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Chapter 098 Healing Potion

Just as Xia Xinyan was pondering these matters, the elevator suddenly jolted violently and came to a halt, the red alarm light inside illuminating the entire space in crimson.

Everyone quickly braced themselves against the elevator walls, and the fat guy was the first to shout, “What the hell?! What’s going on?!”

Bai Yu’s expression changed: “Someone activated the firewall; I got kicked out of the elevator control system. The entire security level has been raised to the maximum, and I can’t hack in anymore.”

“Can’t even open the door?”

“Nope,” Bai Yu’s expression grew weirder, “and there’s even worse news…”

“What news?” Ling Mo instinctively asked.

Bai Yu glanced at the others for a moment, frowning, “The elevator has initiated a self-destruct program and will blow up in one minute.”

The scene fell into a stunned silence for a second.

Then everyone shouted in unison, “Then hurry up and find a way out!!”

Morning Light was even more direct, his form instantly transforming into black mist and disappearing in front of everyone.

The fat guy looked stunned: “…Hey, can you at least help us out!!”

Unfortunately, it seemed Morning Light didn’t hear him.

Xia Xinyan quickly scanned their surroundings and pointed to the emergency exit above the elevator: “We can get out from there.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the exit cover was opened from outside, and Morning Light’s figure appeared on top of the elevator, extending his hand to them: “Hurry up, time is of the essence.”

“Wow, I thought you ran away!” The fat guy was the first to try to go up but was blocked by Ling Mo: “Let’s let the lighter ones go first. Big Sun, you help them up.”

Fat guy: “…Are you discriminating against my weight?”

“I can help you up last, okay?”

“Deal.”

With less than a minute of survival time left, the two didn’t dwell on the matter and the fat guy immediately bent down to offer his hands: “Move faster! Hurry up! I don’t want to be popcorn!”

Xia Xinyan was the first to step on the fat guy’s hands, jumping up to the top of the elevator with such agility that the fat guy couldn’t even see her action clearly. By the time he registered it, another person was missing from the elevator.

Bai Yu and Fei Fei were quickly pulled up by the fat guy as well. At almost the same time, Ling Mo created a wooden box about half a meter high in the elevator for the fat guy to step on: “Move quickly!”

Naturally, he wouldn’t just drag the fat guy up; with that weight, there’s no telling how much time it might waste.

While the fat guy was hauling people up, he was busy crafting this wooden box.

And the fat guy wasted no time, quickly climbing up the box and was helped up by several people above.

The whole escape process flowed smoothly as if it had been rehearsed beforehand—perhaps it was the strong survival instinct that ignited their potential. However, even so, by the time the fat guy got up, about fifty seconds had already passed.

Though Bai Yu couldn’t control the elevator, once she got up, she cleverly hacked into the floor’s external elevator door control system, opening all the elevator doors on that floor.

Now only Ling Mo was left to come up, and based on their previous cooperation, ten seconds should definitely be enough.

But unfortunately, fate had other plans. The moment Ling Mo stepped onto the box, the entire elevator shook again and suddenly plummeted downwards.

This sudden change startled everyone. The fat guy and the others, who originally intended to pull Ling Mo up, dared not linger and quickly jumped out of the elevator shaft at the right moment, leaving only Xia Xinyan standing calmly on top of the elevator, extending her hand to Ling Mo: “Hurry up!”

Ling Mo gritted his teeth and grasped her hand, letting her pull him up, but before he could steady himself, he suddenly lifted Xia Xinyan and leaped out of the elevator shaft.

Almost the next second, the plummeting elevator erupted in a violent explosion, the shockwave knocking Ling Mo and Xia Xinyan, who hadn’t gotten far, off their feet and completely destroying the elevator entrance.

Ling Mo tightly embraced Xia Xinyan, bearing most of the impact on his back, instantly acquiring a string of negative status effects. The ear ringing from the explosion rendered him nearly deaf, but as long as he was alive, that was a good thing.

In fact, the moment the elevator fell, he had a fleeting moment of hopelessness.

Especially when he saw the fat guy and others, who were supposed to pull him up, turn tail and run without looking back.

It wasn’t that he thought they were being ungrateful; in that perilous situation, if he were up there, he’d probably flee too. A delayed rescue could mean total disaster, and the odds of saving him clearly didn’t outweigh the risk.

But Xia Xinyan didn’t leave, still reaching her hand out to him.

It made him recall a certain phrase she had said before— “I would rather die with you.”

Although it was just a game, at that moment, he was indeed touched.

Even if it meant getting blown up, Xinyan was still willing to forgo her escape to save him.

So he held onto her hand.

Even if they were to die, at least they would be hand in hand.

But… it seemed Lady Luck was still smiling down on them.

Gritting his teeth to endure the pain in his back, Ling Mo looked at Xia Xinyan in his arms: “Are you okay?”

Xia Xinyan, pressed beneath him, blinked and nodded, “I’m fine.”

She wanted to scold him for being foolish.

Even if it were just a game, there was no need to sacrifice herself for someone else, right?

If she got blown up, wouldn’t that be a wasted rescue?

Why was he so unhesitatingly protective of her…

Really… foolish.

After a few seconds of silence, she suddenly took out a vial of liquid from her space watch and handed it to Ling Mo: “Drink this.”

Ling Mo let go of Xia Xinyan, turned to the side, took the vial with some confusion: “What is this?”

Xia Xinyan took out a handgun from her space watch, looking somewhat unnatural: “Healing potion.”

Ling Mo didn’t notice the awkwardness on her face, nor did he suspect anything. He just opened the cap and gulped it down.

He trusted Xia Xinyan.

And the effect of this potion was also evident; as soon as he drank it, he could feel his back injury starting to heal rapidly, and the negative buffs in his status bar disappeared by almost half.

Hmm… however, compared to the previous healing method involving… a kiss, this effect was noticeably slower.

Once he recovered a bit, Ling Mo climbed up from the ground: “That potion must cost a lot of game points, right?”

He had previously browsed the game mall, and the various items required a significant number of game points, especially for quick recovery-type healing potions, which started at a minimum of 500 game points, and their effects weren’t as good as the one he just drank.

Xia Xinyan mumbled: “Yeah…”

She would never tell Ling Mo that this was her bathwater.

Of course, she made it in her private space in the game. In reality, she hadn’t been that free, and currently, there was no place to use such a thing.

It now seemed that even the “special potion,” which was weaker than the first-hand effect, had better healing capabilities than regular mall items, which was quite a pleasant surprise for her.

It was worth mentioning that the healing effect of the succubus declines with repeated use on a single individual, meaning the first healing is the most effective, and subsequently, the effect diminishes—this effect takes time to return to normal, roughly one or two days. So strange operations like a perpetual motion machine just aren’t possible.

However, for Xia Xinyan, it was good news. Now that she confirmed her bathwater was useful, she could save a lot of game points for other more useful things.

She should save quite a bit for Ling Mo.

… By the way, he wouldn’t notice anything odd, would he?