Global Collapse-Chapter 471 - 446: Class System of Copies in the Slave Society_1
"No need." Fatty eyed the direction where the female ghost had disappeared.
Between Xiao Qiao and Liu Ruyan, Gu Mian chose the former without hesitation. Given Liu Ruyan’s penchant for making waves, Gu Mian suspected she might drill a few holes in the dragon boat.
The activity started at seven in the morning, and it was one in the afternoon by the time they finished the third round.
So when Xiao Qiao appeared, the warm sun was hanging high above their heads.
The moment Xiao Qiao got on the boat, she was drawn to Chu Changge. She stared at Chu Changge’s face for a few seconds before spitting out two words, "Fake."
"What?" Fatty also looked at Chu Changge in confusion. "Brother Chu is fake?"
Fatty repeatedly checked Chu Changge’s player panel. "It’s real. The name on it clearly says Chu Changge."
As everyone knew, ghosts didn’t have player panels.
Xiao Qiao stared at Chu Changge’s face again and repeated, "Fake."
Fatty patted Chu Changge on the shoulder. "Brother Chu, say something."
That’s when he noticed the man in front of him had been eerily silent. Before Fatty could react, the man’s face suddenly withered. It turned as dry and wrinkly as old tree bark, as if all moisture had been sucked out of him.
His body also swiftly slimmed down, becoming skin and bones, looking like a mere skeleton.
Gu Mian heard the skeletal thing make a noise, and then it dove wildly into the water.
When he looked again, it had vanished completely.
Fatty stared at the water, swallowing hard. "Damn, was it really a ghost? Where did Brother Chu go?"
A calm voice came from behind him, "I’m here."
Fatty turned around to see a familiar face right in front of him. Just moments ago, he’d seen this face become all wrinkled from dehydration.
Gu Mian pushed Xiao Qiao towards the newly appeared Chu Changge. "Is this one real?"
Xiao Qiao stared at his face for a while before nodding. "It’s real."
Fatty, still shaken, looked at Chu Changge. "What just happened? A ghost impersonating Brother Chu... and I could even open the ghost’s player panel. How did you come back, Brother Chu?"
"I’m not sure. I just saw it jump in when I arrived," Chu Changge answered succinctly.
"Ah, then you don’t know what happened. Let me explain..." Fatty slapped his thigh.
Chu Changge quietly said, "You’ve already said that."
Fatty paused, recalling his last sentence. He realized he had indeed already summarized it.
"So what’s the situation now?" Gu Mian recalled the appearance of the ghost. "Are we playing Werewolf, where we need to kill the werewolves to find our real teammates? Is it only targeting us, or is it affecting other players too?"
Chu Changge adjusted his glasses. "If a ghost could impersonate me, it’s highly likely others could be impersonated too... What I mean is there might be other ghosts on our boat right now."
"Indeed there are." Gu Mian reached out and pulled up Xiao Hong, who was vigorously rowing the boat. Xiao Hong twisted his neck to look at them, his ugly face filled with confusion.
Then he reached out again and pulled up a soaked brother. "And there are two of them."
The brother Gu Mian had picked up looked up at him and shouted, "Sister!"
Chu Changge averted his gaze from the brother. "This proves that Gu Mian is real."
"Ah," Fatty rubbed his thigh. "So that means only Miss Xiao Qiao and I are suspects now."
Chu Changge looked at Fatty. "She’s real too."
Fatty didn’t quite understand how Chu Changge could verify identities just by looking. He paused for a few seconds before accepting Chu Changge’s judgment. "Then how do I prove myself?"
Gu Mian glanced at the two who had vouched for each other, then looked at Fatty. "Let’s do this: I’ll ask you a question. If you answer it correctly, it means you’re real."
"Alright, ask away." Fatty was already prepared to answer what color his underwear was today. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞
Gu Mian posed the question, "In third grade, you fell, ripped your pants during a long-distance race, and cried your eyes out. What place did you get in that race?"
"Third," Fatty answered reflexively, then he realized. "How did you know?"
Gu Mian gave him a meaningful look. "You talked in your sleep."
Fatty’s expression was one of revelation. "I talk about this in my sleep?"
Having confirmed Fatty’s identity, Gu Mian and the others continued at a steady pace.
Xiao Qiao was squatting next to Fatty. "I can’t believe you ripped your pants, cried while running, and still got third place!"
Just as Fatty scratched his head, preparing to brag, Gu Mian’s voice came through, "Because there were only four participants. Right, and the person in fourth place didn’t even show up that day because they had diarrhea."
Fatty’s neck stiffened. "Did I also say this in my sleep?"
Gu Mian didn’t reply, so Fatty crawled over to Chu Changge. "Brother Chu, do I talk in my sleep?"
Chu Changge looked at the paper in his hand and shook his head. "I don’t know."
Chu Changge had pulled out a pen and paper from somewhere and kept scribbling. Fatty didn’t hear what he wanted to; instead, he heard Chu Changge intently analyzing, "Now there are two possibilities. One is that only we encountered a ghost switch. The second is that all players have encountered this, although they may not have discovered it yet.
"If it’s the first possibility, the situation isn’t that serious. But if it’s the second, it means the game can now give many ghosts ’player’ identities. Future instances will be even more dangerous.
"And if it’s the second possibility, I guess this is a test. The game organizers are testing whether they can muddy the waters and sneak ghosts disguised with ’player’ identities into the real world."
Gu Mian remembered Mr. Green, whom he had carried out of the instance. "It seems NPCs aren’t too keen on entering the real world either."
Chu Changge capped his pen. "Mr. Green is considered a high-level NPC in the instance. He possesses independent thought and awareness of the existence of the instance world and the real world. But these ghosts are different. Class systems have existed since ancient times. To give an analogy, if Mr. Green is equivalent to a landlord in a slave society, then these ghosts are essentially slaves.
"High-level NPCs wouldn’t undertake such arduous and dangerous tasks themselves; instead, they dispatch underlings to test the waters."
Gu Mian suddenly felt Chu Changge was like a scholar researching *The Class System of Instances within a Slave Society*.
"Brother Chu, you really know a lot," Fatty leaned in.
Chu Changge continued, "Of course, this test might not succeed. There are at least two game organizers, and one of them absolutely doesn’t want to see such a situation happen. If many players are swapped, I suspect there might be a turning point in the next round. We’re down to the last round now, right?"
Indeed, only Liu Ruyan was not on the boat now.
