Global Collapse

Chapter 513 You haven't read it for nine days!
Although Gu Mian was extravagant, she also amassed a lot of game currency, and most importantly, she was quite capable.

As a doctor, he possesses the skill [Exquisite Medical Skills (lv·5)], which increases the efficacy of medicines by five times when used.

If Coco hadn't brought back a patient, Gu Mian would have almost forgotten that she possessed this skill.

The player's medical skills have remained at level 5 for a long time, indicating that the game hasn't given him any attribute points for quite some time. The same goes for Fatty and Chu Changge, and presumably other players are in the same boat.

He promised that Gu Mian would administer the sedatives for the next few days, and he specially used a new syringe.

Even if a sedative that can provide some pain relief is five times more effective, it is still not very useful for patients with advanced cancer.

But this gentle lady would always say "thank you" to Gu Mian after each injection, as if the pain really wasn't so bad anymore.

Xu Nuo is only twenty-four years old, but she looks older than Liu Ruyan, who looks older than her age. She looks like she is in her early thirties.

Coco said it was because her sister always worked overtime, sometimes three or four part-time jobs a day, and usually stayed up all night. When it got light, she had to walk two kilometers to the nearest subway station to catch a ride to work.

The fat man, oblivious to human suffering, listened in stunned silence: "Don't you have parents?"

This is not a greeting from Zaun, but a sincere inquiry.

Coco didn't say anything, but her expression was as if she had heard a joke.

The following year, there was nothing unusual about Xu Nuo's appearance. She seemed to have gotten used to Gu Mian picking up a woman every day, and she only picked pretty ones—at least not as ugly as that woman in the red dress.

Now, what they need to think about more is how to survive these fifteen days when their game currency is running out and food is scarce.

She sighed as she thought, then fiddled with the notebook on the coffee table covered in numbers, prices, and calculations: "Fifteen days, everyone will have 178 game coins left. That's an average of 11.86 game coins per day. Pork belly is 100 coins per pound, forget about it. I haven't had meat in ages. Rice and noodles are 50 yuan per pound, um, 78 game coins is enough for 3.5 pounds. And there are five of us here, enough to last fifteen days..."

She gripped the pen and scribbled on the paper, sometimes tracing a number with force, sometimes crossing out an equation, and finally let out a long sigh and began to complain about supermarket prices: "Damn it, with supermarket prices so high, is this game really trying to make humans evolve? Is it really trying to make humans evolve?!"

At the start of the game, they received very few game coins, so they had to sneak into the convenience store and scavenge for them.

But the Earth's original food, like oil, has mostly evaporated, leaving only a small portion to be plundered, leaving people with no choice but to shop at supermarkets.

Fortunately, the dungeons later gave more in-game currency, so people didn't starve to death, but were just kept at a certain level.

"But what's noteworthy now is that you need a ticket to enter the supermarket, and we don't have one. The ticket booth is closed, so we can't buy tickets. Even if it's open, a ticket costs fifty game coins..."

As I looked at the pile of calculations, I put down my pen. They hadn't had a decent meal in a long time.

Last time, I managed to eat in a dungeon full of life. Of course, eating in a dungeon can only satisfy hunger within the dungeon; you'll still be hungry after you leave.

Moreover, they don't often enter instances set in the normal world.

Just as she was staring at the notebooks and papers on the coffee table, she suddenly heard footsteps outside the door.

The footsteps came from downstairs, but did not stop on their floor; instead, they went straight upstairs.

It was probably Gu Mian and the others who were thinking about it next year.

The hotel's soundproofing wasn't very good; she could hear the fat man talking as he went upstairs through a door: "The doctor's dungeon is closed for fifteen days, so let's go to the supermarket a few more times to try and use up all the tickets. We had a stack of tickets left over from the past few months, which was a waste of Xiao Hong's money!"

Supermarket tickets are limited in quantity each month and have an expiration date; tickets purchased in a given month can only be used in that month and will expire at the end of the month.

To make things easier, Fatty would always buy a large stack of paper toys at the beginning of the month, and by the end of the month, Xiaohong would take the rest and use them to fold paper boats.

Just as Gu Mian was listening to the fat man's plan to go to the supermarket every few days, she suddenly heard the sound of a door opening behind her.

The people behind them, as if afraid they would run away, called out urgently, "Wait a minute!"

Gu Mian stopped and turned around on the stairs, looking down at Banwo Lai Nian, who was peeking out from behind the door.

Gu Mian still remembered the time she snatched a hanging rope from her, so much so that every time she saw her, she thought the girl looked like a rope.

"I was saying, if you have an endless supply of supermarket tickets..." she carefully chose her words before continuing, "could you lend us one?"

贷？
Gu Mian didn't understand this statement for a moment.

Next year, he hurriedly explained, "I mean! I want to borrow money from you, to borrow a supermarket ticket. I'll pay you back when the dungeon is open in fifteen days."

Then she noticed that Gu Mian's expression was somewhat strange.

The following year, they suddenly became nervous, thinking that he was unhappy with their request for tickets.

She was about to explain again when she saw the doctor pull a ticket out of the fat man's pocket and then walk down the stairs to put it in her hand.

Lai Nian was taken aback, and was just about to exclaim, "You're such a good person!" when she heard the other person ask, "You didn't offer any compensation?"

The old human world instance collapsed, and Gu Mian and the others received in-game currency compensation.

When the team that accompanied me through the next year collapsed, four people survived: Su Xiaochai, who was thrown into the cesspool; Xie Bi'an, who was just passing by; Xingluo Buzhichu, who had no presence; and Fatty's roommate Zhiwo Yousi.

They should have received a total of four thousand in compensation.

Next year, I was momentarily confused: "Compensation? What compensation?"

Gu Mian took a half step back when she saw the other person's puzzled expression: "Never mind what I said."

The following year, I saw that the fat man's expression was also strange; he opened his mouth but ultimately made no sound.

She also remembered that there would be a compensation list in the announcement when the dungeon crashed. In fact, she had hoped for this when she learned that the old human world had collapsed, but when she saw You Si and the others who survived the dungeon crash, they all shook their heads and said that there was no compensation.

Gu Mian found it strange. Could the collapse of the old human world really have such a huge impact? Could it have affected the lower-dimensional world so much that it couldn't even afford to provide compensation?
He walked upstairs, lost in thought. As Gu Mian disappeared into the distance, Lai Nian could still hear him muttering, "Damn it, don't players these days buy a ticket or two at the beginning of the month just in case?"

The fat man's voice drifted over faintly: "Doctor, you are completely oblivious to the suffering of others!"

Holding the ticket in my hand next year, I felt like I was going to vomit blood.

Little Red was the one who was oblivious to the suffering of others.

Perhaps inspired by the amusement park, she built a swing in the courtyard behind the hotel.

And whenever she had nothing to do, she would drag Gu Mian to admire her masterpiece. While admiring it, Xiao Hong would plop down on it, and Gu Mian would have no choice but to push her away a few times.

Sometimes she would put Mr. Green, who had followed her here, on the swing and push him hard from behind, happily watching the little green man sway up and down. For a while, Mr. Green's face was always green.

Xiao Hong often swings on the swing in the courtyard downstairs, and every time the group of them passes by, they are startled by her terrifying face.

By the time she finally got tired of playing on the swing, fifteen days had passed.

Late at night on June 25th, the last day of the instance shutdown, the game released a new announcement.

Gu Mian was lying in bed about to fall asleep when she was jolted awake by the fat man's loud shout, which sounded as if he had seen Chu Changge slaughtering a pig.

"Doctor!" The fat man yelled as he ran into his bedroom, plopped down on Gu Mian's bed, making Gu Mian bounce a few times. "Doctor, something terrible has happened! Quick, check the announcement!"

At the same time, downstairs, the girl who was still awake saw the game announcement immediately. The moment she opened the announcement, she opened her mouth wide, then suddenly stood up and shouted, "Look at the announcement!"

Meanwhile, other players who saw the announcement were also speechless, as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

What's wrong? Gu Mian pulled a hand out from under the covers. Could there be anything more shocking than the global shutdown of the game?

As he pondered this, he opened the panel to check the announcements, and at the top was the announcement regarding the closure of the dungeon death protection mechanism.

"Hey, I thought it was something serious," Gu Mian withdrew her hand again, "It's just that people die in dungeons, isn't that what happens all the time? It's no big deal..."

As he said this, he tried to bury his head under the covers, but halfway there, he suddenly remembered something and sat up abruptly: "No, this is indeed a big deal."

Gu Mian never died in the dungeon, but Chu Changge and Fatty both did.

If there hadn't been a dungeon protection mechanism in the first place, these two would have been buried in the pit Gu Mian had dug long ago.

He thought about it and looked at the game announcement carefully again, wondering if he should dig a hole in advance—the fat guy might need a big one.

[After unified discussion by the planning team, the operator has decided to disable the instance death protection mechanism starting today (June 25th). This means that death in an instance will be considered a real death and will not be resurrected.]

The dungeon damage protection mechanism is still in operation; if you are seriously injured in a dungeon, you will be healed after leaving.

The announcement was very short; Gu Mian scanned it in just a few seconds.

After he finished sweeping, he fell into deep thought.

Just as Gu Mian was pondering how big a hole to dig for the fat man, the owner of the hole started grumbling in his ear: "Doctor, we're doomed! If we ever run into a Werewolf game again and happen to be on opposite sides, won't we be facing a life-or-death situation?"

Gu Mian reached out and turned the fat man's head to the side: "You're always babbling on and on, all you know how to do is talk nonsense."

"This isn't just a joke!" the fat man exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "We need to plan ahead!"

“There’s no need for that,” Gu Mian said, pressing down the fat man’s excited hand. “I have a solution.”

"any solution?"

"I can enter the dungeon myself."

Upon hearing this, the fat man indeed wore an expression that said, "I knew it was such a terrible idea."

Just as the fat man was frantically planning for the future, Gu Mian heard a loud commotion downstairs. It sounded like someone was raising their voice to question something, or like someone was arguing.

It seems that other players reacted even more strongly than they did.

"Why did the dungeon suddenly disable the death protection mechanism!" Xinglu slammed her fist on the table and exclaimed loudly, "It maintained itself for fifteen days just for this? Wasn't this game created to allow humanity to evolve? I suspected it from the beginning. Prices are ridiculously high, and there's a harsh winter and a plague. How can people evolve like this? It's clearly designed to kill us!"

As I let out a long sigh of relief, I said, "I also had my suspicions. I felt something was off as soon as I saw the prices... and we've hardly ever received any attribute points that could improve ourselves."

After experiencing the college entrance examination, she felt even more lost.

Knowing that activities could lead to death, why would Earth set up such a huge trap in the college entrance examination?
Only the top 20% in the dragon boat race can get the exam admission ticket. These top 20% must be the best players. Even if some people sell the exam admission ticket to others, most of those who enter the college entrance examination event are still in the top 20%.

The dragon boat race and the college entrance exam give me a strange feeling for the coming year—the former gathers elite players, and then throws them into a trap to wipe them out.

Is this game really designed to improve human physical fitness?

Eating only a little food each day for half a month made her feel weak. Without thinking for too long, she leaned on the sofa to recover her strength.

“But now is not the time to doubt such things!” Zhiwo Yousi suddenly spoke up. “We need to discuss what to do next.”

They came together through college entrance exam activities and hadn't known each other for very long, but one disaster after another made them instinctively hold each other tighter, thinking that if there were more of them, they would have more courage to face the challenges.

Su Xiaochai, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up hesitantly: "Why don't we take a look first, and observe the ticket booth tomorrow?"

GuGu's dream: To finish writing one copy of the game in a day!
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(End of this chapter)