Global Collapse-Chapter 537 - 506: It’s Daytime Now! _1

Su Xiaocha and two others had come to verify the identity of this group of people. Lai Nian tried to access the player information of the group standing at the door but couldn’t. That’s when it dawned on her.

"Are these people really the supermarket staff?" Gu Mian heard Lai Nian’s rising tone, a strange edge to it.

Gu Mian gave her a puzzled look, "Of course they are. Who else could they be pretending to be?"

Upon hearing this, the faces of the three at the door changed, looking rather suspicious.

"What’s wrong?" Gu Mian glanced at the three.

Lai Nian forcefully suppressed the urge to retort. After a long silence, she finally spat out two words, "Nothing." She had long known Gu Mian had a peculiar character and unpredictable behavior; getting a group of NPCs to work as laborers probably wasn’t difficult for him.

They watched the legendary player direct the group up the stairs. Despite being used as laborers, the NPCs did not display a hint of complaint; instead, they exuded a consistent, overflowing sense of happiness.

"Damn, I’ve never seen the sales clerks at the supermarket look this happy," You Si muttered, watching an NPC hauling a bed frame. "Why do they seem so elated being laborers?"

Gu Mian, who was still on the first floor, suddenly approached the group, "By the way, have you seen the landlord today?"

Lai Nian instinctively took a step back and shook her head, "No... we haven’t..."

Gu Mian acknowledged with a grunt before climbing the stairs.

As Gu Mian’s retreating figure diminished, the trio exchanged glances. Just as they were attempting to figure out what to say next, a man abruptly entered the inn.

They turned to look and recognized Xingluo Buzhichu, who had left half an hour ago.

Xingluo, part of their group, had also been teleported into the Metamorphosis instance. He was allocated to a relatively benign group of guests.

His luck was uncanny. During the college entrance exam event, others answered Xingluo’s questions first, leading to their deaths due to rule violations, while only Xingluo survived. In the Metamorphosis event, he was just background decoration. Gu Mian’s brilliance overshadowed the entire show, drawing all the attention away from the others and allowing Xingluo to hide until the instance collapsed.

The inconspicuous Xingluo walked into the room and saw the trio exchanging glances in the lobby.

He asked, puzzled, "What’s going on?"

Lai Nian responded in an odd tone, "A group of sales clerks just came here carrying beds to the upper floor. They’re doing labor work."

Xingluo was taken aback; he had never seen sales clerks leave the supermarket, let alone act as laborers. He automatically assumed she was delirious, "Are you okay?"

Before Lai Nian could retort, the sound of footsteps descended from the stairs—it sounded like someone was coming down.

She didn’t rush to speak and motioned with her chin towards the stairs, "See for yourself."

Xingluo also looked towards the top of the stairs. The sound of footsteps continued for about a minute before a figure appeared. A person with an ordinary face, dressed in a uniform, emerged at the staircase landing.

Xingluo stared at this gloomy-looking person. He was indeed dressed in the standard uniform of a sales clerk.

Following him, several other similarly dressed men came down one after another, each with a desolate expression. It was true that none of them had an accessible player panel.

Only then did Xingluo believe. His mind went blank for a moment. The first words out of his mouth were, "Gu Mian’s doing?"

It was only when the Metamorphosis instance collapsed that Xingluo had realized the green-clad doctor was Gu Mian, and only then did he grasp that he had been experiencing the same instance as such a terrifying person.

Lai Nian struggled to nod, "It was him."

Everyone fell silent for a while.

It wasn’t until they watched the despondent sales clerks exit the building that Xingluo broke the silence, "I actually kind of envy him."

Gu Mian seemed different from others. In the current world, only he appeared to live freely. Even though they didn’t know why the previous few instances had collapsed, one could easily guess Gu Mian had a hand in it. Unlike them, who worried every day about their next meal, feared loss every time they entered an instance, and dreaded the coming winter if they didn’t enter instances. Now that instances worldwide had been suspended for a month, all players had lost their source of Game Coins and had to tighten their belts. Yet Gu Mian seemed completely unaffected. He was even... gathering a group to go to an amusement park?

Xingluo was stunned as he watched Gu Mian come down the stairs. Behind him was Fatty, holding a small notebook and murmuring plans; a spectacled man with what seemed like a paralyzed face; a gray-haired man who kept calling someone ’younger sister’; and a woman in a red skirt with an indescribable appearance.

At this moment, Fatty was intently looking at the small notebook in his hand, rambling, "There’s a Lianhua Amusement Park in the west of the city. I used to work there and still roughly remember the attractions. First, we need to buy tickets... well, we don’t need to buy tickets. Upon entering, there should be a group of beauties doing a hula dance. That’s probably gone now. But Doctor, if you want to see it, I can change clothes and reluctantly perform a bit."

"Scram."

"...Anyway, we’re going to start from near the main entrance. If I recall correctly, the closest attractions to the entrance are the carousel and the pirate ship. There are also a few claw machines near the entrance, which aren’t bad..."

Lai Nian and her companions watched wistfully as Gu Mian’s group walked out the door. Fatty’s chattering voice grew fainter until it disappeared entirely.

"What are they going to do?" Lai Nian asked numbly after a moment of daze.

"Obviously, they’re going to the amusement park," You Si answered indifferently.

"But can the amusement park still operate now?"

"As long as you provide it with electricity, getting it to operate isn’t too difficult. That is, if they don’t mind that the facilities haven’t been maintained for half a year."

Gu Mian had originally planned to go check out the collapsed Lianhua University, but too many players were watching the place right now. Going in broad daylight would be too conspicuous, so he decided to act at night. The daytime couldn’t be wasted either. He planned to visit the amusement park in the west of the city to relive some childhood memories and, incidentally, let these two ghosts experience life. He himself certainly wouldn’t participate in any dangerous rides, as the amusement park hadn’t been maintained for half a year. But it didn’t matter for the two ghosts; they were already as dead as could be. Even if they fell from a drop tower and were smashed to pulp, they could just reinflate.

They quickly arrived at the Lianhua Amusement Park in the west of the city. Pushing down the excited Fatty, who was eager to perform the hula dance, Gu Mian stepped forward and walked in.