Global Collapse-Chapter 451 - 426: Abstract Artist_1

The terrifying female ghost loomed behind the Fortune-teller.

The Fortune-teller glanced at the ghost, then turned her head nervously to stare at the referee in front of her, wondering when this man with a whistle in his mouth would finally disappear.

Mingyue had already run off quickly, and by this point, the Fortune-teller could no longer see her figure.

Dangerous times are always excruciatingly long.

Her eyes were glued to the referee in front of her. She wasn't sure when it would be safe for her to continue running. Gu Mian's syrup only held off the ghost for half a minute, and she could even hear an invisible clock ticking away inside her, constantly reminding her that time was passing.

Luckily, the referee didn't linger for too long. A few seconds after Mingyue's figure disappeared, the Fortune-teller saw the man in the black T-shirt in front of her begin to turn transparent. Then, she realized she could move forward again.

Without any hesitation, the Fortune-teller sprinted forward.

At this moment, Fatty and Chu Changge, who were not being pursued by the ghost, had already met up.

The two were in a taxi, heading towards the staff dormitory where Gu Mian and Fatty lived.

Fatty, sitting in the back seat, stared quizzically at Chu Changge beside him. "Brother Chu, why are we going to our staff dormitory? Shouldn't we go meet up with the Doctor and the others now?"

"Even if we go now, it wouldn't matter much to Gu Mian," Chu Changge said, glancing at the driver ahead. "However, there might be some clues in your staff dormitory..." He trailed off, considering whether directly mentioning the ghost would make him sound like a lunatic.

Despite believing that going back to the dorm wouldn't make much difference, Fatty obediently followed Chu Changge to the dormitory building.

"Did you bring the Key?" Chu Changge asked as he stepped into the dark stairwell.

Fatty, following behind him, nodded. "I did, but there should be someone in the dorm right now, right?"

"Actually, I have a theory," Chu Changge said as he ascended the stairs. "The ghost in this instance is always moving, trying to escape the instance's control. So, it won't kill easily when players aren't in the instance. This is because it's uncertain if it has successfully hidden its identity by possessing a corpse. If it has indeed hidden its identity, killing someone might expose it, and all its previous efforts would be wasted."

Fatty had already reached the door and was taking out his Key. "So the ghost doesn't kill when not in an instance period; it just wanders around wearing a corpse. Then, when it finds out the instance has teleported players near it again, it knows it failed to hide successfully last time, so it starts killing to find the next body it can control?"

Fatty inserted the Key into the lock, turned it, and opened the door.

The door opened a crack; the room was pitch black and unlit.

It seems like the person inside is asleep...

Just as Fatty was about to say something, he suddenly caught a faint, putrid smell.

The smell streamed out from the crack in the door, like the stench of a decaying animal.

Fatty held his breath. Is it a rotting corpse?

Beside him, Chu Changge seemed unaffected by the smell. With his usual composure, he pushed the door open, fumbled for the switch on the wall, and with a CLICK, turned on the dormitory's overhead light.

The four beds in the room were empty. Only a pale arm protruded from under one bed, as if the murderer had forgotten to stuff this hand under the bed. The strange smell seemed to originate from here.

Fatty gulped and, after mentally preparing himself, squatted down beside Chu Changge. He took a moment before lifting the bedsheet. The stench assaulted his nostrils. Fatty squinted and looked underneath, seeing a man lying there. Although he was good-looking, he was now just a handsome corpse.

"It's Liu Jie!" Fatty instantly recognized the man. "The Doctor's colleague, the one who traded on his looks, was still alive this morning! Why does he stink so badly?"

At that, he suddenly understood. So Liu Jie died a long time ago, and the ghost has been using his body?

Chu Changge nodded. "Previously, customers at the café mentioned that Gu Mian and his colleagues wouldn't easily give their contact information to customers. However, two of Gu Mian's business cards were found at the deceased Wang Xin's residence. That can only mean someone took Gu Mian's business cards and intentionally placed them in the dead person's hands." The most probable suspect would be his roommate.

"Having used Liu Jie's identity to survive for so long, it should have left some clues," Chu Changge said, standing up and looking towards Liu Jie's bed. "Perhaps what it knew was recorded in some form, though the possibility isn't high."

Fatty understood. "So, we came here to find clues this time."

He acted quickly. Without waiting for Chu Changge's instructions, he began to search the corpse in front of him. "Important things are naturally carried on one's person... but he doesn't seem to have anything on him."

Saying this, Fatty stood up and began to search the bed in front of him. "If I were hiding something, I'd put it under the mattress or in the pillow. I used to hide my allowance there back in the day, though my dad eventually found out and gave me a good beating..."

Meanwhile, Chu Changge had already stood before a locked cabinet. "This should be Liu Jie's cabinet."

Having found nothing, Fatty turned his head and saw a small, bright yellow lock on the cabinet—the kind you could buy at a convenience store for five yuan.

Fatty was no stranger to picking locks. He immediately set to work on the five-yuan padlock. It wasn't long before the small lock opened with a CLICK.

The two of them pulled open the cabinet.

There wasn't much inside, just a few symbolic stacks of clothes.

Chu Changge reached beneath these clothes and, at the very bottom of the stack, found an A4 sheet of paper.

"What's this?" Fatty looked curiously at what Chu Changge had pulled out. He certainly recognized A4 paper.

However, this sheet of paper was covered with writing done with a black gel pen.

A closer look revealed they weren't words, but drawings.

The entire sheet was filled with strange little symbols—each a circle, with a simple shape like a stick figure's body drawn beneath it. The paper was packed densely with these stick figures.

"Are these stick figures?" Fatty immediately recognized the symbols filling the entire paper. "Was this ghost just idling its time away drawing stick figures and then neurotically hiding them in its locker?"

Although the lines were extremely crude, Fatty felt his scalp tingle as he looked at these densely packed stick figures.

What does this have to do with the instance?

At this point, Chu Changge looked at Fatty. "This thing can't be taken out of the instance. Where's your camera? Photograph it."

He was referring to Fatty's special item, the [Strange Camera], which could photograph invisible ghosts and could only be used once a day.

Of course, it could also be used for selfies or landscape photos. Fatty took out his camera and turned it on.

The first photo in the album was Gu Mian's handsome face, with a ghost face—the assassin's face—peeking out from the window behind him. However, not long ago, it had been neatly placed on Gu Mian's bedside table, never to be seen again.

Fatty raised his camera towards the paper in Chu Changge's hand and CLICKED. Of course, no ghost was captured; everything in the photo looked normal.

He looked at the camera screen. Truly an abstract master painter...

The Fortune-teller, sprinting through the darkness, had already spotted the shopping mall ahead. She was instantly overjoyed and pushed herself to run even faster.

The Fortune-teller, now moving at double speed, had caught up with Mingyue. The two were now running almost side-by-side. Although the ghost behind them had been delayed for half a minute, it had still caught up and was now less than three meters away.

The Fortune-teller was still about a hundred meters from the shopping mall entrance; there was no way she could make it before the ghost caught her.

Mingyue's stamina was nearly depleted. She was still forcing herself to run, but she didn't know when it would end and felt a growing despair.

The Fortune-teller's goal was clear—the shopping mall ahead—so her strides were much more forceful.

Mingyue, panting heavily, looked at the person beside her, somewhat surprised by her abundant energy. "If we keep on like this, the ghost will definitely catch us. Why don't we split up? It's better for one of us to die than for both of us to perish."

The Fortune-teller didn't even turn her head. "That's not what you said when you held me back earlier."

She said this as she continued to sprint forward.

But Mingyue reached out and forcefully grabbed the Fortune-teller's clothes. "Wait for me."