VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

Cheng Xiu sighed as she looked at the metal door in front of her. "Another Iron door."

San Zhe frowned. "So…use brute strength then?"

Just as he suggested that, there was small sound of the tolls of bells.

[Ding!]

[Please place your handle at the place where the key should be inserted and send a small amount of Qi into it.]

Cheng Xiu blinked in surprise.

That…

"Why did you not say that before?" she asked the AI.

[Players should have encounted Sub-plot 2 before they would be able to get in through the iron door for the first time.]

"We did not encounter any sub-plots," Cheng Xiu argued.

[Seeing the door not opening, you should have tried to find clues on how to open it through searching through the sub-plots.]

Yaksha raised an eyebrow. He was surprised by how interactive the AI seemed when it talked to Cheng Xiu.

San Zhe at the side also had a similar thinking, but his surprise was more obvious.

"What is it?" Cheng Xiu asked him.

San Zhe shook his head in a hurry. "You continue. The AI wants to fill you in more, I am sure."

Cheng Xiu rolled her eyes. "Anyway, why didn't you just stop us from using brute force then? Or you could have just made it that the door will only open through one means. Why did it open through our method?"

The AI was silent for a moment.

Yaksha raised an eyebrow when the system did not respond immediately. He speculated something in his mind.

"Could it be that…" Yaksha started with narrowed eyes, "that the answer was actually brute force all along? It was just that we were supposed to know about it through the sub-plot?"

Cheng Xiu's eyes widened. "Did you want us to use a specific item to break open the door? But I don't need that because I have Ghost Flame."

If there was one thing that the system regretted more than anything else in its entire data-filled life, it was the fact that it kept Ghost Flame in its system Store. Granted it was kept in the Grandmaster's Store, and the flame power seemed to be useless compared to all the other skills that the players could choose from at that point.

But Cheng Xiu chose Ghost Flame.

The system just considered itself lucky that it made the Ghost Flames a single player skill, making it so that the only person with the Ghost Flame skill was the girl in the exquisite white mask.

If the skill was available to more players, then it would have lost its entire credibility as a Gaming System as it would have made the game unbalanced even more than it already was.

[Just send your Qi into the door already…player Selafia.]

Cheng Xiu raised an eyebrow. She was sure that the only reason the AI added the 'player Selafia' phrase into that sentence was because it was pretending to be just a simple AI. And it was failing at it.

Yaksha's eyes looked at Cheng Xiu and then at the Iron door.

"Does it have to be Selafia?" he asked the system. He was only asking it curiously, and did not expect any response from it.

[No. It can be either Player Selafia or Player San Zhe. Any one of them could activate the door.]

"I can't?" Yaksha asked in a teasing voice.

[Player Yaksha is a neutral existence. You can do what you want to.]

Yaksha shook his head. "You seem very angry about that, my dear Maya."

The system stayed slient.

Cheng Xiu shook her head. "Stop antagonizing the system. Lets go then."

Yaksha shrugged his shoulders. "Lead the way, Little Sela."

Cheng Xiu sighed at the nickname. But she in the end decided not to respond to his words. If she did, he would keep using it as a means to agitate her.

And Cheng Xiu refused a self-sabotaging moment.

She placed her hand on the door.

The door, though made of metal, was slightly warm under her skin.

She closed her eyes and let her Qi flow into the centre of her palm and through that into the door where the skin of her hand and the smooth surface of the door met.

The door slid open without making a noice.

Cheng Xiu looked at it with a frown. Such a big iron door…why did it not make any noise when it opened? Though this was just a VR game, the chances of such a mistake to occur was near impossible, especially with a AI like Maya. Though she did not know the design process, it was very obvious that Maya was a very advanced system. In fact, the AI seemed to be even more human-like than she thought it was a few weeks back.

So what could be the reason that the door was so quiet?

Cheng Xiu stood in place and then looked at the long corridor that the door revealed. The stone passageway was lit by torches like the ones in movies.

The system should be on the side of the players, especially at this level where the players are not even at Level 10. If that was the case, then the silence of the door could be a hint. Maybe they were also supposed to stay silent.

Cheng Xiu frowned and then looked at San Zhe and Yaksha.

San Zhe looked over towards her. "What is it, sister Xiu?"

She shook her head and then looked at Yaksha.

The two stared at each other for a few seconds.

"You are right," Yaksha said to her.

San Zhe blinked. How was she right? Did she talk just now? Did he go deaf? Or did these two gain telepathy when he was not looking?

"What is she right about?" San Zhe asked.

"Silence is the key," Yaksha said to her.

Cheng Xiu nodded to show that she understood and then turned to San Zhe. "Brother San, the door did not creak when it was opned just now. I guessed that there might be a reason why the game had such a design. Yaksha ge agrees with me."

San Zhe shook his head. They thought of such a deep plot from a door creak. He felt very incompetent at that moment.

"Then what do we do?" San Zhe asked.

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Keep quiet and stick together?"

"Sounds like an excellent suggest!" San Zhe said.

Cheng Xiu smiled at him, closing her eyes to show him what she meant under the mask.

"Lets go then," San Zhe said.

San Zhe marched out the door.

Yaksha and Cheng Xiu followed behind him at a calmer pace.

They walked on in silence for some time.

He would open his mouth occasionally to say something but would remember half-way through and purse his lips to prevent himself from talking.

They walked for a few more minutes when Cheng Xiu tapped San Zhe on the shoulder.

He turned towards her.

She pointed towards the ground where he stood.

San Zhe stared down at his feet for a few seconds, trying to figure out what Cheng Xiu was trying to say.

His eyes fell on the shoes.

Thinking of something, he walked a bit. There was a sound of foot steps.

San Zhe shivered in fright.

It wasn't the fact that his foot-steps made sounds that agitated him. It was the sound of a second pair of footsteps that accompanied his own even though both Cheng Xiu and Yaksha stood a few steps back staring at him.

San Zhe grimaced.

Cheng Xiu pulled out her sword with a 'shuwaa' sound.

The sound a second sword being drawn was heard.

San Zhe wanted to cry.

Whatever was imitating them through the sounds now had a sword in their hands.

Cheng Xiu stepped forwards and grabbed his hand.

San Zhe blinked and then looked at Cheng Xiu in confusion.

Cheng Xiu gave his hand a slight squeeze with a nod.

San Zhe could read it in her eyes: I will protect you.

San Zhe felt like crying for a different reason at that moment. He was once again being rescued by someone who was his junior in almost every sense of the word.

Cheng Xiu let go of his hand at that moment.

She turned to Yaksha.

The two seemed to have reached some kind of an agreement, though Yaksha did not look happy about the decision.

San Zhe wondered what it was.

"Its alright, Brother San," Cheng Xiu said to him at that moment.

San Zhe's eyes widened in shock. Didn't they agree not to make a sound!

Before he could question her actions openly, Cheng Xiu disappeared from their eyesight in the next moment.

San Zhe stared at the spot in a daze. He opened his mouth to call her out but found a talisman that was blocking his voice.

San Zhe looked at Yaksha.

The expert had bad expression in his eyes. There was a barely hid rage in it.

___

Author's Theater:

Author: Maya! You are finally here again!

Maya: I have always been here.

Author waves the AI away: What do you know! Humph!

Maya: Childish.