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Next to the three Missiontakers is Liang Xingyi, who’s quite clearly confused by their conversation.
It allows them to finally prove once and for all, that this man who’s pivotal to the game’s plot, is just an NPC.
Or possibly, the Actor who was once this man, has succumbed to a Nightmare?
There are still a few possibilities.
But Mu Jiashi only gives him one final look before casting his gaze away in disinterest.
He says, “staying in this Nightmare represents a surrender to the AI’s constructed, fictitious utopia, even though it’s still in a Nightmare…”
He pauses.
He is suddenly captivated by the thoughts of first impressions through names.
It seems like it’s been conventional to call these small instances in the game as ‘Nightmares.’
They’re ‘Nightmares,’ so they’re bad, feared, abhorred, avoided or fought. It’s difficult to imagine someone ‘liking’ a Nightmare.
So with the choice presented, they’re also leaning, instinctively, towards leaving the Nightmare.
But why?
Is it because, even though the Tower is a dirty, broken, aging husk of a building, it’s at least not a Nightmare?
It doesn’t sound like much of a factor influencing their choice, but it’s not negligible.
They’re also calling this Nightmare the ‘Ultimate Nightmare,’ and believe that this Nightmare is the harbinger of the ending of this game——And they’ll actually escape this game, or succumb trying.
Who would choose to even stay in the game when the choice is up? Freedom is merely a button away!
That angle makes Mu Jiashi quite intrigued indeed.
It’s almost like this game is actually helping them. Helping them regain their lost memories, helping them escape the Tower, through all sorts of details.
——Nightmares are bad, so leave. Make the choice now, and leave this bedamned, feared Nightmare behind.
They ought not to let themselves be satisfied with a fake and happy dream, especially when it’s, fundamentally, a Nightmare.
A bitter pill in sugar coating.
Their choice will tie into what becomes of the AI.
Mu Jiashi has a speculation that this is because the AI’s right to manage the Tower comes down to whether humans are going to continue granting it this responsibility.
All of them returning to the Tower means they’re going to face reality head-on, and no longer are they going to cower behind the AI’s overprotective shield.
Staying in this Nightmare means humans are going to keep their ears and eyes shut, happy with the status quo, and even willing to succumb to a false, happy dream the AI is concocting.
This is certainly something that can only happen in a game, Mu Jiashi thinks.
If this was happening in reality, the issues become quite realist indeed.
Like, what are they going to do for necessities of life? What will they eat and drink?
Only a game can ‘summon’ necessities of life from some draw pool.
It’s quite laughable, really.
He tells his two companions, firmly, “choose ‘Yes’ and leave the Nightmare.”
They all confirm their choices.
Nothing changes, though, other than the window zipping out of existence. The Nightmare isn’t changing either.
Shen Yünjü asks, “do we have to wait for the others to make a choice? Would everyone need to take the same choice?”
“It seems so,” replies Mu Jiashi, “since Xü Beijin has always stressed the importance of staying sane and lucid when he was contacting everyone, I suppose everyone would be making this same conscious choice.
Assuming, they’re all still awake.”
Xü Beijin is holding his forehead in pain looking at the number reading ‘1.’
What in the…
Where did this sudden madman come from at this critical junction?!
If they popped up just a second earlier it wouldn’t make the situation so painfully unresolvable.
The window to make a decision has been opened. They must all make their choice now.
There is no backing out for humanity here, and yet… There is one insane person who’s succumbed to the Ultimate Nightmare among them!
At this exact moment!
Xü Beijin is even suspecting NE’s involvement. Maybe he’s not in the asleep state anymore and is giving them this surprise to ruin everything.
Though with the control panel still dutifully working before him, he knows he is just getting paranoid.
He takes a deep breath.
A tranquil Lin Qin is holding his hand beside him. Seeing him calm down a little, he reassures him again, “don’t worry…”
Xü Beijin is bitterly smiling, but he says, “I won’t. We did all that we can, as best as we can. All that’s left is up to fate.”
Lin Qin then leans over to kiss him on the lips again.
Xü Beijin looks at him, and also calms down. He’s clearly still upset, though, saying, “let’s see who this person is.”
After Xiang ChenyĂź said the magic words and made the window pop up, there is now a new piece of information displayed on the control panel.
It shows the number of people in total who are allowed to partake in the decision process, the people who have, and haven’t made a choice yet, and what their choices are.
Under the headings of ‘Leave the Nightmare’ and ‘Stay in the Nightmare,’ the former is a rapidly rising figure, while the latter reads ‘0.’
Xü Beijin can’t help but worry that the number might strike 1 at any point, just like what he saw earlier.
The stars have all aligned only for an orbit to go out of whack.
He, his fellow companions, his fellow humans in the Tower, have all done their best. No one was dragging anyone down, and they all did what was asked of them.
Just below a fifth of the players who entered the Ultimate Nightmare are awake; it’s honestly a far higher figure than Xü Beijin had hoped for.
There is just that one outlier, the one, lonely number.
If this is what fails them… Xü Beijin would definitely be broken.
The worst part is, he doesn’t even know if there might be another chance for them if they ended up failing this time.
He can’t help but sigh.
Putting the window away and going back to the Ultimate Nightmare, he clicks on the lonely number to see who this unhelpful person was.
The three of them – Xü Beijin, Lin Qin, and Xie Zhijin, who’s been doing his best invisible ghost impression, all huddle together to look at it.
That is when XĂź Beijin and Lin Qin both widen their eyes with surprise.
Su Enya.
Or, Xie Ji. Or Ke Zhu. Anyway, her appearance is that of Su Enya right now, according to the stream XĂź Beijin just switched to.
Around her are Fei, Wu Jian, Jiang Shuangmei and Ye Lan.
The five of them actually managed to find each other?
XĂź Beijin then knits his brows.
Su Enya has gone insane?
It sounds almost impossible.
They’ve worked together reliably as companions. She was also a recipient to Xü Beijin’s own personal plea of staying awake in the Nightmare at all costs. She knows how severe the consequences would be. She knows what she must do.
Why would she suddenly succumb now?
The other four people present are equally confused – Fei, Wu Jian, etc.
They’re also deeply worried, watching Su Enya.
The woman in question looks rather dazed just standing there. Who knows what she’s thinking.
Xü Beijin can’t read anything off of her. Furrowing his brows even more, he looks around at where they are instead.
He can imagine nothing but where they’ve come to that has Su Enya falter right now.
Fei, Wu Jian and some others separated from Mu Jiashi, Ding Yi and the others, to look for Xie Zhijin’s neighbourhood.
To look for the place where the grey fog first spread, but they didn’t find anything of value there.
Then, Wu Jian’s laptop had finally run out of juice. They’re not sure where to go, and so start heading back.
That is when Su Enya suddenly runs into them.
Quite terrified and anxious, she yells and pleads for them to leave this residential area. This whole area is ‘done for,’ she says.
A residential area that’s ‘done for’?
Almost immediately, Jiang Shuangmei is reminded of ‘sentient electronics.’ Her older sister has been trapped in that Nightmare, and who knows when she could be rescued.
That was also Su Enya’s Nightmare.
Right now, they’re in another residential area. Maybe something similar is happening in this area.
As expected, Su Enya tells them that this residential block had many facilities ‘going wrong,’ and are extremely hostile towards people.
So they quickly move to leave.
Though that is when Wu Jian suggests, “could this be a clue that we needed?”
Su Enya immediately suggests, “my Nightmare is basically like this. What clue do you need? I’ll tell you.”
Wu Jian looks like he doesn’t know what to ask, though, and is looking a little frightened, even.
Dai Wu is nowhere to be found, so Su Enya isn’t exactly talking sarcastically, but she seemed to have some trauma associated with that kind of place, and so her words sound pretty aggressive. It somewhat discourages trying to talk to her more.
A while later, they reach somewhere new – the front entrance to a hotel, with a placard outside congratulating so-and-so for marrying today.
They’re going to discuss their next course of action when they realise Su Enya seems to have stood frozen there for a while;
Then suddenly, a window pops up in front of them.
It all happened quite suddenly, but the clever ones of the four Missiontakers quickly figure out what’s happening. Though that makes them immediately turn their attention to Su Enya, worried.
Is she still alright? Is she going to make the right choice?
Fei tries to ask her, “what’s wrong? Did something remind you of something?”
Su Enya’s voice is pretty shaky, “this was… my, wedding.”
That astonishes everyone else present.
A wedding in the middle of the Apocalypse… It doesn’t take much imagination for them to imagine countless possible ways for it to end in tragedy.
Why did they have to end up at Su Enya’s wedding of all places right now?!
“I’m getting married…” Su Enya says, looking a little lost, before her tone turns from soulless to joy, “I’m getting married!”
Suddenly, the clothes on her changes dramatically.
With a beautiful white wedding dress on her, and elegant make-up, and even a bouquet that came from nowhere.
She lifts up one side of her dress, and mumbles to herself, “I must present myself… I’m the bride.”
The Missiontakers are chilled to the core seeing this.
Jiang Shuangmei mumbles, “she’s… she’s succumbed to the Nightmare.”