Global Collapse

Chapter 926 Thanks to Mouri Hitomi for the generous donation!
“It’s open…” Outside the narrow passage with the fire door, An Zhitinglan and Guigu stood side by side, looking into the open door.

I don't know who opened it.

Behind the door was a spacious stairwell, with a steel-reinforced window in the wall facing them, through which they could see the thick darkness outside.

Anzhi Tinglan looked down at her feet.

It was a door handle that used to be attached to the fire door, but someone threw it here at the narrow intersection.

Just now, when she was walking this way with Guigu, she saw the doorknob that had been thrown out from afar.

They placed their hands on the thick, dusty tiles, and the dust told them of the people who had been there before—four rows of footprints in the passageway reflected the light of a flashlight, along with a line of blood.

I roughly knew who the two rows of orchids were; one large and one small, they extended from the intersection where I had used the mantis's special item before, and went straight into the path with the fire door.

Anzhi Tinglan pointed her flashlight toward the wide road behind her: "You saw that claw machine we passed by. That's where Wuwu Liuliu and I parted ways. It seems they saw the fire door in the passageway after they left me."

These two sets of footprints, one large and one small, indicate that they entered the passage together, and there are no footprints indicating that they returned.

"It seems those two were the ones who opened the door." They were incredibly skilled and daring. It's a miracle they weren't attacked by ghosts; they went into the dead end together and then banged on the door to make a noise.

The other two rows of footprints, one in and one out, appear to belong to the same person based on their shape and size.

The person arrived with steady steps and walked into the open stairwell.

Anzhi Tinglan was still standing at the entrance of the passageway; she could no longer see the footprints further in.

But it seems this person didn't have a good time on the stairs. After going in, he ran out in a mess, and judging from the marks, he even tripped and fell.

Anzhi Tinglan suspected that the doorknob that fell off the fire door was kicked there by him when he was escaping.

"The current situation is that two people went in and didn't come out, while one person went in and escaped."

And that trail of blood...

It was the headless corpse that the ghost chasing her was holding that flowed down.

Unexpectedly, the ghost also entered the stairwell.

The claw in the claw machine grabs a plush toy and throws it into the retrieval slot. It seems the ghost has come looking for the retrieval slot.

However, the bloodstains were already pitifully small by the time they reached this point, indicating that the corpse had almost bled out.

While analyzing the situation, Anzhi Tinglan shone her flashlight on the ceiling. Ghosts dragged themselves along the ceiling, potentially leaving traces. However, the mall's ceiling was so filthy that its original appearance was obscured, making it impossible to determine whether the ghost had left any traces.

"Go in?" Anzhi Tinglan had no intention of backing down, but she still symbolically sought Guigu's opinion.

"Let's go." Guigu stepped inside, also wanting to know what the extraction port was.

When they passed through the fire door and entered the stairwell, they were both taken aback.

Guigu looked at the only staircase here: "It goes down."

Anzhi Tinglan immediately glanced out the window to confirm that this was the first floor, meaning that the staircase leading down led underground.

Since we're already here, we can't just turn around and run away because of a downward staircase.

However, the row of hurried footprints in front of them clearly told them that there was danger here, so the two of them tried to cover their flashlights and walk downstairs as quietly as possible.

They discovered that the footprints that had come in and then hurriedly left hadn't even covered the entire first flight of stairs; he had turned and fled halfway down the first flight.

It looks like they've encountered danger here.

However, the other two rows of footprints were steady and continued downwards.

The two paused for a moment at the bend in the footprints, exchanged glances, and then continued walking down.

As soon as he descended the stairs and reached the corner, Guigu heard a strange creak, and then he saw Anzhi Tinglan stop in front of him.

what sound?
It seems to be emanating from the orchid.

Guigu lifted his foot and slowly took a step back, cautiously staring at the motionless Anzhitinglan.

He saw Anzhi Tinglan slowly lower the flashlight beam, shining it at her feet.

Then Guigu saw a familiar human head.

One punch and you're sent to your death.

Because the person's head was pressed against the corner of the staircase, the two people didn't notice it earlier.

Anzhi Tinglan stepped on the human head, and the crunching sound, like putty, was the sound of the head being stepped on.

When she saw the person ascending to the Western Paradise on the first floor, the person was already a headless corpse. She didn't know what kind of tumultuous journey the person's head had gone through, or why it had ended up here.

Anzhi Tinglan removed her foot from the person's head, glanced up at Guigu, and seemed to be asking, "Would you like to take your friend's skin fragment with you?"

Guigu shook his head, then went down and picked up the head of the person who had gone to the Western Paradise, placing it aside in a place where it wouldn't be easily stepped on.

Because he was mentally prepared, he didn't feel much excitement when he saw the familiar faces.

After doing all that, the two continued down the stairs and soon arrived at the entrance to the next floor.

There's another fire door blocked here, but someone smashed the handle off with something, so the door is now closed, but without the handle, it can be pushed open.

Anzhi Tinglan saw two rows of footprints, one large and one small, walk together into the second-floor door.

These two are quite good at opening doors. Thinking this, An Zhiting reached out and slowly pushed the door open. With the creaking sound of the old, rusty door, the scene on the second floor was revealed to them.

The first thing you see is a tall, red building.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a red and yellow pipe-style spiral slide.

The area you see when you open the door is a children's playground!
Moreover, it's a children's playground that runs straight through two floors. Because some of the facilities are quite high, the mall made a large hole in the floor of this level to connect it to the level below.

What they are seeing now is the upper part. Looking around, they can see the glass railing surrounding the large hole.

Guigu took a few steps forward and glanced inside the fence, where the suspended part was still covered by layers of elastic netting.

Its scientific name is "thousand-layer leak".

A person can be cushioned as they fall by the layers of elastic rope holes.

Although this way you can go directly to the next level, it's best not to use it. He had seen news reports of people breaking their necks while using it.

Moreover, this shopping mall has been abandoned for who knows how many years, and he doubted whether these long-neglected elastic ropes could still support a person's weight.

This floor wasn't entirely an amusement park; Anzhitinglan could see what appeared to be a movie theater a little further away. Unfortunately, when the mall closed, this movie theater was showing a horror film; a black and red poster of a female ghost was displayed at the theater entrance, quite fitting for the horror theme.

When Anzhi Tinglan was observing her surroundings, she also made a point of looking at the ceiling above her head. Knowing how ghosts behave, she paid close attention to the area above her head.

There were no ghosts around, and the terrifying rustling sound was not heard.

However, Anzhitinglan did not continue to explore this layer in depth for the time being.

"Let's go down and see if the door to the next floor is open." With no ghosts around, An Zhitinglan felt relieved and spoke to Guigu.

Guigu had no objection.

This floor definitely needs to be searched, which inevitably makes one wonder: if you were chased by a ghost on this floor, when you escape to this staircase, would you choose to run up or down?

Running up will take you back to the previous floor, but running down—you have to make sure the door to the next floor is open. What if you run down and find the door locked? That would be a real problem.

Of course, if it's an emergency, you can choose to slide down the spiral slide on this floor to the next floor, or jump into the "thousand-layer leak" and slide down directly. If all else fails, there's a colorful ladder standing next to the spiral slide for people to lie on and play with, connecting this floor to the next.

However, as mentioned before, there are risks involved in using this aging and poorly maintained equipment.

Guigu suspected that if people actually went downstairs through these things, they would probably meet the ghosts before the ghosts even came to chase them.

The two exited through the fire door and continued down the stairs.

There were no other footprints on these two staircases, and there was no danger. They reached the third floor without any problems, only to find that the door to this floor was locked.

Fortunately, Anzhi Tinglan had collected a lot of lock-picking tools beforehand, and had mastered the skill of picking various locks before the global game started.

"Keep an eye on the top and bottom for me, I'll unlock it." An Zhitinglan took out an iron bar and focused intently on struggling with the lock on the fire door.

This way of unlocking is much quieter than forcibly breaking down the door, and it won't make any noise that would attract the ghost's attention.

Watching An Zhitinglan unlock the door, Guigu wondered why she was so skilled at it. After watching for a few seconds, he turned around and went to keep watch for An Zhitinglan. This was the third floor, and the stairs continued downwards.

Guigu came to the stairs leading to the fourth floor and went down a few steps.

The staircase was a folding staircase, and after walking down a few steps, he could already see the stairwell on the fourth floor below, as well as the door to the fourth floor.

The fire door on the fourth floor was so badly damaged that it was half collapsed and no one needed to open it.

He saw that the fourth floor was the end, and there were no more stairs leading down.

Sure enough, just like the number of floors where obstacles can be set, this shopping mall also has four floors.

Just then he heard a "click" sound, and Anzhi Tinglan opened the door.

Guigu looked back.

He saw that inside the door, just like upstairs, was a children's playground. The playground floor was covered with thick, colorful balls. The third floor was not connected to the fourth floor.

Anzhi Tinglan only opened the door and looked inside; she did not go in.

She glanced at Guigu and said, "I told you, didn't I? Your dear friend Sweetheart Xiaoqi set the number of obstacles on the third layer to zero."

This means there are no obstacles in this area that can stop the ghosts, so being chased would be quite exciting.

"Let's go back to the second floor first." Guigu felt a headache coming on when he thought about this.

Neither of them had any intention of exploring the third floor first, and they immediately agreed to go back to the second floor to look for clues.

But they had only taken a few steps up the stairs when they heard footsteps coming from above.

Guigu and Anzhitinglan stopped abruptly, shielding their flashlights and exchanging a glance in the darkness.

"It's not a ghost," they both thought at the same time.

The ghost drags along the ceiling, and its movements are silent.

"Who could that be?"

Thank you so much to Mouri Hitomi for the generous donation! (づ￣3￣)づ╭～

"Who could it be?" That's right, it's Gugu! Gugu's true form is actually a keyboard spirit with two hands. It usually makes a clicking sound when it moves around because of its spinning feet. If you hear footsteps in your house at night, it must be Gugu going there to gather materials!