Cognitive Distortion in Progress

"Yu Xing?"

In the bright hotel room, Zhao Yijiu propped herself up on the bed and subconsciously called out.

But he soon realized that there was no one else there but him.

His superior hearing allowed him to hear early morning whispers coming from the next room, separated by only a wall. The voices were unfamiliar, carrying a hint of the ambiguity unique to the morning.

Oh, a couple, or maybe a married couple, lives next door.

Zhao Yijiu restrained himself from eavesdropping on other people's privacy. With some confusion, he got out of bed and first looked at his own body.

He was dressed in a very normal modern short-sleeved shirt and shorts, the style so simple that it was hard to imagine why the seller wouldn't go bankrupt. It was as if he had been casually made to appease the situation. The only trace of resentment that remained on his body was the bandage around his neck.

Zhao Yijiu tugged at the clothes, but couldn't find any fabric more ordinary than this. He thought for a moment... this might really be clothes randomly generated by the system.

He had experienced several such Yugi instances before. These instances took up real-world time, and the clothes he wore were very likely to be damaged in the instances. Therefore, after returning to reality, the system would conveniently give the players a set of clothes to cover their bodies.

It seems he is no longer in the Yin Yang Corridor.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yijiu suddenly tensed up.

He eventually fainted. Only in a coma could he have an environment where he could concentrate on fighting against the evil spirit's consciousness. At that time, his emotions were unstable, and if he were still conscious, it would be easy for the evil spirit's consciousness to take advantage of him.

Therefore, he was unaware of the final outcome of the ordeal in the abandoned house.

Yu Xing... Where is Yu Xing?

Why isn't Yu Xing here? Wasn't he teleported back with us? Didn't he already get the tickets...? Is there some problem with the connection to the system again?

Or Lingren did something that affected him...

Yu Xing has just found his way back!

Because of her past record of disappearing for a year, Zhao Yijiu tensed up, her face seemingly expressionless, but her heart was actually starting to beat faster.

He feared that Yu Xing had disappeared again.

Once the thought arose, a hidden fear, like vines, climbed up her spine and neck. Zhao Yijiu was so frightened by her own words that she gasped for breath, then told herself to calm down.

This is a hotel room.

He couldn't be lying here if no one else had checked him in, because even with the random location return mechanism, the system would still leave them in a sparsely populated outdoor area.

Therefore, someone must have been doing something while he was in a coma.

At this moment, in order to suppress the irritation in her heart, Zhao Yijiu stood quietly and recalled all the times when Zhao Mou would secretly curse people in Tianjin dialect.

The effect, comparable to listening to a stand-up comedy routine, made Zhao Yijiu strangely calm.

He opened his eyes and came to his senses. He looked around again and finally realized that although there was no one else in the room, it was a standard room with two beds. The blankets on the other bed were messy and the pillows were not neatly placed, obviously indicating that someone had slept there.

There was no one else but Yu Xing.

"..." Zhao Yijiu let out a very subtle sigh of relief, although her face remained tense.

As long as he was successfully teleported back to the real world, that's fine. He didn't see Yu Xing; she must have something to do.

Only...

Zhao Yijiu looked at the messy blankets with a strange expression, silently wondering, Yu Xing leave the bed so disheveled without tidying it up?

His intuition told him that something was wrong.

He walked around the room but didn't see any device to tell the time—he hadn't brought his own cell phone, and there was no computer in the room.

Television might be an option, but Zhao Yijiu was too lazy to turn it on right now. He simply summoned the system panel from his consciousness and went directly to the live streaming section.

The live stream section will display the time.

He randomly entered a live stream for a competition to become a "Rookie King," ignoring the automatic notification that he, as a "star predictor," had entered the live stream.

The chat paused for a moment, then started flooding with question marks.

[Wait, who's this? Cold Wine?? Hasn't he never watched the live stream before?]

[Drowning Feather: Brother Zhao??]

[Ran: Huh...]

[Could it be that Tian Ji let him see this? Could there be something special about this year's Rookie of the Year?]

[Unsure, will consider further]

Just as the comments section started to buzz, a notification flashed by, and "Cold Wine," whose name was shining brightly, disappeared again.

Now all that's left is a question mark.

Zhao Yijiu had already obtained the time information. He made a deduction. He knew about the time difference in the apocalyptic instance. If the Yin Yang Corridor did not take up time, two days should have passed since he fell into a coma.

Based on her physical state of hunger and fatigue, Zhao Yijiu was fairly certain that this was the algorithm.

Two days...

Carlos should have already told the team about Yu Xing's return, right? I wonder if Yu Xing has contacted the others in Broken Mirror. If not— Zhao Yijiu just saw Zhang Yu and Zeng Ranran in the comments.

If not, these two would have seen him and told Zhao Mou, at least confirming his safety.

But why didn't Yu Xing take him back to Mijin City? Did she want to give him a more stable environment to hibernate in?

Zhao Yijiu's mind was a bit confused. He looked out the window at the sky and saw a vast expanse of white snow.

This is a snow-capped mountain.

He seemed to see a group of people wrapped up like rice dumplings walking busily towards the entrance of the scenic area on the street outside.

... Scenic Area?

Zhao Yijiu was even more confused. Did Yu Xing have something urgent to do here?

He thought about it and decided to go out and find someone. Anyway, he had settled down now, and it wasn't realistic for him to stay in the room.

However, wearing short sleeves and shorts in the snow-capped mountains is rather shocking.

Zhao Yijiu observed that the room seemed quite luxurious and probably very expensive, so the service must be excellent.

He dialed the phone by his bed and tried to ask the hotel staff to send him a down jacket and jeans.

Hearing his sinister, devilish voice, the room service staff across the street trembled and agreed. They delivered the clothes shortly afterward, not daring to look at him even once.

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

He did this to test whether staying in a hotel was legal. For some reason, he had a strange premonition as soon as he woke up, feeling that there was something unreliable about the surroundings.

Fortunately, there were no problems with the check-in.

He got dressed, stretched his wrists, and left the hotel to join the moving crowd outside.

Zhao Yijiu wanted to find Yu Xing, which was easy to find.

Yu Xing was no ordinary person after all; unless he deliberately concealed it, the unusual aura emanating from him was always present.

Zhao Yijiu is now a master at detecting auras; as long as he heads in the direction of supernatural energy fluctuations, he will definitely encounter Yu Xing.

Things went smoothly. When Zhao Yijiu caught a glimpse of Yu Xing's presence in the air, she completely relaxed.

Thankfully, they really are there.

It seems that Yu Xing really did have something to do, or perhaps she simply came out to relax because she was bored in her room.

Once they've all gathered, we can probably go home.

... Bar?

This firm belief turned into hesitation when Zhao Yijiu easily entered the mountains of the scenic area, caught up with Yu Xing, and saw Yu Xing dig up a handful of snow, secretly make it into a ball, and hit a passerby on the head.

The passerby, hit by the snowball, thought someone was playing a joke on him, so he shouted and threw a snowball at random. Soon, this small group of tourists resting in the campsite halfway up the mountain started a chaotic but happy snowball fight.

The person who started all this, dressed only in a thin and simple "system-made" outfit, seemed to dislike the commotion and walked away listlessly.

"..." Zhao Yijiu sensed something was wrong.

He followed with a blank expression, wanting to see what Yu Xing was up to.

Soon, Yu Xing made his way through a series of twists and turns to a secluded spot. Because the mountain was quite steep, tourists were prohibited from going there.

However, no one noticed Yu Xing along the way. Zhao Yijiu sensed a cognitive shield against ordinary people from Yu Xing.

He also minimized his presence, deceiving the tourists' subconscious, and followed them to a secluded spot.

The next second, he watched as Yu Xing scooped up a handful of pure white snow and brought it to her lips.

Then he licked it.

The snow melted in the tip of that protruding tongue, and Zhao Yijiu was completely stunned.

Against the pure white backdrop, the red lines on Yu Xing's tongue flashed by, sending a strange, unsettling sensation through his brain. It not only made his scalp tingle, but also gave him a keen sense of—

In the unseen void, something long and thin seemed to twist and sway, creating subtle ripples in the air.

Zhao Yijiu couldn't help but widen her eyes.

Is the person in front of me... really Yu Xing?

Something feels off.

This person is "dangerous".

Just as Zhao Yijiu began to become alert, a strange light flashed in Yu Xing's eyes, who was looking down. He slowly turned his head, revealing an expression that showed he had already noticed Zhao Yijiu following him.

"Brother Jiu, you should try some too... This has almost no taste, how can it be called 'blood'? It's clearly white, just water." The young man's expression seemed normal, but the strange look in his pupils gave Zhao Yijiu a momentary chill.

However, the surprise and panic brought by the unknown only lasted for a moment. Recognizing that it was Yu Xing herself, Zhao Yijiu ran over and tried to touch the air behind Yu Xing.

There were no invisible transparent tentacles or anything like that; he must have been imagining things.

"Why do they all say they came here to see blood?" The young man was still puzzled, showing no joy at his awakening or surprise at encountering him here. He continued to ask the question that concerned him, "Is Blood Mountain a case of deceptive advertising?"

Zhao Yijiu was stunned. Confirming he hadn't misheard the other person's words, he paused for two seconds before saying, "Snow mountain. Snow—not blood."

Yu Xing narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to think.

Perhaps he couldn't find the relevant concept in his knowledge, so he humbly asked, "What is snow?"

Even Zhao Yijiu, who had seen a lot in life, was stumped by this question.

Before he could even figure out what was going on, Yu Xing shook off the remaining snow in his hands, licked his lips, and said, "I thought there would be a lot of blood here, but after searching for two days, I found nothing."

He glanced at the bandage on Zhao Yijiu's neck, a smirk playing on his lips. "Brother Jiu, I need blood."

Strangely, even though she heard those words with her own ears, Zhao Yijiu felt that it wasn't Yu Xing who spoke.

He stared at Yu Xing's tongue, which he could occasionally see as she spoke, and his scalp began to tingle again—no, this time his whole body began to tremble, as if... a pollution that made him lose control.

In a daze, Zhao Yijiu felt that it was a "tongue" that was speaking, not Yu Xing.

Yu Xing is corrupting him... with the power of some kind of evil god.

"I need blood," Yu Xing repeated, reaching out to unwrap Zhao Yijiu's bandages. "Just a little bit will do; it won't hurt."

The pollution wasn't particularly severe; Zhao Yijiu was only slightly affected. But once she realized Yu Xing's intentions, she was completely awake. "No way!"

He grabbed Yu Xing's wrist, twisting Yu Xing arm behind her back with a decisive grappling move, forcing her to kneel in the snow. His expression was stern. "You're provoking something very new, something that needs blood. Do you still have any sense, Yu Xing?"

The suppressed Yu Xing did not actually resist, just as his attempt to obtain blood was not an attempt to force anyone.

Yu Xing even clicked her tongue twice. "So fierce, what's wrong with her?"

Zhao Yijiu: "Don't you think you're in a very strange situation?"

"Ah, it seems so." Yu Xing pondered for a while, "I seem to be quite cold, it is indeed strange."

He looked down, then suddenly realized. "Oh, because I wasn't wearing enough clothes. Where are my clothes?"

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

How could this be?

Wake up! You're still wearing the clothes the system gave you; you don't have any other clothes at all!

You're probably not cold because you're not wearing enough clothes, but because the unfamiliar, sinister atmosphere around you is too chilling.

What's going on?

The usually aloof and cool guy finally couldn't hold back any longer. Looking at Yu Xing, who was clearly in trouble, he felt a slight sense of collapse.

He fainted and doesn't know what happened afterward.

Was this the state Yu Xing was in when she brought him to the snow mountain and booked the hotel?

"Brother Jiu, let me go, or I'll freeze to death." Yu Xing's tone was almost identical to his normal self, but the content itself was strange, "I'm hungry, I need blood..."

Zhao Yijiu finally confirmed that Yu Xing was being influenced by an unknown, bloodthirsty being, and that being most likely resided on his tongue.

He shook his head, which was still affected by the noise, and struggled to look away from Yu Xing's tongue. "Let's go back to the hotel first, calm down."

He released Yu Xing, but cautiously watched Yu Xing movements, fearing a sudden attack.

Yu Xing stood up, dusted off her clothes, and suddenly looked Zhao Yijiu up and down very carefully. "Actually, I really want your blood, and you can't resist. I'm still very interested in your blood..."

"Let's go buy clothes." Zhao Yijiu immediately interrupted him, putting on a genuinely emotionless expression, trying to calm Yu Xing down and figure out the situation. "Aren't you cold? The hotel can send you clothes."

Yu Xing reacted quickly this time. "Since you're so eager to control me, fine."

Zhao Yijiu: "..." Has your IQ been affected?

But then, Yu Xing's words made him slightly stunned. "Actually, I also feel like something's wrong with me, but I can't figure it out. In my mind, I'm perfectly normal right now."

"But judging from your expression, it doesn't seem like that."

Yu Xing turned to him and smiled, but beneath the smile lay a stiffness and panic masking her confusion, "Brother Jiu, have I turned into a monster?"

Should people have two arms? From your perspective, do I look normal?

"Brother Jiu, are you really real?"

.