XĆ¼ Beijin is thinking, and he canāt even decide between first dealing with his wound and first dealing with the chaos in the stream.
In his hesitation, Lin Qin is already standing in front of him.
With a poker face, he says, āno, dan-, ger.ā
XĆ¼ Beijin, feeling quite guilty, as it were, says, āhahahaā¦ noĀ mortalĀ danger.ā
Lin Qin āā¦ā
Angry, and also worried, looking at XĆ¼ Beijinās pale face and blood-drenched white shirt, canāt exactly start scolding him.
He just angrily spouts, āyou knew I couldnāt throw a tantrum at you.ā
XĆ¼ Beijin chuckles, then lets himself fall into Lin Qinās embrace, āit really hurts, though.ā
Lin Qin is holding him, and with just one look, he finds himself snapping his head away, not wanting to look at that gaping wound again.
He thinks his whole heart is trembling, but he also carries XĆ¼ Beijin to the marketplace on the bottom floor with exceptional calm.
The Missiontakers left in quite a hurry, so there are stuff left behind.
Lin Qin grabs medicine and medical supplies ā all items won through the lottery at the end of Nightmares. They are classed as living essentials.
Then he carefully patches XĆ¼ Beijin up.
As XĆ¼ Beijin isnāt a Missiontaker, he canāt use utility cards to treat his wounds instantly. So all he can do is give him the much simpler and slow-acting method.
The entire bottom floor of the Tower is empty save for the sounds of their own breathing.
Keeping his agitation to himself, Lin Qin finishes patching up XĆ¼ Beijin and throws away the valuable medicine in his hands without a second thought. Then he locks onto XĆ¼ Beijinās lips directly and rather brashly, to demonstrate his dissatisfaction and worry.
XĆ¼ Beijin lets him do as he wants with him, caressing Lin Qinās hair gently with his intact right arm.
During the moments between kisses, slightly out of breath, XĆ¼ Beijin says, ādonāt worry.ā
So Lin Qin stops, and puts his forehead to XĆ¼ Beijinās, and slowly utters, āI am really worried. I am really angry.ā
XĆ¼ Beijin has no excuses. He apologises, āIām sorryā¦ā
āIām just really angry at myself,ā Lin Qinās tone is threatening to break into tears, āI donāt want to see you hurt, but I still allowed you to get hurt again and again. I feel useless.
They say Iām the strongest Missiontaker in the entire Tower, but I canāt even protect you well.ā
āThatās not true. Youāre not useless. Itās justā¦ā XĆ¼ Beijin thinks and says, āyouāve also been in the boundary of the Tower. I was careless and couldnāt avoid all of themā¦ā
Lin Qin grumbles, āthatās why Iām useless.ā
XĆ¼ Beijin is desperately trying to convince Lin Qin with anything, but Lin Qin is adamant that, because heās not by XĆ¼ Beijinās side when heās hurt and stop him from hurting himself, heās useless, heās incompetent, heās sad, and heās angry at himself.
XĆ¼ Beijin, out of ideas, just says, āyou really are notā¦ how about this. You can come with me wherever I go from now on. You can prove yourself. Alright?ā
Lin Qin immediately jumps on the idea, āitās a promise now. You canāt leave me behind wherever you go.ā
XĆ¼ Beijin agrees.
Though he quickly realises something and gives Lin Qin a glance of suspicion.
Did he just successfully wail and bluff his way into his promising him never to leave him again?
XĆ¼ Beijin thinks heās right on the money.
While somewhat speechless, he also finds heās quite receptive to the gesture.
He thinks he can also sympathise with Lin Qinās worry and anxiety.
Heās wounded, but, this being a game, heās recovering far faster than it would take in reality. His wound isnāt even hurting anymore.
But before his wound visibly improves, Lin Qin isnāt going to let him go anywhere yet.
So XĆ¼ Beijin decides to check the Ultimate Nightmare through his stream first.
It turns out the Ultimate Nightmare has descended into chaos.
The people are generally aware that the Apocalypse had twoāāPerhaps three?āāstages.
The first is the spread of the madness; the second is the Raining Hellfire; the third, why, that would be their entering the Tower.
That third stage is still mostly shrouded in mystery, but they have generally learned and come to appreciate some new common knowledge through Nightmares and through word-of-mouth, especially after Mu Jiashi entered key Nightmares, including XĆ¼ Beijinās own, and XĆ¼ Beijin didnāt stop them from spreading the news.
Theyāve already got the word out before entering the Ultimate Nightmare.
So right now, the Missiontakers ā the ones still awake, at least ā have a general understanding of the spread of the madness and the Raining Hellfire.
And they have come to realise they need to avoid the madmen and some of the larger locations that are clearly carrying the madness āvirus.ā
They also know to seek the closest large building for shelter during the Raining Hellfire, or death would come all too easily.
At this stage, the madness has spread, but there are still no signs that the Raining Hellfire is soon to strike.
So Missiontakers and Actors are still busy moving along the streets to look for other lucid companions and support each other.
Though that is when the sudden proliferation of the fog affects their visibility greatly.
āWhatās happening? Why is there suddenly a fog?ā
āIs the weather turning bad?ā
āWait! Iāve heard that the grey fog outside the Towerā¦ā
Many Missiontakers and Actors, while not having been to XĆ¼ Beijinās Nightmare, have gained knowledge through various means that includes rumours like āthe grey fog outside the Tower is full of mad people.ā
They canāt verify the information, but many of them have kept the mental image in mind when entering the Ultimate Nightmare.
So right now, with the grey fog spreading out, they canāt help but start feeling panicked and uneasy.
Why is such a fog appearing in the Ultimate Nightmare? Are there mad people inside? Are they currently going to be in some unknown danger?
Fear and worry accompany the grey fog that suddenly appeared.
Then, the doors came.
āThis is impossible!ā
When Fei sees the door inside the grey fog, she spouts.
Next to her, Jiang Shuangmei is observing the door with keen interest.
She gulps, and, compared to the fright the other Missiontakers are having, she looks slightly expectant in comparison, and asks, āis thatā¦ the door in the grey fog you were talking about?ā
Fei isnāt paying much attention to how Jiang Shuangmei looks right now, and is biting her lips, leaving deep teeth marks as she does so. Hesitantly, she agrees, āIā¦ yes, I supposeā¦ they are.ā
āAnd Missiontakers who once succumbed in Nightmares are inside?ā
āThatās right. Noā¦ wait, what are you thinking?ā Fei suddenly widens her eyes and looks at Jiang Shuangmei, asking, āyouāreā¦ youāre not thinking of looking for you sister?ā
Jiang Shuangmei does not answer.
Not long ago, when she just entered the Nightmare and didnāt run into Fei yetā¦ She saw her older sister.
A shadow from the past, that the Nightmare constructed for her.
Jiang Shuangmei looked at her older sister, confused whether she was dreaming for a momentāāWell, she is, a Nightmare, even. She wasnāt expecting a reunion with her sister that way in the Nightmare at all.
And oddly enough, her older sister even seemed, unfamiliar.
They havenāt separated for that long yet, but the same face and appearance was not enough for her to recognise her older sister that way.
Then she realised, it was because this was back on Earth, before they have ever entered the Tower.
Of course she isnāt her older sister.
This wasā¦ this was just a mirage the Nightmare wove for her. A fake, false, disgusting, replacement.
She still couldnāt help but look at her older sister with nostalgic eyes, right there, in their own house; their parents were calling out. Itās meal time.
Jiang Shuangmei looked closely at her older sister, and at her father, her mother.
Tears wouldnāt stop falling out of her eyes. She pried her longing eyes away from them, their clear concern and worry for her shattering her heart, too.
She said, āIām sorryā¦ Iām sorry, sis. Iām sorry. I was wrong. I should have listenedā¦ Iām sorry, Iām so sorry, mom and dad, Iām sorry I failed to live on well with sisā¦ā
She cried, she apologised, she wanted to just kneel and break down there. She realised, she didnāt even bawl out remotely as much when her older sister had truly disappeared from her side, but she was crying like hell to a strange recreation of her silhouette.
Her older sister would never want to see her cry like that, she thought. She knew, she knew it was all fake.
The Ultimate Nightmare must have wanted her to indulge herself in the fake warmth. Family. Memories. The past. Anything. They were trying to keep her there in the past, so she becomes lost in it forever.
Yetā¦ Jiang Shuangmei mumbled, āIām sorryā¦ but, sis, she is waiting for me.ā
Jiang Shuangjie was waiting for her. Waiting for her, trapped inside the cold metallic husk of an elevator, because of her.