Volume 4 - CH 69.3

Mu Jiashi barely let his eyes off the Missiontakers for a moment and they’re talking about the Apocalypse again.

Not long ago, Fei has already told them their thoughts about the apocalypse in this Nightmare, the fog, the survivors, the memories, etc. But… so they were aware of those elements before they came here?

Mu Jiashi just sighs and rubs his throbbing forehead, asking, “can we first get back on track?”

Collector answers with a question, “are you saying that what they’re talking about isn’t on topic?”

Mu Jiashi gives him a cold gaze and says, “if you feel like being trapped in this Nightmare forever, then sure; I’m going to take a look at the ‘home’ of that man instead.”

Collector seems hesitant, but relents soon enough.

Fei instead apologises, “sorry, we were… we shouldn’t have kept it to ourselves, perhaps,” then she offers a compromise, “let’s go. I’ll explain everything along the way.”

Then they waved Xü Beijin goodbye and left the bookstore.

They then discover the body outside the building gone already, but given how mysterious the killer and this dead person were, the Missiontakers were only slightly surprised.

Mu Jiashi still has some comments to say, “the bookstore owner didn’t mention this murder case in his story… So is this not part of the plot in the book? Could this Nightmare be following the plot of that book only partially?”

Fei quietly answers, “possibly.”

Mu Jiashi gives her a look, while thinking about how everything in this Nightmare is hiding secrets.

From the pair that came together on purpose, Fei and Wu Jian, to that jumpy oddball Collector, to Baldie and Biceps, who were pretty flashy early on but have gone quiet for a while… And even the bookstore owner.

In fact, he dare say that everyone in the Nightmare seems to be hiding secrets.

… That sentence once again fills Mu Jiashi’s ears, and so he really wants to know, what the secrets could that woman, Su Enya, be hiding. She said, she couldn’t tell him more.

The mere implications of that sentence makes Mu Jiashi fearful enough.

Why would a Tower resident on the bottom floor know about a key sentence from a Nightmare on a higher floor? Does she know that woman in that Nightmare?

Mu Jiashi closes his eyes and grips the book in his hand──He borrowed it from Xü Beijin, by the way──more tightly, and forces himself to turn his attention back on the Nightmare at hand.

He was going to laze about in this Nightmare. He didn’t want anything to do with these Missiontakers or even this Nightmare, even if taking charge and being responsible seems to be his second nature. Right now, though, he can say that what is driving his involvement in this Nightmare, isn’t actually that sense of responsibility, but in fact, it is because of fear.

He does not want himself to wallow in a Nightmare ever again──To be swallowed whole by the abyss.

Mu Jiashi mutters those words to himself repeated.

Then, he forces himself to look back up, turn around, and tell the others, “let’s go.”

They head towards the southwest.

When passing by the Treasure Trove, they stopped for a moment to look for food and alleviate the hunger, during which both Collector and Biceps almost started a conflict with other survivors, who seem to have taken to the food they found, somehow, and rushed at them to try and rob them of what they found.

Collector, with that usual smile of his, just immediately threw the food he found to the ground and used his shoe to grind it to bits.

Biceps wasn’t as decisive and bold, however, and so his food was stolen in the ensuing scuffle. Baldie had to pitch in some of his for him.

What was fortunate was that they didn’t actually need food, and so aren’t as mad as the survivors. They are merely following the game’s settings to look for food to eat.

To them, those survivors robbing food are merely data as controlled by NE. Not even Collector paid them any second thoughts, assuming it is just some kind of plot element.

Xü Beijin, who saw the debacle play out through the stream, couldn’t help but furrow his brows slightly.

First off, he is sure that this whole group of survivors acting independently must be Actors, but their Acting was so impeccable that he cannot think of them as anything other than survivors who are actually scraping together everything they could to survive atop these ruins.

Then he inevitably recalls the survivors who would chant “Humans are Impurities of the Earth,” and his heart sinks.

And second, this is not the first time the Missiontakers looked for food in the Treasure Trove. Why did nothing happen then, and right after the fog dissipated, this happened?

Could it be, that the dead calm appearance of the ruins, belie some unknown currents moving underneath?

Xü Beijin is seriously worried.

The Missiontakers, entirely oblivious, continue heading to their destination.

Afraid of the memory loss, and given how writing stuff down is useless, starting from the second run of the Nightmare, they have never split up.

Now, Fei starts her explanation, “I think… I should be talking about it now. We did come to this Nightmare intentionally,” she gives a weary smile, and says, “perhaps you have heard about rumours regarding an ‘Ultimate Nightmare’ in the Tower.”

She pauses for a moment before continuing, “win the Ultimate Nightmare, and you can leave the Tower──That’s what the rumours say.”

They continue walking along the uneven road built up through rubble and rock. Despite the disappearance of the fog, none of the other survivors seem to have taken notice, still continuing their routine of looking for food in groups, confined to the rectangular area.

A dreary sense of hopelessness and destitute still fills the air of the ruins.

… What was the fog actually representing, even?

Meanwhile, Fei continues telling their story, “not long ago, Wu Jian and I heard people say that this Nightmare must be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare;’ we were dismissive.

But then… when we learnt of the elements of this Nightmare, from the amnesia, to the ruins of an apocalypse, to the fog, we… we chose to come here.”

Mu Jiashi, surprised, interjects with a question, “so you do now feel like this is the Ultimate Nightmare?”

Fei is hesitant when replying, “not really… Not exactly, I think,” but then suddenly, her attention turns to the book in Mu Jiashi’s hand, “where did that book come from? The characters… ah, I see. Never mind.”

Her smile is awfully unconvincing.

Wu Jian seemed to hesitate for a bit before continuing where she trailed off, “we were, we came… because, we thought, this Nightmare shared similarities with the Tower, and so, we might have been able to find some… clues, say, related to the Tower here.”

Collector raises his brow to say, “I see! You see yourselves as journalists looking for the truth behind the Tower, is it? And whether it’s the ‘Apocalypse’ or the ‘Ultimate Nightmare,’ you’d take that as foregone conclusions?”

Wu Jian glances at him, and says, frustrated, “I want to emphasise that we do not believe them outright. We treat them as hypothesis, and look for evidence that prove or disprove them in meticulous detail.”

Fei takes a deep breath, looking like she’s calmed down a little, and says, “since the fog would disappear, this can only mean that this fog in the Nightmare seems different to the one we wish to learn more about.”

“It’s just the setting in the Nightmare,” Baldie suddenly chimes in, “it is unrelated to the grey fog outside of the Tower, as you might be thinking.”

Fei turns to him and concurs with a quiet tone, “yes, we know that now.”

Collector goes ‘tch,’ saying, “in the end, it’s all just endless busywork, huh?” He is chuckling again, before saying, “well, it’s all interesting to listen to, I’ll give you that much. Hm… It’s a shame there isn’t a used utility card for me to commemorate. Why are y’all not using any?”

No one answers that question.

While everyone may not be comfortable with how paranoid Fei and Wu Jian always looked, Collector, with his slightly creepy fixed smile and carefree demeanour only makes them want to avoid him altogether.

Collector makes a weary sigh.

Then, Mu Jiashi says, seeing the timing is right, “with that out of the way, can we get back to the Nightmare?”

Fei nods to say, “apologies… Of course.”

Mu Jiashi then continues, “alright. Let’s take stock of our current situation and what we know, then.”