The Strongest Window

"Does it actually hurt?" Gu Yue softly asked him in concern, her face finally beginning to show guilt for the horrendous crime she had just committed.

What kind of question is that...?

"Of course, it hurts...! It hurts like hell!" And that was his... calm and collected reply to that retar- foolish question.

Godamnit! He had just gotten back to his prime condition after the disaster in level 27! Now? He'd be surprised if he could even fight a single entity in this state.

He totally wasn't being overdramatic.

On his right, Tang Jiayi continued to support him and helped him keep walking, while Gu Yue had taken a couple of steps back to check on Tang Wulin, half of her attention on him, the other half on trying to find the black-haired man.

"Sorry..." Gu Yue's seemingly honest and genuine apology (plus that divine face) instantly removed 42% of his pain and suffering, but 42% still wasn't even half of what he was going through. "Around the time you were missing, Xu Xiaoyan advised me to perform that 'attack' to any man that annoyed me, specifically stating that 'It would teach them a lesson' to not mess with me."

"I also thought your body could handle it..." She added that last part more silently.

So that explains why he only saw her do that now, even though she talks with a lot of men that get on her nerves. Well, now he knows exactly who's getting a beating first once he gets out of this accursed place.

Spoilers; It's not Xie Xie.

"Whatever..." Tang Wulin said with a sigh as the pain began to subside, not feeling as shit as he originally did. "It's fine. Just save that little 'attack' if I do something really stupid and deserving of such a punishment. Also, please do not put as much power into your kick." He said in a calmer tone, only advising Gu Yue to not do it again.

Gu Yue nodded resolutely in response, soon turning back to the people and looking for the stranger.

Everyone, their mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all knew that Tang Wulin was physically and scientifically incapable of staying mad at Gu Yue for more than ten minutes. (That first fight was an outlier.)

Besides, he had a new target to direct all that rage to.

Xu Xiaoyan...

"You forgave her that fast...?!" Tang Jiayi asked with a whisper-shout, bringing Tang Wulin out of his thoughts of murder and reminding him of the Tang's presence. The question itself only brought a small sigh out of him.

If only he knew the power and control Gu Yue's face had over him...

However, it seemed like Tang Jiayi read him better than he thought he was capable of (or maybe his love-stricken expression was just that obvious to everyone), his eyes widening in surprise, disbelief, and exasperation as he made eye contact with Tang Wulin.

He watched Tang Jiayi turn away, barely catching a whisper that he was clearly not meant to hear.

"What the hell happened to you..."

Huh?

"I see the guy." Gu Yue called out as she pointed her finger to the left, cutting Tang Wulin's thoughts before they could get anywhere.

Tang Wulin turned in the direction Gu Yue was leading him, spotting the man on the ground with four other people sitting right next to him, all of them engaged in a conversation.

"Right." He said calmly, his face going serious as he dislodged himself from Tang Jiayi and stood on his own, ignoring the pain and focusing on more important matters.

"We're trying to get supplies. Preferably, supplies such as food, water, and other essentials. Clothes and healing aren't necessary anymore since they already gave that out for free, thankfully." His words were met with obedient nods, showing that they were listening.

"Let me try to negotiate and convince them to trade as much as they can even with our minuscule supply. And if that doesn't work, do not get angry or annoyed at them. Only be as calm, peaceful, and mature as you can. This-" In the middle of talking, Tang Wulin turned his head to Gu Yue, his gaze becoming sharper. "-goes especially true for you, Gu Yue."

Unlike every other time, Gu Yue didn't say anything and just agreed silently with a nod, a gesture he heavily appreciated.

"Keep acting like how you did when we met them, okay?" Tang Wulin asked gently, his face melting back to normal.

After getting another nod from Gu Yue, Tang Wulin turned his sights back on the group of people.

Things he needed to accomplish:

1. Get food. Preferably an amount that would satisfy his bottomless stomach.

2. Ensure that this relationship stays friendly. Allies are always good.

3. Get tips on shortcuts to traverse the levels faster. After thinking about it for a while, he realized that there were certain shortcuts to skip levels in the backrooms, the most obvious example being when Gu Yue and Tang Wulin broke through the floor and skipped 26 levels.

4. Make sure Gu Yue behaves.

5. Overall. Try to get as much as he can from these people.

─────────────────────────────────────

They headed out of the lively place filled with people, instantly going back to the silence and loneliness the backrooms were known for once they shut that door behind them.

"It could've gone worse." Gu Yue silently remarked as she and Tang Jiayi walked by his side, bringing her own way of reassurance.

"I wanted food..." In response, he, very maturely, whined like a baby.

Gu Yue behaved and conducted herself well enough. They had gotten info and shortcuts on how to skip some levels, and ended the talk on pretty good terms. Not to mention he accomplished all that by trading a single egg and some random supplies from Tang Jiayi.

After all that, you would think it was a success and that he would be satisfied, but no. Why?

He was still hungry.

"Don't stress about it too much. I promise we'll find a lot of food if we look enough." Tang Jiayi reassured him in an almost dismissive manner, his face becoming thoughtful as if he was thinking of something.

"Yeah, but you don't understand..." Tang Wulin began but eventually trailed off, preferring to look at the ground in depression.

Briefly, he caught Gu Yue giving him a contemplating look as if she was deciding whether to do something or not. That expression soon disappeared and she did nothing but give him a silent comforting look. He planned to show his appreciation for that, but someone spoke up before he could.

"That your stomach is the closest thing we have to a black hole for food?" Wait- how did Tang Jiayi know that?

Turning his head and attention to him once again, Tang Wulin managed to catch his panicked expression for a split second, but it was gone the moment after.

Nearly acting as if they've known each other. It's happened too many times now to still be just a coincidence.

He should really ask him what his deal was when he gets the chance.

Shoving that thought to the side, for now, Tang Wulin pushed open another door in front of him and was immediately met with the sight of extremely heavy thunderstorms occurring, the windows around acting as a barrier. Keep in mind, he had already been hearing the muffled noises of said rain getting louder since he was in the outpost, so he wasn't surprised.

Regardless, this was perfect.

"They said if we broke that window and jumped through in the midst of a thunderstorm, we'll be sent to some pool, right?" Gu Yue stated, clearly looking for their confirmation.

"I've been told the level is calm in a kind of unnverving way, but it has been confirmed to be devoid of entities." Tang Jiayi said and ran over to the window. "So we'll be safe there."

Well, this level didn't sound that bad. He would much rather prefer levels with civilizations of people, but a pool with no entities sounded cool too.

"And does the level have food and supplies? Specifically, an amount that will satisfy this big baby over here?" He was just going to say now that he was not a big baby. Do not listen to Gu Yue.

"Every level in the backrooms, save for the truly hellish ones, all have an infinite stock of food evenly distributed throughout the level. Moreover, I remember that level was also described as extremely large. So I'm confident we could gather enough food for him."

Well, this level sounded amazing. He was going there now.

With that, Tang Wulin used his starving stomach as motivation and rushed forward to the window, rearing his fist back to break the window to pieces.

Woohoo! He was about to get food-

"Ow!"

"Wulin-!" Gu Yue teleported to his side almost instantly after hearing his cry of pain, grabbing the arm that punched the window.

"What happened?! Is the window more durable than we thought?!" And now Tang Jiayi was also by his side, about as worried as Gu Yue was.

"Not sure. I just...-" Trailing off to silence, Tang Wulin was slightly hesitant to utter the next words. "-didn't bother to use my martial soul or even 10 percent of my normal strength when I threw the punch..."

Gu Yue's hand let go of the arm holding his, and before Tang Wulin could see where it went-

Bonk!

"Ow..." Tang Wulin cried as Gu Yue punched him in the head, albeit it barely did any damage more than just a light tap.

"Why...?" Yep. That single word showed all her feelings. "Are you dumb...?" Well... After not getting any response at all, Gu Yue seemed to finally lose it.

"Here's a little tip for ASSAULT TYPE SPIRIT MASTERS! When you go to punch something... Try activating your martial soul...!!" Gu Yue announced with barely, BARELY restrained rage, teeth gritted, eyes blazing, and everything.

"It was just one window!" Tang Wulin immediately began to defend himself. "How was I supposed to know it had the durability of TANG SAN?!"

"But a window is basically just sand heated up-"

Gu Yue straightened up at his response, turning to the accursed window and pointing her palm over to it. Conjuring a ball of ice and fire, he watched Gu Yue aim at the center of the window and throw the two elements.

The two elements combined together and collided with the window, and although it briefly looked to be being stopped in its tracks, it did prevail through the heated sand and exploded, cracking the window and causing some of the shards of glass to scatter to the ground beneath the now cracked window.

For a brief moment, all the noise being created was from the heavy rain as drops of water landed on the floor next to the window.

...

"I can explain-"

"I am now stronger than Tang San." Gu Yue announced with complete seriousness and a serious face to match, turning back to Tang Wulin as she spoke.

However, he easily saw through it and knew she was just being condescending and as much of an asshole as she could be, which he guessed was already quite clear to everyone.

Tang Wulin and Gu Yue proceeded to enter into another back-and-forth argument, something which Tang Jiayi didn't seem too keen on watching himself. It was understandable enough.

So while Tang Wulin was screaming at Gu Yue that the window was actually really damn durable, Tang Jiayi walked over to another one of the said windows, cocking his fist and punching before the other two knew what was happening.

"AAAAHH!" Tang Jiayi yelled in even more pain than Tang Wulin did as he threw back his hand and gripped it tightly, his cry gaining Gu Yue and Tang Wulin's attention as a result.

Tang Wulin immediately dashed forward to see what he could do to help. But Gu Yue stayed rooted to her spot.

"Are you... fucking serious?" Well. Those were the words he heard as he helped Tang Jiayi stand back up properly, afterward turning back to Gu Yue and noticing her most silently pissed-off expression.

Knowing what exactly she meant, Tang Jiayi spoke up, now trying to defend himself as Tang Wulin did. "I wanted to see if it was actually really durable or if Tang Wulin was just weak..." The former. Definitely.

"The strength of a senile old man who doesn't even cultivate doesn't matter!" Senile old man. Ouch. Definitely uncalled for, Gu Yue.

"He could use one infiniteth of his power and still be stronger than you!" Wait, so is she on his side or what?

"The point here is that you-" Tang Wulin flinched as Gu Yue's fingers landed on him. "-and now you as well-" He also saw Tang Jiayi flinch slightly. "-are both stupid!"

Gu Yue took a deep breath, and Tang Wulin just knew a rant was coming. Maybe he should calm her down.

Grabbing Gu Yue's wrist before she could begin, (he also grabbed Tang Jiayi's arm as well.) Tang Wulin rushed to the window Gu Yue broke in her little example earlier, running right through it and ignoring the incessant protest along the way.

He hoped those strangers were right and that they wouldn't have to go across a dangerous level for a while by going on this route.