This is a dark room.
The four Missiontakers in the room can’t see anything clearly in the pitch darkness, but thanks to the Night Vision function on the stream, Xü Beijin is able to barely discern things in the room.
The very greyish/greenish camera feed shows that this is a bedroom, perhaps a bit over a dozen square metres across. There is a large bed right in the middle of the room, with bedside cabinets on both sides. There is also a wardrobe close to the door.
The curtain is wide open, but somehow there isn’t a speck of light coming in through the window. It is equally pitch black right outside – a night without stars or the moon, perhaps.
It seems this dark room would be a major scene for the Nightmare’s owner.
That is all that could be distinguished through the murky scene.
Xü Beijin could at least see that, but the four Missiontakers in the room could see even less. Soon after they entered this Nightmare, while still in their panic, a thunderous voice suddenly yells out at them.
“Number off!”
Number off? What number off?
The four people have to physically feel their way around the room and finally figures out there are four of them here. They begin to talk about the situation.
And in the meantime, one of them warily yells out a ‘one’ as the disembodied voice demanded.
About a minute later, another wrathful ‘number off!’ is yelled right next to their ears.
The man that first spoke out says nervously, “no… this won’t do… What, let’s see what’s nearby first?”
Someone answers, “sure, laosan. Stand still, and we’ll fan out and search about you.”
Laosan stands in place, saying, “got it, er-ge.” (TL: Literally ‘second brother.’ Referring to his older brother who is the second oldest. Also, no matter how much I hate this, since we never learn their names, I’ll have to use these as names, I hate how the Chinese language allows all these weird terms of addresses that are hard to translate instead of just calling each other by name like sensible people do)
The three Missiontakers remaining quickly disperse to search.
Though… ‘laosan’? It makes Xü Beijin recall how, a few days ago, in the middle of the Respawn Avenue back in the Tower, he managed to listen in on a conversation between three men.
He knits his brows, trying to recall what the people were talking about. Then he thinks, so this is the Nightmare that they talked about then, the Nightmare of the boy that murmured a string of numbers?
And he remembers that, back then, one of the trio said that he saw the boy running towards where Lin Qin was but didn’t see him there. Then the annoyed Lin Qin chased them away…
Xü Beijin suddenly has a strange conclusion.
Did Lin Qin end up in this Nightmare because, he actually met the boy?
Speaking of Lin Qin, he isn’t in this dark room right now. It seems the Missiontakers have been divided into two groups after arriving in the Nightmare.
After all that thought, when he turns his attention back to the stream, he notices comments floating across the stream already.
Some viewers are here.
“Hey Beibei!”
“Beibei! ur finally on! missed u so much these few days sob [heart emoji]”
“eh? new host? new host that dares streaming the slog that is horror games? nice, I’ll follow you just for that courage alone!”
“new viewer! welcome, our Bei is handsome and cute, and theres a detective dalao in the stream too, this is a super amazing place”
“i just checked on the number of followers for Beibei, a sad, lonely 5, poor us”
“yea, and only 4 viewers… poor, poor us”
“Really, horror games are not popular nowadays… No host is brave enough, and no audience is brave enough either. If not for the handsome Beibei I might not have watched it through either”
“once there was the time when hosts could face the ghosts on 2D screens without flinching, but in full immersion days… ha, they all got too scared”
“hosts courage cant keep up with the technologies”
“but Bei, you’re a host! how could you only open a stream every few days? you can’t get popular like this!”
The very passionate audience makes Xü Beijin a little helpless. He greets them, and then, after they shower him with sweet nothings, he falters entirely——And agrees to stream more in the future.
Xü Beijin “…”
Not that he can decide whether he can stream!
Or, perhaps, he could tour the inside of the Tower with the viewers? He could go visit those livelier areas where the Missiontakers gather, too.
He thinks about it a little, but decides to stop thinking about it for now and focus on the stream.
The audience starts to sigh again, typing, “oh, today our Bei is also a tool-person today”
“? if so, wont Beibei be able to spoil the plot to us?”
“No no no, that would be boring”
“[laugh_cry emoji] the detective dalao is still the dalao lol”
The viewers are chatting while also relaying information about this game to the new viewer. They are also paying attention to the exploration of the four Missiontakers in the pitch black room.
They have managed to feel their way about a bed, a wardrobe and the bedside cabinets. They understand by now they are in a bedroom.
Laosan is murmuring to himself, “a bedroom… numbering off… a little boy…”
His companion asks nonchalantly, “laosan, think we should get a ‘two’ out first?”
“Sure,” Laosan hesitates before saying, “we have to be careful the first run… mmhm, yes… collect as much information first.”
Laosan seems to be lacking in confidence, even though he is probably the brains of the trio. He is always asking the others whether he can say or do something.
Instead, his ‘er-ge’ is the one that would come up with actionable plans.
As for their ‘laoda’… (TL: Similar to ‘boss,’ but just refers to the eldest in this case; also the way he is referred to, like Ponytail, Glasses, etc.)
“Oh, fuck!” He is yelling out, going, “what the heck did I run into? It hurts like hell, oh piss off!”
Just a very agitated bro.
“Laoda, shut the fuck up,” Erge calls out, then yells out at the air, “two!”
A short while later, nothing has happened.
The Missiontakers are perplexed. Could this Nightmare just simply be them numbering off until the end?
Right now, there are four Missiontakers in he room. Besides the three men who know each other, the last person suddenly speaks up with a soft voice, “I’m thinking… should we try leaving this room first?”
After she speaks up, the rest of the Missiontakers realise she’s a woman. She didn’t participate in their conversation at all up to that point. It seems she is shy.
“Yes, we can try…” Laosan also responds with a soft voice, “we should… finish exploring the room first, though.”
“Alright.”
Then the shy woman stops talking entirely.
They continue to touch all about the room, and gives up soon enough.
Laoda says, “fuck, what’s with this damned wardrobe, it won’t open!”
Erge says, “and the damned cabinets and windows are all locked. Looks like there’s not a thing to explore. What is with this stupid Nightmare?”
A short while later, the shy woman says softly, “I think… I am touching the door handle, but, it won’t open either.”
Doors and windows are both shut; wardrobe and bedside cabinets that wouldn’t open either. The bed is the grounded type, meaning there isn’t space down there for hiding. So basically, this bedroom is no different from an empty, featureless, unexplorable room.
Laoda is irritated at this point, going, “so what is this even?” He is yelling out, “I said that boy is suspicious, and you wouldn’t listen!”
“Enough, stop blabbering,” Erge rolls his eyes at him, saying, “even yelling so loudly won’t conceal the fact that you’re afraid of the dark.”
“Who, who are you saying that’s afraid of the dark! Make yourself clear, you fucker!”
Everyone ignores Laoda.
None of them are speaking. This pitch black room and vision really does make them anxious inside.
At least the audience in the stream are requesting, “Bei, Bei, plz, show us some normal sunny human world, plz?”
Even if the stream was just pitch blackness, then that would still be better than this murky greyish Night Vision mode plus several pairs of glowing eyeballs. The viewers are too spooked at this point.
Xü Beijin doesn’t really mind himself, because he’s thinking about what this black room signifies in the Nightmare. Perhaps the detective dalao that has gone silent is thinking the same.
Though since the audience are telling him so, Xü Beijin puts his thoughts aside and adjusts the camera sources. He opens a little window to put his own view on the bottom right corner.
There are several scenes in this Nightmare, and a cursory glance later, Xü Beijin can see there’s the Bedroom, Corridor, Car park, Expressway, Expressway Service Area, with many sub-scenes down the lay-by too, like Bookstore, Supermarket and Petrol Station, etc.
Even though there are all these scenes, the Missiontakers are only divided into two, one group in the Bedroom, the other in the Corridor.
Though the Corridor contains Lin Qin who Xü Beijin would rather avoid, but he only hesitates a little before changing the scene over.
The Missiontakers in the corridor are running and arguing.
There are also four Missiontakers here, one of whom is Lin Qin. The three others are all men, with two arguing, and the last one, is someone Xü Beijin feels like he’s seen before.
Before he could even start to speculate on who that is, his jaw is already on the floor.
Since when did it become so easy to meet people he know in the Nightmares?!
As for the two people arguing –
“Damn you! Why did you push me?”
“What else could I do then? Prop you up in some baby stroller and protect you? Wake up, fam, we’re in a Nightmare and I don’t want to die!”
“You don’t want to die, so I can die instead? Wow, I sure haven’t met someone as selfish as you are in a long time!”
“Selfish? Everyone is just doing their best to survive in this shitty game. You’re calling me selfish on what grounds, on you being some saint? Then sure, help block me from danger later, then? I will definitely thank you very very much.”
“You’re retarded! Just wait and see, I’ll push you out when that man in that black coat catches up with us!”
“Hoho, aren’t you just doing the exact same thing I did?”
Finally, the last man, the one Xü Beijin feels like he recalls, interrupts their argument, “hey… can we stop the childish bickering for a second? I thought we were in a life-or-death chase situation…”
Just as he said, they are being chased by a man running quickly in black clothes and a black mask with a big machete in his hand.
As for the reason the two Missiontakers were arguing? It’s very simple.
The moment they entered this Nightmare, one of them——The one being told off for being selfish, was shocked that someone was suddenly chasing after them with a big machete , and so instinctively pushes the Missiontaker next to him out towards the chaser.
And that person in question is obviously disgusted. While he avoided the knife alright and ran away immediately, he also kept chastising Selfish the whole way. He looks like he would gladly kick him into the path of that man in black clothing.
Selfish is also rebuking everything thrown his way.
The Missiontakers cannot kill each other, sure, but more indirect methods like pushing someone out to their deaths are extremely commonplace.
Even though such scenarios… typically result in the entire Nightmare failing.
Never mind a True End. Just a Normal End would be miraculous at that point.
Therefore, that Missiontaker that almost ended up a scapegoat for Selfish retorts thus, “you think I want to argue? We’re not in some fucking DOTA game here when he set me up. This is a Nightmare for fuck’s sake!”
What Scapegoat said makes that third man go quiet. His expression turns complicated for a second, but he says nothing.
Lin Qin is out of patience already, saying, “just escape before doing anything else.”
How in the world are they so nonchalantly blabbering when being chased by some shady figure with a machete? Do they think the figure in black is just casually strolling along or what?
Even someone as uncaring as Lin Qin is speechless.
He starts seriously considering how it might be him entering Nightmares too frequently that he keeps meeting these weirdos that would argue in Nightmares. Maybe he could enter less frequently for a while…?
For Lin Qin, entering Nightmares is basically just a question of whether he might end up too bored in the Tower.
His pondering doesn’t slow him down any, though, as he is already outside of the corridor now.
Light immediately pours in from the outside. There is an open space here, with one road connecting this car park with the wider expressway outside.
There are several cars here, too.
The man that has been pretty unenergetic so far says in shock, “a road chase? Seriously?”
So thirty seconds later, when the man in black is also outside and enters a vehicle, the rest of the Missiontakers glare at the guy that jinxed it all.
The man quietly murmurs, “so… who’s driving?”
“You can’t?”
“Ah… I’m a piece of trash,” he sighs, and says, “I’m not good at driving. The man might catch up to us in a road chase.”
Scapegoat cusses a few times before saying, “fine, I’ll drive.”
Selfish taunts him, “just admit it, you’re a hopeless saint.”
Scapegoat is already pulling his sleeves up to brawl when he notices the man in black is turning their way with his car. He stops, and the four Missiontakers all quickly board the nearest car. Lin Qin is in the passenger’s seat and the two remaining are in the backseats.
They quickly leave this car park on the car, and the unenergetic man then looks outside the car window at the remaining parked cars.
He is murmuring, “different cars… different specs, it seems. If the Nightmare crumbles later on and the man in black speeds up, we might have to grab the best car in time, or maybe we should split up? One car each… No, anyone dying would restart. How about splitting up by driving skill…”
“What are you blabbering about?” Scapegoat is asking with an irritated tone while driving, “that man is ridiculously slow too. I’m only at 60 kph and he’s already gone.”
Yet the man that was murmuring replies, “he’s slow now, but not necessarily so in the future.”
Everyone else, besides the expressionless Lin Qin, all turn silent.
“Never mind, never mind; I’m just a piece of trash, so you don’t have to listen to me…” The man sighs and scratches his head, then says, “don’t take anything I say seriously. I just blabber a lot.”
He says, but what he said was all reasonable.
Scapegoat furrows his brows, perplexed.
At the same time, Xü Beijin is also knitting his brows in confusion watching the stream.
He already recalls who this slightly familiar-looking man is.
His name, is Mu Jiashi.
A very, very long time ago, he once interacted with Mu Jiashi. It was when a lot of Missiontakers were curious about Xü Beijin’s Nightmare, so a lot of them began buggering Xü Beijin incessantly, including Mu Jiashi.
Though because Xü Beijin would never let a word out regarding his own Nightmare, once, a frustrated Mu Jiashi just ends up leaving a drink he once had with Xü Beijin, who, feeling awkward, decided to gift him with a clue about a Nightmare he knew, which Mu Jiashi used to secure a True End.
In fact, before this happened, Mu Jiashi was already famous in the bottom floor, for his ‘carrying’ business——Or, bringing customers up to higher floors.
This is a simple enough business, because a True End in a Nightmare means all the Missiontakers present can go up to a higher floor. It is a mutually beneficial thing.
And those carrying the customers are called Carriers, though they are more commonly referred to as the Golddiggers (TL: I don’t think an explanation for this nickname is provided even up to the end, but I might just have forgotten).
In the Tower, Golddiggers belong to different organisations. Some are famous, some are small. All in all, because there are no rules or regulations, both screwing with people and getting screwed are common occurrences in their line of work.
After Golddiggers bring their customers up, they will then go through several Bad Ends on purpose to return to the original floor to take new customers. If they feel like they’ve brought a lot of customers already or just plain don’t want to return anymore, then they can stay at the higher floors.
Though the difficulty of the Nightmares in the higher floors are clearly incomparable to those of the bottom floor. So success rate is also difficult to maintain.
Many Golddiggers end up drifting up and down the floors but fail to maintain a good enough success rate. Many of these businesses fail inevitably.
Not Mu Jiashi, though, a dalao who is a dalao because his success rate is 100%. Even if he only carries people up from the bottom floor, this is still a record to boast.
However, soon after he became known for this record, the dalao chose to leave the Golddiggers Group he founded to go it alone. That was when he received the clue from Xü Beijin and ended up going to a higher floor, never being seen in the bottom floor again.
Until…
Right now, when clearly he’s returned to the bottom floor for some reason?
Xü Beijin is curious.
Why is he back? Did he end up failing the upper floor Nightmares?
He is… also calling himself a ‘piece of trash.’ Did he suffer some trauma, perhaps?
Once, the Mu Jiashi Xü Beijin met, while not exactly showy or flashy, was definitely confident. Since he did have the 100% success rate under his belt. He was a true dalao.
It is hard to imagine this dispirited, unenergetic man was once that dalao Mu Jiashi.
What happened to him?
Xü Beijin is mulling over him when suddenly, someone knocks on his counter.
He raises his head in surprise to see there is a young man standing in front of him, greeting him with a smile, “hello, nice to meet you. Are you interested in joining our ‘Operation Defeat NE’?”
Xü Beijin “…”
Hah?
After he picks his jaw back up from the floor, he shakes his head and responds dryly, “I’m sorry, I don’t.”
The young man doesn’t seem surprised at the answer. He shrugs and then simply says, “I see. I’ll ask again when you feel like joining.”
Then he leaves.
Xü Beijin “…”
Did he, perhaps just meet a Lin Qin #2?
No, that can’t be right. Lin Qin is way clingier than the young man.
Xü Beijin begins sighing as his head throbs in pain.
Somehow, starting from the last Nightmare, things seem to be getting out of hand in his life as dull as dishwater.
Then he turns towards the stream, where the comment barrage is already going “Bei Bei Bei Bei, what is NE?”
Like some yipping chicks eager for tasty worms from mommy hen.
Xü Beijin adjusts himself before replying, “There is a Server that controls this game ‘Escape,’ which we call NE.”
“oh”
“even the game server had a special name too? cool”
“hey since detective dalao said players could end up npcs, so maybe the server would also…?”
“? That imagination… Though someone randomly assigned to the Server would just be invincible, wouldn’t they? Their gameplay experience would be dreadful.”
“hey, wont it be fun getting godlike cheats with god armour and weapons in a game?”
“compared to that, I’m more interested in why they want to defeat NE… something fishy behind the scenes?”
“detective dalao, wanna try analysing?”
“There’s too little information… The only thing I can think of, is that with how much the Server restricts the Actors, they might feel oppressed and so want to rebel?”
“wouldnt a normal person just complain to the game company lol?”
“still… the server must exist and not just be some computer somewhere? itd at least have to be an entity that they could rebel meaningfully against”
“maybe they complained but nothing happened so theyre scheming in game in protest? from what Beibei said the characters seem permanent after generation”
“lolol these players sure r good at having fun”
Xü Beijin maintains his poker face while bitterly smiling inside.
Yes, players… Players.
They are players. Players who cannot leave their game. The only object they could feasibly resist is the Server.
Really, ‘Operation Defeat NE’s main objective isn’t even NE, but those Actors that have succumbed, that have mentally fused with the roles they are playing as.
Therefore, some Actors are trying to prop up a pretty hope that could be a beacon of light for the Actors nearing the hopeless precipice, to at least maintain their reason and sanity for as long as possible.
What next?
Nobody knows what the future would be like.
Whether they might actually escape, or die for good, or… succumb to a Collapsed Nightmare.
The viewers might take it as the players finding their own fun in-game, but they can never imagine, that this is just the ridiculous, desperate way humanity has came up with to save themselves, when they are pushed to their absolute limits.
The young man whose attitude was laid-back at best, perhaps, is just trying to… rescue him? Even when he has no idea whether it might succeed.
He might already see Xü Beijin as hopeless now.
Meanwhile, another comment flows across the screen.
“speaking of which, NE… ‘huh’?”
Xü Beijin “…”
His facial expression finally changes. He looks like he has a lot to say.
Though he does hold it in in the end.
Sure, ‘huh.’
This is a dark room.
The four Missiontakers in the room can’t see anything clearly in the pitch darkness, but thanks to the Night Vision function on the stream, Xü Beijin is able to barely discern things in the room.
The very greyish/greenish camera feed shows that this is a bedroom, perhaps a bit over a dozen square metres across. There is a large bed right in the middle of the room, with bedside cabinets on both sides. There is also a wardrobe close to the door.
The curtain is wide open, but somehow there isn’t a speck of light coming in through the window. It is equally pitch black right outside – a night without stars or the moon, perhaps.
It seems this dark room would be a major scene for the Nightmare’s owner.
That is all that could be distinguished through the murky scene.
Xü Beijin could at least see that, but the four Missiontakers in the room could see even less. Soon after they entered this Nightmare, while still in their panic, a thunderous voice suddenly yells out at them.
“Number off!”
Number off? What number off?
The four people have to physically feel their way around the room and finally figures out there are four of them here. They begin to talk about the situation.
And in the meantime, one of them warily yells out a ‘one’ as the disembodied voice demanded.
About a minute later, another wrathful ‘number off!’ is yelled right next to their ears.
The man that first spoke out says nervously, “no… this won’t do… What, let’s see what’s nearby first?”
Someone answers, “sure, laosan. Stand still, and we’ll fan out and search about you.”
Laosan stands in place, saying, “got it, er-ge.” (TL: Literally ‘second brother.’ Referring to his older brother who is the second oldest. Also, no matter how much I hate this, since we never learn their names, I’ll have to use these as names, I hate how the Chinese language allows all these weird terms of addresses that are hard to translate instead of just calling each other by name like sensible people do)
The three Missiontakers remaining quickly disperse to search.
Though… ‘laosan’? It makes Xü Beijin recall how, a few days ago, in the middle of the Respawn Avenue back in the Tower, he managed to listen in on a conversation between three men.
He knits his brows, trying to recall what the people were talking about. Then he thinks, so this is the Nightmare that they talked about then, the Nightmare of the boy that murmured a string of numbers?
And he remembers that, back then, one of the trio said that he saw the boy running towards where Lin Qin was but didn’t see him there. Then the annoyed Lin Qin chased them away…
Xü Beijin suddenly has a strange conclusion.
Did Lin Qin end up in this Nightmare because, he actually met the boy?
Speaking of Lin Qin, he isn’t in this dark room right now. It seems the Missiontakers have been divided into two groups after arriving in the Nightmare.
After all that thought, when he turns his attention back to the stream, he notices comments floating across the stream already.
Some viewers are here.
“Hey Beibei!”
“Beibei! ur finally on! missed u so much these few days sob [heart emoji]”
“eh? new host? new host that dares streaming the slog that is horror games? nice, I’ll follow you just for that courage alone!”
“new viewer! welcome, our Bei is handsome and cute, and theres a detective dalao in the stream too, this is a super amazing place”
“i just checked on the number of followers for Beibei, a sad, lonely 5, poor us”
“yea, and only 4 viewers… poor, poor us”
“Really, horror games are not popular nowadays… No host is brave enough, and no audience is brave enough either. If not for the handsome Beibei I might not have watched it through either”
“once there was the time when hosts could face the ghosts on 2D screens without flinching, but in full immersion days… ha, they all got too scared”
“hosts courage cant keep up with the technologies”
“but Bei, you’re a host! how could you only open a stream every few days? you can’t get popular like this!”
The very passionate audience makes Xü Beijin a little helpless. He greets them, and then, after they shower him with sweet nothings, he falters entirely——And agrees to stream more in the future.
Xü Beijin “…”
Not that he can decide whether he can stream!
Or, perhaps, he could tour the inside of the Tower with the viewers? He could go visit those livelier areas where the Missiontakers gather, too.
He thinks about it a little, but decides to stop thinking about it for now and focus on the stream.
The audience starts to sigh again, typing, “oh, today our Bei is also a tool-person today”
“? if so, wont Beibei be able to spoil the plot to us?”
“No no no, that would be boring”
“[laugh_cry emoji] the detective dalao is still the dalao lol”
The viewers are chatting while also relaying information about this game to the new viewer. They are also paying attention to the exploration of the four Missiontakers in the pitch black room.
They have managed to feel their way about a bed, a wardrobe and the bedside cabinets. They understand by now they are in a bedroom.
Laosan is murmuring to himself, “a bedroom… numbering off… a little boy…”
His companion asks nonchalantly, “laosan, think we should get a ‘two’ out first?”
“Sure,” Laosan hesitates before saying, “we have to be careful the first run… mmhm, yes… collect as much information first.”
Laosan seems to be lacking in confidence, even though he is probably the brains of the trio. He is always asking the others whether he can say or do something.
Instead, his ‘er-ge’ is the one that would come up with actionable plans.
As for their ‘laoda’… (TL: Similar to ‘boss,’ but just refers to the eldest in this case; also the way he is referred to, like Ponytail, Glasses, etc.)
“Oh, fuck!” He is yelling out, going, “what the heck did I run into? It hurts like hell, oh piss off!”
Just a very agitated bro.
“Laoda, shut the fuck up,” Erge calls out, then yells out at the air, “two!”
A short while later, nothing has happened.
The Missiontakers are perplexed. Could this Nightmare just simply be them numbering off until the end?
Right now, there are four Missiontakers in he room. Besides the three men who know each other, the last person suddenly speaks up with a soft voice, “I’m thinking… should we try leaving this room first?”
After she speaks up, the rest of the Missiontakers realise she’s a woman. She didn’t participate in their conversation at all up to that point. It seems she is shy.
“Yes, we can try…” Laosan also responds with a soft voice, “we should… finish exploring the room first, though.”
“Alright.”
Then the shy woman stops talking entirely.
They continue to touch all about the room, and gives up soon enough.
Laoda says, “fuck, what’s with this damned wardrobe, it won’t open!”
Erge says, “and the damned cabinets and windows are all locked. Looks like there’s not a thing to explore. What is with this stupid Nightmare?”
A short while later, the shy woman says softly, “I think… I am touching the door handle, but, it won’t open either.”
Doors and windows are both shut; wardrobe and bedside cabinets that wouldn’t open either. The bed is the grounded type, meaning there isn’t space down there for hiding. So basically, this bedroom is no different from an empty, featureless, unexplorable room.
Laoda is irritated at this point, going, “so what is this even?” He is yelling out, “I said that boy is suspicious, and you wouldn’t listen!”
“Enough, stop blabbering,” Erge rolls his eyes at him, saying, “even yelling so loudly won’t conceal the fact that you’re afraid of the dark.”
“Who, who are you saying that’s afraid of the dark! Make yourself clear, you fucker!”
Everyone ignores Laoda.
None of them are speaking. This pitch black room and vision really does make them anxious inside.
At least the audience in the stream are requesting, “Bei, Bei, plz, show us some normal sunny human world, plz?”
Even if the stream was just pitch blackness, then that would still be better than this murky greyish Night Vision mode plus several pairs of glowing eyeballs. The viewers are too spooked at this point.
Xü Beijin doesn’t really mind himself, because he’s thinking about what this black room signifies in the Nightmare. Perhaps the detective dalao that has gone silent is thinking the same.
Though since the audience are telling him so, Xü Beijin puts his thoughts aside and adjusts the camera sources. He opens a little window to put his own view on the bottom right corner.
There are several scenes in this Nightmare, and a cursory glance later, Xü Beijin can see there’s the Bedroom, Corridor, Car park, Expressway, Expressway Service Area, with many sub-scenes down the lay-by too, like Bookstore, Supermarket and Petrol Station, etc.
Even though there are all these scenes, the Missiontakers are only divided into two, one group in the Bedroom, the other in the Corridor.
Though the Corridor contains Lin Qin who Xü Beijin would rather avoid, but he only hesitates a little before changing the scene over.
The Missiontakers in the corridor are running and arguing.
There are also four Missiontakers here, one of whom is Lin Qin. The three others are all men, with two arguing, and the last one, is someone Xü Beijin feels like he’s seen before.
Before he could even start to speculate on who that is, his jaw is already on the floor.
Since when did it become so easy to meet people he know in the Nightmares?!
As for the two people arguing –
“Damn you! Why did you push me?”
“What else could I do then? Prop you up in some baby stroller and protect you? Wake up, fam, we’re in a Nightmare and I don’t want to die!”
“You don’t want to die, so I can die instead? Wow, I sure haven’t met someone as selfish as you are in a long time!”
“Selfish? Everyone is just doing their best to survive in this shitty game. You’re calling me selfish on what grounds, on you being some saint? Then sure, help block me from danger later, then? I will definitely thank you very very much.”
“You’re retarded! Just wait and see, I’ll push you out when that man in that black coat catches up with us!”
“Hoho, aren’t you just doing the exact same thing I did?”
Finally, the last man, the one Xü Beijin feels like he recalls, interrupts their argument, “hey… can we stop the childish bickering for a second? I thought we were in a life-or-death chase situation…”
Just as he said, they are being chased by a man running quickly in black clothes and a black mask with a big machete in his hand.
As for the reason the two Missiontakers were arguing? It’s very simple.
The moment they entered this Nightmare, one of them——The one being told off for being selfish, was shocked that someone was suddenly chasing after them with a big machete , and so instinctively pushes the Missiontaker next to him out towards the chaser.
And that person in question is obviously disgusted. While he avoided the knife alright and ran away immediately, he also kept chastising Selfish the whole way. He looks like he would gladly kick him into the path of that man in black clothing.
Selfish is also rebuking everything thrown his way.
The Missiontakers cannot kill each other, sure, but more indirect methods like pushing someone out to their deaths are extremely commonplace.
Even though such scenarios… typically result in the entire Nightmare failing.
Never mind a True End. Just a Normal End would be miraculous at that point.
Therefore, that Missiontaker that almost ended up a scapegoat for Selfish retorts thus, “you think I want to argue? We’re not in some fucking DOTA game here when he set me up. This is a Nightmare for fuck’s sake!”
What Scapegoat said makes that third man go quiet. His expression turns complicated for a second, but he says nothing.
Lin Qin is out of patience already, saying, “just escape before doing anything else.”
How in the world are they so nonchalantly blabbering when being chased by some shady figure with a machete? Do they think the figure in black is just casually strolling along or what?
Even someone as uncaring as Lin Qin is speechless.
He starts seriously considering how it might be him entering Nightmares too frequently that he keeps meeting these weirdos that would argue in Nightmares. Maybe he could enter less frequently for a while…?
For Lin Qin, entering Nightmares is basically just a question of whether he might end up too bored in the Tower.
His pondering doesn’t slow him down any, though, as he is already outside of the corridor now.
Light immediately pours in from the outside. There is an open space here, with one road connecting this car park with the wider expressway outside.
There are several cars here, too.
The man that has been pretty unenergetic so far says in shock, “a road chase? Seriously?”
So thirty seconds later, when the man in black is also outside and enters a vehicle, the rest of the Missiontakers glare at the guy that jinxed it all.
The man quietly murmurs, “so… who’s driving?”
“You can’t?”
“Ah… I’m a piece of trash,” he sighs, and says, “I’m not good at driving. The man might catch up to us in a road chase.”
Scapegoat cusses a few times before saying, “fine, I’ll drive.”
Selfish taunts him, “just admit it, you’re a hopeless saint.”
Scapegoat is already pulling his sleeves up to brawl when he notices the man in black is turning their way with his car. He stops, and the four Missiontakers all quickly board the nearest car. Lin Qin is in the passenger’s seat and the two remaining are in the backseats.
They quickly leave this car park on the car, and the unenergetic man then looks outside the car window at the remaining parked cars.
He is murmuring, “different cars… different specs, it seems. If the Nightmare crumbles later on and the man in black speeds up, we might have to grab the best car in time, or maybe we should split up? One car each… No, anyone dying would restart. How about splitting up by driving skill…”
“What are you blabbering about?” Scapegoat is asking with an irritated tone while driving, “that man is ridiculously slow too. I’m only at 60 kph and he’s already gone.”
Yet the man that was murmuring replies, “he’s slow now, but not necessarily so in the future.”
Everyone else, besides the expressionless Lin Qin, all turn silent.
“Never mind, never mind; I’m just a piece of trash, so you don’t have to listen to me…” The man sighs and scratches his head, then says, “don’t take anything I say seriously. I just blabber a lot.”
He says, but what he said was all reasonable.
Scapegoat furrows his brows, perplexed.
At the same time, Xü Beijin is also knitting his brows in confusion watching the stream.
He already recalls who this slightly familiar-looking man is.
His name, is Mu Jiashi.
A very, very long time ago, he once interacted with Mu Jiashi. It was when a lot of Missiontakers were curious about Xü Beijin’s Nightmare, so a lot of them began buggering Xü Beijin incessantly, including Mu Jiashi.
Though because Xü Beijin would never let a word out regarding his own Nightmare, once, a frustrated Mu Jiashi just ends up leaving a drink he once had with Xü Beijin, who, feeling awkward, decided to gift him with a clue about a Nightmare he knew, which Mu Jiashi used to secure a True End.
In fact, before this happened, Mu Jiashi was already famous in the bottom floor, for his ‘carrying’ business——Or, bringing customers up to higher floors.
This is a simple enough business, because a True End in a Nightmare means all the Missiontakers present can go up to a higher floor. It is a mutually beneficial thing.
And those carrying the customers are called Carriers, though they are more commonly referred to as the Golddiggers (TL: I don’t think an explanation for this nickname is provided even up to the end, but I might just have forgotten).
In the Tower, Golddiggers belong to different organisations. Some are famous, some are small. All in all, because there are no rules or regulations, both screwing with people and getting screwed are common occurrences in their line of work.
After Golddiggers bring their customers up, they will then go through several Bad Ends on purpose to return to the original floor to take new customers. If they feel like they’ve brought a lot of customers already or just plain don’t want to return anymore, then they can stay at the higher floors.
Though the difficulty of the Nightmares in the higher floors are clearly incomparable to those of the bottom floor. So success rate is also difficult to maintain.
Many Golddiggers end up drifting up and down the floors but fail to maintain a good enough success rate. Many of these businesses fail inevitably.
Not Mu Jiashi, though, a dalao who is a dalao because his success rate is 100%. Even if he only carries people up from the bottom floor, this is still a record to boast.
However, soon after he became known for this record, the dalao chose to leave the Golddiggers Group he founded to go it alone. That was when he received the clue from Xü Beijin and ended up going to a higher floor, never being seen in the bottom floor again.
Until…
Right now, when clearly he’s returned to the bottom floor for some reason?
Xü Beijin is curious.
Why is he back? Did he end up failing the upper floor Nightmares?
He is… also calling himself a ‘piece of trash.’ Did he suffer some trauma, perhaps?
Once, the Mu Jiashi Xü Beijin met, while not exactly showy or flashy, was definitely confident. Since he did have the 100% success rate under his belt. He was a true dalao.
It is hard to imagine this dispirited, unenergetic man was once that dalao Mu Jiashi.
What happened to him?
Xü Beijin is mulling over him when suddenly, someone knocks on his counter.
He raises his head in surprise to see there is a young man standing in front of him, greeting him with a smile, “hello, nice to meet you. Are you interested in joining our ‘Operation Defeat NE’?”
Xü Beijin “…”
Hah?
After he picks his jaw back up from the floor, he shakes his head and responds dryly, “I’m sorry, I don’t.”
The young man doesn’t seem surprised at the answer. He shrugs and then simply says, “I see. I’ll ask again when you feel like joining.”
Then he leaves.
Xü Beijin “…”
Did he, perhaps just meet a Lin Qin #2?
No, that can’t be right. Lin Qin is way clingier than the young man.
Xü Beijin begins sighing as his head throbs in pain.
Somehow, starting from the last Nightmare, things seem to be getting out of hand in his life as dull as dishwater.
Then he turns towards the stream, where the comment barrage is already going “Bei Bei Bei Bei, what is NE?”
Like some yipping chicks eager for tasty worms from mommy hen.
Xü Beijin adjusts himself before replying, “There is a Server that controls this game ‘Escape,’ which we call NE.”
“oh”
“even the game server had a special name too? cool”
“hey since detective dalao said players could end up npcs, so maybe the server would also…?”
“? That imagination… Though someone randomly assigned to the Server would just be invincible, wouldn’t they? Their gameplay experience would be dreadful.”
“hey, wont it be fun getting godlike cheats with god armour and weapons in a game?”
“compared to that, I’m more interested in why they want to defeat NE… something fishy behind the scenes?”
“detective dalao, wanna try analysing?”
“There’s too little information… The only thing I can think of, is that with how much the Server restricts the Actors, they might feel oppressed and so want to rebel?”
“wouldnt a normal person just complain to the game company lol?”
“still… the server must exist and not just be some computer somewhere? itd at least have to be an entity that they could rebel meaningfully against”
“maybe they complained but nothing happened so theyre scheming in game in protest? from what Beibei said the characters seem permanent after generation”
“lolol these players sure r good at having fun”
Xü Beijin maintains his poker face while bitterly smiling inside.
Yes, players… Players.
They are players. Players who cannot leave their game. The only object they could feasibly resist is the Server.
Really, ‘Operation Defeat NE’s main objective isn’t even NE, but those Actors that have succumbed, that have mentally fused with the roles they are playing as.
Therefore, some Actors are trying to prop up a pretty hope that could be a beacon of light for the Actors nearing the hopeless precipice, to at least maintain their reason and sanity for as long as possible.
What next?
Nobody knows what the future would be like.
Whether they might actually escape, or die for good, or… succumb to a Collapsed Nightmare.
The viewers might take it as the players finding their own fun in-game, but they can never imagine, that this is just the ridiculous, desperate way humanity has came up with to save themselves, when they are pushed to their absolute limits.
The young man whose attitude was laid-back at best, perhaps, is just trying to… rescue him? Even when he has no idea whether it might succeed.
He might already see Xü Beijin as hopeless now.
Meanwhile, another comment flows across the screen.
“speaking of which, NE… ‘huh’?”
Xü Beijin “…”
His facial expression finally changes. He looks like he has a lot to say.
Though he does hold it in in the end.
Sure, ‘huh.’
