Global Collapse

"How is it? Is our team's player alright?" Hao Laoshi, who had just stepped into the room, didn't even care about the ghost in the room and anxiously asked Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan about their team's route.

Hao Laoshi didn't have a special item like a group chat, so he couldn't find out what was happening on the field from the player. If he wanted to know what was going on outside, he could only ask Gu Mian and the other person.

Having just heard Liu Ruyan say that the three organizations were ruthless, Hao Laoshi was very worried about the safety of his chess player.

“He’s dead,” Gu Mian said.

"What..." Hao Laoshi's face turned ashen, and he took a big step back.

"Your player is fine, it's the pieces in group three that died," Liu Ruyan added from the side. "By the way, you don't know about the 'shared death' formation, do you?"

In the previous square, Gu Ming and his companion only briefly explained the plans of Group Three to Hao Laoshi, without mentioning Group Two.

Hao Laoshi shook his head honestly: "I've never seen this kind of grid before. Judging from the name, it doesn't sound like a good grid."

As he spoke, he quietly moved his feet and hid behind Gu Mian, seemingly a little afraid to talk to Liu Ruyan.

Liu Ruyan didn't mind. She smiled and said, "It's definitely not a good grid. Once a piece enters the shared death grid, the whole group will die together. The people in Group Two entered such a shared death grid, and they were all wiped out in the first two rounds."

Hao Laoshi's eyes widened in shock: "There are actually grids like this? In that case, the player in the initial room isn't safe either."

"The player in Group Three clearly shares your thoughts; the appearance of the 'Shared Death Square' makes him feel he's in danger. There are countless 'Shared Death Squares' on the board, and letting the pieces run wild could very well lead to the demise of even the safest player." Liu Ruyan glanced at the two ghosts crouching in the corner with their heads in their hands, then looked away.

"So, the three groups of players decided to eliminate this risk by sending their own pieces into the trap squares. That is, your group's last piece stepped into the trap square in the first round. If the piece dies in the trap square, then everyone is happy. If it doesn't die, it will have a chance to enter your starting room in the next round to kill your player. What a clever plan."

"Indeed, it's treacherous and cunning," Hao Laoshi said in a low voice. "The first piece in group three stepped into the trap square, right? Then he still has one piece left."

"He's dead too," Liu Ruyan said lightly. "The three groups of players couldn't wait for him to play, so they killed the remaining piece right there in the starting room. That makes sense, the remaining piece could see the whole process of the three organizations' flag bearers trapping the first piece in the starting room. If they didn't kill that piece immediately, he might have killed them in return."

"But it's true that only people like this can survive more easily in the current world. It's just a pity that both pieces in Group 3 are dead. We can't meet them on the chessboard, and we can't find out who the player in Group 3 is." Liu Ruyan said regretfully. She was actually quite curious whether the player in Group 3 was Ren Leshan. Their styles of doing things were very similar, but if it was really him, it would be too much of a coincidence.

It's not necessarily impossible to run into each other, Gu Mian thought. If conditions allowed, she could definitely take a stroll around the initial rooms of Group 3.

However, they are currently more than half a chessboard away from the initial rooms of Group 3, and it is not certain that they will be able to get there before the end of the instance.

Hao Laoshi looked dazed: "The second group is all dead, and the third group has no pieces left, so now the only ones who can move are the three of us. We'll have to find the treasure chest ourselves."

He was a little scared and hoped that Gu Mian could find the treasure chest soon, or that she could just crash the dungeon so that everyone could get out together.

He was very afraid that after the three-round effect of the "Step-by-Step" skill wore off, his and Gu Mian's step counts would be different.

Although Gu Mian said that Mr. Gu would try his best to let her follow them, the number of moves the chess player makes is uncontrollable. If the two groups make different moves, they will stay in different rooms, and then they will have to face the ghosts on their own.

Speaking of which, what's this grid called again?

Knowing that she and Gu Mian had entered the same cubicle, Teacher Hao didn't bother to look at the room description when she entered.

He looked around and saw two ghosts trembling in the corner of the room, their backs to them and their heads in their hands.

The two ghosts were like that when he entered the room; no one knows what terrible thing happened before he came in.

He was quite afraid that after Gu Mian left, the trembling ghost would suddenly jump up and swagger at him.

Thinking it over, he hid behind Gu Mian again, but this position was too close to Liu Ruyan, so Hao Laoshi moved a few steps to Gu Mian's side out of fear.

"Why are you so afraid of Liu Ruyan?" Gu Mian asked him curiously.

In my memory, Liu Ruyan didn't seem to have done anything as heinous as Chu Changge to Hao Laoshi.

"Don't you know?" Hao Laoshi lowered his voice, making sure Liu Ruyan next to him couldn't hear, "Her friend is a pervert, and she's a pervert too. Before, in that hidden dungeon, she told me that a friend of hers set fire to and killed a family of three..."

Friend? Arsonist?
Gu Mian thought of something.

Before Hao Laoshi could continue speaking, a door appeared on the wall behind Gu Mian. The break time was over, and the seventh round had begun. 007 had chosen the direction for them.

Before Hao Laoshi could finish speaking, he saw doors appearing on the wall leading to the next room. He shrank back in fear, wishing he could go with Gu Mian.

Gu Mian turned to look at the two ghosts huddled in the corner of the room. She went over and grabbed the slightly larger, honest ghost, attaching it to her back. She then silently stared at the two trembling ghosts in the corner for a while before turning to leave. Hao Laoshi desperately hoped that Gu Mian would take the two ghosts with her. He watched as Gu Mian patted him on the shoulder in encouragement before passing through the door and leaving the room.

Hao Laoshi looked tremblingly at the two broken ghosts still standing in the corner. He was the only one left in the room. Although he did not meet the two broken ghosts' requirements for killing, he was afraid that the ghosts would settle scores later and take advantage of Gu Mian's absence to jump up and avenge the insults he had just suffered.

What Hao Laoshi feared did not come true. After Gu Mian left, the two ghosts in the corner were still cowering there, trembling with fear, showing no intention of settling scores later.

Perhaps fearing that killing me, Gu Mian's good friend, would lead to Gu Mian holding him accountable, Old Hao shamelessly labeled himself as Gu Mian's good friend in his heart.

Gu Mian moved to the left again this round. The square he entered this round was the same one that Group Two had entered before. It was a question-and-answer square. Group Two's pieces answered in a very short time, so the question should not be difficult.

[Question and Answer Format]

[Welcome to this room, you learned soul. In this room dwells a curious ghost who will pose a question to any chess piece residing there. A successful answer brings a reward, while a failed answer results in death.]

[Questions are randomly selected from the question bucket by a diligent and inquisitive individual; difficulty level is random.]

[Please answer within fifteen seconds of the ghost asking the question.]

The introductions in the Q&A room are also more detailed than those on the chessboard.

After Gu Mian entered the room and read the room description, she saw a ghost in the center of the room with its back to her.

Its spine is straight and upright, exuding a sense of pride and self-satisfaction.

Gu Mian thought that he entered the chess piece with his back to it, probably so that when he turned around and showed his face later, his entrance would be more special.

Gu Mian heard the ghost, whose back was to her, speak. As it spoke, it slowly turned around: "Foolish one, welcome to my room. I have a fortune-telling container here. I will draw a question from it. Please choose one on the fifteenth..."

When the word "fifteen" was mentioned, the Question and Answer Ghost had completely turned around, facing Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan directly.

Upon seeing the two faces, the question-and-answer ghost's previously arrogant tone immediately deflated, and its mouth gradually widened to the point where it could fit two light bulbs.

He was still clutching a large lottery tube in his hand, and at that moment he almost dropped it.

“…Answer inside…” Even though its jaw seemed to be dislocated, as if it had suffered a work-related injury, the Question-and-Answer Ghost still managed to stumble through the second half of its lines.

After saying that, he seemed unwilling to look at Gu Mian any longer. He lowered his head and stared intently at the lottery tube in his hand, then quickly drew a piece of paper from it.

It unfolded the paper as quickly as possible to see the problem on it, wanting to get rid of the evil slumber as soon as possible.

But when it saw the problem on the paper, its already pale face turned even paler.

At this moment, Gu Mian stepped forward and also saw the contents of the paper in its hand—

"How many people have entered this instance since its creation? Please state the names of each person."

Gu Mian: "..."

Question-and-answer ghost: "..."

The last piece that entered this area drew a simple question like "How many sets are there in this dungeon?" Why has the question become so tricky here?
"Please...excuse me..." The situation is terrible, but the question-and-answer ghost is still diligently fulfilling its duties.

It knew that if it read the contents of the paper aloud completely, it would probably be in grave danger. Then, it suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"May I ask what your name is?"

"Hey, hey," Liu Ruyan called out from the side. She had also seen the note in the ghost's hand. "Didn't you omit too much in the middle? Although many people like to cut off the beginning and end when they talk, you only left the beginning and the end."

The question-and-answer ghost was utterly exasperated. It glared at Liu Ruyan, wanting her to remain mute.

But then something even more devastating happened.

Gu Mian shrugged, her face expressionless, and replied, "I don't know." (End of Chapter)