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Just as expected, despite the numerous times the contacts have stressed it, many people have still let themselves loose in the fictitious recreation of the past on Earth.
Some are happily spending time with their families, having reunited with their spouses, children, parents and lovers;
Some have regained everything they’ve ever lost, and they can’t bear to lose them again;
Some are even simply insistent on finding out what their lost memories entail, and so are unwilling to let go of the initial scenes which were where they first entered the Ultimate Nightmare.
And some are even simply enjoying the sights of a fresh, vast scene completely different from the Tower and Nightmares in general.
It’s unavoidable people would have such thoughts.
However, if they let such thoughts get to their heads, occupying their entire mind, the situation will deteriorate.
Memories about their time in the Tower will start to be wiped. They will forget why they’re here in the first place, and even forget that, this is the Ultimate Nightmare, and not their real life.
They will forever succumb to the happy dream.
XĂź Beijin is keeping track of three numbers closely.
One, the number of people who’ve entered the Ultimate Nightmare.
Two, the number of people who’ve succumbed.
Three, the number of people still having their sense of self.
The first number is fixed;
The second is rising rapidly;
The third is dropping sharply.
About half an hour after the Ultimate Nightmare has started, though, the changes in the numbers have gradually slowed.
Two thirds or so of humans have entirely lost themselves. Only a third is still actively moving around.
Xü Beijin sighs. It’s just as he thought.
He has his stream focused on a rather happy family.
The father, mother, children, and elders are having a meal, and talking about the trip they planned for the weekend, about the children’s performance at school, and about their career developments.
It’s quite the happy and even enviable scene.
Of course, if one also looks at the many comments rolling past the screen…
“its terrible, I feel like theyre mad but also really just genuine”
“it feels like surrealist horror”
“remember the nightmares Beibei streamed in the past? a few of them had families…”
“the husband killing the wife, the father killing the daughter, the daughter abandoned by her mother…”
“please, I’m just here to watch a game stream, and not get depressed, sobsob…”
“Beibei has said this is recreating what happened in the apocalypse, so this is just the first stage right? so much more story to show later…”
“yeah, the spread of the madness, then the raining hellfire, and the post apocalypse survival… but wait, the nightmare cant possibly show all that in real time?”
“some change is probably going to come soon”
The viewers were right on the money, as the general situation in the Ultimate Nightmare quickly worsens.
The simple, calm daily lives have given way to madmen who’ve popped up overnight, invading the normalcy.
What follows is murder, blood, gore, insanity and cruelty.
The viewers aren’t too surprised, and to them, it’s like watching some sort of real-time TV drama.
They watch, they comment, but they don’t really identify themselves with characters in the plot.
They are just amused, typing, “wow, pretty convincing acting, natch!”
Xü Beijin can’t exactly do anything either.
He looks away from the feedback coming in the stream, and instead, decides to check on the Missiontakers and Actors he already know.
Just as expected, none of them have succumbed in the Nightmare yet.
Even Mystic, who loved and reminisced about her daughter so dearly, only gave her a heartfelt hug before leaving home.
She told her daughter to stay at home and not to go outside, then prepared as much food for her as she could.
But, she would leave her behind.
Before she did, her daughter asked, looking slightly frightened, “mommy, where are you going?”
Mystic told her, “mommy is going to save the world. There are people waiting for me.”
Her daughter blinks, not understanding what she means.
The people waiting for her, are currently all exploring the things happening in the Nightmare, and, looking for each other and her.
During all this, XĂź Beijin also notices what Dai Wu is doing.
Just as he said, with his wheelchair-bound conditions, he can’t walk around easily, but he doesn’t idle by either. Instead, he is posting messages through all sorts of platforms on the Internet to get in touch.
At this point in time, the Internet is still functioning in general, which was also recreated by the game perfectly.
However, as time goes on, when the Apocalypse enters its latter stages, human communication will largely break down, and humanity will basically return to far more primitive, manual-powered forms of communication.
Honestly, whether the Missiontakers and Actors in the Nightmare can still remember the Internet and phones and computers is doubtful, but Dai Wu is doing his best.
There isn’t a lot else he could do.
Or rather, no one has much they can really do.
After confirming the situation in the Ultimate Nightmare, XĂź Beijin leaves the stream behind for something else.
Setting a reminder for whenever anyone comes into the stream, he gets into contact with Lin Qin, telling him, “I’m done, now let’s get down to business.”
Lin Qin, blinking, almost asks him something, but stops himself in time. Instead, he asks, “what are we going to do?”
“We have to find the several hidden data ports in this game,” Xü Beijin says, “confirm where they are and mark them so that we can find them if needed, and bring them with us if at all possible; during this, we must also ensure our own safety.”
Lin Qin appears confused, asking, “data ports?”
Xü Beijin says, “basically, places where the game has connections with the outside world, whether for updating, logging in… and other functions. This game isn’t entirely isolated from the world, so this means, there must be points of entry and exit for data.”
Lin Qin still doesn’t get it, but he asks something else else, “will it be dangerous? You’re on the top floor of the Tower alone…”
“Don’t worry,” Xü Beijin says, “it’ll definitely be fine for now. What’s dangerous is… what might follow.”
XĂź Beijin walks over to the window.
Watching the grey fog roll by for a moment, he then asks Lin Qin, “look outside the Tower. Do you feel like anything’s changed?”
Lin Qin does as he says, then he asks, sounding doubtful, “the grey fog looks… closer?”
The fog covers everywhere outside, but this ‘outside’ is actually still a few hundred metres away from the base of the Tower itself. They can actually see parts of the barren, blighted land just outside the Tower through the windows.
In the past, when Missiontakers once left the Tower to enter the grey fog, they had to pass through this buffer zone between the Tower and the grey fog first.
But now, it looks like, this buffer zone, has narrowed greatly in size.