“Agh! What is wrong with you?!”
Mo Yu clutched his neck, attempting to communicate, but the previous action had already put all the AI on high alert.
The elevator doors slid open. As more robots flooded into the lower level, time seemed to grind to a sudden halt.
Every robot froze mid-motion.
A crimson mist enveloped Mo Yu’s field of vision, and an ethereal, eerie tune, resembling the churning of mechanical gears, echoed in his ears.
The phone in his pocket turned scalding hot.
“Hiss.” Mo Yu hurriedly pulled it out to check.
The time had just ticked past midnight.
At the very top was a notification that had popped up at 11:00 PM:
[Attention Players: Taking too long to complete the task may cause your partner to suffer plane contamination and enter a state of deep roleplay.]
Below that line, the mission status had turned gray.
[Mission Failed.]
Mo Yu’s heart sank into his chest.
Failed? What would happen now?
Would they die? Would the anomaly descend and destroy the world?!
The music in his ears seemed to swell, its rhythmic, chime like dance melody threatening to drown out everything else.
Mo Yu’s heart went ice cold. It was over! He was going to die young.
Suddenly, a powerful sense of being watched descended upon this plane. It was as if a higher dimensional entity had cast a passing glance downward.
A strange distortion rippled through the surrounding space. An invisible, giant hand lightly tapped the air, and the music cut off instantly.
[Ding. Resetting mission!]
[Reset successful. The mission will restart in 12 hours.]
[Remaining resets, Unlimited]
Mo Yu: “Huh?”
[Current Plane Story Progress: 0/100%.]
[Player Partner Contamination Level: 5/100%]
Before Mo Yu could even process the flood of notifications, an irresistible wave of drowsiness hit him, plunging him into unconsciousness.
When he came to, he and Gu Jinzhi were indeed back inside his office building, though not on his company’s floor.
He was alive! Mo Yu scrambled up and checked his phone; the unlock button was working again. It was exactly 8:00 AM.
The morning of June 7th.
Exactly twelve hours had passed since he banged his head against the elevator. He had endured four hours of absurdity, followed by eight hours of… surprisingly decent sleep.
So, time had looped back?
Mo Yu turned to Gu Jinzhi.
The man, now back in his suit, was frowning at the window behind them.
The glass he had shattered was still lying on the floor in a pile of shards, and the scrape on his arm was still dripping blood.
Time had reset, yet it hadn’t completely reset.
Everything that happened in the instance could still impact reality.
Gu Jinzhi looked over at him with a stern expression. “You had better explain.”
Mo Yu: ?
“My phone… uh, has a mission on it. The mission is…”
Mo Yu had never found a task so difficult in his life. Taking a deep breath, he reluctantly explained the contents of the mission on his phone in detail.
Gu Jinzhi’s face went blank for a second. “What?”
“It’s true.”
“No, there must be another objective.”
“I tried! There isn’t any other mission!”
For a moment, Gu Jinzhi pursed his lips in clear resistance, though politeness kept him from voicing his distaste outright. “Impossible. What kind of god would be this bored?”
Granted, Mo Yu didn’t know either. What kind of higher dimensional entity would drag two men into a dimensional realm just to make them…
For some reason, Mo Yu suddenly recalled Sun Ya staring at her phone with glowing eyes, squealing at two 2D characters. “Waaah, can you two hurry up and smack your lips together for me?!”
He shuddered involuntarily and vigorously shook the image out of his head. “I… I don’t know…”
Then again, if horror survival games existed, an unprincipled entity forcing BL scenarios on people… didn’t seem entirely impossible either.
After a while, people started arriving for work outside.
The two quickly vacated the other company’s office, keeping their voices low as they talked in the elevator.
Gu Jinzhi took a deep breath. “First, I owe you an apology. I failed to realize I was losing my memories and attacked you.”
Mo Yu replied, “It wasn’t your fault.”
Gu Jinzhi, however, was deeply bothered by it, he hadn’t made such a severe blunder in a long time. He was used to taking care of those around him and leading them to victory.
“Second, I recognize that we can’t stay stuck on June 7th forever. We have to find a way to complete this… so called mission.”
“Mm…” Mo Yu waited for the “but.”
“However…” Gu Jinzhi frowned. “I still believe there must be another way.”
Doing that with a stranger and a man, at that, was a premise he found genuinely hard to accept.
He trusted Mo Yu would understand. Mo Yu simply nodded and kept his head down, tapping away on his phone without speaking.
President Gu felt a moment of hesitation. Even though neither of them was gay, was his immediate refusal coming across as a bit hurtful?
Mo Yu’s thoughts, however, were elsewhere.
He had just realized it was the morning of June 7th!
The draft he had submitted hadn’t been rejected by President Gu yet, and the man likely wouldn’t have time to review it today anyway.
This bizarre time loop wasn’t entirely without perks… he could completely slack off today! No sitting at his desk.
With that thought, his hands deftly fired off a leave request text.
Because Gu Jinzhi’s arm was cut while smashing the glass, the two went to the hospital first.
Gu Jinzhi’s driver, seeing a remarkably handsome young man accompanying his boss for the first time, stole an inquisitive glance before hastily looking down.
At the hospital, President Gu was constantly on the phone, rescheduling his workday.
Mo Yu, meanwhile, was comfortably zoning out and ordering himself breakfast.
His phone buzzed. Expecting PTSD, he pulled it out, only to find a text from his close colleague, Sun Ya.
[Taking leave again? The Editor in Chief asked if I knew you were hurt. He definitely thinks you’re lying.]
Mo Yu casually snapped a photo of the bruise on his neck and replied with complete confidence. [I am hurt.]
In the photo, the youth’s neck was fair and slender, with faint finger marks visible under the light.
The moment he set his phone down, it vibrated violently.
[Are you playing BDSM?! (Shocked)]
Mo Yu: ???
“Let’s go.”
After leaving the hospital, they got back into Gu Jinzhi’s private car.
“Back to the company, President Gu?”
“No. Find a hotel nearby.”
The driver, who had just stepped on the gas, widened his eyes. “Huh?”
A hotel?
This was the first time their president hadn’t returned to the office at the earliest opportunity.
He instinctively glanced at Mo Yu, then frantically looked away, desperately trying to pretend he hadn’t just overreacted.
“S-Sure thing, President Gu.”
Mo Yu: ?
Once inside the hotel room, Gu Jinzhi took off his blood stained jacket and was about to change into a fresh shirt when he looked up and caught Mo Yu’s gaze.
Mo Yu blinked.
The room in this five-star hotel was spacious, but it lacked a separate reception area. Instead, directly above the bed hung a polished, glass ornament that acted almost like a mirror.
The bathroom featured a large, square double tub, and the shower stall was made of fully transparent glass.
Belatedly, Mo Yu shifted his gaze away, though he could still see President Gu’s broad shoulders reflected in the side mirror.
The atmosphere grew awkwardly tense once more.
Gu Jinzhi lowered his eyes, his expression subtly uncomfortable. Looking like he had summoned all his resolve, he finally brought it up.
“Regarding that mission…”
Mo Yu interrupted, “I thought of something! We can fake it to get through!”
Gu Jinzhi froze. “Fake it?”
“We can pretend to do it,” Mo Yu tried to explain. “…Like, just go through the motions.”
If there was one thing he excelled at, it was slacking off and faking work! The task records were monitored by those AI NPCs, so as long as they could fool them, the mission ought to count as complete.
Gu Jinzhi had finally buttoned his shirt up to the very top collar.
The tailored fit highlighted his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs. Even rarer than his physique was his exceptionally handsome face.
Though, based on his previous commentary in the group chat, Mo Yu still rated him as merely “average.”
Gu Jinzhi maintained a stern expression, staring at Mo Yu in total silence.
It made Mo Yu a bit nervous. “What is it…?”
“If they’re only observing through the ceiling cameras, your method could actually work. If we finish the task quickly right when the plot starts, we won’t have to deal with what comes after.”
“Exactly!”
Silence settled over the room once again.
Mo Yu blinked. “So… should we practice?”
“…Yeah.” Gu Jinzhi suddenly lowered his head and began adjusting his already immaculate cuffs.
After pondering it back and forth, he could only agree. “We really should practice.”
Mo Yu suspected he was still deeply reluctant.
Whether it was a clean freak habit or something else, now that they were stuck in this instance, the CEO needed to get over it.
“Then… do you want to lie down first?”
Gu Jinzhi looked at the king-sized bed behind him and didn’t move.
Mo Yu realized that assuming this high and mighty client CEO would take the receptive role was probably seen as an offense.
How awkward. Mo Yu quickly corrected himself. “Then… should I lie down?”
Gu Jinzhi froze for a moment, still motionless.
Mo Yu was at a loss for what to say next. At that moment, Gu Jinzhi exhaled, looking as if he had made up his mind, and abruptly sat on the bed.
“You should do it.”
Mo Yu didn’t react in time.
The man before him commanded a natural aura of authority through both his build and his face. Fortunately, he was still reasonable.
Mo Yu felt a strange pang of nervousness. “Then… I’m going to touch you.”
“Mm.”
Mo Yu grabbed his leg and pulled him a little closer.
Gu Jinzhi instantly went rigid.
He looked up briefly before quickly pulling his gaze back, maintaining as serious an expression as possible. “This posture works. From an overhead view, it shouldn’t be easy to tell.”
Mo Yu also looked up and spotted their reflection in the overhead glass mirror.
One of Gu Jinzhi’s long legs was resting on his shoulder, and the key areas were entirely obscured by his body.
“…Yeah.”
Mo Yu cleared his throat.
Hold it together. The vibe right now is strictly academic.
“So in a bit, I’ll basically… make the motions from this posture, and then you make… well, make some noise.”
“What kind of noise?”
“You know… that kind of noise.”
The two locked eyes.
Gu Jinzhi realized what he meant.
“…Alright.”
A moment later, Mo Yu nudged him. Gu Jinzhi’s ears seemed to turn slightly red.
” Well? Make a sound.”
Gu Jinzhi opened his mouth and uttered a dry, flat noise.
“Ah.”
Mo Yu: ?
“You have to… make it sound a bit more realistic.”
Sounding like he was reading aloud from a textbook wasn’t going to fool anyone.
Gu Jinzhi seemed dissatisfied, clearly feeling his performance hadn’t been that bad.
He started to speak, stopped, his chest rising and falling. Wearing that icy, handsome face, he let out another vocalization with far more emotion.
“AH!”
Mo Yu went silent, completely still, not making a single sound.
“How about…” He took a deep breath, carefully weighing his words. “…I make the noises instead?”
Gu Jinzhi: ?