/
As the woman spoke, the comments have started pouring in nonstop onscreen. Listening to the woman in front of him, XĂź Beijin also finds his attention divided catching up with the comments. He sure felt busy.
“oh fuck me!!! thats the truth of the building!”
“no wonder the missiontakers affected each other when they separated… this must be that ‘multiplayer’ feature!”
“I can finally understand!”
“but like… you know, this feels so arbitrary”
“only taking the little girl to this floor will trigger this most important info? and if they have to play the game as designed by that company, the players had to take the little girl with them to even be doing the main quest properly?”
“… oh man, can it get any more railroady?”
“this building sure is interesting… no, this apocalypse sure is interesting”
“all I can say is that thank goodness its all just a game”
“ah, but are you referring to this game outside? or this game inside? [doge emoji]”
“oh stop it! im gonna end up with game PTSD”
XĂź Beijin skims through the discussion and then glances back at Lin Qin, who is listening to the woman carefully.
Although looking at his expression, XĂź Beijin is half sure the young man has become lost in all the buzzing.
So after the woman has finished speaking, Lin Qin is quiet for a moment, before asking clearly, “so, according to this game, where would the mother of the little girl actually be?”
He didn’t understand anything the woman was implying, but that’s fine. He just needs a concrete answer.
The woman tells him, “I don’t know,” she explains, “from what I’ve heard, they haven’t actually implemented the mother in their game yet, so none of us know where she is supposed to be according to the game.”
Lin Qin furrows his brows and looks towards the little girl, asking, “you say that this little girl is a game character? Then where did this little girl come from?”
There is… also the photograph. Is this Nightmare one that mixes up both the game and reality?
The woman says, “this mother-daughter pair is actually inspired by real people, an employee in the game company and her daughter fit the bill for the cast perfectly, they say, so they were the prototypes put into the developing game.
When that whatever happened, the mother-daughter pair might have been in the building too. They… would probably have gone mad, and thought themselves truly the characters of this game.
Well, I can’t say for this girl, actually, but her mother is definitely insane… She is probably one of those people below the 9th floor now, and… she actually abandoned her own daughter
They even said that the woman put one of their companies’ group photo on the 20th floor on purpose before going back down, probably for the game’s setting… ha. What a lunatic she is…”
Listening the woman’s story, Xü Beijin can’t help but look over at the little girl.
She is definitely a very mature and smart little girl, but her insane mother has left her alone on the 31st floor. Missiontakers would have been unlikely to sympathise her as well.
… That, was the apocalypse.
Xü Beijin can’t help but wonder, a physically destructive apocalypse, and a mentally destructive apocalypse, which would be more devastating for humanity?
Then, looking at the burning city outside, he wonders again – what if, both happens at the same time?
Lin Qin does not seem at all bothered by the little girl’s tragedy, instead, he furrows his brows to ask, “so you know who her mother is supposed to be, then why would any of you claim to be her mother?”
The woman takes a deep breath to yell out, “because it’s set up that way!” She adds, “the game hasn’t implemented the mother yet, so the role is left hanging, which means… the plot could be assigned, to any single woman in the building!”
Lin Qin blinks, seemingly confused.
The woman, staring intently at him, like she’s trying to say something beyond what her words entail, “… even if, that woman is the protagonist, the player of the game.”
Lin Qin remains quiet for a moment, but fails to understand what she was trying to imply. Instead, he asks, “how do you know all this?”
The woman, looking definitively deflated, says, “I was also part of the game company, but I wasn’t part of the team working on that game,” then she sniggers, “madness… madness as far as the eye can see…”
Her tone turns rather sinister as she continues, “that woman left her own daughter to die, and let the brat go accost new moms wherever she went.”
That malice in her tone is even spooking the little girl, who tries to shrink herself behind Lin Qin’s back.
Lin Qin, meanwhile, merely stares at her, nonplussed. Impatient, he is about to drag the little girl back out when he notices the little girl’s trembling body. He glances at Xü Beijin, and stops himself, in spite of his irritation.
He is thinking that he shouldn’t let his rude and unsympathetic side show in front of his love.
… Yes, he has a hunch that this is the way it is.
He thinks about it more carefully; before, he used what XĂź Beijin liked to appeal to him when he wanted XĂź Beijin to fight him. So now, if he wants XĂź Beijin to like him back, it seems logical to assume what has worked before will continue working.
And it seems most people do not like when others show malice to other people.
… Like this woman in front of him, who is so filled with hatred she is barely holding herself back from lashing out at an innocent girl.
The woman has poured all the information she knew like beans into Lin Qin’s mind. Then, glaring at the little girl one last time, she goes back to where she was, leaving them with a very stiff “I do wish you can make it out of the building; that is when, we will also see salvation.”
When her glances brushes past XĂź Beijin, he swears he could almost see a desperate plea in her expression.
Thinking about what she said last, he is pretty sure the female Actor was attempting to implicate the Tower when talking to a Missiontaker, but unfortunately, her only listener being Lin Qin, he would be unable to make damning connections in his mind.
Xü Beijin can’t help but feel helpless as well.
Not that he is putting any blame on Lin Qin whatsoever.
When the woman has left, the little girl stands back out from behind Lin Qin’s back, standing there quietly, and looking at the two adult men in her presence with wide eyes and tilting her head.
Lin Qin glances at her then back at Xü Beijin, knitting his brows to ask, “now… I’m taking her to the 9th floor?” Then he stops, and realises something, adding, “oh right, you don’t know yet…”
Then XĂź Beijin sits there speechless as Lin Qin explains what happened to each group of Missiontakers the last run.
The viewers are delighted with amusement.
“Bei, karma bites for lying to the little apple [doge emoji]”
“Bei, I know you’re a bad guy now, you even lied to someone as honest as the little apple [doge emoji]”
“oh my Bei, the little apple must be interested in you! look, he’s trying to come up with topics to talk with you, do you not see?!”
XĂź Beijin, reading the comments, feels even more lost.
Lin Qin is trying to talk to him on purpose?
Is he really, now?
Xü Beijin watches Lin Qin’s poker face closely. He can see some hints of confusion there from the difficulty of this Nightmare, but he’s still unsure. Given Lin Qin’s current emotional quotient, it is likely he would be unaware even if he was doing so.
… Hmph, let’s just put it down as ‘impossible.’