Volume 5 - CH 79.3

Since Lin Qin and Wu Jian came up to the 16th floor, they started talking to the Actors to collect information, although by ‘they,’ it mostly refers to Wu Jian.

While Fei would worry over Wu Jian quite a lot, he is still capable enough when it comes to basic information gathering like that. In fact, he is quite skilled at it, which is what allowed him to stand his ground in the higher floors of the Tower in the first place.

A few minutes later, he runs back to report his work to Lin Qin, being the very good lackey he just turned out to be.

Lin Qin, meanwhile, has quietly moved over to Xü Beijin’s side, not speaking or doing anything else, but merely sitting there, occasionally looking at Xü Beijin.

Xü Beijin is quite unsettled by this, while thinking about how his happy consecutive days spent together with Lin Qin in the store reading their own books, eating their own snacks and drinking their own drinks.

He can’t help but conclude that, pure friendship, when particular feelings come to roost, would fundamentally change.

What is even more annoying is how unaware Lin Qin seems to be of the whole thing.

And because Lin Qin keeps staying here, Xü Beijin is unable to talk to the viewers on the stream at all. He couldn’t say a single word regarding the absurdity that the Missiontakers have experienced on the 21st floor.

… It feels like he’s back at that decrepit bookstore of the first Nightmare again, with Lin Qin sitting down just outside of the bookstore, is what Xü Beijin is dissing about inside.

Wu Jian coming to report has helped lift the silence, which makes Xü Beijin sigh in relief a little.

Though Lin Qin gives a slightly unfriendly eye to Wu Jian, but he holds whatever grievances he wants to air inside in favour of helping Xü Beijin leave the Nightmare as soon as possible.

Wu Jian’s summary goes as follows, “more than a dozen people are gathered here, all people who have been working when whatever it was happened to this office building. For various reasons such as food supply, they’ve gathered on this floor…”

“Various reasons?” Asks Lin Qin.

“It’s quite vague, but from what I could tell, it sounds like… they lost their way and wandered here? They also said the elevators are acting strange or something. We can ask the other Missiontakers about it later,” replies Wu Jian.

Lin Qin nods.

Then Wu Jian continues, “about the thing that actually happened in the first place, they don’t have much of an idea either. They say that there was a big boom, an explosion of some kind, followed by the glass of this building shattering.

Several of the office workers here suffered concussion as well, and even if they didn’t, they still don’t have a good idea of what happened.”

The word concussion prompts Lin Qin to look over at Xü Beijin.

Xü Beijin “…”

Yeah, he has a concussion, according to the script, anyway.

Of course, he is also well aware that if he gives up Acting like that, then the Server would certainly not shy away from actually giving him a real concussion…

That’s how dry and uninteresting the Actors’ lives in the Nightmares are.

Wu Jian has failed to take notice of the mini-interaction between Lin Qin and Xü Beijin as he keeps explaining, “these people are trapped here, and they also know that the stairs below the 9th floor are gone. They also wouldn’t dare stepping into the elevators…”

Here, Wu Jian swallows and his explanation turns more into a whisper, “dalao, listen, I’ve heard some pretty damning news here, regarding the elevators.”

Lin Qin raises his brows.

Wu Jian says, “they say that they are not sure either, but something seems to have fried the circuits of all the elevators awry, and now the elevators go to completely random floors.”

Xü Beijin is like, yeah, he knows already.

Though… Wait.

Xü Beijin’s expression changes slightly.

Lin Qin, as if sensing his thoughts, immediately asks, “completely random?”

“Yeah,” Wu Jian nods a few times, saying, “they say that where the elevators can go to is completely random after the button is pushed. There is no pattern either.

Nobody can tell which floor the elevators will go to. It is completely… dependent on luck.”

What Wu Jian does not mention here, though, is that when those office workers heard he had friends who took the elevators here, they looked both horrified and sympathetic.

It would appear that, by reflex, at least some of those lucky survivors gathered here have also once used the elevators – a natural product of people living in a modern society having become used to industrialised equipment.

Though what they relied on has proven to stab them in the back right now.

And also, stab Wu Jian in the back, however, it is merely for the fact that they, the Missiontakers, still need to solve the Nightmare.

He is anxiously wondering how they are ever going to leave the building if every time they end up on a random floor when they push a button in the elevator. Rely on dumb luck?

This information is sending shcokwaves through the viewers as well.

“wait, completely random?!”

“but the three people in elevator two managed to return to the 21st floor just fine?!”

“actually… they haven’t went to check the stairwell, so who knows if it actually is the 21st floor…”

“…but the blood on the ground…”

“no no no, I’m a bit confused, do you still remember when they reached the floor, whether there were giblets up on the ceiling?”

“theyre in the elevator too, so the camera actually wont see the ceiling outside…”

“so… so they, like, they might have released the blood on who knows what floor???”

“by that logic, the deja vu theory is invalid right? its a coincidence, and the blood on the 21st floor cannot have been from elevator two”

“agreed, like it can’t have been that they just happen to end up on the same floor after pushing on twenty-five”

“… why not?”

“fuck, you again? then why can’t mystic have been the little girl’s mother?”

The viewers fall into quite the conundrum here, while the three Missiontakers of elevator One have arrived on the floor represented by the button twenty-nine after leaving the 31st floor, where the little girl is.

Among the four buttons lit up in elevator One, seven represents a dangerous, impassable floor; eighteen and thirty-two, representing the 31st and 24th floor respectively, are safe.

It is a toss-up whether button number twenty-nine would lead somewhere safe.

Teen says with an irritated tone, “the Server is probably more gentle with these Missiontakers of the bottom floor, right?”

Suits coldly replies, “heh, who knows.”

The elevator door opens.

Madmen, drenched wholly in blood, rushes towards them.

“Fuck!” Teen yells out, “why is it this floor again?!”