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Chapter 880 Hao Laoshi Uproots the Willow Tree

According to Hao Laoshi, the player in Group Four is indeed a good person.

Even knowing that the chess pieces might perish on the board, and that the lent special items couldn't be retrieved, why did they still give all their special items to the chess pieces...?

Moreover, even knowing that the three groups were plotting against him, he never showed any inclination to move his own pieces into the three groups' pieces to attack the opponent.

Hao Laoshi really has no fighting ability, and he can't communicate with the player. Sending him rashly to the square where the three sets of pieces are located is basically sending him to his death.

Even if Hao Laoshi dies in the squares where the three sets of pieces are located, he will still generate value. The Honest Ghost on him will drop and stick to the three sets of pieces. Once the three sets of pieces are stuck, the probability of them dying in the next few moves will greatly increase. They may be killed by the Honest Ghost before they even reach the initial room of the fourth set. In this way, the player who plays the fourth set of pieces will be completely safe.

However, the four players did not do so. It seemed that he was always considering Hao Laoshi's safety and trying to choose the route that was most favorable to Hao Laoshi.

Liu Ruyan also affirmed that the fourth group of chess players was a good person: "There aren't many good people like this in the world nowadays. It's a pity that the pieces from the third group will soon be attacking the fourth group's initial room. The good person is in imminent danger."

Upon hearing this, Hao Laoshi became even more anxious: "He's the leader of our group. We've been able to get out of many dungeons safely thanks to him. If he dies, our group will fall apart."

"You guys?" Gu Mian grasped the key point in Hao Laoshi's words, which seemed to imply that Hao Laoshi had many companions in the real world. "Do you have many companions?"

Hao Laoshi nodded: "There are forty or fifty of us outside. At first there were more than a hundred, but later the death protection mechanism was turned off, and more than half of the more than a hundred died. Now there are only forty or fifty left."

"Are you a large organization?" Gu Mian thought of the refuge bases in some post-apocalyptic literature.

Hao Laoshi nodded: "It was a few leaders who gathered us together. They brought almost everyone in the city into the organization, and we've been living together ever since."

Upon hearing Hao Laoshi's description of the organizational model, Gu Mian sensed a familiar feeling.

"What are the names of the player and the other piece in your group?"

"Our player is Gu... Guigu, nicknamed 'Guiguzi Who Makes You Live', and the other piece is Bafang Laifu, but Bafang Laifu died on the board right away..."

"Who?" Gu Ming heard a familiar name from Hao Laoshi.

"Guiguzi who's been brought to life with anger, and Bafang Laifu." Hao Laoshi looked at Gu Mian with suspicion, "Do you know them?"

Of course I do.

Gu Mian first met Gui Guzi at the Lantern Festival, the first major event. Later, he even entered the Time Escape Train instance with Gui Guzi, which is the train that allows you to freely travel between seven worlds.

His impression of Guiguzi was still that of a rash, loud-mouthed person who only knew how to follow his superiors around, calling them "little lieutenant" and "oil bottle."

When Guiguzi was mentioned, Gu Mian thought of his superior, Han Shan.

This person is similar to Chu Changge; he is full of cunning but doesn't talk much. He also met Gu Mian at the Lantern Festival and later participated in the Time Escape Train instance together.

They never saw each other again after that.

Hao Laoshi described their team's chess players as wise, selfless, and capable of self-preservation. Gu Mian felt that these descriptions were more appropriate for describing Han Shan.

But I didn't expect that these descriptions were of Guiguzi, the nagging follower next to Hanshan. It felt like the Guiguzi that Hao Laoshi was talking about was completely different from the Guiguzi I knew before.

"Is there someone named Hanshan in your organization?" Gu Mian asked about Hanshan.

Hao Laoshi looked confused, as if he had never heard of this person before: "No, but I've only been in this organization for a few months. There might have been this person before, but I don't know it."

No?

Guiguzi and Hanshan were in the same department, so it was impossible for them to go their separate ways.

Since Hanshan is no longer here, there is only one possibility.

Thinking this, Gu Mian looked at Hao Laoshi and asked, "Do you know how you got into this instance?"

Hao Laoshi nodded: "I know, Mr. Gu has a chessboard, which is a dungeon entry ticket. It is said that once four chessboards in the world are collected, a mysterious special dungeon will be opened. But Mr. Gu has had the chessboard for a long time, and the chessboard has never opened any dungeons. Over time, everyone stopped paying attention to the chessboard. I didn't expect that it would suddenly pull me into this special dungeon today."

As expected, they obtained the chessboard...

"Do you know how your Mr. Guigu got his chessboard?" Gu Mian found it difficult to talk about calling Guiguzi "Mr. Guigu".

“I’m not very clear about that. Mr. Gu already had that special item when I joined the organization. But I heard that Mr. Gu obtained that special item in a special instance, I think it was a farming instance. I heard that our organization had researched planting vegetables and grains before, and when planting seeds, that special instance was triggered. I heard that the instance pulled in several people, but in the end only Mr. Gu came out.”

As expected, people like Guiguzi and Hanshan would definitely research planting crops to help people in the real world survive as much as possible, which would make them extremely easy to be pulled into the Ghost Expo instance.

Guiguzi's chessboard was obtained from the Ghost Expo instance.

Besides Guigu, Hanshan was also likely among those pulled in, but he died in that instance.

Gu Mian recalled the "single suicide method" mentioned by the scorer in the Ghost Expo dungeon. The scorer said that a group had successfully cleared the dungeon using this method, but whether it was luck or misfortune, the second-to-last person to die ended up planting a "sacrificial ghost" while planting the last ghost messenger.

If he is sacrificed, the rest of us can survive.

Sacrifice Ghosts are a rare type of ghost, and there is no corresponding introduction in the Expo Hall. Players who cultivate them need to discover their own characteristics.

At that time, Gu Mian also wondered how the penultimate person who was sent to his death figured out the characteristics of the sacrificial ghost.
How can you know that if you create a sacrificial ghost, you yourself must sacrifice yourself?

Now that I think about it, if the group the judges were referring to was the group of Guiguzi and Hanshan, then everything makes sense.

Han Shan possesses a special item called a "pen-shaped real-time repeater".

"Does your Mr. Gu have a special item called a pen-shaped real-time repeater?" Gu Mian asked.

"Huh?" Hao Laoshi looked at Gu Mian. "You know that?"

"Its function is to repeat content in written form. Pressing the button on the pen will record the surrounding events in real time, and the level of detail depends on luck. It can be used three times a week, with each use lasting about half a minute, the duration of which mainly depends on luck." Gu Mian explained the functions and usage frequency of the pen-shaped real-time repeater in detail.

Hao Laoshi's eyes widened: "I don't remember it that clearly, but it was roughly like this."

"Your memory is getting better and better, Gu Mian," Liu Ruyan said from the side. "You're like a talking computer."

Gu Mian ignored Liu Ruyan. Han Shan was indeed dead, which was why this special item was on Gui Gu.

If Han Shan had brought this special item with him when he entered the Ghost Expo instance, it wouldn't be surprising that he knew about the characteristics of the Sacrificial Ghost.

Because that pen could describe the surrounding situation, and if you were lucky, it would also describe the characteristics of the sacrificial ghost in detail, Hanshan thus learned how to deal with the sacrificial ghost. He then left the special item in his hand to Guigu, who was the last one to survive, and sacrificed himself.

"Do you have that pen-shaped real-time repeater on you?" Gu Mian asked him.

"It's not on me. It's Mr. Gu who's using that special item because it's useful for command," Hao Laoshi replied.

Just as Hao Laoshi was speaking, a door appeared on the wall behind them.

After Hao Laoshi entered the room, all four groups finished their actions and entered a one-minute break. Now the break is over, and the sixth round begins.

007 has made his choice, so a door leading to the next room appears in the room.

"Are you leaving?" Hao Laoshi looked very anxious.

"Your team's player is a good person. As long as he's alive, he'll try his best to move you to squares that are advantageous to you. The squares we've waded through are obviously advantageous to you. At least you already know what's on those squares, so your team's player should let you follow us." Moreover, the other players in the initial room should also be able to see the special nature of their team. To protect their own pieces, they'll try their best to make the pieces follow them.

At this moment, 007 in the room is watching the cubicle where Gu Mian, Hao Laoshi, and the other two are located.

After the four sets of chess pieces, carrying the Honest Ghost, entered the square where Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan were located, the square changed and its name became "Square Square/Honest Square".

It seems that two functions coexist in the same cell.

Honest Ghost did not replace the original Step-by-Step ability.

Then she saw the little figure representing Gu Ming and Liu Ruyan walk to the left square, and the four pieces followed two steps behind, finally stopping at the wall.

"It seems they get along well and there was no fighting." 007 glanced at the group chat. She had posted the progress of the fourth group's operation in the group chat after the operation, but neither Gu Mian nor Liu Ruyan had replied. They still hadn't replied.

007 guessed that the two were exchanging information with four sets of chess pieces in the room and didn't have time to reply in the group chat.

So she patiently waited until her one-minute countdown was almost over before choosing a course of action for Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan.

Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan have now entered the left-hand square that she chose.

The pieces in this second group of squares had entered before; it was a two-section square, but the name of the square changed after Gu Mian entered it.

[Two-part structure/Honest structure]

A two-space grid is a grid where a group of people enter but only one person can exit.

If two people went in, one of them would surely die. But 007 wasn't worried about Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan's safety; she looked directly at the second half of the grid's name.

There's also the Honesty grid; it seems the Honesty Ghost followed Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan into the new grid.

But wasn't Honest Ghost following behind the four groups of chess pieces before? Why is he walking with Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan now?
007 figured that Gu Mian probably used some kind of forceful means to coerce Honest Ghost into acting with him.

I don't have time to write an author's note, so I'll just write something like this for now.