After seeing the words Liu Ruyan sent, Fatty seriously imagined Gu Mian having a complete mental breakdown, kneeling on the floor, weeping and begging for mercy.
That kind of thing is unlikely to happen... No! Itâs not just unlikely, itâs absolutely impossible! The probability of that happening is even less than my dad being resurrected from the dead and clawing his way out of the ground.
Fatty sighed after some thought.
Honestly, Iâd have an easier time picturing a zombie apocalypse. But even if zombies were running amok, the Doctor would never kneel and beg for mercy, would he...
The state of the Earth now wasnât that different from the end of the world, after all.
While Fatty was sighing away, a voice suddenly came from You Si on the side, "Brother Fatty, I think this special instance is really weird. We havenât seen any ghosts in ages, and there donât seem to be any dangers... The only strange things are that TV show and the man who owns this house. Iâm still really curious about where the woman of the house is."
At this moment, a myriad of storylines had already flashed through You Siâs mind. His extensive experience with instances had turned his mind into a story generator, capable of conjuring countless terrifying little tales in an instant.
Fatty wasnât in the mood to deal with You Siâs musings. He was straining his neck to stare at the blackened TV screen.
I really want to know what the Doctor is doing now.
Of course, he didnât need to watch to know that Gu Mian was definitely up to no good. Having trailed behind Gu Mian for over half a year, Fatty had hardly ever seen him do anything decent.
The filming location was a village in the mountains, and the Doctor wasnât allowed to enter it until filming for the day was over. Fatty thought to himself,
The Doctorâs probably in that little grove right now, isnât he?
That kind of place was a classic haunting ground; countless horror films had shot scenes in small groves. Walk through one, and you might just stumble upon a sinister-looking tree with a corpse in white clothes hanging from it. This scene indeed appeared in many horror novels. But strangely, though Fatty had followed Gu Mian for so long and experienced so many horror instances, heâd never actually encountered such a clichĂ©d scene of a ghost hanging from a tree.
After some thought, Fatty muttered to himself,
Perhaps theyâre afraid the Doctor will unleash his destructive side and uproot the weeping willow?
Just as he considered this, Fatty saw a new message pop up in the "Exam Cheating Group".
It was from Xiao Qiao, who had been missing for a long time. Xiao Qiao had disappeared after the college entrance examination event. Fatty had originally thought she was probably buried somewhere, but surprisingly, she appeared today. She immediately opened with, "Are you guys in the Old World?"
They had mentioned the name of this world during a group discussion, so it wasnât surprising that Xiao Qiao knew about the Old World. But Fatty found Xiao Qiaoâs tone a bit odd. It was as if sheâd known about the "Old World" for a long time and was surprised they had managed to enter it.
Having long suspected Xiao Qiao was no ordinary person, Fatty wasnât surprised she already knew about the Old World. Instead, he pondered another question.
Why? Is this Old World a place weâre not supposed to enter?
Fatty honestly relayed his doubts to Xiao Qiao, but naturally didnât receive a response.
Fine, if you wonât answer that, maybe I can ask something else...
Fatty thought for a while and put forward another question, "Miss Xiao Qiao, it seems like you are familiar with this world, the Old World. We are now in an instance called âMetamorphosisâ. Do you know about it?"
Heâd only asked casually, not really expecting an affirmative answer.
"I do."
Fatty blinked, somewhat dazed.
At that moment, Xiao Qiao sent several more lines of text.
"Those who follow me prosper, those who defy me perish."
Is she talking about the Doctor?
Fatty thought to himself.
As he wondered, Xiao Qiao sent another message, "Iâm talking about this instance."
Oh, so that describes this instance. In that case, what happens when a player who insists on doing things their way meets an instance that operates on the same principle of âdefy me and perishâ?
At the thought of this, a thin layer of sweat formed on Fattyâs forehead.
I have a feeling this wonât end peacefully.
Of course, the people of the Old World didnât realize they might soon face a rather unpeaceful future. For now, they were all glued to their TV screens, trying to wring some happiness from them.
Liu Ruyan, on the other hand, was also focused on the TV screen.
The camera was currently on Accompany Me Next Year.
Her mission was not to leave the village elementary school before the end of the day.
She now stood at the school gate. The village elementary school wasnât large; she could see to the very back from the entrance. Two rows of earthen houses with walls full of cracks served as classrooms. Faint, yet vibrant, green shoots even poked through the large gaps.
Accompany Me Next Year felt she might die in these dilapidated, precarious buildings.
Although I still donât understand the true objective of this instance...
she mumbled, glancing at the nearby cameraman.
...itâs safer to stick to the mission. Itâs broad daylight, so I feel a bit braver, and itâll be easier to run if I have to.
The mission objectiveâto complete the variety show filmingâwas somewhat vague. What if the director suddenly died during filming? They wouldnât be able to continue, would they? Wouldnât that mean theyâd be stuck in this instance forever?
The director shouldnât just suddenly die, right...?
Accompany Me Next Year thought, stepping anxiously into the unsafe-looking school.
Speaking of schools, she vaguely recalled that the first instance in this global game to crash was related to one.
What was it called... something High School?
It was quite something that this global game had managed to slip ghosts into a school setting, bypassing all censorship. That really wasnât easy.
Just as Accompany Me Next Year was mulling this over, a battered old basketball suddenly flew out of nowhere and smacked her right on the forehead.
The impact made her vision go black for half a second. Then, she heard the clamor of children shouting and the noisy patter of running feet. She shook her head and looked forward. Several children with sallow, dirt-caked faces and sleeves so grimy they practically shone were running towards her. The basketball that had just so rudely greeted her forehead had clearly come from them.
Are these the local students?
Accompany Me Next Year wondered as she watched the children approach. Just then, she noticed the cameraman, not far off, flash a barely perceptible, eerie smile.
She quickly realized it wasnât just the cameraman; the approaching children also wore the same strange, faintly sinister expressions.
Seeing those expressions, Accompany Me Next Yearâs heart skipped a beat.
This is bad.