After returning, Shen Mo picked up the game files Bai Youwei had brought back and went through them again.

When he’d read them the night before, he had still been a little tipsy and had only skimmed them. Now he found the file for Game B21 —

Three characters were written on it: “Hide-and-Seek.”

It was a game that had never been cleared. Records on it were scarce, because everyone who had played it was dead — everyone except Du Lai.

Those files had also been provided to the organization by Du Lai.

The document described the game’s mechanics and structural features, and mentioned how the puppet cat inside was immensely powerful and extraordinarily agile. The full record took up only one page, yet Shen Mo read it for a long time.

Ever since Shen Mo had come back, Bai Youwei had been watching him. Now, seeing him reading the files for Game 21, a few suspicions formed in her mind.

Without quite realizing it, she furrowed her brow and asked Shen Mo, “You want to go into Game 21 — hide-and-seek?”

Shen Mo didn’t answer right away. He read the file for a while longer before replying, “If we can find a way to clear Game 21, the Shanghai base can keep going as it is.”

Bai Youwei’s mood immediately soured. “Once 21 is gone, there’ll be 31, 41, 51 — 101! Are you planning to stay here forever? You promised to come with me to collect puzzle pieces!”

“Before Game 21 showed up, the base was always stable.” Shen Mo said calmly. “No matter how difficult any other game is, someone will eventually find a way through. Not every game will be this level of hard.”

“Oh, so even you admit it’s hard?” Bai Youwei rolled her eyes, her words turning sharp. “The organization sent in a whole squad of elites, and they were all wiped out completely. Do you think you’re better than all those elites combined?”

The color in Shen Mo’s face shifted slightly.

Bai Youwei’s sarcasm kept coming. “People going in have puzzle pieces, they have items — what do you have? You’ve got nothing but a chunk of mud. What right do you have to enter that game?!”

The atmosphere tilted toward an argument.

Teacher Cheng, Tan Xiao, and Pan Xiaoxin exchanged looks and quietly retreated into the room…

In the living room, Bai Youwei’s scathing remarks came one after another: “Even if you do go in, what makes you think you can clear it? Your fruit knife?! Oh — almost forgot, that knife snapped in two during the dollhouse game! What terrible luck. You’ll just have to go save the world with your bare hands. Ha! Do you think you’re Superman?!”

The three people who had retreated into the room had faces that burned, even though none of those words were aimed at them.

Tan Xiao pressed his ear against the door and sighed quietly. “Mo Ge is really suffering — he hasn’t said a word this whole time.”

“Weiwei is only speaking so harshly because she’s worried about him.” Teacher Cheng said, full of concern. “But Little Shen can’t just stay silent forever either. He needs to reason with Weiwei. As long as he reasons with her, Weiwei will definitely understand — we have to talk things through, talk them through…”

Pan Xiaoxin pursed her lips and said softly, “When my grandma used to scold people, my grandpa never said a word.”

“Really?!” Tan Xiao exclaimed. “Same with my grandparents!”

Outside, Bai Youwei suddenly erupted with fury and shouted, “If you love playing savior so much, then go! Leave! Just leave!!!”

Teacher Cheng was frantic. “This won’t do! We have to go out there and mediate!”

Tan Xiao rushed to open the door —

Cracked it open, then fumbled it shut again in a panic!

“What are you closing it for?!” Teacher Cheng said urgently. “Get out there — if we don’t step in, they’ll only fight worse!”

“We can’t go out!” Tan Xiao’s expression was all tension. “They’re hugging! If we walk out now, Weiwei will tear me apart later!”

Cheng Weicai: “……”

Pan Xiaoxin: “……”

—