Global Collapse-Chapter 498 - 468: Gu Mian Online_1

"I can explain why this photo is here," Chu Changge said, adjusting his broken glasses.

Fatty turned his gaze upon hearing this. "Brother Chu, you sound like a scummy boyfriend caught red-handed by his girlfriend's parents," he teased.

Fatty even imagined Chu Changge pushing up his glasses and saying, "I can explain why we're here. She's just my sister."

Gu Mian figured Chu Changge would probably try to fob them off with a lie. Although it wasn't very nice to say, telling blatant lies with a straight face was indeed his usual style.

Unexpectedly, this time Chu Changge spoke the truth.

At least, it sounded like the truth. Gu Mian felt Chu Changge wouldn't make up a lie this bizarre.

"I've been in a laboratory for as long as I can remember. Initially, I was housed alone in a transparent, person-high container. Many other children were also housed in similar containers. The room was filled with these densely packed transparent containers, each holding one person. Many adults surrounded us; they were silent and always taking notes, though I didn't know what they were recording.

"At first, my neighbor was an embryo, the size of a fingernail. His container was filled with an unknown liquid, and during my free time, I would watch that fingernail-sized thing floating inside.

"Later, he gradually grew into a baby. That's when I realized I was born the same way.

"You know, children don't understand anything if no one teaches them. We didn't know what parents were, or what lay outside the room. No one taught us to speak, so we couldn't. Then, gradually, some children started dying.

"Everyone was silent. I often woke up to see a child in a container lying completely still, who would then be removed by the adults. Back then, we didn't understand what death was.

"Like an invisible plague, children in the containers would die inexplicably. Some would suddenly contract strange illnesses and be taken away. Once, I heard a few adults talking about 'genetic defects.' That was the first time I heard others speak. Although I had no idea what it meant at the time, I remembered it."

Just then, Gu Mian saw Xiao Hong sneakily peeking out from the corner.

Chu Changge paused for a moment then continued, "I can't quite recall how many people died in the end... When most of the children in that room's containers had died, the adults noticed me because I was smart. Even if I only heard a conversation once, and even if I didn't understand its meaning, I could mimic it perfectly, repeating it verbatim. The children in the other containers still couldn't speak; they could only make occasional whimpering sounds, and no one knew what they were trying to express.

"They took me out of the container and taught me to read and write. They discovered I learned incredibly fast, whether it was studying or anything else; I could remember almost anything completely after seeing it just once. I still remember the look in their eyes back then. I didn't understand its meaning at the time, but now I do..."

Chu Changge seemed to reminisce at this point, pausing for two seconds before continuing, "I was what they had been anticipating all along.

"Only then did I realize that outside the white room was just another white room. I spent many years in those rooms. Strangely, my growth rate was very slow during my childhood.

"I once thought this was because I also had a genetic defect, but I later learned they had designed us that way. They designed us to grow slowly in childhood to ensure enough time for testing and knowledge acquisition... As for any side effects, those are still unknown.

"For those few years, I lived continuously in white rooms. The first time I saw the sky was at the entrance of an orphanage."

As Chu Changge said this, Gu Mian remembered the first time he had seen Chu Changge.

The weather was beautiful that day. The dean was standing at the orphanage entrance, holding the hand of an expressionless child in a frilly, colorful dress, telling them a new friend had arrived.

Gu Mian remembered that the child in the dress hadn't looked at them, but had kept staring at the sky.

That damned, garish dress had fooled Gu Mian for years!

"By the way, Brother Chu..." Fatty cautiously leaned in. Although Chu Changge showed no signs of sadness, Fatty decided to choose his words carefully. "Why were you released? Did those adults have some objective?"

Chu Changge reached out and picked up the photo of the gloomy Gu Mian from the table. "For this person. Back then, they gave me a stack of photos of this person, from childhood to adulthood. They said this person must not die."

Ignoring the outlandish elements in Chu Changge's story, Gu Mian looked at the photo in Chu Changge's hand and said, "Don't you think you might have found the wrong person...?"

Although this person looked exactly like him, a closer look revealed they were clearly not the same.

Besides, Chu Changge had seen adult photos of this person back then, so it definitely couldn't have been Gu Mian.

Chu Changge actually nodded. "I did consider that. But aside from you, I couldn't find anyone else who looked exactly like the person in the photos, so I just..."

He paused for a moment before saying, "decided to give up on finding the perfect match and settled."

What a way to "settle"! Gu Mian felt his young heart had suffered a tremendous blow.

"'Settle for what?'" Fatty immediately raised his hand to declare, "In my heart, the Doctor is always the best, not someone to be 'settled' for!"

After making his declaration, Fatty asked curiously again, "Brother Chu, is what you said really true?"

Chu Changge nodded.

Fatty asked again, "Then did those people tell you why this person couldn't die? And isn't it a bit much to send a child out to save the day? They should have sent an adult, or at least a few more people. What's the deal with sending a kid?"

Chu Changge suddenly said something bizarre, "Because they can't get out."

Can't get out? Fatty was somewhat puzzled.

Then Chu Changge's voice continued in his ear, "They don't belong to this world. They... are in an instance."

...

That night, Gu Mian's mind was full of transparent containers as he slept. At times, these transparent containers transformed into terrifying-looking instances, all clamoring to rule the Earth.

These images were so grotesque that, in the middle of the night, he suddenly felt something crawl into his bed.

Using the moonlight from the window, Gu Mian lifted his blanket and saw a face that could scare someone to tears.

It was Xiao Hong.

"Still as ugly as ever, no matter when I look at you..."

Gu Mian muttered, hugging the ugly head and going back to sleep.

When Gu Mian woke up the next morning, he found Xiao Hong had been hung from the ceiling light by someone.