Global Collapse

Chapter 917 Liu Ruyan's Special Anti-counterfeiting Label
To the fat man's disappointment, there was no ghost waiting to be beaten in the kitchen, but a claw machine emitting a green glow.

It sits next to the sink that's barely hanging on the wall, and compared to the dusty sink, this claw machine is as clean as if it just came out of the factory.

Upon closer inspection, it appears that the machine wasn't originally emitting a green light; rather, the doll inside was green, and the light emitted by the claw machine was also rendered green.

The fat man looked at the claw machine and felt a growing sense of familiarity with it. He soon realized where this feeling came from.

He stared at the densely packed green dog plush toys inside, and, as if he couldn't believe his eyes, leaned forward until his face was right next to the glass.

He leaned closer and stared at the dolls inside for a long time before asking with a puzzled look, "Doctor, why are there so many dog ​​dolls inside?"

With white bellies and green fur, these dolls are identical to dog dolls except for the lack of a gold limited edition label on their foreheads. They appear to be static versions of the dog dolls.

Gu Mian was quite capable of taking action. While the fat man was wondering, he had already asked Liu Ruyan in the group whether the dog puppet was still in the apartment. Just now, Liu Ruyan had only counted the humanoid residents in the apartment, and the dog was not included.

[Gu Mian: Landlord Liu, could you please check if my dog ​​is still in the apartment?]

[Liu Ruyan: What's wrong? Do you suspect that this dog has become a spirit and entered the dungeon to be your teammate?]

Despite her mocking tone, Liu Ruyan still sent a message half a minute later.

[Liu Ruyan: Yes, I saw it as soon as I opened the door. It was sleeping in the hallway. I even kicked it to check if it was real, and it got up and walked away grumbling. It's not a fake.]

The fat man also saw the message in the group chat, and he began to speculate: "Doctor, didn't you see a lot of mechanical dogs like Xiao Hei in Paradise World? Since dogs like Xiao Hei can be mass-produced, then Xiao Lü should be able to too..."

To make it easier to address the dog, Gu Mian temporarily gave it the nickname "Little Green."

"Speaking of which, it also comes from the Paradise World, right? Maybe these are non-limited edition Little Green ones, mass-produced and then put into this instance." The fat man felt more and more that his guess made sense as he spoke, and nodded to himself with satisfaction after he finished speaking.

The fat man was nodding when he heard Gu Mian's voice from the side: "You said you didn't see any light in the kitchen when you first arrived, right?"

“Yes,” he scratched his head, “I didn’t see the green light coming from this side. It was only when the doctor said you saw the light here that I looked over here and then I noticed the light.”

The fat man lowered his voice and muttered, "It's like this claw machine only appeared in these last few minutes."

As he spoke, he noticed a line of small white text written on the side of the claw machine near the bottom. The fat man went forward to take a look, and the dim blue light made the text appear blue as well.

After reading the contents of the text, the fat man was filled with great doubt.

“Manufactured by Lianhua Qingkong Co., Ltd…” He muttered, then turned to look at Gu Mian, “Doctor, your Lianhua City business scope is very wide, you’ve even expanded into dungeons?”

Was there a traitor among them? Or was it just a coincidence that a place called "Lianhua" also exists in a lower-dimensional world?

Gu Mian also saw the line of text illuminated by the fat man. He was silent for a moment before speaking: "I've seen this machine before, in the real world."

What? The fat man, who was still speculating about the mole, was taken aback by Gu Mian's words.

Gu Mian had seen a claw machine that looked exactly like this in the university cafeteria.

In fact, after Gu Mian entered the instance and realized that it was related to claw machines, the first thing that came to her mind was this style of claw machine. Unexpectedly, it was unwilling to just exist in her memory and couldn't wait to appear in the instance.

At this point, the fat man realized: "Doctor, you mean that the claw machine in front of us actually has nothing to do with the dungeon, and that you just imagined it based on your memory, right?"

No wonder he didn't see the green light coming from the food pick-up area when he first arrived. It wasn't until Gu Mian said something was wrong that he realized the area had lit up at some point.

The fat man thought for a moment and said, "I guess there wasn't a claw machine here when we first got here. It must be because you suspected something was wrong in the kitchen that the dungeon created this claw machine out of thin air to make the performance more interesting."

This also explains why the claw machines are filled with dog-shaped plush toys; Gu Mian has been spending a lot of time with dogs lately, which has subconsciously influenced the image of the plush toys in the claw machines.

"Doctor, your wish function has made this already unclear dungeon mission even worse," the fat man slapped his thigh. "I was even thinking of starting to look for game coins to play the claw machine, but it turns out this claw machine has nothing to do with the dungeon mission."

"Although you created this claw machine, Doctor, I guess there should be other claw machines in the mall. The dungeon is related to claw machines, so I guess besides the one you created, there are also claw machines that are already in the dungeon itself. Otherwise, how are we supposed to play claw machines?"

"Didn't you say the mannequins in the clothing store next door look like dolls? Let's go take a look at those dolls." Gu Mian said, walking towards the exit of the spicy hot pot restaurant.

The shop entrance was already blocked by a mountain of tables and chairs, and Gu Mian, lacking any sense of public decency, once again climbed over the fence and stepped out of the shop.

The fat man hurriedly followed Gu Mian, scrambling over the edge: "Doctor, wait for me..."

Gu Mian was tall and fast, and in just a few steps she crossed the middle aisle and arrived at the clothing store filled with mannequins.

Countless plastic mannequins were crammed together in contorted poses, some headless, some legless, looking at first glance like dismembered corpses.

The fat man followed Gu Mian with small, quick steps. He saw Gu Mian stop abruptly in front of the dilapidated door of the clothing store, as if she had seen something. He sensed something was wrong: "Doctor, what's wrong?"

The fat man walked forward as he spoke, and when he reached Gu Mian, he finally understood why Gu Mian had stopped at that moment.

Congratulations on entering the plush toy stacking area!

He saw the game panel pop up with a congratulatory message.

Putting aside what's so great about being in a horror-themed instance, what's with this pile of dolls? Are these mannequins actually "dolls" from a claw machine?
There was more content below the panel, so the fat man continued looking down—

[Doll Stacking Area: The human-shaped plastic figures here serve as natural cover. When a claw moves to this area, it will be misled by the mannequins, greatly reducing the probability of the doll being grabbed.]

Please note that as you spend more time hiding in this area, the probability of being spotted by the claws will gradually increase (after all, our claws aren't stupid).

Wait a moment--

After reading these few lines, the fat man couldn't help but turn to look at Gu Mian: "Judging from the description, this couldn't be... that... that..."

“Obstacles,” Gu Mian said, uttering the word the fat man couldn’t recall at the moment.

“Yes! The number of obstacles on one floor.” The fat man called out the mechanism he had set up by name. “This place is obviously designed to be obstructive, most likely the obstacles mentioned earlier.” But the reality before him was somewhat at odds with the fat man’s imagination.

He had expected to see so-called "obstacles" inside the claw machine, most likely several layers of obstacles. But he didn't expect this thing to appear directly in the mall area, and he didn't see anything related to claw machines nearby. The claw machine in the spicy hot pot restaurant next door was just something Gu Mian imagined.

"If the obstacle isn't inside the claw machine, then how can we create an obstacle for our claw machine?" The fat man couldn't help but ask, looking at the mannequins piled up to the ceiling in the clothing store.

Gu Mian also looked up at the ceiling: "Is it possible that it's actually in the claw machine?"

"There's nothing in this claw machine except for toys. There aren't any of the four layers of obstacles I set up." In front of an abandoned shoe store, Mouse Loves Cat stared at the green-glowing claw machine in front of him with a strange expression. Standing next to him was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, Ren Leshan.

Not long after Ren Leshan ran away from the claw machine near the supermarket, he encountered a male player named "Mouse Loves to Eat Cat".

His first thought was of the list given in the previous instance, and he realized that "Mouse Loves to Eat Cat" was the player who set the number of obstacles to four layers. Ren Leshan wasn't selected to participate in the instance setup, so he had very little information about it. Therefore, any information that any player on the list possessed was especially important to him.

He then tried to befriend the mouse who loved eating cats, hoping to extract useful information from him. Unexpectedly, the player was completely unsuspecting and easily shared all his clues with him, even warmly inviting Ren Leshan to join him.

The information came too easily, making Ren Leshan suspect that the person in front of him was a wolf in sheep's clothing. However, he still agreed to Rat's request to team up, because Rat said that he also knew three other people on the previous list: Liu Liu Da Shun, Tian Xin Xiao Qi, and Qi Huo Gui Gu Zi, and these three also had some information.

Before forming the team, Ren Leshan cautiously confirmed: "Do you know anyone else on the list?"

He didn't want to team up with anyone who knew Gu Mian and that fat Wang.

"We don't know the other two; they must have been matched in from other places."

When the mouse spoke, Ren Leshan kept a close eye on his expression. Only when he saw that the mouse didn't seem to be lying did he feel comfortable teaming up with him.

A few minutes after the impromptu team was formed, Ren Leshan realized that his cheap teammate was probably not faking it, but was genuinely unprepared.

It's good news that this person is unsuspecting; this means he can extract as much useful information as possible from them.

The bad news is that this person doesn't seem to be wary of ghosts either.

The mouse's flashlight was untreated; when it was turned on, it illuminated the surrounding area brightly, making it look like a large light bulb in the dark.

Ren Leshan couldn't stand it anymore: "Why don't you turn it a little darker?"

"What?" The mouse seemed not to understand what he was talking about.

“A flashlight,” Ren Leshan showed him the head of his flashlight, which he had wrapped in cloth. “It’s so bright it’ll attract ghosts’ attention.”

The mouse seemed to have heard something amusing: "How could that be? It's not too late to close it when you hear ghostly noises."

Ren Leshan slowed his pace and lagged behind the mouse, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.

The light, rhythmic footsteps echoed through the mall. It was the sound of a mouse that loves to eat cats; he didn't bother to lighten his steps or conceal his voice.

Whether it's an unshielded flashlight or unheard footsteps, these are things rarely seen in horror dungeons these days. Players who have survived this long on their own are shrewd and know how to minimize their presence in dungeons to reduce the chances of being discovered by ghosts.

And this mouse that loves to eat cats doesn't seem to be in the category of "relying on itself".

This was similar to the two players he had encountered before who were "loudly plotting," and Ren Leshan suspected that those two players were two of the three people that the rat knew.

After following the mouse for a short while, he asked tactfully, "How many have you entered before..."

But before he could finish speaking, the mouse that loved to eat cats suddenly let out a sharp screech. Ren Leshan thought there was a ghost ahead and instinctively turned to run. But the mouse's next words made him stop in his tracks: "There's a claw machine up ahead."

It turned out to be a happy shout after discovering a clue.

Ren Leshan looked around warily, and only relaxed when he saw that no ghosts had been attracted by the shouts.

He felt it was unwise to continue teaming up with this rat. Ren Leshan had originally planned to use the rat as a shield in case of danger, but given the current situation, the danger was most likely brought by the rat.

He plans to part ways with the rat after he finishes studying the newly emerged claw machine.

The claw machine was located opposite a shoe store, where shoes were still scattered on the shelves. Ren Leshan glanced inside a few times but saw no suspicious creatures.

The mouse was completely unaware of Ren Leshan's thoughts and oblivious to its surroundings. It paced around the claw machine, then stopped after a while: "How strange, why are all the dolls inside exactly the same green? And there's nothing in this claw machine except for the toys, none of the four layers of obstacles I set up."

The claw machine was exactly the same as the one Ren Leshan had seen outside the supermarket. When he was at the supermarket, Ren Leshan wondered why there were no "multiple layers of obstacles" in the claw machine. But before he could analyze it further, he encountered the "invisible man" and had to escape from there.

The mouse told Ren Leshan that he had set up two layers of obstacles, but the claw machine contained nothing but the green, unsettling plush toy and a mechanical claw.

Finding no clues in the glass case, Ren Leshan began to examine other areas of the claw machine. Soon, he found a line of chilling words on the side of the machine.

"Manufactured by Lianhua Qingkong Co., Ltd." When he read this line, his mind went blank for a moment.

Of course he knew what Lianhua was; it was the city where that damned Gu Mian lived, the city where he had been imprisoned for a long time.

But why does the name "Lianhua" appear in the instance? Is this instance a shopping mall in the real world?

No, it could also be a coincidence; it's possible that the place names in the game are the same as the place names in real life...

Just as he was trying to organize his thoughts, the distinctive "tap-tap" of footsteps belonging to mice who love to eat cats rang out again.

Ren Leshan was getting a little annoyed: "Stop going in circles."

Unexpectedly, a weak voice from the mouse rang in my ears: "I didn't move..."

Unexpectedly, a somewhat guilty voice rang in my ear: "I didn't write it..."