Global Collapse-Chapter 699 - 664: The Escaping World and the Crumbling Journey_1
Fatty recalled his experiences in the Old World, feeling somewhat emotional. "It's hard to believe that the prototype of that world used to be a just, loving, and harmonious society."
"There's always a big gap between ideals and reality," Gu Mian said. "When I was little, my wish was to be a fortunate person."
"It's obvious your wish was shattered, Doc," remarked Fatty, then continued reading the train conductor's simple notes.
"A person known as 'The Divergent' often took the train in the Old World. He was mysterious and not much of a talker. The main reason I'm describing him in detail is because this NPC seems like a powerful figure. You should spend more time exploring the Old World to find this NPC, instead of constantly thinking about how to hijack my train."
The "you" in the conductor's description referred to Gu Mian.
When the conductor was writing the "Record of the History of Seven Major Worlds," Gu Mian momentarily let his guard down, allowing the conductor to sneak in some personal remarks.
Next was the introduction to the Fourth World.
"The Fourth World; its name is unclear. The corresponding stations are the Fifth Station, Crazy Game City, and the Sixth Station, White Bone Church..."
Coach Che didn't know the name, but Gu Mian did. The name of the Fourth World was Paradise, a very apt name indeed.
"This world is adjacent to the Old World, with a similar level of perversion. It's said to have a very distinct social hierarchy, dividing people into Upper-Class People and Lower-Class People. I can't shake the feeling that there's some connection between the Fourth World and the Old World. To a certain extent, their natures are similar. If the Old World continues to develop, it might also form a complete class division system."
"There's a famous NPC in the Fourth World whom everyone calls the Evil God. He often takes my train and likes to actively shuttle between other worlds, often stirring things up. The Evil God was apparently hunted by the Upper-Class People of the Fourth World years ago, but no one can kill him now."
"According to him, this world was initially designed for absolute power, oppression, and hedonism—far worse than the Old World, which at least once aspired to improve."
"Additionally, this Evil God fellow has a penchant for creating special items born from a twisted sense of humor and scattering his own statues everywhere. It's said that he has thrown at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, statues into various worlds."
Gu Mian knew all too well about the Evil God's habit of throwing statues; he had seen the Evil God Statue in more than one instance.
Fatty looked at the conductor's descriptions of the first four worlds and commented, "How come these worlds seem to get more perverse the further down the list they are?"
Indeed, that appeared to be the case now. The First World resembled Earth and was fairly mundane. The Second World also had a low degree of distortion. But starting from the Third World, the Old World, the plot took a drastic turn for the worse.
The Old World initially aimed to construct an ideal world. However, something went wrong along the way, causing the entire world to shift in the opposite direction. Under this world's influence, everyone was pushed to extremes.
The Fourth World was even worse. Its initial setup was all about oppression and absolute power. Judging from its name, "Paradise," the people in this world reveled in this.
Following this pattern, the subsequent worlds should exhibit an even higher degree of distortion.
However, this trend took a turn with the Fifth World.
"The Fifth World—I know its name. It's referred to as the Escape World. The corresponding station is the Seventh Stop, the Ruins of the Village of Terror Curse. Despite this world's bizarre name, I'd still call it the most normal world, where high-ranking NPCs are kind-hearted, amiable, and helpful."
"Even though it borders the Fourth World, it hasn't been contaminated at all. The people in this world are all normal. The only drawback is that this world is rather dangerous, as it's teeming with ghosts."
"As for why this world is called the Escape World, I've asked its NPCs but received no answer. They seem somewhat dissatisfied with their own world, though."
Just from the name of the Escape World's station, "the Ruins of the Village of Terror Curse," it's clear this isn't a safe world. However, it at least has a normal worldview, uncontaminated by the Old World and Paradise.
"The Sixth World, name unknown, corresponds to the Eighth Station, the Sandbox Game Planning Department, and the Ninth Station, Haicheng City Film City. It's said this world is quite fragmented. It has every conceivable instance, ranging from transforming into Snow White to fight monsters, to sitting in an examination hall solving advanced math problems."
"There's a lot of fun to be had here, and it's relatively safer than other worlds. Many easy, unchallenging instances originate from this world, making it a haven for casual players. Of course, casual players aren't guaranteed to be matched with this world's instances."
"This world has a strong sense of fragmentation. It lacks a unified worldview, like an unfinished, substandard product."
Gu Mian didn't know the name of the Sixth World either; it seemed he would have to ask other NPCs.
Next was the introduction to the Seventh World.
"The Seventh World, the Twilight Gods World. A fairly famous world. It was originally said to be a perfect place and wasn't even called by this name. But for some unknown reason, this world began to change, bringing it to the brink of collapse. I heard long ago that the Seventh World couldn't hold on much longer, but I don't know why it only collapsed today..."
The train conductor didn't know about Earth's curse or about Xingyun's series of actions in the Seventh World. Gu Mian had asked him and found out that he didn't even know there was an NPC named Xingyun in the Seventh World.
"My train never used to go to the Tenth Station. This was a directive from the higher-ups. They said the Seventh World was fragile and any variable could cause it to collapse, so they forbade anyone from entering… I don't know what that little green midget was thinking, asking me to take you to the Seventh World."
Gu Mian silently read the words on the pamphlet, thinking that the train conductor had slipped in quite a lot of his personal opinions, all written when he wasn't paying attention.
"I don't know what the game's higher-ups were thinking, actually reopening the train instance just to take you to the Seventh World. And now look! Thanks to your help, the Seventh World has reached a wonderful conclusion."
These words were all very hastily scrawled, showing the conductor was extremely flustered when writing them.
Gu Mian also found it odd. If the Low-Dimensional World knew he posed a threat to the Twilight Gods World, why would they allow him to enter?
Could it be that the game's higher-ups had a sudden attack of conscience and couldn't bear to see Chu Changge and the others die there?
Gu Mian thought this was highly unlikely.
Normally, to prevent a chain reaction of collapsing worlds, the Low-Dimensionals should have desperately tried to stop him from entering the Seventh World. And Earth, to make the worlds collapse together, should have desperately tried to send him into the Seventh World.
But the reality was the exact opposite: Earth didn't want him to enter the Seventh World, and the Low-Dimensionals didn't prevent him from entering it. This was a suspicious point.
Gu Mian continued to read, only to find a single sentence remaining.
"That's the end of the introduction. This is everything I know; I haven't hidden a thing. Don't come looking for me again."
Even at the end, the train conductor didn't forget to state his humble wish.
Fatty looked at the conductor's creation and said, "This is like a reading comprehension passage. My eyes are starting to hurt. Let's have spinach and tofu stew for dinner tonight!"
Gu Mian didn't know how Fatty had made the connection between reading comprehension and spinach and tofu stew. He rubbed the pages in his hand. "The train conductor has outlined the general worldviews of the seven worlds. Have you noticed anything from this?"
Of course, he wasn't asking Fatty, whose head was filled with nothing but food.
Chu Changge had already taken a seat on the adjacent sofa. "A few things. I feel that these seven worlds are interconnected and not entirely independent."
Correct, Gu Mian nodded.
This was especially true for the Old World and Paradise; the natures of these two worlds were highly similar.
Just as the train conductor said, if the Old World continued to develop, it might become just like Paradise.
Furthermore, Xingyun in the Seventh World had also said that the seven worlds were like a string, inseparable.
"From the First World to the Fourth World, the degree of distortion progressively increased. But starting with the Fifth World, this trend was abruptly halted, and the worlds began to develop in a positive direction."
"This is like a history of development. In the first half of this history, people chose the wrong path. They forged ahead on this path, developing from the Old World to Paradise and forming an extreme society."
"Until someone realized there was something wrong with this path and bravely departed… I think this might be the origin of the name Escape World. This world, perhaps, is one that escaped from Paradise."
