Hearse Driver Examination Center

At this critical moment, the fat man still clutched his woven sack tightly.

It was filled with repair tools and the like. The electric drill had come from there.

Holding the drill, Gu Mian hurried forward and grabbed the panicked fat man, who did not know which way to run.

Caught off guard, the fat man let out a howl. Only after seeing who it was did he relax.

"Doctor Gu..." The fat man's thick legs trembled as he spoke. "You're here too?"

What a coincidence. They had ended up together in the instance, and they were still together after being sent out of it.

As he spoke, the fat man looked around, seemingly trying to figure out where Gu Mian had popped out from.

Gu Mian shoved the electric drill into the fat man's arms. "Here to return your drill."

Then he looked at the nearby ticket booth, which was clearly doing brisk business. "Did you get matched into the instance from this ticket booth?"

The fat man nodded with a pale face.

Gu Mian glanced into the booth again and happened to see a doctor in a white coat hurry out. Lianhua People's Hospital was printed on it; he had come from the hospital too.

It seemed everyone had been pulled into the nearest ticket booth.

As he thought this, he was about to withdraw his gaze when something inside the booth caught his attention.

It was a pitch-black coffin.

There was a long table inside the ticket booth, as well as many neatly arranged coffins.

Gu Mian had never known what these coffins were for before, but now he understood.

The coffin lid bounced as though it could barely contain what was inside. Before long, a hand suddenly shoved it open from within, and a bespectacled man sat up out of the coffin.

This man looked rather familiar, but that was not the important part.

The man who had risen from the coffin was clearly a player, yet the way he had entered the game seemed different from Gu Mian's.

Gu Mian stiffly turned his neck, then looked back at the fat man. "How did you enter the game?"

Seeing that Gu Mian did not look quite right, the fat man answered nervously, "You take a ticket, then lie down in a game pod... You see, those coffin-like things are the pods..."

"...The ticket seller said that since it's a virtual instance, we have to use game pods... After entering, our bodies fall unconscious while our consciousness enters the instance. The pods can protect our physical bodies too..."

Then why did I enter directly?

Gu Mian pinched his forehead. No wonder other players only suffered fake deaths while his death was real.

Their souls entered the game. When they died, their souls merely got frightened. His physical body entered the game. If he died, he would be cold inside and out.

As he thought, he turned his gaze toward Chu Changge, who had just climbed out of the coffin.

Chu Changge happened to turn his head as well. Though his expression remained unruffled, Gu Mian knew he was somewhat surprised too.

"Why are you here as well?" Chu Changge asked, sitting in the coffin and pushing up his glasses.

Gu Mian stepped forward and pulled him out. "I got matched into an instance from the ticket booth next door. Those two booths are probably close together, so we were directly matched into the same instance."

Chu Changge had always been quick to change the subject. He did not continue questioning him and instead asked Gu Mian what he planned to do next.

As someone targeted by the world, Gu Mian was unsafe both in instances and in reality.

And this Global Game could practically be said to have come specifically to assassinate Gu Mian, so they had to prepare first.

"I reckon everyone at the hospital has run home by now. I'm planning to head back to my apartment first. What about you?" Gu Mian tugged at his white coat.

"I'll go with you," Chu Changge said. "We happen to live nearby."

Staying together was indeed safer at a time like this.

But that depended on whom one stayed with. If it was someone like Gu Mian... one might end up caught in the crossfire.

Still, Chu Changge had quite a tough life. Every time he got into an accident with Gu Mian, he had survived in the end. The worst he had suffered was only a broken leg.

The two immediately hit it off and prepared to head back.

But the timid fat man beside them grabbed hold of them.

"D-Doctor Gu..." The fat man fidgeted. "I think my home is in that direction too. Let's go together."

After all, they were both men who had thrown hands with zombies. Following them would at least give him some sense of security.

Bringing along one fat man was no big deal, so Gu Mian nodded in agreement.

Driving was out of the question.

The roads were full of wrecked cars, and overturned buses could be seen from time to time.

The greenery along the roadside had suffered as well, swept flat by cars crashing wildly through it, as though a typhoon had passed by.

Some players hurriedly tried to get home, only to be blocked by fallen trees or cars lying across the road. They could only clutch their waists and climb over them.

It was New Year's Day, and the weather had already turned cold.

A chilling wind blew by from time to time, making the fat man shiver.

"Doctor Gu," the fat man said, pulling his little padded jacket tighter around himself. "Do you think we can still live like we used to?"

Gu Mian breathed out a puff of air. "No. You studied history, right? When most of humanity is progressing, do you know what happens to the small group that does not?"

If only a few individuals failed to progress, that would be one thing. But if all the people in one region—a vast region—stagnated, that region would sooner or later be devoured by the strong.

The people within it could only become slaves.

The fat man seemed unwilling to give up. "Then what if the whole world refuses to enter instances? If we all refuse to progress together, wouldn't that work? I think things were pretty good before. Instances are terrifying..."

"No." Gu Mian shook his head directly.

No one could guarantee that everyone would refuse to participate in this game.

Even if only one person entered an instance, as long as one person was progressing, they would threaten every weak person. That person would be a bomb, and when the time was right, they would blow up the entire world.

Besides, plenty of people around the world were eager to make a move. There would never be just one person willing to enter instances.

As he thought, Gu Mian checked his phone. The signal bars were still crossed out.

Since Earth could block humanity's signals, it could naturally block other technological means as well.

He suspected that large weapons like nuclear missiles and tanks had already become unusable.

He wondered whether resources extracted from Earth, such as oil, had also been reclaimed.

Since there was a driver examination center ahead, there was a Sinopec gas station nearby.

Gu Mian glanced at the gas station in the distance. There was a clever fellow there, hurriedly carrying over a huge container to fill with gasoline, apparently hoping to avoid being unable to get any later.

Yet not a single drop of fuel came out.

The clever fellow was dumbfounded.

The corner of Gu Mian's mouth twitched slightly. Was Earth really this stingy? It was taking even this back?

Without lingering there, the three passed the gas station and continued forward.

Gu Mian knew his luck had always been terrible, but he had never expected it to be terrible to this extent.

Just as they passed the driver examination center, panels suddenly descended from the sky before them.

[Special instance triggered: "Hearse Driver Examination Center"]

[Instance player count: 5 to 10]

[Insufficient player count detected. Players will be randomly added.]