Global Collapse-Chapter 504 - 473: Give me 30 million, or else......_1

The Old World...

Gu Mian stroked his chin. Not a bad name. If time were rolled back a hundred years or so, to the warlord era of Republican China, it would have been a fittingly atmospheric name for a brothel.

Liu Ruyan had no idea her world had just been likened to an atmospherically named brothel.

She shoved her hands into her pockets. "I was an outcast in my own world. It wasn't until I came here that I realized this world suits me better. If I hadn't been born in my original world, I'd probably be a normal person, developing like anyone else."

She wouldn't have been branded a fugitive or a murderer.

"But when did you kill someone?" Gu Mian asked, stepping back a few paces and picking up a jar of strawberry jam from the table.

Liu Ruyan gave him a peculiar look. "You even know about that? I never told anyone else."

Liu Ruyan was unaware that Gu Mian had used the Prophecy Book to learn about her.

Seemingly uninterested in how Gu Mian knew, she paused before continuing, "I remember... I think I was fourteen."

"Fourteen?" Fatty looked surprised. "You were just a little girl then."

He had instinctively wanted to use "young maiden" for a fourteen-year-old, but looking at Liu Ruyan, it seemed she'd never had such a phase.

"People who are asleep are, of course, exceptionally easy to kill. All you have to do is grab something and smash it hard against their head. Even if it doesn't kill them, they can't move. Someone hit hard on the head will just writhe unconsciously; they can't resist whatever you do to them."

Hearing this, Fatty thought Liu Ruyan sounded like the kind of deviant who stalks people and attacks them when they least expect it.

"It must have been hard to find someone who slept that soundly..." Fatty murmured.

Liu Ruyan laughed. "There were two of them. Later, I burned the house down with them inside."

Two? Fatty looked puzzled at first. Then, as a horrifying thought struck him, his eyes widened. "You don't mean..."

"That's right," Liu Ruyan said, her smile unfaltering. "I broke the rules. If I hadn't acted first, they would have dragged me out onto the streets, paraded me around with a sign hung around my neck. I didn't want people spitting on me."

Fatty was terrified for a moment, but then understanding seemed to dawn on him. "You have a point. In your world, all relationships are pretty much the same. Parents and friends are hardly different from strangers... Still, I'm surprised you could kill so decisively."

"Because they were wrong, don't you think? A wrong world, wrong concepts—all wrongs should be thoroughly eradicated," Liu Ruyan said, still smiling.

Fatty felt a chill as he listened to Liu Ruyan's laugh; it sounded somewhat eerie. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"I don't think you were an outcast in your world," Gu Mian suddenly said from the side.

Fatty turned to see Gu Mian holding the jar of strawberry jam, looking at Liu Ruyan. "You're not an outcast. They abide by the Law Code; you abide by rules you set yourself. It's just a difference in ideology that led to conflict. If people followed your rules instead of the Law Code, I imagine you'd feel perfectly in sync with that world."

In essence, Liu Ruyan and the Old World were almost identical. She was practically made for this world: fanatical about rules, ruthless in eliminating violators, and utterly devoid of compassion. Not that compassion is needed in that world anyway.

"You're the first person to say that about me," Liu Ruyan said, her smile fading. "After I was caught, I managed to escape. It was successful, but as you can imagine, a little girl can't get very far. Within a week, I was recaptured. Everyone called me an outcast. Soon after, I was chosen to participate in a game."

"A game?" Fatty asked curiously. "Like this global game we're playing now?"

Liu Ruyan shook her head. "Of course not. Our world never suffered such a devastating blow... though I rather wish it had."

Sensing she had digressed, she continued, "It was a game like a battle royale, with all participants being children around my age. As I told you, the Old World wasn't very technologically advanced. There was no cloning or anything like Artificial Men.

"If someone wanted a high-quality child but couldn't produce one themselves, they had to choose from a large group of children. It was like breeding poisonous insects, and I was just one of them."

"And you succeeded," Gu Mian stated, recalling the "champion" title associated with Liu Ruyan.

"I succeeded, and I received my reward," Liu Ruyan said, a smile returning to her face. "The reward was being successfully brought to this world. I was the only one..."

"...And successfully sneaking into my room to turn the valve dozens of times," Gu Mian added.

Liu Ruyan fell silent.

A few seconds later, she spoke again, "Right, I came here the same year I committed those murders. So much happened that year... Oh, and the year I arrived here, I met a good friend. He liked murder and arson as much as I did..."

Fatty instinctively took a step back, suddenly feeling like the inn was at high risk of catching fire.

What a peculiar friendship...

"But he died later... or at least, I suppose he's dead..." Liu Ruyan seemed lost in her thoughts, standing motionless at the door.

"But seriously," Liu Ruyan paused for a long moment before speaking again, "if you ever get matched into an instance of the Old World, could you say hello for me? You know what I mean by 'say hello,' right?"

It seemed Liu Ruyan thoroughly detested her own world.

Gu Mian slammed the door shut with a SNAP, leaving Liu Ruyan outside.

"Doctor, I'm suddenly finding Miss Liu Ruyan quite terrifying," Fatty said, rubbing his arm where goosebumps had erupted.

Still rubbing his arm, Fatty asked timidly, "Doctor, can I sleep with you tonight?"

Gu Mian replied thoughtfully, "If you want to be hung from the ceiling, then sure."

Fatty shut his mouth.

"From what Liu Ruyan said, her situation is similar to Chu Changge's. They both come from Low-Dimensional Worlds, and only one person came here from each of those worlds," Gu Mian mused, rubbing his chin.

In that case, Xiao Qiao must be from another unknown world. Xie Bi'an too. Adding Fatty's highly suspicious father, that makes at least five Low-Dimensional Worlds. They each selected one person from their respective worlds to come to the real world, all to prevent the death of that person who looks identical to Gu Mian.

Of course, Gu Mian thought, that person could very well be him.

He thought about the game's two organizers, the assassination attempts he'd faced over the years, and the game compensations from the instances that were never paid out...

It could be concluded that all the assassination attempts over the past twenty years were orchestrated by Earth, while those Low-Dimensional Worlds are trying their best to keep me alive. It's the same with luck. Earth curses me with bad luck so I can't draw anything good, and the Low-Dimensional Worlds compensate me when an instance collapses? It looks like my being alive is beneficial to those worlds.

It appeared the lottery and the compensations were controlled by two different organizers.

Since the Low-Dimensional Worlds don't want him to die...

Lost in thought, Gu Mian grabbed a fruit knife from the coffee table, held it above his head, and yelled, "If I don't get thirty million, I'll kill myself!"

Chu Changge, sitting on the sofa, glanced up at Gu Mian brandishing the knife, then lowered his head and continued reading.

Fatty scurried over to Gu Mian, looking anxious. "That's too little! Ask for fifty million!"

Gu Mian was speechless.

Just then, there was another knock on the door. Fatty hurried to the door, peeked through the peephole, and saw it was Liu Ruyan again.

He opened the door curiously. "Miss Liu, is there something else?"

Liu Ruyan stood outside. "Not really. I just wanted to tell you to stop that female ghost in the red dress from playing her little tricks."

Gu Mian glanced at Xiao Hong, who was already halfway under the bed. Little tricks? She *is* a ghost.

"She can't find the windows of the residents downstairs," Liu Ruyan said, glancing at the brightly lit living room, then at the two bedrooms with their lights on. "They're not like you; they have no money. An electricity card is a luxury item for them, so those people never turn on their lights. They save what money they have for necessities; even then, it might not be enough for food."

As she said this, Liu Ruyan looked at Gu Mian. "Perhaps they'll freeze to death this winter."

Gu Mian recalled the game's initial premise—for the evolution of humanity.

But six months had passed, and not only had humanity failed to evolve, but large numbers had died. When Earth initiated this game, it didn't tell humanity that this was a contest.

Earth on one side, the Low-Dimensional Worlds on the other. Earth might have had most of the control over the game initially, but it has gradually lost its advantage over the past six months. The instances began to show mutations. More and more people died, but there was still no sign of any human evolution. If things continue like this, the outcome will probably be decided in about another six months.

"May I ask something?" Gu Mian looked at Liu Ruyan. "Is there some kind of conflict between Earth and your worlds?"

It feels like they're locked in a life-or-death struggle.

Liu Ruyan chuckled as she explained, "It's quite simple, actually. Low-Dimensional Worlds are afraid of high-dimensional worlds because high-dimensional ones possess the absolute power to destroy them.

"Take a Second World, for example. It's like a book. If someone in the Human World destroys that book, the world and everyone in it would instantly turn to ash and smoke. That's why Low-Dimensional Worlds are afraid of high-dimensional ones."

At this point, Liu Ruyan's voice grew somber. "But let me offer another analogy. You live in a peaceful, stable world, but Second Worlds are overrun by ghosts. Second Worlds are born from imagination; they contain fears and an uncanniness that don't exist in reality.

"Do creators fear their own creations? It's like when you write a ghost story. You know ghosts don't exist in this world, yet after writing it, you can't sleep at night.

"Then one day, you see a hand reach out from under your bed. You're horrified to realize that the fear and uncanniness you created are encroaching upon reality.

"Therefore, high-dimensional worlds are also afraid of us."