Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Fei, Wu Jian

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

The moment that man asked about if this was the correct Nightmare, the womans expression turns gloom immediately as she blurts out with a lower tone, I said, dont mention it! Act like were just here to solve this Nightmare!

The man quickly nods and apologises.

The woman bites her lips again as she sternly says, listen, never, never ever let anyone else know, otherwise she looks around nervously, finally adding, you know.

The man looks even more fearful as he murmurs, shit, it couldnt, could it; just one single sentence Then, he hurriedly says, I got it, Fei.

The woman who he called Fei sighs in relief. She nods, then says, well keep going, Wu Jian.

Wu Jian(TL: ), forming the two radicals of the xi(TL: )character, means a male shaman. That is the codename of this man. The womans codename is Fei.

They have both practically forgotten their old name now, only referring to each other by codename. In their small, secretive organisation, they only refer to each other by codename.

These organisations can always serve to link its members together more intimately and closely than usual. They take pride in their organisation, in the fact that they have become a member of their organisation.

Among the members of this one, is Fei and Wu Jian.

Being secretive, other Missiontakers are unaware of their existence, even if they are aware, of the countless unverified rumours, most of which are conspiracies, floating through the Tower. All the rumours which, unbeknownst to them, originate from the organisation to which Fei and Wu Jian belong.

That said, Fei and Wu Jian do not think those are mere conspiracies. They believe they are justified, and are therefore always searching for definitive clues that can prove them right.

This is the ultimate goal for which they have entered this Nightmare today.

In fact, some of the members would be angry that their theories are treated as conspiracies.

You cannot call them conspiracies.

Those are deductions. Deductions of the truth behind the Tower, the Nightmares, the Missiontakers, and everything else, based on all the things that Missiontakers have experienced and their own imagination.

Fine. They will admit they know that many of their deductions are baseless. That is why they are searching for evidence so diligently.

For years, they have not achieved much, but recently, some changes have occurred in the Tower, causing the deafening silence to give way to rekindled passion and liveliness.

Fei and Wu Jian, in fact, had access to even deeper, well-hidden information. They verified the information in their small organisation, and finally, they descended the Tower as soon as they can, reaching the bottom floor of the Tower, and entered this Nightmare.

Everyone else is heading up when they are desperately going down, which would explain why many Missiontakers think these conspiracists as insane.

Even if quite a lot of them do believe in the conspiracies themselves.

If nothing else, theyre possible explanations, no?

In the Nightmare, Fei and Wu Jian are assigned the path down south, turning east at the end, and finally heading north to reach the building they agreed to meet up at. In terms of distance, they are the farthest, but the road is not as difficult to traverse.

Along the way are all desolate, abandoned scenes. They cannot see a single speck of greenery. There are only the remains of what follows after a city of concrete and steel collapses.

Perhaps years past, flora and then fauna will resettle these ruins. Vines will climb onto the walls. Animals give chase to each other. Whether humans would still be around to see it all, though, would be an entirely separate question.

Wu Jian, watching these scenes, only looks more and more downcast, and his steps closer and closer.

Finally, he stops entirely, unable to take another step.

He just shakily asks, the apocalypse is it?

Fei answers coldly, but even her fingernails have already dug right into her palms, there is no proof, that it is real.

Nor proof, that it is not what happened.

Fei bites her lips again to calm herself down with pain. Taking a deep breath, she then changes the topic, we havent met a single person yet on this road. I doubt we will be able to make a discovery

Suddenly, she stops.

Wu Jian tries to bury his emotions and look forward at the man that causes Fei to fall silent.

The man is walking, or rather, trudging along so slowly. There is a piece of bread in his hand, and he does not react at all even seeing Fei and Wu Jian. He is just quietly taking his steps forward, like some kind of numbed down zombie.

That emaciated face, pale cheeks and parched lips do not help his image any.

A short while later, he has quietly gone past the duo without making a single noise. It calls into question whether he actually saw the two of them or not.

Wu Jian does not understand why Fei stopped and has now even turned around to stare at the mans silhouette.

They are currently along the way east from the southwest corner of the ruins. There is ableak wind scattering the dust on the ground. They continue to stare at the man, watching his silhouette retreat further and further

Until he is swallowed right into the dense fog surrounding the land. He has disappeared.

Wu Jian, astonished, says, impossible! That bald guy said the fog cannot be entered, didnt he?!

For Missiontakers, Fei is thinking and adding, but not for NPCs necessarily.

Wu Jian is knitting his brows, saying, is it something unique to this one Tower resident? But then, wouldnt this imply that there is a meaning to this fog existing other than delimiting the extent of this games scene? A fog His expression suddenly changes as he goes, could it be?

Dont overthink it! Fei chastises him, saying, everyone might take our deductions as conspiracies, but you cant just go and link every single thing that you see because of that! Or it will really just be scaremongering conspiracies.

Wu Jian looks apologetic.

He actually wants to say, though, his companions complete disregard for any potential thing, dismissing them entirely as conspiracy, is itself a bit overreactive.

After so many years, finally having a clue that might actually turn out to prove their judgment, how are they not supposed to feel excited, nervous, vindicated?

The apocalypse

Wu Jian mutters this word in his mind.

They continue walking forward.

Compared to Fei and Wu Jian, Mu Jiashi and Collector were much closer to the amusement park. So they have been bombarded nonstop by the word impurities for a while now.

Collector is asking, seemingly bemused, what are they really talking about What impurities?

Mu Jiashi shakes his head. Instead, his mind is more preoccupied by something else, asking Collector, do you feel hungry?

Collector seems surprised. He rubs his stomach and says curiously, I really do feel like my stomach is empty.

They have never ever once felt that in the Tower.

Whether it was hunger or even fullness. None of that. They can, of course, eat and drink in the Tower, but, other than psychologically satisfying themselves, it would not cause any distress to their digestive system.

But now, in this Nightmare, for once, they are re-experiencing the feeling of hunger.

Mu Jiashi furrows his brows, saying, this is not good. It has just been a dozen minutes at most. If were already feeling like eating right now, then in an hour at most, we will have to find something to eat already.

Collector is still holding that upbeat smile as he asks, so what?

This can only mean that, in this Nightmare, Mu Jiashi says, facing the young man, fighting over food becomes inevitable.

Collector rubs his chin and goes mm, before putting on a brighter smile to say, I see, we will have to rob the food from the Tower residents, is it? He is even chuckling, so interesting it is like this is really some kind of genuine apocalypse game.