Big Data Technique Activated

With a blink of his eyes.

Gu Mian found himself back in the ticket booth.

The man behind the glass window was still timidly poking his head out, as though afraid Gu Mian would rush in and slap him again.

The door to the ticket booth, which had originally been impossible to open, was now open. Outside lay the familiar street.

Gu Mian recognized this road. Lianhua Hospital stood on this street, and the driver's examination center was not far away.

It seemed he had returned to the real world.

Even in the real world, the game interface still existed. After all, the entire world had become a game, so it was hardly surprising.

He touched the bulging pocket of his white coat. There was an apple inside, brought out from the instance.

Special Items from instances really could be brought out.

Instead of leaving the ticket booth right away, Gu Mian looked at his interface.

The interface was currently settling the game rewards.

[Obtained Game Currency ×10]

[Obtained 1 freely allocatable Attribute Point. Allocate it immediately?]

Of course he would allocate it immediately.

Gu Mian really wanted to know what his interface, which was filled with question marks, would become after adding Attribute Points.

He selected yes.

Several attribute lines popped up on the interface.

[Freely allocatable Attribute Points: 1. Please select an attribute.]

[Stamina]: ???

[Speed]: ???

[Strength]: ???

[Spirit Value]: ???

Gu Mian even gave it some serious thought.

In all martial arts under heaven, only speed was invincible. Faster speed would also make running away more convenient, so he would add it to speed first.

As he thought this, he tapped the "+" after Speed.

But Gu Mian immediately realized that all his careful consideration had been unnecessary, because it seemed he could not allocate points at all.

After he pressed the "+," a line appeared on the interface—

[Warning! You are incompatible with this attribute! Please abandon your current operation!]

Gu Mian: "..."

He tried pressing the other attributes, but the result was the same.

After trying them all, Gu Mian gave up. He had known he was uniquely favored, but he had not expected to be favored to this extent—his attributes were not even compatible with him.

Awesome, awesome. Truly something else.

Gu Mian turned to look at the man behind the glass window, who had his neck tucked in. He was about to ask something when another line popped up on the interface.

[Obtained 1 lottery draw. Draw immediately?]

This was also a reward for clearing the instance.

Gu Mian selected yes. "Let's see whether this lottery system is compatible with me."

Fortunately, he could still use the lottery. An explanation popped up on the interface.

[Detected that this is your first use of the lottery system. The rewards in the prize pool will now be explained.]

[The prize pool contains Game Currency, Attribute Points, Special Items, and a large amount of game equipment.]

[Game equipment is divided into five quality grades: Legendary, Perfect, Excellent, Ordinary, and Broken, in descending order of quality.]

[As the game develops, other items may be added to the prize pool in the future. Please look forward to it.]

[Special reminder: The prize pool does not contain the words "Thank you for your patronage." Please draw with confidence.]

Gu Mian felt much more at ease knowing there was no "Thank you for your patronage." He knew his own luck well enough.

Then the screen began to fuzz over.

Like the static on an old television, things occasionally flashed past within it. If he had not known this was a lottery draw, Gu Mian might have thought Sadako was about to crawl out.

A few seconds later, the interface flickered more slowly.

The image finally froze.

Gu Mian stared at the frozen image, then made a face as though he had eaten shit.

On the interface was a damn eraser.

At the same time, an eraser appeared out of thin air before him. Gu Mian reached out and caught it.

[Special Item: Eraser that can erase anything (single-use)]

[Function: Can erase any writing.]

And that was it.

Just that one function, and it could only be used once. Then it would be gone.

Sure enough, even without "Thank you for your patronage" in the prize pool, he still could not draw anything good.

Thinking this, Gu Mian resignedly tucked the eraser into his pocket.

A vicious-looking electric drill sat on the seat beside him. Fatty had given it to him, and it had come out of the instance with him as well.

He picked up the drill, stood, and took a few steps toward the ticket window.

The man inside took several steps back. "What are you trying to do now?"

He was an NPC, for goodness' sake. Was it really okay for him to be this cowardly?

"Don't run..." Gu Mian leaned toward the window. "I just want to ask you something."

Only then did the NPC steady himself. "What do you want to ask?"

"My gender is a question mark. Do you know why?"

Not just his gender—every attribute was a question mark, he could not allocate points, and he did not even have an inventory. It was simply insane.

The NPC rubbed his hands and quietly asked in return, "Let me ask you first. Which instance did you match into just now?"

As he spoke, he looked up at Gu Mian with an extremely serious expression.

Gu Mian rubbed his chin and answered honestly, "Zombie Hospital."

Rather than looking surprised upon hearing those words, the NPC showed an expression of just as I thought.

The man took a deep breath and hesitantly spoke. "Zombie Hospital... The game made an announcement just now. It said that instance crashed... a few minutes ago."

Gu Mian nodded. "It did crash. I watched it happen."

The NPC pursed his lips, then quietly spoke in a certain tone. "Do you know how it crashed?"

It said the instance barrier had suffered epic-level damage.

Gu Mian thought of the fence he had smashed apart and put on a fake expression. "No idea."

Perhaps because Gu Mian's expression was too fake, even the NPC could not stand it.

The man inside rolled his eyes. "When you figure out why that instance crashed, you'll probably understand why all your attributes are question marks too."

It seemed he knew perfectly well why the instance had crashed.

Well, that was as good as saying nothing.

Gu Mian did not make things difficult for him. Instead, he continued looking through his interface.

Because just now, he had noticed that the interface seemed to have updated again.

The most conspicuous part was the event section in the middle. It was no longer dull gray, but now had color.

However, what Gu Mian cared about more was the announcement at the top of the interface.

Like an announcement in an online game, a line of text slowly scrolled from right to left across the top.

[Announcement: The "Zombie Hospital" instance has suffered irreversible damage and is undergoing emergency maintenance. The maintenance duration is unknown. During this time, the instance will no longer be available. Players who were forcibly teleported out will receive compensation, which will be sent through the mailbox.]

It seemed this was a global announcement.

Do not question why a global server only spoke Chinese, because this game had an excellent translation system.

Whether the person across from you was an Indian or a caveman from the mountaintops, the game system could translate everything into Chinese for you without any difficulty.

He continued looking down.

Below the announcement was the event section.

The event section, which had originally been dull gray, was now brightly colored—a vivid red.

Not the red of blood flowing like rivers, but a festive red.

[The world's first large-scale event, "New Year's Eve Ghost Market," is about to begin.]

[Event location: Hengdian District, Huaxia Country]

[Event time: New Year's Eve, 2019 (game time: the evening of February 4, 2019)]

[Content: Over China's five thousand years of history, countless ghosts and monsters have appeared throughout the river of time, leaving only fleeting glimpses in human records. This New Year's Eve, they will gather in Hengdian;
Among them are more than a thousand ghosts and monsters, including the Nine-headed Infant, Permafrost Man, and Faceless Woman. Every ghost and monster possesses unique items. They will form a market and trade with players;
Players who pay a certain price may obtain unique items from the ghosts and monsters.]

[Friendly reminder: Please trade with caution to avoid being deceived.]

[Requirements for participation: The event location is fixed. Please proceed to the designated location to participate. Hengdian District will be sealed off during the event. Only those holding tickets obtained from advanced ticket booths may enter.]

Gu Mian looked over the event.

It sounded rather grand, but was this not just a market fair?