Global Collapse-Chapter 708 - 673: Damn it! _1

Jin Ye Bai's move was something no one had expected.

They stared in horror at Gu Mian, whose face was covered by the photo, afraid he would be dragged into it by a ghostly hand stretching out the next second.

Under the crowd's horrified gazes, Gu Mian peeled the picture from his face. "It stuck on pretty tight."

Wenqin Tan Jiu took a large step back. "You... Are you okay...?"

Isn't that obvious?

Gu Mian looked down at the photo in his hand. "Getting hit by a photo isn't going to kill me."

Of course, Wenqin Tan Jiu wasn't worried that Gu Mian would be killed by the impact. He hesitantly looked at Gu Mian's face, which the photo had just touched. "The... the ghost... didn't do anything to you?"

But Gu Mian's reply was, as always, beyond anyone's expectations. "What could it do to me? Steal a kiss?"

Wenqin Tan Jiu pursed his lips, increasingly convinced this person was a lunatic.

The others nearby who heard this were also speechless for a moment.

While they were speechless, Gu Mian suddenly raised the photo in his hand. "It's gone."

"What?"

The others looked at the photograph in his hand.

The group photo had returned to normal; the eerie figure was gone.

What's going on... Wenqin Tan Jiu stared at the group photo, wide-eyed. Did the ghost inside disappear just from being stuck to Gu Mian's face for a moment?

The other few people were also completely baffled, not quite understanding the current situation.

At this moment, Yu Ji, who was cowering to one side, suddenly spoke. "Weren't we just suspecting the ghost could come out of the photo? Now that it's not in the photo, does that mean... the ghost has already come out...?"

Her words sent shivers down everyone's spines.

They immediately looked around, checking for any extra people.

The car wasn't large; it could be taken in at a glance.

Nothing extra had appeared in the car.

"This is really strange." Wenqin Tan Jiu was quite puzzled.

The ghost had suddenly vanished, and it hadn't appeared near them either.

"I want to look at it again." He quickly calmed himself and looked at the group photo in Gu Mian's hand.

Gu Mian handed the photo over. "Go ahead."

Wenqin Tan Jiu wanted to observe it more closely, to see if the ghost was hiding in other parts of the photo.

But just as he took the photo and looked down, he saw the image on it suddenly change.

A huge hand appeared, blocking most of the picture.

The fingers of this hand were slightly parted, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes through the gaps between them.

The ghost is pressed against the lens!

It looks like it could crawl out any second!

A jolt went through Wenqin Tan Jiu, and he quickly threw the photo out of the car window.

"What happened?" Jin Ye Bai stood up in surprise. "Why did you throw it away?"

The others also showed puzzled expressions.

They hadn't seen the image on the photo just now.

Wenqin Tan Jiu wiped sweat from his brow. "The ghost suddenly appeared... it almost crawled out from inside!"

Hearing this, the others gasped.

Ningmeng Busuan leaned against the window, looking at the road behind them. "So it *can* crawl out of the photo and then kill people. If we had destroyed that photo earlier, would the ghost have been unable to get out?"

"Perhaps." Wenqin Tan Jiu steadied himself with the car seat and sat down. "The ghost isn't interested in our images in the photo, which means it can't accomplish its killing by killing the people depicted *in* the photo. In that case, we have no connection to the people in the photo, so destroying it would have been completely feasible."

But they had overthought things at first and missed their chance to destroy the photo.

There are no 'ifs' in this world. They couldn't go back, retrieve the photo, and destroy it now; the ghost had most likely already crawled out of it.

"If destroying the photo was the path to survival, doesn't that mean we've already missed our chance?" Jin Ye Bai's eyes widened.

Wenqin Tan Jiu felt a headache coming on. An instance where they'd lost their path to survival from the very beginning... how were they supposed to live through this...?

"In this situation, all we can do is run," he said, looking at the others. "Quick, run! The farther we get from where I threw the photo, the better. The ghost crawled out of the photo there; we absolutely must not go back."

Yu Ji suddenly raised her hand. "I have a question. If the ghost can crawl out of a photo, isn't it possible it can also go back into one? If it returns to a photo, could it then crawl out through other photos, right?"

"Shit," Jin Ye Bai cursed, edging farther away from the pile of photos on the nearby seat.

Wenqin Tan Jiu frowned. "That's possible. These photos are likely a misdirection from the instance. The instance is called 'Fatal Shot'; any normal person would assume the photos are crucial clues, right? And crucial clues, of course, should be carried with you.

"If the ghost can really travel between photos and reality, then we're essentially carrying a ticking time bomb."

"Let's destroy these photos first," Wenqin Tan Jiu decided.

The others agreed with his decision.

They didn't dare to play with fire openly in the car, especially since there was still an NPC present.

So, a few of them moved to the back seats, held the photos and a lighter out the window, and set them alight outside.

Fortunately, Liu Yin was concentrating wholeheartedly on driving and didn't notice what the people in the back were doing.

Jin Ye Bai, struggling with the lighter, said, "The wind is too strong; the flame goes out too easily. I have to light it several times. What is this photo paper made of? It's so hard to ignite..."

Actually, they could have just thrown the photos away, but for peace of mind, they decided to destroy them thoroughly.

Gu Mian propped his head on his hand, watching his teammates play with fire, and sighed inwardly at the harsh reality of players struggling to survive in an instance.

While burning the photos, the group was still discussing what had just happened.

"That group photo turned normal after I threw it, right?" Jin Ye Bai looked at Wenqin Tan Jiu beside him. "It was after it stuck to... what's-his-name's... face that the ghost disappeared. The ghost only reappeared when you took the photo back. Why did it suddenly disappear then?"

Wenqin Tan Jiu recalled the horrifying scene from earlier. "It was probably the ghost's sick sense of humor. Disappearing suddenly to make us think we're safe, then reappearing—isn't that terrifying? It's like in those horror movies where the protagonist hides under the bed, hears the ghost leave, and crawls out only to find the ghost lying on the bed, staring right at him."

Jin Ye Bai imagined himself in that situation and found it truly terrifying.

They managed to finish dealing with the photos just before arriving back at the company.

Because they were rushed, some photos weren't completely burned, with some leaving behind half a picture or a small fragment.

This wasn't a major issue, as long as they didn't carry these remnants on their person.

After Liu Yin got out of the car, he curiously asked where all the photos had gone.

Wenqin Tan Jiu spun a lie, saying he'd put them in his bag, and managed to fob him off.

Liu Yin seemed to want to say more, but Wenqin Tan Jiu had already signaled for the others to leave quickly.

Hao Laoshi hastily followed them.

The female player named Su Lian also went along.

Gu Mian and his two companions were the last to get out of the car.