Gu Mian had already stepped out of the portal.

However, he didn't see the person who had entered before him.

Weird… Gu Mian muttered, looking back, but there was nothing behind him.

The person in front was gone, and no one was following from behind...

In an instant, Gu Mian understood. Don't tell me everyone who enters this portal gets teleported to a different place?

Before he could ponder for long, an enormous crashing sound echoed from afar.

Only then did Gu Mian take a look at his surroundings.

A secluded alley, modern buildings, flickering streetlights—this clearly wasn't Hengdian.

He had been teleported out.

The definition of 'nearby' is indeed quite vague... Gu Mian thought while looking in the direction of the sound.

But before he could make sense of it, the game interface suddenly updated.

He noticed a change in the announcement section.

Two new announcements.

[Notice of Early Activity Termination]

[Temporary List of Suspended Game Instances]

Looking at the title of the first announcement, Gu Mian thought, The Heart has collapsed; of course, the event has to end early.

One glance at the second announcement told him nothing good had happened. The title was rather bizarre, but Gu Mian obediently started with the first one.

[Notice of Early Activity Termination]

[Dear Players: Due to special circumstances, the 'Lantern Festival' instance has ended prematurely. Players in the event area have been forcibly removed, and the area will be temporarily sealed for cleanup. We apologize for any inconvenience caused. Affected players will receive compensation. Due to an unforeseen incident during the event, some instances will be temporarily suspended. During this period, players will be unable to enter these suspended instances. A list of suspended instances will be publicized via announcement.]

[February 19, 2019, 11:13]

[From: 'Game Planners Admired by Players']

What the hell? Gu Mian stared at the last line, lost in thought. This game actually has planners?

He didn't dwell on it for long before moving on to the next announcement.

[Temporary List of Suspended Game Instances]

Whoa, this title sounds pretty intimidating. And it's a temporary version. Don't tell me they're going to release an extended list later?

He continued to look down.

[The temporarily suspended game instances are as follows:

Crazy Game City

Evernight Town

The Defiled Art Museum

Close Your Eyes (Beginner Version)

...]

There wasn't actually an instance named 'Ellipsis'; the list was just incredibly long. If it were included in a novel, it would reek of padding the word count, so Gu Mian only skimmed it.

A quick glance showed that forty to fifty instances had been suspended this time.

Gu Mian looked towards Hengdian. "I didn't expect a single event collapsing to cause dozens of instances to be suspended along with it... Is it because the ghosts from the event can't return to their instances, so they had to be suspended?"

"In that case," he mused, stroking his chin, "it seems Mr. Green's plan to escape into the real world has fallen through."

At that moment, his friend notifications were constantly going off.

Gu Mian glanced and saw that Fatty and the others had already sent him over a dozen messages.

"Doc, I'm out."

"Doc, we're scattered."

"Doc, where are you?"

"Doc, it's so dark here, I'm kinda scared."

"..."

Fatty alone was responsible for almost all of them.

Gu Mian scrolled to the very bottom of the message interface to see two messages from other people.

One was from Han Shan: "Don't forget our agreement."

The other was from Chu Changge: "Meet at the inn."

Gu Mian looked at Chu Changge's message, then at Fatty's, sighed, and started replying to Fatty: "Where are you?"

...

By the time the three of them finally managed to regroup, it was already past one in the morning.

It had to be said, that rascal Fatty sometimes had even worse luck than Gu Mian. He'd been teleported directly into a derelict, locked warehouse, and Gu Mian had to go to great lengths to get him out.

The innkeeper seemed rather shocked that all three of them had returned alive, but that hardly mattered now.

"I got out a step too early," Fatty lamented, sitting on the sofa and looking at the announcement ruefully. "I didn't get any compensation!"

Gu Mian glanced at him. "Don't sit there looking so glum. Someone out there is probably having a much harder time than you right now."

He was talking about Mr. Green.

That poor little guy was probably wandering around somewhere with his logistics female ghost right now.

"Let's put that aside for now," Chu Changge said, pushing up his glasses. "Let's take stock of what we obtained from this dangerous event."

Actually, there wasn't much to take stock of—just three items.

[Mind Amplifier]

[Penguin Brand Cough Syrup (Single-use)]

[A Head of Lush Hair (Single-use)]

If the cleaver Fatty had snatched counted...

At this, Fatty had already taken the [Dull-edged Cleaver] from his inventory. "This should count too."

Alright then.

Four special items from one event; it sounded like a lot.

But after excluding the useless [Dull-edged Cleaver] and the [A Head of Lush Hair (Single-use)] obtained through special means, only two remained.

One of them was still around the female ghost's neck, who was now lost somewhere out there.

So, it turned out the only useful item they had obtained normally from this instance was the [Penguin Brand Cough Syrup].

Fatty couldn't help but have an existential crisis. "This is all we got from an event where we could have actually died?"

Isn't this too much of a loss?

Gu Mian stated matter-of-factly, "It's not a loss. Even though actual death was possible, you didn't die, did you?"

Fatty choked. "But I risked death…"

Just then, Chu Changge's voice came from the side. "No, we might have obtained one other thing from this event."

"What?" Fatty looked at him, puzzled.

Chu Changge pointed towards the window of the adjacent bedroom. "A female ghost."

Fatty was aghast and immediately turned to look.

There, a terrifyingly-figured female ghost had, at some unknown point, climbed up and was now pressed tightly against the outside of the window, completely still.

Although she wasn't moving, Gu Mian could still hear a faint voice from outside the window.

"No one saw me climbing the building, no one saw me climbing the building, no one saw me climbing the building... right?" —From the [Mind Amplifier]

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