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Going in means death.

Fatty silently nodded. "The door you saw in the painting is probably the dormitory door the Doctor was looking for. We both guessed something bad would happen if that door was opened. The Doctor must have opened it…"

Then he was pulled through the door, but there was no bloodshed. No, there might be blood in the future, but it certainly won't be the Doctor's, Fatty thought.

At that moment, Chu Changge continued, "I suspect that the door is the boundary between the real world and this 'Vanishing Game'. Those who have played this game before have all disappeared, and no one has ever seen their bodies. So I suspect that the people who disappeared before were all pulled into this pixel game, through that door."

Of course, they were still alive when they were pulled into this pixel game, but once in, there was essentially only one path left: death. Later, the people who were pulled into the game became ghosts, continuing to draw subsequent players into the game.

Fatty asked thoughtfully, "Since the people who disappeared before were pulled into the game, would we players also be pulled into the game if we encounter any accidents?"

At this moment, Gu Mian, as an instance player, was indeed in the game, but he likely hadn't been pulled in…

Chu Changge shook his head. "Probably not, because I saw the corpse of one of our players in a very remote place."

Fatty touched his nose. "Brother Chu, you didn't come straight from the art gallery, did you?"

Chu Changge didn't answer but continued, "Apparently, the ghosts in this game also know we're different. I suspect the ghosts kill people to inject a constant stream of fresh spirits into this game. This is because even if we players die in an instance, we can revive in the real world, so it's impossible for us to become ghosts in the instance. Of course, we can also be pulled through that door, but even if we die, we won't become ghosts, which makes us useless to the ghosts in the game."

So if it comes to killing, they just kill directly... Fatty thought.

Chu Changge then brought the topic back: "Theoretically, if we were pulled into that door, we should be killed by the ghosts immediately."

At this, Zi Liang, who was beside them, suddenly spoke up: "But Gu Mian didn't die!"

Chu Changge glanced sideways at him, then turned back to Fatty, seemingly asking something without words.

Fatty, of course, understood what Chu Changge meant. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. "When the Doctor passed us just now as a pixelated figure, his own name was hovering above his head… That's how Zi Liang knew Gu Mian's name."

Gu Mian's name had always been a taboo. Fatty and Chu Changge had intentionally avoided mentioning his name in front of others, and they hadn't expected such an unforeseen event in this instance. Meanwhile, Gu Mian was still running around in the game with his name hovering over his head.

"This won't do!" Fatty slapped his thigh. "We can't let the Doctor run around with his name hovering above his head. I have to stop him! It'll be bad if others see it!"

At this moment, Chu Changge suddenly grabbed Fatty. "Right now, besides him…"

As Chu Changge spoke, he glanced at Zi Liang beside them. "Besides him, all the other 'people' are dead."

Upon hearing this, Zi Liang felt a chill run down his spine. These words were terrifying at first listen, and even more so upon reflection. It sounded as if they planned to get rid of me!

He drew in a sharp breath and looked at Chu Changge in front of him. Why does this man speak so terrifyingly? And how does he know the 'others' are all dead?

Thinking this, Zi Liang subconsciously glanced at his phone screen. He had been clutching his phone tightly, not daring to put it down even though he knew he was probably completely safe now. He looked at his phone screen, only to see it was completely blank. Not only had their registered characters disappeared, but even Chu Changge's character in front of him was gone.

"Um..." Zi Liang stuttered. "Our characters disappeared because we just escaped together. What about yours?"

No wonder Chu Changge had been so unhurried and calm from the start. It turned out the ghost following him was long gone.

Chu Changge glanced down at Zi Liang's phone screen. "The ghosts have limitations. I told Fatty, but because I couldn't be sure if it was accurate, I didn't tell anyone else."

Zi Liang sniffed slightly. 'Anyone else'... it's always 'anyone else.' So now, among the 'others' still alive in this instance, only I am left? What is this 'last man on Earth' feeling?

While thinking this, Zi Liang looked at Fatty. Fatty grinned. "Brother Chu previously guessed that the ghosts' movements are restricted. For a considerable period, they have to move with us and can't do anything else. But for a small window of time, they can act independently. Of course, these were just speculations before."

While Fatty was speaking, Chu Changge took a few steps in the direction behind them and asked, "Did Gu Mian go this way?"

Fatty nodded and hastened to follow. Zi Liang, of course, also kept pace with them.

As they walked, Chu Changge began to explain, "Let me take it from here. When we entered this instance, we were still in class. When it was time for class to start, my registered character kept urging me to return to class.

"After I met up with you, I learned your situations were similar. Of course, at that point, none of us knew our registered characters were actually the ghosts.

"Later on, I noticed that the ghosts' appearances seemed to follow a pattern, roughly every forty-five minutes. So, I speculated that the ghosts in this game can only act once every forty minutes or so.

"But it was only when I found clues about the painting in the art gallery that I realized our registered characters were very likely the ghosts.

"Connecting that to the fact that the ghosts can only act every forty-odd minutes, and how our registered characters kept urging us to go back to class when it started, I deduced something. These ghosts must accompany us for a significant amount of time; they have to do whatever we do. However, they seem to be afraid of this, which is why they desperately urged us to stay put in the classroom and not move around.

"Do you remember the traps in this school? There are quite a few of them, but as players, we didn't dare to step on them."

Fatty nodded silently. "We figured that out when we were escaping. If those traps weren't meant for us, they must have been for the ghosts."

Actually, the method to escape the ghosts' pursuit was simple: if only a fearless person had dared to jump on those traps right at the start. But no one thought of that, and even if they had, they probably wouldn't have dared to do it.

Gu Mian had once entertained such a bold idea. But, cherishing his life, it remained just a thought. He certainly wouldn't have actually tried such a death-courting move. Besides Gu Mian, everyone else present was a sensible person and wouldn't have jumped on the traps to test them either.

However, it's worth mentioning that although Gu Mian didn't try this particular death-courting method, he accidentally discovered another one…

At that moment, Gu Mian, transformed into a pixelated figure, was walking through the pixel world carrying a chainsaw.

Gu Mian muttered, "Damn it, when can I change back?"

Meanwhile, Fatty, Chu Changge, and Zi Liang were rushing towards Gu Mian's location.