Volume 3 - CH 52.3

After a dozen minutes or so of investigating, the five Missiontakers reassemble at the entrance to the shopping mall on the ground floor of the commercial complex. They all look disappointed, an indication of their fruitless preliminary searches.

In fact, even the sentient facilities seem to be staying quiet.

Thin is feeling a bit hot, wiping his sweat, he asks, “we’ve already gone through the whole interior of the building once, let’s go outside?”

Jiang Shuangjie nods, when suddenly, she gives Thin an odd look, asking, “are you hot?”

Thin seems surprised.

“You keep sweating…” Then suddenly, her eyes widen as she yells out, “the heating!”

All of them raise their heads at the air conditioning vents installed high up in the wall in unison.

The red string indicating airflow is flailing madly about.

It’s too hot…

Certainly, such a large commercial complex with huge foot traffic would employ powerful, industrial air conditioning, cooling people in the summer, warming them in the winter.

But this is still autumn. It’s merely the end of October, where the highs of the day still reached over 20 degrees Celsius outside (TL: About 68°F). Why is the heating on inside such a commercial complex?

Jiang Shuangmei seems frightened as she blurts out shakily, “sis… sis! Before, I, there was a sentient air-con!”

Jiang Shuangjie quickly holds her hand and turns her head to look at Thin; they both yell out, “run!”

They have responded as quickly as they could, but, the facilities, interconnected via cables electronically, did not offer them such a chance at escape.

The glass doors of the entrance have already been locked.

Shen Yünjü, quickly coming to a solution, says, “the underground floor! There is an open-air plaza there!”

They quickly run for the first floor underground. They avoid the escalators, of course, instead, taking the emergency stairs. Their journey can certainly be described as eventful.

The plastic sealing machine in the bubble tea store is doing all it could to block them; the claw machine is (TL: Presumably having broken its own glass cylinder) launching and throwing its own dolls at them like cannons…

The CCTV cameras along the way are all pointed right at them. All of these shapeless, cold, murderous gazes, alongside flickering red LED lights, are making them feel a tangible fear that seems to want to grip their hearts stopped as they run…

The commercial complex is heating up more and more. It is so stuffy that breathing is no longer easy, especially when they are still running. All the Tower residents seem to be blocking their way one way or another. They’re squeezing and moving about; Jiang Shuangmei almost lost the main group.

Right at the stairs, Jiang Shuangmei, irritated, pushes people away forcefully. A whole mess of falling over ensues. It is a riot.

Chaotic footsteps ring out, spreading through the dark, unlit emergency stairs. In the dark, they only fear they might miss a step and end up like Shen Yünjü – having their spines snapped. They can only hear their own ragged breathing and irregular heartbeats.

Other than that, all they can feel is a pair of eyes that feels like it has opened up in the void – even here, CCTV cameras are installed.

Something, there is something, observing them through the lens of the camera. Tauntingly, arrogantly, like cat-and-mousely, watching them run, watching them fear; there is an unseen, but very real pressure.

They do not know what mundane object might suddenly go after them next; even Jiang Shuangmei and Shen Yünjü, who have died once already, is tense and close to snapping at this point.

Chaos. Chaos. When they finally reach the open-air plaza, they are all breathing madly, looking around them with scared, anxious gazes. Their guts feel as equally disrupted and messed up as their minds.

Thin gulps, and finally asks, “are, are we safe?”

Jiang Shuangjie has her hands on her kneecaps, all curled over. The intense physical strain, and that murky, stuffy air in the commercial building, almost made her vomit.

It takes her a while to recover and answer Thin’s question, “I think… we should be.”

Among them, only the teenage girl has maintained her cool; even the ‘zombie’ is all pale right now.

She is even observing her surroundings carefully, in fact. Then, she suddenly remarks, “this place is empty.”

Thin asks, unable to understand, “wh… what?”

The teenage girl gives her a glance and answers, “this is a safety area,” she points to the escalators right at the edge of the plaza, adding, “as long as we don’t use those.”

As soon as she said that, the escalators suddenly stop.

The next second, it looks like it has gone mad. The steps suddenly reverse, and then reverse again. The few Tower residents that were riding on the escalators are certainly frightened to no end.

One fell down sitting on the steps, while a more fortunate person has grabbed onto the side rail firmly, but then, suddenly, the rail is no longer moving in sync with the steps.

The rail goes up while the steps suddenly go down. Someone wails, perhaps having snapped their waist, but they quickly move away to leave the ‘malfunctioning’ escalator.

Fortunately, a pitiful death like that of Shen Yünjü’s did not occur.

The teenage girl falls silent.

The scene is equally silent, until Thin breaks the silence with a murmur, “it seems like, there is nowhere safe.”

The whole mess happening in the open-air plaza was of course, in full view of Xü Beijin and Lin Qin, who were inside the bookstore that is here as well.

Xü Beijin has followed the Missiontakers’ painful journey from the ground floor to this first floor underground. He is feeling some relief after-the-fact, since the strange air conditioning did also stare at him before.

Right now, Xü Beijin finally understands fully, what Dai Wu meant by “watch out behind you.”

Human vision only stretches for 188 degrees in the front. This means that, you will never be able to see, what it is like behind you.

Xü Beijin is sitting there in silence, feeling a whole layer of dense goosebumps popping up on his back, all biological reflexes from his own imagination scaring him.

Lin Qin also watched the ridiculousness playing out at the edge of the plaza, and looks at the problematic escalator from afar, then back at Xü Beijin, and hesitantly calls out to him.

“Beijin…? Can I call you that way?”

“Sure.”

Xü Beijin so answers, thinking, even if Lin Qin were like the viewers and called him Beibei… No, never mind, that is still too cringy.

He asks, “what is it?”

“Was this what Earth was like?” Lin Qin asks curiously, “the escalators randomly threw tantrums?”

Xü Beijin “…”

How is he supposed to answer that question?