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Permission Denied
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
‘In another half hour, huh,’ so thinks Wu Jian, numb.
Some kind of hopeless trigger has kicked in, and he’s almost robotically calm and rationally analysing everything.
So basically, they have to resolve this Nightmare before the disaster strikes in half an hour.
In other words, from the moment of entry into the Nightmare, they have approximately an hour to look for clues and resolve the Nightmare.
That catastrophe, assuming it’s as terrible as the news has made it out to be, would probably be endlessly tragic. Not even experienced Missiontakers would be able to escape, not to mention humans that already exist in this Nightmare.
So death is a guarantee, and so will the Nightmare restart.
Wu Jian then concludes, that they’re pressed for time here.
After that brief clarity in logical thinking, a cold has taken over his thoughts, spreading throughout his limbs.
He realises he is gripping the newspaper so tightly, that the paper is being torn.
He also realises, that the two Missiontakers by his side, are looking equally horrified.
He suddenly realises, that the student-teenager sitting in front of him, with his hand on the table, has fingers that are trembling nonstop.
Then, he exhales loudly, and then puts his equally shaking hand, onto the teenager’s shoulder.
He tells him, “don’t worry.”
Even though his own voice is already trembling from fear. His throat feels really parched, and his voice broke in several places.
The teenager is looking at him with a blank face. It takes a while for him to respond with a quiet question, “are we going to die?”
“No…” Wu Jian hears his own voice bleeding out like dream-talk. It almost sounds like it is drifting in from some far corners of the world.
He doesn’t even know what he’s speaking anymore – ‘no, how could us humans be so weak as to be ended by that?”
“But that is a total extinction event,” the teenager says, “our society is already unravelling from all the mad people, and now a natural disaster is coming.”
Wu Jian opens his mouth, but he fails to find an answer to this question.
All he can do, is dryly reply, “but, I need to say something hopeful, right?”
The teenager speaks nothing in return.
Even now, Wu Jian’s occasional completely alien logic in speech popped up.
The viewers of the audience are certainly impressed.
“amazing, the entire mood just broke”
“oh man, so this nightmare is basically a meteor that wiped out humanity?”
“this feels disconnected from other nightmares though”
“holy, no wonder the map is so big this time, they could never show how terrible it all is without it”
“effects guy! yes! give all youve got for all the fxs!”
“i do feel for the missiontakers – previous nightmares: i cant think; this nightmare: i cant escape”
“haha the previous nightmares had you work your brains out, but this one is a full on physical battle!”
“no wonder! so those mad lunatics actually are the dangers of the nightmare instead of being part of the mystery”
“emm… I wouldnt be so sure, Ill keep watching first”
“what I don’t get is that, if the important thing is the meteor dropping out of the sky, then… what’s with the museum? was that entire place just one big piece of danger?”
“according to the investigations so far, the nightmare only has three big locations to explore – the library, the museum and the space agency, but… i don’t see a thread connecting them”
“here I am with my one question again – who is the owner of this nightmare?”
“oh fuck, please stop hurting my brain with that”
Xü Beijin can’t help but want to chuckle at the ongoing discussion in the stream.
But since Lin Qin is sitting by his side, he has to hold his laughter in a little.
Seriously, why is Lin Qin right by his side all the time when he’s streaming?
XĂź Beijin, glancing at Lin Qin, sighs inside.
Then he attempts to subtly influence Lin Qin, asking, “do you think they could find clues upstairs?”
Lin Qin tilts his head to think, and then answers, “probably yes?”
XĂź Beijin is surprised at the answer seemingly leaning affirmative.
Lin Qin then adds his reasoning, “since you’re here, it must mean the library has clues?”
Xü Beijin “…”
What a perfectly logical line of thought. He can’t even find a way to refute.
It makes sense to say that, if an Actor is arranged to stay over here, then the Server must be implying there is some value to look around in that place.
Still, XĂź Beijin finds how matter-of-factly Lin Qin stated that mysterious.
Could Lin Qin have actually worked out this small trivia himself?
The Lin Qin who enjoys bossing his physical prowess around? Is this his ‘instincts’ at play again?
XĂź Beijin falls into thought wondering about Lin Qin.
As far as he knows, most Missiontakers have yet to realise that, wherever someone is alive, clues would be found there without exceptions. The only limiting fact is whether the Missiontakers could ask the correct questions or reach specific triggers to allow the Server to relay information via these Actors.
Many Missiontakers have assumed that, if they couldn’t get information after some questioning, then this Tower resident would know nothing about the Nightmare, and is merely there to be background filler;
When in fact, it is more accurate to say that, the Missiontakers didn’t find a way to correctly fish the information out.
Yet Lin Qin, inadvertently or otherwise, just stated that unspoken, and largely obscure piece of Nightmare trivia verbatim.
‘If you are here, that must mean there are clues here.’
Is the ‘you’ in that sentence referring to him, an ‘Actor,’ or him, ‘Xü Beijin’?
Does he really know that rule that most Missiontakers are unaware, and only Actors know of, or is he simply… assuming Xü Beijin to be a special existence?
He’s often made statements to that latter effect, and Xü Beijin is also used to that already.
Though…
Thinking so, XĂź Beijin grows slightly dispirited.
Why is he trying to overthink this anyway? Maybe it really is just Lin Qin’s instincts doing its wonders again.
Seriously, of all the Actors around, why did Lin Qin even manage to single him out in the first place, and assert that he doesn’t know if he can beat him in a fight?
It is equally mystifying indeed.
Speaking of, there is also that unreasonable strength he has, and how he has no memories of his past…
Lin Qin also has secrets buried within him, a lot of them, and not even Lin Qin himself knows why.
While XĂź Beijin also keeps secrets, but he definitely knows, very clearly, what circumstances gave rise to them.
Then, looking back at the stream, ah, they’re still talking about the meteor?
No, that’s not right… It was the ‘Apocalypse of the Raining Hellfire.’
At least, that was what they named for the catastrophe.