Chapter 526 - 495: Gu Mian, the Nuclear Bomb Maker _1

「Inside the instance.」

Regarding the mouse-stuffing incident.

If the villagers stuffed a mouse into a guest’s mouth, the production team would undoubtedly be jubilant, and the entire national audience would be overjoyed.

But if a guest stuffed a mouse into a villager’s mouth...

The production team and the audience would feel far worse than if they had eaten shit.

Liu Ruyan saw the live broadcast cut away; apparently, they didn’t want the audience to endure any more filth.

Quite right, too. It’s like people eagerly watching a dog fight, hoping for blood and gore, only for one of the dogs to unexpectedly leap out, bite the spectators, and then unleash all the other dogs to run amok.

Infuriating indeed.

For some reason, Liu Ruyan suddenly recalled the "No Gu Mian or Dogs Allowed" signs that had once been a bestseller in supermarkets. She still didn’t know what genius had come up with that.

Besides, thinking about it, the production team didn’t have many scenes left to cut to anyway.

The cameraman filming ’Accompany me next year’ had long since collapsed, unable to get up, and that female guest had also vanished.

The cameraman filming Chu Changge had fared even worse; Gu Mian had beaten him half to death and tied him up in the wilderness. However, due to a shortage of mice, several cameramen were spared this particular torment.

The most unfortunate was Gu Mian’s cameraman. After collapsing heavily, he had simply vanished and was now listed as a missing person.

Of the four guests in the mountainous region, the only one left to film was the cloaked Xie Bi’an.

This was the most serious broadcasting incident since ’Metamorphosis’ began airing.

Three guests were missing without a trace, the director was hopping mad, and the audience was outraged, demanding that those individuals be apprehended.

Gu Mian, accustomed to being a wanted man, was currently walking along a rugged mountain path.

"What are you doing with that rope?" In the darkness, Chu Changge eyed the rope swaying in Gu Mian’s hand—a piece Gu Mian had deliberately cut.

Hearing Chu Changge’s question, Gu Mian connected the two ends of the rope, looped it over his head, and gestured. "Perfect for a hanging."

Chu Changge’s glasses slid slightly down his nose; he immediately pushed them back up with his index finger.

Gu Mian continued, "We have a teammate who wants to hang herself, but I doubt that rope would be enough to kill her."

He swung the hemp rope in his hand as he spoke. "If we run into her again and she’s unfortunate enough not to have died, we can lend her this rope. Consider it a good deed."

If you call lending someone a noose for suicide a "good deed," then I have nothing more to say.

Chu Changge pushed his glasses up again.

"But I think what’s more noteworthy right now is this." Gu Mian’s gaze went past Chu Changge to the gray-haired young man beside him. He still wore that gentle smile, as if something delightful had occurred.

However, the mouse he held clutched in his hand probably didn’t share the sentiment.

Gu Mian silently watched the rat; its tail was caught in his brother’s grip, and it was struggling desperately.

"What are you holding it for?" Gu Mian looked at the plump rat.

The gray-haired young man offered no explanation, of course. To date, Gu Mian had only ever heard him utter two words: "Little Sister."

Chu Changge also glanced at the struggling rat. "Perhaps he thinks that as long as he’s holding something, he won’t be sent back to the CD."

Hearing this, Gu Mian glanced again at the gray-haired man.

He seems to be radiating an ’I’m working hard’ aura.

...

In the end, his brother wasn’t slapped back into the CD by Gu Mian. Whether this ghost was out or not made little difference, so Gu Mian simply took him along for the "Old World Life and Death Escape."

Of course, the title "Old World Life and Death Escape" was Gu Mian’s invention. In reality, the production team hadn’t found a trace of anyone, so an "escape" couldn’t very well be broadcast.

"What are your plans now?" Gu Mian heard Chu Changge’s voice from beside him.

He remembered Chu Changge asking him the same question once before.

"I, of course, can’t get out of here," Gu Mian mused, then raised his hand, the noose swinging. "Why don’t you retreat first?"

He just needed to slip his neck into the loop, and he could retreat.

Chu Changge glanced at the rope but said nothing.

Seeing this, Gu Mian lowered his hand. "If you don’t want to go, then don’t."

Stroking the rough rope, he began to lay out his thoughts. "This instance is somewhat different—past instances were usually confined to some corner of a given world, never escalating to global awareness."

This place is somewhat similar to the Slaughter Game, but it’s clearly not the same world.

"Actually, I have an idea," Gu Mian said. "I’ve discovered that the NPCs in these variety show-type instances seem to know they’re NPCs and that a real world exists outside the instance."

Host Green was like that, Teacher Sweet too, and Coach Che as well.

Even driving school could arguably be called a variety show; it was quite comical, after all...

As for the Slaughter Game instance, which most closely resembled Metamorphosis, Gu Mian recalled Teacher Slaughter mentioning their awareness of people traveling between worlds. It was possible the NPCs in the Slaughter Game merely believed in parallel worlds, unaware of the real world’s existence.

Setting that aside, I remember that after I wrecked the Slaughter Game instance, I never entered another instance in the Slaughter Game world again.

After all, that instance collapsed quite spectacularly. I recall seeing the ground littered with monsters before I left; the scene was like something out of an apocalyptic novel.

Thinking this, Gu Mian grew eager. "If this Metamorphosis instance is gone, does that mean we won’t encounter instances from the Old World anymore?"

Chu Changge remained silent for a moment. "My thoughts align with yours. I suspect that globally-known instances like ’Slaughter Game’ and ’Metamorphosis’ might be core instances for their respective worlds. When such an instance is impacted, the entire world it’s connected to suffers."

He continued, looking up, "If something happens to this instance, I think it will be a very long time before we see the Old World again."

But Metamorphosis was different from other instances.

The conflict between players and this instance stemmed from the entire world, unlike other instances where conflicts were between players and ghosts.

In typical instances, as long as all the ghosts are eliminated, the instance is forced into maintenance mode, whether it wants to be or not.

The taxi instance was somewhat unique: the danger stemmed from humans, not ghosts. However, if that human source of danger was itself imperiled, the instance would immediately enter maintenance.

The threats in the Slaughter Game were the audience and the monsters from the restricted zone. Later, due to Gu Mian’s wild actions, the monsters broke out, and the audience became the ones in peril.

From this, we can conclude that to make an instance crumble in its final stages, one merely needs to eliminate the threat it poses to players.

But achieving that in Metamorphosis would be difficult.

The threat to players in the Metamorphosis instance originated from the entire world—from the malice of its entire population.

Currently, there seemed to be only two ways to tackle it.

The first is worldwide nuclear annihilation. Highly improbable.

The second is to propagate correct ideology, guiding the people of the Old World onto a path of harmony, friendship, kindness, and beauty.

"Hmm, let’s stick to researching how to build a nuclear bomb."