The twelfth plane, J city
It was almost seven in the morning by the time Zhai Xiaoyi crawled out of the lake. He was completely drenched, and he shivered constantly as he pulled out his backpack from behind a rock.
Luckily, he had previously folded his sweater and jacket up and hid them amongst the rocks on the lower shore of the pond from the eyes of the patrolling security guards.
Although, he had to admit that he only did all that out of caution, as he didn’t really expect that he would be pulled into the cold water so easily. Now he took off his thoroughly soaked shirt and changed quickly. In a couple of minutes the water dripping slowly from his pants remained the only proof of his late night adventure.
His steps were somewhat sluggish as he walked home through the city, leaving a line of wet trails on the sidewalk. He let out a yawn and thanked the heavens that he had previously wrapped his phone into his jacket instead of just pocketing it.
Now he held the buzzing phone in his hand and accepted the call.
‘Yeah?’ His voice sounded tired and somewhat hoarse, and he felt his throat hurt as he spoke. He frowned slightly.
Lin Ran was leaning on a car not far from the residential building. She held her phone close to her ear and pulled the front of her cardigan closed. ‘I’m here. How much more time do you need? If it’s not too long I can go and..’
She casually lifted her gaze and stopped mid-sentence. She saw a completely drenched Zhai Xiaoyi waving at her from a couple of dozens of metres away.
The boy’s jacket seemed to be the only dry thing on him. Water trickled from his damp hair down his face, and he sneezed loudly. He ended the call, and walked over to her as he rubbed his nose with the back of his hand.
Lin Ran felt somewhat dazed, but she reacted quickly when Zhai Xiaoyi got to her car. She threw aside all caution she still bore towards the boy, and pulled him over by the shoulders.
She was a bit taller than him, and looking down at this soaked duckling of a boy, she let her maternal instincts take the lead. She pulled out a fluffy, purple blanket from the back seat, and wrapped it around the duckling.
The back of her hand vaguely touched the wet jeans, and her expression grew even more distressed. ‘It can’t be that you went swimming unprepared, ba? Where am I supposed to get you a pair of clean pants now..’
It didn’t even occur to her that the one in front of her wasn’t a child she was in charge of. She opened the door of the car and stuffed him inside, going around to open the trunk.
Zhai Xiaoyi had absolutely no awareness of the strangeness of his situation. He hugged the blanket and nodded at Lin Xu sitting in the front, then closed his eyes. He didn’t try to sleep, he only wanted to shut his eyes for the moment.
Lin Ran opened the door again, and the coldness of the air made him frown. The girl threw a pair of high waisted jeans to him, and sat behind the steering wheel.
She started the car as she looked back, ‘Change.’
Zhai Xiaoyi nodded and did as she asked while taking off his jacket too, and he wrapped the blanket tightly around himself. He didn’t talk again until Lin Ran asked for the specific directions.
They arrived in front of a single-story house in the suburbs of the capital after a bit more than an hour of driving.
The car had long stopped, but none of them moved to get out. Lin Xu was so excited that his excitement turned into fear. What if, what if.. A thousand thoughts made him unable to move, no matter how close to the end he was.
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t move because he had nothing to do in this place. Besides, the fluffy blanket was really soft and he was starting to feel drowsy. Maybe after the two went in he could have a nap..
Lin Ran didn’t move because she was thinking about something Zhai Xiaoyi had said the day before. She suspected that something might be amiss, and she wanted to make sure that everything went smooth. Right then, she couldn’t keep herself from speaking up first, interrupting the other two’s thoughts.
‘What did you want to tell us?’ She had already turned towards the back seat, and now she was looking at Zhai Xiaoyi.
‘Ah?’ Zhai Xiaoyi had no idea what she was talking about. His gaze was slightly clouded and his fatigue was clear to see. ‘What did I want to tell you guys when?’
Lin Ran raised her eyebrows. She suddenly felt her temple starting to ache; this felt like what was going to be a really long day.
‘Yesterday. Over the phone, you said there were things that you couldn’t say then and there. What are they?’
‘Oh.’ It seemed that he really had said something of the sorts. ‘I’m not sure. I think I just wanted to make sure that you guys took me along.’
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.
‘Alright. What do you want to do here?’ Lin Ran thought that maybe he needed to check something with the old lady before they went in.
‘Qtja ab vb? P’v ilxf ab ub ab j qtjgwjms. Eluta, vb sbe tjnf mbiv wfvlmlcf? Po sbe vb atja’v rqjgf wf atf wbcfs.’ Lf kjamtfv Olc Ejc’r fzqgfrrlbc aegc euis. ‘Qtja? Tbe bcis mjgf jybea ws tfjiat ktfc P’w rbjxfv? Qtjafnfg.’
‘P.. Zfjca. Qtja kbeiv sbe ilxf ab vb, ilxf, tfgf. Lfgf, jr lc lc atlr tberf, ab tfiq ws ygbatfg.’ Vtf rqbxf atgbeut mifcmtfv affat.
‘Help? Oh no no. I came to hitch a ride. It was you who made the offer, and I just accepted it.’
Lin Ran wanted to refute him but couldn’t. She really did ask him if he needed her to pick him up but she didn’t mean it like this..
‘I didn’t mean that. I said that because you said that..’ As she averted her gaze, it just happened to fall on Lin Xu. ‘Hey, what’s with you? What are you shivering for?’
Zhai Xiaoyi looked that way too. What Lin Ran had said was true; Lin Xu’s entire body was shivering. He found it very interesting. He had never seen a ghost so scared before, not even when working as the assistant of bigshots.
‘He’s scared.’ He said this as a matter of fact.
‘Yeah I mean, I can see that. But what for?’
‘It is just that.. I haven’t seen her in so long, and I’m not sure.. What if she’s completely forgotten.. What if she didn’t..’ Lin Xu was about to completely break down mentally..
Lin Ran reassured him. ‘You’ll see soon. I’m sure nothing bad will happen. Hey, she might even have gone blind.’
‘Do you think so?’ Lin Xu looked at Zhai Xiaoyi, the shaking of his hand lessening slightly.
‘Yes. You’re gonna be fine.’ Zhai Xiaoyi’s expression was as honest as he could make it. In truth, he only asked Tian Xihua to look if he could find anything about the woman’s address and nothing else.
Unexpectedly, he found information about her family rather quickly. He found one of her children on a successful company’s website, and found the social media accounts of her grandkids. There were pictures of a birthday party for the smallest held in the grandmother’s house.
Now Lin Xu stood in front of the same house from the pictures. Lin Ran asked him, ‘Do you want me to go in with you? I can just knock and ask about the area. Say that I want to move here and whatnot..’
Lin Xu shook his head as he gazed up to the windows covered by curtains. ‘I’m afraid, but I want to do this myself. You just wait here, and I’ll come back.’
‘You.. You don’t need to. Just say goodbye now, I don’t want you to have to.. You’ve already waited for so long.’ Lin Ran moved as if to hug him, but her arms couldn’t touch him. She hugged the air like that for a moment, while Lin Xu’s cold breeze of a touch caressed her hair.
‘Well then, I’ll see you in some time. Don’t take too long, will ya?’ He smiled slightly, and stepped back through the girl’s closed arms.
Lin Ran held back her tears as she watched him walk towards the main entrance and knock on the door. She waved at him as he looked back, and the door was opened soon by a confused auntie.
All she saw was a young girl standing next to an unfamiliar car and waving emotionally at her. She looked around, but she still couldn’t find who had knocked. Before she shut the door again, Lin Xu slipped inside.
The door closed, and Lin Ran turned around to walk to the car. Inside, Zhai Xiaoyi had already fallen asleep. He covered his eyes with his hat, and hugged the blanket comfortably. A small, satisfied smile could be seen even from under the shadow of the snapback.
Lin Ran didn’t want to disturb him, but she had no other choice. Besides, she hadn’t forgotten that he made her worry for no reason. She reached out and gently shook his shoulder.
‘Hey, my brother’s already inside. I’ll take you back home.’
Zhai Xiaoyi blinked as he opened his eyes, and he was quick to refuse. ‘Ah, can’t you take me to the city centre instead? I have to visit the main branch of the Federal Bureau.’
‘That.. You made me take you all this way because.. Whatever.’ Lin Ran let out a sigh. ‘I don’t want to know. It just happens that the office is on the way to where I was already going.’
‘Thank you.’ Zhai Xiaoyi nodded. ‘About the payment..’
‘I’ll give it to you later. Right, why are you going to the main office?’ Lin Ran started the car, and soon they left behind the district the old woman lived in.
‘Got a letter.’ Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t really want to discuss this, but then a sudden idea appeared in his mind. ‘Do you know anything about the Department of Instance Regulation?’
Lin Ran smiled lightly, ‘Yeah, their second representative is a good friend of mine. It’s their responsibility to deal with certain experiments the guys at the Recruitment Division come up with. I don’t have much contact with the department since I mostly do field work.’
‘Are they the ones who want you to go in? I didn’t think they actually did any of that stuff. Whenever I’m there they’re always just working on documents and files and even more documents.. It’s too boring.’
‘It is them.’ Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t intend to hide it. ‘I got pulled into an instance world two days ago and the guy who came to help us out mentioned the department.’
‘Wait, you? In a..’ Lin Ran burst out laughing. She only shook her head as a reply to the boy’s inquiring gaze. ‘It’s just hard to imagine. You know?’
Zhai Xiaoyi didn’t bother with her. He pulled out his phone to text Tian Xihua as the laughing turned into quiet giggling in the background.
‘Hey, I got someone to drive me to the office. When can you get there?’
He tapped a finger on the seat next to him as he waited for a reply.
‘At least half an hour. More if traffic’s bad.’
Zhai Xiaoyi looked up and met Lin Ran’s gaze in the rearview mirror. He typed a sentence, and then deleted it. He asked the girl, ‘When are we getting there?’
‘About twenty minutes.’ She was still smiling widely. ‘Employees can’t register to the forums but my friend showed me a couple posts on his phone. The ones I saw.. Let’s just say it is not a thing I can imagine you doing.’
She averted her gaze, looking at the road properly but she couldn’t hide her wide grin. ‘What world did you get pulled into? I heard there were countless categories..’
That made Zhai Xiaoyi think. If there were multiple categories of worlds, just how many of them were there? He thought about it and said, ‘I think it was a thriller. There was a murderer we had to find and monsters. I’m not too skilled at solving mysteries. Everyday ones are fine, but mythical ones like this..‘
‘Then you’re not lucky. The ones I saw were all people who turned into characters that were way more successful and rich than their original lives.. The actors wanted to stay but all ended up dead because of the world consciousness. It was a headline story for weeks.’
‘Someone inside the game told me that we were called players? But you call us actors?’
‘Actors or players, isn’t it all the same? It’s like this. The official term we have to use is ‘actors’. But it doesn’t make as much sense as calling them ‘players’, ah? Do you understand?’
Zhai Xiaoyi thought that sounded logical. After all, official terms didn’t always make sense. He was immersed in his thoughts, and Lin Ran didn’t bother talking to him anymore.
She only spoke again when they were already near the office building. ‘Look, I can’t stop here. You’re gonna have to jump. Not really jump, but like, I can only stop the car for a moment, so you’ll have to be quick. Get ready.’
Zhai Xiaoyi made an approving hum and folded up the soft blanket, stuffing his wet clothes into his backpack and putting on his jacket. The car stopped, and he waved after Lin Ran after getting out.
He watched the car disappear in the sea of vehicles and turned around to look up to the building in front of him. He shielded his eyes from the sun and looked around.
He was standing on the sidewalk, and the office in front of him was at least fifty floors high. He adjusted the backpack on his shoulder as he walked inside.
The interior of the building wasn’t too different from any other office’s lobby. It was very.. blue. Everything was painted a different shade of blue. He walked to the counter with a ‘reception’ sign on it, and knocked on the glass lightly.
A middle aged woman behind the computer put down her phone quickly as she turned to him with a smile. ‘What can I help you with?’
Zhai Xiaoyi pulled out the slightly wet letter from his backpack and pushed it in front of her. ‘I got this letter from the Department of Instance Regulations. It says here that I have to make a visit here within two weeks.’
The woman nodded and she swiftly tapped away on the computer. A moment later she pulled a post-it note from a stack and scribbled a long number on it.
She handed it to Zhai Xiaoyi, ‘This is your serial number as an actor. The forty fourth floor is the one you have to go to. Knock on the main entrance and you’ll be let in, don’t open the door yourself. When you’re inside, you’ll see about sixty stalls, and one of them will have your number displayed on the counter. Have a great day!’
She said all this as quickly as she could, and already had herself buried in her phone again by the time the boy registered what she had told him and picked up the post-it note.
He thanked her and looked around for an elevator. Luckily, it seemed that he didn’t have to take the stairs to the forty second floor. He wandered around the ground floor and found the elevator in a couple of minutes.
After pushing the ‘up’ button, he waited. As he stood there he thought, if there was an ‘up’ and a ‘down’ button, did that mean that this building had floors beneath the ground too? And if it did, then how many floors were there truly?
He got an answer to his question soon, when the elevator arrived. He stepped inside, and gazed at the buttons, pushing the one with the number ‘44’ on it. The door was about to close, when a sudden voice came from the outside, ‘Wait, hold the door! Wait for me!’
Zhai Xiaoyi touched the closing doors of the elevator, and the doors opened slowly. A tall man in a suit hurried inside. He pushed the button for the top floor and let out a breath. ‘Thank you, thank you. It is always so bothersome, taking the lift, but tell me, what else can I do? I can’t just take the stairs all the way up..’
Zhai Xiaoyi hummed politely, but he didn’t intend to reply. The man didn’t really want to make small talk either, so the two stood in silence as the elevator moved.
It stopped on a couple of floors, but only two people got in before they reached the forty fourth floor where Zhai Xiaoyi stepped outside.
This floor was like a normal office, with islands of desks behind a glass wall on one side, and a row of cubicles on the other. Some of the cubicles had screens that displayed bright green numbers on them while others had workers solemnly focusing on the papers in front of them.
Between the two sides, there was a short corridor with glass walls. At the end of the corridor there was a closed double winged door and it seemed that he had to enter a lounge there to be able to approach the cubicles directly.
He was about to reach for the handle when he remembered what the woman at the reception desk told him, and knocked instead. After a couple of minutes the door opened from the inside.
A short girl held it for him before asking him, ‘This is your first time here, right? Follow me. Your agent probably has your number already.’
She led him into the room with cubicles, and asked to look at his number. He handed it over, and watched as the girl’s brows furrowed.
‘What is it?’ He reached for the note to take it back.
‘It’s strange. Your number isn’t displayed on any of these..’ She pushed her hair back, and led him back outside. She knocked on a door, and put her head through the opening.
‘Nan ge, there’s a player without an agent. What should I do?’
The voice of a young man came from the inside. ‘Without an agent? What do you mean?’
The woman opened the door wider, and took a small step inside. ‘It is like this. I brought him inside but his number didn’t match any of the displayed ones..’
‘Ah? It just happens that I’m free. I’ll deal with this one, but you’ll owe me lunch then.’
The girl didn’t seem to mind. She giggled as she agreed, opening the door even wider as she gestured for Zhai Xiaoyi to enter.
He stepped inside, and felt the door close behind himself. Inside the office, a young man was sitting behind a wide desk.
It was the representative who came to compensate them in the instance world, Nan Zhi.
The author has something to say:
That night, the small fish in the lake had the chance of meeting a bigger and more sluggish fish who was pitifully kicking his legs around.
The creature lurking in the dark water: Dinner came early tonight. Wait, aH-
On another note, it is mentioned in this chapter that LR is taller than ZXY. I’d like to say that the reason for this isn’t that ZXY would be short, but that LR is fucking massive in height. This information is something that probably won’t be mentioned later on so I’d just love it if you all could imagine her being about 190 or so.
LR; *exists*
XLH looking her square in the eye because they’re the same height: *slowly puts on a shirt that says ‘gf stands for gilf”*
Author: *nods approvingly*
Thank you for the chapter!! :>
is it time to play “who is the ML?”
Thanks for the chapter! <3
if you plan on playing that I can only say that you’re in for a treat, haha. it’s a while until anything of the sorts even begins, but it’s worth the wait in my opinion:)