Global Collapse-Chapter 696 - 661: The Ghost Runs Amok in the Middle of July, Gugu Truly Does Not Deceive Me_1
It would take Gu Mian and the others two hours to drive to the train station from their current location. Joyful times always seem to pass exceptionally quickly.
Soon enough, two hours had passed.
The car smoothly rolled to a stop in front of the train station entrance.
Coach Che was the first to jump out of the car, "Hurry, quickly board the train and leave this world!"
Thanks to Xingyun's efforts, the speed of the world's collapse had somewhat slowed down. It would take a bit more time before their area would disintegrate.
Gu Mian was holding his mobile phone, mumbling to someone on the other end in a corner behind the car.
He had been mumbling for two hours now.
Fatty wanted to eavesdrop, but Gu Mian shooed him away.
Fatty sidled up to Chu Changge, eyeing Gu Mian suspiciously. "Brother Chu, what do you think the Doctor is discussing with that person behind our backs? It seems like they're planning something clandestine."
He faintly heard Gu Mian discussing something about luck with the other person.
Chu Changge did not speak.
Gu Mian did not delay much longer.
Soon after, he ended the call, helped Xiao Qiao up, and moved towards the train station.
Fatty quickly followed suit, carrying the Fortune-teller on his back.
"Doctor," Fatty curiously inched closer to Gu Mian, "what were you discussing with that NPC?"
"Discussing how to blow up Earth."
After receiving such an absurd answer, Fatty simply shut his mouth and refrained from asking any further questions.
Shortly, they entered the train station and reached the platform.
The train seemed to have been waiting here all along, never departing.
Coach Che had already hopped onto the train, waving at them from inside, "Come on board."
Gu Mian, however, did not move. He stared at the train for quite some time. "Does the rule about two players not being allowed in the same train car still apply?"
When this train was still an instance, such a rule existed: if two players were in the same car, one of them would be randomly eliminated.
Only Gu Mian had entered this instance before, so both Chu Changge and Fatty were unaware of this rule.
Considering this place was no longer an instance, it was highly likely that the rule no longer applied. To err on the side of caution, though, Gu Mian still asked.
It would be disastrous to have brought everyone back from the Seventh World successfully, only for them all to die on this train.
Fatty's mouth fell open. "Ah, there was such a rule? Lucky I was alone when I boarded."
Strictly speaking, Coach Che wasn't really a person.
"Are you kidding? Would we try to trick you here? This isn't an instance anymore; that rule doesn't exist." Coach Che looked awkward. "We're nothing like Earth; we don't engage in such underhanded tactics. Besides, the conductor is still on the train. Unless he has a death wish, he wouldn't pull any stunts like that."
His tone was surprisingly righteous.
Only then did Gu Mian lead the others onto the train.
Before boarding, he specifically looked at the name of this station: Twilight Gods World. It directly shared its name with the Seventh World.
The conductor seemed to know their situation. A few seconds after Gu Mian and the others boarded, all the doors closed, and the train began to move slowly forward into the darkness.
Gu Mian watched the platform sign reading "Twilight Gods World Station" gradually recede until it finally disappeared from sight.
Coach Che had said that this train didn't belong to any world; once they were on board, they would be safe.
The collapse of Twilight Gods World would not affect this train.
Contrary to the darkness outside, the inside of the train was very bright. Fatty settled the Fortune-teller onto a train seat and turned back to speak to Gu Mian. "Doctor, you entered this instance before, so you must have come to this Twilight Gods World Station back then, right? If so, Doctor, does that mean you visited this world a long time ago?"
"Are you joking?" Coach Che interjected opportunely. "With your Doctor on board, do you really think this train could safely reach its final destination?"
Fatty thought this made a lot of sense. "You're right, that's definitely how it is."
So, Twilight Gods World was this train's final stop.
Gu Mian remembered that the last time, in the instance, this train indeed hadn't reached the final station; it had unfortunately stopped at the fifth station. The conductor had even suffered a heart attack, unable to show him the magnificent sights of the subsequent stations.
"Also, the Twilight Gods World station wasn't open before. When this train was an instance, it only went to the first nine stations. Twilight Gods World is the tenth station. Even if your Doctor hadn't stirred up trouble, he wouldn't have been able to reach the Twilight Gods World station," Coach Che continued. "This time was a special case, so the train brought us to the tenth station."
That was right. When this train was still an instance, it only passed through nine stations. The entire journey was 34 minutes long, according to the instance description.
Back then, Gu Mian had only passed through the first five stations and didn't know the names of the ones that followed. He watched the scenery retreating outside the train window. "What are the names of the other stations?"
"I'm familiar with this!" Fatty, who had just experienced this train ride, piped up. "Starting from the first station, they are Shicha Sea, Qianying City, Rongcheng City, Sweet Manor, Crazy Game City..."
Gu Mian knew all of these.
Last time, the train had unfortunately stopped operating at the Crazy Game City station.
Fatty continued, "White Bone Church..."
The sixth stop was White Bone Church.
"The Ruins of the Village of Terror Curse."
The name of the seventh stop was indeed quite terrifying.
"Sandbox Game Planning Department."
Gu Mian suspected this eighth stop might be related to the global game.
"The ninth stop is Haicheng City Film City, and then the final station, Twilight Gods World." Fatty looked up. "I feel like the journey from the Film City station to the Twilight Gods World station took a long time, probably about twenty minutes or so."
The other stops were roughly five minutes apart, but the journey between the ninth stop and Twilight Gods World was over twenty minutes.
Fatty frowned worriedly. "I'm a bit concerned..."
Just as he opened his mouth to voice his concerns, before he could even speak, something happened.
The few people in the car heard a piercing screech, and then they noticed the train's speed began to decrease.
They had only been on the train for a short while; there was no way they could have reached the ninth stop yet.
The train wasn't slowing down because it was approaching a station.
Coach Che opened his mouth, feeling the train gradually grind to a halt. Finally, he spat out, "Damn it..."
The effect of the "Train Assassin" was truly terrifying.
It had only been a few minutes since they boarded, and the train had already broken down.
Fortunately, although the train had stopped, the power supply hadn't been cut, so the carriage was still very bright.
Now, the few of them sat in the brightly lit carriage, staring at each other in dismay.
Fatty was on the verge of tears. "Doctor, why do I feel like you're even unluckier than before?"
Gu Mian casually touched the bandage on his face. "This is definitely a problem with the train's quality. Its stopping has nothing to do with me."
Fatty silently looked towards Miss Fortune-teller. "I hope Miss Fortune-teller can hold on until we get back."
"Actually, it doesn't have to be this troublesome," Gu Mian suddenly stood up from his seat. "Isn't the most convenient way to return to the real world right now to just blow up this train?"
The train would be completely wrecked, and the furious Low-Dimensional World would kick them back to Earth.
Although it seemed a bit like repaying kindness with ingratitude, this was indeed the fastest way to save the Fortune-teller.
"Don't you dare do anything rash!" Coach Che shrieked in terror. "This place isn't an instance anymore! It's not connected to the real world! Even if you actually blow up this train, you won't be able to get back! You need to find an instance and blow that up!"
The frantic Coach Che no longer knew what he was saying.
Oh, right. Mr. Green had also said that players could only travel between the Low-Dimensional and High-Dimensional Worlds through instances.
This train was no longer an instance, so blowing it up would be useless.
"Which instance is nearest to here?" Gu Mian frowned.
Desperate to save the train, Coach Che quickly offered a plan, "You don't need to stay on the train for too long. There are usually instances near the station areas. You can get off directly at the ninth stop. Just wander around the vicinity, and you'll eventually run into an instance. You'll get a prompt when you enter it. Then, just go all out! Find the NPCs in that instance, important items, or whatever—give it all a good thrashing, and you'll be kicked out."
Fatty stared at the overly eager Coach Che, a horrified expression on his chubby face.
Had Coach Che been driven mad by the Doctor's pressure?
He was actually giving them a step-by-step guide on how to break an instance!
This world was truly insane!
"According to the rules, we need conditions to kick players out of an instance. We can't just arbitrarily kick someone out. You have to destroy facilities, threaten NPCs, and cause major losses to the instance. Only then can the instance logically kick people out..."
Watching the increasingly unhinged Coach Che, Fatty couldn't bear it and turned his head away.
Just as Coach Che was getting into the swing of his explanation, Gu Mian suddenly grabbed him by the collar. "You seem quite familiar with where the nearby instances are. How about this: when we reach the ninth stop, you get off with us and help us find one."
Coach Che: "?"
"Also," Gu Mian added, remembering that the conductor here was an NPC who had researched all the worlds, "to express my apologies for the trouble I caused the conductor last time, I brought him a gift. Let's go find him together."
Train Conductor: "?"
