Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Jiang Yuanrou once told him that the greater the number of people, the shorter the survival time, which meant the greater the difficulty of the copy.
Mo Yi glanced at the crowd gathering slowly, and silently counted deep in his heart: 9 people.
He had gotten to the heart of the matter in his mind: 9 people were to survive for three days. It seemed that the difficulty of this copy was moderate.
At this time, the man who had just rushed out and closed the door raised his eyes to look at the crowd, cleared his throat, and said, “My name is Zhao Yicheng and I’m a senior player. As you saw, this game you’ve come to is real. If you die here, you’ll die outside. However, the luck is not bad this time, and the difficulty isn’t very high.”
After speaking, he paused, looked around at the players who had gathered, and continued, “We should have a total of five senior people here, which is just enough to lead the other 5 newcomers in teams of two and look for clues, which increases the chances of survival.”
Mo Yi was startled when he heard these words and raised his head — wait a minute, 10 people?
There were only 9 people when he counted a second ago!
The crowd now had already begun to cause a commotion, and in the chaos, it was all the more difficult to clearly count the number of people.
Mo Yi frowned, and his fingers gradually tightened. His trimmed, neat and round nails dug into the center of his palms, making it faintly ache.
Back then … did he count wrong? Or did a “person” sneak into here?
He took a deep breath, calmed down the many mixed emotions within the bottom of his heart, and tried hard to suppress the sudden rising uneasiness in his mind:
In any case, he had no other choice but to adapt to the circumstances.
Everybody was now looking at one another to find a partner to team up with.
It was actually very easy to identify senior and new players. Those who were helplessly panic stricken and bare-handed were the players who entered the game for the first time, while those who appeared calmer and were readily equipped were senior players.
Perhaps due to Mo Yi’s outstanding appearance and exceptionally calm expression, two girl newcomers who were both crying cast hopeful looks at him. Even the woman in the short skirt who had made a fuss a moment ago was stealthily looking at him and was walking through the crowd of people towards him.
Mo Yi couldn’t help his scalp from going numb.
… He didn’t want experienced teammates to disturb his exploration, but that didn’t mean he wanted to take along newcomers!
One of the girls had already reached him and was about to say something.
Mo Yi’s mind was panicked, and he couldn’t help but take a few steps backwards.
The young girl who was about to speak involuntarily stiffened, throwing a wounded glance at him.
Just then, a voice came from behind him, cold and deep, as if could raise vibrations in the air, “I’m sorry, he’s teaming up with me.”
Mo Yi was also startled by the voice and turned to look behind him.
From the corner of the room, a man of tall stature walked out and stopped by Mo Yi’s side, taking advantage of his height to look down on the other side.
The man’s appearance was astonishingly good looking. His pair of light-coloured eyes were a gloomy grey, shining with an inorganic cold light, like a cold-blooded animal devoid of emotions. Merely coming into contact with his attentive gaze caused people’s hearts to tremble.
The pressing sense of oppression almost caused their eyes to ache, as if they were directly facing a sharp knife.
The younger girl couldn’t bear it and cowered.
Meanwhile, the other girl arrived at the battlefield. She looked at the three of them. Although she was a little timid, she still spoke with conviction, “But the elder brother just said … seniors and newcomers form a team. You two are seniors, isn’t that not good?”
The man’s eyes moved slightly, looking at the girl who spoke, and the corners of his lips curled into an arc, lacking warmth. “Who told you that I’m a senior?”
The two young girls, “…”
Do you cheat ghosts?? How could a newcomer be so calm?
Mo Yi stood on the side, looking at the development of the situation with a subtle expression.
— Why did he have the illusion that he was the hero of a harem manga?
At this moment, Zhao Yicheng who spoke just now, noticed the unusual disturbance, and walked over.
Both of the young girls seemed to have seen their Saviour, and they started talking at once, each trying to get their word in, and explained the whole affair.
It seemed to the first time Zhao Yicheng had encountered this kind of thing. Hearing this, he was dumbfounded. He looked up and closely examined the man for a few seconds, and then suddenly came to a realization.
He consoled them, “This little brother isn’t holding anything in his hands. He should be a newcomer. Maybe I didn’t look carefully just now because he was too calm and counted him as a senior.”
The two girls looked at the man’s empty hands at the same time, and then said nothing more.
“Well, you still have to consider this little brother’s opinion.” Zhao Yicheng looked at Mo Yi and said, “Who do you want to form a team with?”
Mo Yi discreetly wrinkled his brows and was about to say something.
However, like a flash of lightning, an idea suddenly crossed his mind: was this the person Jiang Yuanrou had found to be his senior teammate?
Mo Yi raised his eyes and looked at the man standing beside him: it seemed that he was quite tall and handsome and didn’t seem to like talking very much?
His mind was spinning, but his face remained calm and composed.
Mo Yi blinked, looked at Zhao Yicheng, and said without changing his expression, “I’d better team up with this brother. I’ll get too shy being in a team with girls.”
Zhao Yicheng and the two young girls, “…” How did this person come up with such a ridiculous reason?
Since the concerned party had already spoken, it wasn’t good for the other people to get entangled anymore, so they were forced to walk away in a huff.
Watching the backs of the people walking away, Mo Yu turned his head to look at the man and tentatively asked in a low voice, “… Song Qi?”
The man looked at him, gently narrowed his light-coloured eyes which held an unfathomable expression, and then let out a low, “En.”
Mo Yi let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that he didn’t identify the wrong person.
He smiled at Song Qi. “Yuanrou didn’t contact me. I thought you weren’t coming.”
Hearing this, Song Qi’s brows wrinkled imperceptibly. He turned to Mo Yi, but before he could say anything, he heard Zhao Yicheng, who was nearby, clear his throat and say, “Now that everyone has formed their own teams, let’s explore separately. The prompts given by the game are extremely important and may contain clues which give us a good chance at surviving. Once someone finds something, share it.”
After the leader gave them some instructions, everyone’s mood became much more stable than before. Although everyone was still nervous, they all nodded in agreement, then dispersed in groups of twos and threes.
Mo Yi keenly noticed that because Song Qi and he had formed a team, Zhao Yicheng had divided everyone into two additional three person teams to ensure that there was at least one senior player in each team.
Just then, Song Qi turned his head and said to Mo Yi, “Let’s go.”
Mo Yi hesitated for a moment and replied, “Ok, but I have a place I want to see first.”
Song Qi nodded his head in agreement.
The orphanage covered a large area, and its internal structure seemed to be quite complicated.
A ring-shaped hall connected to four dark and quiet corridors. Under the dim light, it was not clear what the end of each corridor looked like. The whole building inside was filled with a gloomy and dusty atmosphere, and it seemed like there was an unidentifiable smell floating in the air.
Mo Yi started walking down the hallway from the beginning while observing his surroundings all around.
The building was obviously very old. All the utensils were covered in dust that seemed to have accumulated centuries ago. The filthy wallpaper, preserved by time, was stained with dirt, and it wasn’t clear what the original colour was. It was pasted on the wall, wrinkled, and several areas had already peeled off, revealing the damp brownish grey surface of the wall.
Several ancient styled and worn-out hanging lamps hung askew on the wall, emitting a faint light with difficulty, but it was unable to illuminate all of the corners. In the cold and sombre darkness, it always seemed like there was something waiting for an opportune moment to take action.
The stagnant corridor was long and cramped, and the pressure made people nearly gasp for breath.
However, Mo Yi noticed that although it looked old-fashioned and dilapidated here, every piece of furniture and utensil was still intact, and it appeared as though they had not been completely abandoned.
Mo Yi pushed open a door and walked into the room where he had woken up.
Everything was the same as when he had left: Six narrow beds divided into two rows, neatly arranged in the cramped room.
The wooden boards sealing up the window were crooked, and through the wide gaps, the fluorescent blue countdown floating in the darkness outside was visible.
The overhead light was dim, barely illuminating the room.
His eyes fell to the ground —
The old and shabby teddy bear was gone.
On the dusty ground, there was a small yellow note laying stilly. It was simply folded in half, making it difficult to see the contents.
Mo Yi’s heart jumped, and he stepped forward, bending down to pick up the note.
The unfolded slip of paper unexpectedly had a shapeless and twisted childish drawing of an empty swinging gallows.
Under the gallows was a single line written by a child in coloured crayons:
FIND ME。