The snowdrifts outside were already knee-deep.

The door to the ticket booth was still wide open, yet although there was no wind or snow inside, it was still piercingly cold.

Fatty paused for only a moment after stepping out before his body began to shiver involuntarily.

Soon after, he realized that the real-world temperature seemed even lower than when they had entered the instance.

Just as Fatty clamped his mouth shut, trying to warm his teeth that felt as if they had frozen solid, an unfamiliar male voice suddenly came from not too far away.

"Excuse me…"

Outside, the heavy snowfall made even walking difficult. Currently, only Gu Mian and his two companions were in the ticket booth. The voice belonged to the instance's ticket seller.

Gu Mian looked toward the sound.

A young male ticket seller sat behind the window, a badge hanging around his neck. Gu Mian could vaguely make out a series of numbers on it, likely an employee ID of some sort.

The ticket seller was flipping through a booklet, his expression suspicious.

The expression was awfully familiar to Gu Mian; it reminded him of his middle school teachers taking attendance.

The ticket seller was flipping through the booklet in his hands. After turning just a couple of pages, a strange expression appeared on his face. He then looked up at Gu Mian's group of three as if he had seen a ghost.

By then, Gu Mian had already guessed what the ticket seller held.

It was most likely the instance record for players who used this ticket booth, and this particular ticket seller couldn't find the record for the instance they had just exited.

Truth be told, this ticket seller usually paid little attention to players; one might even say he was completely indifferent.

It was merely because he had just taken down the unsightly "Gu Mian and Dogs Not Allowed" sign from the entrance when these three had suddenly appeared, catching him completely off guard.

That's why he was now concerned about which instance the three had entered.

The miserable ticket seller had never even considered resisting.

He had heard many tales of brave predecessors who had attempted to resist, but without exception, none had succeeded.

Over time, a perverse, unspoken understanding began to circulate within the ticket seller community:

"Gu Mian is like **, either resist or enjoy."

Since this global game promoted positive energy, the two rather discordant characters "**" could only be censored this way.

Everyone knew they couldn't resist. But as for enjoying it... that was also impossible.

Seeing that the trio was still standing at the instance exit, the ticket seller swallowed his humiliation and continued to flip through the instance records in his hands.

This was just a low-level ticket booth. Even if an instance originating from it collapsed, it couldn't be downgraded much further; it would merely mean a deduction in his own service points.

However, the ticket seller was astonished to discover that after these individuals emerged, no instance had reported a data collapse.

Other ticket sellers had previously encountered situations where "Gu Mian came out, but the instance didn't crash."

However, that was only a temporary reprieve. The instance hadn't crashed at that exact moment, but it had collapsed without any warning shortly after the three of them departed.

Having learned from these precedents, the ticket seller was keen to check their record.

But he couldn't find it. He absolutely could not find any record of the instance these three had just been in...

He had clearly watched them enter an instance and then emerge from it. How could there be no instance record?

Thinking this, the ticket seller looked at the three individuals with doubt and opened his mouth, "Excuse me…"

Gu Mian looked over.

The ticket seller swallowed his bitter saliva of humiliation and carefully asked, "Which instance were you three in just now?"

He had to find out!

Gu Mian stared at the ticket seller behind the window.

He was extremely interested in the booklet in the ticket seller's hand. The ticket seller behind the window evidently realized this too. He flinched and quickly hid the booklet by sitting on it.

I really shouldn't have piped up! he silently screamed, pressing down on the instance record book beneath him.

But outwardly, he couldn't show any lack of fortitude.

At this thought, the ticket seller straightened his spine, adopting an air of unyielding integrity.

However, in the end, the ticket seller didn't manage to obtain the information he wanted.

It was because the largest of them, Fatty, put on an "I'm about to freeze to death" expression, successfully drawing the attention of his two companions.

At this, Gu Mian and Chu Changge hurriedly led Fatty away.

This left the young ticket seller alone in the whistling wind—along with the instance record book beneath his backside.

When Gu Mian's group returned to their Spirit Car, the surroundings were very quiet.

The carjackers they had anticipated were nowhere to be seen. Xiao Hong was still silently pressed against the car window, waiting for them—of course, Gu Mian only saw this after opening the door.

Thankfully, the interior of the car wasn't visible from the outside. Otherwise, they might have discovered several corpses of people who had died from extreme fright.

After getting back into the car, Gu Mian first took out two thermos flasks from Fatty's bag.

All electricity was unusable.

But the supermarket still had hot water. Not only hot water, but also thermos flasks advertised as having permanent heat retention.

Of course, both the hot water and the thermos flasks cost money.

Fatty had filled two thermoses with boiling water during his last visit, which came in handy now.

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