Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Mo Yi abruptly sprang up from the bed, body drenched in cold sweat, heart jumping extremely fast.

He shallowly gasped for breath, looking around at his surroundings in a slight daze, and it took a while for him to relax. 

He was back.

Unlike the last time waking up to earth shattering pain, this time, he had obviously adapted a lot.

There was darkness before his eyes, and it enveloped the whole room. The faint morning light from the night scenery came in from behind the opened curtains, hazily illuminating the outlines of the furniture in the room, seeming both familiar and unfamiliar.

Mo Yi subconsciously turned his head to look at the electronic clock beside the bed. The blue glimmering time on it appeared exceptionally striking: 

4: 20: 01

It was precisely the same moment he had entered the game.

In addition, the line above showed today’s date in small print: May 12th.

36 hours had passed since he had entered the game.

Mo Yi let out a long breath — Jiang Yuanrou’s theory was correct. The flow of time in the game and time in reality was two to one. He had spent three days in the game, which was equivalent to one day and a half passing in reality.

Mo Yi slightly moved his stiff shoulders and neck. A sore, tingling sensation spread in an instant.

He propped his arms on the sides of the bed and made himself sit up against the headboard.

In the darkness, Mo Yi stretched out his hand and groped about the wall. Then, “click”, the bedside lamp was turned on. 

A soft, pale yellow light came on, making the whole room brightly lit. Mo Yi looked at the familiarity of everything in front of him and couldn’t help but feel a little dazed.

He quickly came to and reached out to pick up the note that had appeared on his bedside table.

The light from the beside table slightly dyed the delicate, spotlessly white note with a yellowish hue, and it was suffused with a light sheen. Written on it in subdued bolded words were: “Congratulations on your successful escape. Thank you for your participation. Wish you a happy life.”

Although it was not the first time seeing it, Mo Yi was still full of complaints — One escape game after another. How could life be happy? 

He turned the note over, only to see a line of writing on it: “The next game will start in ten days. Players, please be well prepared.”

Below this row of words, written in small black letters were: “Congratulations finding the hidden branch plotline. Next time you enter the game, you can get the branch plotline task reward. I wish you a happy game.”

Mo Yi slightly narrowed his eyes. The soft light caught the flushed skin on his pale face.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Ten days… 

He seemed to think of something and reached for the cell phone he had casually placed on the bedside table. After unlocking and turning on the screen, a text message from Jiang Yuanrou automatically popped up. The time was two days ago: [When you come back, send me a message to say you are safe and sound. Muah]

Mo Yi pursed his lips. Slender fingers nimbly jumped across the screen: [Safe and sound]

Ktf wfrrjuf kjr rfca.

Lbkfnfg, la kjr bcis obeg b’mibmx, jcv Aljcu Tejcgbe kjr qgbyjyis cba jkjxf. Pa kjr fralwjafv atja la kbeiv yf fjgis abwbggbk wbgclcu ktfc rtf kjxfr. 

Zb Tl fzlafv atf afza wfrrjuf lcafgojmf, jcv atf ygluta oiebgfrmfca yief rmgffc kjr gfoifmafv lc tlr qeqlir. Llr olcufgr qjerfv lc wlv-jlg obg j ibcu alwf, jcv atfc tf ybeuta j qijcf almxfa ab Jlas C bc atf Pcafgcfa.

— City A was the city where the school in the first copy was located.

There was a slight vibration from the cell phone, indicating that the payment had been successful.

Mo Yi took a deep breath, as if some heavy burden had been unloaded. 

He straightened up and stretched his stiff body. The cold sweat on his back made his shirt sticky and it was adhered to his skin which felt extremely uncomfortable.

Mo Yi placed both legs down from the bed, put on the slippers that were neatly placed on the floor, and was about to go to the bathroom to shower.

At this moment, Mo Yi’s actions came to a sudden stop. His eyes fell straight on the floor in front of his bedside table.

That area was a blind spot, and he couldn’t see it when he was laying on the bed. 

And when he sat up, that area unsurprisingly leapt into his sight.

It was a brown teddy bear, leaning stilly against the bedside table. Although the fur on its body was a bit old, it was quite well maintained. Under the yellow light, it had a soft sheen, and its black eyes were clean and clear, not at like its previous cloudy appearance.

Around its neck was a thin white string with a folded-up strip of paper dangling from it.

Mo Yi subconsciously held his breath, and intently stared at the teddy bear he knew extremely well, as if afraid of alarming it. 

He slowly reached out with a somewhat stiff hand and picked up the teddy bear on the floor, then opened the note that was hanging around the bear’s neck.

It had the exact same texture and font as the previous note: “Dear Player: This is a rare item given to you by an NPC at will in the game. Please use it with caution.”

Given at will?

Mo Yi froze, remembering the soft “Thanks” that had dissipated in his ears while he was inside the copy. 

His heart suddenly softened. The fingertips that were sunk into the brown fur of the teddy bear were softly wrapped, carefully rubbing against the pads of his fingers, and was a little itchy.

Suddenly, at this moment, Mo Yi’s brows were tinged with a hint of solemnness.

— This garbage game only told him that this was a rare item, but it didn’t tell him how to use it at all ah! Wasn’t this the same as his fraudulent novice gift package?

Mo Yi took one last look at the ribbon that was still wrapped around his wrist, and the same bitter regret as Jiang Yuanrou’s at that time flashed across his eyes. 

It was very good looking … it was just useless ah!

He had his eye on several props last time, and was about to get his hands on them — The things in the store were refreshed randomly, and it was just a matter of looking at whether he could encounter these things again when he entered the store.

Mo Yi took a deep breath, and strongly suppressed the fire at the bottom of his heart — A garbage game!

Just then, he heard his cell phone vibrate twice on the bedside table, and then the screen lit up: A text message had come. 

Mo Yi’s eyebrows rose, not expecting Jiang Yuanrou to be up this late.

He reached for the cell phone, and the content of the new message was displayed on the screen: [It’s great that you’re okay! I was really worried about you these past two days, muah!]

Mo Yi hesitated and replied: [Thank you]

[…] Jiang Yuanrou returned a series of ellipsis in seconds. 

Immediately afterwards, as if to not give Mo Yi time to reply, the next new message popped up: [You’re killing the conversation! Too cold! Heart broken! 】

Next was a string of crying emojis.

Mo Yi: “…” Why was this person so energetic in the evening, ah?

He was about to put the cell phone back on the bedside table, but he suddenly seemed to recall something — 

Mo Yi’s fingertips lightly moved: [The senior who you said would join me in the game, how is he now?]

The other side was silent for a long time. Mo Yi could only see that the bubble showing that she was typing kept flashing.

Soon after, a message came through. It was short, not matching up with the time spent typing: [???]

Mo Yi pursed his lips and was about to type something in reply when another message came: [I sent you a text message before, ah. Song Qi was planted in his last copy … so in this second copy you could only go by yourself. I apologized to you for a long time, and then you sent me a message saying that it was okay.] 

Immediately afterwards, a screenshot came.

It was a message log. Under the long string of words sent by Jiang Yuanrou, Mo Yi, with astonishment, saw his own reply: [It’s okay.]

The rays of light from the desk lap beside him was a bit harsh for a moment. Mo Yi tilted his head and squinted, avoiding the direct light, and subconsciously rubbed the flat and smooth edges of the cell phone with his slender fingers. He reached out and clicked on his message log.

Empty. 

Although he had thought of this possibility before, when the facts were laid out in front of him, it was still difficult for him to accept.

The mist that was on the mirror all the time, and the occasional glimpse of a silhouette all pointed to the same conclusion:

—The mist had followed him out of the game.

Mo Yi sucked in a deep breath, feeling that this mind was in a state of confusion, and had turned into a pot of porridge, mixed with all sorts of things, practically giving him a headache. It was as if something invisible was forcefully clutching his throat, making it difficult for him to breathe. 

Thinking about it now, the greatest possibility of this happening was because in the first copy, the two had exchanged blood.

The thick fishy taste of sucking blood before seemed to bubble up once more in his throat, and his whole mouth was filled with the taste of rust.

The loss of control and madness that he painstakingly didn’t think about also rose to the surface of his mind.

Mo Yi’s fingers tightened unconsciously, and his thin, delicate knuckles were pale from the excessive force. The bright light from the cell phone screen was reflected on his face, illuminating his pale, expressionless face. 

The vibrating cell phone in his hand pulled him back to reality.

Mo Yi lowered his head, only to see that in just that moment, Jiang Yuanrou had sent several messages, one more intense than the other: [What’s wrong?] [What happened?] … [Why did you suddenly ask me this? Is something wrong?] [You’re not answering. What happened?]

Mo Yi pursed his lips and sent a message to her: [It’s nothing 】

After sending this, Mo Yi thought about it and sent another message: [It’s too late now. Let’s talk tomorrow.] 

The other side fell silent and no longer continued to bombard him with text messages.

Mo Yi took a deep breath, turned the cell phone off and threw it on his bed, watching as the cell phone bounced on the soft mattress several times, and then was quietly hidden on the bed. Then, he turned and walked in the bathroom while closing the door behind him.

He stretched out his hand and turned on the faucet for hot water. Steamy, dense heat was released along with the sound of flowing water.

Mo Yi raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror. 

The brows and eyes on the pale face were pitch-black and gloomy, and the outline of the contours of his face were slowly being swallowed by the mist on the mirror. Eventually, all he could see were his own blurred dark eyes.

— “I know you’re there.”