Global Collapse-Chapter 423 - 403: Gugu’s Trick_2

Fatty quickly responded and ended the call. He sat by the table, deep in thought.

Sound and secrets... Fatty furrowed his brows, struggling to find a connection between the two.

He had turned the room upside down, flipping every book and almost dismantling the bookshelf. After finding a lighter in the chandelier, he even checked every clock on the wall, wondering if something was hidden behind them, but found nothing.

Fatty sank despondently onto the floor, staring out at the pitch-black street. It seems like only the Doctor can solve this problem, but I don't know if he realizes something is off with the game's audio.

Just as Fatty was about to ransack the room a second time, considering whether to pry open the floorboards, the telephone on the table behind him suddenly rang.

Is it Brother Chu? Has he found something new?

Fatty picked up the phone, muttering to himself. The moment he placed the receiver against his ear, his scalp tingled intensely.

CLICK.

It was the sound of a lighter being ignited.

Next, 007's calm voice came from the receiver:

"I just found a lighter."

Moonlight cast over the abandoned village nestled in the gully.

Gu Mian stood on the ground next to three corpses, with only one-quarter of his health bar remaining.

These people seemed mentally prepared but had never expected the Holy Daughter to be so ruthless. Consequently, they all ended up collapsing in fright.

Gu Mian shifted his gaze. "Finally, they've stopped staring at me like I'm a piece of meat. Being stared at like that gives me the creeps."

If he had been fighting two men and a woman on flat ground, he wouldn't have suffered so much damage. Unfortunately, Gu Mian had to climb upwards while fending off attacks. Otherwise, the people above would have blocked the well until their backup arrived and trapped him like a turtle in a jar.

"Speaking of which…" Gu Mian shifted his view towards the well again. The round skull was still at the bottom, lying on its back, seemingly staring at him. Moonlight shone on the skull, making it appear as if it were trying to articulate something, yet Gu Mian couldn't hear anything, and there were no subtitles.

Could the 'run' that brother mentioned in the memory fragment have been directed at me? Gu Mian rubbed his chin. Perhaps he saw Xiao Niao and the others coming back and warned me?

If so, he indeed is a warm and kind brother. Too bad I'm not his real sister.

The mission of this instance is to clear the game. Regardless of becoming stronger, viewing these memory fragments should also be beneficial to the plot. Gu Mian was now controlling the character to walk swiftly. The last memory fragment should be at the gallows, but I haven't discovered any gallows while I was exploring.

Gu Mian recalled the content written in the village chief's diary. The gallows was described as being at the "easternmost point," where the group that killed the Holy Daughter's parents and brother had finally settled.

...Could I possibly encounter them if luck serves?

I remember when I first entered this game, I was almost at the village's easternmost point, but there was virtually nothing there—just a cliff and a large empty field.

Gu Mian had taken a few glimpses there when he was exploring the village earlier, but all he saw was an empty field, with no gallows or Crusaders to be seen.

Let's go and check that place again. Even though I might encounter that monster with the leg chain at any time, I still don't understand where this monster comes from, or why the village chief would dare to go out of the secret tunnel late at night. Is he not afraid of encountering the monster?

As Gu Mian headed east, he made sure to pass by his three teammates. He took a good look at each of them. Other than smoke emerging from the save point where 007 was, there didn't seem to be any other anomalies.

As the frail woman (Gu Mian's character) passed Fatty's save point, Fatty was on the phone with Chu Changge. "Brother Chu, 007 found a lighter too... No, she wanted to check if there was anything under the wooden floors, so she used a book from the bookshelf as kindling to burn the wooden floor... Yes, she found something hard and shiny under there, probably some sort of stone foundation? Also, she said she almost got smoked like roast ribs in the bookstore..."

Just then, Fatty noticed a silhouette in his peripheral vision.

He glanced over and saw the slender woman. It might have been an illusion, but Fatty felt she looked more menacing than before—probably because her clean white clothes were now stained with blood.

"The Doctor! The Doctor is back!" Fatty immediately abandoned the receiver in his hand and rushed to the door. He stuck his head out to thoroughly inspect the woman from head to toe, sighing with relief only after ensuring the blood wasn't from *his* character.

He then remembered Chu Changge, whom he had been ignoring, and quickly picked up the receiver hanging from the table. "The Doctor is back; he came to my location."

Soon after, Chu Changge witnessed Gu Mian reappear with his own eyes.

The tall, thin woman Gu Mian controlled, wearing a blood-stained white dress, stood by the door for a moment before turning and heading east.

Standing at the door, Chu Changge watched the woman leave. From his perspective, her destination lay towards a cliff.

Gu Mian quickly arrived at his respawn point: a steep cliff edge overrun by wild grass tall enough to submerge a person. Besides the grass and the cliff, there was only open space, with no signs of ruins. Gu Mian couldn't help but wonder whether the people mentioned in the village chief's notes had made their homes underground.

Looking up into the night sky, the towering cliff face, well over ten meters high, blended into the darkness.

Just as he was thinking of walking along the steep cliff edge to see if he could find any clues, a huge shadow suddenly appeared in his line of sight.

He saw the chain-bound monster walk out from the darkness. Gu Mian instantly hid his conspicuous shovel and carefully retreated a few steps, ducking into the tall grass behind him before he could be noticed.

The massive beast didn't see him. From the grass, Gu Mian watched the creature pace forward, seemingly on patrol. Not long after, it turned, stood for five or six seconds in front of a rock wall, and then walked away.

Is there something there?

Once the creature had completely left, Gu Mian immediately controlled his character to step out.

The wilted grass underfoot RUSTLED as he walked.

Suddenly, Gu Mian stopped.

He heard a sound.

Until now, the only sounds in the room had been those he made. But just then, the distinct CRUNCH of dry grass underfoot reached his ears.

He tried controlling his character to take a few more steps, and the surrounding area filled with the sound of dry grass being CRUNCHED underfoot.

What's happening? This game suddenly has sound effects?

As he thought this, Gu Mian controlled his character to take a few steps forward. However, he only heard footsteps for the first two; the subsequent steps were almost silent.

This sound doesn't seem to be coming from the computer, but from... above.

Musing on this, Gu Mian looked up, only to see the gray, unremarkable ceiling overhead.

After pondering for a few seconds, he quickly controlled his character to return to the patch of grass, shifting the camera angle to look at the ground. The original ground was already covered by a messy tangle of wild grass. Gu Mian pulled out his shovel, and a "Dig" option appeared on the ground. He immediately started digging. Simultaneously, he heard a digging sound from above, as if someone were operating an excavator right over his head. Gu Mian felt as if the ceiling could be breached at any moment.

Could it be that I'm also in this game, and the character I'm controlling can help me escape this place?

But soon, Gu Mian, who was intently watching the screen, dismissed this naive thought.

After just a few digs with the shovel, a black book cover appeared in view.

The moment he saw the book cover, Gu Mian abruptly stopped his actions.

He understood.

I can't escape from here.

It turns out I'm also a save point... the initial save point...