Volume 3 - CH 40.3

Xü Beijin saw Lin Qin off. This is the first time he has ever spent a day with someone else in the Tower. True, he had the stream’s audience with him in the Nightmares now, but accompaniment over the Internet is still nonetheless different from real connections.

He can’t help but recall the other Missiontaker who said he will visit – Mu Jiashi… That said, they did get a True End, so Mu Jiashi should be on a higher floor now, right?

Thinking so, Xü Beijin couldn’t help but chuckle, not for happiness, but for some more complex thoughts. It was bitter.

Even if Mu Jiashi did come to visit, it is still most likely because he was interested in his Nightmare, huh.

Quite the demoralising thought he’s having.

He can’t help but be awed at how simple and straightforward Lin Qin is, again. He likes being with and talking to someone like Lin Qin, someone so simple he can read like the back of his hand.

… That’s definitely not a diss at Lin Qin, by any means. Lin Qin has sharp instincts himself, and other aspects he cannot even hope to match.

After the short silence standing at the doorway, Xü Beijin is wallowing in his complex thoughts.

Then, he retreats back into the bookstore to clean up, putting everything where it should have been. When the bookstore returned normal, Xü Beijin just sat there quietly.

He is regretting all of a sudden.

Perhaps he should have left the things disorganised for a bit longer; he could have made the aftereffect of having a friend visit last longer.

These are but laments, meaningless, really.

He sighs, and sits until it was well into the night.

When suddenly, another disorienting feeling overtakes his brain – he is shocked. A working day again after just a day of rest? It has never been so frequent in the past…

Though he cannot oppose the Server, so he just peacefully closes his eyes as his consciousness sinks deeper into the dark.

When he opens his eyes, the Nightmare is also at night time.

He looks around to find himself yet again the owner of a bookstore, though he is again without information on this Nightmare at all. Looks like he’s going to be a casual extra again.

Outside the bookstore is a vibrant commercial complex. The night is no deterrent to any business, though none of that is affecting his decrepit, ancient bookstore any.

In fact, Xü Beijin is choked to coughing by the dust emanating the atmosphere in the bookstore. Both surprised and shaking his head, he is sure this old bookstore is even more of a mess than his own in the Tower.

Those books randomly strewn about the shelves really resemble antiques——Without the usual price tag attached, because he is merely using the noun to give a sense of the thickness of the layer of dust above; they look like they have only been recently excavated out of some ancient tomb.

The only source of light within the bookstore is the single lightbulb above his head. The dim, yellowish light is not even remotely as bright as the illumination from outside.

Xü Beijin opens the window to finally help lower the dust content a little, before turning the stream on.

The viewers wouldn’t come rushing in immediately, which Xü Beijin is used to already. He takes a look at the right of the screen to decide which view to switch to.

… Then he falls into shock.

On the list of scenes on the right of the stream, under the option for switching scenes, the list is so long even the screen does not fit.

Xü Beijin takes a closer look to realise that these scenes in the list are even divided into sub-lists, like the ‘Luoke Apartment Floors 1-11.’ Clicking on one of the floors reveals a list of different room numbers of each respective floor. It runs from 0101 to 1111, 121 rooms in total.

That is still excluding the corridors on each floor, the stairs, the lobby, the elevators, the security room, the electrical room, and underground carpark and even the outside green space and other such apartment complex facilities. And most importantly, none of that is barely touching on the large commercial complex Xü Beijin is in.

There must be a massive amount of information buried in this Nightmare.

In his first ever streamed Nightmare, Xü Beijin only found the Dollmaker’s and his bookstore; the second one was larger, but the number of meaningful scenes were not comparatively much higher.

Though this Nightmare has over a hundred items already, just counting the apartment rooms. A skim also puts the number of stores in the commercial complex at ‘dozens.’

Just the number of Actors involved must be tremendous this time.

Though Xü Beijin then looks at the number of Missiontakers, to find there are seven this time (TL: Which would usually be a lot, but is definitely low in terms of Missiontakers/scene).

… Lin Qin is among them.

Xü Beijin is in shock.

Why is Lin Qin, that guy in Nightmares again? Didn’t they say he enters Nightmares less than once every 10 days or even half a month? Is he here to look for new varieties of drinks?

Xü Beijin then slowly turns his head over in the direction of the commercial complex outside the bookstore. It looks like it is trying to prove something to him.

… His head hurts.

Though he doesn’t know the names of any of the six other Missiontakers. So he is sure that he has never met them in the previous two Nightmares, at least.

Which makes sense, given they have had two True Ends already. Besides the weirder Lin Qin, the rest of the Missiontakers should have all chosen to ascend to a higher floor.

Xü Beijin decides to pick a Missiontaker-occupied room at random to check out what this Nightmare today is about.

The room number is, 807.

On-screen is a brightly-lit, well-furnished high-class apartment unit. A female Missiontaker is standing right in the middle of the living room. She looks like she just regained consciousness, and is looking around her in a daze.

After living in the dark, dilapidated Tower for so long, she has been practically stunned suddenly seeing what perfectly resembles a high-class apartment unit that looks like it belonged back on Earth. She is in disbelief that she is seeing this in a Nightmare…

Like, a Nightmare!

What kind of Nightmare could happen in a warmly lit, homely, artistically decorated, very obviously expensive apartment unit outfitted with even smart furniture all around?

The Nightmare of a house loan?

The female Missiontaker has her brows furrowed. Something feels strange to her.

She reflexively touches her waist, where in a pocket inside her clothes are the two utility cards she readied for this Nightmare. The two most powerful ones she has collected among all the ones she collected over the years.

For this Nightmare, she brought them without hesitation.

Yet… This oddly serene scene in the Nightmare means these two utility cards are practically stunted right now.

When suddenly, she feels a chill down her spine, shocking her and making her immediately turn around to look behind her.

There is nothing behind her, even though the feeling is still so asininely real. They are creeping into her bones and marrow; she is having waves of chills.

Trembling, she keeps turning around and around, but finds nothing. There are warm lights in the apartment, plus the several smart LEDs decorating the room make the room as bright as day.

Everything is so normal, but she can only feel fear.

She cannot see her back.

Yet, it feels like someone, is staring right at her back.