Global Collapse-Chapter 704 - 669: The Evil Ghost Face_1

There were ten people in total on this team-building event. Nine of them were players recognized by the instance. The remaining NPC, Liu Yin, was their coworker and the driver for their team-building trip.

After boarding the bus, the various small groups sat together. Gu Mian, Chu Changge, and Xu Xingcheng chose seats closest to the door—an ideal escape route selected by Gu Mian. Wenqin Tan Jiu's group of four sat behind them. Of the remaining two lone wolves, Su Lian sat at the front, not far from the driver's seat. Hao Laoshi, keeping as much distance from Chu Changge as possible but not daring to be too far from the others, sat near Su Lian, who was also a lone wolf.

Wenqin Tan Jiu wanted to gather all nine players to discuss the instance. However, Su Lian and Hao Laoshi were sitting so far away. He wanted to call them over, but since they were close to Liu Yin, it would seem odd to specifically ask them to move. He had no choice but to resort to using eye contact and gestures.

The two saw his signals but didn't react. Su Lian offered him a gentle smile, as if she hadn't understood his meaning. Hao Laoshi glanced at him, then immediately turned his head away and didn't look back.

What kind of people are these? Wenqin Tan Jiu was puzzled. How did these two players, who couldn't read social cues at all, manage to survive until now? 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

With no other option, he decided to first discuss the instance with the people nearby.

Gu Mian was about to discuss things thoroughly with Xu Xingcheng, who sat beside him, when he felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. He turned to see Wenqin Tan Jiu smiling politely.

"We should take this opportunity to discuss the instance."

Xu Xingcheng, likely participating as a player for the first time, was extremely interested in analyzing this instance. Before Gu Mian could even speak, he nodded excitedly in agreement.

Wenqin Tan Jiu found this enthusiastic player a little strange.

Why are these people so peculiar?

The player whose profession was 'doctor' was happily making a V-sign right when they entered the instance. The player with the doctor also had a rather unusual expression. And the one wearing glasses, Chu Changge, hadn't spoken at all throughout the journey, his face expressionless, as if he had facial paralysis.

Wenqin Tan Jiu couldn't help but start to suspect their identities.

Could they be patients from the same mental hospital? Stop overthinking...

He forcibly suppressed these strange thoughts and said, "The objective in this instance is to survive for three days. Therefore, we must find a Path to Survival as soon as possible."

"Since you've all survived this long, you must know some of the instance's patterns," Wenqin Tan Jiu continued, looking at the three of them hesitantly.

"'What patterns?' The question was practically written on Gu Mian's face."

It wasn't his fault he didn't know. Gu Mian never survived instances by relying on 'patterns,' so he wasn't very familiar with them.

Seeing Gu Mian's clueless expression, Wenqin Tan Jiu felt his heart twitch.

What a naive fool! How on earth did he survive until now?

Beside them, Chu Changge suddenly spoke up, "Paths to Survival and Paths to Death. When players explore an instance, they might discover a Path to Survival. As long as they find it and follow its instructions, the players will no longer be in danger in this instance. But while exploring, they might trigger a Path to Death. This could be a single-player death path, or it might directly trigger a team-wipe death path."

Gu Mian knew this much.

Just like in the amnesia instance, once the players helped the female lead recover her memories, she would fly into a rage and attack all players indiscriminately. That was triggering a team-wipe death path. And in the recent court instance, if a group of players disregarded the ghost's wishes and chose to acquit the criminal, that also triggered a death path. Under normal circumstances, the ghost would only kill that group's players, which could be considered a single-player death path.

Whether it's a single-player death path or a team-wipe, once triggered, it's irreversible. The players' only outcome is death.

Except, of course, for Gu Mian. He was the kind of man who would gleefully dance on a death path, even knowing it was one.

"Barring any surprises, the initial period after entering an instance is the safest for players. As time goes on, the instance's danger level will rise, and ghosts will appear more frequently. In survival-type instances like this, if you want to find a Path to Survival, it's best to search for it quickly," Chu Changge said, pushing up his glasses.

Gu Mian, however, didn't know about this. Usually, whenever a ghost dared to show up and caper in front of him, he'd grab it, and it would kick the bucket on the spot, never to return. So Gu Mian wasn't clear on how frequently ghosts appeared; for him, they usually only showed up once or a few times.

Wenqin Tan Jiu nodded in agreement. He hadn't expected there to be at least one normal person among these three. Moreover, judging by this calm demeanor and those signature glasses, this person was likely a 'strategist' type. Presumably, the other two naive fools had survived thanks to this strategist's plans. He looked at the green text above Gu Mian's head. This person was a healer, after all; it was understandable if he wasn't familiar with instances. A healer just needed to stay behind their teammates and restore their statuses, not charge into the fray.

Meanwhile, Gu Mian was thinking that some ghosts were too fast and was considering whether to go to a supermarket to buy a large net to make a 'potent ghost-catching tool' or something.

"In instances that don't provide specific tasks, we can initially only speculate about clues based on the name. This instance is called 'Death Photography'... I guess it might be related to the group photo we took earlier." After saying this, Wenqin Tan Jiu signaled to Dew From Tonight Is White to get the Polaroid camera and the photos.

The Polaroid camera and photos were all at the front, next to the driver's seat.

Jin Ye Bai nodded, stood up, and walked towards the front of the bus. He passed Hao Laoshi and Su Lian, arriving next to the driver's seat.

"Ah, you want to see the photos," Liu Yin said when he saw Jin Ye Bai approaching. "They're all here. There are still four sheets of film left in the camera, so you can take four more pictures."

Jin Ye Bai gave him a few nods, then took the Polaroid camera and the stack of photos from nearby.

When Jin Ye Bai returned with the photos, Wenqin Tan Jiu was stunned. "There are so many?"

Apart from the large group photo, the others had been taken before they arrived.

Looking at his own face in those photos, Wenqin Tan Jiu felt a bit uneasy.

"'There must be thirty-odd photos here,' Ningmeng Bumeng remarked, casually picking one up. It showed her smiling at the camera, with the interior of the bus as the background. 'The instance is pretty smart; it even synthesized these photos for us.'"

By now, the others had started sifting through the photos, hoping to find some clues. Su Lian and Hao Laoshi still showed no sign of joining them, sitting calmly as if their bottoms were glued to their seats.

Wenqin Tan Jiu gave up on expecting those two to join the discussion and lowered his head to examine the photos.

"Since the instance is called 'Death Photography,' it's highly likely related to these photos... Have any of you seen *Yin Er House*?" he asked the others while flipping through them.