/
This is a dark room.
The four Missiontakers in the room can’t see anything clearly in the pitch darkness, but thanks to the Night Vision function on the stream, Xü Beijin is able to barely discern things in the room.
The very greyish/greenish camera feed shows that this is a bedroom, perhaps a bit over a dozen square metres across. There is a large bed right in the middle of the room, with bedside cabinets on both sides. There is also a wardrobe close to the door.
The curtain is wide open, but somehow there isn’t a speck of light coming in through the window. It is equally pitch black right outside – a night without stars or the moon, perhaps.
It seems this dark room would be a major scene for the Nightmare’s owner.
That is all that could be distinguished through the murky scene.
XĂź Beijin could at least see that, but the four Missiontakers in the room could see even less. Soon after they entered this Nightmare, while still in their panic, a thunderous voice suddenly yells out at them.
“Number off!”
Number off? What number off?
The four people have to physically feel their way around the room and finally figures out there are four of them here. They begin to talk about the situation.
And in the meantime, one of them warily yells out a ‘one’ as the disembodied voice demanded.
About a minute later, another wrathful ‘number off!’ is yelled right next to their ears.
The man that first spoke out says nervously, “no… this won’t do… What, let’s see what’s nearby first?”
Someone answers, “sure, laosan. Stand still, and we’ll fan out and search about you.”
Laosan stands in place, saying, “got it, er-ge.” (TL: Literally ‘second brother.’ Referring to his older brother who is the second oldest. Also, no matter how much I hate this, since we never learn their names, I’ll have to use these as names, I hate how the Chinese language allows all these weird terms of addresses that are hard to translate instead of just calling each other by name like sensible people do)
The three Missiontakers remaining quickly disperse to search.
Though… ‘laosan’? It makes Xü Beijin recall how, a few days ago, in the middle of the Respawn Avenue back in the Tower, he managed to listen in on a conversation between three men.
He knits his brows, trying to recall what the people were talking about. Then he thinks, so this is the Nightmare that they talked about then, the Nightmare of the boy that murmured a string of numbers?
And he remembers that, back then, one of the trio said that he saw the boy running towards where Lin Qin was but didn’t see him there. Then the annoyed Lin Qin chased them away…
XĂź Beijin suddenly has a strange conclusion.
Did Lin Qin end up in this Nightmare because, he actually met the boy?
Speaking of Lin Qin, he isn’t in this dark room right now. It seems the Missiontakers have been divided into two groups after arriving in the Nightmare.
After all that thought, when he turns his attention back to the stream, he notices comments floating across the stream already.
Some viewers are here.
“Hey Beibei!”
“Beibei! ur finally on! missed u so much these few days sob [heart emoji]”
“eh? new host? new host that dares streaming the slog that is horror games? nice, I’ll follow you just for that courage alone!”
“new viewer! welcome, our Bei is handsome and cute, and theres a detective dalao in the stream too, this is a super amazing place”
“i just checked on the number of followers for Beibei, a sad, lonely 5, poor us”
“yea, and only 4 viewers… poor, poor us”
“Really, horror games are not popular nowadays… No host is brave enough, and no audience is brave enough either. If not for the handsome Beibei I might not have watched it through either”
“once there was the time when hosts could face the ghosts on 2D screens without flinching, but in full immersion days… ha, they all got too scared”
“hosts courage cant keep up with the technologies”
“but Bei, you’re a host! how could you only open a stream every few days? you can’t get popular like this!”
The very passionate audience makes Xü Beijin a little helpless. He greets them, and then, after they shower him with sweet nothings, he falters entirely——And agrees to stream more in the future.
Xü Beijin “…”
Not that he can decide whether he can stream!
Or, perhaps, he could tour the inside of the Tower with the viewers? He could go visit those livelier areas where the Missiontakers gather, too.
He thinks about it a little, but decides to stop thinking about it for now and focus on the stream.
The audience starts to sigh again, typing, “oh, today our Bei is also a tool-person today”
“? if so, wont Beibei be able to spoil the plot to us?”
“No no no, that would be boring”
“[laugh_cry emoji] the detective dalao is still the dalao lol”
The viewers are chatting while also relaying information about this game to the new viewer. They are also paying attention to the exploration of the four Missiontakers in the pitch black room.
They have managed to feel their way about a bed, a wardrobe and the bedside cabinets. They understand by now they are in a bedroom.
Laosan is murmuring to himself, “a bedroom… numbering off… a little boy…”
His companion asks nonchalantly, “laosan, think we should get a ‘two’ out first?”
“Sure,” Laosan hesitates before saying, “we have to be careful the first run… mmhm, yes… collect as much information first.”
Laosan seems to be lacking in confidence, even though he is probably the brains of the trio. He is always asking the others whether he can say or do something.
Instead, his ‘er-ge’ is the one that would come up with actionable plans.
As for their ‘laoda’… (TL: Similar to ‘boss,’ but just refers to the eldest in this case; also the way he is referred to, like Ponytail, Glasses, etc.)
“Oh, fuck!” He is yelling out, going, “what the heck did I run into? It hurts like hell, oh piss off!”
Just a very agitated bro.
“Laoda, shut the fuck up,” Erge calls out, then yells out at the air, “two!”
A short while later, nothing has happened.
The Missiontakers are perplexed. Could this Nightmare just simply be them numbering off until the end?
Right now, there are four Missiontakers in he room. Besides the three men who know each other, the last person suddenly speaks up with a soft voice, “I’m thinking… should we try leaving this room first?”
After she speaks up, the rest of the Missiontakers realise she’s a woman. She didn’t participate in their conversation at all up to that point. It seems she is shy.
“Yes, we can try…” Laosan also responds with a soft voice, “we should… finish exploring the room first, though.”
“Alright.”
Then the shy woman stops talking entirely.
They continue to touch all about the room, and gives up soon enough.
Laoda says, “fuck, what’s with this damned wardrobe, it won’t open!”
Erge says, “and the damned cabinets and windows are all locked. Looks like there’s not a thing to explore. What is with this stupid Nightmare?”
A short while later, the shy woman says softly, “I think… I am touching the door handle, but, it won’t open either.”
Doors and windows are both shut; wardrobe and bedside cabinets that wouldn’t open either. The bed is the grounded type, meaning there isn’t space down there for hiding. So basically, this bedroom is no different from an empty, featureless, unexplorable room.
Laoda is irritated at this point, going, “so what is this even?” He is yelling out, “I said that boy is suspicious, and you wouldn’t listen!”
“Enough, stop blabbering,” Erge rolls his eyes at him, saying, “even yelling so loudly won’t conceal the fact that you’re afraid of the dark.”
“Who, who are you saying that’s afraid of the dark! Make yourself clear, you fucker!”
Everyone ignores Laoda.
None of them are speaking. This pitch black room and vision really does make them anxious inside.
At least the audience in the stream are requesting, “Bei, Bei, plz, show us some normal sunny human world, plz?”
Even if the stream was just pitch blackness, then that would still be better than this murky greyish Night Vision mode plus several pairs of glowing eyeballs. The viewers are too spooked at this point.
Xü Beijin doesn’t really mind himself, because he’s thinking about what this black room signifies in the Nightmare. Perhaps the detective dalao that has gone silent is thinking the same.
Though since the audience are telling him so, XĂź Beijin puts his thoughts aside and adjusts the camera sources. He opens a little window to put his own view on the bottom right corner.
There are several scenes in this Nightmare, and a cursory glance later, Xü Beijin can see there’s the Bedroom, Corridor, Car park, Expressway, Expressway Service Area, with many sub-scenes down the lay-by too, like Bookstore, Supermarket and Petrol Station, etc.
Even though there are all these scenes, the Missiontakers are only divided into two, one group in the Bedroom, the other in the Corridor.
Though the Corridor contains Lin Qin who XĂź Beijin would rather avoid, but he only hesitates a little before changing the scene over.
The Missiontakers in the corridor are running and arguing.
There are also four Missiontakers here, one of whom is Lin Qin. The three others are all men, with two arguing, and the last one, is someone Xü Beijin feels like he’s seen before.
Before he could even start to speculate on who that is, his jaw is already on the floor.
Since when did it become so easy to meet people he know in the Nightmares?!
As for the two people arguing –
“Damn you! Why did you push me?”
“What else could I do then? Prop you up in some baby stroller and protect you? Wake up, fam, we’re in a Nightmare and I don’t want to die!”
“You don’t want to die, so I can die instead? Wow, I sure haven’t met someone as selfish as you are in a long time!”
“Selfish? Everyone is just doing their best to survive in this shitty game. You’re calling me selfish on what grounds, on you being some saint? Then sure, help block me from danger later, then? I will definitely thank you very very much.”
“You’re retarded! Just wait and see, I’ll push you out when that man in that black coat catches up with us!”
“Hoho, aren’t you just doing the exact same thing I did?”