Global Collapse-Chapter 693 - 658: I’ve time-traveled back!_1
"They've been struggling in the cycle of reincarnation. I hope you can change their fate. Since it's determined that they will no longer reincarnate, this is the last hope."
The car cruised through the deserted city. Coach Che, in the driver's seat, was sweating bullets, fearing Gu Mian would add to his sense of pressure.
Gu Mian, however, was not in the mood to pay attention to Coach Che. His mind was filled with the numerous people he had seen die in this world.
Those people had already died, permanently, in the past.
What about this time, then? Can he change their fate this time?
"Soon," the voice from the other end spoke again. "You're not far from them. Only a few minutes away."
Then her tone changed, becoming anxious. "But..."
As everyone knows, the word "but" never foretells anything good once it's spoken.
Almost as if to prove this point, Gu Mian heard an abrasive, piercing alarm that immediately drowned out the howl of the ghost hanging from the rear of the car. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
It was a warning siren.
The world had begun to crumble.
There was no more time.
At the same time, Chu Changge, Xiao Qiao, and the Fortune-teller, who were not far from Gu Mian, also heard the sound of the world shattering.
The massive alarm sounded like the world's death wail, and the earth trembled in response.
The Evil Ghosts in the city began to seethe. The Animal Protection Act's power had dwindled to almost nothing, completely unable to stop the frenzied ghosts. Chu Changge saw countless pairs of ferocious hands reaching out from the roadside bushes.
"Run!" He held a watch-like object in one hand and pulled Xiao Qiao along with the other as he broke into a run.
The Fortune-teller lay unconscious on Xiao Qiao's back, exhausted.
They ran in a world on the brink of death. On this dark road, they were alone—no one else, no light, no hope.
No matter how desperately a person might run, they couldn't outrun crazed ghosts.
Soon, Chu Changge felt a numbness in his waist.
He looked down to see two blue-purple arms reaching from behind and wrapping around his waist.
Simultaneously, he felt a cold body pressing against his back. The chilling body restrained him, making it impossible for him to move forward.
Xiao Qiao, carrying the unconscious Fortune-teller, clearly noticed Chu Changge's predicament.
She reached out to grab Chu Changge's arm, attempting to pull him from his bonds.
"Don't come over," Chu Changge knew such attempts were futile and shoved Xiao Qiao away. "Run!"
Xiao Qiao stumbled a few steps from Chu Changge's push. Then she felt a ghostly hand grab the Fortune-teller on her back.
"No!" With one hand tightly gripping the Fortune-teller, she reached out to Chu Changge with the other.
She struggled with the ghosts, trying to tear her two companions from their grasp.
But it was useless.
The encircling ghosts grew in number.
She, too, was being choked. Breathing became increasingly difficult, and the scene before her began to blur.
Xiao Qiao, dazed, stared into the distance. She thought she saw fissures appearing on the far-off ground, then a ghostly hand covered her eyes, plunging her world into absolute darkness.
Her consciousness began to fade.
Is she going to die?
In that moment, she felt a tinge of sadness.
Are they going to die here together...?
But then, she heard the barking of a dog, the sound going from distant to near within an instant.
Then, she heard someone's grumbling voice.
Followed by the roaring of a motorcycle.
Listening to the noises, Xiao Qiao suddenly felt lighter, as if the ghost on her had been removed.
She heard a familiar voice overhead. "Xiao Qiao."
She tried to lift her head and caught sight of Gu Mian's injured chin.
"Damn it." She heard Gu Mian curse again. Then he raised his shiny chainsaw and ran somewhere out of her sight.
Xiao Qiao tried to look, but she no longer had the energy to turn her head.
All she heard were ghostly screams coming from an unseen direction, a sound even louder than the siren.
By the time Fatty and Coach Che arrived, the scene was one of absolute chaos—
Ghosts lay strewn across the ground, a scene that resonated strongly with the terrifying alarm; it was clear they had suffered inhuman devastation before dying.
The instigator stood atop a pile of corpses, carrying the unconscious Fortune-teller on his back, and dragging the barely conscious Xiao Qiao.
Nearby, Chu Changge seemed in better condition; at least he could stand on his own. However, a large bite mark was visible on his forehead, as if some behemoth had clamped its jaws on his head. Fresh blood was gushing from the wound.
Gu Mian rushed to the car, placed the Fortune-teller and Xiao Qiao inside, then hauled Chu Changge, who was slowly walking behind, and stuffed him in as well.
He then opened the passenger-side door, sat in the passenger seat, and instructed Coach Che, "Drive! Drive fast! Head to the station."
Fatty had initially planned to ask what had happened, but as soon as he arrived, he heard Gu Mian ordering them to flee.
"Doctor, are there many ghosts following us… HOLY SHIT!" He was halfway through his sentence when he finally understood why Gu Mian was urging them to flee so quickly.
Not far ahead, the earth had shattered, revealing a pitch-black abyss below. Pieces of the ground, like scraps of paper, fell into the abyss. The crack was now spreading in their direction.
So this is what a world collapsing looks like.
Fatty had been fortunate enough to see a fake world collapse in the Old World, but now he was seeing a real one.
Coach Che was clearly scared too.
He had only ever seen Gu Mian collapse instances; he had never witnessed a spectacle like this.
With trembling legs, he executed a drift and sped the car back in the direction they came from at full speed.
"Holy shit, Doctor," Fatty said while supporting the women and watching the scene unfolding behind them, "Is that thing going to swallow us whole?"
"I'm afraid so." Gu Mian gave an objective answer. A world collapsing was different from an instance collapsing.
When an instance collapsed, it was because an important character had died or a key building was destroyed, and the officials, unable to tolerate your continued troublemaking, would seize the opportunity to kick you out.
But there were no officials here to regulate things; staying in the collapsing world meant being annihilated along with it.
There was no need for Gu Mian to pressure him; Coach Che was already driving as fast as he could towards the station, terrified of being swallowed if he was too slow.
Fortunately, the person on the other end of the phone had slowed down the world's collapse, meaning the speed of the world shattering wasn't fast enough to engulf them all.
Since he didn't have to drive, Gu Mian went to check on Xiao Qiao and the other two in the back.
They had been perfectly fine when they arrived, but now they all looked terrible.
They were all lying neatly in the Spirit Car; to an outsider, it would look like it was carrying three corpses.
007 was not in serious danger; having gone without sleep for days and then being dragged by a mad dog had merely caused her to faint for a short while before she woke up.
Xiao Qiao's breathing was steady. The ghosts hadn't had a chance to harm her. Gu Mian guessed her unconsciousness was related to the world collapsing.
Currently, the Fortune-teller was in the worst condition.
She had nearly died from sudden cardiac arrest.
The Fortune-teller's dog had not only carried 007 the whole way but also Gu Mian. Her dog's speed was incredible, faster than any car. When the alarm sounded, Gu Mian had immediately abandoned their vehicle, having 007 command the dog to carry him straight ahead at full speed.
Thanks to this dog, he had been able to arrive in time.
However, this had only worsened the condition of the Fortune-teller, who was already on the brink.
Fortunately, Chu Changge had used the Archive Device on the Fortune-teller earlier, restoring some of her condition; otherwise, Gu Mian feared he might have found her corpse.
He had immediately performed emergency treatment for sudden cardiac arrest on her, and she was now breathing normally. Although still unconscious, she wasn't in immediate danger of dying.
Gu Mian was a professional Doctor; his treatments were several times more effective.
His CPR was as effective as connecting someone to a CPR machine, making it very difficult for the person to die.
Among the four of them, Chu Changge had suffered the most harm from the ghosts.
When Gu Mian found him, his head was in the cavernous, bloody maw of a ghost.
As a result, Chu Changge's head was still covered in saliva.
