Congratulations on Your Successful Escape

Chapter 35

The ear piercing and noisy ringing bell fell, and all the light instantly went out.

Darkness descended.

A suffocating silence enveloped the entire room. The deathly stillness was as dark and heavy as an entity, constricting people’s tight nerves, and bit by bit wriggling its way along the spine.

Human senses were infinitely magnified in the dark and become extremely sensitive.

Mo Yi’s breathing subconsciously lightened, as if afraid of alarming something.

Weak blue light passed through the hastily sealed window with wooden boards. A faint sheen reflected off the blond hair on the little girl’s shoulder.

At this moment, from outside the corridor came the sound of a shoe rubbing against the ground, and the wooden floors made a moaning sound, unable to bear the heavy load. The sound of the heavy and shuffling footsteps was particularly distinct in the darkness.

Mo Yi’s heart stuttered.

Why would any player dare to walk outside after the lights were out?

He slightly turned his head and looked outside the half open door.

A little yellowish dim light illuminated a corner of the corridor, coming closer and closer alongside the sound of the dragging footsteps.

The colour of the wallpaper slowly became visible, and accompanied with the dense dark night, the light melted it into an indistinguishable dark grey.

— Not a player!

Mo Yi’s heart rose fiercely, and immediately, a cold layer of sweat broke out on his back.

He made a decisive decision, rushing to the side of a bed according to his memory, and flung himself on it.

The small bed squeaked loudly. The bone of Mo Yi’s leg slammed against the hard metal headboard in the dark, sending out a teeth grinding crashing sound.

The unspeakable numbness and pain spread, making him clench his teeth to force himself from making a sound.

The sound of footsteps approached little by little, and a profound sense of uneasiness struck, ruthlessly constricting one’s chest and throat, similar to drowning, making it difficult to breathe.

Mo Yi tightly closed his eyes, his limbs curled up on the overly narrow bed in an extremely uncomfortable position.

He lay down, stiff from head to toe, forcing himself to remain motionless on the bed.

The sound of heavy footsteps stopped in front of his bed. A dim light shone on his eyelids.

There was an uneasy silence.

Mo Yi forced himself to slow down his breathing. It seemed as if there was a heavy stone pressing against his heart, dragging him straight down into an abyss.

The sound of footsteps once again appeared, walking towards a distant place, and the small bright light also slowly moved away.

Mo Yi slowly breathed a long sigh of relief, cautiously and solemnly opened his eyes in the dark, and looked at the side of the window again.

The bluish rays of light shone through the small gaps between the boards, illuminating a small area by the window.

There was not a soul in sight.

The little girl had already vanished.

In the darkness, Mo Yi once again closed his eyes, face solemn, and an indistinct premonition filled the bottom of his heart.

It seemed that after the side mission was opened, the resentful spirits laying dormant in this orphanage had all taken on physical forms. Whether it was the orphans or that unknown thing that had patrolled the corridors and so forth — they were all roused from their eternal rest and roamed around once more.

The whole night was extremely unsettling.

The sound of the dragging footsteps seemed tireless, wandering everywhere once through over and over again, accompanied by the creaking floors. It was like a nightmare where the soul of the deceased has not yet dispersed.

Early morning next day, the ear-piercing bell rang at five o’clock on the dot.

Mo Yi got up from the bed with heavy dark circles under his eyes and walked out the door.

Song Qi was standing at the door, face calm as he waited.

Mo Yi greeted him as usual, and then the two walked to the hall together.

At present, many people had already assembled in the hall. Everyone was standing in the hall, gazes shifting around numbly as if they were already accustomed to seeing death, unable to express any more sympathy towards new victims.

— Unexpectedly, a corpse was hanging on the beam of the door.

Mo Yi recognized that this was the woman who put on a play with Zhao Yicheng when she entered the copy.

Her corpse’s face had an expression of fear and was pale. Cloudy eyes looked up in the sky as if seeing something terrifying, facial features warped into an ugly fearful state.

Uneasy whispers spread.

They had lost their heads out of fear, discussing in a low voice about the strange sounds and anomalies they had heard last night, the weird sound of footsteps and silhouette of a child, and the fresh corpse that had shown up this early morning.

Mo Yi’s eyes deepened. According to the difficulty of this copy, even if the side mission was opened, the original rules shouldn’t have changed.

In that case, what has this woman done that she shouldn’t have done?

Just then, from Mo Yi’s peripheral, he caught a glimpse of Zhao Yicheng standing by the side.

He was looking up with an inscrutable expression, attentively watching the corpse hanging from the beam in the middle of the room, and slowly, a secret smile emerged on his sorrowful face.

Mo Yi’s heart palpitated, an unknown premonition rising to the surface of his mind.

In the next second, Zhao Yicheng turned around, his expressionless face from a moment ago was now filled with mourning.

He raised his voice, half angry and half sad, and said to everyone, “Originally … this copy was not difficult. As long as you follow the rules and spend these three days according to the timetable, no one will die! But … someone deliberately opened the side mission and increased the difficulty of this copy, leading to the appearance of even more victims.”

Everyone was in an uproar.

Mo Yi stood at the edge of the crowd, face undisturbed, closely watching Zhao Yicheng who was standing in the middle of the crowd, and was not particularly surprised.

— On the contrary, if Zhao Yicheng didn’t try to provoke everyone’s enmity towards him, he would be surprised.

Zhao Yicheng said with a bitter face, “If I hadn’t inadvertently had a prop that could find out whether or not someone opened a side mission, I’m afraid that I would have been kept completely in the dark, hanging from the beam of the door in the room for no clear reason.”

Sun Xiaoyan asked in shock, “Who is it? Who is so vicious!”

Zhao Yicheng sighed quite cooperatively, casting a specious look at Mo Yi, a complicated expression showing in his eyes. Then, he felt about his pocket for a little while, only to then hear a soft “di” sound. Small, blood-red letters appeared in the window under the blue countdown: “Side Mission: ??? Mission Completion Award: ???”

After that, there were several faintly discernible tiny letters: “Opener: Player 08, Mo Yi.”

Everyone saw this and couldn’t refrain from turning pale with fright, twisting their heads to look at Mo Yi with hostile eyes filled with fear and dread.

The atmosphere in the crowd was similar to a thread that was abruptly stretched taught, fragile, as if it was about to break in the next second.

The air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder.

Mo Yi stood expressionlessly to the side, inexplicably somewhat absent-minded:

… It seemed that Zhao Yicheng wasn’t that stupid. He said that he had unintentionally obtained the prop. Not only could this deceive the newcomers who didn’t know anything at all, even more, it conveniently concealed the true purpose he had revealed last night.

In addition, apart from them, there weren’t any witnesses to what had taken place last night. Regardless of how he explained it, in the end, he would be slandered as harbouring unfathomable motives. It was not too much to say that it was a rather effective strategy.

At this time, from within the crowd, a voice abruptly rang out, “Then, can the timetable still be used?”

Mo Yi was taken aback, and everyone turned their heads towards the place where the sound was made.

It was a tall and thin boy with a pair of black-rimmed glasses, appearing to be taciturn and ordinary. He once again asked, “Does the timetable still work?”

Zhao Yicheng reluctantly frowned, and then ambiguously replied, “Under these circumstances, if nothing unexpected happens, it should still be okay for now.”

The boy calmly nudged his glasses, his manner of speaking was steady. “In this case, if Mr. Mo hadn’t found the timetable at all costs, wouldn’t we have even more injuries and deaths?”

Everyone who had been caught up in the instigation one by one regained a bit of their rationality.

— Indeed. This timetable was practically the biggest pit within the entire copy. There was completely no prompt about the existence of this and the map, yet it was definitely the rules the copy abided by to kill people. Without it, everyone would resemble a headless fly exploring around as they wished. In that case, the injuries and deaths would be enormous.

Or everyone would have stayed in the same room in order to feel at ease, and the group would be exterminated on the first night.

Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that every death flag was a clue that Mo Yi had sought, preventing people from prematurely playing GG.

Mo Yi didn’t expect that someone would actually stand up and speak up for him.

He raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, no longer remained silent, and calmly admitted, “That’s right. I opened the side mission.”

Following that, Mo Yi briefly explained the side missions in the game.

Then, he narrowed his eyes, looking around at everyone, and added, “Of course, there will be points rewards for providing assistance in completing side missions. I am not asking you to believe me now. After all, everyone has their own ability to judge, and not just listen to the one: sided words of other people —.”

Mo Yi swept a meaningful glance at Zhao Yicheng and Sun Xiaoyan’s ashen faces, then smiled and said, “Let’s go, ba. According to the timetable, it’s finally breakfast time.”

After speaking, he turned around and walked towards the dining room without hesitation.

Everyone looked at the time in succession: Indeed. If they didn’t go in now, they were afraid that it would be too late.

Owing to the tragic death of the players who had not abided by the timetable still being vivid in their mind, everyone did not dare to hesitate anymore, and they all secretly accelerated their pace and followed Mo Yi to the dining room.

Although Zhao Yicheng and Sun Xiaoyan were reluctant, they walked into the corridor behind everyone.

After entering the dining room, everyone’s eyes widened at the sight in front of them,

— The dining room had changed beyond recognition.

The low ceiling and walls were still crooked, however it had become much cleaner. The stains and grease had miraculously disappeared, and the drawing of the person hanging on the wall before was also gone.

The chandelier overhead, which had been in tatters, had also become intact and bright, exuding warm rays of light.

There was no trace of dust on the low long tables and benches, and they were neatly arranged in the room.

The dining room was filled with the rich aroma of food.

Everyone was impatient, paces quickening towards the food distribution area.

On the brand-new food dining table, there were beautifully coloured cakes and puddings. Even the black bread looked fluffy and delicious. The hot porridge emitted steaming heat. The brightly coloured fruit juice was served in large glass bottles, making those who saw it twitch their forefingers.

It was unknown how many more times better this meal was compared to before.

Many people did not eat before because they disliked the water and black bread. They were thirsty and hungry for nearly two days and had already completely regretted it. Seeing these delicacies at this moment, their eyes couldn’t help but shine.

However, the sudden upgrade in treatment in this strange orphanage, one couldn’t help but give birth to a restless feeling. So, although the players were holding back their hunger, they still hesitated to step forward.

Mo Yi frowned, took a few steps forward, and walked around the dining table a few times, convinced that there was indeed no other food here.

It stood to reason that the time and place for eating should be safe.

But such a strange scene always made one worried from the bottom of their hearts.

Mo Yi cautiously took only the same black bread as the previous few days, and together with Song Qi, sat at a table.

Sun Xiaoyan smiled contemptuously, and deliberately said loudly, “The eating locations and the food are safe. This is one of the rules of the game. Is it necessary to have such small courage?”

After that, she unceremoniously selected a lot of puddings and cake and placed them on her tray and poured a large glass of juice.

Others secretly swallowed their saliva. After all, it was really hard to endure two days of having only food and water with little flavour. Seeing someone get a head start, they trusted their luck and one by one stepped forward and began to choose their meals.

On the contrary, Mo Yi didn’t care. His food intake and water quantity these past few days have been planned in assurance, and it wouldn’t be too painful if he didn’t eat or drink water at this moment.

At this moment, a dinner plate fell directly opposite Mo Yi, with only black bread and water in it.

Mo Yi raised his head, somewhat surprised.

He saw that it was the young man who had just spoken up for him who was sitting across from him.

Mo Yi raised his eyebrows, calm and unruffled in the midst of chaos, and looked at the other person, waiting for him to say something.

The young man nervously nudged his glasses, seeming to be slightly uncomfortable and uneasy.

But under the lenses, the other person’s eyes were rather serious, and he said, “I believe you.”