In the real world, time passed by like flowing water and more than a dozen days were gone in the blink of an eye—especially with a packed schedule everyday.
Since Jiang Yuanrou’s next instance was supposed to start two days earlier than Mo Yi’s, they planned to enter according to her schedule this time—making it equivalent to moving the date of Mo Yi’s next instance forward.
Mo Yi placed all his items into his backpack neatly and looked down at his watch.
Five minutes left.
He hesitated for a moment, then took out a small box from the drawer of his bedside table.
There was a silver-white silk ribbon with the texture of water at the bottom of the box. On its faintly shiny surface were three blood-red thin lines, running smoothly from the top of the ribbon to the bottom, dazzling like bloodstains.
This novice gift pack was not an ordinary inventory item.
It functioned the same way as a bound prop. Even if the player chose not to bring it along into the instance, it would still be usable within that instance. Furthermore, props purchased before the start of an instance would only be delivered to the player after the end of that instance—but this item was delivered immediately after its purchase.
Not to mention that there were still the red marks which seemed to increase alongside the number of instances he entered…
Mo Yi lowered his eyes. He pondered for several seconds before resignedly wrapping the ribbon around his wrist.
It rested snugly against Mo Yi’s skin and his thin wrist bone, the cold material quickly soaking up his body temperature.
He tried to move his wrist—the ribbon was as thin as a second layer of skin, not impeding his movement in the slightest, and he wouldn’t notice its existence if he didn’t pay attention to it.
Mo Yi took a deep breath, pulled down his sleeve then subconsciously glanced at his watch.
Two minutes left.
—Since the holder of the team item was Jiang Yuanrou, the time he would enter the instance was based on her. She would have to use the prop after entering her instance, and Mo Yi had to accept the invitation in the real world.
A cool breeze whistled in from the gap in the window, lifting the half-closed curtains and causing the fabric to flap like a bird fluttering its wings.
Mo Yi stared at the moving curtain then glanced at the wristwatch again.
The second hand circled the dial tirelessly. The ticking sounds were extraordinarily clear in the silent room—the time had come.
A familiar robotic voice sounded in his ears. “Player Jiang Yuanrou invites you to enter the instance, do you agree?”
Mo Yi picked up the backpack at his feet. His eyes narrowed as he replied calmly.
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.
“I agree.”
Cr rbbc jr tf olclrtfv rqfjxlcu, j ybea bo vlhhlcfrr bnfgktfiwfv tlw, aegclcu tlr nlrlbc vjgx. Qtfc tf bqfcfv tlr fsfr jujlc, atf rmfcf jgbecv tlw tjv mtjcufv ogbw tlr bkc gbbw ab j ybecvifrr vjgxcfrr.
C gbybalm ofwjif nblmf rbecvfv:
“Qfimbwf Zb Tl, j D-ifnfi wfwyfg bo atf Vfclbg Zfwyfg Jiey, obg sbeg gfaegc ab atf ujwf. Tbeg qblcar jgf yflcu mjimeijafv…”
Mo Yi was already familiar with the process and simply stood there without changing his expression.
The calculation this time took longer than before. Mo Yi seized the precious additional minutes and seconds, staring intently at the dense darkness which had almost condensed into a solid body before him.
There was no hint of light around it. The gloomy darkness was like the bottom of a black river oozing slowly, ominously, and dangerously, akin to a condensed flow of data.
It was largely incomprehensible, but Mo Yi felt as though… that flow brought with it an indescribable sense of familiarity.
Yet before he could contemplate further, the familiar robotic female voice rang again in the darkness around him, breaking the silence.
“The calculation is completed! Congratulations to B-level member Mo Yi for perfectly completing the A+ level hidden mission ‘Moving on’, 8,000 reward points.
Since the player chose to open the membership test immediately, there is an additional reward of 2,000 points. The game store will now be open.”
The moment the sound disappeared, the darkness and emptiness around him dissipated instantly and was replaced by a rather modern azure blue space.
There were more icons in the store than last time. The greyed out spaces which previously occupied most of the store grids, could now only be seen after turning the page. Furthermore, there was now another tab at the side of the store:
Member’s store.
Mo Yi’s eyes lit up, and he opened it—
The blue window in front of him morphed instantly, the colour of the entire transparent screen deepening into the shade of the navy sky at dawn, and a brand-new store interface unfolded. The top of the screen indicates the level of the member store:
B level.
Mo Yi’s eyes flickered across the variety of goods within, and he couldn’t help being slightly taken aback.
As a matter of fact, although there are many kinds of goods in the game store, they could be generally divided into three categories: the first category, physical objects which could be used in reality. If you wanted, you could even exchange points for a large amount of cash. The second category would be props for use in the instance, and this was what Mo Yi mainly bought last time. The last category would be special-purpose props, such as Jiang Yuanrou’s prop for entering a designated instance, as well as the prop she used to locate him in the real world.
That was why Jiang Yuanrou said back then—’You can get almost anything with points.’
Of course, the usefulness of the items you exchanged for was another matter.
The products in the member store are mainly concentrated on the second category, and unlike the items in the ordinary store, those in the member store came with a promotional slogan and some brief introduction, making them seemingly more refined and useful than the ambiguous unnamed products in the ordinary store.
Mo Yi’s eyes landed on a product at the bottom of the page. The image was that of a backpack and the price marked under it was astonishingly high, requiring 10,000 points.
It was almost half of Mo Yi’s current points.
The introduction below the icon was: smart backpack, it will automatically store props of use in the instance, the backpack can be used at any time (including the upcoming instance).
Mo Yi’s gaze lingered on it for a few seconds before he added it to his shopping cart without further hesitation.
He bought a lot of props to use in the previous instance, but their glass bead-like shapes and their inconvenient method of use brought him a lot of trouble.
After all, it was too time-consuming to locate the glass bead with a corresponding effect from one’s pocket in a critical moment of life and death, and this backpack would solve this problem.
Although it was expensive, it was exceedingly practical.
Mo Yi finally picked out props costing a total of 13,000 points and placed them into the shopping cart, before pressing the button for payment.
“The items were successfully purchased! They have been sent to the player’s backpack. I wish you a happy game!”
The robotic female voice sounded in the blue space, and a tide of darkness instantly followed, quickly swallowing all the light and images in front of him. Large chunks of patterns swirled, shattering and rearranging into odd fragments which then disappeared into the all-encompassing deep, cold darkness.
“The game is being transmitted…”
A sudden dizziness swept through his whole body, as if his entire person was stuffed into the spinning drum of a washing machine.
Next, after an imperceptible duration of time, the white noise buzzing in his ears suddenly fell silent and his five senses slowly returned.
Mo Yi’s eyes sprung open. There was a thin layer of sweat oozing from his forehead. His heart was beating violently in his chest, and he could hear his own breathless pants, which sounded particularly loud in the silence.
Even though he had experienced this more than once, he still couldn’t get used to this feeling where it seemed as if his soul had been stripped from his body.
There was a deep and dense darkness before him. This darkness enveloped him, as if it was a sponge which was absorbing all light and sound, pressing down on him oppressively with the pressure of the deep sea.
Mo Yi belatedly came to the realisation that he was lying down.
Under his body was cold and hard leather, and the hard and harsh texture penetrated through his thin clothes into his bones.
On the other hand, the steel under the arm was as cold as ice, and the point of contact with his skin stung like needle pricks, causing Mo Yi to shiver hard.
Mo Yi tried to move, but found that his limbs were all fixed onto the small bed below him.
His wrists and ankles seemed to be bound by something hard and rough. Every motion of his chafed against it, causing a mix of itchiness and pain.
It was completely dark and silent around him, and a sense of uneasiness permeated the air, making him feel suffocated.
Mo Yi’s breathing hitched. He raised his left hand and tugged harshly—
The object fixing his wrist down did not seem to be very strong. A soft tearing sound was heard and he easily pulled his left wrist free.
Ignoring the burning pain from his wrist, he pushed himself up halfway and blindly groped in the dark with his left hand, until he found and vigorously yanked on the object on his right wrist.
The tearing sound appeared again.
Mo Yi rotated both his wrists, and fully sat up this time.
In the dark, he touched a familiar nylon fabric—his backpack. Mo Yi felt relieved, and fumbled to open his backpack, retrieving a flashlight from the side pocket.
He flipped it on with a light ‘click’, and the resulting light dispelled the darkness before his eyes.
Mo Yi moved the flashlight and scanned the area.
This was an extremely narrow and cramped room. There were no windows, only a door that was ajar. The corridor outside held a deeper darkness, exuding a vague and ominous atmosphere.
The dirty walls on all four sides of the room were covered in a slew of messy and crazy graffiti, resembling teeth and claws under the light of the flashlight, looking as if they would protrude from the walls in the next second.
And Mo Yi was on a narrow bed in the centre of the room.
Iron rails flanked the dirty and hard bed he was on, and binding belts with iron rings extended from all four corners.
Holding the flashlight with one hand, Mo Yi struggled to unravel the straps binding his feet—all limbs were finally free.
He moved his stiff and cold wrists and ankles, then got off the bed and stood on the ground.
The flashlight illuminated the dirty and incomplete sign at the foot of the bed, revealing several blurred words on it:
“■■■ Mental Asylum.”
T/N: Asylums (and sanatoriums) are my worst nightmare and I swear to god I see them in nearly every UF novel…… 
wow scary,,,
Because it is “State institutions” * meme with rainbow and spongebob *
Thank you very much for the translation 💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝
Asylums are a basic horror trope ngl. Imagine being transferred into an instance where all you had to do was enjoy a spa day xD
But that in itself would be scary in a back-to-back instance! The whole spa day would be spent being on guard and thinking “what does this darn game have up its sleeve this time?!”
That’s the point. Sometimes the only thing that’s scary isn’t physical. It’s psychological.
Asylums and sanatoriums are on my hate to love list in UF novels😬 this is one of the creepier UF novels I’ve read so I’m excited to see what the author has in store for this👁️👄👁️
The moment I read about Mo Yi’s restricted limbs I was like, “Don’t tell me he was strapped in a bed in an asylum-” and lo behold it ain’t a UF novel without an asylum instance.
Thank you Reina~ throws little confetti hearts to you