Volume 1 - CH 23.1

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

Xü Beijin is spooked and almost yells out. He turns to the side and asks in shock, “Wu Shen? Why are you here?!”

It is precisely Wu Shen who is standing in front of him.

Shouldn’t he be inside the flashback? Why is he suddenly on the first floor of the doll store?

The viewers of the stream are equally in shock, and begin the usual comment barrage. They were also absorbed in reading earlier, and didn’t notice him appearing at all.

While Xü Beijin does not understand why he’s suddenly here, Wu Shen also says curiously, “took the words out of my mouth… Why are you here instead?” Then he waves the letter in his hand, saying, “and you found this thingy too.”

Xü Beijin adjusts for a little bit before replying, “I was curious.”

Wu Shen gives him an odd look, “curious? Really? Everyone is just Acting anyway;” then the man smiles and adds, “if you really wanted to know what happened here, I could tell you about it in secret if you just asked, you know.”

Xü Beijin “…”

Really, the man was still an insane DID sufferer who made his daughter into a doll just now and is immediately telling a friendly joke with him the next second… It really is kind of hard to adapt to.

In a sense, Wu Shen truly is an immensely skilled actor.

Xü Beijin and Wu Shen are… familiar strangers.

In the Tower, they are neighbours living right next to each other. They would greet each other if they met, too, but that’s it. In the Tower, people come and go, and they might just end up disappearing one day. Therefore, there are few genuine friends.

And of course, it means there are no eternal enemies either, outside of the universally despised Carddealers.

Xü Beijin doesn’t know that much about Wu Shen other than him being a very career-oriented Actor. At least, from what he could remember, he has been dragged into Wu Shen’s Nightmare as an extra over a dozen times already.

Though… Perhaps the Missiontakers each time are too imperceptive, or Wu Shen’s Nightmare has True Ends that are all too obscure, in any case, even after so many different restarts, he has never truly succeeded.

That said, after all this time, Xü Beijin still only knows very little about this Nightmare, given he is merely an extra.

If the streaming system didn’t intervene and allow him to observe the Missiontakers from afar, he would probably have never become curious in the first place.

Each resident in the Tower is assigned their own Nightmare; if he were curious about each and every one of them, he’d have become the proverbial dead cat from his curiosity a long time ago.

This is the first Nightmare ever, since he has become an Actor, that he is proactively participating in the Nightmare’s progression; well, proactive enough that he left his bookstore and went to another scene, of course.

Wu Shen’s friendliness sends shock waves through the viewers of the stream.

The detective dalao is typing furiously, “I knew it! I knew a player must have randomly been assigned as the perpetrator! I guessed it was the host before, but it’s actually Wu Shen; he’s also a player! Fuck me, this game is amazing!”

Xü Beijin “…”

Well, duh, too bad you guessed wrong earlier.

Though honestly, that ‘suspect hostism’ thing was still a little thorn of a misunderstanding in his mind.

Meanwhile, Wu Shen knocks at Xü Beijin lightly with his shoulder, asking with a smile, “well? Want spoilers or not? Quickly now, we don’t want the Missiontakers to see us chatting casually here.”

Xü Beijin hesitates for a second before asking, changing the topic too, “where did the Missiontakers go, anyway?”

“In the flashback,” Wu Shen shrugs, “I might be diligent in my work, but I really don’t want to go through… making a doll out of a little girl… you know.”

There is visible disgust on Wu Shen’s face.

Xü Beijin sighs in relief, almost out of reflex.

That is because Wu Shen’s attitude towards the whole thing is actually, contrary to expectations, rare among the Actors.

Many Actors would end up completely assuming the role themselves. The characters they were acting as would become them entirely. They would genuinely chase after the Missiontakers, or actually commit those terrible, completely maniacal acts themselves.

They should have been Acting, but if they’re unable to snap back to reality, then they would eventually end up as the character in the script.

Wu Shen is still saying, “I would much rather not become that perverted man, thank you very much. I… I do still want to check out the higher floors, you see.”

When they change floors, the Actor will be assigned a new role in a new script. For the Actors who have already become one with their roles in the bottom floor of the Tower, they always have a really hard time adapting if they change their roles like that, Xü Beijin would imagine.

Which explains why more career-oriented Actors, ones like Wu Shen, would try to keep their reason and sanity about them.

Xü Beijin then says, “and you’re about to succeed, too.”

“Yeah,” Wu Shen then tells Xü Beijin all about his hardships, concluding with a “… really, it was worth it to leave a utility card that basically spoiled the entire plot back inside the store in the Tower so that a Missiontaker would find it… I just hope that he’d be a bit cleverer and get that True End, then carry me along to a higher floor.”

Xü Beijin smiles in response.

Glasses probably thought it was fortune smiling upon him. He could never have guessed that it was actually a Tower resident pushing him along from behind him.

Wu Shen suddenly remarks, after watching Xü Beijin’s face intently, “you really…”

Xü Beijin asks, confused, “what?”

Wu Shen seems reluctant, but still tells the truth in the end, “did you know how much you looked like a villain with that smile?”

Xü Beijin “…”

… Ok ok ok! He knows he looks really antagonistic, ok!

Wu Shen then asks, “I also heard rumours about you… Are you really not considering, letting the Missiontakers try your Nightmare out?”

Xü Beijin is silent.

Wu Shen then says, “I’m guessing you refuse because you have to Act as someone so obscenely terrifying in the Nightmare so you do not even want to try, right? But it’s still bad not sleeping at all, you know? And you have to keep drinking to keep yourself awake, too.”

Xü Beijin sighs, but still firmly and resolutely shakes his head, telling him, “I would never let others into my Nightmare,” then he asks in turn, slightly perplexed, “how’d you come to know me so well, anyway?”

Wu Shen gives a slightly awkward smile and answers, “sorry about that, it’s just a habit at this point; spend enough time in the Tower and really, you have to keep yourself entertained somehow. I think a lot about everything around me, or I’d… go rusty.”

Xü Beijin nods in understanding.

Yes, that’s how the Tower is.

Everyone in the Tower would never age or die. They might end up succumbing to the Nightmares themselves, true, but that is uncommon across Actors.

Add to that the fact that they cannot reveal their identities at all or join in on the mad debaucheries some of the Missiontakers arrange, most of the Tower residents end up spending their days in a haze.

Wu Shen really is an exception here. He is career-oriented. He does whatever he could to ensure he keeps his calm and reason. Over time, he has built up skills for analysis and deduction that are almost like instincts.

And the man in question looks at Xü Beijin again, thinking about how this neighbour of his… sure is mild-mannered.

His direct, completely inappropriate psychological profiling of Xü Beijin’s actions didn’t actually make him mad ever so slightly.

Well, he also knows that Xü Beijin isn’t some saint with no principles; once, a Missiontaker tried to knock Xü Beijin unconscious to enter his Nightmare, but he ended up thrown out of Xü Beijin’s bookstore.

Nobody knew how he did it, since the Missiontaker is apparently pretty physically strong. Not to Lin Qin’s degree, but is still someone renowned and feared locally for his prowess alone.

Yet, he was thrown outside by Xü Beijin in utter disgrace.

That happened a long time ago, and was also the turning point for the Missiontakers trying to get into his Nightmare; and eventually, when most of them have become convinced that Xü Beijin really is a monster that never sleeps, they gave up.

Nowadays, the bookstore owner, once infamous in the Tower, once the person whose Nightmare is the most sought-after mystery that all wanted to investigate, has become a shut-in in his bookstore. That, and lazing about in all the other Nightmares.

Oh, right, and his strange trades with drinks.

These drinks are actually simple to obtain. Some Tower residents are shopkeepers themselves, or something similar. Daily necessities could be obtained from them.

Other than that, each time a Missiontaker achieves any ending in a Nightmare (TL: Not too sure, but given what I’ve read later on, it seems this includes Bad Ends, just with reduced odds), they get one go at the prize pool. There are both the coveted utility cards and also everyday supplies.

The living conditions in the Tower are appalling. That said, they’re all ‘characters in a game’ in a sense, so they do not have hunger or thirst, and theoretically, neither do they have drowsiness.

On their personal information panel is a setting called ‘stamina,’ though, which does mean they would gasp for breath when they are engaged in serious physical exercise, but a brief rest later and it will naturally recover.

In any case, humanity really is a species with ‘pursuit of life quality’ etched in their genes, perhaps, which means all the supplies the prize pools give out have become a currency in the Tower. There is simple commerce in the form of bartering.

And that’s it.

From Carddealers, to the Tailors, the Collectors, the Necessities Traders, to Food Hawkers and Marketplaces… Anything and everything is built solely on the basis of Nightmares.

Suddenly, Wu Shen’s expression changes as he says, “oh damn, the flashback is almost over. Time to get back to work. I have to go back up, and you should head back too,” he then tells Xü Beijin sternly, “curiosity is a good thing, but it must be behind the Missiontakers’ backs.”

Xü Beijin nods and thanks him for his time and advice.

He watches Wu Shen quickly climb back up to the second floor as he puts the letter from the owner’s wife back in the counter’s drawer.

It is something that would complete her image in this Nightmare, but there probably isn’t a need for the Missiontakers to read it by now.

He quickly heads back to the bookstore.