Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 16

Like a dying fish, Mo Yi fiercely bounced up on the bed and gasped for breath, greedily drawing in the outside air.

His dilated pupils were staring up at the ceiling without focus. He didn’t know where he was at the moment.

The first thing he noticed was the thick remnant scent of blood between his lips and teeth, which was overwhelming and flooded his eroding senses. ?Mo Yi couldn’t help but bend over on the edge of the bed, retching, but he couldn’t spit out anything from his stomach, which was overturning like the seas and rivers. He couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.

He propped up his upper body with his elbows in a daze, and the scenes in his mind slowly came back.

Mo Yi’s face was pale, but his mind didn’t return for a long time — Did the previous experience really happen? Or was it just a realistically scary dream?

He forced his stiff neck to turn beyond its limits, and hurriedly looked around the room for a while: the same furniture, the same decorations. Everything was familiar, as if nothing had happened. The warm sunlight came in through the window curtains which were not tightly drawn, freely illuminating the edge of his bed. It had an illusory pure and dreamy appearance.

Mo Yi was somewhat in a trance, and stretched out his palm, and silently watched as the light swam between his thin and pale fingertips. For a moment, he unexpectedly felt that … it was like a lifetime had passed.

He reached out and lightly stroked his forehead. It seemed that there was still a faint pain, but the skin under his fingers was smooth and even, without the slightest trace of injury. Mo Yi let out a long sigh and threw himself back on his pillow, but from the corners of his eyes, he saw something on the bedside cabinet that did not belong to the room.

His body abruptly went stiff, and he took a few deep breaths, then slowly reached out and picked it up.

It was a very ordinary piece of paper. There was no design on the plain white paper, only a line in nondescript black letters: “Congratulations on your successful escape. Thank you for your participation and I wish you a happy life.”

Mo Yi, “…”

The familiarly acquainted with picture, the familiarly acquainted with pit.

He turned the note over and saw another line written there: “The next game will start seven days later. Players, please be prepared.”

.

Everything was exactly the same as what Jiang Yuanbai had said. The only difference was that at the bottom of the note, there was an extra line of small words: “Congratulations on 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 was in a state of confusion. There were countless questions entangled in his brain, but no one could answer them for him. This kind of feeling was really difficult to bear.

He could only take a deep breath and try to calm himself down.

At this time, Mo Yi realized that he was sticky, and his thin shirt was glued to his back, which was extremely uncomfortable.

He wiped his face and stopped tormenting his brain. He got up and walked into the bathroom with his slippers.

The spray from the nozzle poured down, and the mist from the hot water instantly rose, blurring the mirror on one side.

Mo Yi took off his clothes and stood in the spraying hot water. The warm water slid down his body, dispersing some of the coldness from his body and mind. He raised his head to the spraying water, closed his eyes, grasped his wet black hair, and slicked it behind his forehead, and tried hard to ignore the negative mental associations brought by the white mist.

He had just refused to recall it, but now, the images appeared uncontrollably in his mind.

Towards the end of the game …

The memory of that time was like looking out through a layer of foggy glass. Even if one could still remember the general situation, the details were blurred.

That crazy, reckless, filled to the brim with desire for control and destruction person was definitely not him

Mo Yi knew that that he was rational and indifferent. He always placed himself in the position of a spectator and used absolute reason to control his actions.

It was because of this that he was able to survive the escape game.

But now … Mo Yi felt that he hardly knew himself.

He clearly remembered that at that time, his mind was sober, but it seemed that he was dominated by something deeper and more hideous, breaking through the barrier of reason and overriding it. What was more terrible was that it made him almost feel … that he was originally like this.

It reminded him of some very unpleasant memories.

Mo Yi turned off the shower, shook his wet black hair, and reached out to tug down the bathrobe hanging next to him.

When he turned his head, the corner of his eyes swept to the side of the mirror.

In the mirror, the wet mist behind him … seemed to be slowly solidifying into a human form —

Mo Yi was shocked!

The hairs on his body stood on end, and he quickly turned his head and looked warily at the small bathroom.

The steaming bathroom was empty. There was no one except him and the white mist that was condensing into water droplets on the mirror’s surface, slowly sliding down, and leaving a tear like watermark on the mirror.

Mo Yi frowned suspiciously, and for a while, he wasn’t sure whether what he saw was real or an illusion.

Was it because he was too nervous?

Suddenly, at this inappropriate time, the doorbell rang.

Mo Yi dispelled the strange thoughts, hurriedly put on the T-shirt he had put aside, opened the bathroom door, and walked towards the door.

He casually wiped his hair, and opened the door. The man standing outside gave him a brilliant smile.

Mo Yi was stunned.

At this moment, dream and reality finally blended, and he no longer suspected that he had a long nightmare: after all, there was no evidence more real than a living person.

Mo Yi raised the corner of his lips and showed a shallow smile.

“You’re not dead?”

Jiang Yuanbai’s smile grew sluggish and his eyes filled with a little sadness. “Hey, is that how you treat your revolutionary comrade in arms? It’s vey unlucky to say, “you’re not dead!”

Mo Yi raised his eyebrows, slanted his body to one side, and let Jiang Yuanbai come inside.

“To tell you the truth, I really thought I was going to die!” Jiang Yuanbai continued as he walked, “When I was in the illusion, that monster turned into you to trick me. To be honest, I didn’t even know when it secretly switched with you– God, it was so dangerous!”

Jiang Yuanbai made himself at home and sat down on the sofa and continued with a look of lingering fear, “Later, my consciousness became blurry. I should have been controlled by that thing, but I remember …”

He frowned somewhat uncertainly, “There seemed to be a little girl. She seemed to … protect me? And then I heard the sound of the mission being completed.”

After that, Jiang Yuanbai took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Mo Yi. The material of the paper was as simple as his one. Mo Yi turned to the back and saw that it said: “The next game will start 12 days later. Players, please be prepared.”

Mo Yi was not surprised that their time was different.

What caught his attention was the following line of small words: “Congratulations on helping other players find the hidden branch plotline. Next time you enter the game, you can receive the corresponding rewards. I wish you a happy game.”

Mo Yi frowned and thought.

Survival was the main concept of this escape game. There would be no rewards after it was reached. The next thing waiting for the player was an endless world of horror.

And there were rewards for completing a branch plotline, or just helping others accomplish a branch plotline: maybe that was the key to escaping this cycle of terror?

Suddenly, Mo Yi remembered something, squinted at Jiang Yuanbai, and asked in a deep voice, “Wait, how did you find me?”

After hearing this, Jiang Yuanbai suddenly jumped up from the sofa and said, terribly anxious, “Oh, I forgot the serious business of coming here! Only when you said this did I remember! In short: oh, it’s hard to say. I’ll take you to meet someone! You’ll know when you go!”

Mo Yi slowly shook his head. “No.”

Obviously, he didn’t expect that he would refuse so decisively. Jiang Yuanbai was stunned and looked at him agape and tongue-tied. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m going to the gym downstairs to get a lifetime membership.”

……

Jiang Yuanbai, “???”