Global Collapse

Outside, it was pitch black because the sky was still shrouded in dark clouds, leaving neither stars nor the moon in sight.

Zhao Lei stood at the door and glanced out the window. "Ah... this kind of weather seems to have been going on for quite a while..."

Chu Changge's glasses flickered, and he asked in a calm tone, "For how long?"

Zhao Lei's face was pale, as if he hadn't seen the sun in a long time. "It feels like it's been this way ever since I came up the mountain. The past few days have seemed especially long."

He appeared somewhat weary. After speaking, he descended the stairs unsteadily, without another glance at the others.

The remaining people looked at each other.

Brother Mobile was the first to speak. "I'm increasingly feeling that something's not right with Zhao Lei. What are you guys planning to do tonight?"

It was common knowledge that midnight was a peak time for supernatural events, especially in horror novels. This was the most dangerous period for anyone still alive.

Fatty craned his neck to look at Brother Mobile. "You're not scared of staying alone, are you?"

Brother Mobile shot him a sidelong glance. "Isn't that obvious? Of course, I don't dare to stay alone in such a creepy place. I don't care about any suspicion value anymore; my life is more important."

He was quick to admit defeat. However, after asking around, Brother Mobile found that no one was willing to share a room with him.

The couple, needless to say, had no intention of letting a grown man crowd into their room.

The same went for Gu Mian; he was more afraid of other players stabbing him to death in his sleep than he was of ghosts.

Chu Changge and Fatty didn't voice an opinion.

Although they didn't respond, Brother Mobile understood their silence. He couldn't help but grind his teeth. "You guys are truly fearless."

Mingliang shrugged. "Honestly, there's nothing to be afraid of. If you're scared, you shouldn't be joining these matched instances."

Brother Mobile looked helpless. "I heard you've cleared two instances. I bet you just coasted through them, didn't you?"

The atmosphere between the two became strained.

Seeing this, Fatty quickly stepped between them. "Come on, brothers, stop staring each other down. We should use this spare time to look for more clues."

Gu Mian hadn't expected players to actually fight within an instance. He hoped they wouldn't start killing each other before the ghost even appeared.

Fortunately, both managed to control their emotions in time. Brother Mobile glanced at them, then descended the stairs, holding the slip of paper with the character for "King" written on it.

After a brief pause, Chu Changge followed him down. They both stayed on the first floor, which was also where Zhao Lei, the dangerous individual, was located.

Gu Mian, Fatty, and the couple were left on the second floor, looking at each other. Mingliang silently glanced at Gu Mian a few times, then led his girlfriend back to their room.

Fatty watched them leave. "Speaking of which, Doctor, you're definitely not planning on sleeping tonight, are you?"

Of course not, Gu Mian thought, nodding. "Let's look for clues first."

He planned to start by searching his own room. However, there was nothing unusual about it; everything was arranged quite normally.

A full-length mirror stood next to the bed. Zhao Lei had mentioned his mother was very beautiful; she had probably put the mirror there.

Near the door, a desk leaned against the wall. For some reason, there wasn't a single book on it. In a drawer lay a very old mobile phone. Gu Mian had tried to turn it on, but it was useless.

Fatty looked at the mobile phone in Gu Mian's hand. "Hey, this is just like the broken computer in my room. I guess you need to enter the correct password or fulfill some condition to turn it on. I bet once we manage that, it'll give us some really important clues."

He paused. "The task is to escape from here. Maybe it will show us how?"

Entering and exiting through the main door didn't count as escaping; Fatty had already tested that countless times.

Gu Mian began to ponder. The password or conditions to unlock the mobile phone...

He looked around the room again. There really weren't any other valuable clues in this dilapidated room.

Unless they disassembled the bed and searched every inch of it carefully, could they find some magical set of numbers? Of course, he thought the chances of finding the password that way were slim.

"Let's not do something as impractical as dismantling the bed," Gu Mian said, shifting his gaze to the door. "Let's check the study first. I remember Zhao Lei saying one of the rooms on this floor was converted into a study, right?"

Fatty nodded. "Yeah, I remember. It's the one right next to the couple's room."

With that, they walked towards the door.

It was now late at night, and everything outside was silent. The hallway lights were still on. Gu Mian was quite curious how an isolated building like this, deep in the mountains, got its electricity. But now wasn't the time to investigate that.

As they walked out the door, they suddenly heard a rustling sound from a particular direction.

Gu Mian's room was quite secluded, almost in a corner. From his door, they could only head in one direction—towards Fatty's room. The sound seemed to be coming from there.

Fatty's scalp prickled, and he quickly retreated two steps to hide behind Gu Mian. "Doctor, I think there's something up ahead."

"Look at you, so spineless," Gu Mian said, stepping forward.

The sound was indeed coming from Fatty's room. When they reached his doorway, they found that his door, for some reason, was ajar and swaying gently.

The bedroom doors in this building couldn't be locked from the outside; they could only be bolted from within. If no one was inside to bolt it, anyone outside could freely enter.

Fatty craned his neck towards his slightly open door. "I'm pretty sure I closed it tight when I left."

Gu Mian took two steps forward. "Then something probably got in from the outside..."

Fatty nodded slightly, but before he could finish, Gu Mian suddenly voiced another possibility: "Or perhaps it was hiding in your room all along and only came out after you left."