"I'm telling you! Do you know why the ghost hasn't appeared? Because it was caught by a Doctor just now!"

In the last few minutes, by a strange quirk of fate, Nine Lives bumped into "Safe Life 658," the very escapee he'd been up against.

This middle-aged man had actually managed to survive until the very end as an escapee. Nine Lives was impressed by his skill at staying hidden.

The man even spoke in a hushed voice, as if afraid of startling the rats in the garbage pile.

Safe Life 658 hunched his shoulders beside Nine Lives. "Keep your voice down; don't attract the ghost."

Nine Lives anxiously gestured with his hands. "Didn't I just tell you? The ghost was caught by a player—grabbed by the hair!"

He was afraid the other man wouldn't believe him. This story indeed sounded unbelievable. Nine Lives could guarantee that if he had not witnessed it himself, he would not have believed it either.

"Shh," Safe Life 658 hurriedly said, "Don't be so loud. I got it, I got it; the ghost was caught by a player."

His dismissive attitude was obvious.

Nine Lives was growing frantic. He desperately wanted to share the incredible things he had witnessed, as much as someone might want to share seeing a line of sows queuing up to jump into water. And what I saw, he thought, is even more incredible than sows diving into water!

"It's true!" Nine Lives felt like his mouth was about to blister from frustration. Witnessing something impossible and then having no one believe you when you tell them... it's absolutely maddening!

Safe Life 658 seemed somewhat annoyed.

He finally turned his head to look at the earnestly gesturing Nine Lives. "You must be hallucinating from the stress of this hide-and-seek game. We'll be out of this instance in five minutes. Can you stop imagining things and just stay put quietly?"

As Safe Life 658 spoke, he pointed at the screen. Nine Lives saw it was already 11:55 PM; indeed, the game instance would end in five minutes.

"I think what you described must have been a hallucination—all that stuff about grabbing hair and not being gentle at all," Safe Life 658 continued, trying to placate Nine Lives. "That's impossible. If a player could actually beat up a ghost, wouldn't the instance lose all face?"

Safe Life 658 murmured, "If something like that really happened, the game would have to shut down this instance early just to save face. Weren't there announcements about instances shutting down prematurely before...?"

As he was talking to himself, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

The reason was simple: right in the middle of Safe Life 658's monologue, a game panel suddenly popped up in front of both him and Nine Lives.

That's not right, Safe Life 658 thought. I just checked the time. There are still five minutes before the instance ends.

He thought this as he stared at the panel in surprise.

[Warning!]

[A data loophole has been detected in the 'Heartbeat Hide and Seek' instance. To ensure information security, this instance will self-destruct immediately!]

Safe Life 658 was stunned. "What the hell?"

He had just been talking about the instance ending early, and his prediction had come true!

No, this is even more drastic than ending early—it's self-destructing?

Nine Lives, beside him, was also stunned. Then he spoke very quickly, "It must be because that Doctor caught the ghost!"

Only then did Safe Life 658 begin to feel a flicker of doubt.

[Player instance evaluations will be conducted ahead of schedule. After evaluations are complete, players therein will be forcibly expelled from the instance...]

Meanwhile, Gu Mian was experiencing the same thing.

Just as he understood the first word the ghost managed to utter, it froze solid.

It truly froze, as if flash-frozen in an instant; not even a strand of its hair moved.

The game panel appeared immediately.

[Instance Evaluator 10065 at your service. Firstly, I sincerely wish *me* a pleasant life...]

That number, 10065, looks very familiar, Gu Mian thought. I've seen it at least three times already. Previously, the evaluation always started with a sincere wish for the *player's* pleasant life, but this time seems a bit different?

[Detecting your game nickname... Your game nickname is... Unable to detect game nickname.]

[Detected your game ID as '1'... Detected you are currently in the 'Heartbeat Hide and Seek' instance.]

[Your performance in the instance will now be evaluated. Please wait...]

[Player: ???

Participated in uncovering the truth of the Hide-and-Seek Game and successfully solved it. Clue Collection Rate: 12%. Decryption Progress: 100%. Instance Evaluation: +159 points.]

Fatty, looking at Gu Mian's panel from the side, remarked, "So you only found 12% of the clues. The 100% decryption progress must be entirely thanks to your later... situational guessing... I mean, deduction."

[Escapees Caught: 0. Instance Evaluation: +0 points.

Violently... discovered a game glitch in the instance. Extra Instance Evaluation: +60 points.]

Discovered a game glitch in the instance? Gu Mian frowned, puzzled. So, they're talking about the ghost I caught? The 'data loophole' mentioned in the earlier warning must also refer to this ghost. However, 'discovering a loophole' isn't quite accurate. 'Poking out the loophole' is closer to the truth.

But this time, the instance adopted a conciliatory policy. Not only did it not penalize me, but it also gave me extra points. This is truly unheard of.

[Player ??? Total Instance Evaluation Score: 219 points]

[Instance Evaluation Grade: S]

[At this evaluation grade, the player will receive: Game Coins x999, Attribute Points x9, and the rare special item drop 'Angel Halo'.]

[Obtained Title: 'Troublemaker'. Equipping this title significantly increases the probability of unexpected incidents occurring.]

Gu Mian was speechless. Is this title mocking me? Last time, I got the 'Train Master's Killer' title, which increased the train accident rate by 50%. And now this one... Still, this rare special item sounds pretty powerful.

Gu Mian took a moment to glance at Fatty's panel beside him.

Good grief, 25 points, he thought. How much did Fatty have to slack off to only get 25? I clearly didn't do much of anything and still got over two hundred...

He then glanced at Chu Changge's panel: 101 points.

It feels like Chu Changge didn't do anything either and still got over a hundred points. Fatty's twenty-five is just incredible.

Fatty was overcome with shame, wishing he could find a hole to crawl into. But there were no mouse holes nearby, so he could only stand there, being scrutinized by Gu Mian's incredulous gaze.

Fortunately, this instance began ejecting players quickly. Fatty wasn't subjected to the scrutiny for long before being forcibly kicked out.

Gu Mian, of course, received the same treatment. If this instance could talk, he mused, it'd probably yell something like, 'Hurry up and scram!' while kicking me out...

After exiting the instance this time, the ticket-seller's expression was exceptionally grim.

Previous instances had merely been sent back for repairs.

This one had self-destructed. The trouble I stirred up this time must have been a bit bigger... Gu Mian thought.

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