Volume 4 - CH 66.3

The first thing Mu Jiashi does after his vision clears up is to analyse one thing──Whether the Nightmare restarted because Collector lost all his memories of the first run, or because of Fei’s death.

If it really was the latter, then that means the Nightmare restarted more than 3 seconds after the death, which makes that unlikely. It is more likely due to Collector’s amnesia.

… The second run of the Nightmare has begun.

Mu Jiashi is standing in place in silence.

They are, once again, at the northwest corner of the ruins.

Collector seems mystified, he asks, “eh? What happened? Why did the scenery change?” Everything happened so quickly he couldn’t even maintain his smile anymore, and he continues, “uh, hello…? Can anyone tell me what’s going on?”

No response comes.

Another few seconds of silence passes, and Wu Jian is the second to speak, asking, “uh, shouldn’t we be, you know, exploring the scene? We didn’t find a single clue the last run around…”

The rest of the Missiontakers all glance at him, and sigh in tandem. Silence ensues. Again.

Wu Jian “…”

He and Collector share a look, and they both look equally nonplussed.

What is going on?

Fei is extremely pale, crossing her arms quietly by the side. Her body is still trembling. Her teeth is biting hard on her lower lips.

She is yet to recover from the impact of her death earlier, it seems. Her brows are furrowed subconsciously, as she falls deep in thought.

A long while passes until Fei finally heaves a weary sigh, and says with a dry tone, “perhaps we could continue what we didn’t finish the first run of the Nightmare…”

With Collector’s “what? This is already the second run?” as the background noise, Fei and Mu Jiashi share a look, and she continues, “and look for the man that disappears into the fog.”

No objection is raised.

Along the way, they told the two people who have already lost their memories what happened before. Wu Jian believes everything Fei says, of course, but Collector still looks unconvinced.

Mu Jiashi also tells Fei about the problem with the written word along the way.

It takes some time for them to walk from the northwest corner of the ruins due south, so Xü Beijin, who is back in his bookstore once again after the Nightmare has restarted, stands up from behind his counter, and examines his bookstore.

… His bookstore.

After seeing the written word turn into nonsense through the stream earlier, Xü Beijin immediately thought about the books in his store.

If words written down turn into jumbled mess, then what do books in his bookstore look like inside?

The audience of the stream notices Xü Beijin’s activities, so Xü Beijin switches the audio source over to tell them about what he thought.

“oh right! if Beibei has books or something that isnt jumbled up, they must be clues!”

“not necessarily, but looking first will be helpful”

“since the bookstore is like, an obvious place, wouldn’t there definitely be clues?”

“yeah… Beibei could tell them stuff earlier because he had gods eye view, but any other actor couldnt have had them if they were the bookstore owner”

“basically: the bookstore must contain clues in and of itself”

Xü Beijin is in agreement.

Oftentimes, he would say that the point to the extras is to indicate that clues can be found somewhere.

For example, in the last Nightmare Mu Jiashi went into, extras were in the bookstore to indicate the newspaper; in the gas station to indicate the TV to the Missiontakers.

Now that Xü Beijin is in this bookstore, which has been decked out with books and all the titbits that make a bookstore, it must imply the Server has placed special clues in this space.

Xü Beijin wasn’t usually one to look for clues actively himself, as he never had an interest in the Nightmares themselves. It has changed now, and in fact, he almost looks giddy checking out the nooks and crannies of the bookstore.

He pulls out a random book, and discovers without surprise, that when he focuses his gaze onto the book’s title, and flip it open, all the words, and even illustrations inside turn into illegible scribbles and unidentifiable splotches of colour in just a moment.

The next, and the next next… the next next next…

Are all the same.

Ten books in a row with the same response, so Xü Beijin stops for now, furrowing his brows, and concludes that a majority of books in this store are reduced to nonsense. The contents are unknowable.

There must be at least one, though… that is not the same.

How can he find them, though? This is practically fishing out a needle in a haystack, or isolating a particular strand of hair from among nine cows. It’s luck, that’s what it is.

Collecting clues in the Nightmare, however, are never truly based on luck. There must be some kind of hint, that points to where the clue is in the bookstore. What might that indication be…?

Xü Beijin walks to the entrance of the bookstore, and stands there as he looks back inside. He wants to try and see if viewing the bookstore from the outside would be any help. Or if there might be any obscured clues outside that point to a book within.

He stands there for a short while, and the viewers are already asking what he’s doing.

He answers, “I’m thinking, if someone enters this bookstore, where would they be looking at instinctively?”

“emm i usually look at shelves closest to the door”

“I… turn right, by habit”

“hey hey, you’re not actually window shopping at a bookstore ok? [laugh cry emoji] this is an escape game! obviously you go to the npc!”

Xü Beijin’s eyes widen slightly as his eyes glimmer!

Of course. Players would head exactly where the NPC is at! The NPC here is him, sitting right there, behind the counter!

So Xü Beijin heads back for the counter immediately, and examines it. The counter is a low-lying rack attached to the wall on its short side. It marks out an area where the cashier sits, around which are similar low-lying shelves, on top of which must have been some sort of recommendation corner with books placed prominently, although they are mostly yellowed and there is a light layer of dust covering everything.

Finally, Xü Beijin’s gaze settles onto one single book placed on top of the shelf directly behind where he sat.

All the other books are still placed standing, leaning against the wall, except for this single one that has fallen over, and has even flipped open to some page. A simple glance from afar tells Xü Beijin that, the words on there, still look like words.

Shortly after, he takes the book, and flips through it.

Just as he thought. This toppled, flipped-open book──Contained legible characters.