Global Collapse

Chapter 905 Female Celebrity Fortune Teller
“Disappeared…” Gu Mian knew that if a player died, his nickname would disappear from other people’s friend lists.

So it's possible that Guigu's friend is dead.

But this is too abrupt. One second they're talking about how safe and happy the Upside-Down City is, and the next second they're gone. Looking at it this way, the Upside-Down City is truly eerie.

Moreover, Guigu's friend said there were quite a few people on it, and they were all players. He wondered where these people came from. Could there be so many people on this upside-down city near their apartment?
"Before my friend went to the Upside-Down City, he asked me to add several high-ranking officials from their base as friends, saying that if he couldn't contact them after going to the Upside-Down City, he could go to the other high-ranking officials if he needed anything."

"Actually, the two bases are so far apart that even if something really happens, they can't help each other. I know he just doesn't want the two bases to lose contact. Our bases in the apocalypse are like children alone in a dangerous dark night. Knowing that there are companions makes us feel more at ease, even if we are thousands of miles apart."
"After I couldn't contact him, I immediately went to my friends list to look for the other high-ranking members of his base..." At this point, Guigu's face showed a strange expression. He paused for a moment before continuing, "But everyone was gone... They all disappeared from my friends list."

Hearing this, the fat man gasped: "This is too weird. You said that only your friend went up to the Upside-Down City. Even if something happened in the Upside-Down City and it affected you, only your friend should be affected. How could all the people on the ground have disappeared along with him?"

The fat man even suspected that the group of people had deleted Guigu's friends list together.

Guigu looked tired: "I don't know. I can't even be sure if they disappeared at the same time. It was only after I couldn't contact my friends that I went to look for other high-ranking members in the base, only to find that they had also disappeared from the list without a trace. To this day, I still don't know where they went, whether they entered the Upside-Down City together or if something happened to them."

The fat man was completely baffled: "Could it be that this Upside-Down City can affect people on the ground, or that the day your friend went missing was actually the day the Upside-Down City suddenly expanded and enveloped the nearby base as well?"

“I’ve considered that possibility, but even if the people in the base are in the Upside-Down City, they can still communicate with me through the friend function. But that day, they just vanished from my friend list like they’d evaporated into thin air.” As he said this, Guigu’s face showed some struggle, and he looked absent-minded.

The fat man looked puzzled: "Right, your friend can still send messages to you outside after entering the Upside-Down City, so even if everyone enters the Upside-Down City, they shouldn't lose contact with you."

Just as he was pondering this in confusion, Gu Mian suddenly asked, "What day of the week was that?"

What? The fat man didn't understand at first that Gu Mian was asking which day.

Upon hearing this question, Guigu's body suddenly stiffened, and a complex expression appeared on his face, clearly indicating that he understood what Gu Mian was asking.

Seeing Guigu's expression, Gu Mian knew that he had the same guess as her: "What day of the week was it when you found out that your friend and the base's higher-ups had gone missing? Judging from your expression, you must remember it very clearly."

Guigu crossed his hands, clenched them into fists, and pressed them against his forehead. This gesture made it difficult to see his expression. After a while, his voice came from the shadow cast by his crossed hands: "It's Sunday, the seventh day after my friend ascended the Upside-Down City."

Chu Changge, standing next to Guigu, also spoke up: "That makes it clear. Your friend, out of caution, wanted to explore the Upside-Down City alone for a few more weeks, but the others in the base couldn't wait any longer. They believed that the base's higher-ups were up to something."

As Chu Changge spoke, he glanced at Guigu, only to see that the other man's body trembled slightly, but his face did not show any surprise at what he had just said. Chu Changge continued speaking.

"Some people in the base stirred up trouble and spread rumors, inciting people to ignore the obstruction of the higher-ups. With a safe island right in front of them, how could ordinary people resist such temptation? So they either threatened or kidnapped the obstructive higher-ups of the base, removing the stumbling blocks on their way to the Upside-Down City."

Gu Mian knew that Chu Changge had already been very tactful in his words.

Threats and kidnappings are not enough to remove a person's name from their friends list; only death can.

As for why Guigu's friend who ascended to the Upside-Down City also went missing, it is highly likely that he became aware of what was happening in the base and clashed with the people in the base who later ascended to the Upside-Down City.

Guigu remained silent, but his body trembled slightly.

He must have considered this possibility, but he was unwilling to admit it.

"You should have realized this long ago, why are you deceiving yourself?" Chu Changge's words were quite direct. "Don't your left hand with three missing fingers and the burns on your face already give you the answer? Some things will happen to you and others will happen to you. If it happens once, it will happen again."

Chu Changge seemed to have taken some kind of gunpowder today, his tone incredibly volatile. Gu Mian, seeing that Guigu was about to burst into tears if he continued, quickly told the fat man to take Chu Changge downstairs for a walk.

Realizing something was wrong, the fat man quickly got up, put his arm around Chu Changge's shoulder, and pulled him up: "Brother Chu! Brother Chu! I think the grass in the roadside green belt outside is growing quite nicely. Let's go and admire it together."

After saying that, she forcibly took Chu Changge out to admire the grass in the green belt.

After walking for a while, Guigu finally emerged from his dejected mood. He forced a smile at Gu Mian: "Sorry, you must have seen something funny just now."

After pausing for two or three seconds, Guigu continued, "Chu Changge is right. I did think of this possibility a long time ago, but I just didn't dare to believe it. I would rather believe that something went wrong in the Upside-Down City than think that they were killed by their own people. How ridiculous is that? They didn't die in dungeons or events, but died at the hands of the people behind them."

Gu Mian could understand that Gui Gu and his friend were playing almost the same role, and he dared not think about it because he was afraid that he would one day meet the same fate.

"But before you came here, did you never think about leaving the base?" Gu Mian looked at the hideous scars on his face, and then at his left hand, which only had two fingers left.

Guigu also noticed Gu Mian's gaze. He gently covered his missing left hand with his right hand: "When only the last two of us were left in the Ghost Expo instance, Hanshan told me to leave."

"I just can't bear to leave there. My friends sacrificed their lives for that base. If it's destroyed in the end, wouldn't their deaths have been in vain? All their previous efforts would have been meaningless."
"I think I'll just stay there and wait until that base devours me along with my flesh and blood, then I won't have to think about anything meaningful or meaningless anymore."

Gu Mian felt that Guigu's problem was very serious. Before the global game started, these symptoms would have been medically termed "depression," and he needed professional psychological guidance to open up. As a doctor, Gu Mian could get people to open their skulls, but not their hearts.

At this moment, the fat man had returned from downstairs, but he was not with Chu Changge.

"We ran into Xiao Hong on the road, so we asked Brother Chu to take her for a walk." The fat man explained while secretly glancing at Gui Gu. Seeing that the other party was in a normal mood, he continued, "I came back to see if there's anything I can help you with."

Guigu felt he had stayed with Gu Mian long enough, so he got up to leave: "Then I'll be going now... If you want to go to the Upside-Down City, could you take me with you?"

Gu Mian said she would give him a ride if she went, and Gui Gu then turned and left the room.

Once Guigu's figure had completely disappeared, the fat man whispered to Gu Mian with lingering fear, "That scared me to death. Luckily, I pulled Brother Chu away early, otherwise I don't know what Brother Chu would have said next. Brother Chu has been speaking more and more directly lately. He seems to be in a bad mood."

Chu Changge has been mostly silent lately, and today he finally managed to utter such a long speech, which wasn't very pleasant to hear.

Gu Mian threatened the fat man: "You'd better keep one eye open when you sleep these next few days, or Chu Changge might kill you in the middle of the night if he's in a bad mood."

The fat man probably imagined Chu Changge standing at the head of his bed with a knife in his hand, and he shuddered in fright: "How could that be? Brother Chu would definitely not be willing to kill me... But Doctor, when do you plan to go to the City of Upside Down? I'm afraid things might get complicated if we wait too long."

Gu Mian glanced at the sky outside the window. The sun had already set, and night was approaching.

"Now is clearly not a good time for exploration, let's do it tomorrow."

"Doctor, you're just planning to look from down here, right? You're not planning to go up here?" The fat man said, glancing at the calendar. Today was Thursday.

He was quite afraid that Gu Mian would act rashly and take a car to the Upside-Down City, leaving a whole apartment full of people for Gu Mian to mourn.

"I don't plan to go up for the time being," Gu Mian replied.

The fat man was shocked: "You mean it's possible to go up there later?"

Fatty always felt that if Gu Mian went to the Upside-Down City, she would never come back, which caused him to dream about it every night. That night, he dreamed of two versions: one version was that the train Gu Mian was on her way to the Upside-Down City fell from the sky, and the other version was that as soon as Gu Mian arrived in the Upside-Down City, the city fell from the sky and shattered into pieces.

The fat man was terrified in his dream, sweating profusely. When he finally woke up from the nightmare, it was already noon the next day.

The first thing he did when he opened his eyes was to jump up and look out the window at the upside-down city. He only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that nothing had happened there.

Then he searched the house for Gu Mian, but couldn't find her. He only saw Chu Changge sitting on the sofa in the living room.

He asked Chu Changge, "Brother Chu, where's the doctor?"

Chu Changge turned his head and glanced at the upside-down city outside the window, his meaning clear: "If nothing unexpected happens, we're already down there."

This was the first time Guigu had observed the Upside-Down City up close like this.

This is south of Lianhua City. A large portion of the city has risen into the sky. From close up, the landmass in the sky appears enormous, like a colossal beast that blots out the sun. Below the inverted city lies a vast, bottomless black hole, left behind after the ground rose into the sky.

"Only when you get closer do you realize how big this upside-down city is." A voice came from behind. Guigu turned around and saw the girl who always carried a bucket of divination sticks walking up to him. At this moment, she shook the bucket again, and a divination stick jumped out of the bucket and onto the ground.

The fortune teller crouched down, picked up the fortune stick from the ground, and examined it. The ground where they were standing was shrouded in the shadow cast by the upside-down city overhead, making it difficult to read the black characters on it. She carefully looked at the characters on the fortune stick in her hand: "Just like before, I drew a fortune stick that represents unexpected joy."

"There are quite a few things to prepare for this unexpected surprise," Gu Mian's voice came from the other end.

Guigu looked up in the direction of the sound and saw Gu Mian, who had just parked his car and was walking towards him, along with the female celebrity following behind him.

Xiao Qiao didn't receive the treatment a female celebrity should have. She had a large bundle of rope hanging from her left shoulder and was holding a large iron hammer and several long nails in her right hand.

There were four people who came this time. Guigu had said yesterday that he wanted to come and see, and the fortune teller had divined that there would be unexpected joy if he came today, so he came along as well. However, she also divined that there might be a rock climbing activity today and that he needed to prepare rock climbing equipment in advance. So Gu Mian prepared a large bundle of rope and tricked Xiao Qiao into coming to be her porter.

Guigu was puzzled, wondering if the rock climbing activity the diviner had predicted meant climbing directly from the ground to the upside-down city above.
He looked up at the large patch of ground that blocked out the sky, trying to find a way to climb up. Unfortunately, the Upside-Down City was completely suspended in the sky, thirty stories above the ground, and there was nothing around to use for climbing.

Not far away was a station-style building. Guigu walked a few steps to the station and saw a sign inside with three lines of text.

[Sunday at midnight: Upside-down City → Lianhua Station]

[Sunday 12:10 AM: Lianhua Station → Upside-down City]

[One round trip per week]

The departure time was the same as his friend described, but it was Friday now and the station was empty. A train wouldn't come down from the Upside-Down City for another two days.

The fortune teller not far away was looking up at the upside-down city above: "When you're far away, you can see the shadows of the buildings above, but when you get closer, you realize that they really do look like clumps of mosaics that you can't see clearly."

There are a few clumps of movement above, probably people who were taken up when the Upside-Down City took off.

The fortune teller looked up and stared for a while before her neck started to ache. She rubbed her neck, which was sore from looking up for so long, and said, "That city up there is completely separated from the ground. There's absolutely no way to climb it."

Just as the fortune teller was wondering if her divination had gone wrong, Xiao Qiao walked past her to the deep pit not far ahead, squatted down and looked down: "There's someone there."

what?
The fortune teller was startled by Xiao Qiao's words and took two steps forward to look down into the deep pit, but she saw nothing but endless darkness.

"You mean there are people in here?" she asked Xiao Qiao again to confirm.

Xiao Qiao nodded.

"Did you see it?"

Xiao Qiao shook her head.

Gu Mian had noticed the unusual situation earlier. He went to Xiao Qiao's side and asked, "Do you feel someone down there?"

Xiao Qiao answered with a very firm "Mmm".

The fortune teller's forehead twitched. Why was it that when she asked Xiao Qiao questions, Xiao Qiao would only nod or shake her head, but when Gu Mian asked her questions, Xiao Qiao would speak freely?

Gu Mian was already used to Xiao Qiao's special sensory abilities. She was able to sense the fake Chu Changge during the dragon boat race, so it was not surprising that she could sense someone in this bottomless pit now.

Gu Mian glanced down into the abyss at her feet. The pit left behind by the Upside-Down City after it ascended into the sky was incredibly dark, filled with what looked like thick black water. You couldn't see anything by looking down with the naked eye.

"Give me your most powerful flashlight," Gu Mian said, reaching out to the fortune teller.

Almost every player has a flashlight. Dark environments are the norm in horror dungeons, and without a flashlight, you're practically blind.

However, most ordinary players choose low-powered flashlights, just enough to illuminate their surroundings. A flashlight that is too bright is easily noticed by ghosts in the dark, while a high-powered flashlight is practically a provocation, almost as if it has "Come and chase me" written on its forehead.

Gu Mian didn't care about any provocation. He chose his favorite flashlight in the supermarket. The high-powered flashlight was huge, almost as big as the big iron hammer in Xiao Qiao's hand.

When the salesperson introduced the flashlight to Gu Mian, they said that when it was turned on at night, it could illuminate the surroundings as brightly as during the day.

That night, Gu Mian turned on the flashlight in her apartment and tried it out. The fat man was woken up by the bright light and thought it was dawn. He got out of bed to make breakfast.

Coco took out the flashlight that Gu Mian had left in her inventory and handed it to him, still wondering why Gu Mian had bought such a bulky flashlight—she didn't know how powerful it was.

Gu Mian held the flashlight and turned it on, pointing it at the abyss below.

In that instant, the fortune teller felt like a star on stage, surrounded by countless cameras flashing their lights. Her vision was filled with pure white, and she felt dizzy, her body tilting and collapsing to one side.

Just then, a hand pulled her back to her balance. The fortune teller plopped down on the ground, shook her head vigorously, and the surrounding scenery reappeared before she could see herself again. Gu Mian was holding a flashlight in one hand, shining it downwards, while using the other hand to hold her shoulder: "Be careful, you almost fell."

"It's all your fault, you flashlight," the fortune teller thought to himself.

She wanted to complain about Gu Mian's flashlight, but then she saw that Gu Mian and the others were staring intently at the direction of the cave.

"Is there really something down there?" The fortune teller wondered and turned to look in the direction the three were looking.

Then she opened her mouth wide.

The flashlight beam illuminated the stone wall below, revealing a dense array of holes carved into it. The irregularly shaped holes, when combined, resembled a honeycomb at first glance, though not as densely packed.

The cave formed after the Upside-Down City ascended to the sky was too large. Although Gu Mian's flashlight had a high wattage, it could only illuminate a small area nearby. And on the illuminated stone walls, there were irregular holes all of them.

"This can't be a natural phenomenon, can it?" Guigu took a deep breath and took a step back. He had a feeling that something might crawl out of those holes.

The fortune teller saw that the nearest opening was directly below where she was sitting, only three or four meters above the ground. She strained to peer into the opening to see what was inside, and her efforts proved rewarding.

She saw a face flash by in the cave entrance.

Upon seeing this, the fortune teller shuddered in fright and couldn't help but curse. Fortunately, Gu Mian held her shoulder with one hand, preventing her from falling due to her emotional state.

"There's a ghost in there!" The fortune teller, who had been pulled back by Gu Mian, hurriedly took several steps back and described the scene he had just seen to everyone with great enthusiasm. "I saw a face flash by at the opening about three or four meters below us."

The fortune teller patted her chest with lingering fear. What could be more terrifying than seeing a ghost in the real world? Well, although she often saw Xiao Hong in the apartment, Xiao Hong wasn't really a ghost in terms of danger.

Gu Mian pondered for a moment before speaking: "Didn't you say that coming here today would bring an unexpected surprise? Is that face below the one you divined the unexpected surprise for?"

The fortune teller was on the verge of tears: "I don't know why this happened." Encountering a ghost can hardly be considered a pleasant surprise.

“You even divined that we would use rock climbing equipment today, but now it seems that this rock climbing equipment is not for climbing the Upside-Down City.” Gu Mian looked at the rope hanging on Xiao Qiao’s shoulder.

The fortune teller immediately understood the meaning behind Gu Mian's words: "No way, you're going down?"

Look everyone, it's GuGu, who was so diligent at the beginning of the year! Will he be as diligent throughout the year as he was at the beginning? (Thinking jpg)