Muscular is quick to add, âIâm not going. I plan to explore this apartment elsewhere,â then he turns to the young man who hasnât spoken the whole time, âwell? You with me?â
Shen YĂŒnjĂŒ looks all cold and distant, even in the Missiontakersâ eyes he seems overly devoid of emotions.
After arriving in the lobby with the others, other than introductions and recounting his experience in the first run of the Nightmare, he hasnât spoken another word.
The young man glances at Muscular.
The smile on Muscular slowly fades away. While he is sweating in secret, suspecting his intentions may have been discovered, Shen YĂŒnjĂŒ unexpectedly nodded.
Muscular looks happy all of a sudden.
It is so painfully obvious on his face that the thin Missiontaker gives him an odd look then looks back at Shen YĂŒnjĂŒ. He is hesitant, but still decides to say, âbe careful.â
Muscular didnât think otherwise of that remark, and just nods to say, âwe will.â
Shen YĂŒnjĂŒ also nods slightly.
Jiang Shuangjie and the teenage girl ignored their interactions entirely to wait on the elevator themselves, planning on heading for the eleventh floor directly. The thin Missiontaker is following behind them, all worried-looking.
He has realised that, in this Nightmare, the things to keep an eye out for is, perhaps, more than just the Nightmare itself.
In the stream, the viewers are sighing for them, typing, âoh, itâs over for them, why are they not heading for the commercial area?â
âexploring in the apartment now? theyre trying to shoot another final destination lolâ
âlook at the name of this game first before answering that questionâ
âok, looks like they wanna fit with the theme of this game, âescape to the final destination'â
ânot that itâs any better if they come to the commercial area? maybe the electronics are even more lethal hereâ
âbut we have a safehouse!â
âassuming they can even find it?â
â? ur trying to be the new quarrelsome of the stream?â
âBeibei, any thoughts? youâve been quiet for a long timeâ
XĂŒ Beijin is holding his milk tea and blanking out with a neutral expression.
The viewers of the stream have become used to their hostâs silence and taciturn nature, too. XĂŒ Beijin is often blanking out like that, but itâs not easy to say whether heâs thinking or just zoning out because of mental exhaustion.
Heâs always been rather obscure in the Nightmares, both for the audience and the Missiontakers. He maintains a certain distance from all of them. Not that he would reject suggestions from the viewers, of course.
Though⊠Even when heâs quietly blanking out, the viewers still canât help but turn their attention to him.
Anyway, XĂŒ Beijinâs consciousness has returned now after seeing that question float past the comment barrage. He hesitates, but doesnât mention Muscular, because he still hasnât any proof.
Instead, he asks, âIâm wondering where the owner of the Nightmare is.â
â!! oh yeah, we havent seen them yetâ
âis the owner again hiding somewhere like that boy before?â
âbut therere so many scenes in this nightmare, where do we even start?â
âIâve an idea, if the nightmareâs dangers come from sentient electronics, then the nightmare owner must be equally terrified, right? maybe theyâre somewhere with no electronics?â
XĂŒ Beijin then chimes in to ask, â⊠a safehouse?â
âyeah!â
âmakes senseâ
âgreat, without the detective dalao here, weve gotta pick ourselves up by the bootstrapsâ
âlolol you guys are praising me too much, it was just a thought, call me the new dalao and I might just let my ego go to my headâ
XĂŒ Beijin ignores the viewersâ teases at each other and instead straightens himself and murmurs, âthe commercial and apartment complex; where would they beâŠ? Safehouses are in the commercial complex⊠No, he should be a tenant at the apartmentâŠâ
Deductions about the owner of Nightmares should always take the Nightmareâs scenes into consideration.
There was a Dollmakerâs in the first Nightmare, which means the owner of the Nightmare must have been related somehow. The second Nightmare owner was a little boy, whose family bedroom tied into the whole family business with him.
In this Nightmare, there is a commercial complex and an apartment complex. These scenes must tie into the Nightmare owner somehow.
He may be a tenant in the apartment, or equally a store owner of the commercial area.
Or even the management, but this is more unlikely, because the Missiontakers went straight into the apartment unit in the very beginning of the Nightmare.
An apartment complex, and a commercial complexâŠ
XĂŒ Beijin is speculating on scenes. In his mind, he is picturing the unknown owner of this Nightmare realising their apartmentâs electronics were acting weird. They ran outside and right into the nearby commercial area, only to run into similar troubles there.
Itâs a simplest possible of conjectures.
Of course, some other more outlandish conjectures may also be possible. For example, imagine the Nightmare owner being a delivery driver who delivered some takeaway to the apartment complex, during which they became terrified as he realised the electronics have gone sentient and rogue.
No matter what, though, it all remains speculation before they can find the Nightmare owner.
Sentient electronics⊠the Luoke ApartmentâŠ
XĂŒ Beijin is staring right at the screen of the stream, watching it play out, while wondering, what those terms might imply here.
It might be something that leads him to deep despair.
Meanwhile, the audience start typing, âtheyve gone to the 11th floor!â
They have arrived right outside of Room 1104 on the eleventh floor.
They knocked on the door for a while, but no response comes. Itâs really quiet inside, too, nothing could be heard. Jiang Shuangjie is feeling the fixed gaze on her back again, making her uncomfortable.
⊠After arriving in this Nightmare, the situation has turned up so many times that Jiang Shuangjie is becoming numb. She still has no idea whatâs going on, or whatâs happened in this apartment building.
She takes a deep breath and knocks on the door hard again, yelling, âShuangshuang! Itâs sis! Are you in there?!â
No response comes.
The thin Missiontaker quietly interjects, âcould she⊠have left her apartment unit already? We just missed each other?â
Possibly, because there are six whole elevators in the apartment building. They cannot be certain if Jiang Shuangmei has taken another elevator down. It would be awkward if she went down as they went up.
The teenage girl just simply says, âwe just need to check the elevators then.â
They arrive at the elevator hall to check them out. There are six of them, and besides the one they came up in, which is stopped on floor eleven, one is on floor eight, and the rest are all on the ground floor.
The elevator on floor eight is still slowly coming up.
âWhatâs this?â The thin Missiontaker murmurs, âwhoâs coming up?â
They are waiting. The elevator might be Jiang Shuangmei, or Lin Qin, or the Muscular and Shen YĂŒnjĂŒ pair.
The dozens of seconds felt much longer than that.
Finally, with a âding,â the elevator arrives at the eleventh floor. The door slowly opens.
All three Missiontakers are in full view of its interior.