Global Collapse-Chapter 409 - 392: Gu Mian and His Three Useless Checkpoints _1

Fatty was stunned upon hearing this.

What does it mean that the current instance radius is less than a hundred meters?

Anyone who had to run eight hundred or a thousand meters for school would know that one hundred meters isn't very far; a quick run would cover it in only tens of seconds.

But now 007's special item was indicating that this instance's range was less than a hundred meters?

That doesn't seem right.

Where the hell are we?

007's voice came through the receiver, "Since we can't leave our rooms, the instance range might just be the room itself. This means our movement will be limited to this small area until the instance ends. However, since we've all seen that eerie woman, it indicates we should be in the same area and not far from each other."

As he listened, Fatty peered outside through the door.

At least from here, the outside world looked expansive.

The bookstore was on a street. Directly across was a collapsed two-story Western-style building. Not only was the building opposite ruined, but basically all buildings within Fatty's line of sight showed signs of destruction.

Only the grass sprouting from the soil was thriving; sheep would probably love this place. It was obvious that no one had lived here for many years.

The only other person they had seen was that eerie woman who kept repeating the same thing.

"Speaking of which…" Fatty seemed to realize something and looked up at the electric light overhead. Gripping the receiver tightly, he asked, "In a godforsaken place like this, would there still be electricity?"

There was a moment of silence from 007 on the other end. "You realized it too? This place looks like a long-abandoned village. Theoretically, there shouldn't be any electricity."

Fatty looked away from the electric light. "But the three bookstores we're in all have electricity. So… are we in some kind of special place?"

007 agreed with this idea. "Exactly. By the way, can you open the books that woman returned?"

Fatty looked up at the three black leather-bound books he had placed on the table. There were no titles on the covers. "That woman gave me three identical books. When I got the first one, I tried to open it and take a look, but I couldn't."

Chu Changge had mentioned these books to him before.

During Fatty's earlier call with Chu Changge, Chu Changge had told him that the woman had already visited him four times, meaning Chu Changge had four such books by then.

Of course, he couldn't open any of them, just like Fatty.

And it was clear that 007 was in the same situation.

"I can't open my books either. This instance is indeed very strange. Although no ghosts or similar things have appeared so far, and it seems quite safe for us in here—which doesn't fit the pattern of special instances being extremely dangerous… I think the danger in this instance likely comes from that woman."

Wind howled as it swept through the street. Fatty watched the grass swaying outside. "I also think that woman is very suspicious. By the way, can you contact the Doctor?"

Gu Mian was the first to enter the instance and still hadn't contacted them. Fatty was a little worried.

007's voice came through, "No, I can't reach him either. It seems he's not in the same situation as us. Perhaps he can move around freely?"

Hearing this, Fatty's imagination ran wild, wondering where Gu Mian could possibly be right now.

Just then, 007 suddenly said, "There must be clues in our rooms. I'm going to check the bookshelves… I'll hang up now. If we keep talking, Chu Changge might not be able to get through if he calls you."

Fatty nodded at the receiver. "Okay."

The call from the other end disconnected immediately. Fatty then turned his gaze to the bookshelves. I need to look for clues here too. I'll have to go through all these books one by one. God knows how many years it's been since I last read a book.

Muttering to himself, he straightened up and walked towards the bookshelf.

The books on the shelves were from completely different categories.

There were novels, biographies, and a pile of untitled, miscellaneous books about who-knows-what.

Fatty, feeling completely clueless, pulled books from the shelf and quickly flipped through them. Not long after he started, the phone suddenly rang.

Fatty subconsciously glanced at the doorway to see if the strange woman had appeared again before moving to answer the phone.

Chu Changge's voice came through the phone, "I found a few books about games—video games."

Hearing this, Fatty was momentarily stunned, then looked up at the bookshelf in front of him.

It seemed he also had a few books about games on his shelves, also untitled.

Some of these books were about a certain game's rules, some were about health data, and one was about the game's background. He had glanced at them a few times before setting them aside.

Fatty hadn't expected Chu Changge to ask him about these books.

He immediately asked, "I have some here too. Is there anything special about those books?"

The sound of pages turning came from the phone.

Fatty heard Chu Changge flip a few pages before he spoke, "I've compared the rules and data in these books. They seem to be about the content of the same game. And the background—although I can't leave here, the background description in that book is very similar to this environment."

Fatty was quick to understand. He immediately grasped Chu Changge's meaning. "Brother Chu, are you saying we might actually be inside a video game right now?"

He heard Chu Changge "Mm-hm" in affirmation from the other end.

That can't be right!

"This instance doesn't need to stuff us into a video game; it could just replicate the game's background and mechanics. Putting players into an instance… and then putting players who are already in an instance into a game—that's completely redundant, unless…" Fatty's rarely used brain began to work at lightning speed. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

At this moment, Chu Changge spoke softly, "I originally thought that someone repeatedly coming here and doing the same thing might be due to time reversing. But the grandfather clock clearly shows that time hasn't reversed. Plus, we are currently inside a game…"

"Think about it: in a horror game, where would you see someone endlessly repeating the same action?"

Fatty was stunned.

Where would I see someone endlessly repeating the same action?

Endlessly repeating the same action…

Endlessly repeating the same action?

For a moment, countless scenes from horror games he had played flashed through Fatty's mind. It seemed he had never seen anyone endlessly repeating the same action.

No, wait!

Fatty suddenly remembered—when he controlled his character, he would often repeat the same action!

At the same location, endlessly repeating the same action!

Thinking of this, Fatty's scalp tingled. He then clutched the receiver and blurted out, "Don't tell me we've become save points!"