Volume 2 - CH 36.2

Mu Jiashi still says sternly, though, “you shouldn’t have kept this information to yourself.”

Selfish and Scapegoat didn’t lie, true, but hiding crucial information is still a kind of distrust, a deception.

Selfish just goes ‘tch’ and replies, “I’m a lone wolf,” then adds, coldly, “really, I was going to resolve this Nightmare myself. If this guy,” he points to Scapegoat, “wasn’t with me at the service area, I wouldn’t have worked with him.”

Scapegoat’s face is all red. His lips are trembling, yet he keeps them shut in the end.

He knows how lone wolves are.

Lone wolf-types in the Tower never believe in teams. They are selfish. They value themselves above all else. They are cold and scarcely offers any trust. They keep a clear distance between themselves and other Missiontakers.

Mu Jiashi might technically be a lone wolf now, but having been in a Golddigging team, he still has habits of cooperation from back then——Or rather, he is someone who values the team above all else.

Lone wolves, more usually, resemble people like Selfish, and even more typical Missiontakers for that matter.

Scapegoat stayed speechless the entire time.

He is also someone who acts alone and doesn’t team up; he knows lone wolves, but someone like Selfish, who openly shows ‘I don’t care a single bit about any of you,’ is quite rare itself.

Scapegoat looks down on the floor, while thinking to himself, all the eight Missiontakers in this Nightmare are all quite…

The three ‘brothers’ that are their own team, the woman with the greenish-blue hair——Perhaps she’s that Necessities Merchant, though he hasn’t seen her, so he can’t be certain——the dalao with the game-breaking level of fighting power, the ruthless pragmatist, and an atypical lone wolf.

Oh, and himself…

While Scapegoat is all mulling over stuff, Mu Jiashi is temporarily shocked by Selfish’s response. Then, he sighs dejectedly and says, “I don’t really want to know what you lone wolves are thinking… anyway, just tell us everything you know, now that it’s come to this.”

Selfish shakes his head, answering, “I’ve said everything; I told you already that the last time I was in this Nightmare, we didn’t head into the fifth run.”

Mu Jiashi is still confirming with him, though, “are you sure there is nothing else to say? Was there not a single difference between the Nightmare you experienced earlier and this time?”

Selfish makes an impatient ‘tch’ but is still cooperative for now. He is recalling, “if I have to say… The fourth run, when we met each other at the service area, that guy… Laosan, was he? He was holding a newspaper, I think. We didn’t discover that clue the last time.”

Mu Jiashi gives him a surprised look.

“What, didn’t think I have good memory?” Selfish ‘tch’s again, as hateable as ever, as he continues, “I told you I’m a lone wolf. You think lone wolves rely on nothing but being lonely?”

Mu Jiashi isn’t interested in arguing for now, murmuring to himself, “so… You didn’t get the clue from the bookstore.”

To be honest, Mu Jiashi himself came across that news entirely coincidentally and understood part of the background information of this Nightmare from that.

In this Nightmare, with how tight the time is, it is difficult to explore the entire service area thoroughly.

After a rough exploration, if people naturally come to the conclusion that only Dai Wu is an important NPC with information, then naturally all the other scenes in the service area are no longer significant.

But… Insignificant? Impossible!

The existence of any explorable scene must definitely be self-justified. Without a doubt, they must definitely provide clues related to the endings of the Nightmare.

Even the NPCs who look unimportant were the tool-persons to allow the scene of the man in black’s mindless slaughter to play out back in the fifth run!

Nothing is ever useless in Nightmares;

In the fifth… No, wait, this is the sixth run. Dai Wu has recovered his earlier memories.

Then… what about Xü Beijin in the bookstore? What about people in the gas station?

Would there be any unexpected changes there?

Mu Jiashi quickly tells Selfish, “go check out the gas station. I’ll go to the bookstore.”

If Laosan or Ding Yi were here, he’d definitely have asked them instead of Selfish, but this is what it is.

Then he runs right for the bookstore.

Selfish has his brows furrowed. He doesn’t see a point to it, but follows the order while cussing still.

Meanwhile, the Nightmare enters its eighth minute. The bedroom team is probably already hurrying this way. Mu Jiashi rushes into the bookstore.

Xü Beijin, shocked, raises his head at Mu Jiashi.

Mu Jiashi stares at him, asking, “laoban, do you remember our promise? I said that I’ll go visit you in the Tower after the Nightmare is over.”

Xü Beijin hesitantly but firmly nods.

Of course he nods because he was allowed to——Actors of course remember everything that happened in the Nightmare, damn it, but whether they can reveal that they have ‘recovered their memories’ depends on permission from the Server. It decides when they can look like they ‘remember.’

The lower the level of an Actor, the less free they are in the Nightmare, though as Nightmares crumble, Actors can act more and more freely in Nightmares in general.

Since Xü Beijin saw that Dai Wu was all ‘I remember,’ he followed suit to also look like ‘I remember,’ pretending he just now recalled what Mu Jiashi planned with him earlier in the Nightmare.

Though it seems to make Mu Jiashi misunderstand, somehow.

Mu Jiashi gives Xü Beijin – this mysterious, handsome man with pale skin – a rather deep gaze.

From what he now know, not just in the Tower, but even in Nightmares his identity seems rather strange as well.

Mu Jiashi thought that it was reasonable the cashier recovered his memories because of how important his role is in the Nightmare; he was the trigger for the whole case of the murdered wife, despite his complete innocence.

But why would Xü Beijin recover his memories too? Did he still have more information to tell?

Right now, Mu Jiashi is suspecting Xü Beijin.

If the man in black wasn’t outside and still yelping in pain, then he would even begin suspecting Xü Beijin of being the killer that killed his wife in the first place——This Nightmare never said anything about the job of that murderer, now, did it?

Or rather… There’s another possibility.

Dai Wu told them that, after leaving the supermarket, the jealous husband was still lashing out at his wife, and their argument drew in a crowd. There was someone who was sympathetic to the wife and wanted to help, but was scolded all the same by the husband instead.

Assuming this bookstore owner was also part of the service area staff at the time, then perhaps, he was among the crowd, and even, he might be the person scolded himself.

The person is handsome, and more specifically, devilishly handsome. He definitely leaves a big first impression of being a big, bad guy, which would explain why the paranoid husband might have suspected his intentions.

Mu Jiashi’s logic is leaping several steps ahead as he continues to speculate on Xü Beijin’s role in the Nightmare.

If Xü Beijin knew what Mu Jiashi was thinking about, he would surely leave two clear trails of tears.

Speaking of which, no matter which Nightmare he was in, he would always be suspected of being an antagonist…

Mu Jiashi looks like he still wants to say something, but he pauses and keeps his mouth shut for now, instead, first looking down at the newspaper in front of the counter.

Then, his eyes widen.

He immediately grabs a copy, staring right at the title.

“POLICE: ‘KILLER STILL AT LARGE;’ WARRANT ISSUED!”

The title has changed!

This is no longer the previous newspaper. Both the contents and the date have changed.

The issue number and the date suggest it is a few editions after the previous one… At least, in terms of content, the previous one described the crime, while this one mentions directly that the killer is at large and the police are still searching for him.

Mu Jiashi quickly skims through the contents in the news——There was no more substantially different information.

Yet why would the date have changed? Is this part of the crumbling of the Nightmare at the fifth run?

While thinking about it, Selfish is walking towards the bookstore quickly.

As soon as he enters, he says, “the news showing on the TV in the gas station is not the same one those two people said earlier!”

Mu Jiashi, speaking with an excitation and aspiration not even he could understand very well, asks, “what was on the news?”

Selfish answers, ” the reporters are doing a live broadcast, it seems the police have largely isolated the killer, and have now fanned out to search for him.”

Mu Jiashi pauses to think.

The TV in the gas station seems to be showing events that take place even later than the newspaper in the bookstore, which actually makes sense, because of the inherent differences in recency between televised and paper media, not to mention the TV is showing a live broadcast.

But if that’s the case…

Mu Jiashi falls deep into thought.

A factor that they have ignored us thus far is gradually bearing its fangs.

Xü Beijin, through the screen of the stream and watching the two people directly on-scene, has understood what’s happening even though he didn’t see the newspaper or the news on the TV.

After thinking for a moment, a word suddenly strikes his mind.

The time!

In the stream, the detective dalao has also understood, typing on the comments excitedly, “The time! The time in this instance is not static!”