Mu Jiashi is in shock – Fei and Wu Jian nodded to his question; they actually found something worthwhile!
Fei tells him, “we found several Missiontakers who sells information here. They are based here, or at least, based here since the farce in the bottom floor began to play out.
According to them, they say that NE has been pretty good to Missiontakers on the bottom floor lately.”
Mu Jiashi asks, confused, “what do you mean… pretty good?”
“The prize pool,” Wu Jian says unceremoniously, “you know utility cards that can be drawn after reaching an Ending in the Nightmares? The prize pool of the bottom floor is apparently spitting out exceptionally rare and powerful cards every so often.
NE probably adjusted the probabilities… It’s hard to say, but the information has been spreading here quietly for now, and many Carddealers are now in the Nightmares, testing the prize pools themselves.”
Wu Jian’s information is quite shocking. The Carddealers, the bunch that are lazy and entitled and happy to take others’ fruits of labour, are now so attracted by the potentially altered prize pools that even they are on the move?
The Carddealers are seriously considering that, drawing cards in the Nightmares is more lucrative than stealing other Missiontakers’ utility cards?
Mu Jiashi is furrowing his brows right now. The odds Wu Jian just told him are definitely unusual. Is NE really helping them out on purpose?
Wu Jian then starts talking to Fei, “I didn’t realise this at all, because the prize pool didn’t seem too out of place for us in the few Nightmares we’ve been since we’re here. But it was actually in comparison to the Nightmares in far, far higher floors.
I’m pretty sure it’s unnatural now that I think about it. What do you think the odds are of getting more than one Attack card from just three, four Nightmares resolved here…”
Fei’s forehead is twitching as she says, “the last sentence was unnecessary.”
Even if the odds are raised, for already extremely unlucky Missiontakers, it’s basically negligible – for Missiontakers like Fei, for example…
Mu Jiashi is thinking about something else that he didn’t have time to care about Fei and Wu Jian’s little spat──He’s basically broke now, too, when he gave up everything to come back down here──
What is more interesting to him, is the meaning behind a gesture of raising the odds of rare and powerful utility cards in the prize pool. Why would NE do so?
Could it be, to help Missiontakers get through Nightmares more easily?
Mu Jiashi is confounded.
Then Fei concludes, “in conclusion, this means we have more proof of NE’s new stance towards us.”
Mu Jiashi nods. That is certainly a piece of good news among the usual bad ones.
Then Mu Jiashi tells Fei and Wu Jian about what XĂĽ Beijin told him.
“That’s amazing…” Fei can’t help but say, “I’ve always wondered what his Nightmare could be.”
Wu Jian seems a bit inquisitive, though, saying, “really? Why are you all so focused on that bookstore owner, anyway?”
Fei is hesitant, but then, she still decides to tell Wu Jian about her almost farcical thoughts.
That XĂĽ Beijin, is the Server, NE.
“Hah?!” Wu Jian is shocked, understandably, and is doubting the idea immediately, “how could that be possible? If he were NE, why would he be trapped in that bookstore? And why would he be doing all this equivalent exchange bollocks with us?”
“I know, I know,” Fei sighs, and murmurs, “that’s why, it was more like an… unreasonable hunch that I have.”
Wu Jian’s lips seem to tremble a little. Finally, he says, “I suppose, it isn’t entirely impossible.”
Fei bitterly smiles, saying, “you don’t have to try and stand with me on this. If NE really were a human, then how could he have ignored humanity’s plight for all these years? The bookstore owner clearly wasn’t apathe…”
Wu Jian butts in, “what if it’s because of dalao Lin Qin?”
Fei looks at him with a suspicious gaze.
Wu Jian quickly explains, “look, NE has always been uncaring to us for all these years, but ever since the dalao Lin Qin started to interact with Xü Beijin, and they ended up together… sort of; the attitude of NE shifted basically in the same time period.
So I ask – what evidence do you have that proves Xü Beijin is not NE?”
Fei opens her mouth, but finds that she is at a loss for words.
She actually thinks what Wu Jian said logically follows.
In the end, that XĂĽ Beijin is suddenly willing to open his Nightmare might also be something related to Lin Qin.
As Mu Jiashi just told them, it was Lin Qin vouching for them that XĂĽ Beijin changed his mind.
So, Xü Beijin changed his attitude because of Lin Qin, while NE is also inexplicably starting to help out Missiontakers… Would this not be simple proof, that Xü Beijin equals NE?
Fei finds the whole logic to be consistent here.
But, no, that can’t be. If Xü Beijin really were NE, then why should he need Missiontakers to help him out? He’s already invincible in this Tower.
Fei recalls the Nightmare with the Raining Hellfire again.
In that Nightmare, it was at the very end that they realised who the true owner of the Nightmare was.
It was thanks to Mu Jiashi having asked a question that only Xie Ji could know the answer to.
If it were not for that, they would have still been stuck on whether Xie Ji or Ke Zhu was the true owner of the Nightmare.
With that said, is there some kind of question, that only NE could know the answer to?
Fei suddenly turns to Mu Jiashi.
Mu Jiashi seems to have tuned out their conversation. He’s disinterested in the argument between Fei and Wu Jian regarding whether Xü Beijin could be NE, as he finds the whole idea preposterous. How could NE possibly be a human?
And this matter is unhelpful to their current situation, too. What his main objective right now is, is to think about the people to take into the Nightmare with him, and not whether XĂĽ Beijin is NE.
Fei asked Mu Jiashi the question loudly enough to get him to answer, though.
“Something only NE would know the answer to?” Mu Jiashi repeats the question asked, with a strange tone of voice.
He’s once again amazed at how the thought processes of his two companions would lead them to the most outlandish corners.
Deciding to go along just for the sake of it, he proposes one off the top of his head, “hmm, where the exit to the Tower is?”
Fei’s eyes glimmer as she claps her hand and say, “yes, that is something only NE wouldk now! Perhaps we can try to use this question the next time.”
“The exit to the Tower, huh,” Wu Jian comments, “I always thought it was just the proverbial carrot-on-the-stick, but perhaps, there might really be an exit? Could it be in the Ultimate Nightmare?”
Fei says, “what would the Ultimate Nightmare be?”
The two of them fall silent.
Here, Mu Jiashi has to drag them back on track, and say, “hey, about the candidates for entering Xü Beijin’s Nightmare, know any good Missiontakers?”
“Uh…” Fei and Wu Jian look at each other, and answer, “we only just got here recently, so we’re not familiar. We can try to ask our organisation, but time would be an issue…”
Wu Jian adds, looking a little embarrassed, “we don’t actually know that many Missiontakers outside of our organisation.”
Mu Jiashi sighs. To be honest, even he doesn’t know that many Missiontakers down here on the bottom floor after those demographic shakeups.
He wasn’t back down here much earlier than Fei and Wu Jian descended… As for the people he knows, it solely amounts to those at the Golddigger organisations, but outside of it, he’s also a lone wolf.
Would anyone know the bottom floor of the Tower really well? Or have some broad social connections?
Mu Jiashi pauses, as a name pops into his mind.
Ding Yi…
The legendary, ex-billionaire of the bottom floor. She definitely knows the bottom floor well, and knows enough Missiontakers within.
Besides, she was only gone from the bottom floor for two, three months at most before.
So here, Mu Jiashi makes a decision immediately, saying, “I’ll go to Ding Yi.”
“Ding Yi?” Fei says, “you mean, the Missiontaker we met in the last Nightmare?”
“Yes. She was once a Necessities Merchant on the bottom floor,” Mu Jiashi explains, “so she might know good people who can help us. She herself could even join if she wanted to.”
Fei and Wu Jian both nod.
Soon after, Mu Jiashi is at Ding Yi’s residence.
Hearing what Mu Jiashi came here for, Ding Yi has a pretty serious expression.
She says, “I’ll try putting you in contact with a few suitable Missiontakers. And, thank you for the invitation, but…”
She pauses slightly first, and then says, “I’m afraid I won’t enter the Nightmare; I don’t fit his requirements.”