Chapter 349: Volume 1 - CH 24.3

The bookstore entrance is located in a run-down, deserted alley. Once, it was filled with Missiontakers hoping to enter his Nightmare, but it is devoid of people now.

The entrance to Wu Shen’s door store used to be opposite of his in the alley. It is already empty now.

Though more strictly speaking, their stores are not actually ‘neighbours.’ These doors are different from doors in the traditional sense. It might be more accurate to call them portals. Portals for transportation.

When a door is opened, you will actually be met with a cloud of fog instead. You have to take another step forward to actually arrive at the respective residences or whatever location it was. Nobody knows where these stores and residences and houses are located, but at least, they are definitely not directly behind the visible ‘doors’ in the Tower.

And it isn’t just limited to the Tower residents’ residences. It is also the same for the outsiders’ houses.

Or rather, it is true for every single place where there is a ‘door.’

Why are these teleportation portals-cum-doors made in this way?

Nobody knows why. At least, no one in the Tower knows.

No matter what, though, this did have a benefit; when the Missiontakers end up ascending to a higher floor, their own homes would follow along, so they did not have to worry about losing all their belongings.

In the Tower, the ways twist, and turn, and reach unexpected places. There are roads, alleys, corridors, and even secret passageways. They are like a whole grid of mazes spread out over each floor. Doors are located at the ends and sides of the roads.

Only owners of a place can use these doors directly to enter their own private space, but at night, the outsiders can also use these doors as well, but not to enter the actual residences or whatever, but to enter the respective resident’s Nightmare.

And of course, the owner of a place can also set entry rights themselves (TL: There is a very minor plot hole here – It remains unexplained how that one Missiontaker in the past entered Xü Beijin’s bookstore to be thrown out by him a long time ago when he probably would have refused any Missiontaker entering his store back then in the first place).

If you think about how Glasses could have picked up the utility card Wu Shen left in the store on purpose, it was probably Wu Shen deliberately setting the rights for entry to his door as ‘Everyone Allowed’ to draw outsiders in to discover that utility card.

There are always a minority of outsiders that would excitedly try any door they could see in the Tower.

They do not care whether the door would simply refuse to open for them, or what danger might lurk behind the door, but for the mentally ill, repressed outsiders, an adventurous spirit is never in short supply.

Xü Beijin walks through the alley, and several twists and turns later, he ends up on a wider road.

Sometimes he would hear the outsiders calling the end of this wide avenue the ‘Respawn Point,’ because, at the end of a Nightmare, if the Missiontakers failed to ascend to a higher floor, they will be back at the Respawn Point.

And naturally, the road ends up being called ‘Respawn Avenue.’

Respawn Avenue is a ring road (TL: … So how does a ring road have an end point marked as the ‘Respawn Point,’ again?) encircling the entire outer reaches of the bottom floor of the Tower. It is connected to virtually every single other road in this floor of the Tower. It really does live up to being an ‘avenue.’

Of course, in reality, it is merely slightly wider than the alleys between the rooms. One side of the avenue is the wall of the Tower itself, allowing light in from the occasional glass (TL: You can imagine the Tower itself not being exactly cylindrical – there are lots of rooms poking out or dent inwards, or imagine the avenue turning and snaking a lot, which would both explain why Xü Beijin can have his store facing the outside when the whole wall of the ‘circular’ Respawn Avenue is supposed to face the outside as well).

Though anyone looking out of the window can can see the endless grey fog; look up, and it is the body of the Tower piercing right into the sky.

What is the Tower, anyway?

It is really just a narrow building tall enough to pierce into the clouds. It is surrounded by a dense, impenetrable fog. Nobody knows what lies outside the fog.

Apparently, some Missiontakers have tried to explore the fog (TL: Which would imply there is an entrance/exit to the Tower on this floor, or they broke out of the windows… But I know it’s the former because I’ve read the later chapters. Don’t worry, it’s not a spoiler/it’s fine to know about this whenever), only to never return. Since then, nobody dares to explore this grey smog out of curiosity anymore.

The world beyond the Tower is unknown. And so are the higher floors of the Tower.

Of course, a lot of Missiontakers have gone to the higher floors, some of whom, after achieving a few consecutive Bad Ends, are demoted back down to the bottom floor. According to these people, higher floors seem to be not much different from the bottommost floor.

And nobody has reached the actual highest floor, apparently.

Xü Beijin slowly strolls along the Respawn Avenue. The occasional outsider or Tower resident passing by him give no attention to this expressionless man trundling along.

There are countless quirky personalities in the Tower. Xü Beijin really does not stand out at all among them.

A little ways out, he suddenly stops when an argument is breaking out from the alley to his left. Despite all the heavy shouting, just a moment of hesitation from Xü Beijin later, the voices have already disappeared.

He glances over curiously, only the hear the disinterested voice of a man, saying, “don’t block my door.”

That voice…

Lin Qin?

Xü Beijin is surprised. What is going on? Didn’t the Missiontakers achieve a True End? He should be on a higher floor with them. Why is he still on the bottom floor?

He knows about the rumours that circulated about before talking about how dumb Lin Qin was that he never got a True End and could never go to a higher floor. While Xü Beijin doesn’t know Lin Qin’s IQ, but he saw his True End with his own two eyes.

So… why?

There is no time to think, as the people that were arguing in front of Lin Qin’s door have quickly run outside.

One says, “damn it, why is that monster Lin Qin here?! I saw the little boy running this way for sure… Fuck! Was I blind or what?”

“Yeah, of course you are, and not just that, but your brain must have been waterlogged too! Didn’t I damned well tell you you’re delusional just for thinking you can trick the truth of a Nightmare out of that boy just because he’s a kid?! Wake up to reality, would you?!”

The third person does not join in on the argument, but is instead murmuring to himself, “why would the boy keep repeating a set of numbers…?”

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“Shit, laosan (TL: Lit. ‘old-three,’ referring to the man as the third (probably in age or experience) among the group), rather than that, we have to find out where the brat’s gone! If we don’t find his home’s portal, we can’t even enter his Nightmare.”

All three of them are in tattered T-shirts with unkempt, oily hair. They’re probably ones that no longer cared for personal hygiene anymore. They seem to be in a hurry, anxious about the whereabouts of a little boy.

They completely ignore Xü Beijin’s existence as they chat and dash away.

Xü Beijin is used to this treatment too; he is a Tower resident, so in the eyes of the outsiders, they can ignore him entirely if they are not looking for clues to his Nightmare.

As for that little boy they’re talking about, Xü Beijin has zero idea.

The bottom floor of the Tower is big. And they might call it a ‘floor,’ but they don’t even know how many ‘storeys’ there even is to this single floor that houses all the humans that have never ascended to another floor, or one that failed and was sent back down from a higher floor.

Sometimes, people discover a staircase in some corner of the bottom floor, either leading up or down, and rush in gleefully… only to be told by the new people they encounter, that they’re right at the bottom floor of the Tower.

Nobody knows how many staircases there are. Therefore, nobody knows how many areas there even are in this ‘one’ bottom floor.

The trio seems to have chased the boy back here, so there’s no way of knowing where they’re actually from, either.

Xü Beijin doesn’t even know his own local area well, not to mention anywhere else.

Before this, he only knew Wu Shen, who was opposite his door, well. Oh right, now he also knows that the door – the portal – to Lin Qin’s home is not far from his bookstore.

It’s quite far away making a detour through Respawn Avenue; starting from the corridor outside Xü Beijin’s bookstore, though, it’s like, one turn.

And Xü Beijin didn’t even know about how close they were before…

He blinks, and then turns to leave without hesitation.

A sign of being mature is that one knows one’s own place, one knows one’s capabilities, one knows when to lay-low and retreat…

Xü Beijin quickly leaves.

So he didn’t notice at all, that Lin Qin actually walked out of the alley soon after he turned, and just stood there, quietly going ‘hmph’ and perking his lips at his retreating silhouette.

It seems laying-low doesn’t always work, either.

Xü Beijin escapes to his bookstore (TL: Through the newfound shortcut, probably) soon enough and sighs. He decides not to leave his store for the next few days.

He has enough drinks in stock anyway, and the endless books in the store are good enough company for him.

A few days pass. Xü Beijin is blanking out on his chair like usual. He is holding a book in his hand, but he hasn’t flipped a page for a long time.

Suddenly, his vision goes dark. His consciousness seems to sink somewhere deeper. He slowly closes his eyes to relax. He knows this is the start of a new workday.

The time and location of his workdays are all arranged by the Server. There is no advance announcement. There is no choice, unless he decides to open up his own Nightmare.

The next second, light floods into his vision. He reflexively narrows his eyes to observe.

This isn’t the decrepit little bookstore in Wu Shen’s Nightmare, but instead, he is actually in the service area of an expressway. He is still the owner of a bookstore, though.

He knows nothing about this particular Nightmare, and the Server hasn’t provided him with any information at all.

It seems that in this Nightmare, he really only needs to be a background extra. Basically, being his usual self. It is actually uncommon for an extra to have to relay information and talk to Missiontakers like the last Nightmare.

The store is empty, and so is the lay-by outside. The Missiontakers are nowhere to be found.

Xü Beijin stretches his body to relax, then suddenly recalls that he once promised the viewers he would stream again.

So he calls the system out and begins streaming.

The viewer remains zero for now, which is unsurprising for Xü Beijin. Though it’s alright as long as he can be the audience himself.

He glances at the names of the camera sources in this Nightmare. He can see several scenes and Missiontakers’ names here——Wait, Lin Qin?

Xü Beijin is in shock.

What kind of luck does he have… Almost running into Lin Qin in the Tower the last time, and then actually running into Lin Qin in this Nightmare?

He can feel his head throbbing with pain already, and sighs. His mind begins to digress, and is thinking that although Lin Qin hasn’t left the bottom floor of the Nightmare for some reason, but he did probably give up on having a fight with him, right…?

Probably.

… Definitely!

So thinking, Xü Beijin picks a random scene to see.

“Number off!”

The voice of a man rudely yelling out blasts off right next to his ear.

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