MMORPG: Crowd Control

A few hours had gone by since Lei Zhen had fallen asleep and Samantha was just watching him from the balcony.

Similarly to how Lei Zhen didn't have the intention to disturb her sleep, she was also the same and refused to wake him up.

Although Lei Zhen had left the hospital early, she knew that he was busy gathering information and finding a solution within Magnolia.

As for how she knew it? Lei Zhen had texted her on the phone before going to sleep, so that was how she knew about it.

Samantha made sure to head back to her room to dress a bit more clothes before going back to the balcony to read through the whole document text Lei Zhen had sent to her.

'Hmm, seems like I must research more about Magnolia. It can affect someone like Lei Zhen to become an addict and now it's starting to affect people's health in real life. This is like the old days when a popular MOBA game had taken over the world.' Samantha thought to herself.

Reading through the documents, Samantha was also using another tablet to take crucial notes so that she could relay this information to the higher-ups and find a solution soon.

Time slowly passed by, and Samantha's eyes were hurting a bit so she went ahead and picked up the glasses that she only usually wears when trying to concentrate on a certain topic.

During this peaceful time, Lei Zhen's phone itself had been vibrating for quite some time, almost as if it was trying to tempt her to go through his phone secretly.

"This Lei Zhen… wasn't he an introvert? How could he have so many text messages?" Samantha twitched her brows, staring at the phone on the table.

She was debating whether or not to turn the phone into silent mode instead, but she was afraid that she might accidentally see what kind of messages were in it.

"Tsk, why should I be afraid? It's not like I have anything to hide." Samantha clicked her tongue and grabbed the phone, and accidentally glanced at the messages.

[Lei Zhen, Howard, and Liu Lingxin had already gone to the location you said but you aren't there.

When are you going to log back in?

Are you still alive, Lei Zhen?

Please don't tell me you knock out, especially when you told us to have them pick you up.]

These were all the text messages that Tang Qiaolian had sent to Lei Zhen.

Samantha was slightly astonished to see it was about Magnolia, and nothing else. Turning her head around, Samantha smiled briefly at Lei Zhen and decided to unlock his phone to give Tang Qiaolian a response.

After all, she didn't have the heart to wake Lei Zhen up when it was clear that he had pulled an all-nighter with those dark eyes of his.

However, Samantha seemed to have encountered an obstacle when she realized the password wasn't Lei Zhen's birthday.

"Don't people usually input their birthday as a password?" Samantha raised an eyebrow. She knew that despite many warnings from experts, people still tend to input their birth date as a password for cellular devices because it's easier for them to remember.

'If not his birthday, then could it be Lei Qingxuan?' Samantha wondered silently, inputting her birthday as the code. Alas, the result was still the same, and it wasn't right.

Feeling a bit confused, Samantha proceeded to try multiple dates including his parent's birthday, and finally, she decided to input Tang Qiaolian's birthday.

Tang Qiaolian was a nurse working in the very same hospital as her, but recently, Tang Qiaolian had gone on an indefinite hiatus break because she wanted to focus on Magnolia.

Though that wasn't the main reason why she knew Tang Qiaolian well. It was because she knew Tang Qiaolian had a huge crush on Lei Zhen and would attempt to spy on them whenever she would be tutoring Lei Zhen in her office.

'I'll be disappointed if Lei Zhen really uses her birthday.' Samantha exclaimed inwardly, inputting the code. And when the result came back as a fail, unknowingly, her mouth was slightly curved upward.

"Could he be using my birthday?" Samantha suddenly smiled and inputted her birthday, only to realize it was incorrect as well.

And because she had inputted so many incorrect passwords repeatedly, the phone sent a warning that if she attempted one more time and fail, the phone would go into a "freeze" mode, essentially locking the phone out from any more attempts.

Shaking her head, Samantha placed the phone down on the table and went to sit on her comfortable canvas wood beach chair, jotting down notes on her tablet.

However, she didn't know why there was an extremely irritable feeling in her heart, almost as if her inner emotion was screaming at her to try again.

Samantha was struggling to concentrate to even write anything properly on the tablet. "Damn it, I refuse to believe I don't know the password."

Standing back up, she straight up grabbed the phone again and pondered in silence.

'Not a birthday code, so what else could it be? 0329?' Samantha thought to herself.

0329, a date that stands for March 29, and also the date of their first encounter.

For some reason, Samantha was somewhat nervous as she swallowed some of her saliva, her finger inputting the first number, 0. Afterward, she pressed 3 and 2 before moving her finger to the last digit.

A few suspense moments later, Samantha pressed the 9 number, and the phone miraculously unlocked.

"..."

Although it was just her unlocking the phone successfully after numerous attempts, Samantha didn't know why the date she chose had such an effect on her emotions.

She was completely stunned, forgetting the reason why she wanted to unlock the phone in the first place.

And while she was stunned, a voice suddenly echoed from behind, nearly causing her to go into shock.

"March 29 was the toughest date of my life because I was on the verge of crumbling into pieces. Qingxuan was comatose and I was all alone. As much as I hate to admit it, I was falling into a severe depression until I met you." Lei Zhen said melancholy.

And he continued, "Back when I was informed that the attending doctor of Qingxuan had been swapped, I was feeling empty in the heart. I walked toward the new attending doctor's office and expected nothing… until you appeared in front of me and opened a new world for me."

Samantha didn't pay attention to his wording and merely asked, "When were you awake?"

Her back was still facing toward Lei Zhen, clearly unable to see him in the face directly at the moment.

She was practically caught red-handed unlocking his phone without permission. To make things worse, it was when he was supposedly asleep.

"I was awake by the time you shouted "damn it" in frustration, and I realized you were trying to unlock my phone." Lei Zhen chuckled softly and got up from his chair.

Walking toward her, Lei Zhen took back his phone and opened the notebook app before revealing it to her.

In the notebook, lots of important dates were listed, and to her surprise, March 29 was placed as the highest priority.

"I don't use people's birthdays as my password because I believe birthdays aren't something you can control. It's not like you can complain or argue about having another date as your birthday." Lei Zhen calmly explained his preferences for passwords.

Meanwhile, Samantha was confused as to why he was explaining until Lei Zhen continued further.

"But I do believe one can control when they would meet the one in their life. March 29 was the turning point of my life in which I was on the verge of losing my sanity, and you appear in my life, flashing colors into my dull and dark day." He smiled softly, extending his hand to hold onto hers.

"Um… Lei Zhen, I don't think I'm-"

Before Samantha could finish her sentence, Lei Zhen retracted his hand and chuckled softly.

"Don't worry, I'm just trying to warm your hand up briefly in case you are going to die from embarrassment." He laughed heartily and turned around, exiting the balcony to ensure that he wouldn't be here to witness her face turning red from embarrassment.

After all, getting caught red-handed was definitely not a glorious moment, to say the least.

Once Lei Zhen's presence was completely gone, Samantha quickly plopped to the ground with both her hands covering her face, almost as if she was turning into a turtle, trying to hide in its shell.

"God, that was so embarrassing…" Samantha gasped in shame.

Her ears were completely red, but that wasn't the main reason. It was the fact that she was about to reject Lei Zhen's confession or supposedly confession. The only regrettable moment was that she didn't know if Lei Zhen was truly going for that or if it was just her being sensitive.

"I just need a bit more time to finish something…"