Global Collapse-Chapter 429 - 407: Recognizing Gu as a Sister_1

As miserly as they come, huh... 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Gu Mian quietly looked at the ending he had achieved. Could it be because those people didn't manage to eat a single strand of my hair? Is that why I got this ending?

He had actually considered the endings he might achieve; they should have been something like "World Dominator," "Human Flesh Grinder," or "King of Counter-Attacks"... This "As Miserly as They Come" is really a bit much, making me feel like a rooster in a slaughterhouse refusing to be plucked. Even though the name is awful, it's still a proper ending.

Gu Mian massaged his forehead, feeling somewhat drained, as he waited for the Instance Evaluator's final assessment.

However, he never received the assessment page. Instead, the dense fog before him continued to swirl, and time seemed to have frozen. The words "As Miserly as They Come" hung persistently in the air, seemingly mocking Gu Mian.

"What's going on?" Gu Mian looked around, sensing that something was amiss. "I thought the game was supposed to end when I completed the instance?"

A chilly wind suddenly swept down the street, and carried within it was a woman's voice.

"Of course, the instance will end, but I've temporarily delayed it."

As the voice spoke, Gu Mian saw a woman in a white dress slowly emerge from the fog. She had a beautiful face, and her lips curved into a strange, helpless-looking smile. Her plain white clothes, resembling a gunnysack, rustled in the wind. These clothes, capable of making music in the breeze, made Gu Mian question the woman's aesthetic taste.

It was worth noting that the dense fog had been only a meter away from Gu Mian, and now the woman was standing almost directly in front of him.

Gu Mian tugged at his collar and looked at the smiling woman before him. "Don't tell me you're the Holy Daughter."

The truth was already apparent, though. But if the Holy Daughter always had her own consciousness, why let players control the character?

The woman's helpless smile deepened. She straightened her rather plain clothes. "I used to be the Holy Daughter, but long before that, I was a Goddess. Of course, now I've become a Goddess again..."

Truly a Goddess, to be able to forcibly keep a player in an instance that's about to end. But even a Goddess is just an NPC. Can an NPC born within an instance affect its rules?

"I know you must be thinking, 'How could a mere NPC do this?' Actually, this isn't simply an instance. You're in a game now—a game I created."

It seems this one, like Mr. Green, Coach Che, and Teacher Sweet, also knows she's an NPC.

"As the Holy Daughter, I experienced many things. Although I eventually let go of them all, I still harbored doubts about the choices I made back then. So, I created this game to see what choices other people would make."

"Of course, when I created it, it was merely a game."

Does that mean she didn't intend for it to be an instance when she created it?

"I recreated a village I had once destroyed and pulled everyone who survived that disaster into the game. I manufactured an environment of hunger and introduced a monster that would chase humans, all to create a tense atmosphere for the players... I wanted to see what choices other people would make. Unfortunately, most of them reached the same ending. So far, you're the first player to achieve *this* particular ending... much like I did back then."

Gu Mian stroked his chin and looked at the Goddess. "I'm guessing the ending most people got is probably called 'Table Delicacies' or 'A Feast on the Plate'."

The Goddess squinted. "Close enough. I didn't expect your naming style to be so similar to mine."

Hearing this, Gu Mian's hand stiffened slightly. "You came up with 'As Miserly as They Come'?"

The Goddess nodded. "It stems from my peculiar sense of humor."

Gu Mian paused. "...It seems you genuinely don't care about the past anymore."

Otherwise, she wouldn't have come up with such a bizarre and strange name.

The Goddess continued, "But unfortunately, this place later became an instance. Because I set the difficulty too high at the time, almost no one has been able to escape it."

'This place later became an instance?' Gu Mian accurately grasped the key point.

He lowered his head slightly to look at the woman before him. "How did this place become an instance?"

At this, the smile on the Goddess's face had almost completely vanished, leaving only helplessness. "This touches upon the core issue. Besides, I am not my true self here, merely a projection into this game, so I'm like a puppet—very weak. And some things cannot be spoken of casually, much like how people are reluctant to say Voldemort's name. You know who Voldemort is, don't you?"

As she spoke, she looked up at Gu Mian. Her facial expression had almost completely disappeared, only a bright light shone from her eyes.

Of course, I know, Gu Mian thought, staring at her eyes and nodding.

Seeing Gu Mian nod, the Goddess paused before continuing, "I didn't come here just to chat with you. I have something to give you."

A gift from an NPC?

Gu Mian remembered Mr. Green had given him a spray can before; "Product of an Evil God" was written on its label. It wasn't actually very effective, though. It wasn't even as good as some medical supplies sold in supermarkets.

Gu Mian decided against complaining directly. He said diplomatically, "Actually, I've received a similar gift before. It was supposedly from a certain Evil God, but its effects seemed watered down."

The Goddess looked slightly taken aback. "Actually, gifts from gods are never significantly watered down. As for the Evil God who gave you something, although I don't know which one it was, I suspect he..."