Global Collapse-Chapter 524 - 493: The Cat-Like Boy, Gu BengBeng_1
The viewers never expected that after Gu Mian kicked over his own camera, he would appear in someone else’s frame.
The moment they recognized Gu Mian, they subconsciously assumed he had been brought back by the program crew.
But after witnessing Gu Mian land a punch straight to a man’s jaw, dislocating it, the viewers gradually realized that he most likely returned on his own.
Had he returned just to dislocate someone’s jaw?
Gu Mian initially hadn’t planned to do anything. Unexpectedly, as soon as the men saw him, they reached out towards him. Had they added the line, "Come keep your lord and master company," they would have seemed like a gang of vicious thugs intent on kidnapping innocent women.
Naturally, Gu Mian wouldn’t allow himself to be kidnapped. He immediately extended his own fist of justice.
The people in this village could only bully the old, weak, sick, and disabled. They surely couldn’t defeat someone like Gu Mian, who had been undergoing extreme sports training since birth. In no time, the few of them were knocked to the ground.
Gu Mian contemptuously kicked at the people on the ground, clearing a space for him to stand. He then leaned over to look inside through the window, only to find Accompany me next year with an expression as though she had seen a ghost.
He rotated his neck to scan the surroundings. Not finding Chu Changge, he instead spotted a few cameramen in a corner of the room.
At that moment, their expressions were not much different from Accompany me next year’s—they all looked as if they had seen a ghost.
"Ah," Gu Mian exclaimed in surprise, "I didn’t notice you guys just now."
Immediately, he climbed in through the window and, one by one, kicked over their cameras.
Several cameramen tried to gang up on Gu Mian, but when a huge chainsaw was revealed, they all fell silent. The night became quiet, punctuated only by occasional screams.
Having swiftly dealt with the group of cameramen, Gu Mian looked at Accompany me next year, who still had a strange expression on her face. "Where are the other two?"
Accompany me next year quickly replied, glancing at the cameramen lying neatly on the floor, "They didn’t come back today."
Gu Mian remembered that Chu Changge was assigned cleaning duties. This run-down village wasn’t small; if it needed cleaning, it was certainly enough work to wear someone out.
Thinking back to Su Xiaocha’s experience, could Chu Changge now be forced to clean latrines?
"That being said," Gu Mian took a step back, distancing himself from Accompany me next year. "Why do you smell so bad?"
Accompany me next year had spent the day wading around in a stinking ditch and hadn’t changed her clothes. The program crew probably didn’t let her change into clean clothes just to laugh at them.
A hint of envy was discernible in her glance towards Gu Mian. "Of course you wouldn’t understand our hardships since you ran away before you could experience them..."
It wasn’t that Gu Mian was unaware of everyone’s suffering. He remembered Su Xiaocha’s ordeal with the "Curry Rice" quite clearly.
"I’m not wasting any more time talking to you. I need to find the others. See you later." Saying this, Gu Mian turned towards the door. The cameramen had just filmed him, so it wouldn’t be long before the program crew arrived with a large group to capture him.
Gu Mian worried that if an entire company of people were to arrive, he might be crushed.
At this moment, Accompany me next year, who was behind him, suddenly spoke up, "Aren’t you afraid that once you run away, you won’t be able to get out? Or are you prepared to commit suicide?"
Gu Mian’s eyebrows twitched. Commit suicide? What a joke! If I died by suicide, I’d really be dead.
Accompany me next year didn’t know the rule that the first-place winner of each previous term would be kept in this instance. As Gu Mian headed towards the door, he explained to her, "According to reliable information, this instance keeps the champion of each term in this world. Suicide won’t let you leave either."
By now, he had opened the door. The night breeze slowly blew into the room from outside. The thatch on the eaves swayed, making a rustling sound.
In the dim night, Accompany me next year’s eyes widened. "How is that possible!"
She had wholeheartedly believed in the game’s mechanics; the rules had explicitly stated that death within an instance had no connection to reality! It was never mentioned that an instance could detain players! At the very least, all the instances she had previously experienced strictly adhered to these two rules.
After hearing what Gu Mian had to say, the faint glimmer of hope in her heart dimmed somewhat.
Gu Mian stepped outside. "Whether you believe it or not, we’ve already experienced an instance that devoured players, and another that disabled the death protection mechanism. We’ve had a really unlucky streak."
The night wind chilled Accompany me next year, and though his words were hard to believe, she instinctively felt he wasn’t lying.
This bizarre global game had been shrouded in mystery from the start. She had a hunch that it wouldn’t be long before this secret would be discovered by more players.
If more and more instances were to cancel their protection mechanisms, then these instances...
Would they turn into a feast of death?
And when she thought about the terrifyingly high death rate of the instances, Accompany me next year felt a chill in her heart.
Just as Gu Mian had taken a few steps out the door, Accompany me next year’s voice, somewhat hesitant, came from behind him again: "Aren’t you afraid of being trapped in this world forever?"
Gu Mian turned around and met her doubtful gaze.
Accompany me next year didn’t believe anyone would willingly stay in this world full of malice.
She watched as the man who had already stepped outside paused, seemingly pondering something. A few seconds later, he asked with genuine seriousness, "Why be afraid?"
His tone was genuinely earnest, without a hint of pretense.
Of course, it’s fear of what might happen to you in the next second! Fear of what disgusting ideas those malicious people will come up with next!
Accompany me next year’s mouth twitched violently. She felt deeply unlucky to have such an obtuse teammate. Do people this dense really exist in the world? Is he sure he didn’t escape from a mental hospital?
This guy would probably ask his teammates, "Why are you running?" even if he encountered a ghost in a normal instance.
"Forget it, just run," Accompany me next year said, suddenly standing up. "Damn it, I’m running too. Let’s split up."
As she spoke, she picked a longer piece from the remaining scraps of cloth and stuffed it into her pocket. "I need to find a place to hang myself while it’s deep in the night and quiet. You’re on your own."
In the end, the two of them went their separate ways.
Gu Mian didn’t try to stop his makeshift teammate from running off to find a place to die. As he watched Accompany me next year leave, he also checked on Chu Changge’s whereabouts. He learned that Chu Changge was currently pinned down by a box of rats.
"Rat torture: you put rats in a box open at one end. Then, you secure the open end against the person’s abdomen. Next, you heat the top of the box, raising the temperature inside. To escape the heat, the rats will continuously dig downwards, burrowing holes into the person and entering their body. Most people are still alive when the rats burrow in, able to clearly feel how the rats move through their intestines," Chu Changge narrated, watching the rats in the transparent glass box on his own body.
A short distance away, a few children were starting a fire with dry twigs. "This guy is so stoic. Do you think he’ll scream in pain later?"
"If he screams loud enough, we’ll let him go. Anyway, they’ll only dig for a bit; it won’t kill him. Let’s see how miserably he screams!"
The scene was filled with cameramen, their lenses mostly focused on the rats in the transparent box.
Reading the messages in the cheat group, Gu Mian sucked in a sharp breath. He typed back, "Sounds pretty terrifying. Don’t worry, I’ll go eat those rats in a bit."
