Volume 6 - CH 98.1

Half Past Three

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

Fei, Mu Jiashi, and Mr Suicide’s journey has been straining their psyches all along.

Since encountering the lunatic at the salon, their exploration seems to have run into some kind of problem. The Nightmare might as well have pre-crumbled for them.

Never mind that hotpot restaurant;

They then came across a karaoke place that has patrons sing until their throats bled, a flower shop that uses upside down human skulls as flower pots, a tuck shop that sells finger snacks made of real children’s fingers, a VR store that lets people ‘experience’ VR headsets by using the helmets to zap electric current directly into customers’ heads…

By the end, even Mr Suicide is walking forward moping.

All three Missiontakers can feel as if their brains have been thoroughly bleached. The craziness the entire way has made their own sanity unstable.

The calmest of the three of them, though, is likely Mu Jiashi.

Fei, glancing at him with a pale face, thinks, oh right, this Missiontaker has been to this Nightmare before.

That’s… probably a good thing.

Fei heaves a weary sigh, then looks on towards the road sign some ways ahead.

If they still don’t make any discoveries after this, other than encountering more SAN-depleting locales, Fei swears she would go insane.

They’ve walked forward for a long time──this main avenue goes straight forward without major turns­­──until finally, they’re at a large intersection.

Forward, and they would leave the ‘prosperous’ streets behind, and wander into the suburbs.

Fei says out loud, looking at the signage, “Space Agency?” She then looks back at the CBD merely a few kilometres behind them at best, and can’t help but say, “this Cangcheng has weird city design.”

Mu Jiashi replies calmly, “it may have been that this Nightmare kept key locations close together.”

Fei nods and agrees with the possibility.

Though she then starts murmuring, “if so, then this Space Agency must be something important if the Nightmare plopped it down on purpose.”

Mu Jiashi replies with a poker face, “that’s right.”

Fei and Wu Jian told him not to share any information on the Nightmare, and so he’s going to comply.

Though he can’t help but wonder a little, given how difficult this Nightmare is, that if he didn’t give any hints whatsoever, it might not be too long before these Missiontakers failed entirely.

Mu Jiashi is worrying a little.

He was able to achieve a True End back then, solely because, he was referred to it as a Golddigger, no less, to help a customer win.

In other words, he was provided with more than sufficient information before entering the Nightmare, and he’s had planning sessions and plan Bs and more before finally deciding it is time to enter the Nightmare. It took all that to achieve a True End.

If he really did enter this Nightmare on a whim and without knowing anything, even Mu Jiashi doubts his capabilities will be enough to see him through to a True End.

And this is talking about the pre-defeat Mu Jiashi, confident, powerful, and once had a 100% success streak on the bottom floor of the Tower.

Mu Jiashi, following behind Fei, is now walking towards the Space Agency with her.

He can’t help but smile bitterly inside.

The environments he still remember vividly and the scenery he walked past are all making him recall his defeat.

His mood is pretty sombre, and he’s quieter than usual. Fei might have thought he’s quiet because he promised not to divulge information, but in fact, this is more reflective of his state when he just barged through Bad Ends after Bad Ends and returned to the bottom floor.

When Fei and Wu Jian met him in that Nightmare with the ruins before, he stood up to the task because he had to investigate the Nightmare for information on Su Enya, the woman who has very successfully attracted his attention.

Speaking of…

Mu Jiashi is feeling even darker inside, as well as being confused.

What actually happened?

Why has Su Enya gone missing?

Is it related to what she has told him?

What is the relationship between her and this Nightmare? Why would she know that sentence?

Thanks to Fei and Wu Jian’s information and bold theories, he has already understood what Su Enya was trying to tell him before.

Tower residents…

Now Mu Jiashi is viewing the Tower anew.

Not that it was especially effective in revitalising his lazed state. He’s still feeling defeatist, still laughing at himself inside, still chastising himself for his failure.

… A failure, huh? Is it really, though?

Well, at least, what it was, was something his proud, and perhaps even arrogant self could not accept, so all he could, was retreat, run away, and despair.

What he felt back then was direct indication that he definitely was nowhere near as strong as he thought he was.

He’s a complete, total failure of a loser.

A loser, who lost entirely to himself.

Mu Jiashi is looking down, and only occasionally raising his head to look at the sky, but all in all, he maintains a poker face, with eyes that are devoid of any colour or glint.

That is when Fei suddenly stops, shocked, and asks, “we’re… here? Is this the Space Agency?”

Her voice trails off…

Mu Jiashi raises his head a little lazily, and then says with a mechanical tone, “yes. This is, the Space Agency, of this Nightmare.”

When they walked past the bus stop named ‘Space Agency,’ Fei thought what awaited them would be a grand, solemn structure, but what she could see, this ‘Space Agency’ seems more like some ‘amateur astronomers’ gathering.’

The building of the Agency itself seems abandoned entirely, with broken windows and everything.

A bit further in the distance is what seems to be a large telescope pointed at the sky. The instrument still looks operational enough.

Though what is most shocking is the group of people assembled in front of them, on the plaza before the Space Agency building.

They’re in ridiculous, flashy clothes, mostly consisting of overly long dresses and oversized clothing, with various space-themed imagery either drawn or printed on them. The imagery include ‘Big Bang’ style explosions, constellations, or equations of astronomical interests.

They all look quite passionate and excited, so much so they could be said to look almost insane. Of course, none of that could hide that, underneath, everyone still looked worried or anxious.

For example, they’re currently in some sort of extremely heated debate.

Under the background of the abandoned Space Agency building, this hysterical scene is even more disconcerting.

Fei can’t help but murmur, “what actually happened here…”