Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
The empty elevator is stopped on the eleventh floor in solitude.
“What in the…” the thin Missiontaker subconsciously mutters, but swallows the rest of the words after seeing the faces of the two ladies by his side.
Even the teenager girl’s usual coldness is changing slightly. There is a shred of shock remaining.
Jiang Shuangjie is so shocked, meanwhile, that she takes a whole step back.
They are so spooked because when the elevator door opened, there was a gaze accompanying it. It felt as if the elevator door were the eyelids, and someone has opened the eye.
The elevator door remains open right there for a long time without closing. Is it urging them to get on? The situation is so absurd that all three Missiontakers carefully chooses to retreat.
Also… They do not dare boarding any other elevator now.
“What do we do now?” Asks the thin Missiontaker, looking at Room 1104 while saying, “we’re not even sure where… your younger sister is.”
Jiang Shuangjie furrows her brows, murmuring, “yeah… Where is she?”
Where is Jiang Shuangmei?
The viewers on the stream would be able to answer them.
“oh my dear lord, plz… ur sis is right in 1104!”
Yes, Jiang Shuangmei is right inside Room 1104 right now. She did not come open the door because she is trapped.
Trapped in her bedroom.
This average-looking bedroom, about a dozen square metres across, is currently mired in an eerie atmosphere. Jiang Shuangmei has curled herself up in her blankets, shivering.
Her feet are so cold they are growing stiff, or perhaps they are losing sensation because of fear.
But it’s so cold.
This should have been a typical autumn night. The temperature should be hovering about the 20 mark (TL: ~72°F). Yet, the central air-conditioning system that is always on in the room, has somehow set itself to be 16°C (TL: ~60°F) in cooling mode, not budging an inch no matter what buttons she pushed.
… It’s freezing.
She cannot leave the bedroom because the door has been locked. The Luoke Apartment, considering possible situations of tenants renting individual rooms out, has set individual electronic locks for each bedroom.
And now, the electronic lock has trapped her in the bedroom.
She thought about opening the window, but it would not open (TL: Raws say ‘the Nightmare probably does not allow escaping the bedroom this way,’ which makes no sense). She thought about breaking down the bedroom door or window, but she couldn’t find any useful tool here.
In the end, she has to admit that she really didn’t have as much smarts as her older sister. The frigid, shivering Jiang Shuangmei has wrapped herself up in the blankets.
The gaze… is still on her. This time, from above her head. She already knows about the furniture being evil in her apartment, but she has nothing she could do…
What, how does she even begin to fight some air-conditioning installed in the structure?!
Jiang Shuangmei is desperate. She could hear some noises outside, but she can’t even leave the bedroom. It feels like she would really freeze to death if she left the blanket, too.
The air-conditioning unit seems to be pumping all the coolants it has remaining. The cold air coming from its vents are like gusts from the winter months that try their best to turn people into ice sculptures.
Jiang Shuangmei didn’t even want to let her hand out of the blanket.
When the Nightmare’s second run began, Jiang Shuangmei was still dazed from suffocating to death. She spawned inside the bedroom in the very beginning, and after spending some time reworking her emotions, she realised she was locked up.
She wanted out, of course!
If possible, she wants out of this apartment unit, or rather, just outside of the apartment in general.
She is already fully aware of the dangers now. She wants to tell her older sister… But, she can’t anymore. This run… Is she going to die again? In some fresh, unprecedented ‘frozen to death by the household air-con’ kind of way?
Her consciousness is drifting. The extreme fear and anxiety has turned her cognitive abilities to mush. She can only keep wondering ‘what to do what to do what to do’ while burying herself deep in the blankets like an ostrich.
This is her first foray into Nightmares again after several years; this is her first time ever having to face the horrors of a Nightmare alone, away from her older sister.
She can’t help but question, how much of a useless sack of meat she really was.
Curled up into a pile, she turns to wailing pathetically in the blankets. She is cursing the world, the Tower, all of humanity, anything and everything… that she could remember.
Her voice is cracking now, like death is still surrounding her side. Her cries are so pitiful it makes one wonder whether she’s going to breathe her last the next moment.
She doesn’t even know how long has passed… Until her voice has gone hoarse, until she felt, hot.
She realises she is drenched in sweat inside the blankets.
Huh…?!
She immediately gets up, throwing her blanket off. She doesn’t know when the central air-conditioning has stopped operating. Even the door to her bedroom is no longer locked.
She can leave!
But… Why? Why… just because she cried? Shit, how is that even possible?!
Jiang Shuangmei is sitting there, with her jaw on the floor, her eyes still reddened and wet and swollen, but, she could leave the damned bedroom!
She hastily gets up to her feet, and without thinking, she rushes outside of the door. She leaves the bedroom, not even leaving a glance for the half-open toilet.
She manages to leave the apartment unit behind entirely.
Then, she runs into the empty corridor.
Jiang Shuangjie has already left the eleventh floor with the thin Missiontaker and the teenage girl.
After they have knocked for a long time, Jiang Shuangjie can only conclude that Jiang Shuangmei must have left the apartment unit, but didn’t come meet up with them.
Because of that inexplicable, empty elevator, they do not dare travelling by that anymore, taking the stairs instead.
The thin Missiontaker suggested, “if so, why don’t we check the entire apartment while we’re at it? There are stairs on both sides of the corridor, so each floor down we can walk across to get down at the stairs opposite.
We’ll be able to get a general idea for the whole apartment building, and if possible, we could run into other Missiontakers, like the dalao Lin Qin.”
Then he glances over at Jiang Shuangjie.
She doesn’t say anything, though, still deeply worried for her younger sister.
She has realised how she may really have spoiled her younger sister too much, so much so, that… She isn’t even sure if Jiang Shuangmei could survive on her own without her in the Nightmares.
Jiang Shuangjie is in regret.
However, they only had each other, and they could trust each other implicitly. She knew how Jiang Shuangmei was also unwilling to use her head much, so in this situation, there was no way she could not have helped her younger sister, you know?
So her regret is really, not having tried to nurture the independent survival abilities of her younger sister while she was at it.
Locked in her thoughts, she didn’t pay attention to what the thin Missiontaker said and just nodded nonchalantly.
The Missiontaker also sighs in relief. While Muscular could have been a Carddealer, but… he doesn’t know either of them, and Jiang Shuangjie had no proof as well. He didn’t know who to trust.
Or rather, he’d prefer to trust nobody.
However, this being the second run of the Nightmare, they are still completely devoid of any useful information. The only possible source of information is the Missiontaker who probably died the last run──Who likely was Jiang Shuangjie’s younger sister!
This is why the thin Missiontaker was still willing to talk to Jiang Shuangjie earlier. Otherwise, he would have kept a distance from her like how he distanced himself from Muscular.
In any case, now the three of them have started their investigation floor-by-floor from the eleventh floor down.
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
The empty elevator is stopped on the eleventh floor in solitude.
“What in the…” the thin Missiontaker subconsciously mutters, but swallows the rest of the words after seeing the faces of the two ladies by his side.
Even the teenager girl’s usual coldness is changing slightly. There is a shred of shock remaining.
Jiang Shuangjie is so shocked, meanwhile, that she takes a whole step back.
They are so spooked because when the elevator door opened, there was a gaze accompanying it. It felt as if the elevator door were the eyelids, and someone has opened the eye.
The elevator door remains open right there for a long time without closing. Is it urging them to get on? The situation is so absurd that all three Missiontakers carefully chooses to retreat.
Also… They do not dare boarding any other elevator now.
“What do we do now?” Asks the thin Missiontaker, looking at Room 1104 while saying, “we’re not even sure where… your younger sister is.”
Jiang Shuangjie furrows her brows, murmuring, “yeah… Where is she?”
Where is Jiang Shuangmei?
The viewers on the stream would be able to answer them.
“oh my dear lord, plz… ur sis is right in 1104!”
Yes, Jiang Shuangmei is right inside Room 1104 right now. She did not come open the door because she is trapped.
Trapped in her bedroom.
This average-looking bedroom, about a dozen square metres across, is currently mired in an eerie atmosphere. Jiang Shuangmei has curled herself up in her blankets, shivering.
Her feet are so cold they are growing stiff, or perhaps they are losing sensation because of fear.
But it’s so cold.
This should have been a typical autumn night. The temperature should be hovering about the 20 mark (TL: ~72°F). Yet, the central air-conditioning system that is always on in the room, has somehow set itself to be 16°C (TL: ~60°F) in cooling mode, not budging an inch no matter what buttons she pushed.
… It’s freezing.
She cannot leave the bedroom because the door has been locked. The Luoke Apartment, considering possible situations of tenants renting individual rooms out, has set individual electronic locks for each bedroom.
And now, the electronic lock has trapped her in the bedroom.
She thought about opening the window, but it would not open (TL: Raws say ‘the Nightmare probably does not allow escaping the bedroom this way,’ which makes no sense). She thought about breaking down the bedroom door or window, but she couldn’t find any useful tool here.
In the end, she has to admit that she really didn’t have as much smarts as her older sister. The frigid, shivering Jiang Shuangmei has wrapped herself up in the blankets.
The gaze… is still on her. This time, from above her head. She already knows about the furniture being evil in her apartment, but she has nothing she could do…
What, how does she even begin to fight some air-conditioning installed in the structure?!
Jiang Shuangmei is desperate. She could hear some noises outside, but she can’t even leave the bedroom. It feels like she would really freeze to death if she left the blanket, too.
The air-conditioning unit seems to be pumping all the coolants it has remaining. The cold air coming from its vents are like gusts from the winter months that try their best to turn people into ice sculptures.
Jiang Shuangmei didn’t even want to let her hand out of the blanket.
When the Nightmare’s second run began, Jiang Shuangmei was still dazed from suffocating to death. She spawned inside the bedroom in the very beginning, and after spending some time reworking her emotions, she realised she was locked up.
She wanted out, of course!
If possible, she wants out of this apartment unit, or rather, just outside of the apartment in general.
She is already fully aware of the dangers now. She wants to tell her older sister… But, she can’t anymore. This run… Is she going to die again? In some fresh, unprecedented ‘frozen to death by the household air-con’ kind of way?
Her consciousness is drifting. The extreme fear and anxiety has turned her cognitive abilities to mush. She can only keep wondering ‘what to do what to do what to do’ while burying herself deep in the blankets like an ostrich.
This is her first foray into Nightmares again after several years; this is her first time ever having to face the horrors of a Nightmare alone, away from her older sister.
She can’t help but question, how much of a useless sack of meat she really was.
Curled up into a pile, she turns to wailing pathetically in the blankets. She is cursing the world, the Tower, all of humanity, anything and everything… that she could remember.
Her voice is cracking now, like death is still surrounding her side. Her cries are so pitiful it makes one wonder whether she’s going to breathe her last the next moment.
She doesn’t even know how long has passed… Until her voice has gone hoarse, until she felt, hot.
She realises she is drenched in sweat inside the blankets.
Huh…?!
She immediately gets up, throwing her blanket off. She doesn’t know when the central air-conditioning has stopped operating. Even the door to her bedroom is no longer locked.
She can leave!
But… Why? Why… just because she cried? Shit, how is that even possible?!
Jiang Shuangmei is sitting there, with her jaw on the floor, her eyes still reddened and wet and swollen, but, she could leave the damned bedroom!
She hastily gets up to her feet, and without thinking, she rushes outside of the door. She leaves the bedroom, not even leaving a glance for the half-open toilet.
She manages to leave the apartment unit behind entirely.
Then, she runs into the empty corridor.
Jiang Shuangjie has already left the eleventh floor with the thin Missiontaker and the teenage girl.
After they have knocked for a long time, Jiang Shuangjie can only conclude that Jiang Shuangmei must have left the apartment unit, but didn’t come meet up with them.
Because of that inexplicable, empty elevator, they do not dare travelling by that anymore, taking the stairs instead.
The thin Missiontaker suggested, “if so, why don’t we check the entire apartment while we’re at it? There are stairs on both sides of the corridor, so each floor down we can walk across to get down at the stairs opposite.
We’ll be able to get a general idea for the whole apartment building, and if possible, we could run into other Missiontakers, like the dalao Lin Qin.”
Then he glances over at Jiang Shuangjie.
She doesn’t say anything, though, still deeply worried for her younger sister.
She has realised how she may really have spoiled her younger sister too much, so much so, that… She isn’t even sure if Jiang Shuangmei could survive on her own without her in the Nightmares.
Jiang Shuangjie is in regret.
However, they only had each other, and they could trust each other implicitly. She knew how Jiang Shuangmei was also unwilling to use her head much, so in this situation, there was no way she could not have helped her younger sister, you know?
So her regret is really, not having tried to nurture the independent survival abilities of her younger sister while she was at it.
Locked in her thoughts, she didn’t pay attention to what the thin Missiontaker said and just nodded nonchalantly.
The Missiontaker also sighs in relief. While Muscular could have been a Carddealer, but… he doesn’t know either of them, and Jiang Shuangjie had no proof as well. He didn’t know who to trust.
Or rather, he’d prefer to trust nobody.
However, this being the second run of the Nightmare, they are still completely devoid of any useful information. The only possible source of information is the Missiontaker who probably died the last run──Who likely was Jiang Shuangjie’s younger sister!
This is why the thin Missiontaker was still willing to talk to Jiang Shuangjie earlier. Otherwise, he would have kept a distance from her like how he distanced himself from Muscular.
In any case, now the three of them have started their investigation floor-by-floor from the eleventh floor down.
