Volume 5 - CH 82.1

Different Possibilities

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

When the second run of the Nightmare begins, the mood between the Missiontakers is particularly odd.

Mystic seem much more fearful, nervous and paranoid than before, even more so than the conspiracists Fei and Wu Jian; the rest of the Missiontakers immediately want to find out who it was that died in the last run of the Nightmare.

Though when they look around only to see Teen’s gloomy face, they turn to each other instead, looking rather subtle.

Then there’s Suits, Teen’s companion, who doesn’t save much face for him either, explaining, “this guy died the last run, from the collapsing ceiling.”

Teen looks rather offended and wants to retort, but there is nothing to object to. He can only turn his head away and take it.

Jiang Shuangmei audibly snickers, then the next second she immediately reflects whether she was being affected by the utility card.

Although she is leaning more on the morbid amusement in her being genuine…

Teen gives her a harsh glance, not that it looks at all intimidating right now.

Suits is still going, “we didn’t have time to check the floor number back then, but I think we were between the 28th and the 30th floor.

So now we can safely say that an hour after the Nightmare has begun, the building will undergo a collapse, which… well, let’s assume it goes at least ten floors.

As time goes on, and possibly as the Nightmare crumbles, the collapse would spread to the lower floors, until… the building crashes to the ground entirely.

Suits’ mention of the little girl seems to make Mystic want to say something, although she seems to have trouble expression herself, so she just murmurs, “… no, it can’t be…”

No one is listening to her closely either, since everything she says has always been cryptic and possibly false alarms.

While the rest of the Missiontakers aren’t even aware of there being a little girl.

Suits then pauses for a moment, and decides to first exchange information at the beginning of this run of the Nightmare, otherwise they might meaninglessly repeat exploring the same or useless space.

He tells them about the little girl they met, and also their conclusions regarding the potential randomness of the elevator floors. There is also a remark about the photograph they found on the 20th floor. He tells them everything.

He then goes into more detail before listening to the experiences of the other Missiontakers, “first, on the button of the elevators, they should reach a ‘random’ floor after we press them.

This ‘random’ means that it does not necessarily lead to the same floor every push, but it is not true randomness.

From our experience, we think that each elevator can only reach a designated allotment of floors, and it is randomly picked from that allotment.

As for why that is, we have no answers for now.”

Then he pauses to look over at Teen to see if he has anything to add, though he then concludes that Teen is still probably ashamed and angry at his last death right now, and skips him, continuing, “as for the little girl on the 31st floor, and also the related question of Mystic’s face appearing on the company group photo of the 20th floor…

My guess, is that this little girl, is in fact, already dead.”

He speaks of the shocking with a pure unchanging expression.

Jiang Shuangmei can’t help but ask, “so you’re saying you met a ghost?”

Teen glares at Jiang Shuangmei with a look that says ‘are you dumb,’ before explaining with an irritable tone, “he means in reality! This little girl is already dead. So this Nightmare is her mother’s Nightmare.

Here, though, Teen gives Mystic a death glare.

He is still mad that Mystic snapped out of nowhere and rushed into elevator Three by herself. What an embarrassment to veteran Missiontakers of the higher floors!

That said, nobody is paying attention to what Teen is thinking, not even the viewers with their God’s eye view.

Because they are having an epiphany.

“so thats it!”

“makes sense!”

“nightmares… yeah, are still just dreams, so the story should develop in a way that the nightmare owner thinks it would”

“basically mystic had such a big reaction that spooked our thoughts away…”

“but mystic being those kinda people, maybe she is really feeling something?”

“… just shut up, don’t speak if you have nothing good to add”

Xü Beijin isn’t surprised seeing Teen’s view resonating with the viewers.

What Suits and Teen propose is the most logical conclusion, possibly thanks to them having experienced similar kinds of Nightmares on higher floors and being more experienced in general.

Though, in fact, Xü Beijin has a different, and possibly subjective interpretation.

… Why can’t Mystic have been the little’s mother?

This is a hypothesis based on what could be said to be ‘wishful thinking.’

Since these Nightmares the Tower residents are assigned, in the game’s own setting, is something based on what that Tower resident has experienced, and as Actors, they also know that they are not actually the Tower residents themselves, but they are merely ‘Acting’ as the Tower residents, that means, the actual source of these Nightmares, would be called into question.

Naturally, it is possible that they all stem from some game designer and scriptwriter that may or may not exist, but there is a question here – how many Nightmares are there in the Tower? Can any single team really have designed all of it?

There are even related conspiracies in the Tower, basing itself off of people like Shen Yünjü, who is certain that they have been to some particular scene in the Nightmares, and have a strong sense of a familiarity, telling them that this is a scene from back on Earth.

So why, can these Nightmares not have been based on reality——on their Earth?

Of course, more questions arise from that.

For example, if they are based on Earth, then why does no one remember those stories at all?

That is essentially in the same vein as those asking why they end up in the Tower.

There is an answer in the form of Shen Yünjü’s example, who is certain the commercial complex looked familiar, but he is unable to remember at all why it iwas familiar.

The questions regarding the memories and regarding the brain are beyond the humans of the Tower to answer.

Speaking of which, another question. If these stories really are based on Earth, then… could all these ridiculous events really have happened on Earth?

A father who made his daughter into a doll; a husband who killed his wife for baseless delusions; electronics in some apartment complex that have gained sentience… Can they really have actually happened?

And also, the ruins of a post-apocalyptic world in the last Nightmare, and the burning city and an office building full of insanity in this Nightmare… Can they all, have been reality?

This would force another deeply despairing conclusion.

Even if it can explain why Mystic’s face would appear on that photograph.

Perhaps it is simply because, when Mystic was still on Earth, she went through this; she might have been, the true owner, of this Nightmare, of this horrifying story.

The Server generated this Nightmare based on her story, based on her memories.

The explanation holds, doesn’t it?

Though here’s the unfortunate circumstance – Mystic’s face, was on that photo, and Mystic saw it.

This must have been a tragic, demoralising bug for the Server NE, who failed to foresee the bug in the first place. A clear mistake from the artificial intelligence.

Although he must have also had trouble understanding how Mystic ended up in this Nightmare in the first place. The Server must have failed to take into account the unpredictability of humanity.

Mystic was on a higher floor. This Nightmare was on the bottom floor of the Tower.

However, because of mere rumours in the Tower, Mystic abandoned everything she fought for, and returned to the bottom floor without a shred of doubt.

And, because of this, she may be closer to the truth behind it all, ever.

Her life, her past story, ended up as this Nightmare; this Nightmare which, for forces beyond human comprehension, has already been erased from her dreadful past.

Xü Beijin only has one question – is this ‘forgetting,’ a good thing, or a bad thing?