Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab
Leaving
If the sky falls, I’ll be there to hold it up.
Shen Maomao bent down and picked up a card. It was an ID card; she didn’t recognize the person on it. It must be an NPC from the instance, a resident of this floor.
She picked up another card. The back read “Hope Base” and had a simple little map drawn on it; the front had the words “Meal Card.”
“So many cards—” She scooped up a stack of cards, let them cascade back down with a clatter, and said, collapsing, “How are we supposed to find it!”
“What’s the panic?” Lou Jingmo plucked Flash Blind off her head, took out a small prop, and placed it gently right in the middle of the pile of cards.
The small prop emitted a soft white glow, slightly brighter than the white light from the exit on the ceiling. If Flash Blind hadn’t been put away, they probably wouldn’t have even seen it. Correspondingly—a small cluster of white light emerged from the gaps in the card pile, like a fragile flame that might extinguish at any moment.
Shen Maomao had a flash of understanding. “Is it that prop of yours?” She took two steps forward, pushed aside the extra cards, flipped out the elevator card emitting the white light, and said excitedly, “Found it, Lou-jie!”
Lou Jingmo nodded. “Let’s go.”
The two headed towards the elevator. When they arrived, they found two people already at the elevator doors.
These two were precisely 290 and 300. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they were grappling with each other, clothes torn and messy, blood spattering the ground. It was as if they couldn’t feel pain at all, both viciously trying to tear a chunk of flesh off the other.
Shen Maomao wrinkled her nose. She felt like she was watching two little piglets wrestling, fragrant and tender and practically oozing oil…
She took two steps forward, and Lou Jingmo immediately pinched her cheek, hard.
Shen Maomao yelped like a puppy whose tail had been stepped on, “Ow ow ow!”
The two on the ground were still fighting. She covered her face and couldn’t help saying, “Please go easy on me! This is made of flesh, it hurts!”
Lou Jingmo said coldly, “If it doesn’t hurt, you won’t learn your lesson.”
Shen Maomao shed two streams of fat noodle tears. “Should we save them?”
Lou Jingmo handed her the elevator card. “Go open the door. I’ll handle this side.”
“Okay!” Task accepted, Shen Maomao held the card with both hands and scurried over, tapping it against the sensor—with a beep, the elevator doors opened. She quickly called to Lou Jingmo, “The door’s open, Lou-jie!”
“Wait a sec—” Lou Jingmo tightened the binding rope, lifted the lighter 300, and passed her towards Shen Maomao. “Throw her in!”
Shen Maomao grabbed one end of the rope and flung 300, who was still trying to bite the rope and her, into the elevator. “Next!”
290 had already broken free from the rope. Having lost his target, he lunged towards Lou Jingmo.
Lou Jingmo kicked out, sending him flying directly. He slid several meters across the ground.
Shen Maomao: “…” Just watching hurt.
290 didn’t get up for a long moment. Lou Jingmo strode over in a few steps, grabbed him, and tossed him into the elevator.
This kind of metal floor was actually quite slippery. 290 slid into the elevator like an ice hockey puck, whoosh whoosh.
Lou Jingmo followed him into the elevator. Shen Maomao, as usual, tossed the keycard near the door and immediately pressed the close button.
The elevator began to ascend. The two frantically struggling people gradually quieted down, looking at each other blankly.
Shen Maomao rubbed her stomach and crouched down to look at them. “Are you two awake now?”
300 looked down at her clothes, which barely covered anything anymore, and suddenly let out a piercing shriek, slapping 290 across the face. “Ah! Pervert!!”
290: “…???”
It was only because 290 had a good temper. If it had been someone else, he probably would have smacked her mouth crooked.
300 clutched her chest and stood up. “What exactly happened? What was going on just now?”
Shen Maomao stood up too. “I wanted to ask you the same thing. Why were you fighting at the elevator entrance?”
290’s left cheek was slightly red. He chose the corner farthest from 300 to stand in and said, “After entering the first basement level, our mutation seemed to intensify instantly. I suddenly felt extremely hungry, felt that the other players looked delicious… Did you guys experience this too?”
300 clapped her hands abruptly. “I remember now! Your shout woke us up for a moment! I figured you two must have gone to find the elevator card. Neither of us was very clear-headed, so we decided to wait for you at the elevator door—” After speaking, she looked at the two of them. “You really didn’t let me down!”
Shen Maomao: “Stop flattering yourself1, and please don’t make riding someone’s coattails2 sound so high and mighty, okay?”
300 smiled, actually looking somewhat gentle for a moment. She stared at the display panel in the elevator, which showed an upward arrow symbol currently jumping continuously. “The exit should be up there, right? I really don’t have the extra energy to clear several more levels.”
As the elevator continued to rise, the white light grew stronger and stronger, until finally, all of them were bathed in it, clearly not far from the exit.
290 replied, “Judging by the situation, that’s gotta be it. But I don’t know what the people on the surface are like… Will we be attacked by them when we go up?”
“You’re overthinking it, aren’t you?” 300 leaned relaxedly against the elevator wall. “Human experimentation is illegal. They must have chosen a sparsely populated place for their experiments. Maybe we’re under some big desert…”
As they spoke, the elevator finally stopped. The doors began to operate. None of them had ever anticipated its opening as much as they did this time.
A gust of wind carrying sand and dust blew in. Warm sunlight shone on their bodies, and they could smell an indescribable scent in the air.
The white light was overshadowed by the sunlight. The exit was within reach, just a few steps away, yet all four were deeply shaken, frozen in place at the same moment. No one took the initiative to step forward even half a step.
The bustling city was covered in a layer of yellow sand. A strong wind blew through the empty streets, revealing ruins and devastation everywhere. As far as the eye could see, it was a scene of utter destruction. There were no humans here, only humanoid bats flapping their wings in the air, giant smiling faces lying prone beneath the yellow sand, and spiders weaving huge webs in the sky.
It turned out they had guessed wrong from the very beginning.
The place underground wasn’t a laboratory at all, but a large-scale shelter!!
The IM Virus had already swept across the entire world, spawning countless mutated humans wherever it went, destroying all of human civilization…
The wind howled across the wilderness, sounding like weeping, seemingly singing a dirge for this era that had already ended. Shen Maomao couldn’t help but grasp Lou Jingmo’s hand and ask in a low voice, “Lou-jie, do you think… this instance has a counterpart in reality?”
Could the Earth they relied on for survival eventually become like this too?
Lou Jingmo reached up and ruffled her hair. “Don’t think so much. If the sky falls, I’ll be there to hold it up for you.”
Shen Maomao froze, almost instantly lifting her head to look at her expression.
Lou Jingmo smiled slightly. “What are you looking at? I was joking.” But her eyes were very serious, not looking like she was joking at all.
Shen Maomao lowered her head, wanting to escape somehow, yet feeling like she had nowhere to run.
Beside them, 300 said expressionlessly, “You two, the exit is right in front of us. Can you wait until we’re out before you get all lovey-dovey? Can’t you see we’ve already attracted the attention of the things outside?”
Shen Maomao’s fur bristled.3 “What nonsense are you talking?! We have a purely platonic sisterly relationship!”
300: “Oh, the kind of pure sisterhood that the game would consider homosexual and haul off for electroshock therapy?”
Shen Maomao: “…”
Lou Jingmo couldn’t bear to see her suffer a setback and quickly interrupted, “Alright, that’s enough. I’ll count to three, and we’ll all run for the exit together. Whether we make it depends on our own luck.”
290 and 300 had no objections.
Lou Jingmo began the countdown—
“3—”
“2—”
“1!!”
As her voice fell, the four of them rushed out of the elevator in two rows, sprinting towards the exit. The monsters that had been lying in wait sprang into action, swarming towards the elevator’s location like a dark cloud.
Tentacles shot towards them rapidly. Shen Maomao, running at the front, had already reached out and touched the white light of the exit, feeling a huge suction force.
She immediately turned to grab Lou Jingmo’s hand. Both tumbled into the exit. After a dizzying spin, she opened her eyes again, gripping the spoon tightly in her hand.
They were back!!
Shen Maomao turned to look at Lou Jingmo.
Lou Jingmo was still in the same relaxed posture as before entering the instance. Seeing her look over, she tapped the coffee table. “Watch the pot, don’t let it burn again.”
Shen Maomao’s face flushed red. She rushed over indignantly and pulled the translucent sliding door to the kitchen shut.
A soft chuckle came from outside.
Shen Maomao’s ears burned. She stared blankly at the pot.
Why did Lou Jingmo suddenly say that? What “if the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you”… It really makes a young girl like her, who’s never been in love, feel flustered!!
Ever since she was little, she had always been in the “tall girl” category. Perhaps she still had a tiny spark of that stubbornly burning chuunibyou fire4; when facing others, she always saw herself as the strong one, proactively helping and looking after people…
Her parents could only see their daughter’s capable side. They never told her “don’t be afraid,” only urged her to keep “pushing forward.”
Over time, she naturally came to feel that this was how she should be, that when the sky fell, people like her should be the first to hold it up…
This was the first time someone had said something like that to her, throwing her heart into turmoil, unsure of what to do.
Lou Jingmo was too good to her.
Could it be… she liked her? But she was straight! How could there be a future between a straight girl and a gay girl?
Wait, she seemed to be overthinking things a bit…
How could Lou Jingmo possibly fall for a hanger-on5 like her? Was she worthy? She wasn’t worthy!!
Chewing on her spoon, lost in thought for who knows how long, Shen Maomao’s nose twitched. She seemed to smell something strange…
She snapped back to reality, looked at the pot in front of her, and couldn’t help letting out a wail: “Damn!! My porridge!!!!”
LP: Don’t fight it
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