Global Collapse

Chapter 707 Wang Na Runs Away

Gu Mian had seen this kind of exaggerated, low-quality, semi-transparent red font before.

It was in a hide-and-seek instance where he went to visit the food processing plant instance next door and bumped into a fortune teller. The fortune teller enthusiastically led him to the processing plant manager's office.

Gu Mian had long forgotten the manager's name; she only remembered that his name seemed to be a number.

Back then, the food processing plant manager had a "sleep detector," but it was a test version. Judging from what the bald man said, the machine had already started mass production and could be purchased. They had even upgraded and developed a new model.

However, the subtitles looked similar to those she had seen at the food processing plant before, except for an extra advertisement. Gu Mian didn't know what practical function this latest model had added.

As soon as the bald man mentioned that he hadn't bought a sleep detector, alarm messages from the sleep detector began to appear around him, and an awkward atmosphere filled the air.

"Haha," the man forced out two stiff laughs, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device about the size of a lighter. "Oh, so this is a detector. What a coincidence. I just picked it up on the street. I really didn't know what it was..."

While the man was speaking, Gu Mian had already snatched the detector from his hand to examine it. The machine seemed to have been upgraded and looked better than before, with the words "Advertising space for rent, please call xxxxxx" printed on it.

Gu Mian found the low-quality subtitles around her too ugly, and under the man's pained gaze, she casually threw the thing far away. The detector landed near a flowerpot about half a person's height in the distance of the hall, and the surrounding subtitles finally disappeared.

"Do you know where the person in charge of this Sunshine Insurance is?" Gu Mian grabbed the two people not to interrogate them, but to get some useful information out of them.

"I really don't know, this is my first time visiting this insurance company. The main problem is that the insurance here is too expensive. I have to take out half of my savings to buy an accident insurance policy. You know, if I buy insurance and you don't come to me, it's not worth it."

"Ahem, most people are just hoping they won't be that unlucky, so most of them are here for the first time and don't know anything about who's in charge or not;
"Besides, my workplace is incredibly busy. The ghosts and artifacts in that museum need to be maintained every day, and I'm always overwhelmed with work, so I don't have time to ask around about others..."

This man had thinning hair but talked a lot of nonsense. Gu Mian covered his mouth, not wanting to hear him talk nonsense anymore.

He covered the man's mouth while glancing at the woman wearing glasses beside him.

Before he could ask a question, the woman quickly replied, understanding his meaning perfectly: "I work at the Star Chart Games branch office number seven in the suburbs; I'm a game programmer..."

programmer?
"Look at his thick hair. The guy next to him looks more like a programmer," Gu Mian thought, then focused her gaze on the man's bald head.

The man noticed the gaze fixed on him and lowered his head shyly.

The woman pulled out a small booklet from her person to prove her identity: "I'm a programmer for a small game. I usually work at the company fixing and maintaining games. Today is my first time here. I'm the head of some insurance company."

Gu Mian took the booklet from the woman's hand and looked at it. The few pages with records were all about fixing bugs.

"Fixed a bug where player clothing would disappear during gameplay."

"Fixed the issue where multiple corpses would get stuck and unable to move when in the same room."

This bug looks pretty creepy. Gu Mian guessed that she was a rather perverted dungeon programmer, since there were things like undressing and corpses.

"But based on my experience working at a game company, I think there might be clues in the office. Our game developers often put important clues in the office when creating maps. Most developers will add a security loop in the office to distribute the clues in various corners of the building for players to explore freely..."

As the woman spoke, Gu Mian had already scanned the entire first-floor lobby.

There are no obstructions on the first floor, so you can see everything at a glance.

"This staircase leads to the second floor." Coco had already found the staircase to the second floor and was waving to Gu Mian and the others.

Gu Mian immediately led the two NPCs up the stairs and quickly arrived upstairs. Once everyone was on the stairs and the first floor was empty, a furtive head suddenly peeked out from behind a one-meter-tall flowerpot in the corner of the hall.

It's Zhao Tiankuo.

When Gu Mian came in, he hadn't had time to escape yet, so he hurriedly hid behind a flowerpot in the corner. Fortunately, the flowerpot was big enough to hide him.

He hid there, listening nervously to Gu Mian and the others' conversation, and only dared to show his face after everyone had gone upstairs.

Now is the perfect time to escape!

Zhao Tiankuo immediately tiptoed out from behind the flowerpot and moved toward the door, also taking the Gu Mian detector that had been thrown near the flowerpot earlier.

Gu Mian, who was on the second floor, was unaware that her boyfriend was downstairs.

Before he could even get a good look at the situation upstairs, he heard a frantic shoving of tables coming from one of the rooms.

The group looked toward the room from which the sound came, where a sign read "General Office" was nailed to the door.

There must be someone inside.

Gu Mian immediately dropped the two people she was holding and hurried to the office door to turn the doorknob, but the door was locked from the inside and she couldn't open it.

A small door was certainly no challenge for Gu Mian.

Amidst the horrified gazes of several NPCs, he retrieved a door-opening tool from his guitar case, quickly sawed through the lock, and then Gu Mian kicked open the office door.

A small table was blocking the doorway, but it was useless; Gu Mian kicked it open along with the door.

Upon opening the door, a huge window comes into view.

The weather outside was lovely, with blue skies, white clouds, and a gentle breeze. A breeze was blowing in through the open window, causing the curtains by the bed to flutter softly, creating a beautiful scene.

The scene would be even more beautiful if the old man who was about to jump wasn't by the open window.

The old man was clearly startled by the sudden sound of the door being kicked open. Before he could even think of how to react to the impact, the sound startled him so much that he twisted his back and, with a cry of pain, fell out of the window.

Then the people at the door heard a dull thud and a cry of "Ouch!"

Gu Mian quickly went to the window and looked down. She saw that the old man who had jumped had landed in the green belt below. The height wouldn't kill him, but it was still quite a hard fall for someone with old arms and legs.

The old man must have twisted his leg, but he was still very strong. He stood up and ran unsteadily into the distance, but his speed was not very impressive, not much faster than walking.

Coco picked up an insurance brochure from the desk by the window and flipped through it: "He seems to be the head of this insurance branch; there's a picture of him in it."

Gu Mian looked and saw that it was indeed so; the old man's photo was on the first page, with his job description below—

Wang Napao, head of the Sunshine Insurance branch on Sunshine Road.

Oh no! I'm three minutes over the time limit, so it doesn't count as tomorrow since it's not even dawn yet. I'm pretending I didn't skip an update!



(End of this chapter)