/
Then XĂŒ Beijin turns to more serious matters, telling the Missiontakers, “after we enter this gap, you will end up back in the bottom floor of the Tower; earlier, I asked Ding Yi, Dai Wu and Su Enya to do a favour for me. Please help check in on them.
Ensure that they have found as many Tower residents and Missiontakers as possible, and have them ready to do something at a certain moment in the future.”
Even now, XĂŒ Beijin is still not revealing what the ‘something’ is.
Though just now, he also didn’t tell the Missiontakers why they have to walk back-and-forth. The Missiontakers chose to trust him, and the result was fruitful as expected.
So Mu Jiashi agrees without a second thought.
He is also quite emotional right now. Next, they’ll have to fight on separate battlefields in the Tower. They have their own battles, all for the one common goal.
Mu Jiashi opens his mouth. He thinks he should say something at this point, but it seems he is also at a loss for what to actually say; he can talk for hours analysing a Nightmare, but other times, he is quite often unable to make small talk and such.
So after a long time, he finally manages to produce a, “we will. Take care.”
XĂŒ Beijin said it’s a shortcut, but it’d be naĂŻve to assume this shortcut is entirely safe. Also, XĂŒ Beijin still looks pale as ever. His loss of consciousness earlier is a source of worry as well.
Possibly, that’s why he is taking Lin Qin with him. At least, he’d be able to protect him come what may.
Mu Jiashi then glances over at the gap again. A shortcut. Is it behind it, or exist in some other form?
The mood gradually sinks. No one knows what to say at this point.
It’s almost dreamlike, but everything is far from over, even if they think they’ve already done what they could.
Fei and Wu Jian are covering their mouths with their hands, like they would cry of joy at any moment now. When they first returned to the bottom floor, no one could have imagined that this is what they could have come to participate in.
No one could have known, no one would have known, that they’re actually making history.
Creators of history, and not merely observers.
With the Missiontakers on the sidelines, watching, XĂŒ Beijin and Lin Qin are walking right for the black gap of the wall slowly but surely.
The colours are still flashing all around. The black, restless ceiling almost resembles the background of the universe.
That is when, possibly overexcited, Wu Jian just blurts out without a second thought, “it’s almost like a wedding procession
 Ouch!”
Fei just kicked him hard.
Wu Jian quietly shuts up.
The atmosphere just turned from solemn, to embarrassment.
XĂŒ Beijin “
”
Though one person is reacting differently – Lin Qin, surprised, but in a good way, is giving Wu Jian an approving look. Almost like, ‘interesting observation there, lad.’
Mu Jiashi is awkwardly shifting his toes closer together. After scouring his brain, he finally produces a serious question to dispel the rather dampened mood.
He notes the several Missiontakers who have turned their heads away to hold in a laughter as he asks, “well, about the Ultimate Nightmare
 is there anything else we should know?”
Mu Jiashi has a feeling that, after Lin Qin and XĂŒ Beijin enter the gap, they’ll probably not meet up again for a very, very long time.
They would head for the top floor of the Tower via the shortcut caused by the graphical glitch, but how are they supposed to come back?
And, how exactly will XĂŒ Beijin manage to inform them to commit that something at some time?
Mu Jiashi knows XĂŒ Beijin must already have a plan, and never asked before – he didn’t want to be thought of as doubting XĂŒ Beijin, and it’s also quite meaningless.
But the dumbass Wu Jian──Even if you think it’s a wedding, why did you have to say that out loud! He’s forced his hand to ask something serious to turn the mood back around.
XĂŒ Beijin gives Wu Jian a death glare, but doesn’t say anything to him. Then, he answers Mu Jiashi thus, “stay awake.”
Mu Jiashi appears somewhat surprised.
XĂŒ Beijin is looking at Mu Jiashi with a rather deep and complex gaze, and says, “in the Ultimate Nightmare, always make sure you’re awake, and you’re still aware of who you are, and remember who you are. Never lose yourself in it. If you do, then it’d be all over for you.”
Fei has been angrily glaring at Wu Jian, making him shudder the whole time, but hearing XĂŒ Beijin’s reply, she can’t help but ask, “so you mean, all the Missiontakers have to retain their sense of self as much as possible in the Ultimate Nightmare?”
“No,” comes the reply from XĂŒ Beijin, “what I mean is that, at least one person, must be able to stay awake to the very end.”
The Missiontakers all come to understand, and turn towards Mu Jiashi.
Mu Jiashi “
”
Taking a deep breath, he says drolly, “I’m a loser, a useless
”
“Yeah, yeah, you think I haven’t heard about your reputation on the bottom floor?” He ShujĂŒn interrupts him, “when I asked around, woah! You were already so famous back when we just ended up in the Tower. Why didn’t you go to a higher floor earlier?”
Mu Jiashi “
”
He’s pissed. Why are these companions all just prying into his wounds all the time! He’s regretting it, ok?!
After the brief interlude, the mood Wu Jian ruined is finally back, and XĂŒ Beijin and Wu Jian are finally standing in front of the gap.
Mu Jiashi is really curious how the two of them will utilise this gap barely the width of a strand of hair.
Lin Qin is also curious.
He believes in XĂŒ Beijin, of course, but against this graphical glitch that is one millimetre wide, and possibly even narrower than it looks to the eye, how are they even going to ‘enter’?
XĂŒ Beijin then starts talking to himself, or possibly, explaining to Lin Qin, “the body we use in the game is basically no different from our real self, but, it is still fundamentally a game model, rather than our literal physical bodies.
In other words, we are still only a stream of data; this bug is what I might call a breach for data to pass.
It looks like it is too small for us to pass, but the fact is, we’re data, so obviously, we don’t even have a ‘volume’ to speak of.
In fact, ‘they’ also exist like this. That’s why they were able to utilise this gap.”