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Xiang Zhuo tried to move, intending to snatch the white glove.
But when he saw Mo Qi struggling to turn around, he stopped.
Anyway, he wasn’t in a hostile relationship with Mo Qi. Letting Mo Qi achieve final victory would only mean he would earn fewer points and experience, nothing fatal.
Moreover, in this game, without Mo Qi, all five players would probably be wiped out. No one could survive in this intricate and complex game.
He just wondered what wish Mo Qi would make to end this mission. Xiang Zhuo lay on the ground, silently watching Mo Qi pick up the wishing box.
As soon as Mo Qi got the wishing box, the rules appeared in his mind. The energy of the wishing box had already accumulated, so he only needed to speak his wish to the crystal box. As for what wish to make, Mo Qi had already decided the moment he saw the wishing box.
“What will happen after I make a wish?” Mo Qi asked Xiang Zhuo.
Xiang Zhuo replied, “Based on my past experience, the game will probably end. We’ll return to reality, and the game app will tally the rewards. As for the environment we’re in, most people can return to the real world, but those ‘interstitial beings’ who died in the game will perish in different ways in reality. They cannot return to the real world.”
“I understand, but I still have an unresolved question. I can’t make a wish right now.”
Mo Qi looked at the sketch, “Who are you?”
The figure in the painting is a transcendent presence in this game, neither a player nor one of the “interstitial beings” caught in the game. Mo Qi had initially thought he existed solely within that painting in the exhibition hall, but now he realized this figure could be omnipresent, even influencing a mere sketch.
He displayed an unusual fondness for Mo Qi and, at crucial moments, offered assistance, appearing more like a potential foe than a friend.
However, Mo Qi distrusted unfounded kindness. His perspective aligned closely with the game’s philosophy: everything comes with a price. The weight behind such kindness must surely carry heavy consequences.
The sketch moved on its own without wind, making a rustling sound as if responding to Mo Qi’s words, yet unable to produce any sound.
Mo Qi could only speculate to himself, “You are powerful, yet constrained by the rules of the game. You need my help.”
The sketch remained silent for a moment, then shook again with a rustling sound, its message unclear.
Mo Qi instinctively touched his chest, where there was a scar, but he had no memory of it.
“Have I lost a portion of my memory?” Mo Qi asked, “Like the ‘interstitial beings’ in this game, even if they miraculously return to the real world, they won’t remember what happened in the game. Could it be that I was once one of these ‘interstitial beings’?”
The rough sketch couldn’t communicate effectively, so the hand reaching out from the drawing paper tapped the vine. The thick vine shook, startling creatures crawling everywhere, until finally, a pencil emerged from the corner and nudged itself in front of the rough sketch.
The black-and-white arm picked up the pencil and wrote the word “yes” in the blank space of the rough sketch.
“Did I enter the game because of you?” Mo Qi asked.
The arm nodded slightly on the word “yes,” seeming reluctant to write more.
“You once said to me in a dream, ‘You’ve come again.’ Does that mean you didn’t want me to come, but I insisted on coming?”
The arm lightly tapped on the word “yes” again.
Mo Qi shook his head. “Then I must owe you a lot of favors, otherwise I wouldn’t have followed.”
This time, the arm wrote the word “no” on the paper, contradicting Mo Qi’s answer.
“Then you must have a request from me,” Mo Qi said.
The tip of the pencil hovered first over “no” and then returned to “yes,” hesitating without making a mark.
“I understand. You don’t intend to seek my help, but due to certain reasons, I’ve been involuntarily drawn into this matter. My actions in the game will lead to certain consequences that benefit you, right?” Mo Qi analyzed according to his understanding.
The pencil tip seemed resigned, but eventually nodded on “yes.”
With a positive answer, Mo Qi breathed a sigh of relief. The figure in the sketch had helped him twice in this game. If he didn’t ask for anything in return, it would weigh on Mo Qi’s mind. He feared owing something more than anything else.
“What do I need to do?” Mo Qi asked.
This situation seems quite complex. The rough sketch is difficult to convey in just a sentence or two. The pencil tip hesitated on the paper for a long while, unsure of how to express itself.
Suddenly, there came banging from outside the door, as if a terrifying monster was pounding on it. The windows rattled and banged; if not for the vines covering the entire room, whatever was outside might have already gotten in.
“Hurry and make a wish to end this task!” Xiang Zhuo urged. “I can see the world’s distortion creeping into this room. If we don’t complete the task soon, the game will completely engulf us.”
Mo Qi said to the rough sketch, “If you won’t speak now, we’ll talk in the next world.”
He raised the wishing box, about to make a wish, when suddenly the rough sketch soared into the air and split into several fragments.
One fragment quietly landed on Liao Ruxue’s body, another fell onto the vines, and the remaining pieces scattered across the floor.
Mo Qi was puzzled. Among the fragments, one contained a complete hand, which painstakingly gathered the scattered pieces and managed to patch the rough sketch back together.
“You’ve fragmented and scattered throughout this game, needing me to find you,” Mo Qi guessed.
The hand gestured with an “OK” sign and then pointed towards Liao Ruxue.
Mo Qi squinted his eyes.
The hand urgently pointed at Liao Ruxue again.
Mo Qi: “Is he one of them? What do you want me to do? Kill him?”
Killing Liao Ruxue would be relatively easy.
The hand shook repeatedly, denying this answer.
Mo Qi wanted to ask more when suddenly an arm burst through the wall, grabbing Xiang Zhuo’s hand, startling him into shouting, “Mo Qi, make a wish quickly!”
The entire room, except for Xiang Zhuo’s position, lacked the protection of vines, allowing the distorting force of the world to rush into the room from there.
With no time left, Mo Qi could only say to the rough sketch, “We’ll talk next time.”
He picked up the wishing box, his finger tracing over the blood-red heart-shaped pattern, and solemnly said, “My wish is for everything within this campus to return to how it was before you appeared.”
As Mo Qi spoke, petals of a blood-red rose began to grow from the heart-shaped pattern, scattering piece by piece and drifting out of the room.
In that instant, Mo Qi and Xiang Zhuo seemed to be caught in a corridor of time, where countless scenes flowed backward around them. There was Xiang Wansi, now twisted and sinister, Liao Ruxue tossing aside heart-shaped origami, Fan Ting tightly clutching the wishing box, and Ke Xiaoxi strolling by the lake with her boyfriend.
As the wishing box granted Mo Qi’s wish, everything returned to its original state, back to the campus untouched by any special forces.
In the reversed scenes, only the grass continued to cling steadfastly around Mo Qi, refusing to part.
“I won’t be taking this thing back to the real world, will I?” Mo Qi asked Xiang Zhuo.
“It shouldn’t, right? Once the game confirms the task is over, it should return to the ash jar… I think?” Xiang Zhuo hesitated, clearly uncertain himself.
As the reversal of time halted, the art studio was left with only Mo Qi, the grass, Xiang Zhuo, and the body of Shi Wenxuan. The bodies of Liao Ruxue, Wen Miao, Xiang Wansi, and others were nowhere to be seen.
Mo Qi took out his phone and saw yesterday’s date displayed on it, showing noon.
“Yesterday morning during class, he downloaded the game and started his first mission. They finished class at noon, when Xiang Wansi probably discovered the wishing box.
Inside the art room, the people were gone, which meant Liao Ruxue and the others had returned to a time before everything happened, when they were still alive.
“Wen Wenxuan’s body is still here,” Mo Qi said.
“My arm hasn’t grown back either. The bodies will disappear once the game ends,” Xiang Zhuo said casually.
A hint of confusion flickered in Mo Qi’s eyes. “I wished for everything to return to the beginning.”
“That’s the campus returning to the beginning. Players aren’t affected by that wish, after all, since we’re experiencing this game firsthand,” Xiang Zhuo explained.
So, the three players who died in the game won’t come back, and Mo Qi’s ability as a monster’s grass won’t disappear either.
Taking advantage of the vines being suppressed, Xiang Zhuo hurried to the ash jar, where a root of the grass remained.
“I’ll retract the grass. Your body and the grass have integrated deeply, so retracting it might injure you severely. But it’s okay, once the game ends, your injuries will heal,” Xiang Zhuo said.
He tapped the ash jar, causing the vines around to tremble, but this time, they didn’t retract as before.
Xiang Zhuo grew anxious and tapped the ash jar again. The grass fiercely resisted, causing the vines to twist inside the room.
The grass, having absorbed more mutated creatures after the battle with Xiang Wansi, was now attempting to break free from the ash jar’s constraints.
“Oh no, it seems it has become stronger again. The ash jar is just an SR item, I can’t retract it,” Xiang Zhuo said blankly, looking at Mo Qi. “It doesn’t intend to return to the real world with you in this form, does it?”
“It would turn into what when it returns to the real world?” Mo Qi asked.
“How would I know? I’ve never encountered anything like this before!” Xiang Zhuo replied.
“Give me the jar, let me try,” Mo Qi said, stretching out his hand to Xiang Zhuo with difficulty.
“If you want to retrieve it into the jar, I’ll transfer this item card to you. I’ve already given you one item card…” Xiang Zhuo said with a pained expression on his face.
“I’ll return your points,” Mo Qi said. “You keep the ash jar but can’t control it. Are you planning to release it next time you’re in danger to take out both yourself and your opponent?”
“Alright,” Xiang Zhuo could only bear to hand the ash jar to Mo Qi, selecting “gift.”
After gaining control of the item card, Mo Qi tapped the jar. “Come back.”
The grass continued to resist fiercely, its struggle transmitting waves of emotions—pain, reluctance, and a desperate desire for sustenance—through the resonance to Mo Qi. He felt like his head was about to explode.
The conflicting emotions threatened to overwhelm him, causing a moment of near mental fracture. His own consciousness battled to suppress the grass, while another thought surfaced in his mind—a sinister suggestion to take Mo Qi back into the jar and turn him into ash.
Mo Qi involuntarily placed his hand over his chest, mimicking a gesture of digging out his heart. In his mind, he envisioned excavating his own heart to plant the roots of the grass inside, slowly absorbing the nutrients that most attracted it in this world.
Mo Qi’s mind was overwhelmed with thoughts like “I kill myself” and “I like myself.” His hand trembled over his heart, his fingertips inadvertently touching the scar on his chest.
In a daze, he saw a man dressed in black, his expression cold, raising a gun towards him and pulling the trigger. A silver bullet embedded itself into Mo Qi’s body.
“This is the last bullet. Life or death, leave it to fate,” the man said before being enveloped in shadows.
Several beams of light broke free from the shadows, flying in different directions.
Watching the man in black disappear, Mo Qi felt an inexplicable sadness well up inside him. The scar on his chest throbbed with a tearing pain, momentarily bringing him back to clarity.
Veins stood out on the back of Mo Qi’s hand as he firmly held onto the ash jar, and he growled, “Go back!”
This time, he completely suppressed the grass with his will. Reluctantly, the vines withdrew, obediently retracting into the ash jar.
Due to being deeply entangled with the vines, Mo Qi’s body was covered in wounds, and the excruciating pain of being stretched and peeled made him involuntarily grunt.
Fortunately, upon reclaiming the grass this time, Mo Qi picked up the lid, sealed the ash jar, and transformed it back into an item card.
At this point, Mo Qi could no longer move. He knelt half-bent on the ground, his faint breathing the only proof of his continued existence.
A mechanical voice rang in his ears, “Congratulations to players Mo Qi and Xiang Zhuo for completing the SSR-level mission ‘Abyss of Desire’ perfectly. According to the game’s calculation, Mo Qi contributed 80%, Xiang Zhuo 20%. The game awards a total of 10,000 points, distributed to the two players based on their contribution ratio.”
“10,000 points in total?” Xiang Zhuo gasped. “An SR-level mission only awards 1,000 points. The rewards for SSR-level missions are indeed generous!”
However, upon further reflection, he realized how difficult the mission had been. Without Mo Qi, it would have led to total defeat. No amount of points would have been earned then.
The game rewards hadn’t been fully distributed yet, and the system continued to announce, “Based on player Mo Qi’s final wish, a reward item card ‘Save Point’ is awarded, along with unlocking an SSR-level scene card ‘Wishing Campus.’ Friendly reminder, SSR-level scene cards are double-edged swords. Players, please use them cautiously!”
Mo Qi’s consciousness was hazy, unclear about the utility of these two cards. He only heard Xiang Zhuo repeatedly marveling, “Such powerful item cards,” and “Mo Qi hit the jackpot this time.” It seemed the rewards from this game were quite substantial.
However, he could no longer hear anything. Mo Qi, weakened by blood loss, gradually slipped into unconsciousness.
Some time passed in a blur until he heard someone calling, “Gao Li, Gao Li, are you here? Please answer this question.”
The familiar scene and the familiar name jolted Mo Qi awake. He realized he was slumped over his desk, sleeping during class. The teacher at the lectern kept calling out the name “Gao Li.”
This was the class he was attending on behalf of his classmate Gao Li!
Mo Qi dutifully stood up and said, “Here!”
The teacher repeated the question again.
It was the same question as before. Mo Qi instinctively glanced at the seat in front of him where Xiang Wansi was sitting, diligently taking notes in her notebook.
Mo Qi smiled. He still remembered the question and confidently gave the answer. The teacher nodded with a stern expression, “You answered quite well. Originally, I would give you 5 points, but since you were sleeping in class, I won’t award any points. Pay attention in the next class.”
“Thank you, teacher,” Mo Qi replied as he returned to his seat.
After class, Mo Qi headed to the cafeteria as usual and ordered a meat dish. The cafeteria auntie glanced at him emotionlessly, shaking the serving spoon vigorously until only green peppers and spring onions remained inside it, which she then scooped onto his plate.
There were no school beauties passing notes secretly, nor were there cafeteria aunties sneaking extra portions.
Despite this, Mo Qi felt incredibly relieved. He finally felt like he was back.
He found a seat by the window, opened his phone, and saw the “Mysterious Domain Cards” app still there. However, there was now an additional line on the interface:
“Next mission generating. Player Mo Qi, please enjoy your brief rest time.”