Mist

Chapter 73: Rubik's Cube

The gentleman’s companion called out, “Old Sheng! Come over!”
The man said, “Coming!”

“Beep—–“
The round hole closed.
The two outsiders disappeared behind the wall.

“What were those two doing?” Duan Wen was puzzled, “Why are they wandering around like they’re window shopping?”
“I don’t know.” Zhou Mingxuan also found it strange. He joked, “Maybe they’re some commoner traversers. Haven’t you heard? Our mysterious profession is actually a dream job for many people. There are many who illegally traverse in private.”

Ji Yushi spoke, “Let’s go.”

Ji Yushi’s voice seemed to be better than before, but it still sounded different.
When he raised his head, everyone saw that his face was so pale, it was almost transparent. If not for the redness at the corner of his eyes, he would’ve looked calmer and saner.

Duan Wen: “Advisor Ji, you don’t look very good.”
Zhou Mingxuan, “Didn’t we only just get here? Let’s rest a little longer.”

“How are you feeling?”
Song Qinglan asked. He clearly didn’t agree with leaving with Ji Yushi in his current condition.
They had just argued about this issue not long ago.

“I’m fine.” Ji Yushi answered as per usual.

Song Qinglan watched him stand up and retrieve the blue ball that had returned to the centre of the room.
He suddenly felt that the back of the bespectacled man in the white shirt looked familiar —- If Ji Yushi was still wearing the same white shirt he wore when they first met, that is.

Song Qinglan was keenly aware that something was off.
Ji Yushi’s reaction just now may be related to that person. That person possibly came from a time earlier than theirs. Could Ji Yushi have met the other person during one of his missions as a Recorder? Song Qinglan wanted to ask but Ji Yushi had already opened a new door.

Despite Song Qinglan’s strong request for him to take a break, Ji Yushi showed no signs of relenting.
He just said to the others, “Go this way.”

Song Qinglan lowered his eyes to cover the emotions in his eyes and said to his other teammates, “Let’s go.”

*

Setting off again this time, their process of joining the rooms was clearly a lot faster and more efficient than before.
Apart from performing his calculations, testing the rooms and talking about the mission, Ji Yushi almost didn’t say anything else.

Everyone noticed this change in him and thought that it was because he was too eager to complete the mission. Only Song Qinglan noticed that Ji Yushi seemed to be suppressing the urge to turn back despite that room already having moved to who knows where.

“Yellow.” Ji Yushi said mechanically, “Twentieth.”

They left the yellow room that had been successfully joined with twenty rooms and got ready to enter a new blue room.
The blue room before them was densely filled with marks left by different people. The blanks were almost completely filled up by them.

“Beep—–”
Someone on the other end also opened a hole on the wall.

It was a group of unfamiliar traversers. They looked at each other from opposite ends with the blue room between them.
With the rooms becoming fewer, every one of the rooms filled with numerous marks may possibly be the last room. The seventh squad found themselves facing their very first competition.

The blue room still had the recording from before playing.
The team standing in the room seemed to be the very team looking at them from the other hole across the room.