Volume 3 - CH 41.2

One day, when they were back on the bottom floor of the Tower again, Jiang Shuangmei suggested to her older sister, “jie (TL: Older sister, not necessarily always biological as a term of address, but very certainly is in this case), can we stop?”

A twin’s instinct immediately allowed Jiang Shuangjie to understand what her younger sister was suggesting.

She was tired. She had enough of the Nightmares. At least, not then.

So, they stopped. A few years at that.

When they stopped, that was precisely when Xü Beijin’s name was well-known among the Missiontakers on the bottom floor. The tired sisters did not pay attention to the liveliness du jour back then, though, and instead, they were drifting from the crowded marketplaces to the bars and decadent raves only Missiontakers who gave up went to.

When some Missiontakers were putting their sanity on the line in the Nightmares, the two of them, and some other Missiontakers, were indulging in laughs, debauchery and falling deep into the abyss. They no longer worried about the Nightmares, or concerned themselves with what the Tower was, what happened to the world outside, whether they can leave the Tower and other such frustrating questions.

Only the alcohol by their lips, and the mad dance and celebration every night, is real.

That was such a beautiful dream, but dreams end, and people wake up.

These days, changes were occurring in the Tower. Many people had their minds reignited.

It was apparently some news that might have been delivered from the floors above, another rumour like that Trick card supposedly allowing one to forcibly exit the Nightmare that nobody has actually ever seen.

Or maybe it was an old rumour with some new spice in it, mixed with strange tidbits of information inside the Nightmares, and became retold more and more distorted.

Anyway, it was to the point that even the Jiang sisters heard rumours about it in some of the raves──They say, a Missiontaker has left the Tower.

For real? But if they got out, how did the news come out?

So it’s fake? But… Just like they believe that Collapsed, eternally repeating Nightmares do not simply mean death, they had to believe it, just in case.

Therefore, even some Missiontakers that have indulged in debauchery for a long time already have crawled back out from their pits of alcohol and other mind-numbing substances, power-washing their brains, and rubbing their hands to try ascending the floors once more to see for themselves.

The Jiang sisters are among them.

They made their move even earlier than other Missiontakers, too, because they knew that the ‘Billionaire’ has already gone to a higher floor, so they immediately made their move the following night.

They knew Ding Yi, or more accurately, they were once partners of Ding Yi. It was always easier to place trust in their fellow girls.

Later, when Ding Yi excitedly shared her newfound card with them, the one she pulled out of nowhere from the rewards at the end of a Nightmare, they slowly, tacitly drifted apart.

From then on, Ding Yi quietly assumed the role of her Billionaire status, while the Jiang sisters continued drifting to and from the lower floors of the Tower. Some time later, after they stopped, they even once bought alcohol from Ding Yi.

Yet, the woman with the grue-coloured hair, and the twin sisters, all pretended they didn’t know each other.

Now, Ding Yi has gone to a higher floor. And the sisters, without saying anything outright, decided to leave their house late at night the next day.

It has been so long since they have been in Nightmares, but they at least still retained basic techniques. Right now, Jiang Shuangjie is searching inside the apartment.

A few minutes later, she stands back up, and furrows her brows again.

There is nothing.

Rather than a real, lived in room, it is more like a hotel room. There are all these household objects, of course, but they all look unused.

There are no clothes to be found in the wardrobe. No food in the fridge. Not even a shred of hair in the bathroom. All the rooms are empty; they are so clean it is unsettling.

She thought she would come across some clues – notes, newspaper, communication devices, anything, but there is nothing to be found here.

She tries to turn the TV on, but it seems to be broken. It would not turn on, just like how the door to the apartment unit wouldn’t open. There seems to be an intentional malice lying underneath everything.

Jiang Shuangjie is standing in the living room and looking around, confused.

Her thoughts expand further – what about her? What about the Missiontakers? Who are they in this Nightmare? Why are they in this apartment?

This Nightmare…

Jiang Shuangjie is regretting now. She should not have entered the Nightmare so callously. They should have tried to gather information about this Nightmare first.

They were just wandering about the Tower when they stumbled upon two familiar figures heading into the teleporting door of a Tower resident earlier, and they followed behind directly.

Who could have thought, that after the Nightmare began, they would immediately be separated?

One person per room instead of spawning together, it seems. They’re locked out, too…

Jiang Shuangjie looks anxious and dumbfounded.

Is this fact already hinting at something in the Nightmare?

While Jiang Shuangjie is all blanking out in the middle of the apartment unit living room, Xü Beijin has already gone through the rest of the Missiontakers’ situations through the stream.

The six other Missiontakers are all placed randomly in different rooms and floors in the apartment complex. There is no pattern to be found.

Most of them, just like Jiang Shuangjie, are combing through everything in the unit carefully for clues, but they find nothing, so they are all stuck thinking.

When they saw one particular Missiontaker, both Xü Beijin and the viewers were shocked to find her looking exactly the same as Jiang Shuangjie. They are clearly twins. Seeing twins in the Tower really is a rare occurrence.

Then they also happen to see a male Missiontaker giving strange gazes to the scene of the commercial complex visible outside the window.

Of course──There is Lin Qin. He is deep in thought in this apartment, staring at stuff. Xü Beijin is wondering whether this man who remembers nothing of Earth is currently perplexed or mystified thinking that this was how homes on Earth look like.

After looking through everyone, Xü Beijin switches the camera source back to the man with the strange expression on his face.

He’s young, looking to be in his 20s. Humans entering the game do not age, though, so, this is probably just how he was when he entered the Tower.

He looks deep in thought, staring at the commercial complex, yet… instead of surprise or shock or thought at having discovered a clue or something like that, it was more confusion, disbelief and even fear.

It was like he was looking at some fierce, wild beast about to lunge at him instead of a brightly lit commercial complex.

What is he thinking about?

Xü Beijin is now curious about him because of that expression.