Global Collapse

"I just wanted to help you, what did I do wrong!"

"I'm really a good person, please don't send me away..."

Amid the groans of the evaluator, Gu Mian bound him tightly and carried him upstairs.

Unexpectedly, before the ghost could even mature, the rope was used on the scorer. His howling was a bit noisy, so Gu Mian haphazardly stuffed the light bulb that had just fallen out of his pocket into his mouth, and now the world was quiet.

The evaluator could only sob with tears in her eyes as Gu Mian ruthlessly abandoned her at the entrance of the second-floor warehouse.

When Gu Mian returned to the first floor after throwing away the scorer, the fat man had already laid out the other beds on the floor, and he had also closed the greenhouse door tightly, so that you couldn't see in from the outside or out from the inside.

Seeing Gu Mian come down, the fat man whispered to him, "Doctor, I specially closed the door for you, so that the ghost inside won't be scared away as soon as it opens its eyes and sees you."

The fat man had already imagined all fifty seeds that Gu Mian had planted burrowing underground and escaping, leaving the greenhouse riddled with holes.

“We can sneak up on the door and listen for sounds, like this.” The fat man said, pressing his ear against the greenhouse door in a furtive manner. “When the ghosts mature and fall to the ground, they’ll make a sound, right? We should be able to hear it if we press our ear against the door.”

“Those seeds grow very quickly, sprouting the moment they’re planted. They shouldn’t take long to fully mature.” 007 looked at Gu Mian and asked, “Have you figured out why the evil god sent you to this instance?”

Gu Mian looked up at the main gate of the large hall in front of her, then turned to look at the other four gates in the hall: "I think I've figured it out a bit."

007 was silent for a moment before saying, "The words Louis brought were 'grow like a ghost,' and the ghosts in this instance can only grow by being buried in the ground. I remember the fortune teller did a fortune telling for you a few days ago."

The fortune teller always liked to wander around the apartment, asking people to tell her fortune, and then loudly proclaiming her results. She especially liked to tell Gu Mian's fortune; later, she remembered that when she first told Gu Mian's fortune in the dungeon, the crystal ball she used for divination, which she had bought at great expense, exploded.

Later, the fortune teller learned his lesson and used cheap props every time he told Gu Mian's fortune, not even caring if they exploded.

A few days ago, a fortune teller used a divination method to predict that Gu Mian's life was nearing its end and that she would soon be buried.

She immediately spread the divination results to everyone in the apartment, as if she were preparing for Gu Mian's funeral in advance.

"May you rest in peace in the earth..." Gu Mian recalled the result of the diviner's divination.

After entering the dungeon, obtaining the ghost seed, and seeing the greenhouse, Gu Ming understood something.

He thought that if he dug a hole in the greenhouse and buried himself, he might get some clues.

007 thought the same thing: "Aren't you going to try digging a hole?"

Gu Mian shook her head: "Let's not bury them now. Let's nurture a few ghosts first."

Evil gods are always unpredictable; now they've dug a hole and buried themselves, and who knows what might happen next.

Gu Mian thought of the series of key items from another world invented by the evil god.

He had used Key No. 108 from the mysterious world not long ago. It could transport creatures within a 500-meter radius to the Paradise World and also transport creatures from the Paradise World back to the real world, but it was used up after one round trip.

Besides Key 108, he had also seen Key 3 from the mysterious world in the hands of other players. Its function was also teleportation, but it could only teleport the user to a random location nearby.

Gu Mian was worried that if the evil god dug a hole and buried himself in it, he would be inexplicably teleported to another place, just like the plastic head that was flushed down the toilet.

What if you get washed away immediately after being buried in it?
We can't just leave Fatty and the other three in this hellish place.

He decided to first breed a few mature ghosts, play exciting and tense little games with them, then tie them up, and finally dig a hole to bury himself.

That way, even if he's teleported away, the remaining people can still use the ghost he kidnapped to present their findings on stage.

Of course, being buried in the ground doesn't necessarily mean being teleported away; Gu Mian did this just to be on the safe side.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound, like thunder, came from one of the greenhouses, originating from the debonding chamber.

The booming sound drowned out the cheerful music that was originally playing in the demolition room. Gu Mian went to the door of the demolition room, pushed the door open a crack, and looked inside.

It was indeed raining inside.

The sky above turned into thick, dark clouds, churning like a raging river, with flashes of lightning occasionally appearing within them.

Large raindrops fell from the sky, and the colorful ribbons falling from the sky were also wet by the rain, falling stiffly to the ground.

The fat man peeked out from behind Gu Mian, looking at the scene in the greenhouse: "It seems like it's not raining in the other greenhouses, only in this one. These greenhouses seem to be in different worlds."

Gu Mian had already realized that they were from different worlds.

As soon as he entered the large room of the cart, he had a subtle sense of déjà vu, feeling that he had seen the scene in the large room somewhere before.

He immediately remembered that the dilapidated scene in the Great Chamber of the Chariot was very similar to the Ragnarok world he had entered before. And the joyful atmosphere in the Chamber before him matched the Paradise world he had just left.

Gu Mian suspected that each of the five greenhouses corresponded to a different world: the large greenhouse corresponded to Ragnarok, and the small greenhouse corresponded to Paradise.

But he hadn't figured out what world the other three greenhouses corresponded to.

The fact that this instance has been closed means that it must be extremely important, perhaps even as important as the train instance.

I wonder if it's possible to travel directly from these greenhouses to the corresponding world.

Unfortunately, the only NPC here looks completely clueless and knows nothing when asked. This was probably intentional on the part of the organizers; if they had placed an NPC who knew everything, he would probably have already confessed everything he knew under Gu Mian's torture.

Now that there's no point in expecting to get anything out of that stupid evaluator, Gu Mian decided to first dig a hole in the debunking room big enough to fit herself in, and then just jump in when the time comes.

The evil god originally came from the Paradise World. Burying himself in the Transformation Chamber, which represents the Paradise World, might trigger some kind of bonus.

Thinking about it, Gu Mian picked up a shovel and began to dig a hole in the ground with all her might.

The fat man didn't know what Gu Mian was going to do, but when he saw Gu Mian digging a hole, he picked up a hoe and followed Gu Mian to dig.

The soil mixed with rainwater was exceptionally heavy to dig up. Gu Mian hoped that the ground would be dry when she buried herself, otherwise the weight of the soil and water would suffocate her.

Digging a hole in the mud was no easy task, and the fat man was panting heavily. "The doctor told me that we should get the scorer down to help us dig. He seemed quite willing to work for us."

As he spoke, the fat man began to miss Xiao Qiao, who was far away in another place: "If only Miss Xiao Qiao were here. Miss Xiao Qiao has inexhaustible energy all day long. Digging a hole would be a piece of cake for her."

Perhaps because he missed Xiao Qiao so much, the fat man vaguely heard a knocking sound on the door.

The knocking became louder and more urgent, almost like banging on the door—that's how Xiao Qiao usually made when she knocked on the doctor's door.

The thunder in the sky and the music coming from the speakers on the ground mixed together, making the knocking sound less real. At first, the fat man thought he was hallucinating.

But after a few seconds, the thumping sound continued.

The fat man stopped digging and listened intently, puzzled.

At the same time, 007 and Coco in the hall also heard the heavy knocking. The thunder and music from the breakout room had little effect on them, and they almost immediately located the source of the sound.

They looked together toward the greenhouse door of the large workshop, where the sound was coming from.

Has a ghost matured?
Gu Mian also stopped what she was doing and looked at the large chamber of the jinche. The ghost had already matured after only a few hours of sowing. Even with the bonus of greatly increased growth rate, the ghost was maturing too fast.

The banging on the door continued. Gu Mian thought to herself that the ghosts here were quite polite; they even knew to knock before leaving.

At this moment, the other three had all turned their attention to Gu Mian.

Gu Mian put down the shovel, picked up the rope used to tie the bed sheet, and went to the door of the large room of the cart, preparing to kidnap this precocious ghost as soon as the door opened.

"Be careful, doctor." Seeing Gu Mian about to open the door, the fat man had already hidden behind a ghost model.

He was so large that only the largest ghost model in the hall could barely conceal his form. This ghost model was huge, but its sides were thin, like a person rolled out with a rolling pin. The information plaque next to it said it was called "Big and Small Ghosts".

As the fat man gave instructions, Gu Mian slowly opened the door, only opening it a crack to prevent the ghost from escaping.

A gust of wind, carrying dust and sand, blew out from the crack in Gu Mian's door. He looked inside, expecting to be confronted by a ghostly face, but when he opened the door, he found nothing behind it. The knocking stopped abruptly the moment he opened the door.

No ghosts?

Gu Mian, not believing in such things, peeked through the crack in the open door, but didn't see a ghost. Instead, she saw more than a dozen seedlings sprouting from the soil in the greenhouse.

Most of those seedlings could not be found in the ghost model in the hall, probably because they were rare varieties that were not included in the catalog.

However, the seedlings are not the most important thing.

"Where's the ghost?" Gu Mian searched every corner of the greenhouse again and again, but still couldn't find what she was looking for.

But the knocking just now was definitely real; there must be something "in" inside the large room.

He pondered for a moment, then closed the door and looked at Coco: "Do you carry that 'money makes the world go round' thing with you?"

Coco has a special item called "Money Makes the World Go Round," which allows her to create a large millstone by spending all her game coins. This millstone attracts all nearby ghosts to grind the millstone, and the more game coins she spends, the longer it takes for the ghosts to grind. (End of Chapter)