Over the past few days, Xiao Qiao had finally started acting more normal, and Gu Mian, hoping against hope, asked if she knew anything about Xingyun.
As expected, she was just as clueless as before.
Seeing her struggle to co up with an answer, Gu Mian decided not to press her anymore; he simply left her to her own devices.
After coming out of the Seventh World, the Fortune-teller and 007 no longer needed to avoid each other intentionally. That said, even if they didn't avoid each other intentionally, they still rarely crossed paths.
007 spent her days holed up in her room, barely showing her face. She stopped looking for her mother, and Gu Mian guessed that the ending of 007's quest to find her mother might have been a sad one.
After experiencing a sad ending, only to be imdiately thrust into the Seventh World, it was no surprise that 007 was emotionally drained and needed ti to recover.
Gu Mian decided not to bother her.
anwhile, the Fortune-teller began to focus on physical fitness after nearly being run ragged by a dog.
Gu Mian often saw her running laps outside his window. She ran in the morning, in the dead of night, and even brought back a pair of dumbbells.
Occasionally, Fatty would stand beside the window, looking uneasy. "Miss Fortune-Teller seems to be getting serious about her workouts," he said.
He was honestly worried he might one day co face-to-face with a muscle-bound Miss Fortune-Teller.
During this ti, Gu Mian was also preoccupied. He and Chu Changge had been discussing and analyzing key characters in various worlds.
In the Seventh World, Xingyun was doing everything in his power to slow the spread of the curse.
In the First World, No. 1 had never appeared, and his whereabouts remained a mystery. Gu Mian had only heard about him through Xingyun.
In the Third World, there was an NPC called "The Divergent" who was suspected to be a key character, but they weren't sure.
In the Fourth World, there was an NPC nad "Slaughter," an Evil God who was seemingly everywhere. His avatar was looking for Gu Mian, though Gu Mian didn't know why.
The key characters in the remaining worlds were still unknown; their nas were also yet to be revealed.
"Right now, the easiest key character to find is the Evil God. While we're looking for him, he's also looking for us." Gu Mian passed the Big Data Search to Chu Changge, gesturing for him to store it in his inventory.
"Are you planning on entering an instance today?" Chu Changge neatly stored the Big Data Search, then took another special item that Gu Mian handed him.
"Yes," Gu Mian responded. "Thanks to Coach Che's manual, we'll be able to determine roughly which world the instance belongs to once we enter."
Then, they could use the Big Data Search to find the key character in that world.
Luckily, there were no invisible walls in the ga. Once they entered an instance, Gu Mian could roam freely.
"Once we find the key character, we can engage and establish a plan to save the world. After all, if the world is saved, I won't have to work hard digging graves for you guys," Gu Mian declared, his tone full of righteous conviction.
Chu Changge turned away to look at a box of red mud salted duck eggs Fatty had left by the kitchen door.
Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching. The eggs had been carefully selected by Fatty, perfect for making lotus seed paste mooncakes with egg yolk.
On the kitchen table was a bowl of lotus seeds whose cores had been removed. Fatty had been halfway through making mooncakes when he realized the blender was broken. He was now hastily off to the supermarket to buy a new one.
As for why the blender had abruptly stopped working, it was probably because Gu Mian's hands had been itching to use it, so he'd made soy milk that morning.
At this mont, the broken blender lay in the trash can right under Gu Mian's eyes.
Gu Mian glanced guiltily at the blender in the trash can. "Anyway, for the sake of world peace, let's continue our journey to explore instances."
When Fatty returned, the house was empty, save for Xiao Hong, who sat there with a bowl, stuffing her face with lotus seeds.
anwhile, Gu Mian had already entered an instance, bringing along his custom-made "Simplified Portable Chu Changge."
[Instance: Death Photography]
[Number of Players: 9]
[Description: This was supposed to be just an ordinary team-building event, but strange things started happening soon after. How long can you survive amidst mounting dangers?]
Another team-building event, Gu Mian thought. He recalled that a previous instance had also started as a team-building event. Team-buildings always ant trouble.
[Objective: Survive for Three Days]
Just as Gu Mian was silently cursing the habitual ill-fortune of instances paired with team-building events, their surroundings suddenly lit up.
They had entered the instance. Gu Mian had barely had ti to adapt when a voice echoed from the front— "Eggplant!"
Hearing this, Gu Mian, as if conditioned to react, looked towards the direction of the voice and flashed a smile and a peace sign.
Having had his photo taken nurous tis as a child, he naturally responded like this.
Not half a second after Gu Mian made the gesture, a bright light flashed in front of him. It was the flash of a cara.
After the flash, Gu Mian finally got a good look at his surroundings.
They were on a slightly flat mountaintop, with a few tall pine trees nearby.
The weather here was good. The sun was blazing overhead, making the ground hot to the touch.
A few ters in front stood the person who had shouted earlier. He held a black Polaroid cara in one hand and, with the other, reached for the photo that had just ejected from it. This was an NPC.
Aside from the NPC with the Polaroid cara, a few other people were standing around Gu Mian. They had probably been posing for a group photo. The others surrounding him were players, currently sizing each other up.
"Huh?" Just as Gu Mian was about to get a closer look at the other players, the NPC, looking at the photo, let out a confused noise. "Why does the photo look like this?"
Because the na of the instance was "Death Photography," the players were extrely sensitive to anything related to photos.
Gu Mian saw a male player nad "Wenqin Tan Jiu" instantly get into character and approach the photo-taking NPC. "What happened?"
The other players also started to approach the NPC. They had no ti for introductions; it was straight to looking for clues, Gu Mian observed.
Gu Mian nudged Chu Changge, who was standing next to him. "Quick, use the train conductor's manual to figure out which world this is."
He was treating Chu Changge as if he were a finely made humanoid computer.
Chu Changge adjusted his glasses. "There's no need to guess. I can sense it; this is the Second World."
They'd arrived in Chu Changge's ho world.
Gu Mian looked around.
Not too far behind him was a human-sized stone tablet with "Taiying Mountain" carved into it. Next to the tablet, thick pine trees grew, creating a scenic atmosphere.
A short distance away, there was a paved road where a coach was parked.
It seed that they hadn't climbed the mountain themselves, but had been driven up.
Gu Mian was reminded of a coach incident from a previous team-building instance. "I was recently in an instance called 'Amnesia,' which you weren't in. That one also started with a team-building activity and a coach. However, midway through the journey, the coach rolled down the mountain. No one on board survived."
So he reckoned it would be best not to take the coach.
Chu Changge looked down the incline of the paved road. "Don't worry, the slope of this mountain is moderate."
The mountain wasn't tall. Standing on the summit, they could see all the way down to the bottom. Gu Mian had also noticed this.
The paved road was built on the mountainside, with no steep cliffs nearby. Therefore, the chance of the coach overturning was less than choking to death on excrent.
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