Global Collapse

Chapter 901 Who isn't a big, cheerful boy at heart?
This explains the ability Xu Xingcheng gained in the underground cave; it might have been left there by a forgotten fourth person.

However, since that person left behind their abilities, they must have already perished.

Xu Xingcheng's face looked a little pale, but he still managed a smile: "It does seem to be possible."

He hasn't lost his "smiling big boy" persona.

After laughing, his face turned serious again: "Actually, I've always been curious about what that thing in the cave is. When I first went there, it wasn't a statue; it was a huge, writhing mass of flesh and blood."

"That makes it look more like a person," Gu Mian thought, "like a person turned into a lump of minced meat."

However, most of the problems in Paradise World lie in the conflict between the upper and lower classes. Putting that aside, Paradise World is not very supernatural and is quite safe, with very few ghosts.

In that world, Gu Mian only saw ghosts twice: once when she saw the ghost of Jin Hu in the killing game, and the other time when she saw Louis's dead daughter in the circus.

Unlike other dungeons, this one doesn't involve a life-or-death escape from ghosts; instead, it presents players with mini-games alongside upper-class individuals.

Overall, the amusement park is actually quite safe. The most eerie things in the world are probably the monsters in the restricted areas.

So when Xu Xingcheng uttered the ridiculous phrase "wriggling mass of flesh," Gu Mian felt that this thing was completely out of place in the amusement park world.

Louis, from Paradise, was clearly concerned about things in his own world: "A lump of flesh and blood?"

Xu Xingcheng recalled his first time entering the underground cave: "Gu Mian, you've been to that cave too, so you know how big the bottom of the cave is."

Gu Mian nodded.

When he arrived, the upper class had already discovered the cave and renovated it. Some floor niches and the like were added to the bottom of the cave, but the traces on the bottom rock walls were still natural, and it looked like it hadn't been expanded.

“When I went there, the cave was full of lumps of flesh, almost filling the ground. Can you imagine what it was like? When I first went in, I thought I was dreaming,” Xu Xingcheng said slowly. “It was a terrifying scene, right? But for some reason, I wasn’t scared at all. It was as if we could talk to each other.”
"How can a person talk to a pile of meat chunks? Actually, neither of us spoke, but somehow I suddenly understood the function of this thing, and knew how to absorb and use it. As soon as I touched those meat chunks, I absorbed them, and at the same time I gained the ability to create clones and special items;

"There's something beneath the chunks of flesh, which is the statue you see. As I mentioned before, that statue wasn't originally in my likeness; it was originally a pile of strangely shaped stones."

Xu Xingcheng paused for a few seconds before adding, "It's like a human skeleton. It's probably because I absorbed the outer layer of flesh that the inner skeleton also became like me. I know that the skeleton has the ability to make wishes, but it's not mine; it's waiting for someone else. At that time, I didn't know who it was waiting for. It wasn't until much later, when the global game started, that I realized it was waiting for you. Although I didn't know who you were or why it was you, I still guided you there according to its will."

Gu Mian was led there by those ninety-nine package delivery tasks.

Thinking of those ninety-nine delivery tasks, Gu Mian's face darkened: "Those delivery tasks were indeed planned by you."

"It's not easy. Although we've met several times before, I wanted you to go and take a look at the forest underground in Paradise World, but I couldn't say it outright. Who knows if Earth has installed surveillance cameras somewhere? If it finds out and takes precautions, things might get complicated."

"I wandered around and finally found a mission that could be started in the real world: delivering packages. It was perfect for luring the wolf into the hole."

"Actually, the original mission only required delivering ten packages, and I could have changed them all to the Secret Forest. But I was afraid that Earth would find out and interfere, so I changed the number of packages to ninety-nine. That way, if I added a few places I wanted you to go, it wouldn't attract attention."

Upon hearing this, Gu Mian wanted to strangle Xu Xingcheng on the other side. And what kind of idiom is "inviting a wolf into a cave"?

"I changed several of the delivery locations to the Secret Forest to lure you in, so you could go to the underground cave to see my beautiful statue. At least you got a wishing system, so I didn't treat you badly, right?"

"Is it your function that you treat me so badly?" This guy even changed the activation condition for the postman special profession instance from delivering ten packages to delivering ninety-nine. It's just that Gu Mian doesn't have a handy tool right now, otherwise she would definitely smash it on Xu Xingcheng's forehead.

“Although the wish-granting skill isn’t mine, I at least acted as a matchmaker for you two, otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to come to you even if it racked its brains underground,” Xu Xingcheng added at the end. “It has thoughts and will, it really is like a person.”

Xu Xingcheng had obviously also considered the possibility that the underground flesh mass was a "fourth person".

However, it is still uncertain whether there is a fourth person; everything is just Gu Mian's speculation.

Gu Mian took a few seconds to process Xu Xingcheng's words, and temporarily put aside some issues to propose a practical solution: "Killing told me that you people came from the old human world. So even if you few people who came to the Paradise World forgot the existence of the fourth person because of the world rollback, the people from the old human world who sent you out can't forget, right?"

The rollback in the Paradise world won't affect other worlds. If there really was a fourth person, judging from Xu Xingcheng's description, the fleshy mass and statue in the underground cave were most likely left behind by that fourth person.

Gu Mian was also eager to know who this person was, so she specially installed this wish-granting system for him.

Speaking of the old days, Gu Mian subconsciously thought of Liu Ruyan.

Liu Ruyan came from the old human world, but she was not a high-ranking figure in the world and should not know about Xu Xingcheng and the other two.

“I’ve been to the old human world too. Normal people there are just as rare as normal people in the paradise world.” The people at the bottom are all controlled by the higher-ups and the code, living like cameras and robots. Anyone with the slightest resistance will be caught and executed like Liu Ruyan.

Thinking of this, Gu Mian looked at Xu Xingcheng: "The three of you seem normal enough. Are you high-ranking members of the old human world?"

Xu Xingcheng twitched his eyebrows slightly: "I don't know."

Gu Mian: "..."

"What?" He felt like he hadn't heard Xu Xingcheng's words clearly.

"We know we come from the old human world, and we know about the old human world. We need to know these things to prevent us from leading the Paradise World down the same old path as the old human world. But we know nothing else. We don't even know our names. To be honest, we chose our names ourselves after we came to the Paradise World."

"Don't you even know your own past?" Gu Mian frowned. He remembered Liu Ruyan saying that the technology in the old world was not advanced enough to create artificial humans like in the second world, but he didn't know if it was possible to erase people's memories.

Xu Xingcheng shook his head: "My earliest memories are from the Paradise World. I only know that I have a mission."

Originally, they wanted to investigate the high-ranking figures in the old human world through Xu Xingcheng, but who would have thought that his story was so bizarre, that he had no memory of the old human world at all.

It would be great if the next dungeon would allow us to visit the Old World.

The key figure in the old world seems to be called "Divergence." Gu Mian hasn't met him yet. The train conductor once said that Divergence used to ride the train frequently and seemed to enjoy wandering between different worlds. However, he's also very mysterious and doesn't say much.

“If you want to go to the Old Human World, just make a lot of wishes before entering the instance.” Xu Xingcheng seemed to have seen through Gu Mian’s thoughts. “Your wishing ability is so powerful that it can take me away from the lower-dimensional world. It’s not difficult to wish to enter the Old Human World. Just have your friends shout to you after entering the instance, ‘Ah! Doctor, we’ve entered the Old Human World!’ and you might subconsciously teleport yourself into that world.”

When Xu Xingcheng said, "Ah! Doctor, we've entered the old world!" he deliberately imitated the fat man's tone.

The fortune teller originally shared the same idea as Xu Xingcheng: to make a wish when she went into the dungeon with Gu Mian next time, before Gu Mian could react. But now, Xu Xingcheng had voiced her thoughts.

“If I say it out loud, it won’t work. Wouldn’t that make him more cautious?” The fortune teller felt that this flawless plan wouldn’t work.

Gu Mian chuckled twice at Xu Xingcheng: "Thank you, I am indeed on guard now."

He then thought of the wishing thing: "But before the wishing function is transferred to me, you can still make a wish on that statue, right? If you want me to go to the underground cave, you might as well just make a wish on that statue and pray that I will fall from the sky."

Unexpectedly, Xu Xingcheng nodded seriously: "I have indeed made such a wish. I have also wished to stop the rewinding, but this wishing function doesn't work when it comes to you or anything related to Earth. To be honest, I also wished for the statue to send me away from the lower-dimensional world, but that didn't come true either."

As he spoke, he looked Gu Mian up and down: "I didn't expect that making a wish on a statue wouldn't work, but it would work on you. It feels like this function works better on you than on a statue. You and this function are a match made in heaven."

Xu Xingcheng continued, "Moreover, when the wishing function is on the statue, it is very enthusiastic. Anyone who gets close can make a wish to it, and the statue cannot control this function. But when this function is on you, it becomes shy and introverted, and only grants your wish."

He thought for a moment and came up with an analogy: "It's like a dog that bites people everywhere suddenly finding a good owner. Hey, I didn't know you were such a dog training master."

As Xu Xingcheng was speaking, Xiao Hei and the dog rushed into the doorway while fighting.

He stared at the two oddly shaped dogs for a moment, then exclaimed, "There really are dogs!"

Look, everyone! It's chapter 900! The last time I told you all to check it out, it was chapter 888!