Volume 4 - CH 68.2

Mu Jiashi is pacing about the rooftop with furrowed brows. He also walks to the edge of the rooftop to have a complete view of the ruins, but there are still no clues.

He turns around, and then sees how the rest of the Missiontakers all look like they couldn’t care less what’s happening and are just idly standing around, he can’t help but feel a deep frustration.

Then he rubs his nose dejectedly, and thinks, these Missiontakers… What a bunch of inept Missiontakers!

Oh well. It’s just a Nightmare on the bottom floor. At worst they just all starve to death and reach a Bad End. It couldn’t get any worse anyway.

Perhaps he could come try this again the next time; or, maybe, just the information he has obtained so far is enough for him to exchange for information on that woman, Su Enya, already.

He sighs inside, and then slumps his shoulders, looking like he’s done with the Nightmare, and just walks over to the rest of the Missiontakers.

Fei, meanwhile, is still looking blankly at nowhere in particular on the rooftop, murmuring, “there’s nobody here…”

“Hey, can we get back on track?” Collector suggests with a smile, “what were the two of you actually talking about downstairs?”

… Back on track? The track that was the result of you derailing the conversation in the first place?

Even Xü Beijin, who is only observing the Missiontakers from afar through the stream, couldn’t help but want to diss.

He has been observing the Missiontakers the whole time, but the viewers of the stream has yet to reappear; it seems his stream really has been cut off from reality entirely.

He is still able to operate it just fine, though, like switching to another camera’s view, and watching what they’re doing.

As the stream was cut off, Xü Beijin was waiting anxiously for a moment earlier, afraid that the Server, NE, would just pop up right in front of him and give him a bad time, say.

But then nothing happened for a while, so Xü Beijin gradually calmed down.

Of course. NE is a busy system. Obviously, he’d have no time to pay attention to this little insignificant Actor; besides, he did meet the original streamer of this streaming system that one time, which means that this game is obviously open to livestreaming, and NE must also be aware of that…

Xü Beijin is trying to think more positively by coming up with all the reasoning that are in his favour.

True, he’s afraid of the Server for sure, since NE really is the artificial intelligence, practically demonised by all the Missiontakers, ruling over them from on high.

This artificial intelligence has absolute control over all that happens in this game called ‘Escape.’ No one can do anything without its knowledge…

NE is watching them. Always.

Despite the artificial intelligence being fair and logical to a fault, without a single hint of emotion or impulse, they still more resemble the face of the disciplinary officer, plastered on the little window of the backdoor to the classroom that you see out of the corner of your eye when you, the student, are doing something inappropriate…

‘Having a heart attack’ doesn’t even come close to accurately describing what was going through Xü Beijin’s mind earlier.

All this time he has limited his own actions, never doing anything out of place while in possession of the streaming system. At best, in the lull between Acting sessions in front of Missiontakers, he’d sneak out for a bottle of bubble tea, or have a chat with the other Actors, or something.

Suffice it to say, he just did not wish for the Server NE to notice the issues surrounding him.

That said, he has never come to realise, as vividly as now, that──If NE could react promptly to the issue with him earlier, then it must have also known when Xü Beijin just started streaming. It didn’t need to wait until now to take any action against him (TL: Which means, if NE really wanted to target Xü Beijin, it would have done so in the very beginning already).

Xü Beijin then scolds his brain for failing to realise that sooner.

He is, in fact, already shedding the shell of protection that is his usual template for doing things. For example, in this Nightmare, he has even taken on the identity of some mysterious, powerful figure that interacts prominently with the Missiontakers.

Even though, just now, when he realised the Server might have finally decided to pay attention to him, he felt it was seriously over… But, nothing is over!

This is emboldening him, even…

In some sense, he thinks, both Missiontakers and Actors are still players of the game, technically. So what’s wrong with any of these players streaming game content? Huh? Huh huh? NE, you pure, managerial supervisor of this game, you can’t possibly raise a finger to that, can you, huh?

Thus, Xü Beijin’s gaze, then slowly settles onto the book he just found earlier.

He thinks, perhaps, he could be playing an even more active role than before, and deliver this clue to them proactively?

But first, what is his game here…?

Assuming his, or rather, their ultimate goal, is to leave the Tower for good, and by ‘they,’ he refers to the entirety of humanity, then what can he do, to help facilitate that goal?

A goal that is, admittedly, completely, hopelessly beyond reach?

Gradually, Xü Beijin’s mood is settling back down. He is a bit tired, and sleepy again. He is even almost feeling like just giving up entirely and going to sleep, but…

… Hmm, opening his Nightmare to the Missiontakers, huh?

It is the first time in so many years that the thought has even ever crossed his mind. This has always been a firm red line for him. He chose, resolved, to become a monster that never slept.

And he, of course, knew full well that this odd behaviour would ironically attract attention to his Nightmare.

However… Xü Beijin is showing a rather bitter, self-derisive smile right now.

That was his only possible weapon, the nuclear option. It was a future that was crystal clear to him – all of them would lose. No one will emerge a winner.

He sighs inside again, and can’t help but wonder if it was because of all the unexpected twists that have happened in this Nightmare thus far, that has caused even him to imagine the ludicrous.

After some time with his idle thoughts, Xü Beijin finally turns his attention back to the stream. He sees that the Missiontakers have already moved on from the topic of the Apocalypse… Well, not that he’s complaining, because really, Xü Beijin himself has had enough with the words too.

He is able to sympathise with Fei and Wu Jian too, actually… The nervousness and anxiety that are the result of being afraid of catching NE’s attention.

The artificial intelligence, that holds full rein over the entire progress of the game… Where the rules are concerned, it is practically omnipotent.

Xü Beijin takes a deep breath, and then checks the Missiontakers’ progress on-screen in detail.

He can see, though, that the Missiontakers seem to be having trouble.