Global Collapse-Chapter 672 - 639: A Short - _1

The video frame froze on the boy's vacant smile.

Wang Youcai quietly stared at the smartphone screen, his gaze lingering on this face of despair.

Before he realized it, an intense chill had enveloped him. The sensation of looming danger made Wang Youcai's hair stand on end.

He looked up to spot a hand reaching out from the corner of the wall, the ghostly figure standing behind him reflected on the glass window. A drop of blood fell from above. He looked up to see a ghost face, hanging down from the ceiling, grinning at him.

Go now!

Hurry up!

He seemed to hear their urging voices.

They demanded the judge's verdict.

They sought revenge.

Surrounded by their heavy resentment, Wang Youcai trudged towards his courtroom.

He needed to make the final verdict.

Quickly, he arrived at the court's entrance, pushing the door open under the malicious stares of the three ghosts.

He stepped forward, approaching the judge's seat.

Liu Ben was sitting motionless behind the small table in the middle of the court, his gaze still lowered.

Wang Youcai observed the man behind the table.

Barely in his forties, Liu Ben's hair was streaked with far too many grays. His hands were dark and rough, clearly hands that had seen much hard labor. His right index finger was slightly crooked, as if it had once been smashed by machinery...

This tragic man had endured decades of hardship and had now lost his child.

Wang Youcai slowly reached for the small gavel on the table, then gripped it firmly.

Then he felt a chill on his shoulder.

He knew it was a threat from the ghosts.

To survive, to avoid being killed by these vengeful spirits, he had to sentence this pitiful man to death...

Wang Youcai lifted the gavel, his voice trembling as he began, "I pronounce—"

The oppressive feeling from the surroundings intensified, making it almost impossible to breathe.

In this suffocating atmosphere, he suddenly recalled Ye Weiwei's expression right before her death.

As she faced death, her face bore an out-of-place expression of hope and anticipation. What was she thinking then? How did she feel when she turned over the evidence to him?

Ye Weiwei and Ye Qianqian had used their last breath to deliver the evidence to him. What had they chosen?

Thinking about Ye Weiwei's actions before the ghost dragged her away, Wang Youcai already had his answer.

Another hand, icy and making him shudder, gripped his shoulder.

He felt a horrifying sensation creeping up his neck.

Wang Youcai closed his eyes.

Survive like this? Were the sacrifices of three individuals just for him to scrape by?

He thought of the wide-open mouths in the video, of Ye Weiwei's hopeful eyes before her death, of the boy's despairing smile at the end. He remembered seeing the same expression on another boy, just before the Global Game began.

The pressure on his body suddenly increased, seeming to compel him to make a decision.

"No!" he suddenly refused loudly.

"I refuse!

I refuse to extinguish my conscience!

I refuse to let other players pay with their lives in vain!

I refuse to issue a verdict against my will under this disgusting coercion!

I refuse this court without conscience!

I refuse... this path to survival."

Will anyone know?

Will anyone remember?

Will anyone remember a group of players who naively sacrificed their lives to uphold their conscience?

Will anyone know that there was a group of people who resolutely walked towards death, even when they knew the path to survival?

But none of that mattered anymore.

No need for anyone to know or remember.

As long as their own consciences were clear, that was enough. It was enough if, as their lives neared their end, they could look back with satisfaction, having wronged neither the world nor any person.

He lifted the small gavel in his hand and slammed it down hard on the table. "I declare him not guilty!"

As soon as his words fell, an overwhelming sense of oppression began to envelop him from all sides.

His vision dimmed, and a chilling cold seeped into his body.

He knew he was about to die.

Feeling the rolling anger around him, he suddenly burst into loud, relieved laughter.

"HAHAHA, it's good to die, good to die..."

The laughing man was instantly swallowed up. There was no more sound in the courtroom.

Gu Mian, who had just arrived downstairs at the courthouse, sensed something and looked up.

"What's wrong?" Bai Lu asked anxiously.

"Nothing," Gu Mian said, retracting his gaze and continuing to drag the person he held. "It seemed like I heard someone laughing."

A wild laugh.

Bai Lu paid no mind to the laugh Gu Mian mentioned; her attention was entirely focused on the man Gu Mian was dragging. It was Li Shu.

He had been punched in the face by Gu Mian in the hospital and then dragged here.

His expression was still shocked, as if he didn't understand why his two roommates hadn't appeared.

"Cao Deren? Zhang Shengli?" Li Shu was still flailing, continuously calling his two roommates' names.

But no one answered him.

Sensing the situation was turning bad, Coach Che had already slipped into the courthouse like a wisp of smoke. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Bai Lu heard him mumbling as he ran, "Who ever heard of a judge dragging the victim into court? I can't let him get away with this."

It looked like he was going to get reinforcements.

"My two roommates must already be waiting for you in the courtroom. I can't wait to see your faces when you see them!" Li Shu continued to roar loudly.

Gu Mian ignored him and dragged the man straight through the main entrance.

Unexpectedly, as they boarded the elevator, Li Shu, still in Gu Mian's grip, became even more frantic, "HAHAHA! You only dared to punch me to vent your anger. Even if you want to declare Yuan Haotian innocent, will the others agree?"

He gazed maliciously at Bai Lu and the others as he spoke, "If your judge declares someone innocent out of selfish desire, you'll all have to die with him! My two friends will kill all of you!

"You will lose your lives because you have a saintly judge! Look at this man; he's willing to sacrifice himself to declare Yuan Haotian not guilty, but he didn't consider any of you!

"He wants to uphold his grand sense of righteousness, but he's dragging you all down with him! Are you willing? Are you willing to die for this man's erroneous judgment?!

"Kill him! Kill him and become the judge yourself! Then only he will die!"

Overwhelmed by emotion, Bai Lu's chest heaved.

At this moment, Gu Mian turned to look at her. "What's your choice? Do you want to choose the path to survival, or the other one?"

Bai Lu was startled; she hadn't expected Gu Mian to suddenly ask her this question.

But she hesitated for only half a second before speaking firmly, "I don't want to take this path to survival. Even if the mission fails, even if I might die here, I don't want to take this path given by the instance...

"I had loved ones too, but they died in an instance long ago. Some died trying to save me; some died trying to distract the ghosts.

"I know they were like Yuan Haotian, willing to do anything for me. So, I'm not afraid of death anymore!"

At this, she glared hard at Li Shu, "I just want... him to die."

Just then, the elevator stopped.

They had arrived.

The elevator door slowly opened. Outside stood a middle-aged man with grizzled hair, holding a sharp knife.

He was a stranger. Keke, wary, took a few steps back, then she seemed to realize something. "Is this a prisoner from another group?"

Bai Lu was also stunned.

She hadn't expected that a judge from another group had already declared a prisoner not guilty.

Didn't this mean...

One group had already been wiped out.