Global Collapse-Chapter 666 - 634: Oh, Isn’t this Chu Changge? Missing for several copies, what happened? _1

That Meiren Chu, a judge, knows an NPC in the instance? Wang Youcai turned to look. Could it be that this student encountered Meiren Chu's group before they met him?

Xu Xingcheng also looked up in the direction of the sound. He saw a man standing in the darkness not far away. It was Chu Changge. The judge was currently staring at him with a steady gaze.

Xu Xingcheng raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

Wang Youcai looked at the two standing opposite each other not far away and asked Chu Changge, "Do you recognize him?"

Chu Changge pushed up his glasses. "The name is on the school emblem."

Oh, right. Wang Youcai remembered that the student's school emblem did indeed say "Xu Xingcheng."

"I thought you knew him…" He didn't say the letters "NPC" out loud. After all, it was quite awkward to call someone an NPC in front of an unsuspecting student.

Meanwhile, Ye Weiwei was the first to notice something strange about Chu Changge. "Where are your teammates?"

At that moment, Chu Changge was standing alone in the darkness; his three teammates were nowhere to be seen.

"We decided to split up to be more efficient." The lenses of Chu Changge's glasses glinted a few times in the darkness.

Ye Weiwei frowned and said, "It's best not to split up in this situation. Just now, even when we were all together…"

She stopped mid-sentence. There was a local student from the instance nearby, so she couldn't directly mention seeing a ghost.

"Since there's nothing else, we'll leave first," Wang Youcai said. "You guys be careful too. This place… is very dangerous."

With that, he led the other two away.

Watching the three figures disappear, the previously silent Xu Xingcheng finally laughed. "Well, well, if it isn't Chu Changge. Haven't seen you in a few instances. Gotten this pathetic, have we?"

Chu Changge silently watched Xu Xingcheng, who wasn't far away.

Including this time, this NPC has appeared three times in total. The first time was in the High School Urban Legends: Spirited Away instance, and the second time was in the Close Your Eyes instance. It's worth mentioning that this NPC died in the Close Your Eyes instance, but now he appears perfectly fine in this current instance, and each time as a student. In the previous two instances, this person seemed normal. But this time, he seems to have awakened some incredible attribute; his entire tone and demeanor have changed. Moreover, judging by his words, he clearly remembers what happened in the previous instances. What's going on? Has Xu Xingcheng upgraded from a cannon fodder NPC to a high-level NPC with memories of past instances? Chu Changge had never heard of such a thing.

"Who are you?" Chu Changge frowned, looking at him.

Xu Xingcheng didn't seem to be an ordinary NPC. Although he had appeared in three instances, he was different from Coach Che, the wandering odd-jobber. In the first two instances, he was just a minor character, not even realizing he was an NPC. But now, it was as if he'd become enlightened, much smarter.

"Came to spy on Gu Mian," Xu Xingcheng plopped down on a stone bench in the pavilion, resting his cheek on his hand. "If I'm unlucky enough to get caught, I'll negotiate my compensation for emotional distress with him. Oh, and also the payment for the statue."

Upon hearing this, Chu Changge instantly confirmed the other's identity. "Slaughter."

A few seconds later, he narrowed his eyes slightly. "An avatar?"

"Of course, it's an avatar, a stupid one," Xu Xingcheng said, standing up and twirling around. "After all, my true self isn't in this world, so the avatars projected here tend to be a bit… defective. When I first arrived, I had complete amnesia. It wasn't until I died and resurrected that I remembered the important stuff."

At this, Xu Xingcheng seemed to recall something. "Gu Mian might not like this avatar of mine. But no matter, I don't have a gender anyway. Next time, I'll send out a beautiful woman to seduce him. Surely he wouldn't bring himself to chop me up then, right?"

Chu Changge, not wanting to listen to his nonsense, directly changed the subject. "Was what you told Wang Youcai and the others just now true?"

"Of course, it's true. Even though I'm the avatar of a big shot, I'm still diligently playing my role as an NPC… Speaking of which, it's thanks to my brooch, otherwise, it really would have been hard to find Gu Mian. But… does he have another anchor on him? I sensed it."

Chu Changge recalled the grey-haired man who only ever cried out for his sister. "It's an anchor of the Doctrine Goddess."

"Ah, so it's that Holy Daughter," Xu Xingcheng mused, sitting on the stone bench. "Is Gu Mian working on another case?"

Chu Changge nodded.

"Anyway, he doesn't need my hints, so I won't go wander over to his side. Don't want him pulling out that precious chainsaw of his to hack me to bits. You don't need my hints either, right?" Xu Xingcheng tilted his head, looking at Chu Changge.

Chu Changge let out a rare, cold laugh. "HEH."

Gu Mian, on the other side, was unaware that Chu Changge was currently beaming with a happy smile. He was crouched opposite the pumpkin ornament shop, explaining Li Shu's rhetorical traps to Bai Lu.

"He's been deceiving us from the very beginning and cleverly used another lie to divert our attention."

Bai Lu recalled Li Shu's words in the hospital room. "You mean… his unnatural expression when he mentioned the video was deliberately put on for us to see?"

"Exactly," Gu Mian nodded. "That way, we'd focus all our attention on the video, filled with high hopes that it would prove he was the murderer. Wasn't that what you were thinking at the time?"

Bai Lu pursed her lips and nodded awkwardly. "Yes, I was indeed thinking that at the time."

Seeing Li Shu evasively trying to prevent them from watching the video, Bai Lu's first thought was that it contained highly incriminating evidence against him, possibly directly proving he was the murderer.

"But after watching the video, our expectations would be dashed. We'd realize we had misunderstood him; we'd discover he had merely abandoned his friend and fled. Compared to murder, this is just a small mistake. Then, we might feel a slight sense of guilt for misunderstanding Li Shu, and simultaneously drop our suspicions about him. You'd think he was lying only to cover up a small mistake, thereby overlooking other potential lies in Li Shu's words. That's misdirection."

Bai Lu looked at Gu Mian. "Yes, after discovering Li Shu had merely abandoned his friend and run off, I didn't suspect his words contained any other lies at all… But how did you know for sure he was lying?"

"Li Shu's home surveillance camera, installed opposite his front door," Gu Mian began. "You should know that besides surveillance, cameras serve another purpose."

What? Bai Lu looked at Gu Mian.

"Deterrence," Gu Mian said, raising a finger. "Most burglars planning a break-in will stop if they see a camera at the front door. It warns them: 'I'm watching you. Don't try anything.' Li Shu's camera was installed directly opposite his front door, almost as if it was set up specifically to film the scene inside the house on the day of the incident. This indicates Li Shu and the others already knew Yuan Haotian might do something, so they deliberately used a camera to warn Yuan Haotian not to act rashly. Also, did you notice? In the video, when Li Shu's neighbors rushed into his house to subdue Yuan Haotian, Yuan Haotian didn't accidentally injure anyone. Even though he had a knife, he was easily overpowered by neighbors armed with various cleaning tools. I don't think someone truly frenzied would act like that. He most likely discovered some evidence related to the arson, or perhaps even got a confession directly from Li Shu and the others, which is why he stormed into their house and did what he did."

"You mean Li Shu and the other two are not only the arsonists but also went to flaunt their 'victory' in Yuan Haotian's face after the fire?" Bai Lu felt a surge of anger rising from the soles of her feet.

"Correct," Gu Mian nodded. "They were careful and left no evidence. But after the incident, they would buy things identical to what Yuan Haotian owned to provoke him. If investigated, they'd say, 'These aren't Yuan Haotian's things; I just bought them new. It's just a coincidence.' By the way, do you remember that friend Li Shu mentioned?"

Bai Lu nodded. "Chen Yao?"

"Yes. According to Li Shu, his first two meetings with Yuan Haotian were both because of Chen Yao. The first time, Chen Yao invited them to a party. The second time, Chen Yao asked if they wanted to buy travel packages. But if my theory is correct, it wasn't Chen Yao who initiated these; it was Li Shu and his group. The first time, Li Shu heard Yuan Haotian would be at Chen Yao's party, so he took the initiative to go. The second time, Li Shu and his group heard Yuan Haotian's company had travel packages available, so they proactively went to buy them. As long as we find this Chen Yao, we can verify if our theory is correct."

Bai Lu felt the anger blaze all the way to the top of her head. "If your theory is correct, then Li Shu and those two are psychopaths? What kind of grudge did Yuan Haotian have with them for them to target him like this?"

Gu Mian laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them. "There's no logic to be found in the world of psychopaths. They often do whatever comes to mind, whether there's a grudge involved or not."

"When did you first realize something was off with Li Shu?" Xie Bi'an suddenly asked from the side.

Gu Mian turned his head and glanced at him. "I noticed it back in the hospital."

That early? Bai Lu's expression was strange.

"That book, 'The Vanishing Murderer'," Gu Mian said.

"Just because he was reading that kind of book, you suspected he was a psychopath?" Bai Lu felt that was a bit of a stretch.

"No," Gu Mian shook his head. "It was when he was reading that book right in front of us, and then brazenly pushed it towards us, that I got a certain feeling. A very familiar one."

What kind of feeling? Bai Lu looked at Gu Mian.

"A kind of 'I'm the murderer, so what can you do about it?' feeling. I once encountered a psychopath in a taxi instance who also had that 'I'm the murderer, but you can't do a damn thing to me' look all over his face."

Of course, it was also because Gu Mian had been abducted by numerous psychopaths throughout his childhood and adolescence, so his radar for detecting them was exceptionally sensitive.

Listening to Gu Mian's explanation, Bai Lu felt the anger inside her flare up. She wished she could rush back to the courtroom right then, snatch Gu Mian's gavel, and declare the defendant innocent.

But before the gavel in her imagination could fall, she saw the judge, who had been resting his chin on his hand, suddenly reach out and grab the cloaked man beside him.

"Here it comes again," she heard Gu Mian say.

Then, Bai Lu felt a horrifying chill creep up from behind her. She mechanically turned her head and came face-to-face with half of a dead man's face.