MTMIO Chapter 21

Chapter 21: “I’m Different From You All.”

The door wouldn’t open?

Lu You frowned.

The ceiling light flickered, seemingly on its last legs.

No sooner had she finished the thought than it stopped “breathing,” completely giving out.

Lu You: “…”

Her vision was swallowed by darkness, rendering her unable to see anything. Consequently, her other senses became extraordinarily sharp.

First came the sound of footsteps shifting, followed by an overwhelming, frigid fragrance that gave the sensation of being submerged in the cool moonlight.

Lu You deduced that Yue Yunxi had moved a step closer to her. She was just about to speak up and offer some reassurance when the words caught in her throat and were swallowed back down.

Her exposed arm was lightly touched by cool, soft fingertips, which then slowly slid down her skin.

There wasn’t much pressure, just a slight itch that sent shivers across her skin, finally settling at her waist, where they tugged at the fabric of her clothes.

It was an attempt to avoid suspicion, but it seemed a rather futile one.

Lu You took a slow, deep breath.

Perhaps having heard her sigh, Yue Yunxi tilted her head in her direction and asked, “What do we do now?”

The hot breath brushed against the cool skin of her neck, chilled by the air conditioning, making Lu You uncomfortable. She tilted her head slightly away.

“I’ll contact Feifei and the others first.” Lu You adjusted the walkie-talkie to Chen Feifei’s channel and called out to her. While waiting for a response, she said to Yue Yunxi, “There should be three of these cabinets. The light switch for our section might be in another one.”

Yue Yunxi asked, “How do you know that?”

“I cheated and overheard.”

To ease the oppressive feeling of the dark environment, Lu You deliberately kept it vague.

Yue Yunxi looked confused. “Huh?”

Lu You was about to explain.

“Ah.” Yue Yunxi reacted first. “You mean the people in the main hall mentioned it earlier?”

“Yes, that’s right.” Lu You reasoned, “Maybe what the boss said about being eliminated if caught by an NPC isn’t true. It’s just to make the players feel nervous so they’ll instinctively hide in the cabinets when they encounter an NPC.”

“Youyou, you’re amazing.”

She praised her for being “amazing,” not just “smart,” raising the level of the compliment.

And the soft, slightly raised tone, like feathers that bounce back, carefully and gently brushed against her auditory nerves. It was too tender and soft, as if implying a sort of teasing.

It made her ears tingle, and even her throat felt itchy. Lu You rubbed her ear and cleared her throat, using a calm tone to suppress her embarrassment: “It’s just a guess.”

The walkie-talkie crackled with static. After two or three seconds, Chen Feifei’s panting voice came through: “Youyou, oh my god, I was so scared! I was chased by zombies the whole way! By the way, where are you?”

“I’m in a cabinet that looks like a filing cabinet.” Lu You released the button and pressed it again, saying, “I’m with Yunxi-jie…”

As she trailed off, she felt a very slight tug on the hem of her shirt at her waist, so light that she couldn’t tell if Yue Yunxi had curled her hand, or if her own arm had lifted it up.

Probably the latter, Lu You thought.

Chen Feifei was excited: “Oh?! Zhizhi, Lizi, and I are in a cabinet too!”

Lu You had already guessed it and asked without much emotion, “Are the lights on in your cabinet?”

“Yes, they’re on.” Chen Feifei asked, “You don’t have lights?”

“The light switch for our section should be in your cabinet. Can you see one?”

“There’s a key tied to a string.” The other end of the walkie-talkie went silent. After a moment, Chen Feifei’s voice came again, “No, I can’t pull it. I can only take the key off by itself. It probably isn’t the light switch.”

Lu You frowned, suddenly thinking of something. She reached out with her left hand to feel the cabinet door.

Her left hand was squeezed between Yue Yunxi and the door panel. It was suddenly raised by her, and only caring about feeling the door for locks, she didn’t pay attention for a moment. Inevitably, she touched a soft curve.

Lu You froze, quickly dropping her hand and saying, “Sorry.”

Yue Yunxi was probably a little dazed too. After a moment, she cleared her throat lightly and said, “It’s okay.”

Lu You clenched her left little finger. The severed finger, lacking connected nerves, was clearly without sensation, but at this moment, it felt as if it were being baked by the residual touch on her other fingers.

The pinky ring rubbed against the bruise, failing to suppress a bit of embarrassment.

Lu You had no choice but to explain dryly: “…I wanted to see if there were any door locks or anything on the inside of the door.”

As soon as she said it, she regretted it, as it was completely opening old wounds.

Especially since Yue Yunxi replied to her, “It doesn’t matter.”

The gentle, calm tone gave her the illusion that any excessive thing she did could be forgiven, stirring the momentary embarrassment into a sticky mess, with a hint of ambiguity fermenting in the solidified atmosphere.

Lu You felt like she was sinking in a swamp, uncomfortable but unable to move.

But it was Yue Yunxi who moved first.

Lu You judged from the subtle movements that Yue Yunxi was helping her feel the cabinet door.

After a while, Yue Yunxi told her: “There’s no lock. The key that Feifei and the others have should be used to open our cabinet.”

After a pause of two or three seconds, Yue Yunxi slightly stiffly turned the certainty into uncertainty: “Right?”

It was like she was deliberately prodding her for a response.

Probably to reduce her embarrassment, Lu You lowered her head and gave a soft “Mm,” using the walkie-talkie to tell Chen Feifei to keep the key safe, and then asked if there were any locks on their side.

Chen Feifei: “Yes, there’s also a power outage notice posted on the door, saying that a Master Wang Ri and a Master Tian something were coming to inspect the light boxes.”

Lu You thought for a moment, and then, struck by a flash of inspiration, asked, “How are the names written?”

Chen Feifei: “The Wang is the ‘king’ in ‘king of kings’, the Ri is the ‘sun’ in ‘sun and moon’, the Tian is the ‘field’ in ‘farmland’, and the character I don’t recognize has a mountain character with the vertical stroke in the middle extending beyond the top.”

Wang Ri, Tian Che.

Without paper or pen, and no visible background to draw on, she could only trace the characters in her mind. Lu You closed her eyes, thinking, and folded the four characters up, down, left, and right –

Lu You moved her lips: “3…”

Yue Yunxi also opened her mouth, reporting the same number.

Two different voices rang out at the same time, colliding and overlapping, and then both paused.

Yue Yunxi chuckled softly.

The light breath was as ethereal as a wisp of smoke, lingering and caressing Lu You’s left ear.

Visibility was almost zero, but Lu You could still feel her gaze, passing through the darkness and looking over.

They must be the bright amber glass beads stained with a smile.

Lu You lowered her eyes, secretly shocked by the unconscious construction of Yue Yunxi’s eyes in her mind at that moment.

It must be because she had too deep an impression of Yue Yunxi’s non-smiling image, so recently she has been paying attention to the way she smiles.

After a brief silence, Yue Yunxi confirmed with her, “Is it 3084?”

Lu You recovered her thoughts: “Yes, but this password isn’t for unlocking Feifei and the others’ door.”

“Inspect the light boxes.” Yue Yunxi pondered, quickly catching up with her train of thought, “It should be the light box password, which can turn on the lights here.”

“Yes, but Feifei didn’t mention the light box. I guess the light box is probably on Yun Zhu’s side, but I’ll double-check.” Lu You used the walkie-talkie to contact Chen Feifei again.

“I knew it! Zhizhi already figured it out, but we still can’t open the lock.” Chen Feifei said, “Lizi has already contacted Yun Zhu and the others. They’re turning on the light box, so it should be bright soon on your side.”

Not long after she finished speaking, the lights above their heads flickered twice, restoring their illumination function. Not only that, but they were much brighter than before.

Her vision suddenly went from dark to light. Lu You half-squinted her eyes to adjust, and subconsciously turned her face towards the darker direction. Only then did she realize that she and Yue Yunxi were standing extremely close. With a slight lift of her eyes, she could clearly see the light brown mole at the corner of Yue Yunxi’s eye.

There was a time when Tao Xin would put a beauty mark at the corner of her eye when she put on makeup. At that time, she thought she was following a trend. She never knew that Yue Yunxi had a beauty mark.

She didn’t know what her state was at the moment.

Her brows were twisted into mountains and rivers, all difficult to overcome.

And Yue Yunxi’s hand reached over, touching between her brows, like a wind blowing into the valley.

Silently smoothing out the large and small ravines.

A small patch of light gray shadow fell into her vision. Lu You fluttered her eyelashes twice, and her eyes went from being squinted to being fully open.

“Have you adjusted?” Yue Yunxi asked softly.

Lu You paused slightly.

To what extent can a person be gentle?

It was probably the point of being within the scope of being implicated, but being unable to direct any blame at all.

She used to think that Tao Xin had a similar effect when she showed weakness, like a cotton candy, but after too many times, it also made people feel tired, and after being soaked in water, it became a dreamy illusion.

After more contact with Yue Yunxi, she realized that when it comes to softness, it has to be cotton wool. Any thoughts or temperaments could be disarmed by her nature.

If it was soaked in water, the weight of the dampness would be even more lethal.

Lu You gathered her thoughts and said with a smile, “Much better, thank you, Yunxi-jie.”

Yue Yunxi curled her fingertips lightly and lowered her hand.

Lu You’s lowered gaze followed her hand, only to notice that there was still enough space in the back to squeeze in two or three more people.

But right now, she was still like the filling in a biscuit, sandwiched between Yue Yunxi and the cabinet door.

The next second, Yue Yunxi moved to the side, took half a step back, and sighed deeply.

It looked as if her fear had faded away, and she no longer needed to stick to her for courage.

“You don’t have to be so polite with me.” Yue Yunxi suddenly said softly.

Lu You was stunned.

There was no denying that the thank you did have an element of estrangement.

So after a moment of silence, she muttered, “You were polite when I styled your hair, too.”

Yue Yunxi’s red lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but only a light sigh that was both laughter and not escaped.

It was like a sigh of helplessness at her own speechlessness.

It was also like a light laugh indulging her direct bluntness.

Lu You couldn’t help but rub her ear again.

How come she didn’t notice before that Yue Yunxi’s breathy voice was so captivating?

“Look here.” Yue Yunxi pointed to the cabinet panel next to her.

Lu You looked over.

On it were arrows drawn in red paint in two rows, one above the other.

The first row was Down, Left, Left, Up.

The second row was Up, Left, Right, Down-Left.

As soon as she took a look, both of their walkie-talkies rang one after the other. Yun Zhu was asking Yue Yunxi if there were any questions on their side, and Chen Feifei was saying that their cabinet door was open and they were coming to find them.

After Yue Yunxi replied to Yun Zhu, Lu You pressed the button to communicate the route to Chen Feifei.

After that, Chen Feifei and the other two took the key to open the door for them. They walked to the end of the corridor and joined Zhong Mi and Yun Zhu. Opening the three cabinet doors in turn triggered zombies to roam the corridor. After being chased by zombies, they hid in the elevator, cracked the password in the elevator, and entered the administrator’s ID number to escape.

As a result, on the way to being chased by zombies, the ears were filled with screams, mixed with the angry curses of Chen Feifei and Li Can, because they were both wearing high heels.

This caused Zhong Mi to frequently watch. She entered the elevator first, facing everyone, and after admiring the running postures of the others, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “Feifei-jie, Lizi-jie, you two really look like ostriches when you run.”

While saying that, the little girl exaggeratedly imitated them, adding, “Or ostriches afraid of stepping on poop~”

Yun Zhu laughed out loud: “Pfft, hahaha.”

The laughter infected everyone.

Already exhausted from running, and with this laughter, they couldn’t run at all. Lu You slowed down and curiously turned her head to look at Chen Feifei and Li Can, only to see Chen Feifei and Li Can stop in place, surrounded by NPCs.

Contrary to her guess, the NPCs really did catch people.

And behind her, a disheveled “zombie” was tilting its head and grinning at her, slowly raising its bent hand.

Even knowing it was a real person playing the part, such a face, so close, it was impossible not to be afraid.

Lu You froze on the spot.

Just as this zombie’s gray hand, covered in bruises, was about to grab her, a clean white hand reached over.

With a “smack,” it slapped away the zombie’s claw.

The zombie was stunned, and Lu You was also stunned. She lifted her eyelids to look over and saw Yue Yunxi with a look of horror, as if she had touched a cockroach, dusting her hand on her clothes.

Zombie: “…”

Lu You: “…”

Then, Yue Yunxi reached out and pushed Lu You.

Her soft, hoarse voice sounded in her ear: “Get in the elevator, don’t look back.”

Lu You came back to her senses.

Yue Yunxi was also wearing high heels, and she had just laughed so hard that she was out of breath and had no strength left. She had originally prepared to push Lu You away and let the zombies surround her, but her wrist suddenly felt warm.

The familiar frigid fragrance filled her nostrils in a strong gust, and when she realized what was happening, she had already been pulled into the elevator by Lu You, and her body had crashed into Lu You’s arms due to inertia.

Rising and falling in each other’s rapid breathing.

Unlike the previous cabinet where it was only the two of them, Yue Yunxi could only restrain herself from reluctantly leaving the embrace.

Before long, Chen Feifei and Li Can also entered the elevator, saying that the NPC couldn’t bear to see them about to leave, so they let them go.

Chen Feifei pretended to sniff and said, “They were even laughing at us for running like ostriches.”

Laughter rose and fell in the elevator, diluting the previous tension and exhaustion.

Jian Yan curiously asked, “They’re all running in high heels, how come Yunxi-jie runs like a fairy?”

Li Can and Chen Feifei turned their heads to look at Yue Yunxi at the same time.

“Aren’t you in pain?” Li Can asked.

“Aren’t you tired?” Chen Feifei followed up.

Lu You was studying the puzzle in the elevator. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but turn her head to look at Yue Yunxi.

Coincidentally, Yue Yunxi was also looking at her.

A second of eye contact.

Yue Yunxi’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and she said in a low voice, “I’m different from you all.”

I have someone I like here.