Volume 4 - CH 61.3

Xü Beijin knows what he was doing the entire time, of course, so he cannot be the murderer. This means that there is someone else here, that murdered the person; however, the streaming system shows no unfamiliar names in the unseen set pieces of the building, and all that he could see, from the rooftop to the stairwell, are empty.

So all this could mean, is that there is nobody else in the building?

There is, and is not, anyone else in the building???

Such a contradictory conclusion can only suggest one of those is wrong. Xü Beijin believes in the streaming system──At least, believes that it is not broken──So, in the building, besides Xü Beijin and the Missiontakers, there is no one else.

So where is the murderer?

How could they have left the building without being seen by anyone?

If nothing else, the fact that they even slipped past Xü Beijin and the streaming system is already beyond belief.

It is a ‘God’s eye view,’ you know?!

And also, Xü Beijin himself is sitting right there, able to see both the inside and the outside of the first floor of this building through the large glass windows!

Xü Beijin’s brows are creasing more and more.

This Nightmare, he can’t help but conclude, really has something strange going on.

A death that does not lead to another run. A murderer that can phase out of existence in a building…

That latter observation begs quite the absurd conclusion as well──A fresh new impossible crime like those depicted in detective novels?

He is mired in his own thoughts, while the six Missiontakers are rushing forth into the bookstore to confront the ‘suspect.’

Because they were looking for a murderer who was on the rooftop, so after leaving someone at the entrance to keep watch, they rushed for the stairwell and fanned out searching downwards from the top.

When Collector pointed out the existence of the man, besides Baldie and Biceps who knew beforehand, the rest of the Missiontakers actually ignored the man behind the counter in this dirty old bookstore.

Before they noticed Xü Beijin, somehow, he had quite the obscure presence; the moment they did notice, though, they can’t help but wonder how they managed to ignore him in the first place.

He is such a prominent beacon of light.

As for Mu Jiashi, the moment he saw the man’s appearance, his pupils contract reflexively and he is shocked, thinking, why him? Why is he the bookstore owner here???

Because of his previous encounters and interactions with Xü Beijin, Mu Jiashi has already labelled Xü Beijin as ‘harmless’ in his mind. He feels like Xü Beijin would not be the kind of person who ends up a murderer, much less one that remains sat comfortably after committing a murder.

Though, that said, no one has ever entered his Nightmare, so no one can really say that they know him well.

Don’t judge a book by its cover… Or, rather, given Xü Beijin’s appearance, the saying should be, ‘do judge a book by its cover.’

Mu Jiashi is now reminding himself inside that Tower residents in the Nightmare are not exactly the same person as the Tower residents back in the Tower, unless the person is the owner of the Nightmare.

… Though, the last time he met Xü Beijin in a Nightmare and told him he planned to visit later, Xü Beijin clearly remembered when he went to his bookstore afterwards.

Right now, this rather complex, even contradictory image of Xü Beijin is confusing his mind.

Xü Beijin also notices Mu Jiashi’s odd gaze that looks like he has a thousand questions. He could guess what he wants to ask – just like how once the detective dalao suspected him of being the perpetrator behind the disappearance of the dollmaker’s daughter, Mu Jiashi is suspecting him. Justifiably so.

Well, at least that is better than the five other Missiontakers who seem to have drawn the obvious conclusion already.

Since no actual paranormal or supernatural occurrence happens in Nightmares, with Xü Beijin being the only other person inside the building, who else could have been that murderer?

Faced with their messy, noisy accusations and questioning, Xü Beijin just sighs wearily and bites his lips a little. He waits for a bit, but the Missiontakers are still going on and on and on.

So he, who has his head downcast the entire time, suddenly raises his head to calmly ask, “are we done yet?”

The Missiontakers all stop talking simultaneously.

Really, the only people that were incessantly blabbering were just Baldie, Biceps and Collector. The three others remained largely silent. Although after Xü Beijin spoke up, Collector is now looking at him with this rather gleeful expression.

Xü Beijin gives this young man with a perpetual smile a glance, before telling them, “you have the wrong person.”

“Don’t try to deny it!” Baldie has to gather his courage to finally voice his dissent, “you are the only person in the building. Who else but you could have pushed the person off the building?!”

What he said is also largely justified to himself. As Baldie and Biceps were here earlier than the rest of the Missiontakers, he knew Xü Beijin really stayed in the building the entire time.

Baldie doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he interacted with Xü Beijin before them, though, and so worded his accusation to avoid that.

After the person fell off the rooftop, they saw no one enter or leave the building, so Xü Beijin, who was in the bookstore on the first floor the entire time, is especially suspicious.

Xü Beijin also does not know how to defend himself in this situation, so…

He leans back on his chair, and looks up at the Missiontakers, without any appreciable guilt or panic, and then changes the topic by asking, “is this satisfactory verification for what I told you before?”

The Missiontakers all seem taken aback.

Baldie and Biceps have especially drastic changes in expression.

Mu Jiashi notices that immediately, and so quickly closes in on them to ask, “what did he mean by that?” And then he turns towards Xü Beijin to ask, “what did you tell them?”

Xü Beijin looks like he is making an inaudible chuckle before saying, “something related to the corpse you saw outside,” then he says, “I operate on the principle of ‘equivalent exchange;’ the two of them told me some information earlier, so I, in turn, provided information to them.”

Mu Jiashi furrows his brows immediately.

Equivalent exchange… He gives a deep glance at Xü Beijin. He knows best that this is exactly how Xü Beijin is, better than all the others here.

Though…

Is this really the man who just sat quietly behind his counter in his bookstore, and gave him a key piece of information to a Nightmare for merely providing him a can of drink?

… This pale man of a profound complexion, mysterious, and perhaps even imposing?

Mu Jiashi cannot help but once again be deeply curious about, and even suspect Xü Beijin──What kind of person is he, really?

Before he could work out anything in his mind, Baldie has squeezed two words unwillingly through his mouth already, “the rooftop.”

Xü Beijin told him before, that in this building, only two places are worth their time to explore – the rooftop, and the bookstore.

Now, it seems the former has come to pass already. Someone fell from that rooftop, and died; the latter? Well──This mysterious bookstore owner who seems to hold some information, is right here.

Baldie’s lips are trembling. His face is going pale. He is looking at this man with deep fear in his eyes, so much so that even Xü Beijin is feeling slightly odd.

Xü Beijin wonders what he is thinking about. He only mentioned his previous arrangement with Baldie and Biceps to clear his own name. So what’s going on now?

Rather than that a murderer, he just wants to shift his image in their minds towards that of a mysterious person who seems to know things instead.

… So why is Baldie looking all weirdly fearful right now?

That is when Baldie finally yells out, overcoming his fright, “so to prove that what you said was right, you ran up to the rooftop to kill someone?!”

Xü Beijin “…”

He opens his mouth, only to find words eluding him.