Was this thing called 'emotion'—impervious to water and fire, resistant to blades and guns—invented by this company?
The Toy Goose Company had been making its presence known ever since the global ga began, to the point that Gu Mian was curious about what it was really like inside.
"Speaking of which..." Gu Mian said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper the size of a bus ticket. "I have this."
[Instance Exchange Ticket (One-ti Use)]
Allows entry to a designated instance and bringing teammates along.
This ga probably regretted giving Gu Mian this item more than anything.
Looking at the exchange ticket in his hand, he muttered to himself, "The Toy Goose Company should be an instance too, right? If I write 'Toy Goose Company' on it, I should be able to go in for a tour."
As he said this, the toy bear, whose butt had been sticking up in the air, its face pressed to the ground as it played dead, suddenly turned its head and looked at Gu Mian with a terrified expression.
It moved?
Gu Mian reached out to squeeze its neck again. This ti, the toy bear didn't move, as if it were really dead.
Gu Mian looked at its raised rear. "But it seems like I don't need to waste an exchange ticket, since the Toy Goose Company exists in this world..."
In that case, all I have to do is take out my phone and search for the Toy Goose Company's location.
At this, the expression on the toy bear's face seed to grow even more terrified.
However, they were in the middle of nowhere, with no internet access.
"Careless of ," Gu Mian said, yanking up the toy bear lying on the ground with one hand. "I should have searched for the Toy Goose Company's address earlier."
He dragged the toy bear forward, planning to find another place to mooch off so Wi-Fi.
Gu Mian walked quickly, and soon, both he and the toy bear vanished down the dirt road.
Only after their figures had completely disappeared did Huai Xin Zhen Yue cautiously slip out from behind the rickety warehouse door.
He watched the direction Gu Mian had gone, his face filled with terror.
I don't even know if that guy is human! I can't stay here. What if he cos back and finds ?! Huai Xin Zhen Yue thought, scrambling in the opposite direction from Gu Mian. Before long, he too had disappeared.
Finding a Wi-Fi network to mooch off was quite easy. Gu Mian didn't take long to find a coffee shop and connect to their Wi-Fi from outside. He kept one hand firmly on the toy bear's arm to prevent its escape, while swiping his phone screen with the other.
A quick online search for the Toy Goose Company revealed that its chain stores were spread across the globe, with a presence everywhere. This city was no exception.
However, what this city had wasn't the main Toy Goose Company, but one of its branches: the Toy Goose Food Factory.
The food factory wasn't far from Gu Mian's current location. He estimated it would take about half an hour to get there by taxi.
Of course, there was one more thing to do before heading to the food factory. Gu Mian needed to retrieve the saw he had left in the room.
He moved quickly and soon retrieved the saw, then hailed a taxi on the street.
This was a bustling street, crowded with people. The taxi driver hesitated for a mont upon seeing Gu Mian's peculiar attire.
The man wore a white lab coat but didn't resemble a doctor in the slightest. He carried a guitar case on his back, and even more strangely, he clutched a half-burnt toy bear in one hand. The sight was utterly bizarre.
Gu Mian reacted quickly.
As soon as the taxi stopped, he pulled open the door, shoved the bear into the back seat, then quickly got in himself.
"Where to?" the driver asked, eyeing the peculiar man in the back seat through the rearview mirror.
Gu Mian adjusted the toy bear's sitting position. "To the Toy Goose Food Factory."
It's not a very remote place, thankfully. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare drive him, the driver muttered to himself as he started the car.
「anwhile」
Huai Xin Zhen Yue, thoroughly spooked by Gu Mian, had already put considerable distance between himself and the abandoned warehouse.
He found another secluded spot—a cetery.
If this had been any other instance, he would never have co to such a place. He knew ceteries were breeding grounds for supernatural incidents. Many of the ghost stories he'd heard as a child took place in ceteries.
"Anyway, this ti we're hiding from the toy bear," Huai Xin Zhen Yue muttered to himself, looking at the surrounding tombstones, a chill running down his spine. It's not like so other ghost is going to pop out and kill . Besides, the bear looking for would never think to check here.
Indeed, hiding in a cetery during a ga of hide-and-seek was truly unheard of.
He found a slightly larger tombstone to use as cover and took out his phone, pondering whether to call the other players and tell them what he'd just seen.
After so thought, he decided against it.
He wasn't sure how many of them were even still alive. What if he called and a ghost answered? That would be a thrill he could do without.
It was almost three in the afternoon; in just a few more hours, the sun would set.
Huai Xin Zhen Yue cowered behind the tombstone, praying, Just a few more hours and I can leave. Please, ghosts, don't co and get ...
Gu Mian, anwhile, had arrived at his destination, faster than he had imagined. The taxi driver, apparently eager to be rid of him, had floored it, getting Gu Mian to the entrance of the Toy Goose Food Factory in less than twenty minutes.
There weren't many people at the food factory's entrance, and the guard in the security booth was dozing off. Looking past the main gate, Gu Mian could see several tall buildings, a huge warehouse, and three or four large trucks parked near the entrance, apparently for hauling goods.
Gu Mian dragged the toy bear out of the car and walked a few steps forward.
The drowsy security guard didn't notice anyone approaching. Just as Gu Mian neared the main gate, he heard a familiar voice from inside. The voice was furious, shouting curses as if in a heated argunt—"May Gu Mian haunt your house at midnight!"
He could faintly hear another voice retorting, "How can you be so vicious!"
? Gu Mian wondered.
He took a few more steps into the food factory and spotted a familiar figure. The source of that "heartfelt blessing" was indeed him.
A tall, thin figure in a black suit erged from within. He was dressed like an office elite, but instead of being in an office, he walked over to a truck and pulled open its door, apparently about to load cargo.
This cargo-loading office elite seed to sense soone at the entrance and casually glanced over.
That single glance made him freeze, his mouth agape as if his jaw had dislocated.
Then, Coach Che's bellow, startling a flock of birds into flight, echoed: "Gu Mian! What are you doing here?!"
Ever since the death protection chanism was deactivated, the Fortune-teller hadn't ventured into any instances.
Not until today.
After the death protection chanism was deactivated, she would expend energy every morning to divine whether it was a suitable day to enter an instance. But for over ten consecutive days, the answer had always been that it wasn't suitable.
Until today. The divination result told her that entering an instance today would bring good fortune.
So, she prepared ticulously and entered the ticket booth to be matched with an instance.
The instance she was matched with was titled "The Marvelous Adventures at the Food Processing Plant."
The premise was that players, taking on the roles of different food ingredients, were 'dropped' into a food processing plant. They needed to outwit the plant's employees to escape. Periodically, the food processing plant would announce different production tasks, aning it would produce different food items using different ingredients. Players had one chance within the instance to change the ingredient they represented.
Upon entering the instance, the Fortune-teller was assigned 'tomato' as her ingredient. If the food plant started producing items requiring tomatoes, she would be turned into a tomato and sent down the processing line—which ant certain death.
An ingredient like tomato was commonly used, making it very unsafe. Of course, opting for a strange ingredient wasn't necessarily safer. The Fortune-teller had personally witnessed soone change their ingredient to 'Cambodian Spider.' The plant imdiately issued a production task for 'Fried Cambodian Spider.' That particular 'spider' had died a grueso death.
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