Global Collapse-Chapter 399 - 382: Cornering Person, Gu BongBong_1
Upon hearing Gu Mian’s voice, Guo Jimei turned to look at him and hesitated before bringing out a small notebook. "I have this prop called the **Prophecy Book**, which can verify the identities of two people. I used the first spot on Yuan Qinghua."
She looked at Yuan Qinghua as she spoke. "The facts prove that her identity is ghost!"
"For the second spot, I initially considered using it on either Gu Mian or Meiren Chu... but now it seems the fact that Meiren Chu is a ghost is already established. Do you have anything to say?" Guo Jimei spoke as she looked at Chu Changge.
Gu Mian also looked at him.
Chu Changge simply adjusted his glasses. "Of course I’m not a ghost. Even if you use that prop you mentioned to verify my identity, you won’t get any result."
"Alright," Guo Jimei retorted with a defiant smile. "Then I’ll fill in your name now..."
As she spoke, she pulled out a pen, seemingly intending to write the name down.
But Keke, standing next to her, suddenly grabbed her hand. "Calm down. Meiren Chu is merely a major suspect without a confirmed identity, and Gu Mian is also highly suspicious. Let’s discuss it first, otherwise we’ll just waste a spot."
Gu Mian, having been suddenly singled out, straightened his back.
Hearing this, Guo Jimei took a deep breath. "You’re right."
She turned to Chu Changge. "Meiren Chu, let me ask you, since you claim not to be a ghost, why were you seen on the video behind Yue Nu when she placed the phone? Later, Yue Nu was killed when she went to get her phone, and only you knew where she put it!"
Keke interjected, "Yeah, at that time, I remember everyone ran after Zhang Pingfan, who suddenly appeared. Meiren Chu, why were you in that classroom?"
Gu Mian listened as Chu Changge provided a very official-sounding explanation: "I was indeed following Yue Nu, but I only suspected her at the time. I just wanted to end this game as soon as possible."
Hearing this, Gu Mian suddenly remembered what Coach Che had told him during the day.
He had also advised him to leave this **instance** as soon as possible.
His expression at the time didn’t seem false, and Coach Che himself had physically escaped from there, as if staying even one more second could be dangerous.
Was Coach Che’s urge to leave this instance somehow related to the change in Guo Jimei?
Gu Mian pondered this as he looked at Guo Jimei.
To take a shortcut out, one only had to seriously mess up the instance. Actually, it was pretty easy to mess things up—just don’t leave any of the NPCs alive. But there might be penalties. To be cautious, Gu Mian thought it better to consider other methods, like winning directly. But how could he win directly in this round without dying?
Guo Jimei continued speaking, "Pan Yue also told me today that ever since Li Wentao’s death, everything has felt off.
"Pan Yue and Keke saw Li Wentao, who seemed to be a ghost. But he was clearly a civilian. In the first round, Li Wentao’s death was entirely orchestrated by someone, and an extra vote mysteriously appeared.
"In the second round, the ghost directly killed Yue Nu, who was very helpful to us. Yue Nu’s video led us to Lin Qi. This forced Li Yibai’s hand during the final vote, and Lin Qi was directly eliminated because a mysterious person cast four votes for him. The strange thing is, I remember Lin Qi didn’t seem surprised at all when he saw us watching the video, as if he already knew what would happen to him.
"Then, Lin Qi’s death directly led to Li Yibai’s suicide, putting the civilians in a dangerous situation. All in all, one ghost was sacrificed to eliminate four civilians. It’s a brilliant setup, with every step connected. I even suspect"—she paused, turning her gaze to Chu Changge—"that your appearance in the video was also part of the plan."
Pan Yue spoke up, somewhat confused, "What do you mean an extra vote mysteriously appeared in the first round?"
Pan Yue had run away after the first round. She hadn’t heard Gu Mian and the others’ analysis, nor had she delved into the voting, so she didn’t know about this. Keke quietly explained it to her.
At this point, Guo Jimei paused for about a minute, seemingly gathering her emotions. She opened her mouth as if to identify someone, but before Gu Mian could hear her voice, his vision went black.
「Eight o’clock struck, and the third night began.」
Similar to the previous two times, it was still pitch black, but Gu Mian could see the moon hanging in the sky.
He took out his flashlight and shone it around.
This time, they were in a construction site. It appeared to be an unfinished residential complex, with many partially constructed buildings standing around and huge cranes parked motionless in an open area.
The surroundings were all unfinished dirt roads. Gu Mian walked a few steps, the uneven ground pricking at his feet.
He needed to find the others.
He thought as he walked forward. The construction site was next to a mountain, so it covered a vast area.
After walking for an unknown duration, he suddenly heard human voices up ahead.
Pan Yue, without the flashlight distributed to the main group, had to grope her way along the pitch-black path. "Damn it! If I’d known, I would have brought a flashlight from home!"
And just as she was muttering to herself, she suddenly heard a rustling sound up ahead.
"Who’s there!" Pan Yue’s eyes widened as she looked forward.
She saw a figure ahead. The figure stiffened for a moment, then a faint voice said, "It’s me..."
Pan Yue instantly recognized the voice. "Xu Xingcheng?"
She quickly approached and saw it was indeed Xu Xingcheng. He stood there, looking tense, his eyes darting about, and fine beads of sweat had broken out on his forehead.
Pan Yue frowned. "What are you doing here?"
"You might not believe me..." Xu Xingcheng began hesitantly. "When you were playing the **Close Your Eyes** game, there was a power outage, right? Zhang Pingfan got too scared and ran off. He bumped into me and asked me to play in his place.
"I agreed at the time and was about to go to the classroom to get the identity slip. But when I got there, you had all left. I used the light on my smartwatch to illuminate the table and saw the identity slip Zhang Pingfan had left..."
Pan Yue’s eyes widened. "So, Zhang Pingfan didn’t play the game at all? It was you all along!"
"Yes... it was me," Xu Xingcheng admitted, looking rather embarrassed. "But I didn’t expect things to turn out like this. I heard someone even died? Last night, I was mysteriously transported to a basement... and today, I mysteriously arrived here again."
Hearing this, Pan Yue looked at him more cautiously. "What’s your identity?"
"The slip said ’civilian’... I heard from Zhang Pingfan that you’re all supposed to destroy your identity slips after seeing them. But I was afraid he might suddenly want to play again, so I tucked the slip into the back cover of my watch... But my watch... I don’t know where it went a few days ago..."
Hearing Xu Xingcheng say this, Pan Yue suddenly remembered something. No wonder an extra, mysterious vote appeared in the first round of voting!
