Global Collapse-Chapter 711 - 676: Let me go and update_1

Both of them were in a dilemma. To test their guess, they first had to find a ghost. They wanted to confirm if this was truly a path to survival, yet they didn't want to encounter a ghost.

"Let's take it step by step," Wenqin Tan Jiu said. "Let's not actively seek out the ghost. If our guess is wrong, actively seeking it out would be a fatal mistake." As he said this, his expression became hesitant. "Actually, I'm starting to doubt..."

Doubt what? Jin Ye Bai wondered, looking at Wenqin Tan Jiu. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Whether the ghost really crawled out of the photo," Wenqin Tan Jiu recalled. "On the bus, the ghost was definitely getting closer to us, looking like it was about to crawl out of the photo. But we didn't actually see it emerge. Could it have just been trying to scare us?"

"If we'd actually seen the ghost crawl out of the photo, it would have been too late for us," Jin Ye Bai said, imagining the scene. "We'd have been face-to-face with the ghost, with basically no chance of survival."

"That makes sense," Wenqin Tan Jiu acknowledged, "but I have a bad feeling. What if our guess was wrong? What if the ghost *can't* crawl out of the photo?"

He had only seen the ghost *almost* crawl out. For everyone's safety, Wenqin Tan Jiu had thrown the photo out of the bus. At that time, he hadn't dared to gamble; losing the bet meant losing his life. Throwing away the photo was the safest option.

"Let's not overthink it for now," Jin Ye Bai said. "In any case, we should try our best to stay away from the mountain where we took the group photo and the place where the photo was discarded. I think the ghost will either crawl out of the photo and start searching for us from where it was thrown, or it will begin its hunt from the mountain where we took the photo. Either way, the farther we are from those two spots, the better."

Wenqin Tan Jiu nodded, thinking as he quickened his pace.

Bicycles were always parked in clusters on the bustling streets. Among them, there were invariably one or two unlocked ones. After walking for several hours, they finally found two unlocked bicycles. They skillfully appropriated them and rode off.

Wenqin Tan Jiu looked at the sun, now leaning westward. "Do you want to rest tonight?"

Jin Ye Bai considered for a moment. "Let's not rest. We can manage through the first night. The most important thing now is to get away from here. Let's travel through the night."

Wenqin Tan Jiu nodded.

「Meanwhile, Ningmeng Busuan and Yu Ji had also traveled a considerable distance.」

The road they chose was quite remote, with almost no signs of civilization, only large tracts of land planted with trees and crops. A wide road stretched into the distance, with occasional large trucks speeding past them.

"It's getting dark," Ningmeng Busuan said, looking at the yellowing sky. "It's very dangerous at night. Our vision is impaired by the darkness, making it hard to notice the ghost's approach. But the ghost can easily detect us moving in the dark. It's best if we find a hidden place to hide for tonight. What do you think?"

Yu Ji nodded. "I'll listen to you."

So, before the sun completely set, they began searching for a secluded hiding spot. Ningmeng Busuan didn't consider staying in a hotel. Firstly, they had no money. Secondly, ghosts often targeted people in such places. Staying in a hotel made it easy for a ghost to find them. The wilderness offered better concealment.

They found a cornfield before sunset and hid inside it. Ningmeng Busuan also placed some small loudspeakers at different places inside the cornfield. These were special items she had obtained from a previous instance. There were five of them in total, controlled by a remote control. Pressing the switch on the remote would make all five small loudspeakers emit a loud noise simultaneously. This sound couldn't deter a ghost and had no other effect except for being painfully loud to the ears. It was a rather useless special item that could even expose their position. But Ningmeng Busuan put it to good use.

"If the ghost finds us, press the remote control switch and we split up," she explained to Yu Ji. "This cornfield is so tall that once we run, we'll vanish. The ghost will have a hard time finding us; it will only be able to judge our location by sound. The sound from these loudspeakers will mask our footsteps, making it hard for the ghost to determine our escape direction."

Yu Ji nodded.

Ningmeng Busuan looked at the afterglow on the horizon. "Once it's completely dark, we must remain silent. If we need to communicate, we can use paper and pen." As she spoke, she took out a notebook and a pen. She had bought them from a supermarket outside; they were items that could be brought into an instance. The other end of the pen had a small lightbulb that emitted a faint light, enough to illuminate the words on the notebook. Ningmeng Busuan had taped this small light to the pen to make it easier to read in the dark. The lightbulb only illuminated an area of four to five centimeters, so it wouldn't be detected by a ghost.

Yu Ji nodded and stopped speaking.

Nightfall came quickly. The sky turned completely dark. The moon was quite large that night, brightly illuminating the cornfield.

Ningmeng Busuan gently brushed away the leaves that kept sweeping against her face, vigilantly observing her surroundings. There were many small flying insects, which were extremely annoying. Every now and then, a few would fly into their eyes, and they silently swatted them away.

Besides these insects, some strange animals were also making noises in the cornfield. Rustling sounds from their surroundings occasionally made them tense.

I wonder if there are snakes in here, Ningmeng Busuan thought. It would be awful to die from a snakebite instead of being killed by the ghost.

She had chosen this relatively secluded path for a reason. In such a quiet environment, she could immediately detect any disturbance and react. A bustling place, on the other hand, might conceal danger, and by the time it was discovered, it would be too late.

Ningmeng Busuan wrote on the notebook and handed it to Yu Ji: "We'll take turns resting. You sleep first."

Yu Ji nodded slightly and closed her eyes.

Falling asleep under these circumstances was extremely difficult. But they had to force themselves to sleep. Without any rest, they wouldn't have the energy to escape.

Thank goodness I don't snore, Yu Ji thought. That might attract the ghost.

Seeing Yu Ji close her eyes, Ningmeng Busuan resumed observing their surroundings. She had brought an electronic timer specifically for keeping track of time in this survival instance. So far, they had spent seven hours and twenty-four minutes in the instance. Only a tenth of the instance's duration had passed. They still had to endure over sixty more hours here before they could leave.

With everyone having gone their separate ways, Ningmeng Busuan had no idea about the others' situation.

Has anyone died yet? she wondered. If others have died, I should feel relieved, she thought. Grateful that they bought me time, grateful that the ghost didn't choose the same path as me.

But in the face of death, she couldn't feel any happiness. The deaths of others were advantageous to her, yet she still hoped everyone could survive.

As she mused, the discarded group photo came to her mind again. Ningmeng Busuan used the quiet moment to think rapidly.