"So, you're going to confess now that you actually saw it back then, but lied and told me you didn't?" Gu Mian looked at Chu Changge.

Chu Changge indeed looked like he had seen it at the time, but he seemed to have some unspoken difficulty that prevented him from saying it.

"No," Chu Changge shook his head. "I didn't see it."

It seemed he wasn't planning to confess.

After shaking his head, Chu Changge continued, "What I mean is that the hidden word might also be some kind of hint."

He paused for a moment, seeming to organize the clues. "You learned from Teacher Sweet that 'seven' is related to 'Snow White and the Seven Little Dwarfs.' Coincidentally, we encountered the clue about the seven Little Dwarfs much earlier, in the Crazy Guessing Words instance, but we didn't think deeply about it."

"This might not be a coincidence. My idea is that the game was hinting at certain clues from the very beginning. These clues might be hidden in the daily routine of an instance, or they could be displayed in very obvious places, just like 'Snow White and the Seven Little Dwarfs.'"

"Do you remember Mr. Green's expression when the phrase 'Snow White and the Seven Little Dwarfs' appeared?"

Gu Mian remembered. It wasn't that he paid particular attention to Mr. Green, but rather that when this phrase appeared on the word guessing board, the expressions of the others were exceptionally peculiar.

Not knowing what the phrase was, Gu Mian had specifically observed everyone's face. Among them, Mr. Green's was the most spectacular; it could almost be described as breathtakingly turbulent.

However, this breathtaking expression only lasted for a moment before he quickly concealed it.

At the time, Gu Mian thought he was just marveling at how perverse the words were, but thinking about it now, it seems there was more to it.

"Speaking of which, I suddenly remember..." Fatty interjected weakly. "Back then, when the phrase appeared on the blocked-off prompt board, Mr. Green was especially anxious for us to go get the rewards. If we go by what Brother Chu is saying, he must have been afraid of us seeing something."

Gu Mian thought for a moment. "If we consider it like Chu Changge said, then it's highly possible that the instances we experienced before also contained certain hidden pieces of information, but they were all overlooked."

Hearing this, Fatty's face scrunched up slightly, as if he were trying to recall clues from the previous instances.

"I remember the first instance was a story about a girl and her classmates who were burned to death. The second was a terrifying Spirit Car driving test. The third was your own, Doctor, right? I remember Brother Chu and I didn't enter the third instance..."

"Yes," Gu Mian nodded. "The third instance was the story of a headless female ghost."

Fatty's face wrinkled deeply. Why did the topic always seem to become so bizarre when Gu Mian talked about it?

Gu Mian continued, "The fourth was the Crazy Guessing Words instance. The fifth was the Slaughter Game instance, which was my professional instance. Inside, there was a doctor who wanted to save the world by eliminating the divide between Upper Class People and Lower Class People. And yes, he achieved this wish before he died."

"Let's just talk about these first five for now. Did you discover anything in these instances?"

Fatty racked his brain, but it seemed he couldn't think of anything, so he just shook his head.

Chu Changge remained silent, his thoughts unreadable.

Gu Mian, however, began to recall them carefully. Among these five instances, the most significant one should be the Slaughter Game instance.

The absolute restricted zone, the mad doctor, the audience that reveled in suffering—this was the largest-scale instance Gu Mian had ever experienced, and it could also be called the most deranged.

Thinking back on this insane instance, Gu Mian couldn't seem to recall any useful details.

Just then, Chu Changge, who was beside him, suddenly spoke up, "You're thinking about the Slaughter Game instance, aren't you?"

Gu Mian looked up at him and nodded slightly.

It seemed Chu Changge also had a deep impression of the Slaughter Game instance.

Chu Changge paused for a moment, then continued, "I'm thinking, from a broader perspective, the Slaughter Game is also called a game. We are currently in a global game. While the details differ, games always share similarities. If this global game is termed the 'big game,' then a Slaughter Game instance within it can be considered a 'small game.'"

Gu Mian understood immediately. "You mean it's a reflection?"

Gu Mian's grasp of Chinese was quite good; he could immediately think of several idioms to describe it.

Something like 'seeing the larger picture from a small instance,' 'understanding the profound from the minute,' or 'peeking at the sky through a tube.'

A small game can reflect the larger environment of Earth.

This global game is equivalent to the restricted zone in the Slaughter Game instance, where countless players are struggling desperately.

And each instance is like a monster within that restricted zone, bringing danger to the players.

But if this analogy truly holds...

Gu Mian touched his chin. "Then, what on Earth corresponds to those frenzied spectators from the instance?"

Hearing this, a chill suddenly ran down Fatty's spine. "That is to say... there really might be something on Earth corresponding to the reveling spectators in the instance, and we just don't know it? No, no, we have to think on the bright side. What if that Slaughter Game instance has nothing to do with this global game? After all, these might just be our assumptions."

At this moment, Chu Changge suddenly took something out.

Gu Mian, with his sharp eyesight, recognized it as a special item obtained previously.

[Mail From Hell]

For some reason, Chu Changge rarely seemed to use these special items. After obtaining them, he would just store them in his inventory. Gu Mian had almost forgotten this thing's function.

[Description: A letter mailed by a bored Evil Ghost. There are ten such letters in total, and this is one of them. It contains some idle words:

'This is a place of exile.'

'We are all monsters in a cage.']

Its function is that burning the letter prevents the user from being discovered by ghosts for ten minutes, as long as they don't shove themselves right into a ghost's face.

It's worth mentioning that when Gu Mian first read this letter, he thought the tone was ridiculously over-the-top, but now it seemed that this over-the-top tone was full of hints.

"'This is a place of exile; we are all monsters in a cage,'" Gu Mian repeated. "Looking at these two lines alone, they do bear some resemblance to the Slaughter Game instance."

Chu Changge nodded slightly. "But this isn't a special item from the Slaughter Game instance; it was obtained much later."

This item isn't related to the Slaughter Game, yet it's remarkably similar.

Could these two sentences actually be hinting at this world?

Fatty was struck dumb. It seemed he was once again trying hard to recall the previous instances, his expression looking constipated. "I need to think carefully about the previous instances..."

Just as Fatty put on his constipated expression and was wracking his brain to recall past events, a soft "THUD" suddenly came from the left side of the car.

It sounded like something—or someone—had bumped into the car.

To make it easier to talk, Gu Mian had already parked the car on the roadside.

Hearing the sound, Gu Mian tilted his head slightly, looking in the direction it came from. "What's going on? An insurance scam?"

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