Global Collapse

Chapter 532 The Simple Cuckoo Spirit

The group of people caught the attention of the gray-haired man in the pavilion.

He stared at Gu Mian and the others for a while, and just as Xia Jianren was about to ask him what he was looking at, the man sitting on the stone bench finally spoke: "You came to climb the mountain together, huh? A few days ago, a group of young people about your age also came here to climb the mountain."

Xia Jianren thought of something: "Was it probably more than thirty people who came up in a big truck?"

“Yes, that’s right,” the man nodded. “They stopped here when they were passing by, and more than a dozen people got out for some fresh air. They all seemed quite happy. But I heard that the car overturned later, killing more than thirty people, and several are still missing.”

Xia Jianren swallowed hard, not daring to admit that he was one of those thirty-odd people's colleagues.

“These past few days I’ve seen police cars coming and going all day long, probably looking for the missing people, but I haven’t seen any progress.”

"Wait a minute," Xia Jianren said, "Are you always on the mountain like this?"

The man chuckled, lifted his buttocks slightly, and the group saw a stack of flyers underneath him advertising "cure for infertility and premature ejaculation."

"There are quite a few people climbing the mountain here every day. I've been handing out flyers here at the pavilion every day for the past few days."

Cang Yue turned to look at the man, and after thinking for a moment, she asked, "Uncle, you've been here for a few days. Do you know why that car overturned down the mountain?"

The man shook his head: "I've heard a lot of stories these past few days. Some say the driver wasn't paying attention and the car overturned, others say it overturned while trying to avoid an oncoming car, but you can't take any of that seriously. Anyway, the police all say it was an accident."

As he spoke, he pointed ahead: "Ten minutes ahead is the place where the car overturned. There's a cordon there, you'll see it as soon as you get there."

Cang Yue nodded and said nothing more.

They rested for a few minutes and recovered. During this time, Gu Mian found a vendor selling drinks by the roadside and bought five bottles of soda from him.

Taking the soda from Gu Mian, Cang Yue stood up: "Let's keep going."

Xia Jianren stood up while twisting the bottle cap. In the real world, he didn't have enough game currency to buy such things. Most dungeons were held in desolate wilderness or enclosed spaces. Occasionally, there were a few dungeons in normal worldviews, but there were few opportunities to shop. He hadn't had soda in a long time.

The group drank their beverages and walked back onto the mountain path.

Gu Mian, holding the soda in her hand, said, "The vendor just told me that on October 1st, when the bus passed by him, someone got off and bought thirty-seven bottles of drinks."

Cang Yue nodded: "After Zhao Shuang got off the car, there were only thirty-seven people left in the car."

It seems that each person has their own bottle.

The group quickly arrived at the scene of the accident. The yellow warning tape was very conspicuous, and every now and then, several passersby walked by, keeping a safe distance from the tape, as if afraid that they might also fall off if they were not careful.

They stood at the edge of the road and looked down.

Beside the road was a steep slope, and about twenty meters down was a slightly gentler flat surface.

The steep slope was covered with weeds, but these weeds had been trampled not long ago, and they were lying crookedly, with some layers of soil even falling off to reveal the fresh soil underneath. Gu Mian knew that these were the traces left by the bus when it overturned down the mountain.

Standing on the edge of the slope and looking down makes your legs tremble.

There was a shallow pit on the slightly gentler surface at the bottom, which looked like the mark made by the bus. However, the bus was no longer there; Gu Mian had hidden it in a secluded place.

Fortunately, the police weren't on duty yet. Otherwise, if they discovered the bus was missing from the crime scene, they would definitely conduct a large-scale search, and it wouldn't be good if the investigation led to Gu Mian and the others.

Coco turned to the others and asked, "Shall we go down?"

Several people are still missing. Go down there and maybe you can find some clues.

Cang Yue took a deep breath: "Since we're already here, let's find a slightly calmer place to go down and take a look."

The group chose a secluded spot and climbed down a small path. They soon arrived at the bus's landing location, where they saw scattered bloodstains on the ground—blood splattered from the people inside the bus.

The area was surrounded by tangled weeds, and further on, a dense forest where the grass grew almost waist-high. There were no signs of anyone having passed by, and the large crater made it difficult to determine which direction the missing people had gone.

Coco turned to look at the group and said, "Let's search around here first and see if we can find any clues."

As she spoke, she glanced at Gu Mian: "Spreading things out a bit will be more efficient."

After speaking, Cang Yue looked at Xia Jianren. Xia Jianren just nodded but didn't move, seemingly wanting to follow Gu Mian.

At this moment, Coco suddenly spoke up: "Then let's go take a look over there, Zhao Shuang."

As she spoke, she grabbed Zhao Shuang, who looked somewhat bewildered, and led her in one direction.

Seeing that Zhao Shuang had been pulled away by Coco, Cang Yue finally looked away.

Xia Jianren asked curiously, "Didn't we say we'd split up to look for clues? Why aren't you moving?"

“Obviously, she was trying to get Zhao Shuang away,” Gu Mian said matter-of-factly, “but you didn’t understand.”

"Get Zhao Shuang out of the way?" Xia Jianren asked, puzzled. "Are you going to say something that she can't hear?"

Cang Yue shook her head: "No, we need to use special items."

As she spoke, she pulled out a doll about twenty centimeters long from her pocket, of course, from her inventory.

[A Simple Eyewitness Account]

[Description: This is a disposable item. As the name suggests, it is a witness. This special item is highly anthropomorphic, incorporating all human flaws, such as fuzzy memory, missing key points, and incomplete associations.]

[Function: Can ask what it saw and heard at the time of the accident]

Gu Mian looked at the doll in Cang Yue's hand: "Look at these flaws, this thing is very unreliable."

Cang Yue placed the doll on the ground at their feet: "It's better than nothing."

Two seconds after being placed on the ground, the doll, which had been tilting its head, suddenly straightened its neck, stood its head up, and its eyes shone brightly, startling Xia Jianren who was standing to the side.

Gu Mian saw a small screen on the doll's belly, displaying a countdown timer.

“180”, “179”...

It is estimated that it will be scrapped when the countdown reaches zero.

At this moment, Cang Yue asked, "How many people survived after the bus overturned?"

However, because this thing contains all of a person's flaws, it is impossible to give an accurate number.

"It was already dark by then, and I couldn't see clearly. I only saw people climbing out after the car overturned. I think there were about seven or eight of them."

It only saw a few crawl out, but didn't know how many were still alive.

Cang Yue continued, "So, were Jiang Mei among those who climbed out?"

Who is Jiang Mei?

Cang Yue closed her eyes helplessly. She had forgotten that this thing was just a witness who had nothing to do with these people and didn't know these colleagues at all.

The intermittent zombie once wrote a whole copy in a single day while in a state of extreme rage.

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(End of this chapter)