Global Collapse-Chapter 416 - 399: Gugu’s Dream_1

"Doesn't it seem a bit ignoble to stab the butcher in the neck in this escape game?"

"Am I the first player to kill the butcher…?"

Gu Mian was now controlling his character to stand up shakily. He figured he should hear the sound of his panting by now, but unfortunately, the game did not have sound effects.

The health bar in the top left corner had been scraped down a bit more by the butcher, leaving Gu Mian's health at less than half.

If someone were to attack him again, he might just Go to the West… No, he still had a save file.

After his character died, the game would automatically load the most recent save file, so he wasn't going to the West just yet.

As he stood, he looked down at the massive body on the ground. No, it wasn't a corpse yet, but it was close.

Flickering light from a hole in the distance illuminated the scene. The behemoth of a body twitched uncontrollably. His dirty hand, fingernails caked with grime, clutched the wound on his neck, his wide-open eyes reflecting the firelight from the hole. Shards from a broken kerosene lamp lay scattered around the butcher, stained with a considerable amount of blood.

His wide, angry eyes didn't last long before dimming. He became a true corpse, lying still on the ground.

Gu Mian quickly squatted down, attempting to find anything useful on the butcher's body.

Indeed, he pulled several useful items from the corpse.

A worn-out golden key. He had no idea what it opened.

An old lighter. This item, used to destroy save points, could truly be found everywhere.

And a palm-sized diary.

Gu Mian never knew anyone could have such terrible handwriting. Time was short. He quickly scanned the few written pages of the diary in his hand by the firelight from the distance, roughly filtering out two lines of useful content:

[Our food supplies are dwindling. We can only find grass roots to satisfy our hunger. Fortunately, four Holy Daughters arrived again today. I'm in charge this time. This is the 158th time.]

[When the Holy Daughters come, on their later visits each time, they always bring some new trinkets, and sometimes even food.]

This…

Gu Mian furrowed his brows.

The first passage indicated that at least 158 player-controlled characters had perished, and he himself was the 159th. However, he didn't quite understand the phrase "four Holy Daughters arrived again today."

As for the second passage…

What did "on their later visits each time" mean?

Gu Mian frowned and pondered for a moment. He felt the meaning of this sentence might be similar to "My mom comes to cover me with a blanket several times every night."

Did it mean the Holy Daughters would appear multiple times within a short period?

If he combined these two passages, did the diary mean that the Holy Daughters visited multiple times a day?

And they would also bring many novel trinkets…

At this thought, Gu Mian's frown deepened slightly, and he looked again at the butcher who had collapsed and wasn't getting up.

A faint light shone on the butcher's filthy apron, coating it with a radiance like holy light. Gu Mian's gaze shifted downwards, settling on the sharp cleaver the butcher had brandished.

It was indeed a cleaver. It was still stuck in the chair leg, with some uncleaned scraps of meat clinging to it, seemingly from the same source as whatever was matted in his disheveled hair.

He reached out and picked up the black cleaver from the ground. The cleaver was indeed incredibly sharp; just a slight movement made it reflect a bone-chilling glint. He held the cleaver in one hand, thought for a moment while standing there, then put the chair leg that had been struck by a blade and the shattered kerosene lamp back into his inventory.

They might come in handy sometime.

After taking everything he could, Gu Mian rotated his character's view and looked towards the cave entrance on the other side, from which the glow of a fire emanated.

Now he finally understood why flickering firelight was coming from the cave entrance ahead. There was probably a stove inside, likely with a strong fire burning beneath it. There might be a large pot or a steamer on top, and perhaps an aroma would be wafting out from it. Gu Mian didn't have time to imagine how captivating that aroma might be.

He immediately maneuvered his character towards the cave entrance.

The time in the top right corner read 9:15. Gu Mian reached the cave entrance in less than a minute, and by then, he could also see the scene beyond the entrance clearly.

Against the left wall, there was indeed a stove set up. On it was a very worn-looking cutting board, on which some minced meat was piled. A blazing fire burned under the stove, and a large pot, already blackened by smoke, was set upon it. It seemed to be boiling something inside, emitting clouds of steam. A lid made of pieced-together wooden planks covered the pot, now thoroughly soaked by the steam.

The orange glow from the fire filled the entire cave. Gu Mian shifted his gaze towards the edge of the wall directly facing him. He finally saw clearly what those white, glistening things were—they were white bones. Piled-up white bones, densely packed, as if there were no gaps between them at all. From a distance, it looked like a vast expanse of white.

And in the corner beside these bones, some clothes were piled up. Gu Mian maneuvered his character towards the corner and looked down. They were all identical white, bloodstained clothes, too numerous to count.

It seemed these were the "players" they had previously consumed. Gu Mian did not want to become one of them, and various ideas were constantly forming in his mind.

And just then, he noticed some things of other colors seemed to be mixed in among these clothes.

Gu Mian zoomed in his view to look carefully.

The first thing that caught his eye was a mirror mixed in with these tattered clothes.

A small, palm-sized round mirror, it shone in the light of the fire, though its surface was already covered with a layer of dust. Gu Mian tried to maneuver his character to pick up the mirror, and unexpectedly, he actually managed to pick it up.

However, immediately after, a panel appeared on the screen.

[Queen's Little Magic Mirror]

[Description: "Magic mirror, magic mirror, who in this world is the person I most want to see?"]

[Function: Recite the spell to the magic mirror to view the situation of a random player in the instance. Can only be used once a day, for two minutes each time.]

A special item?

He hadn't expected to find special items even in this video game. But even if he found them, he couldn't take them out, right?

As Gu Mian thought this, he turned his gaze back to the pile of clothes.

It seemed there was still something underneath.

He frowned and fumbled around for a while, and indeed, he found quite a few more things.

There was a distorted humanoid figurine, a wallet whose buttons could never be fastened, a card with a drawing of a man seated on a stone chair…

There were many, many more, all searched out from under these messy clothes.

It was worth noting that they were all special items!

Having suddenly obtained so many special items, Gu Mian felt no excitement. On the contrary, as he looked at the several rows of special items in his inventory, a tremendous sense of uncanniness rose in his heart.

These things… they seem like items left behind by players who previously entered this instance.

But players sitting in front of computers controlling their characters could absolutely not drop special items into the game.

The only people who could leave special items here were players who originally existed within the computer game… only those in the save points.

It's just that the people in the save points couldn't move easily. Judging from the diary, these special items were clearly brought by the previous "Holy Daughters." But how could the "Holy Daughters" have the special items of the players in the save points?

Countless strange conjectures churned in Gu Mian's mind, finally coalescing into the two sentences recorded in the diary.

[Fortunately, four Holy Daughters arrived again today.]

[When the Holy Daughters come, on their later visits each time, they always bring some new trinkets.]

As he silently recited these two sentences over and over, Gu Mian finally narrowed his eyes.

I understand now!

As he thought, he shifted his gaze to the already very low health bar in the top-left corner. When the health bar reached zero, it meant death.

After a "Holy Daughter" dies, she will immediately load the most recent save and revive at the save point.

But I'm afraid she revives *inside* the save point.

And judging from the special items before him… as long as she revives in the save point, she will immediately kill the player in that save point!

As long as the character he controls dies once, someone will truly die!