Global Collapse-Chapter 713 - 678: Pretend to be at Third Watch _1

Chu Changge looked at the group photo in his hands. "Actually, I have a question. Can ghosts really come out of photos? Were all those behaviors we saw from the ghost done deliberately for us?"

Gu Mian also looked at the picture that no longer harbored a ghost. "Are you suggesting it's creating an illusion? An illusion that it could climb out of the picture to mislead them into burning the photos?"

But Wenqin Tan Jiu had acted too quickly, throwing that specific photo out of the car. Many of the other photos were indeed burned.

"This is just speculation." Chu Changge adjusted his glasses. "There's no evidence to prove it."

"If the ghost is indeed misleading players into burning the photos, then a path to survival might be hidden in them." Gu Mian thoughtfully reached for his guitar case. He still had a few photos in there. When everyone else was burning photos in the car, Gu Mian hadn't taken out the ones from his case.

At that time, Wenqin Tan Jiu's theory was that "ghosts could crawl out of photos."

Could such a good thing actually happen? Gu Mian had thought. So, he had kept those photos with him in eager anticipation.

He unzipped his guitar case and took out the treasured photos. There were three in total. All three had been taken on the bus, shot by someone inside looking through the window at the passing scenery. Because they were taken from a moving vehicle, the photos were somewhat blurry.

The first was of a flowerbed in a green belt along the roadside. The photographer probably thought the patch of red flowers was beautiful and snapped it on a whim. Besides the flowerbed, the frame also contained a portion of the road and part of the sidewalk. A road sign stood next to the flowerbed, but the photo was too blurry; Gu Mian could only vaguely make out two characters.

"This seems to say something like Hua... Street," Gu Mian said, squinting at the picture.

Chu Changge leaned in for a look. After a few seconds, he said, "Huayin Street."

You can even recognize that? Gu Mian gazed at the blurry characters in the center.

"We passed this sign when we took the bus back to the company. It seems we take the same route there and back," Chu Changge said. "I remember the location in the photo isn't too far from here." He pointed forward as he spoke. "It's just two intersections ahead."

He even remembers the specific location so clearly. Gu Mian mused. I could practically stick him beside the steering wheel as a human GPS.

He then looked at the next photo. The main subject of this photo was the sky, with a cloud shaped like droppings in the center. The sight made Gu Mian want to take a few more pictures himself. The photographer hadn't aimed completely upwards, so a part of the ground was also captured. Below the sky was an intersection. The bus had probably been waiting at a red light, so this photo was somewhat clearer.

"This intersection looks familiar." Gu Mian held the photo, comparing it with the one visible in the distance ahead. "It seems to be the one right up there."

"That's right." Chu Changge also looked at the intersection ahead. "It's the one just ten minutes from the company."

Gu Mian remembered the bus waiting for a red light there on their way back.

"Let's check it out later," Gu Mian said, then turned his attention to the third photo.

This photo was of a place much farther away. He recalled a reservoir along their route; this picture had been taken there. It was quite far from their current location, over a twenty-minute drive. This one had also been taken while the bus was moving, making the image even blurrier than the first. Fortunately, the reservoir in the photo was distinctive enough for Gu Mian to recognize it at a glance.

He stared at the blurry photo in his hands for a long while.

Chu Changge asked, "What are you looking at?"

Gu Mian looked up at him. "Something's not right with this photo."

Wenqin Tan Jiu and the others didn't know that Gu Mian had already returned to where the photos were discarded and had even retrieved the group photo.

The two of them, Wenqin Tan Jiu and Jin Ye Bai, had been pedaling furiously for several hours, and their strength was waning.

"Maybe we should take a little break," Jin Ye Bai said, looking at a streetlight by the road. "My legs are getting weak. I can't pedal anymore."

Wenqin Tan Jiu was also exhausted. He nodded in agreement, got off his bike, and plopped down on the ground by the road. Jin Ye Bai, still holding his Polaroid camera, sat beside him. After cycling for so long, his bottom ached a little. Rubbing it, he looked behind them. "Has Hao Laoshi not caught up yet?"

Hao Laoshi had also stolen a bicycle, but his stamina couldn't compare to the two younger men, and he had fallen far behind. The two sat there for almost two minutes before Hao Laoshi finally arrived on his bicycle, panting heavily. Seeing Wenqin Tan Jiu and Jin Ye Bai resting by the roadside, Hao Laoshi immediately jumped off his bike and half-lay on the steps, gasping for breath.

"It's almost dawn." Jin Ye Bai withdrew his gaze and looked up at the sky. Perhaps it was psychological, but the arrival of daylight always brought some measure of comfort.

"We've run far enough; the ghost shouldn't be able to catch up with us anytime soon." Wenqin Tan Jiu looked at the three bicycles by the roadside and tried to lighten the tense atmosphere. "If the ghost wants to catch us, it'll probably have to chase us on a bicycle too."

Jin Ye Bai imagined the scene and chuckled. Even Hao Laoshi, still gasping for breath beside them, was amused.

"Even if the ghost catches up to us, we still have the Polaroid camera. What if taking a photo of the ghost is our way out?" Wenqin Tan Jiu continued. "If we verify this is a path to survival, we'll go back to find the others, gather everyone, and we'll all survive together."

Jin Ye Bai looked at the moon, gradually fading in the sky. "Yeah. I hope everyone can survive."

Hao Laoshi, who always prepared for the worst, hesitated before asking, "But what if taking a photo of the ghost isn't the way out?"

The other two fell silent.

Half a minute later, Wenqin Tan Jiu spoke again. "Then we run. If it really comes down to it, we still have special items we can use to escape."

Players couldn't harm ghosts, but some possessed special items that could delay them. For example, Keke's special item, 'Money Can Make Ghosts Grind', and Xiao Qiao's 'Ghost Census Form'. Both of these special items could delay a ghost for a few seconds, or even tens of seconds. The former's delay depended on how much money you had, while the latter's depended on the length of the ghost's name. As for Gu Mian's 'Wildlife Protection Law', which was basically a cheat when he used it, that went without saying.

However, these special items were extremely rare and difficult to obtain in ordinary instances. Wenqin Tan Jiu had been lucky enough to get one of these life-saving special items in a lottery draw, but it was single-use; once used, it was gone. He wouldn't use it unless he was forced into a dead end.

The other two weren't as fortunate. Jin Ye Bai had a load of miscellaneous items, but nothing particularly useful. Hao Laoshi was in an even worse situation. He didn't even have miscellaneous items; he had sold all his special items for Game Coins to support his family. The supermarket had a dedicated recycling area for special items, with a sign prominently displayed: "Fair prices, honesty to all." That was where Hao Laoshi had sold his things.

For a moment, both their expressions turned grim, and they lowered their heads in silence.