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Xu Nuan felt a chill in her heart, struggling to understand Gu Ze's reaction, and it left her feeling somewhat uneasy.
A few people who had been ignored by the two of them approached now, and He Min reminded Xu Nuan.
"We did wait outside the Supply Station for half a day without seeing your Ning Han. Then it started to pour, and we had no choice but to set off. After all, spending all that time at the Supply Station seemed inappropriate."
He Min omitted the fact that Gu Ze had changed Xu Nuan's clothes after she fainted at the Supply Station, and that he had been the one to organize her belongings afterward. It felt as if these two were progressing too quickly in their personal matters while their relationship remained tense during normal times.
Xu Nuan understood that although everyone except her held a hostile attitude towards Ning Han, she was the only one eager to capture him. The others had no significant conflicts of interest with Ning Han. It was unfair for her to delay the team on her own; perhaps that half-day was what Gu Ze and He Min had fought for on her behalf, and it was her fault for not waking up in time.
She vaguely sensed that Gu Ze's anger stemmed from her unfounded accusations against him. Realizing this made Xu Nuan hesitant to look at Gu Ze.
At that moment, Xu Hang also approached and directly asked as he handed her the backpack.
"Do you remember what happened in the lounge? How did you faint there? And why couldn't we wake you afterward?"
"The lounge?"
Xu Nuan's brain took a moment to process the term. She looked at Xu Hang with confusion but then caught sight of Gu Ze's displeased face over Xu Hang's shoulder. His furrowed brows and tightly pressed lips revealed his unpleasant mood.
She felt that Gu Ze's anger wasn't solely due to Ning Han; something else must have happened. But she couldn't recall anything herself, so why was he angry with her? It felt unfair.
In a fit of defiance, Xu Nuan withdrew her gaze and focused seriously on Xu Hang.
"I can't remember," she said initially, but then suddenly recalled the scene before losing consciousness. "I remember I was in the lounge with Shen Shen and Fan Beibei, and then I felt dizzy like before and lost consciousness."
Xu Nuan emphasized "like before" because she knew both Gu Ze and Xu Hang had expressed doubts about the Supply Station and had experienced that uncontrollable discomfort. As she thought about this, she realized that when she fainted or fell asleep this time, she hadn't heard any strange sounds like before. This led her to recall the mechanical sounds associated with the Special Tree and Supply Station; they seemed somewhat related.
Thinking she had answered Xu Hang's question, Xu Nuan pondered her thoughts, causing her expression to shift repeatedly, which struck those nearby as odd. What she didn't see was Gu Ze standing behind Xu Hang, his expression darker than ever, ready to explode at any moment as he stared at Xu Nuan.
"Losing consciousness?"
Xu Hang sighed softly, his usual stoic demeanor replaced by an unusual expression. Xu Nuan felt confused but also sensed that they were overreacting. Her fainting could be due to Shen Shen or the oddities of the Supply Station, or perhaps it was simply exhaustion from relaxing too much. Regardless of the reason, it shouldn't warrant such attitudes from Xu Hang and Gu Ze towards her.
She decided to go see He Min, who shrugged at her arrival.
"It was Gu Ze and Xu Hang who came into the lounge looking for you; we were all outside," He Min recalled, then added, "But I did notice that Shen Shen had a bruise on his face afterward. He said he accidentally scraped it."
Xu Nuan immediately picked up on the implication in He Min's words. The injury on Shen Shen's face must be related to Gu Ze and Xu Hang, which meant her own unconsciousness was connected to Shen Shen. However, she just couldn't remember the details.
Xu Hang only asked Xu Nuan a few questions, but her explanations left him with no further inquiries. He could only pat Gu Ze on the shoulder and lead the way forward, with the others following suit.
Seeing this, Xu Nuan stumbled a bit before catching up. After walking a few steps, she stopped to glance back at the path they had taken. She felt she had missed another opportunity, and her frustration clawed at her insides, demanding to be acknowledged but was quickly suppressed again. This led to a growing irritation within her, compounded by Gu Ze's attitude—deliberately cold and clearly angry.
She shifted her gaze forward and noticed that Gu Ze walked ahead without hesitation, not even glancing back to see if she was following. A chill ran through her heart. Did he grow weary of her after she took that incredibly difficult step? The chase always felt beautiful, but once attained, it became dull?
A sharp pain throbbed in her chest, a long-forgotten agony that threatened to drive her mad. Xu Nuan hesitated to think further down that path; she wanted to trust Gu Ze. Surely something must have happened during this time that led to misunderstandings. Yet she couldn't help but think that even if there had been a misunderstanding, he should trust that she had been unconscious and unaware of what transpired—only by discussing it could they resolve the issue together.
In the lounge were Shen Shen, Fan Beibei, and others who might come and go. Xu Nuan felt a throbbing headache; the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to hammer away at her skull. This state of mind only emerged when she desperately tried to recall fragmented memories. Xu Nuan didn't understand what it meant for this condition to resurface again. She simply followed behind the group in irritation, lacking even the mood to observe her surroundings.
They were currently in a Survival Game set in a mischievous grassland—a detail Xu Nuan had heard from He Min. Rather than questioning the name of this level, she felt more unsettled by how she had rushed into the lounge after entering the Supply Station without observing any hints as she usually would. Yet oddly enough, she couldn't recall what happened in the lounge; it was as if during those days of unconsciousness, she had been questioned repeatedly by unknown individuals in a room full of mirrors while unable to control her thoughts and simply answered.
There must have been something she overlooked; if only she could calm down and think carefully, perhaps she'd uncover some clues. Xu Nuan encouraged herself internally while her legs numbly followed the others forward, completely unaware of Gu Ze's restrained expression and his complex glances cast back toward her.
As night fell and they set up a campfire on the grassland to rest, everyone felt quite surprised. Throughout the day, they hadn't received any System tasks nor faced attacks from large creatures; it was unsettlingly peaceful.
Having been worn down by this game until they no longer knew what anger felt like, they began to feel anxious again—was this calm before a storm? Perhaps in just a moment, there would be a major twist that caught everyone off guard?
Because most shared such thoughts, the atmosphere during dinner was notably silent—worse than when they had endured consecutive attacks that left them physically and mentally exhausted.
Xu Nuan was oblivious to how others felt; distracted by numerous issues, she had no time to analyze why their current situation felt so safe. Even when Xie Huai and others could no longer tolerate the silence and began speculating about it later on, she remained silent. According to He Min's description afterward, it seemed Xu Nuan was physically present but mentally absent—lost in thought and often failing to catch others' words in time.
What she didn't realize was that her daze and lack of speech or explanation only confirmed what Gu Ze and Xu Hang had witnessed back at the Supply Station. Xu Hang didn't dwell on it much; he merely cast a worried glance at Gu Ze, who was now enveloped in low spirits again—the same cold demeanor with terrifying words had returned. But previously Gu Ze had threatened others for Xu Nuan's sake; now his attitude seemed directed at her, which made Xu Hang worry that Gu Ze might act impulsively out of frustration and cause them to drift apart once more after finally getting closer.
Lost in her daze, Xu Nuan didn't even know how she fell asleep; all she knew was that at this moment she'd rather not have dozed off.
In her dreams unfolded bloody and dark scenes—faces twisted in rage, people wielding terrifying weapons, and herself kneeling on the ground desperately trying to save someone only to ultimately lose them. Even earlier unfamiliar faces appeared one after another in front of her; within this dream, she recognized their strange smiles from back then when she had been completely oblivious.
The events unfolded against the backdrop of the city, with moments that spanned both day and night, and the faces of the people coming and going were all blurred. Soon, the setting shifted to a game, a dim forest lurking with monsters, swamps ready to swallow her whole, and corpses buried beneath heavy snow, accompanied by the agony of falling from snow-capped mountains. These things, which had not troubled her before, now appeared before her eyes and gradually began to haunt her.
She could no longer remember how many layers her dreams had. All she knew was that her consciousness was clear as she watched another version of herself perform heart-stopping scenes in the dream. She wanted to step forward to stop it but was held back by an unknown force. She couldn't even distinguish which was a dream and which was reality. Suddenly, she recalled a similar scene from long ago, but it had been far less distressing.
How terrifying! I want to escape! Who woke me up!
It wasn't until she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder that she remembered who she was and opened her eyes wide, sitting up abruptly.
He Min, who had been shaking her shoulder, quickly leaned back to avoid colliding with Xu Nuan.
Xu Nuan stared wide-eyed at He Min, seeing the thick darkness behind her. When she turned back, she noticed the expressions of others—some were astonished, while others looked worried.
Everyone was gathered around the campfire, maintaining the same postures as before. Time did not seem to have passed as long as it had in her dream, but she realized her throat felt dry and hoarse, as if filled with strong winds.
What is this sense of déjà vu?
As Xu Nuan pondered anxiously, she heard He Min's cautious voice.
"Warm, who is this ' Su Zihang ' you've been calling out for?"
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