Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 129

Mo Yi wrapped his arms around Wen Chen’s icy body. His lashes were lowered, covering the expression in his eyes.

He rested his chin on Wen Chen’s shoulder, hugged him firmly, and pressed his palm weakly on the back of Wen Chen’s shaking shoulder.

There was the cold and thick scent of blood as well as the faint smell of pine forest lingering at the end of his nose, enveloping all of his senses like a mist.

They were pressed so closely together that Mo Yi could even feel every tremor of the other person’s body and every inch of his tightening arms. It was almost difficult for Mo Yi to distinguish whether the trembling came from himself or the other party.

They embraced quietly in the pool of blood while sitting on the barren ground.

At this moment, a familiar robotic voice suddenly came into Mo Yi’s ear.

“Congratulations Player Mo Yi, you have completed the side mission: Madness. The mission reward has been sent to your account, please collect it after the game is over.”

Mo Yi was momentarily shocked by the interruption, which brought him out of his trance-like state earlier. Since he heard this voice, it meant…

Jiang Yuanrou had succeeded.

She successfully completed the side quest, and most likely, also successfully passed the membership test.

Mo Yi subconsciously looked up into the sky, looking for the fluorescent blue countdown, but when he raised his head, he couldn’t help but tremble all over.

His eyes widened in shock, and he stared at the dark sky in front of him in disbelief—

There were cracks forming in the sky which had been as dark as an eternal night since his first instance. These light blue cracks looked as though they were on a shattered glass mirror, spreading outward with spider web-like lines, stretching from the edge of the countdown to the entire sky, making the entire ensemble look fragile and deadly.

How could this be?

Mo Yi stared at the crack in the air. He quickly recovered from the shock and his mind spun with possible conjectures.

This kind of situation had never happened to him when he completed the side mission before, so the biggest possibility was from the variable of him rescuing Jiang Yuanbai.

If he recalled correctly, the moment he pulled Jiang Yuanbai out of the dark matter, the entire instance trembled, and those cracks probably started to appear at that point in time, but the situation then had been too chaotic that he hadn’t noticed it.

Mo Yi squinted his eyes, staring thoughtfully at the cracks in the air, and he seemed to catch a glimpse of something…

There seemed to be something flashing faintly in those fluorescent blue cracks, as if there was an intermittent current flowing through.

Startled, Mo Yi quickly poured his attention into identifying what the flashing object was, his heart feeling as if it was ravaged by a stormy sea—

It was a string of codes.

It seemed to be the same string he’d seen when he first entered the game space, but this code was far more complete, far more detailed…

And far more beautiful.

It was leaping in the sky, exuding a breathtaking light which was shining like life itself, yet also seemed as though it would shatter into nothingness in the next second and leave those staring at it bedazzled.

Mo Yi seemed to be completely entranced. He held his breath and stared up at it, his heart tthumping with a strange and frantic joy until a familiar voice woke him up.

“Mo Yi!”

Mo Yi was startled. He momentarily regained himself from the strange stage earlier, and the same voice reappeared, rining out like thunder in his ears.

“—Mo Yi!”

Mo Yi snapped back to alertness. He saw that the old house not far away was close to collapsing. The walls were caving in, with dust and rubble falling, and the entire building was creaking as it stood precariously under the cracking sky.

Jiang Yuanrou was limping out slowly from the mansion. Her whole body was covered in blood, with the differing shades of blood dyeing her clothes dark brown, while her face was covered with bloodied scabs.

While panting with difficulty, she hobbled over to Mo Yi with a limp leg.

Mo Yi weakly raised his palm, patted Wen Chen’s back which had stopped trembling to motion for him to let go, then turned his head and looked at the sky again—it was still covered by spider web-like cracks, but he could no longer see that code which was flashing just now.

Just like before, it had disappeared without a trace again, as if everything he had seen earlier was just a figment of his imagination.

Mo Yi’s peripheral vision swept across the corner of the sky, and noticed that the fluorescent blue countdown timer was cut into several broken pieces, but he could still barely distinguish the remaining time:

00:05:36

There were still five minutes left in this instance.

Jiang Yuanrou staggered over to him, equally puzzled and shocked by the strange scene in front of her. She parted her lips as if she was about to ask something, but at this moment, her eyes, which were dull due to blood loss, swept halfway across the room. Her gaze glossed past Wen Chen and Mo Yi, who were sitting on the ground, only to land on Jiang Yuanbai who was lying on the ground not far away from them.

Jiang Yuanrou froze on the spot, her whole body as stiff as a piece of wood. Eyes widening in disbelief, she looked straight at Jiang Yuanbai’s half-exposed side face, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes—

Mo Yi stared at Jiang Yuanrou silently.

Only to see her ignore all the wounds on her body as she immediately rushed towards Jiang Yuanbai who was lying on the ground.

With trembling hands, she lifted Jiang Yuanbai’s head from the dusty ground. The moment she saw his face, big tears rolled down from her eyes, leaving a clear track down her cheek which revealed her originally pale complexion.

She shook Jiang Yuanbai. However, her movements were gentle as if she was afraid of waking him up. Her weak voice was trembling in disbelief.

“Yuanbai…?”

Jiang Yuanbai was still lying on the ground without a sound. His ashen face was covered with the dust from the ground, and with his eyes closed, he looked completely lifeless and incapable of responding to Jiang Yuanrou’s calls.

Mo Yi had been paying attention to their situation here since the beginning, and when he saw this scene, he couldn’t help but frown slightly.

He turned to Wen Chen with a questioning look, staring at him with dark eyes, as if asking silently.

Wen Chen seemed to have regained a little strength. His face was no longer as pale as it was before, so he raised his hand and wiped the blood on his chin with the back of his hand, then replied coolly.

“He’s fine, physically.”

Just as Wen Chen spoke, Mo Yi saw Jiang Yuanrou extend a finger under Jiang Yuanbai’s nose.

Her complexion was pale and her thin lips were pressed tightly together, as if she was subconsciously holding her breath.

The moment Wen Chen’s voice fell, Mo Yi noticed Jiang Yuanrou’s body relax as she let out a long exhale—

That likely meant that she had detected a weak breath, and Jiang Yuanbai’s life was not in danger.

But Wen Chen’s voice rang in Mo Yi’s ear at the same time.

“However it may not necessarily be the same psychologically.”

Mo Yi snapped his head back to Wen Chen with a frown. However before he could say anything, he was interrupted by a muffled cry.

Jiang Yuanrou bent over Jiang Yuanbai’s unconscious body, her petite and thin body was trembling slightly, looking fragile and powerless. There was a low choking sound, and her suppressed cries sounded painfully hoarse.

It felt like he was peeking into the soft interior from under a cracked armor.

In the next second, Jiang Yuanrou forcibly restrained all the fragility and emotions she had displayed earlier. Straightening her posture, she turned her head to look in Mo Yi’s direction. Her face was stained with blood and tears, and her eyes seemed so sharp and clear in contrast, seeming as though she had washed them clean with water, as she stared fervently at Mo Yi.

She struggled to rise to her feet, her movements stiff and slow but extremely firm. The blood and mud all over her body slid down the hem of her clothes with her motion.

After standing up with difficulty, Jiang Yuanrou then slowly bent her slender and straight waist, and bowed deeply.

Mo Yi stared at her without saying anything.

The shattered sky behind Jiang Yuanrou was divided into several pieces by fluorescent blue lines, and the countdown timer above was changing at a constant speed.

There were ten seconds left.

Jiang Yuanrou straightened her back. She looked deeply at Mo Yi with her eyes, moved her lips, and spoke in a solemn tone.

Thank you.

Five seconds left.

Mo Yi felt that his hand was clenched by another cold hand, and those slightly cold fingertips were pressed down hard against his skin, causing slight pain. He turned his head to look—

Three seconds left.

Wen Chen was staring at him intently too. His light gray eyes were like mist, and the blue cracks in the sky were reflected on his irises which were fixated on him.

Then, in the next second, outdated electronic music and the familiar robotic voice sounded in Mo Yi’s ears.

“Congratulations on your successful escape!”

All the sounds, lights and shadows seemed to be pulled away, and Mo Yi only felt a blur in front of his eyes. His vision turned black, and he lost consciousness.

When Mo Yi opened his eyes again, he found that he had not returned to the real world, but was in the dark void from before.

There was no light or sound here. His entire body was once again enveloped by the pitch-black darkness, and he was unable to use any of his five senses here.

There was only that robotic female voice which rang in his ears.

“Congratulations to the player Mo Yi for upgrading his membership level, the system is evaluating—”

Mo Yi keenly recognised that there was an odd part to the quality of the voice this time, which was different from the previous few occasions. There was a light whistling sound of electricity, as if it was part of an old machine which had failed, and the resulting voice now sounded odd and unnatural.

Faint fluorescent blue spots gathered in the darkness, revealing several characters.

“The ■ comprehensive ■ evaluation: ■■”

The characters were broken and messy, resembling a shattered LCD screen which was flashing a line of illegible characters.

Mo Yi was momentarily stumped, but before he could react, the female voice sounded again.

“Congratulations on your upgrade to A-level member of the senior member club. The new permission will be available the next time you enter the game.”

The system did not give Mo Yi any chance to ask questions this time round, and directly continued speaking with its loud mechanical voice.

“Teleporting to the real world—”

Mo Yi’s eyes went dark, and he lost consciousness immediately.

After an unknown amount of time, he snapped his eyes open again. The familiar scene in front of him came back into view, which gradually reawakened his memory.

Mo Yi stared at the ceiling and panted slightly for a good while. His eyes were a little dazed as he stared at the blank void while his body remained bathed in a layer of sweat.

As if on cue, he felt something cold touch his cheek.

Mo Yi turned to look, just in time to spot Wen Chen who standing beside his bed, retract his fingers. The latter was leaning down to stare at him. The sunlight streaming in from the window turned the man’s light-colored eyes into the shade of champagne, and casted deep shadows across his high nose bridge.

He moved closer.

Mo Yi could almost distinguish the fluttering arc of each and every one of his lashes—

Only to see Wen Chen lowering his eyes to stare at him, and saying in a low voice:

“Good morning.”

Mo Yi stared back. Wen Chen continued with a smile.

“What about my reward?”