Global Collapse.

Chapter 949 Wishing everyone a Happy Winter Solstice

The writing before "high school" is blurred and illegible, but it should be the name of the school.

The fat man reached out and touched the smudged writing, feeling something was strange.

The characters don't look like they've been scratched by stains or damage; rather, they look like they've been pixelated, as if an internal program malfunction has affected the display.

The fat man felt like he was out of his mind. This thing wasn't an electronic device like a computer or a mobile phone, so how could it have any internal programs?

He continued to look at the other contents on the cover of the manual.

【■■University Student Administrator Work Log】

[Date: ■■■■]

[Duty Officer: ■■■]

Not only is the manual title blurry, but the dates and names below are also blurred out and cannot be read.

Turn the cover to the first page.

[Year/Month/Day]

【上午工作记录：学生离寝检查，高一(3)班 205宿舍■、■6:30仍未离寝，已记录并扣2分】

Afternoon Work Log: Inspected the cleanliness of public areas (corridors, washrooms, restrooms). Overall good; one faucet in the men's restroom on the east side of the first floor was slightly dripping (reported for repair).

【夜间工作记录：高三(6)班■未于22：00——22：30时间段内回到宿舍楼，晚归扣二分】

[First patrol (after lights out): The entire building was patrolled, and all floors were basically quiet. A student in dormitory 401 of Grade 11 (5) was found not in bed, deducting 3 points.]

[Second spot check (early morning): Floors 1, 3, and 5 were checked and found to be normal; all students were in bed.]

[Third spot check (three points): Inspection of floors 2 and 4, all conditions normal, students are in bed.]

The fat man noticed that the date on this page was also blurred, as were the students' names.

He continued looking ahead, puzzled.

The second page.

[Morning Work Log: Five students in dormitories 223 and 226 of Grade 11 are still asleep]

[Afternoon Work Log: The glass of the fire hydrant box in the second-floor corridor has slight stains; the floor tiles at the far west end of the fourth floor are slightly damaged; the faucet in the men's restroom on the first floor is still not repaired.]

[First Inspection: Three Students Not in Bed]

[Second inspection: Everything is normal, all students are in bed.]

[Third inspection: Five students were found wandering around after getting out of bed; this has been reported and points have been deducted from their licenses.]

The fat man felt that this page of records was a bit rougher than the first page, and not as detailed as the previous ones.

He was similar when he worked; he was attentive for the first few days, but then he started to rush through his tasks. However, the teacher had even less patience than him, and started to be perfunctory on the second day.

As I continued flipping through the pages, the later pages contained dormitory check records, but the records became increasingly informal as I went on, eventually resembling a diary entry with increasingly illegible handwriting, as if the writer was growing impatient.

Turn a few pages.

This morning, over twenty students didn't leave the dormitory on time, and more and more things in the building are breaking down. The men's restroom on the first floor hasn't been repaired, and I can't get through to the maintenance worker. I plan to go find someone myself tomorrow. Many students disappeared during last night's room check, and I couldn't get through to the teachers. This can't go on; dormitory discipline is getting increasingly chaotic. I need to really manage these students.

At this point, all the official formats from before have disappeared, replaced only by self-indulgent rants.

The fat man continued scrolling down.

The construction worker isn't in the building, so I can't go out and I can't find him. The students are getting weirder and run away from me. Where are the students? There are far fewer students, half gone at night. Where did they all go? The class teachers haven't checked the rooms in a long time; they're so irresponsible. I must take responsibility for the class teachers and discipline them properly.

The handwriting became increasingly difficult to decipher, and many typos began to appear. Some sentences were also incoherent, and it took the fat man a long time to understand what they meant.

The later content even removed these grammatically incorrect sentences; it was all just repetition.

Why won't you sleep? Why won't you sleep? Why won't you listen? Why won't you listen? Why won't you listen?

Only the good students stay; the disobedient die; the disobedient die; the disobedient die; the disobedient die.

The handwriting is only legible up to this page; turning the page further reveals only messy scribbles, with a few vague traces of the character "death".

The fat man closed the dormitory inspection manual with lingering fear; it seemed the dormitory supervisor's mental state was worrying.

Based on the information above, the dormitory manager's mental state deteriorated from normal to insane, and he eventually killed anyone who violated the rules, resembling an unspeakable, terrifying creature.

The fat man suspected that the ghost chasing him was actually the dormitory manager who had mutated.

Not only were the dormitory managers acting strangely, but the students were also behaving abnormally, with more and more students violating the rules, and a large number of students going missing.

The fat man suspected that the missing students were killed by the dormitory supervisor, and that the human-shaped ball he saw earlier was probably a fusion of the supervisor and the missing students...

Besides the dormitory manager and students acting strangely, the school maintenance workers and other teachers could not be contacted either.

He guessed that something strange had happened throughout the school, but the notebook didn't record what exactly had happened.

Thinking this thing might be useful, the fat man stuffed it into his pocket and continued rummaging around the room.

Not long after, he found a key in a small plastic bag hanging behind the door, with a label that read "Building No. 4" on it.

This should be the key to the dormitory building.

“Building No. 4,” the fat man said, looking at the text on the label. “That means this school has at least four dormitory buildings.”

Dormitory buildings in schools are usually located in one area, and there are likely other dormitory buildings around this one.

The fat man didn't rush to leave. Instead, he looked out the window. Now that the danger was over, he decided to observe the situation outside first and figure out the terrain before going out.

He cautiously peered out the window, wishing he could make eye contact with the doctor, even though the sight might be a little horrifying.

The anticipated terrifying scene never materialized.

What came into the fat man's view was a walkway with streetlights on both sides, much like the walkways in any school.

There were no people on the road, only the streetlights casting their soft glow.

Looking across the corridor, you see a building on the other side.

It was another dormitory building. By the dim light of the streetlamp, the fat man could see that the sign at the top of the building read "Dormitory Building No. 3".

Looking around, there are several other buildings on both sides, which are the same type as the dormitory building opposite.

Sure enough, all the dorms are in this area. I wonder if the doctor and Chef are in one of the buildings. Fatty started imagining the scene of finally reuniting with the doctor and Chef after going through all the hardships, and a peaceful smile appeared on his face.

Just as he flashed a Mona Lisa-like smile, something suddenly flickered across his face.

What the hell?
It looks like the Daoguang Emperor?
The fat man snapped out of his daze and looked in the direction of the light source.

The light came from a dormitory building diagonally opposite, which was quite far away, so I couldn't see which number it was.

All I could see was a sliver of light shining from a window on a high floor of that building, flickering rhythmically.

The fat man immediately recognized that there was an intelligent being flashing a flashlight by the window. The flashing light was too regular, unlike what a ghost would do; it was most likely a human.

There are people in that building!

Could it be that someone in that building saw me here and used a flashlight to signal me? The fat man tried to look at the window emitting light, but he couldn't see anything because it was too far away.

"You saw that person clearly just now, didn't you?"

"Walking around with such a bright flashlight like that, I would only be blind if I couldn't see it."

At that moment, in a dark dormitory building, several people were discussing something on the balcony of one of the rooms.

"That's probably a new player who was just brought here and doesn't know how dangerous the night is. The only place that's barely safe at night in this school is the dormitory."

"Even in other instances, is it really safe to stroll around at night with lights on and act like nothing's wrong? It's like carrying a coffin around, and you could die anywhere."

"Let's put aside that newbie who died anywhere, Sister Jing, is it really okay for you to be shining a flashlight outside like that? Although it's relatively safe in the dormitory building at night, what if the flashlight attracts ghosts from outside?"

"Swinging a flashlight is already very safe; it's much safer than shouting directly."

A woman by the window was constantly switching her flashlight on and off to shine the light outside. Only after being called out did she solemnly turn off the light and put the flashlight away.

Her nickname is "Jing".

"Sister Jing, how's it going? Did your light attract that person?" A curly-haired man took two steps to the window, peeked outside, and looked at his wrist.

There was no one on the road outside; the person who had amazed them was no longer there.

Jing shook her head: "He didn't go this way, he went towards the library."

"The library?" Curly's expression changed. "It's not safe outside to begin with, and then we went to such a dangerous place. I think that was the last time we saw him."

Jing pinched her forehead: "The dungeon doesn't give us any quests, and we don't know how long we'll have to stay here. Of course, the more companions we have, the better. It would be best if we could lure him to the dormitory building to avoid danger, but if we can't lure him there, we've done our best."

Curly-haired guy gave a complicated look: "I have a feeling that even if we lure him into the dorm, he won't live much longer..."

The other person's behavior was as eye-catching as a light bulb; even a ghost could spot him from 800 miles away.

In the past, it was considered normal to see people acting like this, but now that the global gaming industry has been around for so long, how have these people survived?

Jing didn't reply, but stared thoughtfully in the direction the person below had just left. She had a feeling that the person had seen her signal; when the lights were turned on, the person below seemed to glance in this direction, but Jing couldn't be sure if the other person had seen her.

Curly-haired man raised his hand and glanced at his wrist. He had an old-fashioned watch on his wrist, a wind-up type that didn't require electricity.

At this moment, the hour hand of the watch is between "1" and "2".

After glancing at his watch, Curly looked up and said, "Have you guys noticed? The rate at which this dungeon is bringing in new players has been increasing lately. Jingjie said that at first, they only brought in one batch of new players a month, but about six months ago, the rate suddenly increased to several batches a month, and in the last two months, the rate at which the dungeon is bringing in new players has accelerated again..."

A female player next to her counted on her fingers: "If I remember correctly, a new batch came the day before yesterday, and another batch came yesterday. I didn't expect to see another newcomer now. There must be more than just this one. Three batches of newcomers in just a few days. More and more people are being brought into the dungeon... The more people are brought in, the more people die. The dead become evil spirits, which will make our survival more and more difficult."

Curly's face also showed worry: "If this continues for a while, won't the school be full of ghosts? We won't even have a place to step. Is the dungeon planning to bring in all the people who are still alive outside? I wonder how many people are left outside. Sister Jing was brought into the dungeon a year ago, and I was brought in half a year ago. By the way, who among you was brought in recently? Tell me about the situation outside."

He turned to look at the other three people not far behind him.

“I, I entered this instance a month and a half ago.” One of the three young men raised his hand. “When I came in, the situation outside was terrible. I experienced extreme conditions and the instance’s death protection mechanism was disabled. There were very few people alive in the city I was in.”

Curly asked in confusion, "There are already so few living people outside, why is the dungeon still pulling people in at such a high frequency?"

"Yes, it's pulling everyone in."

Curly-haired man looked worried: "Does this mean they want to bring all of us humans in and wipe us out in one fell swoop? Am I going to witness the extinction of humanity in this instance... Wait? Who was that just now?"

Curly was certain that the voice he had just heard did not belong to any of the five of them, so he turned his head sharply to find the source of the sound.

Everyone else should immediately realize the problem, and everyone should turn their heads to look in the direction from which the sound came.

A dark figure appeared on the upper bunk of one of the beds in the dormitory.

The woman nicknamed "Jing" quickly shone her flashlight in that direction, the light sweeping across the dark corner and illuminating the face of a man wearing glasses.

Damn it! It's past midnight, whatever, it's still the Winter Solstice! Happy Winter Solstice everyone!