Welcoming One Thousand Collections

It was a room about twenty square meters, about the size of a slightly larger bedroom.

In the center stood a coffin, surrounded by wreaths, with couplets hanging on them:

"Deepest condolences to the late Mr. Liu, respectfully presented by your humble junior, Zhang Han."

Above the coffin, in the center of the wall, hung a large black and white photo of a man staring at them and smiling.

"A little creepy," Yan Hua Yi Leng shivered.

Gu Mian took out the test questions to look, then glanced up at the mourning hall. The two seemed completely unrelated.

He pondered, "Could it be that we have to lift the coffin lid to check?"

The only place that might hold a clue now was inside the coffin, but this coffin looked like solid wood, and the lid was very heavy, not easily moved.

Never mind, Gu Mian rolled up his sleeves, "Can someone help me push open this coffin lid?"

"Push it open?" Yan Hua Yi Leng instantly took three large steps back, as if doubting his own ears.

Gu Mian repeated, "Yes, push it open, if you want to pass."

A score of eighty was needed to pass the written test, and it was truly difficult to get eighty in this kind of exam.

Fatty trembled a few times and rubbed his hands, approaching the coffin.

Chu Changge also shuffled over.

Yan Hua Yi Leng had already retreated to the doorway, "I'm a bit scared, you guys push it, I'll watch from here."

Uncle Hao Laoshi and the freckled girl, Liu Xing Gong Zhu, also shrank back to the doorway, appearing very frightened.

Fine, he hadn't planned on relying on these people from the start anyway.

Just as the three were rolling up their sleeves, preparing to do something disrespectful to the deceased, Xiao Qiao, who was standing nearby, suddenly walked over.

"I'll help too," she said, reaching out and trying to push with all her might, "I'm strong."

How much strength could someone with that small frame have?

However, Gu Mian didn't drive her away. As the saying goes, there's strength in numbers, right?

Even if that saying wasn't quite right, wasn't there also the saying that working with both men and women makes the task less tiring?

"I'll count to three, and then we'll all push together," Gu Mian placed his hand on the coffin lid.

The others all nodded.

It had to be said that Xiao Qiao's strength was indeed considerable. The three grown men didn't even exert much effort before she, by herself, managed to push the coffin lid askew.

Fatty's jaw dropped in astonishment at the sight, "Girl, did you put all your attribute points into Strength?"

Xiao Qiao laughed heartily, "I've been naturally strong since birth."

By this time, Gu Mian had already leaned in and inspected the entire inside of the coffin.

It was empty, with nothing inside.

No corpse, no other items, in short, they had pushed open the coffin for nothing.

Fatty looked a bit dejected, "Should we go check out other rooms then?"

That works too.

Gu Mian thought as he walked out of the room.

He then noticed that the lights in the center of the hall had gone out at some point, with only a faint glow illuminating the table in the middle. The clock showed it was already 6:20.

Just a few steps away was the next door.

At a height of one person, a large obituary photo was also hung on the door, looking quite frightening.

Gu Mian reached out and pushed the door open.

The scene behind the door was no different from the previous room.

All of them had huge obituary photos, large coffins, surrounded by wreaths, and couplets hanging from them.

However, the content of the couplets was different, as the names of the deceased were different.

Gu Mian guessed that all the rooms on this floor would be the same, and he wondered if the second and third floors would be like this too.

Gu Mian looked at the faces in the obituary photos and rubbed his forehead, "I suspect the answer we're looking for is in the coffins, but we have to find the right coffin first."

Opening each coffin one by one was clearly unrealistic. Their exam time was from ten to twelve, meaning they couldn't answer questions after twelve.

If they really had to open them one by one, there wouldn't be enough time.

Gu Mian glanced at his driver's license exam questions, "My test says there's a Fierce Ghost on each floor across the three floors, and the first one we need to find is on the first floor."

But how to find it was a big problem.

To be honest, before this game descended upon them, Gu Mian had imagined countless scenarios of the apocalypse.

He had imagined alien invasions of Earth, zombie virus outbreaks, a resurgence of spiritual energy, and global nuclear leaks creating countless monsters. But no matter how he imagined it, it always ended up being a chase scene.

Monsters chasing, him running.

Or perhaps him chasing, monsters running.

But things were different now. The Fierce Ghost on the first floor was hidden so well that it was unlikely they'd even get a glimpse of it, let alone chase it out.

Now he had to rack his brain to find this ghost. Ideals and reality were indeed vastly different.

Feeling a bit tired, Gu Mian found a wreath, spread it on the ground, and sat down with a soft crack. "Let's make a plan."

A ghost-finding plan.

"First, we have to split up. Don't ask me who splits with whom; you guys figure it out yourselves."

"Second, to complete the exam, we must find these ghosts. In fact, each of us has clues about these ghosts on our exam papers."

"On my exam paper, the clues I can see right now are... this building has a total of three Fierce Ghosts, one on each floor."

"Only one of them is male. The three ghosts have the surnames Ma, Yang, and Zhao. One of the three ghosts is a Long-tongued Ghost, and another is a Pregnant Ghost."

"That's all I can see from my exam paper for now. What about yours?"

Gu Mian looked up at the others.

Chu Changge was the first to respond.

"The clues I can see on my exam paper are similar to yours, but there's an extra one. My essay question is..."

"'Given that there are three Fierce Ghosts in the building who knew each other in life, find the corresponding vehicle for each ghost.'"

Finally, there was a question directly related to the driver's license test.

Outside, by the roadside, three vehicles were parked: a prison van, an ambulance, and a hearse. The meaning of the question was self-evident—

Each of these three ghosts corresponded to one of the vehicles.

After asking the others, they found that the clues on everyone's exam papers were similar, with nothing special.

"Alright," Gu Mian said, patting the wreath beneath him and standing up. "Back to the first topic, splitting up."

"Using the clues given in the exam papers, we can eliminate most of the Mourning Halls on this floor."

"There are only three Fierce Ghosts in the building: Ma, Yang, and Zhao. What we need to find now are the Mourning Halls with these surnames. You've all seen the couplets, right?"

As he spoke, he pulled down a couplet from above his head.

The others had stiff expressions; they had never seen anyone treat the deceased so casually.

"'Deepest condolences to the late Mr. Jiang, a respectful tribute from his late-blooming disciple Liu Qiangfeng,'" Gu Mian read the couplet in his hand.

"From the couplets, you can tell the surname of the deceased in the Mourning Hall. I don't need to explain what to do next, do I?"

Yan Hua Yi Leng, the thin and sharp-featured man, asked timidly, "What if we see a ghost?"

"If you see a ghost, run. If you can't outrun it, you're out. Haven't you seen ghosts in other Dungeons? It's not like you'll die anyway."

I'm literally dead and I'm not complaining, so stop being so timid?