Words: 2849
(Edited)
“Dead? In his first room?” A slim looking man laughed. “What a fool.” In the man’s hand was a photo of Adonis, the person Li Yan had met in his first room.
“How did he die?”
“The room.” The man’s subordinate bowed down to the slim man. The man started to laugh even louder.
“Good.” The man crushed a pill into his hand and let the particles fall down into a glass. “He wouldn’t have lasted long even if he did live.”
The subordinate stayed bowing down, afraid to face his boss in the eyes. Although his boss didn’t look threatening, he was still a very powerful man in the IER.
“I should reward the people in that room.” The man moved the glass holding the drugged water in circles.
“Who was there?”
“Some newbies, and a few veterans. The only notable one being Lars.” The subordinate answered.
“Ha.” The man ripped the photo of Adonis and threw it in the water. He let out a sigh. “Family really does drag a person down.”
~~~
“Hello?” This was the first time Li Yan had visited someone else’s dorm. After he got back from Lars’ place, he went to take a nap since when the group exited the room it was around early morning in the IER.
The IER had an artificial day cycle that they used for telling the amount of days past since entering a room, and for the players to feel more familiar in the environment. It is similar to a separate space linked to Nora rather than being in Nora, itself, so the time is different than Nora’s, but Li Yan wasn’t sure on how different.
After he had woken up, it was around evening time and he found a message on his interface that got sent earlier that day. It was from Ji-Yoo, and it invited him over to his dormitory. Li Yan agreed and sent a message back to see if he still wanted him to come, and got a positive answer.
He still had his three day break since it hadn’t been a full day yet, so he wasn’t rushing to go to the next room at the moment.
Unlike his dormitory, which was a singular room with a bed and barely anything else, Ji-Yoo’s was more like a penthouse. It had a foyer area for visitors to wait, and a big door that led to the main area. This was probably a dorm layout that he bought with coins and then never decorated further since the area was still pretty bare.
“Hey!” Ji-Yoo opened the door in a very grand manner, moving aside to let Li Yan in. The inside of the dormitory was an open layout with a second floor and an overhang area where you could look out onto the ground floor. He saw Soren when he looked up, he was leaning on the rails and looking down at Li Yan who walked into the dorm.
He gave a slight wave before disappearing, probably coming downstairs to speak with Ji-Yoo and him. Ji-Yoo looked more lively now than he did in the room. Li Yan looked towards his right arm and down towards the still missing hand.
Ji-Yoo noticed his gaze and laughed merrily. “It’s all better now, don't worry.” The nub left on his arm was still bandaged, but this time properly warped with better material.
Soren finally appeared and gave Ji-Yoo a pat of the shoulder and nodded towards Li Yan. “He almost lost his other hand trying to show off to someone in our team.”
Li Yan was glad he was feeling better at least, and he hung out with them for a bit. It was mostly just Ji-Yoo leading the conversations or having them watch a few movies. When it was getting really late, Ji-Yoo and Soren both said goodbye to Li Yan.
It had been a long time since Li Yan was able to hang out with acquaintances like that, not even just regarding the IER, even in real-life he was quite the recluse. Before entering the rooms, Li Yan felt his life was quite comfortable, not too wild or too boring. He was content with what he was doing and how he lived. After entering the rooms, Li Yan felt it was quite fun. He liked meeting new people and trying new things, part of why he loved going to escape rooms in real-life. But, he really did find it hard to interact with others when there wasn’t a common objective.
He felt that being in the rooms helped him interact with others more, but also at the same time so many issues were apparent with the rooms. Other than obvious exploitation, the rooms themselves seemed to have problems, perhaps lethal ones at that. Li Yan still couldn’t decide on how he felt about the rooms.
As time passed, he slowly began to feel sleepy and decided to go to bed. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go into a room tomorrow or not, but that question was soon answered for him as he woke up.
[901: Unread Messages (2)]
He opened his interface to see that Lily had accepted the friend request and the messages were from her. He didn’t know if it was just bad luck, but for some reason people kept inviting him places when he was asleep. Lily had sent an invitation to a café, and asked when Li Yan could meet.
Li Yan took a few minutes to get ready before finally responding to Lily’s message. He wasn’t sure if it was just the people who he met, but so far people at the IER have been very outgoing. Very active. Li Yan wasn’t used to it, and his body was still sore from Wonderland.
Remembering his soreness, he wrote a small note using the notepad feature on his interface to find out how to improve his physical strength and stamina later. He could maybe try to ask Lily when he meets her. While thinking this, he accepted Lily’s teleportation invitation and was quickly transported to the café.
The café was called Mileth’s Café, it was a cat café with many different breeds of cats roaming around. This place oddly suited Lily’s optimistic personality, he could see why she wanted to come here.
“Over here!” Lily waved from a secluded two-person table. Li Yan quickly walked over to sit across from her and a cat quickly made its place around his leg. It seemed to sense another cat's presence on him, and rubbed around in a specific area where Blice had slept the previous night.
“Ah, they like you a lot!” Lily smiled. She then used a small tablet on the table and ordered what she wanted. “I’ll pay for you today. What would you like?”
“Just water is fine.” Li Yan smiled, and Lily nodded while inputting the order. “Sorry it took me a bit to respond, I was in a room with my brother. He’s a lot more serious than me, and he tends to do his rooms more often.”
“Maybe you guys can meet in a room together at some point?” Lily smiled. “Although it doesn’t seem likely, it’s always possible.”
Time went on for a bit as Lily would talk to him, and he would occasionally respond or give some input when needed. This went on until Lily spotted someone and waved him over. “Yu Jun!”
“Lily.” The man nodded.
“How are you lately?” Lily smiled. “I haven’t seen you in awhile.”
“Yes, something happened so the café had to close for a bit.” Yu Jun said. “Who is this?”
“This is Li Yan.” Lily introduced. Li Yan gave a nod towards Yu Jun, and he did the same in return. Since he hadn’t looked up before, he didn’t get a good look at the man’s face. Now that he had, he saw that the man had dark eye bags along with a fatigued appearance. His voice was very monotone and overall it didn’t look like he was in a good mood.
“Do you know where Lady Mileth is?” Lily asked. “I haven’t seen her in forever.”
It appeared Lily mentioned something that brought forth bad memories because the expression on the man’s face slowly turned towards the worse. “Sorry. I can’t say I have.”
His eyes grew cold as he glanced at Lily and then he turned his back to walk away. “What’s wrong with him?” Lily muttered, drinking from her cup of coffee.
A waiter happened to see what occurred and rushed over quickly to Lily and Li Yan. “Um…Lily, actually a big accident happened a few days ago.” The waiter whispered to Lily.
“You probably don’t know since only the staff know as of right now, but Lady Mileth went missing.”
Lily let out a gasp. “Missing?!”
“Shhh!” The waiter put his finger to his lips to motion to her. “Don’t let Yu Jun hear you. He’s been in a horrible mood since.”
“Do you know anything else about Lady Mileth?” Lily asked, still in a bit of disbelief.
“No, that’s all we know.” He shook his head. “We haven’t seen her since a few days ago. It’s a surprise to us that Yu Jun decided to open the café again so early.”
“He must have made some sort of agreement to Lady Mileth. Maybe it’s not as serious as we think it is?” Lily asked, trying to be positive. The waiter just silently disagreed and left, leaving Lily and Li Yan alone again.
Li Yan personally had no input since he had never met Lady Mileth, but from what he’s heard she seemed to have been a very respectable woman. It was apparent that Yu Jun was someone very close to her and cared for her a lot, so it made sense why he brushed Lily off so coldly.
He got sidetracked in his own thoughts for a bit, so he didn’t realize when Lily had gotten up. By the time he noticed, it was too late and she had already chased down Yu Jun by the counter.
“Yu Jun!” Lily quickly got close to his face. “Is Lady Mileth really missing?”
Lily was an innocent girl. That was the best way Li Yan could describe her. Although she meant no bad intentions, it came off as very insensitive at times. Li Yan sighed and quickly got up to go and get her before it was irreversible. The waiter from earlier was also seen shaking his head in embarrassment and regret.
Yu Jun just stared at Lily in a lifeless manner. “What’s it to you? What were you to Mileth?”
“Yu Jun! That’s awfully rude.” Lily commented. “Lily, I think we should go.” Li Yan said, tugging her arm.
“It’s good to let out your emotions. If you keep them pent up, then you’ll definitely explode one day! Lady Mileth wouldn’t want you like that.” Lily said. Her eyes were clear and pure, making Yu Jun feel suffocated.
“Lily.” He frowned. “Leave.”
“Yu Jun, you-”
“Lily.” Li Yan finally stepped in further and pulled her away. “Let’s go.”
Unfortunately, Lily was much stronger than him and easily broke free. “As Lady Mileth’s close friend, I feel like I should know what’s going on with her. You’re also my friend so I would like to help you.”
Yu Jun looked livid. Li Yan already felt things weren’t too good so he backed up a bit. The other people present in the café also stopped hanging out with the cats and looked over. The cats seemed to sense Yu Jun’s bad mood and moved away.
“I’m sorry Lily, but since when did you get to decide on other people’s issues?” He sneered. “Not everyone wants your charity.”
“But-”
“Your brother just spoils you, Lily! You know nothing about the horror of this place.” The man finally seemed to get rid of his politeness and tapped something on the screen below him. “Don’t come back until you can open your eyes more.”
With that, Lily disappeared leaving Li Yan in the store with the other customers. “Sorry about that.” Yu Jun smiled warily towards Li Yan. “But I’ll be closing now.”
The man’s eyes sunk further in, and his posture lowered. He gave off an even darker aura than before and gloomily closed the store. The lights seemed to fade and through all the pastel colors on the wall and furniture everything seemed significantly more sorrowful around the lone man. It was almost as if a blizzard flew into the store. That was the last thing Li Yan saw before he was teleported out.
He only thought of one thing at that moment. If that Mileth person came back, would spring come again? He almost laughed at the thought.
~~~
His dorm was white. It was clear and everything was bright. It was drastically different from the scene he saw before leaving. The change of scenery was a bit much for Li Yan to take in at first. He was also still in a bit of shock from Lily’s insensitivity.
Today, he truly saw the meaning of someone who didn’t know how to stop. Like he expected, he got a teleportation invitation to Lily’s dorm soon after Yu Jun had kicked everyone out. He accepted and arrived at her dorm. Unlike Ji-Yoo’s, this dorm was more similar to a teenager’s bedroom. It was very Lily. There was no entrance, and it was all in one area so Li Yan didn’t have to look long before finding her.
She sat on a lavender colored couch curled up in a ball, seeming to take the ban from Mileth’s Café a bit harder than the average person. “I’m banned until I complete a hard room on my own.”
As soon as Li Yan appeared, she quickly pulled him to sit next to her. “Do you think I’m spoiled by my brother that much?”
“I don’t know your brother.” Li Yan had not agreed nor denied the accusation.
“My brother had always called me a busybody, but I thought it was just a sibling thing. I didn’t think I would hurt Yu Jun’s feelings that much.” Lily said.
“He’s going through a tough time, and you were being very pushy. He’s truly not in the wrong.” Li Yan honestly said.
Lily seemed to think over it a bit before saying that she still didn’t understand. “My mom always said to help those in need. If they acted like they didn’t want help, they still probably did.”
“Yes, but although they may need help that doesn’t mean you can give it to them.” Li Yan shook his head. “The only person who could solve Yu Jun’s issues is probably Mileth.”
Lily was silent a bit before shaking her head. “I don’t get it. We are both friends with her. Why can’t I be involved?”
Li Yan didn’t really know how to help Lily, or explain fully why what she did was insensitive. He settled by just stating that everyone was different. To which Lily seemed to accept as a response.
“Maybe I don’t know the horrors of this place. Maybe my brother spoils me. He wasn’t wrong.” Lily suddenly said. She seemed more aware than what Li Yan had realized. “But, I still want to help everyone I can.”
“Even if I am overwhelming to the other person, I rather bother them and help them then not help them at all.” Lily said. “It may be hard to understand, but this is something I feel strongly about.”
Lily no longer said anything that day. Li Yan soon left in slight curiosity. It was not common to meet someone like Lily in a place like this. Although Lily had good intentions, and it didn’t seem like she was as oblivious as she let on, it was also not completely right for her to do that. Li Yan went back to his dorm with a mixed opinion on Lily’s actions.
The relations in the IER were really complicated, he thought. It was a bit overwhelming. He rubbed on Blice’s fur for a bit as he looked at his white ceiling in contemplation. Maybe he should enter a room later.
“Hey.” He called out. The cat lazily looked over in response. “I’m going to a room later.” The cat seemed to understand what he said and nodded. “You can’t come out as freely as you do here okay?” He gave a few more pats to the cat before stretching. “I’ll get changed and then we can go.” Who knew who he would meet in the next world, either way he couldn’t tell whether or not he should look forward to it or not.
His meeting with Lars and Shiro versus his meeting with Lily had given him a bit of a mixed stance on the IER. Along with Ji-Yoo’s carefreeness, it was hard to decide what to do. The only way for him to solve this issue was for him to do more rooms. Maybe then he could understand them all more.
~~~
