Global Collapse-Chapter 431 - 408: You are the Younger Brother_1

Gu Mian stiffened slightly.

Under the scrutiny of three humans and one ghost, he paused for a moment, irritably unbuttoned the top button of his collar, then turned to look.

A man with gray hair and brown eyes appeared in Gu Mian’s line of sight. His fair face was somewhat gaunt, and he wore a gentle smile as he watched him.

This face was very familiar to Gu Mian. Not long ago, it had been the face of a Non-Player Character (NPC) in the game—the Holy Daughter’s elder brother.

But now... This was the ’minor issue’ the goddess had mentioned?

The goddess’s brother was abandoned, and a player known as Honest Person conveniently took over.

That’s a really minor issue, huh?

Gu Mian smoothed the wrinkles on his jacket and stared at the man before him, "What did you call me just now?"

The confined space in the Spirit Car didn’t allow anyone to stand, so the gray-haired man was kneeling before Gu Mian. He leaned slightly closer to Gu Mian, and Gu Mian heard the man, who had been smiling all this time, repeat his earlier word—

"Little sister."

Gu Mian exploded.

The global game had been ongoing for months, but this was the first time he had experienced such a strange sensation.

It was one thing for the goddess to entrust her kin to him, but what was this about her relative latching onto him and calling him ’little sister’? Gu Mian took a deep breath. I wouldn’t mind if you call 007 or Xiao Hong ’little sister’; heck, you can even call Chu Changge or Fatty ’little sister’, but why me? I mean, the gender field on my profile is still a question mark!

007, curled up in her blanket, shrank further into it when she saw Gu Mian looking as if he might drag her into this familial claim.

She turned her head to see Chu Changge retract his gaze and look down at himself. Also looking down at her was the woman in a red dress who had previously been pressing her face against the rear car window.

Only then did 007 glimpse the woman’s true face, and she couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly... Truly terrifying!

Chu Changge’s steady voice said, "This is Xiao Hong." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Under two pairs of scrutinizing eyes, 007 nodded emphatically, "Well, she looks... very unruly."

Meanwhile, Gu Mian was pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, feeling rather helpless. Perhaps because he had played the game as the Holy Daughter, the man before him had identified him as such.

The brown-eyed man continued to watch him, his gaze filled with tenderness, as if Gu Mian were genuinely related to him by blood.

After rubbing his temples for a while longer, Gu Mian finally looked up at the man. "Listen, I’m not your little sister, but I did use your sister’s character to play the game. You can’t mistake a thief for your sister."

Fatty, by the door, mumbled to himself, picking out a phrase that invited wild speculation, "’Used your sister to play the game?’"

But Gu Mian’s words were like playing a lute to a cow; they elicited no change in the man’s expression. He maintained his smile and continued to look at Gu Mian with a tender gaze, "Little sister."

Gu Mian: "..."

"I need some peace."

As he spoke, he grabbed his guitar case from the side and climbed out of the Spirit Car. Then, under Fatty’s watchful gaze, he walked briskly away.

Inside the car, 007 watched Gu Mian’s retreating figure. "Where is he going?"

Fatty made an irresponsible guess, "Perhaps he’s going to find a restroom to confirm his gender?"

"Speaking of which, it’s rare for the Doctor to be pushed this far by a ghost, huh? Right, you’re a ghost, aren’t you?" Fatty rambled on, looking at the gray-haired, brown-eyed brother still sitting in the same spot. The Human CD Gu Mian had placed inside the car meant the brother couldn’t stray too far from it.

The brother was still gazing at Gu Mian’s retreating figure. His expression made Fatty want to recite a poem— "The thread in the hands of a fond-hearted mother, Makes clothes for the body of her wayward boy; Carefully she sews and thoroughly she mends, Dreading the delays that will keep him late from home..."

Wait, what am I even thinking? Fatty shook his head vigorously, redirecting his gaze to the brother, who had now turned to look at him.

Startled, Fatty took a step back. "I’m not your little sister, you know."

The brother simply smiled and shook his head, saying nothing.

"It’s a ghost," Chu Changge’s voice interjected. He adjusted his glasses. "The elder brother from the diary 007 read. He died a long time ago."

007 glanced at the drool at the corner of Xiao Hong’s mouth and nodded slightly. "Although I don’t know how he got out... Gu Mian did tell us this morning about the three memories he saw. This elder brother must hit pretty hard."

He was terrifying when he was alive; he’s probably even more frightening as a ghost.

Fatty felt somewhat reassured. Gu Mian’s life would be secure, and he wouldn’t have to worry about assassinations by other players in the real world.

If there were another large-scale event, who would ever guess that a seemingly frail doctor could unleash two ghosts? These are the kind of ghosts that would make anyone scream in terror! It’s like a blatant, large-scale cheat.

Although, these two ghosts are quite abnormal...

As Fatty pondered, he glanced at the brother, who was still smiling to himself, and then at Xiao Hong, whom 007 was making reluctantly wipe her drool.

This is horrifying.

Moreover, the brother can be brought into instances, right? After all, he’s a ghost attached to a special item.

Does this mean...

An image had already formed in Fatty’s mind.

If the Doctor encounters another ghost in an instance, perhaps the brother, with his motherly smile, will suddenly appear and kill the ghost before Gu Mian even has a chance to draw his saw.

The thought sent a shiver down Fatty’s spine.

Terrifying!

At this moment, 007 let go of Xiao Hong and looked in the direction Gu Mian had gone. "Aren’t we going to look for Gu Mian?"

Chu Changge shook his head slightly. He reached over and picked up the Human CD Gu Mian had left on the car seat, its reflective back mirroring his face. "He won’t go far. Don’t worry."

Fatty, holding his pot, said, "Then I’ll continue cooking..."

Gu Mian had deliberately stopped in a sparsely populated area, mostly surrounded by unfinished buildings. Before the game started, mostly only construction workers and vehicles would pass by here. After the game began, even fewer people came. Although the recent virus outbreak had driven many people from cities to less populated areas, this particular place remained quite deserted.

Right then, Fatty was frying some ham slices in his pot.

007 had taken them from her special items. It was worth noting that supermarket food normally couldn’t be placed in one’s inventory, but she had acquired a special item capable of storing food—a mini-fridge.

Fatty muttered to himself as he took out a few eggs, "This thing is really useful. We don’t have to go to the supermarket for fresh ingredients every time we cook. On our way to take 007 back, we can stock up on a lot of food... Let’s make beef and fried eggs today."

Fatty scraped the crispy fried egg onto a disposable plate, then took out a beef steak, seasoned it, and began to fry it.

Beside him, a pot of porridge was bubbling.

When Gu Mian returned, he saw Fatty had already spread a perfectly square tablecloth on the ground—pink with white polka dots.

It felt very ceremonious.

Fatty was carefully placing a pot of steaming porridge in the center of the tablecloth, then setting out four bowls, and finally serving four plates of aromatic beef and fried eggs.

As for why Gu Mian could smell the aroma from so far away, it was because he saw 007 sticking her head out of the car door, sniffing the air repeatedly.

"Doctor, you’re back!" Fatty, sitting opposite, was the first to spot Gu Mian.

Gu Mian nodded slightly and walked towards them.

As expected, the brother had also gotten out of the car and was standing to one side, waiting for him.

Gu Mian looked at the somewhat thin man before him and sighed.

He returned to the Spirit Car, took the CD from the car seat, turned, and placed it in the hands of the man behind him. "If you like it, you can carry this thing around."

He was the Goddess’s brother, after all. Although the Human CD was indeed a life-saving tool, Gu Mian rarely needed it. Besides, using the CD once in the real world would destroy it, and the Goddess’s brother would disappear along with it.

Although the Goddess hadn’t exactly asked him to look after her brother, the man himself was so insistent on being his relative that Gu Mian didn’t have the heart to just erase him from existence.

The brother took the CD, looking somewhat confused, but that didn’t stop him from calling out to Gu Mian again, "Little sister."

"Can you only say ’little sister’?" Gu Mian felt a headache coming on. "Fine, whatever makes you happy."

Just like Xiao Hong couldn’t speak, the brother could only say ’little sister’ when he opened his mouth.

It was like a kitten meowing.

Later, they could try taking the Mind Amplifier off Xiao Hong’s neck and putting it on the brother to see if he had anything else to say.

He irritably sat down on the tablecloth Fatty had laid out. Just then, 007 also climbed down from the car. She looked up at Xiao Hong, whose face was still pressed against the rear window, "Isn’t she eating?"

007 didn’t know Xiao Hong’s identity.

Fatty, unsure how to persuade a ghost to eat fried eggs, hesitated for a moment before saying, "She’s not hungry."

"Is that so?" 007 nodded without further questions.

Fatty felt a little sheepish. They still had many meals to eat before they got 007 home; Xiao Hong couldn’t possibly skip all of them.

But directly telling 007 that Xiao Hong was a ghost seemed a bit...

Gu Mian picked up a fried egg and took a bite, then another, until he had stuffed the entire egg into his mouth.

But soon, something new caught Gu Mian’s attention.

The four players sitting on the tablecloth simultaneously received a game announcement.

Fatty opened his game panel with a puzzled expression. "That’s not right. Didn’t the announcement for the last instance collapse come out a while ago?"

Gu Mian also opened his panel, but he saw it wasn’t an instance collapse announcement this time, but a preview for a new event.

Following the extremely long instance collapse announcement after the Lantern Festival riddle event, this was the first game event since then.

[The world’s second major event, ’Dragon Boat Race,’ is about to descend on Earth]

[Event Venue: Please refer to the event ticket. Henceforth, to maintain fairness between game event regions, tickets will possess a teleportation function. Players holding tickets can be teleported to the event venue during the event time]

[Event Time: June 7th, 2019, from 7:00 to 24:00]

[Event Description: Teams of five players will compete against multiple other teams in a Dragon Boat Race.

Rankings will be determined by the time taken to reach the finish line, and prizes will be distributed according to rank.

Terrifying Evil Ghosts will be present in the competition waters. Interference between players will not be considered a foul.

Please participate with caution. Death during the event is permanent]

[Participation Conditions: The event area will be sealed off during the event. Only players holding tickets obtained from the advanced ticket booth may enter]