Chapter 11: Volume 2 - CH 30.1

Out of the corridor and into the car, then rushing as fast as they can to the service area takes about three minutes.

And they’ve also wasted two minutes in the corridor already.

Selfish numbering off eight numbers should take eight… no, seven minutes in total. This means they only have about two more minutes to gather information in this service area.

… Because they are not sure what would happen when all the numbers have been said correctly.

Laosan can’t help but feel slightly regretful now.

They should have left someone there, after all. Now they can’t be certain what happens after all the numbers are reported correctly.

As for Selfish telling them honestly?

Yeah, right. Laosan isn’t one to consider meaningless assumptions.

Meanwhile, since Scapegoat is also on the car he’s in right now, he hesitates for a bit before asking, “what did you actually come across in the last run of the Nightmare?”

Scapegoat rolls his eyes at him and says, “you wanna know? Well, you know what, sure… just remember that it was all going well until your side screwed it up.”

He complains a bit more, looking quite frustrated and angry.

Laosan stays quiet.

Shortly after, he seems to have done complaining and begins to detail what happened after he and Selfish reached the service area the last run.

“When we were at the service area, we didn’t know when something might happen over at your side… We were already scared from the first run, you know. So we decided to get an idea for the place first and walk around. That supermarket was at the far back, and it was really big, so we took a look inside.

I was arguing with him about the man in black back then, and the cashier reacted strangely, so we asked if he knew anything… Then, that was it. Ho. Ho.”

He coldly chuckles in the end.

Meanwhile, in the driver’s seat, Erge asks, “looks like you also want to stay a while inside that dark room?”

Scapegoat shrinks back into his seat and goes quiet.

Laosan thought about what the guy said carefully, and it all seemed to add up, though…

To be fair, he doesn’t trust Scapegoat or Selfish much. He trusts Laoda, Erge, and can tentatively offer trust to Ding Yi, Mu Jiashi and even Lin Qin for now, but he cannot say the same for these Missiontakers that have been disagreeable with each other and them since the beginning.

So he is suspecting foul play.

Though he cannot find any issue with what he just told them for now…

Was it… Really the truth?

Laosan is growing worrisome. He has a feeling that something unexpected will happen in this run of the Nightmare.

In the stream, Xü Beijin knew the Missiontakers have arrived as soon as seven names popped up under the scene ‘Expressway Service Area.’ So he switches the camera source over to the service area from the dark bedroom, where he and the viewers have been watching Selfish all along.

By the way, after the other Missiontakers left, Selfish seemed completely unfazed inside the pitch black space alone. He even remembered that string of long numbers Laosan told him just before leaving, and so was just counting nonchalantly in absolute darkness.

The viewers were surprised, typing, “eh? hes been hiding his true strength?”

“doesn’t look like he’s dumb or stupid either… why was he even going contrarian against everyone before?”

“maybe its on purpose? so that he alone can enjoy whatever reward it was after numbering off”

“… but he doesn’t even know if the numbers they said were correct or if it was all the numbers?”

“Actually… I have a question.”

“dalao, go ahead”

“Have you all noticed the issue of time?”

Xü Beijin suddenly has a spark of brilliance and asks, “you mean, they lied to the other Missiontakers?”

“what what?”

“aw man! Beibei and the detective dalao have the same brain wavelength but I still can’t understand a thing [cry emoji]”

“I mean… in their last run, there were at least eight minutes in total; two minutes and some in the corridor and the time spent on the road meant that they should have only less than three minutes when they reach the service area to gather information.

Do you think that three minutes is enough for them to even realise which person holds valuable information in the entire service area?

Beibei already walked us through the service area earlier. We know that it’s big and even crowded in places. How did they even manage to come across the supermarket cashier in less than three minutes? When there’s even Beibei here to detract them?”

Xü Beijin couldn’t help but chime in, though, “but then, this creates a contradiction——If they already knew the cashier in the supermarket knows something, then isn’t three minutes already enough for them to head straight for him to get that information?”

“oh shit! Beibei’s also right!”

“then they didnt conceal the key info on purpose… but is there even a need? i thought true ends mean all the missiontakers get to go up floors together?”

“Maybe it’s because they have been at each other’s throats for the whole time? Their anger seemed genuine. Maybe they really were about to get the key information but it was ruined halfway because of the death in the bedroom”

“im more curious about… how this arguing duo actually joined forces?”

“or maybe… they separated to ask for information, and the one now in the bedroom learned something…?”

“but they lashed out at the bedroom Missiontakers together earlier?”

“hey say… could the missiontakers present have already discovered the problem with time? maybe they did but they didnt wanna say? cuz they also dont wanna cooperate with the guy left in the bedroom?”

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“im dead… im not only stuck with the instances riddles, i dont even know what the missiontakers are thinking anymore”

“this kind of game really isn’t suitable for me either lol”

“dalao, your turn, please”

“Hm? Ok… So what I was thinking was that they probably did end up learning some information that meant they had to go inside the bedroom to secure an initiative… or something? Maybe they were calling the bedroom team ‘inept useless pieces of shit’ in order to smooth their way into the bedroom, too”

“sigh… we shouldve watched the two of them in the stream back then”

“but the numbering off was tense and thrilling too; so basically, when there are too many scenes, even Beibei can’t change the scenes in time anymore… his director skills need improving (no lol)”

“apologies, so its actually director bei? [hold_fist_greeting emoji]”

“that’s fine really, even TV dramas need some cliffhangers for tension…”

“yea”

The comments are having fun again. For the viewers with a bird’s eye view on everything, they might be troubled and curious, but they are sure they’ll learn about everything eventually.

Xü Beijin is a little more concerned than them, though, since Selfish is behaving really differently inside the dark bedroom from how he usually was, that is, temperamental and dumb.

And since he didn’t know what Selfish and Scapegoat ran into in the third run of the Nightmare either, there is nothing for him to base his speculations on.

Perhaps, he could go ask Dai Wu again…?

This is definitely an advantage of the Actors.

Though, the last time he went, that guy was already all mysterious; he isn’t sure whether he would tell him about everything this time.

While thinking so, he turns his attention back to the service area.

All seven Missiontakers are proudly marching into the service area before fanning out to search for clues individually.

The service area layout resembles the ‘回’ character with the opening in the middle down below as the entrance. There are some tuck shops and eateries lined up right beside either side of the entrance. The left side contains the public restroom and drinking fountains. The large supermarket is at the very back. The right side contains some shops, including Xü Beijin’s bookstore.

There is also a plaza in the middle containing some flowerbeds and benches.

Scapegoat just told them he almost got the identity of the man in black from the cashier in the supermarket, and so, this time, he also heads straight for the supermarket.

Laosan, Ding Yi and Mu Jiashi all follow him, but Laoda and Erge have decided to explore elsewhere.

Nobody asks Lin Qin where he’s going; and the man in question ends up following Scapegoat, heading for the supermarket.

The purpose is… of course, for Xü Beijin’s drinks problem.

Lin Qin is quite the simpleminded but stubborn individual. He’ll try his best to do whatever he’s decided to put his mind to.

Since they’re headed for the supermarket, they’ll have to circle around either the left or the right of the plaza (TL: Why don’t they just go through the plaza? Unless it has no path through the middle for some inexplicable design reasons), and naturally, they steer clear of the public restroom and take the right side.

Thus, Lin Qin immediately spies Xü Beijin inside the bookstore.

And his steps naturally diverge from the others towards him, and leads him right into the bookstore.

Xü Beijin “…”

The viewers follow the rest of the Missiontakers towards the supermarket, so none of them notice that, in the little window on the bottom right of their screen, their host is now in trouble.

Lin Qin heads straight for the counter and greets him, “hello again.”

Xü Beijin is quiet for a moment before deciding to ignore Lin Qin entirely and pretend he does not know him in the Nightmare——Yes, that’s how it always should have been. Lin Qin doesn’t know about Actors anyway!

All the Missiontakers thought that the Tower residents are just game NPCs.

They do not confuse the Nightmares with the Tower. They believe that Tower residents remember nothing inside the Nightmares, and even if they did, they probably treat them as real nightmares in the first place; and it’s the other way around in the Nightmare, they think the residents remember their memories in the Tower, and if they’re not the owner of the Nightmare who is usually mentally insane in one way or another, then their personalities would be similar as well.

In fact, that is why some Missiontakers would take advantage of that to do whatever in the Nightmares and act like nothing happened back in the Tower. Because the Server prohibits Actors from blowing their covers, they can only swallow the pain and, in the end, it is always the Actors who mentally suffer.

Even when Actors that did end up mentally insane show how they remember what happened in the Nightmare indirectly, the Missiontakers would somehow come to the conclusion that, ‘oh, these residents did end up turning into their mad self in their Nightmares, huh.’

In other words, since the Missiontakers have all already bought into the whole ‘NPCs are NPCs’ premise, no matter what the Actors do, they will find a way to rationalise from that false context, especially when many of these Missiontakers don’t pay close attention to Tower residents most of the time in the first place.

This conundrum has troubled endless Actors and dragged them into a hopeless abyss. Many times they have tried to hint at their roles as Actors in all sorts of indirect ways, but their compadres, their own kin, would never pick up the cues.

And apparently, how the Missiontakers came to largely dismiss the Tower residents was a habit that developed after seeing how the Tower residents would do all sorts of weird attention-seeking things that made the Missiontakers think they’re insane instead of digging deeper into their identities.

Some Missiontakers would even remark on how advanced NE’s AI must be to simulate madness so vividly.

No Missiontaker would consider the possibility that these Tower residents are humans, just like them, at all.

Tower residents all have all sorts of disabilities, physical or mental – This is the image that causes Missiontakers to disregard the possibility of working with them or sympathising with them.

Their thoughts are ‘confirmed’ even more unquestionably when they meet the owner of a Nightmare that they’ve seen in the Tower; Missiontakers do end up quirky or devastated from all the mental stress, but what the Nightmare owners do in the Nightmares can only make them question, whether humans are truly capable of turning into… that.

Therefore, unless it is to acquire information in the Nightmare, no Missiontaker would interact with Tower residents in or out of the Nightmare.

Thus, someone like Lin Qin, who chased after a resident from the Tower to the Nightmare and back, is really rare and even strange, not to mention the fact that every single time he’d just ask Xü Beijin to “let’s fight” over and over again.

Over time, Xü Beijin can’t really remember whether he has actually properly Acted his role each and every time he has met Lin Qin now. Has he ever slipped up anywhere?

None of that matters, though, because this time, he is ready to ignore Lin Qin’s requests entirely.

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