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墨書 Inktalez
Once again, chaos enveloped her, like a solitary boat adrift in a stormy sea, tossed about without any control. The swaying of her body mirrored the turmoil in her mind; her consciousness flickered between clarity and confusion. Memories began to parade before her eyes, shrouded in a mist that obscured their true nature, leaving her uncertain if they matched her recollections.
Amidst this haze, various voices echoed around her, distant yet near, fragments of speech reaching her ears but failing to form coherent sentences.
"You... now... disappointed..."
"She... now... leaving... willingly..."
Many voices surrounded her, but one was familiar—its clarity replaced by a heavy anger. She dismissed it as an illusion yet felt an increasing urge to listen closely. As she concentrated, a sharp pain pierced her head, reminiscent of the time when her parents had been in a car accident and she had struck her head while trying to avoid the oncoming vehicle. It felt as though countless insects were burrowing through her skull, gnawing at her brain, the agony so intense that she wished she could smash open her own head with a hammer.
In the midst of this suffering, the surrounding voices became unbearable. Her lips moved as she attempted to speak, to silence them, but despite her efforts, no words emerged. Panic set in as she tried to open her eyes; they felt impossibly heavy, as if weighed down by a thousand pounds.
This nightmare was more torturous than any before. She gasped for breath, striving to push away the weight pressing down on her, desperate to wake up and sit up so that everyone around her would fall silent. After much effort, she still couldn't fully lift her eyelids; she could only peer through a narrow slit at her surroundings.
The light was bright and white, blindingly so; she couldn't make out any details. People moved around her, their faces indistinct. After some time in this daze, she finally remembered who she was and where she was.
In this foggy state, it seemed someone approached—familiar warmth enveloped her with the fresh scent of grass. The person helped prop her up against him and brought a water bottle to her lips.
As the cool liquid quenched her parched lips and throat, relief washed over her; the fiery sensation subsided enough for her to attempt speech.
"...Ze."
The sound escaped unconsciously. When she noticed the person trying to lay her back down, she instinctively grasped his arm. Her weak grip faltered and fell away just as he caught it.
His hand was alarmingly warm—far hotter than what one would expect from a normal person. After a moment's realization, she understood it was because her own hand felt like ice. The failed attempt seemed to convey her intent; instead of being laid down, she remained nestled against him.
The familiar rhythm of his heartbeat resonated in her ears.
Who is he?
"Warm?"
A familiar voice.
As her chaotic consciousness gradually became clearer, Xu Nuan began to understand her identity, what had happened before, and who was beside her.
When her awareness aligned with her brain, when memories returned and her body no longer felt heavy, she could easily open her eyes and realized where she was.
Aside from the initial moments of confusion after opening her eyes, her vision soon became very clear.
They were in a clearing surrounded by trees, a rare luxury in the dense rainforest. There weren't many trees over a large area, but the greenery was abundant, with occasional bursts of purple or red flowers peeking out from the low underbrush. Whether it was the trees or the flowers, they all looked unfamiliar to her, and she couldn't name them.
The sky was a bright blue with only a few white clouds; the weather was nice, but the air was dry and cold. It reminded her of the capital city outside the game—cold air that stung when inhaled. It was then that she realized she was injured; there was pain in her chest or perhaps in her abdomen—she couldn't quite tell.
"Warm, you're awake!"
When the surprised voice rang in her ears, Gu Ze's face came into view. Unlike the blurry image from her dreams, she saw a clear and living person. His features had never changed, nor had the emotions in his eyes. Gu Ze supported her shoulder gently, as if handling a fragile object, which made her feel somewhat uncomfortable.
"We're in..."
Xu Nuan noticed the complex gazes from several others around them. The emotions contained within those looks were too many for her to decipher at once; all she remembered was that they shouldn't be here.
Where exactly was this?
Before Xu Nuan could finish her question, she suddenly recalled something and missed the fleeting worry that crossed Gu Ze's eyes.
"Eagle... choice... and..."
She recalled that she must have been in the first night of the Survival Game, caught up in a fit of anger due to the rule of The Minority Obeys the Majority and the attitudes of a few others. At that time, not only did she have a heated argument with Xu Hang and Deng Yinyin, but she also seemed to have a poor attitude towards He Min. She vaguely sensed that she was completely unable to control her temper, feeling as if she had lost control entirely.
She didn’t understand why this happened, but it was true that when Gu Ze was not around, she had a major dispute with the others. At that moment, they had already fallen into the trap chosen by the System, surrounded by an increasing number of eagles, unable to escape into the depths of the dense forest.
How did they suddenly become safe and arrive at daylight?
“Ugh.”
As she thought about it, a sharp pain shot through her head. She raised her hand to hit her own head, trying to alleviate the pain, but her hand was caught by Gu Ze.
“Don’t hit yourself. If it hurts, I can help you massage it.”
She noticed Gu Ze’s brows were tightly knit together, and the fine scar at the corner of his brow added to his somewhat menacing aura, making him seem unapproachable.
A scar?
“You… are injured?”
Xu Nuan took a closer look at Gu Ze’s face. Besides the scar at his brow, there were bruises at the corners of his lips and on his chin, as if he had been punched several times.
In this game, there were rarely opportunities for bare-handed combat; anyone who didn’t use their weapons was foolish.
“What happened?”
Ignoring the pain in her head, she reached out to touch the corner of Gu Ze’s lips, rubbing gently. However, she realized she couldn’t gauge her own strength. When she saw Gu Ze frown again in discomfort, she instinctively withdrew her hand in shock.
“It’s just a minor bump.”
Gu Ze could see through the lie at a glance. With one hand, he gently rubbed Xu Nuan's head while the other reached into his backpack to pull out a vial and a syringe.
Xu Nuan pressed her lips together, her gaze lightly skimming over the word "Sedative" on the vial before locking her eyes onto Gu Ze, silent and unyielding.
As she regained consciousness, she remembered her earlier outburst but couldn't recall the near-manic emotions that had consumed her. It felt as if that was not her true self, but rather another version of herself entirely.
Indeed, she had been irritable at that time, exacerbated by Gu Ze's absence and the words and actions of others that had pushed her to the brink. Yet fundamentally, it was her own issue; it was strange how she couldn't quite grasp the feelings she had experienced then. Was that frantic version of herself the real her, or was this calmer person capable of reflection truly herself?
"When did you come back?"
Xu Nuan watched as Gu Ze opened the vial and drew some liquid into the syringe. He smiled at her and explained, "You're feeling a bit unstable emotionally right now; it would be better for you to rest."
As Gu Ze rolled up her sleeve, seemingly preparing to inject her, Xu Nuan stopped him. Seeing the dark circles under his eyes and the bruises on his face made her uneasy. She had just noticed similar marks on Xu Hang's face, but he hadn't met her gaze, nor had the others; they were all preoccupied with their own tasks. They didn't seem relaxed enough to act so calmly in this moment; something else must have happened.
"I remember losing my temper last night and arguing with everyone, saying some really hurtful things."
Xu Nuan tried to organize her thoughts into words but halted when she saw the surprise flash in Gu Ze's eyes.
"Did I remember incorrectly?"
It must have been something about what she said that Gu Ze already knew, which caused him to react that way.
"Nuan."
Gu Ze's expression was only momentarily strange; the worry in his eyes flickered away, replaced by warmth.
"Two have passed, you... slept for two."
In Gu Ze's eyes, Xu Nuan had not merely slept for two; she had been in a coma for two. Just recalling the scene he encountered when he returned to the Temporary Campsite made him want to explode with anger. He wanted to take Xu Nuan away, leaving everything else behind as if it were none of their concern.
He knew this was delusional. Both Xu Nuan and he had many things to accomplish, far beyond just breaking through challenges.
"Two?"
Xu Nuan was momentarily stunned. Having slept for two meant she felt weak upon waking. But why had she slept for so long? And since she had finally woken up, why was Gu Ze injecting her with a Sedative?
Her gaze unconsciously fell on the vial in Gu Ze's hand and noticed something was off. Despite the label reading Sedative and Gu Ze having drawn the substance in front of her, the cap of the vial showed signs of being pried open.
"This isn't Sedative!"
Xu Nuan immediately realized this, and all her other doubts were pushed aside. A sense of panic surged within her as she tried to escape from Gu Ze's embrace.
It had been like this before; after her incident that led to hospitalization and a brief lapse in her memory, Qin Yaojie had done something similar. He had gently assured her that he was administering medication to help her sleep and alleviate pain, but in reality, he injected her with a large amount of unknown substances. She had even unknowingly ingested many drugs that suppressed nerve repair. Because of these medications, the nerves controlling memory in her brain took over half a year to heal on their own when, according to doctors, the body could typically recover within a month.
It was precisely because her nerves hadn't healed properly that she had been manipulated into entering the game. She recalled the drugs she had been injected with before and thought about how sometimes she was more susceptible than others; those illusions created by psychological suggestions through medication often had no effect on her at all.
It seemed as though she was no longer herself.
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