The Missiontakers all widen their eyes a little hearing the phrase from Mu Jiashi.
The limbless person wails as soon as he hears it, with so much pain, regret, madness and dissatisfaction, making the Missiontakers shudder.
What happened? Why an exercise in futility?
Mu Jiashi hurriedly leans close to the person again, pleading, âweâre looking for the truth right now. If you do know something, please tell me, alright?â
The personâs eyes havenât much focus, but looking closely, Mu Jiashi can see them responding to movement slowly but clearly. He is conscious, and understands what he is asking.
But the person produces only incoherent refusals, âdonât, donât⊠donât, trust; donât, trustâŠâ
Donât trust? Does he not trust them?
Mu Jiashi falls into thought.
Meanwhile, Wu Jian proposes behind him, âwould it be a good time to put that utility card to use?â
Ding Yiâs utility card, which turns hair into a grue colour, making people believe in whatever the user says.
A uniquely mysterious utility card, and also one that would help immensely with the situation.
Mu Jiashi dislikes relying on utility cards in Nightmares, thinking of it as cheating similar to many other Missiontakers. Also, there is the price to pay for using them.
But this time, after Wu Jian hints at the idea, Mu Jiashi immediately puts the utility card to use.
His hair changes colour, after which he talks to the man again.
And this time, after remaining quiet for some time, the person slowly speaks up.
His voice is rough, with an almost sticky, icky feel to it. It almost sounds like his throat is choked with water or blood.
Even though he is as debilitated as is, he is still breathing and living, somehow.
Death might be a relief for him at this stage.
But he still lives on, solely becauseâŠ
He says, âthis labyrinth we built, was an exercise in futility.â
The labyrinth? It was built?
Mu Jiashi is surprised.
When he saw it, he agreed with A-One and A-Two â this did not look like any building on Earth, or even anything likely conjured up in Nightmares in the game.
Itâs more like, what would be inside the dream of a truly insane person.
The countless electronic colours of blocks flashing inexplicable light. Who could imagine such a scene but mad people?
Even if Shen YĂŒnjĂŒ asserts that heâs seen this building somewhere, Mu Jiashi remained unconvinced. He canât believe Earth once had something abominable like this.
Why build such a meaningless and painful-looking structure?
A labyrinth. Not even a worldwide amusement park would build such a large one.
Here, though, this person who might meet the Reaper at any moment tells them that they built this.
Mu Jiashiâs mind is now filled with possible scenarios.
Behind him, Fei and Wu Jian are equally excited chatting about their own hypotheses and theories.
Mu Jiashi ignores the commotion behind, and continues asking, âif you went so far as to build it out entirely, why do you call it an âexercise in futilityâ?â
âWe wanted the trap them, with this place,â the person explains, in short, terse sentences, âbut we were weak⊠so weak⊠There was nothing to do. They came, they went. It changed nothing.â
Mu Jiashi finally asks the billion-dollar question, âwho are âtheyâ?â
âThe one behind everything, who brought all this on,â the person replies, âwe donât know who, or what, either. They just came, and landed⊠here. The labyrinth couldnât trap them.â
Mu Jiashi furrows his brows, âwere you present the whole time? How did you not see them? They entered the labyrinth, didnât they?â
âWe canât see. Theyâre different. Itâs⊠just different; the form of existence. I donât even know; did they enter the labyrinth?
We built this, we thought they can be trapped. It was useless. An exercise in futility⊠Weâre useless. Useless.â
Then the person starts sobbing. The condition in his throat makes it sound all the more poignant.
Mu Jiashiâs mind is preoccupied with something else, though.
He is suddenly remembering the âRaining Hellfire.â
Raining. It came from the skies.
Look up. Up through the endless expanse of the universe.
Behind him, Wu Jian suggests, with a trembling tone, âdo you remember, when in the last Nightmare, some people were arguing over where the object in the sky came fromâŠâ
âSome people said aliens,â Fei answers in a daze, âbut, are there reallyâŠâ
Aliens?
In the vast universe, do other intelligent lifeforms besides humans exist?
Humans havenât the answer. Is it because humans are uniquely too successful? Or still far too weak?
Well, now it looks like, the answer is being far too weak.
According to this person, they do not even understand in what form âtheyâ exist.
Mu Jiashi finds his legs slightly numb. He sits down on the flashing ground, quietly staring at the person, but he doesnât have a question to ask right now.
Suddenly, he remembers how XĂŒ Beijin described this place as where they could be told the truth.
Though, if it werenât for this amazing utility card of Ding Yiâs⊠They probably wouldnât have figured it out so easily.
At least, he suspects the other Missiontakers will have a much harder time when they come across the other living persons.
But really, Mu Jiashi envies those who donât have it so easy.
He is actually, consciously trying to reject this truth.
He remains silent for some more time before saying, âso, âtheyâ caused the madness, and the Raining Hellfire, didnât they?â
The person murmurs, âI donât know. No one knows. They just appeared, and said, weâre theirs. No one can just accept that. Right?
We have lived here, for so many years; now, these people from nowhere, said weâre their slave. Theyâre the masters⊠They gave us one month, to mentally prepare, and part with Earth.
No one can accept that, so we built this labyrinth. Weâve never seen humanity so unitedâŠ
Or not. I donât know. I donât know how. I just helped build.
But⊠it was useless. It was no use. We spent one month, building this labyrinth. They destroyed it, in less than a second.
Do you know, how that feels? Like a hammer, knocking on heads. We thought it might work. Everyone did.
Their existence, cannot be comprehended. Itâs⊠itâs⊠unfathomable. Inexplicable. They are the top dog, and we are the inferior species. We are⊠we are useless.â
They can almost hear the blood gushing out of his throat as he spoke; he starts coughing at this point, nonstop.
He didnât tell them why heâs here, or why he looks like this.
And Mu Jiashi doesnât plan to ask.
Heâs just taking it all in. So thatâs what happened. Thatâs what this labyrinth was.
Why build such disorienting coloured blocks? Possibly, it was identified as a weakness in this species. They are mentally vulnerable.
These sharp, oversaturated colours are immensely uncomfortable for humans to look at, so they might have thought this would be effective against them.
But, it turned out to be simple wishful thinking from humanity.
Is that the truth behind this labyrinth, then?
Mu Jiashi stands up, and looks back at Fei, Wu Jian and Mystic. All three Missiontakers look quite distressed, especially Fei, who is already tearing up. Mu Jiashi thinks, he probably looks no better than they do.
He wants to tell them, itâs time to go. They need to move on. But some kind of terrible sentiment is gripping at his legs, making his mind cold, drenched, locked up.
He looks at the other Missiontakers. The other Missiontakers, look right back at him.
boilpoil's notes:
Well, Iâm sure this should come as no surprise having read all that shady Biler business XĂŒ Beijin set up in previous chapters, but it turns out to be aliens behind the madness and Raining Hellfire.