Volume 5 - CH 83.4

… There is someone curled up inside the cargo elevator.

Someone with dirty clothes, blood-stained feet and hugging his kneecaps tightly.

When the elevator door opened, like a spooked sparrow, the man quickly raised his head to look at the two people outside the elevator, and then lower his head immediately to pretend he didn’t see anything. He’s like an ostrich.

The cargo elevator is spacious, yet the man is curled up in the most distant corner, while Mystic and the little girl take up the position of the side closer to the elevator door.

The door shuts soon enough, and the three of them peacefully coexist within this confined space. Nobody would make any noise.

The little girl gets tired standing after a while, and sits down on the ground where she stood. Mystic looks at her but doesn’t react otherwise, nor does she push on any floor on the cargo elevator. She merely stands there quietly.

This mystifying scene baffles the livestream’s audience.

“what in the world? I dont understand mystic at all”

“it feels like… she took the little girl here on purpose?”

“its her face time here right? why did she know theres a cargo elevator this floor?”

“uh, a possible explanation, is that since shes the mother of the little girl the last run, which makes her the nightmare owner, so somehow, that gave her information on the nightmare?”

“… that sounds like a load of utter bollocks”

“I think it makes sense, kinda…”

“so… mystic’s a mystic after all?”

“fine, let’s say she got information, then why here, still? why not go solve the nightmare instead? the little girl is clearly key to this nightmare, but why is she hiding here with her?”

Xü Beijin finds himself in concurrence with the viewers in general, especially regarding the motivation of her taking the little girl to the 9th floor – to provide the little girl a safe shelter.

Mystic is also staying perhaps because there is still someone else in the elevator. She’s worried leaving her there alone, so she’s staying with her.

Although what Mystic is doing here would clearly be highly troublesome to the other Missiontakers.

Xü Beijin can’t help but sympathise with other Missiontakers of this Nightmare, especially the rather diligent ones.

Speaking of, he goes to check on the others.

Of the three groups, Mystic and Jiang Shuangmei’s pair has fallen out entirely. The four men are still trying their luck to replicate the path over to the 20th floor for elevator Three——Honestly, Xü Beijin thinks it would have been quicker if they just took the stairs instead.

Meanwhile, Lin Qin and Fei are finally down on the 16th floor, having missed Mystic's mad dash downwards entirely.

In order to facilitate collection of information, Lin Qin is even going against his own instinct to immediately stick himself to Xü Beijin, merely greeting him from afar and then going back to listen to Fei’s chat with the other survivors here.

He wishes to solve this Nightmare as soon as possible.

Not that it is stopping him from peeking at Xü Beijin every so often, as if he’s worried he’d disappear into thin air somehow.

… And even in spite of the fact that he feels like Xü Beijin might possibly be as adept a fighter as he is. Yet the moment Xü Beijin looked slightly unwell, Lin Qin’s actions also turn erratic.

Xü Beijin of course notices Lin Qin’s occasional glances, and after some uncertain deliberation, decides to rule it as – protectiveness…?

Why, though? Does he look that meek?

Xü Beijin can’t help but wonder with an unimpressed look.

That said, being cared about, being cared for, the feeling that is spreading in Xü Beijin’s chest, reaches a climax when Lin Qin walked past him and asked if he wanted anything to eat or drink.

Xü Beijin can’t help but wonder, if Lin Qin… really did like him romantically? Why is he doing all this?

It’s making Xü Beijin increasingly unsure of how he should respond.

Well, that lasts for all of a single moment until he suddenly has an epiphany.

It must be because Lin Qin is worried that he’s unable to fight well with him if he’s sick, so he is showing all this care to him.

This brings Xü Beijin’s fluffy feeling back down to earth, and he even rubs his nose slightly shamefully, wondering how he could ever think that the little apple was trying to accustom him to him.

Even if this guy could only figure out whether he likes him or not based on what others tell him…

Xü Beijin can’t help but sigh, but he’s also not sure what he is now feeling instead.

While Xü Beijin is confused over himself, Lin Qin and Fei are also stuck in an awkward impasse, especially for Fei.

Fei did think that it was because Wu Jian failed to ask the right questions or simply failed to word his questions well, that they failed to obtain more information from the survivors on the 16th floor.

However, the awkward truth is that, when she’s now where he has been, asking all the different questions over and over again, she also fails to obtain worthwhile information.

The survivors do not know what actually happened outside or even to this building; they do not know any way of leaving the building safely – if they did, they say, they wouldn’t even be stuck here in the first place.

Additionally, they know nothing about some specific little girl, never mind finding her missing mother.

So Fei ends up knowing, awkwardly, that she might really have blamed Wu Jian prematurely. It was not his failure to obtain information, but actually that these survivors of the 16th floor, knew next to nothing.

All these people here, but nobody holds any substantial clues.

But then…

Fei has some confusion.

If this is the case, then what is the point of this large safe zone on the 16th floor, with all these survivors assembled here? From a game design perspective, this makes no sense.

Over a dozen people, but nobody knows anything about what happened to the building?

It’s reasonable they know nothing about the burning city outside, but do they seriously have no idea about the madness in the building, those deranged people and all the blood and gore?

How did they even come to the 16th floor then? All of them took the stairs?

Fei looks around, and her keen eyes tell her that these people did not reach this place safely – there are bloodstains, scratches, wounds. They only arrived in this shelter after fear, after pain, after desperation, after feeling lost.

And observing the anxiousness and tenseness they have, Fei suddenly understands.

They do not dare tell her the truth.

No matter what she asked, they do not dare tell her what they know. There is something that intimidates them – they could be afraid that something would take notice at them.

So, they do know something, but the Missiontakers have not figured out a way to make them talk.

Fei takes a deep breath in frustration, and then immediately throws the useless emotion out of the window.

She has to move on. Things far more important than her ending up defeated here by momentary setbacks yet remain.