Volume 5 - CH 85.2

Fei and Wu Jian are on the 14th floor.

They checked out the 15th floor earlier, and see that the desks and chairs are still strewn about over at the wall.

What concerns Fei, though, is the fact that the pair of properly placed office desk and chair that Wu Jian and Lin Qin saw in the last run in the middle of the room, is nowhere to be found.

Lin Qin walks in to take a look, then says, “it’s there,” pointing over to the pile of desks and chairs, he says, “exactly where they ended up after I threw them over last run.”

Fei murmurs, “has the Nightmare changed already?”

Lin Qin knows what she is talking about, but says, “this is only the second run.”

Fei remains silent for a while and slowly asks, “so, the desk and chair in the middle of the floor… What could they mean?”

Lin Qin thinks about it, and tries his best to answer, “because it has full view of the burning city outside?”

“Full view… burning city…” Fei repeats the phrases, and suddenly turns her head outwards.

The silent city is still burning quietly. It feels as if only this building still contained barely living beings in the entire city.

… Why would there only be people trying to escape, but no one ever comes inside?

A question suddenly pops onto Fei’s mind.

This seems to point to a staggering conclusion.

Because there is nobody else outside.

Lin Qin is looking at Fei oddly. Because of what he said earlier, Fei looks to fall into thought, and then her face went pale, until she looked as mentally unstable as the insane people Xü Beijin talked about that he heard earlier.

… The thought of Xü Beijin here makes him feel slightly complicated, and when he thinks about how he and Xü Beijin is sharing this view on insane people, he manages to dig up a term from his memory­­­­──Couples look alike? Or think alike, here.

He thinks about it, and concludes that it makes sense.

So Lin Qin has cheered himself up.

He is different from Xü Beijin when he is happy. No matter what kind of smile Xü Beijin pulls, people would always assume he is scheming something bad. While Lin Qin, with is harmless, baby-like innocent face, would look so cute when he smiles, the kind that older people enjoy doting on.

Though people who are truly familiar with Lin Qin would probably be feeling slightly spooked by that smile.

Well, in any case, he is now convinced that he and Xü Beijin are born to be a couple.

So from that, he deduces, once again, that he must truly like Xü Beijin──if not, where would their couples thinking alike part come from?

… Of course, surely, an astute outside observer would point out that logic has been an early casualty through this chain of thoughts.

Lin Qin doesn’t seem the least bit self-aware, though.

While thinking, Lin Qin nonchalantly strolls after Fei towards the 14th floor.

Before entering, Fei carefully checked the glass of the door leading to the floor. She would very much not like to enter the Cannibal’s turf. There is no strict need to yet, either.

… At least, for now.

The 14th floor shows a scene rather unexpected to Fei, because outside of the missing glass on windows, everything looked unchanged.

Neatly segregated office desks; a printer by the wall with a pile of A4 paper; locked cabinets; drinks still on the desk, alongside the computers, documents, calculators, stationery… Everything would suggest that someone was still working hard in this office the last second.

Until they all disappeared the next.

Compared to the absurd, the insane, and the horrifying floors, this scene is making Fei feel downright creepy instead.

Clearly, if all the other office areas has been so thoroughly devastated on the other floors, then whenever that ‘something’ happened, so should have the 14th floor fallen to chaos.

But why, would this place look so normal?

… Could it be that the ‘Renovators’ have worked on it?

Fei takes in her surroundings with as much spook as confusion.

That is when Lin Qin’s ears pick up something. He turns towards where the source of the noise is coming from──the noise being breathing and meek sobbing.

Shortly after, the pair are over at the restroom on the left side of the floor.

Just like how the floor itself appeared entirely intact, the restrooms of this floor were not locked up like those of the other floors.

By this point, Fei can also hear the weak sobbing coming from the male restroom already.

Fei and Lin Qin are looking at each other blankly.

Then Lin Qin moves his hand to open the door to the male restroom, and it’s immediately obvious. Someone is curled up at the far side of the wall, and the appearance of strangers has intimidated him into not crying anymore.

A ‘Mushroom’?

Lin Qin can’t be bothered to go fetch him, and just says, “come out.”

The Mushroom… Well, the person, at least, probably intimidated fully by Lin Qin, shakily stands up, and then slowly shifts his way outside.

The two Missiontakers can finally see his appearance clearly.

He is a middle-aged man around 40 years of age. His hairline is receding, but he is smartly dressed. Of course, the trail of tears covering his face is ruining the whole look.

Who knows how long he has been crying in the restroom. He doesn’t even seem the least bit embarrassed; he merely holds his head down and his body is trembling. He still seems utterly terrified.

Fei tries her best to make her voice non-threatening to this rare living person here, “are you alright?”

The man does not answer.

Fei asks again, “do you know what happened on this floor?”

Perhaps some word there triggered something in the man, but he reflexively twitched. Some sort of memory or recollection has overtaken him, as he yells out, “no! No!!! Don’t remind me of that…! Please…”

Then, he collapses back onto the ground, and curls up.

Before Fei could make it up to him, the man is already explaining.

“Those people, they were here, they were going mad and saying that this is their canteen; they need the place fixed up.

They had the Renovators turn it back to how it was, but they stopped coming. They said the situation has changed, and they don’t need to keep this up anymore…

Nothing, nothing is going back to normal…”

The man is falling to the ground in pieces and sobbing again, and Fei has also understood what happened.

It’s the Cannibals.