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Vol. 1 Chapter 24.1 - In The Tower
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
Wu Shen’s words shocked everyone.
Wu Chun is touching the glass beads in her eye sockets. She is asking with a lost tone, “daddy… took my eyes away?”
Wu Shen is cackling, saying, “xiao-Chun, aren’t you happy daddy did that for you?”
Wu Chun is tilting her head in confusion.
Ponytail has had enough. She faces Wu Shen head on, asking, “Wu Shen, you killed your daughter and continued to torture her like this after that! Can you even call yourself a father?!”
Wu Shen suddenly stops his laughter. His neck turns stiffly towards Ponytail.
“I did this, for her… Why is it torture?” Wu Shen asks, “This is… for xiao-Chun’s sake.”
Quarrelsome quietly remarks, “what a madman.”
Glasses is of the same opinion, for once.
Ponytail continues, “you’re the dollmaker right now. If you’re so innocent, then why not let your other personality out – let Wu Shen out, and have him explain everything!” Then she tells Quarrelsome, “go get the letters from the study.”
Quarrelsome quickly rushes out of the room.
The doll-like doll store owner is silently standing in place, staring straight at Wu Chun.
When suddenly, he closes his eyes, and when he reopens them, he is looking at everyone with bewilderment, asking, “who… are you?”
The doll makes a little yelp and is about to run away when Quarrelsome, who just left the study, picks her up.
Wu Chun asks, worried, “will daddy cry?”
Quarrelsome says coldly, “‘cry’? Him? If he’s sick, then get a doctor; don’t fucking kill his own daughter and then still dare to act pitifully in front of us.”
Ponytail and Glasses both nod at the remark before looking at Wu Shen.
The man has a really complicated expression that is changing again and again. He is looking blankly at the doll of the little girl, before finally, he begins tearing up.
Ponytail immediately says, “so you knew.”
Wu Shen is shaking his head violently, going, “no… I don’t, I don’t know…”
Ponytail says harshly, “I mean, you knew about the existence of that damned split personality!”
Wu Shen, shocked, raises his head pitifully, before sagging his head down again. After crying a long time, he finally says, “I did…”
“Then how dare you…”
“He just… At first, he just… liked making dolls,” Wu Shen takes a deep breath before facing them with his eyes wholly reddened, “after xiao-Chun was born, I didn’t feel like running the doll store anymore; the personality came to be about that time, though, and I felt… I felt like, I’d have time to spend with xiao-Chun.”
“… And you killed her.”
Wu Shen makes a pained whimper and his legs give out. He collapses onto the floor and, after staring at nothing for a while, he suddenly makes a screeching wail.
Wu Chun is looking at him all stunned, murmuring, “daddy…”
Glasses suddenly asks, “where are xiao-Chun’s eyes?”
He is not particularly empathic like Ponytail nor righteous like Quarrelsome. He is the typical Missiontaker – a little brave, a little smart, a little emotional at times, but also knows his place well.
He would sigh learning about Wu Chun’s past, but of course, he is more concerned with their progress in the Nightmare.
He came into this Nightmare gambling on that utility card he found! He didn’t come here to see some melodrama.
Wu Shen continues to cry.
Glasses says, sounding impatient already, “you took your daughter’s eyes away so, do you know where? Don’t tell me only the other personality knows!”
Wu Shen suddenly raises his head at him, glaring at him with his reddened, bloodied eyeballs; he is grimacing at him.
Glasses is shocked.
Wu Shen murmurs at him, “I don’t know… I do not know…”
Quarrelsome, with the doll in his hand, can’t help but diss him some more, “what the fuck do you even know, then! You’d be more useful turning yourself in and waiting to be executed!”
“I also rather…” Wu Shen is wailing again, looking at his daughter, “I’d also rather, I died instead of xiao-Chun…”
Even now, he still cannot bring himself to say that ‘Wu Chun is already dead.’
Feeling as if it would really be confirming that this happened if he did; if he continued to act as if he didn’t know, then everything is still fine.
Yet… He really would. If his own death could bring his xiao-Chun back…
Wu Shen is lying flat on the floor again like some dead corpse, making whimpers and wails from his throat. His xiao-Chun is so cute. Who would ever do something so cruel to her?
He would. He did. It is him, the irresponsible father, the mad father who turned his own daughter into a doll.
He has become completely irresponsive, and is only capable of crying.
He says, “I’d rather, save xiao-Chun’s life, in place of mine…”
Suddenly, the moment he said that, the used utility card that was put back into Glasses’ clothes zips into the air.
The next second, the card, ‘A Daughter Killed By Her Father,’ suddenly begins to warp; before it did, the illustration, that was the silhouette of a happy little girl, suddenly changed into a pair of eyes (TL: The raws say the card ‘melted,’ but that didn’t correspond with what is about to happen below, so I changed the wording a little).
Wu Chun yells out, “my eyes!”
The Missiontakers are in shock.
Ponytail blurts out, “so the card sealed a pair of eyes! … No wonder. No wonder the information panel’s existence could be ‘seen.'” (TL: Not too sure what this is referring to)
Glasses is petrified right now. He can feel his heart bleeding just staring at his used card then melt down into a pair of eyes.
Wu Shen is also staring blankly at them.
The pair of eyes slowly spin about in the air, but they are not floating towards Wu Chun, despite her attempts to extend her little hands in Quarrelsome’s lap.
Wu Shen suddenly begins to smile. It is a forced, unhappy smile. He says, “I see, I see,” then he turns to Wu Chun, and says with a sobbing tone, “I’m sorry, xiao-Chun. Do not forgive your daddy. Your daddy did something unforgivable to you.”
“Daddy…” Wu Chun tilts her head in confusion.
Wu Shen then tells Quarrelsome, “please cover up xiao-Chun’s eyes.”
The man furrows his brows at the strange request, but then realises something, and uses his hands to cover up xiao-Chun’s glass beads for eyes. Ponytail also takes a step forward and gently covers up Wu Chun’s eyes that are floating in the air.
Wu Shen finally sighs in relief, and quietly says, “xiao-Chun, daddy loves you…”
Then, he takes a deep breath and pokes his own fingers into his eye sockets. He thinks he is feeling pain, but his mind is digressing – was this how xiao-Chun felt when she died…?
Finally, when Wu Shen is holding his own eyes, and slowly breathes his last on the floor, the Wu Chun’s pair of eyes that Ponytail is gently holding, finally floats towards Wu Chun.
Wu Shen’s own eyes begin to float up form his hand. It turns into a new utility card, and floats back to Glasses.
He sighs in relief as well. Then begins checking the card in his own information panel.
‘Card Name: A Father’s Salvation
Card Illustration: (A pair of eyes that are tearing up)
Description: The father who killed his own daughter, decided to sacrifice his own life when he learned the truth; in the moment of your death, he shall guard you, like he once guarded his own, dead, daughter.
Uses: 2/2′
Glasses widens his eyes and grows ecstatic; yet he still has to hold that expression in, somehow. He looks awfully constipated as a result.
The card actually turned out to be a Defence card!
Defence cards are the opposite of Attack cards. While it sounds like it would merely defend against attacks and damage, but in fact, they are all cards that would block death!
Put simply, if someone is dying in a Nightmare and the run is about to restart, if there is a Defence card, that death and restart would be nullified.
Whenever Missiontakers are almost about to reach a desired Ending, this type of card would be a godsend.
And also because of how rare they are, too. Their usefulness and rarity mean they are always extremely popular in the utility card trade.
If Glasses wanted, he could even look for those teams that carry their clients through a True End and use this Defence card to trade for one guaranteed pass to a higher floor!
You have to know how many godly professionals are in those teams to truly appreciate the value of this.
That dalao they mentioned, Mu Jiashi, was once part of those teams before he left to look for further opportunities to go higher.
And it is when he was doing that that he acquired the clue for a Nightmare from XĂź Beijin and successfully achieved a True End.
Glasses would have been part of those insignificant fodder looking up to those dalao, but this Defence card could change his place in the Tower indeed.
Doing his best to hide his excitement, he quietly puts the card away.
Neither Ponytail nor Quarrelsome is looking at him or his card, though, because they have their eyes glued dead onto the doll of the little girl, until the eyes have firmly, perfectly locked into her eye sockets.
And then, finally, the Server’s androgynous voice, rings out next to their ears.
“Congratulations on achieving the Nightmare’s True End. Please choose whether to ascend to a higher floor: Yes/No”