Qiao was squatting next to the fat man: "I didn't expect that you could still come in third place even though you tore your pants and were running while crying."

Just as the fat man was scratching his head, ready to boast about himself, Gu Mian's voice came: "Because there were only four people participating. By the way, the fourth place winner didn't go to the competition that day because he had diarrhea."

The fat man's neck stiffened instantly: "Is this what I said in my dream?"

Gu Mian didn't reply, so the fat man climbed up to Chu Changge's side and asked, "Brother Chu, do I talk in my sleep?"

Chu Changge looked at the paper in his hand and shook his head: "I don't know."

Chu Changge pulled out a pen and paper from somewhere and started writing furiously. The fat man didn't hear what he wanted to hear, but he heard Chu Changge seriously analyzing: "There are two possibilities now. One is that only we encountered the ghost swap, and the second is that all the players have encountered this, but they may not have realized it yet."

"If it's the first possibility, the situation isn't too dire. But if it's the second possibility... then it means the game has already acquired the ability to give a large number of ghosts the identity of 'players,' and future dungeons will be even more dangerous."
"And if it's the second possibility, I guess this is a test, the game developers are trying to see if they can sneak in ghosts disguised as players into the real world."

Gu Mian remembered Mr. Green, whom she had carried out of the instance: "It seems like the NPCs don't really want to enter the real world either."

Chu Changge capped his pen: "Mr. Green is a high-level NPC in the instance, possessing independent thought and aware of the existence of the instance world and the real world, but those ghosts are different; class systems have existed since ancient times. To give you an analogy, if Mr. Green is equivalent to a landlord in a slave society, then these ghosts are roughly equivalent to slaves."

“The NPCs won’t personally participate in some difficult or dangerous tasks; instead, they will send their servants to test the waters.”

Gu Mian suddenly felt that Chu Changge was like a scholar, a scholar who was studying "The Class System in Slave Society".

"Brother Chu, you're very knowledgeable," the fat man said, leaning closer.

Chu Changge continued, "Of course, this trial is not guaranteed to be successful. There are at least two organizers for the game, and one of them definitely does not want to see that situation occur... If a large number of players are replaced, I guess there might be a turning point in the next level. Now there is only one level left, right?"

That's right, only Liu Ruyan is not on the boat anymore.

(End of this chapter)