Global Collapse-Chapter 552 - 520: Truly a Healthy - _1

"What?" This was the second time Cang Yue had heard Gu Mian mention Sweet Manor after they entered the instance. "Do you have a grudge against that place? You think about it all the time."

She didn’t know where Sweet Manor was, nor did she understand why Gu Mian would ask about this place in the instance.

All she knew was that now was clearly not the time to discuss whether the place was sweet or not.

Gu Mian symbolically cleared his throat and changed the subject before anyone else could speak. "I’m sorry, we’re going to Yaxin Media on Licang Road."

He hadn’t originally planned to enter Sweet Manor directly from this Amnesia instance. He was just in the car and took the opportunity to ask the driver.

Yaxin Media was the company where the players worked. It sounded grand, but it was just a small company occupying only half a floor. It was located on the thirteenth floor of an office building on Licang Road. The other half of the thirteenth floor was occupied by a design company that often discarded large rolls of blueprints.

The driver didn’t respond but silently pressed the accelerator.

Gu Mian looked ahead through the windshield. There weren’t many people around, and only a few cars were on the road, significantly reducing the risk of an accident.

Just then, Cang Yue, who was sitting directly behind him, suddenly leaned forward and asked, "What is Sweet Manor?"

It was the name of a location from a peculiar instance.

Of course, Gu Mian didn’t answer her directly. He wasn’t familiar with Cang Yue and saw no need to tell her this, especially with two NPCs in the car.

Cang Yue had clearly been curious about this place for a long time. Seeing Gu Mian didn’t answer, she turned to Keke. "Have you ever heard of the variety shows ’Crazy Guessing Words’ and ’Sweet Lovers’?"

Cang Yue had heard these names when Gu Mian was on the phone. She had no impression of them herself.

Keke shook her head, looking puzzled. "No."

But Xia Jianren in the backmost seat seemed to recall something and began, "Crazy Guessing Words! Isn’t that..."

His voice trailed off halfway, and he hesitated, staring at the back of Zhao Shuang’s head in front of him.

Cang Yue looked back at him. Seeing his guilty expression, she understood. "Could it be..."

"It’s an instance." Xia Jianren mouthed the words, not making a sound, afraid the NPCs would hear.

Only after mouthing the word ’instance’ did he speak aloud. "This... variety show, I remember it had a little green old man as the host. He was always using idioms incorrectly and was incredibly stingy..."

Gu Mian sat in the passenger seat, listening silently.

Based on the description, it was undoubtedly Mr. Green.

However, Xia Jianren didn’t know that this incredibly stingy host had actually been generous for once at the end. Not only did he give his treasured Archive Device to Gu Mian, but Mr. Green himself also left the instance with Gu Mian. Even the staff from the instance ended up in Gu Mian’s hands.

The entire "Crazy Guessing Words" instance had come to tour Earth thanks to Gu Mian. As for when they could return, that was unclear.

Xia Jianren continued, "Speaking of which, in there, there was also a wo—woman who was so terrifying! Ugly and scary!"

He shuddered as he spoke. It looked like he had been killed by the woman he was describing.

It could be concluded that the woman he was talking about was Xiao Hong.

Luckily, Xiao Hong wasn’t here now; otherwise, Xia Jianren might have already been rushed to the emergency room.

Cang Yue took a deep breath and then looked at Gu Mian. She didn’t understand why Gu Mian would call an NPC in one instance to ask about another instance. Could one get clues about another instance from a different one?

Could it... be possible? For one instance to provide information about another? Did that mean instances were connected? They might even exist in the same world! Was it really like that?

Cang Yue opened her mouth slightly, desperate to ask Gu Mian what answer he had received. But, considering the two NPCs in the car, she sensibly kept her mouth shut.

As Cang Yue pondered this, she glanced at Zhao Shuang beside her. She noticed Zhao Shuang wasn’t listening to the others at all. Instead, her eyes were fixed, staring blankly at the rearview mirror.

This reaction was very strange. Cang Yue frowned and leaned slightly, moving closer to Zhao Shuang to look at the rearview mirror.

From this angle, one could only see the lower half of the driver’s face. There was nothing unusual about it.

Still wary, Cang Yue quietly asked, "Zhao Shuang, what’s wrong?"

Zhao Shuang replied in a daze, "Him, the driver... he looks a bit familiar? I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere."

Cang Yue’s heart sank. She realized something was very wrong.

Fortunately, Zhao Shuang’s voice was low, and the driver in the front seemed not to have heard. Gu Mian in the passenger seat also showed no reaction.

Only Keke beside her turned pale, clearly having heard.

"I... I think I saw him on the day of the team-building trip," Zhao Shuang struggled to recall. "He... he seems to be the driver of the bus from that day!"

There were thirty-nine people on the team-building trip on October 1st: one driver and thirty-eight passengers.

Besides Zhao Shuang who had been found and the thirty corpses, eight people were still missing, one of whom was the bus driver. Yet Zhao Shuang was saying the man before them was that very bus driver.

The news hadn’t reported the bus driver being found. The person in front of them was clearly not human.

Cang Yue reached for the door handle. She recalled that the driver had seemed expressionless from the start. The lower half of his face, which she had seen in the rearview mirror just now, was also stiff and wooden.

A chilling premonition gripped her heart. We have to run! If we stay in this car, we’ll all die!

She gripped the door handle tightly, intending to jump out of the car and escape immediately.

Just then, she instinctively glanced at the rearview mirror again and saw a pair of eyes staring intently at her from it.

"Run!" This time, she couldn’t hold back any longer. With a shout, she yanked open the car door, pulled Zhao Shuang, and leaped out.

Keke scrambled out from the other side simultaneously, tumbling to the ground. The two men in the back, no matter how slow-witted, knew something was wrong. They reacted immediately, opening their respective doors and rushing out.

Just as they jumped, the two of them seemed to hear Gu Mian, still sitting in the passenger seat, say something.

Due to the immense inertia, Cang Yue rolled several times on the asphalt road after jumping out before coming to a stop, her hands and face scraped.

After stopping, she ignored her throbbing ankle and didn’t even look at Zhao Shuang, whom she had pulled down. She just sprinted headlong in the opposite direction to the van’s advance, only stopping to look back when the sound of the vehicle vanished from her ears.

Far behind her were the other players.

Keke seemed to have injured her leg. She was trying hard to get up but failed several times.

Further back, the two men were already stumbling to their feet, supporting each other and walking unsteadily.

Zhao Shuang, whom Cang Yue had pulled from the car, was still lying on the ground, apparently not having moved since jumping.

Looking even further, she could still see the receding silhouette of the van. Its taillights were on as it sped far into the dark night, eventually disappearing.

The driver hadn’t stopped. Someone was still in the car.

"Gu Mian didn’t get out?" Cang Yue looked around, repeatedly confirming there were only five of them here.

She took a few steps in the direction the van had left; there was no longer any sign of it.

Keke also propped herself up and looked in that direction. "Yes, he doesn’t seem to have gotten out."

"It’s not ’doesn’t seem to,’ he just didn’t get out," Xia Jianren raised his voice, trying to make sure Cang Yue could hear him from a distance. "When we two jumped, he was still sitting happily up there. He seemed to say something. Wang Chuan, did you hear? I didn’t hear clearly."

Wang Chuan also raised his voice somewhat. "I heard it. It sounded like..."

Cang Yue was already limping towards the two. "Sounded like what?"

Wang Chuan frowned. "I didn’t quite understand it either. The exact words seemed to be, ’Isn’t it a matter of course for six out of seven Sunshine Taxi drivers to be ghosts?’"

Is that a matter of course?

Xia Jianren twisted his foot, and every step was painful. He grimaced and said, "Listening to that, it sounds like he knew the driver was a ghost all along!"

Hearing this, Cang Yue suddenly remembered something.

She remembered there was a newspaper in the phone booth Gu Mian had been in. It had photos of the eight missing people, including the bus driver! At the time, she had only glanced at it briefly and just knew there were photos.

But Gu Mian, who had been in the phone booth for a long time, must have read the newspaper carefully. This meant he had recognized the driver from the very beginning!

Cang Yue said with utmost certainty, "Yes, he knew the driver was a ghost all along! He had just seen the bus driver’s photo in the newspaper not long before."

"Huh?" Xia Jianren had only suspected it. Hearing Cang Yue say this, he was somewhat incredulous.

He knew the driver was a ghost and still dared to get in his car? He didn’t even warn them, and he dragged all of them into this.

Knowing the driver was a ghost and still sitting so happily in the passenger seat... Xia Jianren’s and Wang Chuan’s minds went a bit blank. They didn’t know if it was because they had hit their heads when jumping from the car or because Gu Mian’s actions were too stunning.

Wang Chuan rubbed his forehead. "I suddenly kind of get why he’s on the wanted list."

This guy was a complete lunatic; being alive was a danger to everyone.

Who knows when he might explode and kill everything living nearby, taking the instance down with him.

Keke had managed to struggle to her feet and was now helping up Zhao Shuang, who was still lying on the ground. While helping, she asked, feigning concern, "So, that Gu Mian... he won’t be in any danger, will he?"

Xia Jianren massaged his lower back. "Danger? He ran off with a ghost! He’s probably lost his life by now, never mind danger..."

Wang Chuan voiced his doubt, "But I always feel he’s not a reckless person. He wouldn’t do something he’s not confident about. Like when he left the group to find the phone booth at the start. We all thought something would happen to him, but didn’t he turn out fine in the end?"

Xia Jianren didn’t agree with Wang Chuan. "Confidence? How can a living person be confident against a ghost? If a person dies, they might have a chance to become a ghost and fight the ghost that killed them on the spot. Living people can forget it.

"Although... although players have special items they can use, they’re all for escaping. Have you ever seen anyone pull out a gun and blast a hole in a ghost’s head? Gu Mian has gone with the ghost now. I guess he’s either dead or trying to find a way to escape."