Global Collapse-Chapter 710 - 675: My Dream is to Earn Ten Thousand a Day_1

As Gu Mian was thinking, Hao Laoshi began his woeful tale.

"I'm lucky to have survived this long. As you can see, I'm a straightforward, timid man with no ulterior motives. I'm not very intelligent; I can't think of those survival strategies you all suggest.

"But I'm careful and quick to react. The moment I notice something is off, I instantly run. My luck isn't that bad either. I've run into you twice in the instances and received some compensation, allowing me to accumulate a small amount of Game Coin.

"Back when we first started venturing into instances, we wouldn't actually die. I frequently went in with my child's mother, hoping to earn more Game Coins to buy food. Sometimes, when we died, the game would deduct money and items. It would cause my heart to wrench.

"Then later, when death became a real possibility in the instances, I stopped letting my child's mother enter them. I figured I should go in first since I react quickly and am less likely to die. I asked her to wait for me at home, so if I never returned, there would still be someone to take care of our kid."

Hao Laoshi teared up as he spoke.

"Every time I go into an instance, I don't know if I'll make it out alive. If I die in there, they won't even get to see my body. I really, really want to make it out alive..."

"Alright, alright, I get it," Gu Mian said, looking with disgust at Hao Laoshi, who was on the verge of sniveling. "I heard your wish." He felt like a wish-granting machine.

Hao Laoshi managed a smile through his tears, realizing Gu Mian wasn't what he'd imagined.

"What's wrong?" Noticing Hao Laoshi's odd behavior from a distance, Ningmeng Busuan walked over and offered him a tissue.

"Nothing," Hao Laoshi said, wiping his tears. "I was just thinking about my family back home."

"Oh, I see." Ningmeng Busuan nodded, her expression somewhat dazed.

Just then, Hao Laoshi noticed Chu Changge approaching from the rear of the group and immediately scurried away, snot and tears streaking his face.

Watching Hao Laoshi's hasty retreat, Gu Mian locked eyes with Chu Changge, who was approaching from behind.

"What did he say?" Chu Changge asked. He still didn't know that Hao Laoshi had complained to Gu Mian about him, calling him insidious and cunning.

Gu Mian summarized briefly, "He made a wish to me."

Chu Changge didn't ask further, silently rejoining the group as they walked on.

They soon reached the intersection. Including the lone wolf Su Lian, the nine of them split into four teams:

Gu Mian, Chu Changge, and Xu Xingcheng formed one team.

Wenqin Tan Jiu, Jin Ye Bai, and Hao Laoshi formed another.

Ningmeng Busuan and Yu Ji were a team.

Su Lian formed a team by herself.

The four teams went their separate ways here. Wenqin Tan Jiu's team took the left path.

Ningmeng Busuan and Yu Ji chose the right path.

Gu Mian, Chu Changge, and Xu Xingcheng continued straight ahead.

Su Lian hesitated for a moment looking at the three paths, then also chose to go straight.

She didn't stay close to Gu Mian's group, instead keeping her distance further away.

Chu Changge glanced back at Su Lian but said nothing.

Gu Mian also glanced at the female player trailing behind them. He saw her holding a small notebook in her left hand, occasionally jotting something down. She was probably mapping the area.

Gu Mian had originally planned to turn back right after they split up to retrieve the discarded photos and use them directly.

However, with another player still following their path, Gu Mian didn't want to turn back so obviously.

"We'll lose her at the next intersection and then go back for the photos," Gu Mian said to Chu Changge.

Chu Changge nodded.

Xu Xingcheng, standing nearby, brightened. "That's great! If we destroy a few more instances, my memory will gradually recover. Then I can tell you all about my grand plan!"

Gu Mian seriously doubted this unreliable Evil God could come up with any coherent plan. He just found Xu Xingcheng's voice incredibly grating.

They quickly reached the next intersection.

Su Lian took the right path first.

Gu Mian, leading Chu Changge and Xu Xingcheng, pretended to continue straight for a few more minutes before stealthily turning back.

"You know, this Second World is quite well-developed, not much different from Earth," Gu Mian remarked, observing the shops lining the streets.

He'd been so focused on losing the other players earlier that he hadn't paid any attention to the shops along the road.

Chu Changge also glanced at the roadside.

This street had many snack shops. He quickly spotted three dessert shops and two bubble tea stores.

There were also vendors selling shaved ice and sculpted sugar candies.

"Actually, if it weren't for the ghosts, living in this world wouldn't be bad at all," Gu Mian said, scanning the bustling streets. "But players just treat instances like game data; they don't really experience these worlds."

Xu Xingcheng interjected, "But there *are* ghosts in the instances! Do you think everyone is like you, treating instances as sightseeing trips?"

He was right.

Unlike other players, Gu Mian thoroughly enjoyed entering instances. He felt at home in them—so much so that he'd often destroy one home before finding another.

The ghosts and NPCs in these instances often wailed in misery because of him.

Many NPCs didn't have a very good impression of Gu Mian.

They often used phrases like "slaughtering the donkey after it's done grinding" or "smashing the pot after eating" to describe him.

There was even a "Gu Mian Prevention Handbook" circulating in the NPC world.

Though called a prevention handbook, it offered no actual preventative measures.

It was mostly filled with the lamentations of NPCs who had suffered under Gu Mian, along with other NPCs' assessments of him.

Xu Xingcheng remembered this book existed, but he couldn't recall its contents, only the cover.

He remembered a starkly accurate sentence on its cover—

"Gu Mian: A person who, if unable to complete an instance mission, just takes out the instance itself."

And now, this very person who struck fear into the hearts of all NPCs was contemplating trying some street-side shaved ice.

But, lacking money, he had to abandon the thought.

"We'll get Fatty to make some when we get back," Gu Mian said, withdrawing his gaze.

Meanwhile, the other participants were not in such high spirits.

Wenqin Tan Jiu and Jin Ye Bai were hurrying down the street, trying to get as far as possible from where they had discarded the photo.

Jin Ye Bai currently had a Polaroid camera around his neck—the same one used to take the photo earlier.

"It should be fine to carry this, right?" Jin Ye Bai frowned. "The ghost can't crawl out of this, can it?"

"We still need to be careful," Wenqin Tan Jiu said, glancing at the Polaroid. "This camera can capture ghosts in photos. I think it must have other uses... If there's another way to survive this instance, I believe it's connected to this camera."

The street teemed with people, and cars streamed along the road.

The two of them deliberately chose crowded areas to walk through, hoping the bustle would lessen their fear.

But they knew that if the ghost decided to kill, no amount of crowd or bustle would help.

"We didn't destroy the photo in time; the ghost must have crawled out by now," Jin Ye Bai said, examining the camera as they walked. "What if, when the ghost finds us, we take another picture of it? Could that lock it back into the photo?"

Could this be another way out? Wenqin Tan Jiu mused. If we take a picture of the ghost, will it really be sealed back into the photo? He recalled that the ghost needed time to emerge from a photo; it had taken about an hour from when they took the group shot until the ghost appeared before the lens.

If the ghost found them, and they photographed it and then immediately destroyed that new photo, would that stop the ghost from materializing?

No, even if they destroyed that one, the ghost could still use other photos. The main group photo was still out there.

Still, even if the ghost could emerge again via other photos, this would buy them precious time to escape.

The ghost needed time to come out, and it would also need time to find them.

"If your method works," Wenqin Tan Jiu said, frowning, "we might be able to use the remaining four exposures to survive for three days. But that's just a hypothesis. We'd need to test it once to see if it's viable."