Volume 5 - CH 81.3

Fei is thinking that this ‘painter’ in the Nightmare——Supposedly, a victim of the apocalypse too——Does resemble a typical, unhinged Tower resident, doesn’t he?

The Missiontakers know that Nightmares often feature the Tower residents, which they see as the simple, economical solution the game designers employ for efficiency’s sake. They reuse the character models by adding them into the Nightmares – their game’s Instances.

But… What if it actually isn’t some economical use, but something done deliberately?

What if these Tower residents were the ones who have personally went through the Apocalypse? What if their quirkiness arose exactly because of this apocalypse, which seemingly also has unspecified effects on the psyche?

If that’s true, then, they, the Missiontakers, who the Tower residents identify as ‘outsiders,’ who are they? Are their identities and their role solely a setting based within the game, or…

Outside the game?

What happened, to Earth, their Earth?

Fei is deeply concerned. A form like a deep shadow is looming over them at all times.

She can’t help but draw parallels to the grey fog that never dissipates, to the Nightmares that are countless in sight, to the sombre atmosphere that surrounds the Tower at all times… Not just surround them, but permeate them, through their blood and flesh.

Right now, Fei’s silence draws no attention from the others. Never mind Shen Yünjü, but Jiang Shuangmei is also preoccupied.

Jiang Shuangmei retrieves the piece of paper Teen handed her earlier, which is now unfortunately just a soggy mess from the sea of blood that flooded into the elevator earlier. It is impossible to write——For that matter, their own clothes are also drenched. They are the colour of blood, from their hands to their faces to their bodies.

The pen, too, after being drenched in blood, would not produce ink.

The three Missiontakers talk about what to do next as they return to the elevator lobby, having nothing else to do. They’re going back in the elevator.

That is when a ‘ding’ rings out from within earshot. An elevator has reached the 18th floor.

The three Missiontakers exchange gazes and quickly run for the gradually opening elevator door. They see only one person inside.

Before they can even see who the person is, though, a scream, and the elevator door quickly closes back up.

“Eh, wait!” Jiang Shuangmei extends her hands quickly to try and stop the elevator door from closing, yelling, “it’s us…!”

Then she gives up on her fruitless gesture.

The elevator door has already closed. The metallic door of the elevator is faintly reflecting Jiang Shuangmei’s completely crimson-soaked silhouette. She can’t help but think, right, if it was her inside, and saw people outside that looked like this…

Wait!

She suddenly stops and turns to Fei and Shen Yünjü, asking, “do you feel like…”

She doesn’t even need to ask anymore, because Fei and Shen Yünjü’s faces say… ‘yes, exactly.’ They feel the same.

The mysterious, subtle sense of… ‘déjà vu.’

Not long ago, they have seen a group of bloodied madmen reach out for their elevator, and so they quickly shut the door in terror.

Right now, they have become the ‘group of bloodied madmen’ here.

Jiang Shuangmei is holding her forehead in frustration. She doesn’t understand why or how this sense of ‘having been here’ is coming up so often. The fact that it occurs so frequently must be a sign that this is an integral part of the Nightmare.

But then, what would this mean?

Jiang Shuangmei ends up falling silent, and she forcefully switches the topic when she speaks up again, asking, “was it… Mystic, in the elevator? I feel like the sound was her.”

“It’s definitely a woman,” Fei says, “possibly her, but why would she have gone on separately from those two?”

Jiang Shuangmei murmurs, “who knows…”

Although she is thinking with a slightly twisted mind, that perhaps even Mystic can’t stand the duo’s superciliousness already.

That is when a low rumble suddenly comes in out of nowhere. Spooked, she quickly turns to the two other Missiontakers present.

Fei clearly hears it as well, asking, “what is this?”

Right now, it has just been an hour since the Nightmare began.

Shortly after, the noise gets louder and louder, clearer and clearer, very obviously… coming from above them!

The three Missiontakers reflexively raises their heads.

The next second, their visions go dark——The Nightmare, is restarting.

… Who died?

In the stream, the detective dalao is furiously typing, “I knew it! An hour after the Nightmare began and the shaky building is collapsing!”

The collapse started from the highest floor of this building, spreading all the way down to the 26th floor. While Suits and Teen, who are unfortunately right in the middle of the storeys, end up minced meat.

The moment the second run of the Nightmare started, when the Missiontakers come back to be, Teen’s face is bleak.

… In many senses of that word.

Because just now, the one who ended up smacked dead by the collapsing ceiling, was him. When instead, Suits, standing right next to him, was luckily missed.

Teen is irate, and also frightened from his recent death, and is even feeling a sense of disbelief.

What? He died?

In this Nightmare? A Nightmare of the bottom floor?

You’re kidding him.

Before coming to this Nightmare, it has already been a long, long while since Teen has ever died in Nightmares.

He is arrogant, but that is also because he has the capability to deserve to be arrogant. Thanks to his young appearance as well, even when he runs his mouth off on the higher floors of the Tower, the other Missiontakers would just keep quiet and move on.

That is how his temper grew more and more.

In fact, there are even people who wonder if he might be acting temperamental with zero consideration for time and space because of the ‘price’ he must have paid for some utility card.

He doesn’t think so, however.

This return to the bottom floor, while he didn’t seem too bothered on the surface, is actually something that he deeply despised. A source of his pride being the fact that he is from a higher floor, forcing him back to the bottom floor is tantamount to killing him.

He scorns Missiontakers of the bottom floor, and even Nightmares of the bottom floor. A catchphrase he has is wondering if the Server is more lenient to Missiontakers of the lower floors.

Now, he has died, in this Nightmare he merely had contempt for.

The Nightmare, has restarted.