Global Collapse

Chapter 748 Behind the rich gates, meat and wine go to waste; on the streets, people freeze to death.

Upside-down city?

Looking at the activity panel, Gu Mian immediately thought of the conversation between the two sales clerks earlier.

The Goose Village, where the headquarters of the Toy Goose Food Processing Plant is located, is upside down. A few days ago, when I spoke with Manager Jin of the Game City, he mentioned something similar. The City of Joy in the amusement park world is also upside down.

The name of the event, "Upside-Down City," seems somewhat similar to the situation mentioned by Manager Jin and his team.

Gu Mian continued looking at the activity panel on the homepage.

The special event 'Upside-Down City' is coming to Earth soon.

[Start Date: December 1st]

It's November 21st now, and the event will be here in ten days.

However, Gu Mian keenly noticed that the activity did not specify an end time.

This is rather strange. Previous large-scale events all had a beginning and an end, but this event only has a start time and no end time.

The event preview below is also quite strange.

[Trailer: This is a haven without storms, humanity's last refuge. The first batch of 'Upside-Down Cities' will descend upon Earth after December 1st. The 'Upside-Down Cities' will exist permanently, and everyone is welcome to move in.]

Gu Mian grasped a few key points.

"The first batch" and "permanent existence"

In other words, there will be a second and third batch, and those "upside-down cities" will remain forever and will not disappear.

"Doctor, this Upside-Down City event looks so similar to... the situation that Manager Jin mentioned when we called him the other day." The fat man rushed over from the beauty section.

It really does look like it.

But Manager Kim said it was a curse from Earth.

Gu Mian originally thought that Earth was striving to improve itself and was going to cast a curse on the game world.

Unexpectedly, this curse has spread into the real world.

However, judging from the event preview, this upside-down city doesn't seem like a curse; on the contrary, it makes people yearn for it.

The fat man next to him was already longing for it: "A harbor without storms, humanity's last refuge. It sounds pretty good, I can't see any danger in it."

Very good indeed.

"But if the Upside-Down City is truly a paradise, why would Earth place so many upside-down cities in the game world? Is it to deceive the enemy with sweet words?" The fat man didn't quite understand, but he quickly decided not to torture his meager intelligence and instead turned his attention to the question in front of him.

"Doctor, do you think these are chin implants?" The fat man showed Gu Mian what he had painstakingly found in the cosmetics section.

Gu Mian looked at the hair pads and eye masks in the fat man's hand and fell silent.

The fat man went to the stationery section again. Although he didn't understand the connection between stationery and prosthetics, he must have had his reasons for doing so.

The fat man couldn't find the chin implant he wanted in the stationery section until the three of them left the supermarket.

Instead, they found a stack of unopened red envelopes.

"The red envelopes you gave me last year were too simple, so this year I specially bought a stack of new ones, and they even have patterns drawn with gold powder on them..." The fat man happily showed off the red envelope covers he bought to Gu Mian.

Only Fatty would use game tokens to buy random things; he even bought Xiaohong's rudimentary game console last time.

In the current climate, other players are probably struggling to make ends meet, while Fatty is happily buying this and that.

What was that saying again?

It seems to be a saying: "Behind the red gates, meat and wine go to waste; on the road, the frozen dead lie."

Sure enough, not far from the supermarket entrance, there was a frozen skeleton lingering—not dead yet.

He was a man in his thirties or forties. His beard was unkempt, and he had several layers of what looked like plastic sheeting wrapped around his head as a hat. He wore a dirty scarf around his neck, and his clothes were not clean either, probably because he hadn't changed them in a long time.

Chu Changge also saw that person, and her gaze lingered on him for several seconds.

Since the death protection mechanism was turned off, they have seen fewer and fewer living people in the real world.

At the start of the game, many lights were still on in the city at night.

As time went by, those lights went out one by one.

Now, their apartment is practically the only one in the neighborhood that keeps its lights on at night.

At this moment, the fat man also saw that direction. He stopped waving the red envelope in his hand and said, "Doctor, don't you think that person looks a little familiar?"

look familiar?

Gu Mian took another serious look at the middle-aged man. It wasn't Ren Leshan, nor was it Lao Liu from Shengli Hardware. But after the fat man pointed it out, she did feel that the man looked somewhat familiar.

Gu Mian quickly found the corresponding face in her memory: "Bright?"

“Yes, yes, yes,” the fat man quickly replied, “His name is hard to remember. Doctor, now that you mention it, I remember. I think his name is something like ‘Bright but not dazzling man.’”

He also has a girlfriend whose nickname is "a charming yet unassuming woman".

They met these two in the Horror Manor instance, and Gu Mian affectionately called them "Mingliang" and "Xiao Zhang".

Now, Xiao Zhang is nowhere to be found, and Mingliang has changed so much that Gu Mian can hardly recognize him.

Noticing that someone was watching him, Mingliang carefully turned his head to look in the direction the gaze was coming from, and then saw three figures standing at the supermarket entrance.

He paused for several seconds before speaking uncertainly, "You are...the three from the Horror Manor?"

He recognized Gu Mian and the other two, but wasn't quite sure.

“Yeah.” The fat man took a step forward, wanting to ask him why he was there, but Mingliang immediately jumped back a step on alert when he saw the fat man take a step forward, and ran away without looking back.

The fat man was puzzled: "What's wrong? Am I scary?"

Moreover, he remembered that Mingliang wasn't like this before. In the Horror Manor instance, he was a somewhat flamboyant and showy person, and you could guess a bit about his personality just by looking at his nickname.

Now, however, things have completely changed; they're like birds startled by the mere twang of a bow.

Chu Changge, who was standing to the side, said quietly, "People change."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "He has become more adapted to this world."

Being cautious and vigilant is the fundamental rule for survival in today's world.

The fat man seemed to understand but not quite, silently watching the direction Bright had fled.

It was about to rain, and the gloomy weather made his chest feel a little stuffy.

"Doctor, let's go back quickly." The fat man carried the things he bought and walked towards the apartment, hardly saying a word the whole way.

Gu Mian noticed that Fatty had been rather sentimental these past few days.

He would frequently surround Gu Mian, asking, "Doctor, do you think this global game will ever end?" and "If the game world disappears, where will Brother Chu and the others go?"

When he wasn't being asked questions, he mostly sat in the courtyard downstairs with a gloomy expression, lost in thought. He didn't even notice when a goose took the opportunity to poop on his clothes.

After a busy month, 007 seems to have accepted reality and finally stopped searching for Renle Mountain.

007, having given up on finding Renle Mountain, was in low spirits and would often drift off into thought in the courtyard.

As a result, Gu Mian often saw two depressed-looking people sitting in a row below. He felt that if this continued, this place would become a depression sanctuary.

He discussed with Chu Changge that he wanted to do something to help the two of them stop being so depressed. After thinking for a long time, Chu Changge finally pulled out a hidden DVD, "Black Cat Detective," and invited the two of them to watch it together.

Looking at Chu Changge, who was playing the disc with a blank expression, Gu Mian felt a little depressed herself.

December 1st is fast approaching, the day the "Upside-Down City" event will arrive on Earth.

There have also been new changes on the homepage's event page.

The special event 'Upside-Down City' is now open.

[Introduction: Still anxious about food shortages? Still worried about the approaching cold winter? The first batch of Upside-Down Cities has been randomly deployed into the real world. Live in an Upside-Down City, and you'll never have to worry about making a living again, nor will you suffer from sleepless nights due to the cold. A happy life awaits in the Upside-Down City!]

Wait a moment.

Who wrote this copy? Why does it sound like a real estate ad?
"It really does feel like a safe haven." The fat man's voice came from the side. Gu Mian turned to look at him. He was so engrossed in the activity that he had no idea he was going to get depressed.

"Just like the trailer, there wasn't a single mention of danger," the fat man said, carefully examining the event page. "Could this really be a refuge that Earth has created for humanity?"

The first batch of upside-down cities were randomly dropped into the real world.

Gu Mian went to the window and looked outside.

Nothing had changed around them; there was no trace of the Upside-Down City.

It seems this thing hasn't been deployed to their area yet.

Although the event description painted a rosy picture of the Upside-Down City, Gu Mian had a gut feeling that there couldn't be such a good thing in the world.

Even a peddler selling melons knows how to praise his own wares; Gu Mian couldn't judge how much self-praise was in this introduction.

He turned to look at Chu Changge.

Chu Changge also looked at Gu Mian: "If you have the chance, you can go and take a look around the upside-down city in Paradise World."

Freezing to death! Freezing to death! Waaaaaah, I'm so weak, I still want to save up some chapters, waaaaaah!
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(End of this chapter)