Global Collapse-Chapter 675 - 641: Tomorrow is Qixi (Chinese Valentine’s Day)! _1

Gu Mian finally saw the alert panel indicating the collapse of the instance.

A countdown appeared, marking the last ten seconds of the instance.

NPCs in the distance were in disarray, scrambling around in search of fire extinguishers, only to sadly discover that the instance's designer had not left them such items.

Who would have thought a player could set the instance on fire?

Bai Lu, who was trembling slightly next to the human heads, also realized something after seeing the instance collapse alert.

This doctor with the gleaming green head might just be Gu Shiwan.

Heaven bear witness, she harbored no inappropriate thoughts towards this walking pile of 100,000 Game Coins.

Who could foster inappropriate thoughts for a freak who could conjure ghosts from his pockets?

Bai Lu merely wanted the countdown to end quickly so she could escape from this instance filled with freaks.

Watching the countdown number jump from "1" to "0," she closed her eyes and revealed a pleased smile.

It was noon when Gu Mian and his group emerged from the ticket office.

The midday sun shone on the ground, heating up the glass door of the ticket office, but this blazing sun could not warm the icy countenance of the ticket seller.

This ticket office was nearest to Gu Mian's house, so he always entered instances from here.

Over the days, he had witnessed this ticket seller's transformation—from bright and sunny to gloomy, from optimistic to despondent, until the man looked utterly down in the dumps.

Gu Mian noticed a sign in the ticket seller's hand. It featured two small rows of words, possibly about a new product in the supermarket.

Keke, being sharp-eyed, tiptoed and read the words on the sign, "'Gu Mian & Coach Che are not allowed in.' There's a bracket below it with 'Dogs may enter.'"

Gu Mian: "..."

Coach Che and Mr. Green were truly a pair of miserable NPCs, he thought. Their story could be turned into a textbook lesson. The title could be 'Tall Coach and his Green Dwarf.'

Gu Mian skillfully excluded himself from the "miserable" category.

What he didn't expect was to find Xiao Qiao squatting at the door of the ticket booth, looking as if she was holding something.

"Why are you squatting here?" Gu Mian took a few steps forward and squatted down in front of Xiao Qiao.

Only then did Xiao Qiao realize that Gu Mian and his group had come out.

She looked at Gu Mian squatting in front of her and gently opened her arms to reveal an old radio. "We have this in our world too."

Gu Mian recognized it.

It was the radio that had been with him since his time in the orphanage, the one from which he first heard the name "Guardian."

Gu Mian rarely used this device, so naturally, Xiao Qiao hadn't seen it before.

Gu Mian held up the peculiar-looking radio. "You have this kind of radio in your world too?"

"Exactly the same," Xiao Qiao wrinkled her brow. "Lots of them."

Hearing this, Gu Mian fell silent, staring at the radio in his hand.

Is it from the Seventh World?

Indeed, there was no brand marking on this old gadget, and its style was somewhat different from other radios on Earth.

Gu Mian had long known this device was unique, but he hadn't expected it to actually come from the Seventh World.

So, the Seventh World could already transmit items to Earth?

"You squatted here just to let me see your world's radio the moment I exited the instance?" Gu Mian thought Xiao Qiao's brain was a bit rusty, but surely not *this* rusty.

"No. When you guys entered the instance," Xiao Qiao shook her rusty head, "I was here, and I heard sounds from our world through this."

The Twilight Gods World had always been mysterious.

The game hadn't even opened an instance for this world.

According to Xiao Qiao, she was the only living being in that entire world; besides her, it was overrun with rampant ghosts.

But now, Xiao Qiao was saying she had heard sounds from that Mysterious World through this radio.

「They soon returned to Gu Mian's residence.」

Gu Mian and the others formed a circle, staring at the radio on the coffee table.

Xiao Qiao was trying to adjust the dial on the radio, but despite her twisting it for a long time, Gu Mian hadn't heard the so-called 'voices from the Twilight Gods World.'

The static's HISS filled the living room.

When the global game had first started, they could still pick up a few Earth channels on this broken radio. But now, all they could hear was static; radio stations on Earth had long since ceased operations.

Fatty was initially waiting with rapt attention for that mysterious sound.

However, after fifteen minutes, he couldn't hold back anymore. He grabbed a grill, announcing they would have a barbecue in the backyard tonight.

Xiao Qiao still persisted in adjusting the dial. Looking at her stubborn determination, Gu Mian thought that if she put this much effort into honing her acting skills, she wouldn't have to worry about her fan count.

Speaking of which, in all the many instances Gu Mian had entered, he had only come across one fan: Qiao Chuchu.

Speaking of Qiao Chuchu... Gu Mian turned his head to look at Chu Changge. He remembered that Chu Chu was on Chu Changge's team.

The courthouse instance was a master at manipulating people's emotions.

If players wanted to survive, they had to abandon their compassion and sentence the pitiful defendant to death.

If they didn't want to lose their humanity, they themselves would die.

This was very unforgiving to players who still harbored goodwill towards the world.

But for players like Chu Changge...

If I have no heart, you can't manipulate me. Gu Mian felt that this phrase described Chu Changge best.

Chu Changge didn't care about others' lives, nor would he care how miserable their stories were.

Knowing the path to survival, he would undoubtedly sentence the defendant to death.

Hao Laoshi, who had gone through an instance with them before, had complained to Gu Mian that when they faced a ghost, Chu Changge had thrown him to it without the slightest hesitation.

Chu Changge must have been the only judge among the three groups to find the defendant guilty.

As if sensing Gu Mian's thoughts, Chu Changge suddenly said, "I didn't."

Gu Mian swallowed.

Is the expression on my face that obvious? He reached out and touched his face.

"Because I knew I could leave the instance without having to make a choice, I didn't issue a verdict," Chu Changge said, adjusting his glasses.

Really? Gu Mian never knew Chu Changge was such a kind person. Wasn't his character supposed to be utterly ruthless, devoid of empathy, basically 'I'm going to live, and the rest of you can drop dead for all I care'?

Xiao Qiao was still tirelessly twisting the radio's dial.

Chu Changge's gaze paused on the radio for a moment before he explained, "I thought you wouldn't want to see that outcome, so I refrained from issuing a verdict."

Gu Mian touched his face again. Do I really look like such a good person?

Xie Bi'an suddenly chuckled. "You weren't like this before."

The Bai Wuchang, who loved cloaks, had also followed Gu Mian to his house. For some reason, Chu Changge and Xiao Qiao hadn't driven him away.

Gu Mian sensed deep resentment in Xie Bi'an's tone.

It was as if he'd been deeply hurt by the cold and unfeeling Chu Changge in the past.

Good thing Xie Bi'an isn't a woman, Gu Mian thought, or I'd be suspecting Chu Changge was a scumbag who'd abandoned him.

Xiao Qiao was still stubbornly fiddling with the radio. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Snapping out of his thoughts about "scumbags," Gu Mian found it hard to watch her any longer. "What exactly did you hear from this radio when we were in the instance? Why are you so certain the sound came from your world?"

Xiao Qiao suddenly stopped what she was doing and turned her head. "I'm sure. It was an alarm. I've heard that sound countless times."

An alarm?

Gu Mian was slightly taken aback. He remembered a sound that played when the worlds switched in a certain horror movie.

As if in response to his thoughts, a bizarre, hollow-sounding alarm suddenly blared out.

He looked towards the source of the sound.

It was the radio on the coffee table.