Volume 3 - CH 44.2

After the Nightmare restarted, Xü Beijin left the bookstore once again.

Since his first stream, when he left his bookstore tentatively, Xü Beijin has become used to acting freely in Nightmares.

The Server does not completely dictate what Actors do every single moment, only requiring that Actors not do anything unbefitting their assigned roles as judged subjectively by any Missiontaker that are aware of them in the vicinity. They must keep up the perfect performance of a Tower resident in front of them.

Really, the very first Actors had also once tried to oppose NE somehow, but unfortunately, over the long period of time and a continued dread at seeing the hopelessness, most Actors have given up.

Even Xü Beijin has become used to life in the Tower now. Peaceful, hopeless, without a future.

Dai Wu told him he treats this game as a ‘second life,’ not forgetting about reality at the same time… Xü Beijin is not confident he can also do so. Dai Wu’s fearless optimism is something Xü Beijin wishes he had himself.

But he does not. In other words, he has also submitted himself to NE already. He’s given up already.

The only principle he still upheld is that no Missiontakers will ever enter his Nightmare. For that sake, he has had to come up with all sorts of ways to elevate his spirit. A harmless little habit was born thusly, too.

That was it.

Yet, after he acquired the streaming system, and left──escaped the bookstore again and again, it finally dawns on him; freedom… When one is buried deep in the muddy swamp, trapped, unable to move, when suddenly, the surface breaks and they gasp and see the blue skies again…

Freedom. What a nostalgic concept.

It might have reawakened part of Xü Beijin’s sleeping soul.

… Well, anyway, it is now more ultimately surfacing as Xü Beijin once again queueing up in front of the bubble tea store.

What else could he do when his legs have a mind of their own?

Xü Beijin so depressively thinks.

When once again, a plastic film is wrapped onto his bubble tea drink, he freezes in place.

He can sense a gaze from behind him, staring. It is calm, cold, distant, but it is stuck to his back like glue. It is not going anywhere.

Xü Beijin shuts his eyes for a moment; his happier expression soon fades. He takes the bubble tea the staff hands him, turns around, and checks his surroundings. As expected, not a single Missiontaker is looking at him, even while the gaze is ongoing.

He takes a sip, and furrows his brow to wonder, is this the situation faced by the Missiontakers?

When he noticed the gaze, Xü Beijin already recalled the advice from Dai Wu. Now, he has made the logical connection – if the electronics in the Luoke Apartment was acting strange, then who is to say the commercial complex is unaffected?

Compared to the Missiontakers’ panicked states, Xü Beijin is much calmer. While he is uncomfortable with the gaze stuck to his body, but as a Tower resident who once faced hundreds of Missiontakers surrounding his store, this is quite the quaint little scene instead.

Though──biting his straw, Xü Beijin is slightly exasperated to think──if the gaze was still following him when he returned to the bookstore… That would be slightly troublesome.

He takes a few steps to the side so he does not block any other Actors’ ways. He combs through everything in his vision calmly, from decorations to electronics to items, to try to figure out what is casting the gaze.

He is now on the first floor of the commercial complex. There is a bubble tea store here whose brand he has never tried before, so he lined up here earlier.

He stands to the side of the store, observing the whole structure of the complex he could see here, from the automatic glass doors at the entrance, to the elevators and escalators accessible in the open court area, to the little pieces of electronics in the bubble tea store…

And the air conditioner above that.

Xü Beijin raises his head reflexively to check the vents of the central air conditioning.

It is a type of electronic device frequently ignored. People are often more drawn to the vibrant storefronts lining the walls, and not the obscure air vents above them on the walls.

Yet, it is also everywhere.

Though when Xü Beijin casts his eyes at the air vent to the side of him, the gaze that has been stuck glued to him, immediately disappeared.

Xü Beijin reflexively sighs in relief, but finds the whole situation inexplicable.

He’s an Actor. Not even the Nightmare’s owner at that. Really, he was no different from even the true NPCs present here.

So, why did the sentient air conditioning… stare at him?

Xü Beijin tilts his head to think, murmuring to himself, “right, maybe it’s… because they’ve never seen someone act like me?”

He chuckles in amusement. He has also realised now that Actors like him, who slack off on his ‘workdays’ and go to other Actors for bubble tea is really rare.

Other Actors might be assuming he is assigned a role to wander about in the commercial complex, but Xü Beijin knows himself best, that he just left and came here to visit at the behest of the viewers in the stream, when it escalated indefinitely.

But that was still an actual hour no matter what happened. If he were just waiting in the bookstore all along, that would have been exceedingly boring.

… Xü Beijin never once felt that ever in the past. He was merely a slacking extra who still abided by the Nightmare’s scripts. Unfortunately, he now has the streaming system.

It is difficult to adapt back to a worse condition from a better condition.

He glances over at the air-conditioning vent one last time. Although he still isn’t sure why it stared at him, but, now that it is here, and with Dai Wu’s previous warning too, “watch out behind you,” Xü Beijin decides to adopt his wary stance once again.

He returns directly to the bookstore with his bubble tea.

The strange gazes did not once appear along his way.

In fact… Xü Beijin has suddenly noticed that in his bookstore, there is not a single electronic device.

Wooden shelves and counter. Ancient, dusty books. Marred, crumbling paint… No TV, no air conditioning. Not a single common household device.

The only thing that is ‘electronic,’ so to speak, is the lonely light bulb hanging off the ceiling, yet he cannot even find the switch controlling it. It seems the Nightmare merely arranged for this light to build up a gloomy atmosphere.

Noticing this oddity, Xü Beijin puts his bubble tea away on the counter, then scrutinises his bookstore in detail. He fails to come up with anything useful, however.

In the two past Nightmares, his bookstore had newspaper. Not this time, though. All the books present are dirty, illegible ancient scriptures. Most of the characters are beyond recognition.

There is really something off about this place, though.