Global Collapse-Chapter 393 - 376: The On-The-Brink of Extinction NPC and The Successive Instances_1
Remaining players, 8.
Civilians, 6.
Ghosts, 2.
The ghosts had been reduced from three to two—a qualitative breakthrough.
However, no one present seemed happy about this development.
Li Yibai squatted down, his head buried in the bend of his arm, faint sobs emanating from him.
Guo Jimei bowed her head, her face obscured by darkness, her expression unreadable, but Gu Mian sensed a mournful atmosphere surrounding her.
Yuan Qinghua’s tears had yet to dry, and her face still bore a trace of lingering terror.
Keke seemed quite embarrassed; she was completely out of sync with the somber mood, making her stand out.
Chu Changge glanced at Yuan Qinghua, then withdrew his gaze.
After a while, Pan Yue, who was still beside Li Yibai, mumbled hesitantly, "I told you... I told you Lin Qi was definitely a ghost..."
"Enough!" Guo Jimei abruptly shouted, seemingly in no mood to discuss this any longer.
Gu Mian understood perfectly.
They had all known each other for a long time. For someone they had shared a dormitory with for several years to suddenly be revealed as a murderer was unthinkable.
For Li Yibai, it was even worse. His friend of over a decade had suddenly turned into a ghost, and he had just been responsible for killing her.
Gu Mian tried to empathize with Li Yibai’s feelings.
But then he realized that most of his own friends from a decade ago were either dead or had fled. The only one still around was Chu Changge.
If Chu Changge is a ghost now... Gu Mian scratched his chin and looked at Chu Changge. No, forget ’if’—he’s very likely a ghost as things stand. Especially after he unaccountably voted for Yuan Qinghua just now.
It’s never too late to settle scores; wasn’t that reflected in the Chinese proverb about "settling scores after the autumn harvest"?
At this moment, Guo Jimei looked up, staring directly at Chu Changge. "Why did you vote for Yuan Qinghua just now!"
Gu Mian stroked his chin. "Well, well, weren’t you the one just crying and yelling for people to vote for Yuan Qinghua? How come you’re turning on her now?" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
Yuan Qinghua turned her swollen eyes towards Chu Changge, her expression full of bewilderment.
"That was... that was because the timing of Meiren Chu’s vote was too coincidental!" Guo Jimei argued hastily. "Don’t you all think it was too much of a coincidence? At that time, I was the only one who had voted for Yuan Qinghua...
"Pan Yue and Yuan Qinghua had voted for Lin Qi, so Lin Qi had two votes. Keke and Gu Mian, you both abstained. At that point, only Li Yibai and Meiren Chu hadn’t voted.
"No matter how I voted, Lin Qi was bound to be eliminated. But then, Meiren Chu suddenly and inexplicably cast his vote for Yuan Qinghua, causing a tie between them. It was because of Meiren Chu’s sudden vote that the final decision fell to Li Yibai!
"It was as if he intentionally voted for someone else at a critical moment, forcing Li Yibai to make the choice!"
Keke glanced at Guo Jimei beside her and then at Chu Changge on the other side. "Listening to Guo Jimei... it does seem like that’s what happened."
Hearing this, Pan Yue also looked at Chu Changge with a puzzled expression. "But what good would that do him?"
As she spoke, Pan Yue lowered her gaze to Li Yibai beside her. Was it just to watch Li Yibai cry? Surely no one could be that depraved.
Gu Mian dropped the hand that had been stroking his chin and glanced at Li Yibai, who was still squatting on the ground. "Even if that’s what you all think, I believe Li Yibai’s vote was actually useless."
"Useless? How could it be useless?" Pan Yue looked at Gu Mian, somewhat puzzled.
Finally, Chu Changge spoke. "Firstly, I voted for Yuan Qinghua because I genuinely believed she was suspicious. What you think about it is none of my concern. Secondly, Li Yibai’s vote was indeed useless."
"Yes," Gu Mian nodded. "Didn’t you hear the earlier broadcast?"
Pan Yue looked baffled. When the announcement was made, everyone had been focused on whether Lin Qi was a ghost, so they hadn’t paid attention to other details. "Was there something wrong with the broadcast?"
Gu Mian nodded. "Since you didn’t hear it, I’ll repeat it for you. It said, ’The second round of voting has ended. In this round, 6 players voted, and 3 players abstained. The player with the most votes in the second round is—Lin Qi, 4 votes.’"
This time, there wasn’t an incident like in the first round where an extra vote popped up, but...
Guo Jimei frowned. "What’s so... Wait! That’s not right! How could Lin Qi have four votes!"
Gu Mian looked at Guo Jimei. "You just summarized it: you and Meiren Chu cast two votes for Yuan Qinghua; Pan Yue, Li Yibai, and Yuan Qinghua herself cast three votes for Lin Qi. This means that besides those of us present, another person also voted for Lin Qi.
"Currently, only Lin Qi and Zhang Pingfan aren’t here. So, if we do the math, one of them voted for Lin Qi, and the other abstained.
"Let’s not get hung up on how those two voted for now. Lin Qi ended up with four votes, and Yuan Qinghua only had two. Even if Li Yibai hadn’t cast his vote, it wouldn’t have made any difference."
Keke paused for a moment before speaking. "Lin Qi definitely wouldn’t have voted for herself, so that vote must have been cast by Zhang Pingfan."
Guo Jimei, however, frowned and offered a different idea. "If Zhang Pingfan cast it, how could he have so accurately voted for Lin Qi? I don’t think that’s very likely."
At this, Pan Yue chimed in, "But none of us knew Lin Qi would end up with two more votes than Yuan Qinghua. So Meiren Chu really did seem like he was forcing Li Yibai... though I personally think it was pointless."
As she spoke, she looked at Chu Changge. "Did you do it on purpose?"
Seeing this, Guo Jimei had a strange expression. "Even if he did it intentionally, he wouldn’t admit it..."
Chu Changge remained silent.
Gu Mian stepped forward. "Alright, we currently have six civilians and two ghosts. There are seven of us here, so at least one ghost is among us. We should focus on figuring out how to root out the ghost among us."
"Fine, I don’t want to dwell on this either. If Meiren Chu really is a ghost, doing something like that wouldn’t benefit him. All I hope, Meiren Chu, is that you’ll tell us why you thought Yuan Qinghua was a ghost." As Pan Yue said this, she walked quickly into the hallway and peered down through a window.
After taking a look, she turned back. "My phone was tossed down there by Guo Jimei. Let’s all go down and find it now."
"You still care about your phone at a time like this?" Guo Jimei couldn’t help but ask.
"Are you stupid?" Pan Yue glared fiercely at Guo Jimei. "It had the video Yue Nu gave me on it, and I hadn’t even finished watching it! There might have been important clues in the part I hadn’t seen, and you just threw it away! I really want to vote you out right now."
Though the phone might have already been broken from the fall.
Splitting up had proven to be a bad idea.
So, this time, everyone decided to go downstairs together to find the phone. Only Li Yibai remained squatting where he was, seemingly unwilling to move.
Gu Mian decided to stay there and wait for them to retrieve the phone and return.
Keke looked very wary. "You’ll be alone with Li Yibai here, so be careful."
Gu Mian nodded. "Although it’s not daylight yet, it’s also not within the ghosts’ active hours."
As long as Li Yibai, who’s right next to me, doesn’t suddenly get the inexplicable urge to take me down with him.
"Then we’ll go down first." Pan Yue was the first to set off.
Yuan Qinghua promptly followed.
Guo Jimei clearly still didn’t want to be with Yuan Qinghua, so she deliberately pulled Keke along with her, putting some distance between themselves and Yuan Qinghua.
Chu Changge walked between the two groups of women, keeping a neutral distance.
Just then, Keke seemed to remember something and ran back, calling out, "Guo Jimei, wait for me!"
Gu Mian saw Keke call out and then run back, looking as if she wanted to tell him something.
Just as Gu Mian saw Keke run up to him, panting, Guo Jimei, who was a short distance ahead, seemed to spot something on the ground. She quickly bent down, picked it up, and immediately hid it in her pocket.
Gu Mian had sharp eyes. Even in the dim corridor, he saw what Guo Jimei picked up.
He watched as she bent over, got a clear look at the object, then immediately hid it in her pocket before swiftly glancing around to see if anyone had noticed.
Gu Mian lowered his head, pretending he hadn’t seen anything.
But Guo Jimei’s actions told him that something was seriously wrong with this instance.
