Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Before X Beijin could think about it more deeply, Wei Lezhang asks, oh, so you knew as well?

X Beijin blinks in confusion.

Wei Lezhang sells out his acquaintance immediately, telling him, you know, an Actor I know, poor guy, always gets assigned as the toilet in this Nightmare.

X Beijin

His stomach is acting up.

Wei Lezhang continues to tear into his friend, though, adding, so whenever he ends up in this Nightmare, Id avoid him for a whole three days after.

X Beijin looks back down at the red, spicy hotpot, and quietly puts his chopsticks away.

Wei Lezhang is still saying, completely without self-awareness, well, I know nobody actually feels like eating or drinking or pissing or shitting in Nightmares, but being a toilet Oh man, haha, poor guy, but its so funny!

X Beijin is thinking, how he must be unaware, that a certain Missiontaker

Never mind.

Hes eating. What is he even thinking about?

So he changes the topic by asking, this Nightmare has Actors for all the furniture, huh?

Yeah, Wei Lezhang is clearly not suspecting a thing about X Beijin, answering, that Actor I knew? He told me that this Nightmare had some Internet? It let them furniture-Actors communicate and even move about. But him? He could at best move from this toilet to that other toilet Hahaha, Im so sorry for him!

He says Im so sorry the same way youd say Im so amused.

Not just Actors here, though, I think, Wei Lezhang adds, there are Missiontakers too.

X Beijin pauses before asking, Missiontakers?

Its similar to succumbing to Collapsed Nightmares, Wei Lezhang explains, I dont know the details, but some Missiontakers would end up in the Internet of furniture Actors Well, not just furniture, but also other stuff. Its a mess.

Then, what about the original Actor?

They get squeezed back out, Wei Lezhang says, but I havent Acted as them in this Nightmare even after so long, so I dont know much, but the Actor I knew complained a lot about it; oh right, theres that cinema upstairs hes the cashier this time, I think? He was a furniture once, and was fortunate enough to be squeezed out by a Missiontaker.

X Beijin is wondering whether he could be referring to Dai Wu?

Is that why Dai Wu told him to watch out behind him? As he was once the target to be watched out for?

Speaking of which, what kind of role did Dai Wu once Act as?

A dozen minutes or so later, X Beijin waves goodbye to Wei Lezhang and heads to the fourth floor for Dai Wu, and asks him.

Dai Wu

He rolls his eyes at him while saying with this deadpan tone, how did you know this. And He then gives X Beijin an odd look, specifically, looking at the bubble tea in his hand, remarking, arent you too casual about this?

X Beijin shrugs, Dai Wu-style, going, its rare to be in this kind of Nightmare.

A Nightmare that is lively, prosperous, filled with food and open stores, is certainly a rarity. Most Nightmares feature some desolate, decrepit scene. Some look downright apocalyptic.

Dai Wu chuckles, asking, so youre here to enjoy life a little? He then says, well, I suppose thats good enough

X Beijin says, dont change the topic.

Dai Wu

He rolls his eyes again, sighing, do I really have to tell this embarrassing story?

So what were you? X Beijin asks, with curious eyes, but, the good person that he is, adds, if you ended up a toilet or something like that though, then never mind.

Dai Wu is so shocked he nearly chokes, asking, what? Someone actually well, never mind. I wasnt; I was an He is quiet for a moment before replying, extractor hood.

X Beijin

The corner of his mouth twitches.

I didnt kill anyone, ok? Dai Wu explains, the missing Missiontakers are randomly stuffed into a device and replaces the Actor instead. I just had my fortunes explode for once.

Oh, its actually random X Beijin falls into thought.

In that case, Muscular, who died the last run of the Nightmare, must have actually been transported into that special Internet platform. What would he be?

X Beijin is feeling pretty complicated. While he deserved it all, this method of death and what happens even after death is still chilling him to the bone.

Though with that personality of his, if Muscular ended up as some lethal-capable facility, then the Missiontakers remaining in the Nightmare, especially people like Jiang Shuangjie and Thin, may be in danger.

Right now, thirty minutes have passed since the fourth run of the Nightmare began.

The screen on the stream is showing some changes already.

While Jiang Shuangmei already knows that, since she has died in the first run of the Nightmare already, and is now exempt from the murderous spree of the rogue facilities, but her fear, wariness and cautiousness still urged her to choose to stick right next to the door since the fourth run started.

That trauma from her previous death still haunts her. She does not want to fall to such depths ever again.

She spends half an hour of the Nightmare quietly like so. Her legs are feeling a bit numb after standing for so long, so she tries to relax a bit, but she accidentally trips and falls towards the door.

Oh oh ouch!

She ends up hitting the handle with her forehead; it pushes down.

The next second, she is shocked to realise, the door is open!

She tries it with her hand this time, and opens the apartment door without much effort. It seems the limitation that they must wait for an hour has vanished already!

Why? How?

She looks up at the clock to confirm that, it has only been half an hour since the Nightmare restarted. The window is showing pitch darkness outside.

Is it, part of the crumbling? In the fourth Nightmare? So they can exit a bit earlier?

Jiang Shuangmei suspects no one would have guessed it, since this hasnt been the case in the first three runs of the Nightmare. They probably wouldnt have tried the door this time.

Yet What if, during this time that they are essentially squandering in waste, they end up missing out on necessary clues for the Endings?

Jiang Shuangmei isnt good at logic and deduction, but she has experience in many Nightmares in the past, and is familiar with how often the Server would trick and trap them.

So she realises that she must find her older sister quickly, to tell Jiang Shuangjie about this.

Sometimes, these straightforward people who dont like to think, can be much more decisive when need be.

The next second after she made her decision, she is on the move, without first pondering whether the door lock opening is a trap, without wondering what other changes the crumbling of the Nightmare may have brought.