Escape from Shangri-La [Infinite Flow]

On a beautiful Saturday when he didn't have to go to work or take on a mission, Xiao Hechuan was pulled into some inexplicable alternate space.

No, calling it an alternate space wasn't quite right.

As the leader of the Special Operations Team, he had seen countless alternate spaces. He was certain that none of them had player ratings, ranked leaderboards, an East City and a West City in Shangri-La, or a strange man who stubbornly insisted that he join his team.

The strange man's name was Ryan. His defining traits were his beauty, his fragility, and a brain that only worked some of the time.

After being pestered relentlessly into agreeing to join the team, Xiao Hechuan entered the second instance with him. For who knew how many times now, Ryan had been begging for help one moment after tearing a little demon apart with his bare hands the last. Xiao Hechuan decided the man had something wrong with his head and began to regret his decision.

To be fair, his motives hadn't been pure. He'd been bewitched by Ryan's exquisite features and outstanding looks before taking the bait. In short, he was acting on lust.

...Fortunately, the other teammates were all fairly normal, at least compared with Ryan, who had suddenly become so frail he could barely stand. Choosing them as teammates gave Xiao Hechuan hope that he might make it back to the real world.

They stumbled through two more instances like this. Then, somehow, Ryan finally got the hang of things and suddenly stopped being so fragile. He was mighty enough to uproot mountains and overwhelm the world. It looked as if he could single-handedly smash his way through the old lair on the West City side.

Ryan snapped the female ghost's neck for the tenth time, and a broadcast from somewhere began to announce:

[Player 2 has killed the Black-Clad Female Ghost. Points earned: 4.]

He turned around, left the poor soul with its head separated from its body, and complained to Xiao Hechuan, "My hand hurts."

Xiao Hechuan: ...

You twisted off ten heads in half an hour. If your hand doesn't hurt, whose would?

Scheming, calculating, green-tea beauty seme x upright, straightforward powerhouse uke

Cat seme, dog uke, 1v1, happy ending

(Okay, actually, they're both powerhouses, but the seme went to great lengths to act weak in order to hook the uke. For now, let's humor him and hide the fact that he's a powerhouse. :-D)

The "God" has offered guidance: the first person to reach the top of the Black Tower will command the fate of the next era.

Is Shangri-La a utopia from a dream, or a beast's cage that devours flesh and blood?

The companion story set in the same timeline, "[Infinite Flow] Codename: Zero-Sum," is currently updating. Come check it out! :-D

Synopsis:

Tong Yao, the most reliable overachiever in the entire Federation, has a 100% mission success rate and holds the top position among the Observers.

In the 52nd year of the Cataclysm, the entire Arcanum Federation was engulfed by alternate spaces. He opened a door and found the scene of a murder. The culprit was his boyfriend, whom he hadn't seen in eight years.

Of course, he'd soon be his ex-boyfriend.

Zhu Cijing had only just escaped the complications of an experiment. Before he could get his words in order, he ran into Tong Yao in an alternate space. When they met, his knife was still stuck in an NPC.

As reunion scenes go, it was an absolute disaster.

Question: What do you do when your assigned mission partner is the ex you just broke up with?

Answer: While the feelings are still warm, turn up the heat and try to rekindle the old flame.

Their relationship had changed, but their minds hadn't. No matter what, they couldn't hide their instinctive understanding of each other.

One look was all it took to understand. Their rhythms were perfectly in sync, and neither had to worry about the other dragging them down.

They pummeled NPCs and tackled layers of puzzles. Their progress through each stage was smooth, and they cleared them so quickly that even three more teams couldn't catch up.

Their romance and their missions advanced side by side, until they entered a mid-level alternate space.

Damaged cultivation pods littered the laboratory. The experiment reports in the office were divided into four sets by year, with a name on the pages that felt all too familiar.

There were even high-definition recordings documenting everything on site from every angle.

As the video played, frame by frame, Zhu Cijing's heart grew colder and colder.

Tong Yao stared at the shocking images on the screen, grabbed Zhu Cijing by the collar, and yanked him toward himself.

Through clenched teeth, he smiled without warmth. "Care to explain, nonhuman commander of the Purifiers?"

Constantly pulling wild stunts, an edgy performance artist, long-haired beauty seme x sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, double-standard, aloof beauty uke

Theme: Honor freedom