Volume 5 - CH 80.1

Déjà vu

Translated by Translated by boilpoil

Edited by Edited by boilpoil

Teen is quick to slam on the ‘close’ button, while Suits is kicking all the madmen out of the elevator as best he can, with Mystic’s help.

Finally, they manage to buy enough time to keep the madmen at bay, though the price is that the three Missiontakers all end up with various bites and scratches on their faces and hands.

Teen is looking at the wound on his arm, and asks, “would this Nightmare have anything related to viruses or sickness?”

Suits shrugs.

Mystic is looking at the bite on the back of her own hand as her thoughts drift away. A madman whose age she can’t tell bit her as hard as he could. There was blood immediately, and the mark of the teeth is still plain obvious, but it resembled more the tearing a wild animal would do.

She can’t help but shudder and murmur, “mad, they’re all mad…”

Nobody responds to her words, as Teen and Suits are currently focused on the panel of buttons.

Shortly after, Teen writes down something on his piece of paper, wondering, “seven and twenty-nine correspond to the same floor… Do you think that could really be the case?”

Suits says, “just state your conclusion.”

Teen nods to say, “is it possible that it is random?”

Suits rubs his chin and analyses, “possibly, but then… wouldn’t this be far too difficult for Missiontakers of the bottom floor? And the probability to end up on the same floor twice if it really is completely random is much slimmer than the other possibilities.”

“But then, why would it lead to the same floor?” Teen mutters, and then decides to reject his hypothesis and say, “… this is a game, so it is purely digital, which means it is deterministic in the end. ‘Randomness’ still has a pattern here, a pseudo-pattern dictated by machinery, computers, artificial intelligences.”

Suits glances at him and warns, “never mind your ‘personal opinions,’ we’re in a Nightmare right now.”

“… What I mean is that, the only plausible explanation for us ending up on the same floor twice, is pseudo-randomness,” says Teen.

“So what?” Irritated, Suits retorts, “that is not an explanation for why we would end up on the same floor twice…”

Suddenly, Mystic interrupts them to ask ,”why are you sure, that it was the same floor?”

Both Teen and Suits pause.

Mystic asks, “what if, madmen have filled multiple floors to the brim?”

Suits is furrowing his brows, but he nods to concur, “that’s also an explanation.”

Teen is staring at Mystic, not sounding exactly pleased, “so you were thinking that the whole time we were discussing the much less probable possibilities? You poking fun at us?”

Mystic ignores them entirely, merely murmuring, “this building, is filled… with the scent of insanity… Insanity, truly.”

Teen sniggers. He, a rational, objectively driven Missiontaker, has never been one to appreciate vague mutterings from mystic types.

Obviously this building is filled with insanity, all of them are insane!

Suits knows Teen would be in a bad mood for a while having had a faceslapping, and wisely ignores him for now. Then he looks back at the elevator panel to say, “looks like there is a need to try again.”

This proposal receives the support of the other two Missiontakers in the form of a nod.

Suits pushes on thirty-two once more. The last time they pushed the button, they ended up on the 24th floor. It was safe, and was where elevator Two was.

However, this time, when the elevator door opens, they end up not on the 24th floor, but instead, on the 20th floor, where blood can be seen splattered about on the floor.

“Still safe,” Teen, who has finished exploring the 20th floor concludes, and then says, “the blood on the floor notwithstanding, which clearly flowed out from the elevator lobby… Could this mean that there is an elevator filled with corpses?”

Suits shakes his head; he has no idea either. Instead, he talks about the another important clue, “there is also an elevator on this floor.”

This is in addition to elevator Two that they found when they pushed down thirty-two; this is now elevator Three.

Teen says, “tch, so this button definitely takes us somewhere with an elevator parked?”

He looks towards Mystic, with derision and sarcasm in mind, looking forward to hearing Mystic’s supernatural take on this event, though he finds Mystic is currently fixated looking at something on the ground close to a section of wall.

Teen walks over.

It is a large group photo that probably hung from the wall, but the disaster shook it loose. It fell down, shattering its glass frame.

Teen takes the photo and spreads it flat across the wall.

Now that there is a clue, Mystic is beneath his concern.

He reads out the few characters on the photo, “Gaoge… Company, Limited, All Employees of Sales with Some of Their Family Members,” he narrows his eyes and tries to identify the persons depicted in the dim lights as best as he can, and says, “eh? Isn’t this that little girl? Is that her mom next to her? Why is the photo on this floor?”

The little girl was hiding on the 31st floor, but this photo is on the 20th… Makes no sense for it to be so far apart.

Besides…

Teen is feeling off looking at the photo, and suddenly turns to Mystic to ask, “hey Mystic, do you feel like…”

The woman on the photo, looks a bit like you?

And also, on the wrist of that little girl, isn’t the bracelet she’s wearing looking quite a bit like what Mystic gave her earlier?

But… Isn’t this the backstory of the Nightmare? Why is it on the photo? Is it a pure coincidence, or… is this Nightmare intentionally trying to blur them into itself?

A dream world, that is unreasonably chaotic, and ever-adapting?

What Mystic said, that this Nightmare is actually filled with, true insanity? Does it mean an insanity that is beyond all reason and logic?

Teen looks at Mystic.

But Mystic is looking downright frightened and even terrifying all at the same time. She has probably never imagined that, one day, she would have her image depicted in a photo found in a Nightmare. This… This… How could this even be possible?

She yells out, backing off, still fixing her eyes straight on the photo. Her face is twitching. Her face is visibly paling.

It is as if she saw something utterly inexplicable, or perhaps, she didn’t imagine at all, that this could simply be a trick the Nightmare is employing to fool them.

After freezing up briefly, she suddenly dashes away, like she is avoiding some terrible ghost. Almost instinctively, she rushes for the elevator, the small, cramped, safe space they were just in, which makes her feel safe.

She runs right into the elevator lobby, repeatedly pushing the open button. Then, she immediately slips into the elevator.

When Suits and Teen have quickly overcome their initial shock to rush after her, they find that there is only one elevator left in the elevator lobby of the 20th floor. Mystic is nowhere to be found.

“What the flying fuck?!” Teen is cussing, “Is she sick? NE’s tricks are that effective on her?!”

Suits, though, takes the devil’s advocate, explaining, “you know Mystic has always been said to be paranoid since she used her utility card.”

Teen sneers to say, “even so… Ha, what a Missiontaker from a higher floor indeed,” he then looks at the elevators, and furrows his brows, immediately asking, “did she just go into the new elevator parked on this floor?”

Then he quickly adds, “oh bloody hell!”

Suits doesn’t seem to mind as much, shrugging and saying, “well, now we have someone scouting ahead for us.”

Teen snaps back, “ha, you think with her state of mind, she can properly scout?” He then shakes his head and pulls his piece of paper out to start furiously writing ahead. And finally, he also decides to mention, “that photo, do you think…”

The viewers in the stream are also looking at where Mystic is going, but they’re also pretty spooked and intrigued by that photograph.

Meanwhile, Lin Qin and Wu Jian has already left the 16th floor behind.

On the one hand, the 16th floor has no clues to explore besides the lucky, sane people, and on the other, Lin Qin is in quite the hurry, having become determined to resolve the Nightmare via the direct way of dispatching with the owner of the Nightmare, so he’s off to search for them.

So, from the 16th floor downwards, he’s going to sweep each floor. Since they’ve explored the entirety of the stairs already, without the Nightmare restarting, so it means the other Missiontakers must still be exploring and searching for clues, probably above.

Meanwhile, Wu Jian just wants to say that, he feels much safer with the dalao around.

Lin Qin actually even wanted to drag Xü Beijin along for the ride, as it is in this Nightmare that Lin Qin has first realised that even Xü Beijin would have times when he feels unwell──The usual drowsiness stemming psychologically from his lack of sleep notwithstanding.

This seems to have compelled Lin Qin into an odd decision process where he feels like he wants to know what Xü Beijin is thinking and feeling at all times, and would be happy to have him tag along everywhere.

Though Lin Qin then recalls that Xü Beijin is feeling unwell, so resting on the 16th floor is the better choice for him. It is also quite clear here that the 16th floor appears to be some kind of sanctuary in the building.

So he has left with Wu Jian in tow, leaving Xü Beijin sitting there with complicated feelings in his mind.

While he would never say it out loud, he is definitely feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

It’s always nice to know someone cares about you.

… Though Xü Beijin is also suspecting if Lin Qin is trying to nudge into his heart the same way a frog is boiled in gradually warming water.