/
Meanwhile, in the stream, the viewers are still discussing the tragedy of the family with a literal barrage of comments.
Even though there are just four viewers——five. Someone new has popped in, though the person hasn’t followed Xü Beijin’s account——But their comments feel like an army a thousand strong on the screen.
XĂź Beijin checks out what comments he can make sense of, but fails to dig up anything substantial. His whole chain of thought from before has made him exhausted, though he is still doing his best to be a good host, or rather, director?
At least what he is doing is to switch to the best views and angles for the viewers.
As for the Missiontakers, they are currently more preoccupied with the use of the messages revealed by the cashier.
Now that they know about the complete context of this Nightmare, about what the scenes signify, then… What about the endings?
Laosan gives it some thought and hesitantly shares his thoughts, “since the death of the victim was merely a misunderstanding, then… The crux of the issue the Nightmare owner needs resolved could be, making the killer realise this, and admit he was at fault?”
“That makes sense for adults,” Mu Jiashi calmly analyses, adding, “but for a ten-year-old boy, he may not actually understand at all why his father suddenly killed his mother. It is likely he does not understand all the nuances and complexities playing into his parents’ psychologies.”
The Missiontakers all turn their attention towards the boy, who is currently dragging on Ding Yi’s clothes behind her, looking at them with a slightly frightened expression.
Mu Jiashi then rubs his nose and says awkwardly, “though you don’t really have to listen to me. I’m…”
Selfish immediately follows up, “you’re a piece of trash, a loser, right?”
“Yeah,” Mu Jiashi gives him a glance then admits it frankly, “I am a piece of trash and a loser.”
Selfish almost chokes on his words.
He didn’t expect Mu Jiashi to just shamelessly admit those two terms of address.
… Was it something worth boasting about, even?
Erge impatiently says, “please stop, ok? We don’t have so much bloody time to argue with you.”
Selfish takes a deep breath before saying, “oh really? I was going to tell you about what I know…”
Besides him, Scapegoat looks like he wants to say something; he looks agitated.
Selfish’s tone is longer than usual, as if hoping someone would ask him to tell them, but everyone ignores him and begins discussing what the endings of this Nightmare might be.
He takes a frustrated breath and then yells out, “alright, fine, since everyone basically figured out everything, I’ll tell you the last piece of information.”
The supermarket entrance is quiet.
Selfish finally feels a little better, somehow. He says with a smile, “I have been to this Nightmare before.”
The stream is filled with ‘Beibei strong woohoo’s.
The rest of the Missiontakers also finally take him seriously.
Selfish explains, “that time, we also basically learned about as much as you did. We basically guessed our way to the correct number sequence and got the little boy out. It wasn’t that hard, really.
Then, that other team of Missiontakers in the corridor went to the service area, and they heard from this guy too that it was a misunderstanding that the woman was killed. So we felt like resolving this misunderstanding would be a True End…”
Laoda, always the impatient one, quickly asks, “then? Did you succeed?”
“Don’t be stupid, since I’m bringing this up, obviously it just ended up being a Normal End,” Selfish rolls his eyes at him, and adds, “also, if we succeeded, you think I’d still be standing here?”
Then Laoda rolls his eyes right back at him.
Although the guy has helped them eliminate an incorrect way forward like this, but… He’s still really irritating!
Yeah, hateable guys remain hateable, as usual.
Selfish is still lamenting over there, sighing and going, “if only I got into the bedroom this time instead… Shitty Server, if it were me, I’d have carried you all…”
Not just one Missiontaker is rolling his eyes now.
Erge, impatient as ever, asks, “why didn’t you tell us before, then? Was it that interesting? And how do we even trust you?”
Selfish goes ‘hoho’ and retorts, “yeah, I just didn’t want my fruits of labour given away for free, so? I’m a lone wolf, so?” Then he points to Scapegoat and says, “oh, and I told some of this to him. It all came true. So that’s enough verification for ya?”
The Missiontakers all turn towards Scapegoat.
While Scapegoat is basically stunned.
Great. Now that guy has come clean, but what about him?
When Laosan and the others tried, they didn’t manage to pry a single word out of him. He sure was valiantly keeping his lips sealed, while he ended up on bad terms with basically everyone.
He did all the offending, and now, great, Selfish bailed on him, and is even using him to build a monument to himself?
Scapegoat can’t help but begin wondering, if he, really, was just a scapegoat, from the beginning to the end?
Scapegoat’s nonreaction makes Selfish a little annoyed.
He is about to chastise him when suddenly, screams erupt from near them.
In this Nightmare, while it looks like the Missiontakers have only talked to two Tower residents, Dai Wu and Xü Beijin, but in fact, there are a lot of other residents here. They make this service area look like it’s running normally, business as usual.
Right now, a staff member at the entrance of the supermarket has collapsed onto the ground, screaming.
The Missiontakers all look at the door in shock, because they can see the man dressed in black, wearing a black mask and holding a machete, standing right there at the entrance!
Laosan almost reflexively looks at the boy. He can see that young boy now crouching on the floor in fear, beginning to mumble again – that string of numbers?——The string of numbers, the boy’s father forced onto him; the countdown for his own mother’s life.
“Twelve minutes!” Laosan suddenly yells out as a spark of brilliance flashes over his head, saying, “it’s twelve minutes! After the boy reached this place, the man in black must have been back at the bedroom, the starting point, spending eight minutes there numbering off, and then left the bedroom, the corridor, and drove here right for the boy…”
Eight minutes, and three minutes on the expressway, and about a minute spent walking through the corridor and from the service area entrance to the supermarket, adds up to around twelve minutes.
Exactly the amount of time that has passed since then.
While they were able to work out the man in black’s whereabouts at any time through the time spent, but he doesn’t know why the man in black returned to the bedroom to count after the boy reached the service area in the first place.
This doesn’t seem to make sense at all.
So Laosan’s voice begins quieting down. He throws his concerns over the path the man in black has taken away for now, murmuring, “so, right now, we…”
What should they do?
Should they really just do as Selfish said and finish everything with a Normal End;
Should they resist and try to achieve a True End in a fifth run?
The man in black is cackling. He is slowly walking their way with the big machete in hand. Everyone else in the supermarket is screaming out in fear. That cashier from earlier has already run off to hide somewhere.
The boy is crouching on the ground, covering his ears and closing his eyes, also making pained cries and whimpers.
Laosan looks all hesitant, turning towards Erge instinctively, hoping the decision-maker in their little group could make up his mind for him.
Erge gives him a lighthearted smile and says, “why the hesitation? A True End, of course!”
Selfish also loudly proclaims, “that’s right! I won’t let this opportunity go to waste!” He sweeps his fierce gaze across the rest of the Missiontakers, saying, “True End or nothing!”
Erge is in agreement for once, “we’ve come this far already, wouldn’t it be a shame if we didn’t at least try for a True End? Besides…” He pauses before continuing, “we know what the Normal End is now. We can just get that if we can’t have a True End.”
Laosan, ever indecisive, finally nods.
Laoda would follow Erge, as usual.
Scapegoat is silent. He is feeling hopeless right now.
Ding Yi is looking at the little boy at her feet. She is in thought.
Only Mu Jiashi looks like he has something to say. There is an inexplicable sense of premonition in him, but he can’t put his finger on it.
True, they have come this far. They finally know what is happening in the Nightmare. They know how to get a Normal End, then why don’t they try to achieve a True End? Not like it’ll cost them anything.
Yes… That’s it. He tries to convince himself and force himself to calm down.
However, a few minutes later,
When the man in black, holding his big machete, killed them in gleeful laughter;
When the Nightmare restarted, and all eight Missiontakers are back where they started;
When Mu Jiashi is standing inside the corridor, and takes a cursory glance backwards…
Everything in his mind grinds to a halt.
He tremblingly asks, “where, is the man in black? Where… is he?”
Among the four present, only Lin Qin looks completely out of it.
Selfish and Scapegoat both also look behind them immediately at the end of the corridor——Where there is nothing to be seen. They can directly see the door to the dark bedroom at the end of the corridor.
While the man in black that should be there and coming after them, is gone.
Mu Jiashi suddenly shudders. He can feel the situation completely, irrevocably, falling into a sorry abyss beyond their control.
Where is the man in black?
In the stream, Xü Beijin is quickly going through all the scenes. The bedroom, the corridor, the expressway, the gas station… None. The man in black is nowhere to be seen.
When suddenly, he is able to hear, the cries and screams coming from outside the bookstore.
He is surprised; the stream’s camera source, is currently positioned right over at the flowerbed in the central of the plaza in the service area.
The man in black, like a wolf barging into a group of innocent, defenceless lambs, is merrily slaughtering all the confused, helpless Tower residents——He is slaughtering the Actors!
Xü Beijin can’t help but stand up and leave the bookstore behind, stepping onto the pavement, looking at this scene in astonishment. By his side is Dai Wu, who came over who-knows-when.
He whispers, “he’s gone mad.”
XĂź Beijin turns his head towards Dai Wu.
“The Actor,” Dai Wu says with a strange, unreadable tone, “has already become the psychotic murderer——The actual monster that has killed his wife and chopped her corpse into mincemeat, then flushed it down the toilet.”
Xü Beijin is quiet for a moment before saying, “we have to save them.”
Dai Wu shakes his head. His tone is still jumpy and casual. It makes Xü Beijin uncomfortable; “don’t be silly, this is a scripted event. The Server won’t let you out into the plaza.
Xü Beijin gives him a perplexed look when he suddenly says, “you mean…”
The detective dalao is excitedly typing, meanwhile.
“This is the fifth run of the Nightmare where it has begun to unpredictably crumble!
This man in black is now in some indiscriminate slaughter mode!”
A while later, an Actor has died. The Nightmare restarts again.
The Detective dalao continues his passionate typing,
“I thought that the Nightmare only restarted when a Missiontaker died, but it seems that, Nightmares restarted whenever a death occurs, whether it’s the Actors, Missiontakers or even the NPCs. Any death causes a restart.
The man in black’s indiscriminate slaughter results in a death in about five minutes. I do not know if this time would shrink even further as the Nightmare continues to restart, either.
These Missiontakers need at least three minutes just to hurry here immediately to stop the slaughter; if they want to take the boy with them, that would add at least seven minutes for the counting——It is impossible to make it on time!
And worst, did they even realise, that it was in the service area that the man in black is committing mass murder?
No matter what, time is of the essence for these Missiontakers. They must come to a decision soon!”