Before entering the Ultimate Nightmare, many were unaware that they were all also the owners of the Nightmare.
Even at this point, they still do not feel it in themselves. It’s more like they’re being pushed along by the unstopping march of time. They’re each a tiny ripple, but somehow, they also think that they’re independent of the gushing waters, unaffected by it, nor can they affect it.
It’s a problem of a magnitude of scale.
They would thus feel like they’re ‘outside’ of this affair. They feel like it’s a blast from the past when they open their eyes, and some are able to identify it for a trickery from the game.
However, no one is certainly feeling like their every action is going to impact humanity and her future at large.
Until, right now.
Besides the three ‘awake’ persons in the bookstore of the bottom floor of the Tower, and Xiang Chenyü, who’s inside the Ultimate Nightmare, no one knows why there is suddenly a strange window in front of them, asking,
“Do you wish to leave this Nightmare and return to the Tower? Yes/No
Note: You must choose the same option three times in order for the game to recognise the corresponding result;
This choice will significantly affect this Nightmare, and the ending you get for this game.
Your choice will dictate the continuation or not of the artificial intelligence within the Tower.”
Ding Yi freezes up for a moment seeing this window out of nowhere in front of her vision, and then turns to her companions.
He Shujün and her male companion, He Xi, are also looking at her, nodding.
Then He Shujün asks directly, “you also see the weird window, right?”
“Yes…” Ding Yi replies, “this looks like, this is the choice we have to make? Maybe this is why Xü Beijin let us enter the Ultimate Nightmare…”
He Xi is anxiously asking, “what should we choose?”
Ding Yi checks the man over. He’s apparently a close acquaintance of He Shujün’s, despite their distinct personalities.
Introverted, shy and soft-spoken. Whatever He Xi felt like doing, he’d always ask the two other companions with him first for their opinions.
Ding Yi believes he is far too meek and unimposing for a Missiontaker. She would certainly not want him as a subordinate for her Necessities business.
Although she would not withhold praise for him as a companion, as the meticulousness and carefulness he exhibits are very helpful.
At He Shujün’s secondary school, they didn’t find anything worthwhile; since it was swallowed up by the fog a long time ago, it took them a while to find it and enter.
Instead, they discovered a group of hostile madmen in the courtyard of the school, and it was He Xi urging for caution that they remained vigilant, having scouted first.
Otherwise, who knows what danger they might find themselves stuck in.
Though it was also demoralising not to find anything useful at the school.
They’ve retreated to an empty and safe classroom to discuss their next steps, when the window suddenly pops up in their field of vision.
Ding Yi says, “there are two choices, to leave, or stay in the Nightmare.”
He Shujün asserts, “I think we have to leave the Nightmare, don’t we?” It’s what her senses are telling her, but she has decided to err on the side of caution. She gives a question, “why do you think there would be an option to stay in the Nightmare? I don’t understand.”
“Can this Nightmare possibly continue indefinitely?” He Xi suggests.
He Shujün immediately shuts it down, “we have to get back to the Tower in order to achieve what we want, don’t we? I can’t imagine us staying in the Nightmare being helpful at all.”
Ding Yi nods in agreement, “you’re right, but… we’re all lucid and awake right now. What would those people who’ve succumbed to the Ultimate Nightmare choose?”
He Shujün falls into thought.
It’s quite difficult to imagine yourself in the shoes of an insane person, especially when they’re all succumbing to who they were in the past within the Ultimate Nightmare; it’s like being transported to the past for them.
To the past?
Something seems to click inside her mind.
That is when He Xi mentions an observation, “that said, when we walked here, I don’t think we… we saw many of those succumbed people? I mean those who went here and then succumbed, not the ones coming out of the grey fog.”
Ding Yi hasn’t noticed that at all, and tries to recall, saying with hesitation, “I think… you might be right.”
In the grey fog, they haven’t met people who've lost their minds; they ran into others who were lucid and awake, too, knowing they’re still in the Ultimate Nightmare.
It’s pretty odd once someone has it pointed out.
He Shujün thinks about it, and then suggests a bold hypothesis from another direction, “is it possible, that only people who still have their sense of self with them are left inside the Ultimate nightmare?”
Ding Yi is looking at her, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
He Shujün continues her explanation, “Xü Beijin told us to enter this Nightmare and keep our wits about, stay sane. We did as he asked.
And now this weird window is here… What if, he wanted us awake and sane in order to make a choice through this window?
We can leave after we make a choice, which means it must be an Ending for this Nightmare, and possibly even the whole game. Having our rationale with us will help us make the right choice.
So if we work backwards from that logic, if there are still people who’ve lost themselves in the Ultimate Nightmare, this window cannot pop up, as his requirement of us will remain unfulfilled.”
Ding Yi nods and works through the logic herself, then says, “if so, I believe we all need to choose ‘Yes’ and leave the Nightmare?”
“That’s right…” replies He Shujün, “I do think so. Whatever happens, it’s a given we have to get back to the Tower, don’t we? Even though the Tower is itself just a hub world in a game, this Nightmare is even less real than that,
What reason is there to stay in a fake reality?”
Ding Yi understands fully now.
So the three of them all confirm ‘Yes’ to leave the Nightmare, but after that choice, the window just zips out of existence. Nothing has changed around them.
Perhaps, they’ll also have to wait for the others to make their choice.
Meanwhile, Mu Jiashi, Shen Yünjü and Mystic have also made the exact same choice.
Mu Jiashi explains with mechanical coldness, “‘No’ is a trap.”
They’re still inside Operating Room 3, having attempted to initiate conversation with Liang Xingyi repeatedly, but have been unable to obtain more useful information.
But as soon as the window pops up, he has been able to work everything out.
He doesn’t know what triggered it, whether it was Xü Beijin, or someone else in the Ultimate Nightmare, but it seems they’re soon approaching the Ending of this Nightmare.”
“The Ending of this Nightmare?” Shen Yünjü appears confused, “but why is the Nightmare’s Ending… like this? Why is there a window for us to choose? It’s almost like…”
“Almost like a game, which this certainly is,” comes the firm reply from Mu Jiashi, “during the age of gaming on mouse and keyboard, people could literally choose an ending by clicking their mouse on a choice; this is something similar.”
Shen Yünjü seems quite surprised by all this.
Mu Jiashi then comments, almost looking nostalgic, “how ever realistic a game’s graphics are, and how ever much it resembles reality, it is still a game. A game that is still at the mercy of player choice.”
Shen Yünjü nods, seemingly better able to understand now.
Mystic is mumbling riddles again, “it is time… It is time, for the last fight…”
“Like a boss battle?” Mu Jiashi smiles at that thought, then continues, “perhaps the choice each one of us makes is the key to us winning this battle.”
Shen Yünjü then asks, “so we should all choose ‘Yes’?”
Mu Jiashi doesn’t answer that directly, asking instead, “what do you think each of these choices would represent?”
“Uhm…” Shen Yünjü thinks for some time, and says, “returning to the Tower would mean… facing, reality? Staying in the Nightmare would be, escapism. Yes, that’s what I think.”
Mu Jiashi nods and then says, “have you realised yet? The note says that the choice will not only affect this game’s ending, but also this Nightmare.”
“What is it trying to say?”
“The choice made it clear to me. Do you think the Ultimate Nightmare is ever going to restart? And if it does, then is it possible… for it to never move on to the stage when the Apocalypse hits?”
Shen Yünjü, hearing that, goes pale immediately.
Mu Jiashi says, “theoretically, it’s possible,” he pauses to think, and then says, “simply put the time before the Apocalypse strikes on loop. Repeat it forever, like any regular crumbling Nightmare before this.”
He goes silent.
Both Shen Yünjü and Mystic are also silent.
Until Mystic mutters, “that is… a perfectly fake… Truman’s world.”
Shen Yünjü then gasps slightly, noting, “NE… it’s always been able to manipulate with our memories.”
The terrifying revelation has them all feeling sick to the stomach.
They can choose to stay forever in the fictitious happiness. Where there was no Apocalypse, where they’re still on their beloved mother planet, living their dull, normal, everyday lives.
They would not be struggling for survival in bloody, twisted, depressing Nightmares, and leading hopeless, dead lives in a Tower all but shielded from the outside by a wall of fog.
They would be returning to the point of origin, when nothing had gone wrong.
And even forget everything that has gone wrong, all their pain and torment. They can just abandon their pursuit of the absolute truth, and foolishly, ignorantly, happily live out their lives indefinitely.
In a fake world!
Everything has happened. Things do not unhappen just because they want them not to have happened.
They’re facing the ultimate choice. A painful, but necessary choice.