Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

All the Missiontakers are silent.

In the end, Fei wipes her tears and approaches the limbless person, asking with a rather harsh tone, what did they do, after destroying the labyrinth?

Why are the humans in the Tower? Why have they lost all memories of what happened after the Apocalypse began?

Yet the person does not answer.

Mu Jiashi repeats the question.

This time, the person answers slowly, I dont know. I, died here.

He moves his head a little, trying to look at himself, but he cant, and gives up. Then he says, died like this.

Fei only feels a deep emptiness.

Theyre so close to the truth now, but, they still dont have the answer to what has troubled them in the beginning.

The Earth is over. Humanity is over. They know all that now.

But, why the Tower? Why is there this Tower?

Mu Jiashi also knows why Fei asked, and tells her, this question might be something only NE can answer.

And X Beijin, Fei says, he might know.

Mu Jiashi appears hesitant, then he suggests, well try that next run. We should go now, and look for the exit to this labyrinth.

Fei nods

Yet when theyre about the leave, the person lying on the ground says, its a waste of time.

The Missiontakers all pause in place.

Looking up, the person tells them, to trap them, we didnt build an exit to this labyrinth.

Mu Jiashis expression changes wildly.

Then the person adds, of course, there isnt anything dangerous in here.

Humanity only wanted to make them hostages to negotiate with the species behind it. Yet, they couldnt even achieve the first step.

Since the very beginning, this labyrinth was built to be a prison.

Originally, to trap their enemy. Now, it trapped themselves. Fate is fickle, farcical, and rarely fortuitous to people.

Mu Jiashi stands there, with countless thoughts crossing his mind. His face, decorated by the shifting colours cast all around him, is made all the more unreadable.

Silence reigns. It seems to take him a long time to accept this fact, and think about how to deal with this situation.

Finally, he ends, lets go. We need to look for the others and tell them about this. We could also dig up more information using Ding Yis card from the other people that are still alive here.

Without the utility card, I suspect it would be far more difficult and complicated.

And

Wu Jian asks, and?

And, we need to ask X Beijin, Mu Jiashi says, hes the owner. He also said that this scene is the one hes been looking for. So, he should know, what we are supposed to do instead of finding the exit.

Wu Jian nods; he looks to have recovered emotionally, or, possibly not having a comprehensive understanding of all the information he just received.

He merely comments, cant believe this bloody place doesnt even have an entrance.

Mu Jiashi replies nonchalantly, they built it without an exit anyway

He hasnt even finished when Mystic suddenly turns to stare at him, with an expression of clear shock.

Mu Jiashi, confused, but also knowing that Mystics senses would sometimes be right on point and cannot be simply ignored, asks, did you feel something?

Mystic remains frozen like this for a bit before saying, its a strange, inkling. Adj vu.

Dj vu?

Fei and Wu Jian almost immediately find their thoughts occupied with the office building that had deeply troubling elevators.

Fei asks, what kind ofdj vu? Do you see anything specific?

Mystic looks bewildered now, slowly shaking her head and mumbling, I cant remember But its just, familiar to the ears.

Wu Jian scratches her head and tries to take a guess, Mu-ge said this was a place built without an exit, so does it mean this place might have an exit after all? Or not? The Nightmare owner is here, too; he wont just let himself be trapped, would he?

So Mu Jiashi intuitively concludes, this means this place must have an exit.

Then Feis expression changes rather drastically.

Mu Jiashi asks, seeming somewhat anxious, whats wrong? Do you have something?

The Tower Fei appears to doubt herself, but still ends up saying it quietly, the Tower has no exit. But, we can still leave?

He said no exit was built, but X Beijin told us that the Ultimate Nightmare had an exit within

Mu Jiashi abruptly stops speaking.

His face sours once more. Hes just realised something terrible and dark. Demons are screaming right into his ears.

Fei, shivering, says, what if the Tower, really had no exit? What if the exit he told us isnt what we imagined Just like this labyrinth, it was a prison without any exit?

Mu Jiashi does not reply. Instead, he says, never mind all that. Im still willing to believe, that we can leave, he mumbles to himself, yes. I am willing to believe.

Fei opens her mouth multiple times, and finally says, I think so, too.

Wu Jian quickly turns the mood around as they leave this corner to look for their other companions.

He Shujn and the others turned left repeatedly at the second intersection on the path to the right, until they ended up in a small room hidden away from the labyrinth at large.

They thought theyd meet someone there, but it turned out, this someone was more like something akin to a corpse lying on the groundYes. Just something, because you can barely tell it is still a human.

A tattered body. Facial features are unrecognisable. Limbs are curled up on his body. He leans right at the far corner of this hidden room, not reacting at all to the four strangers walking in.

Its difficult to say what he has experienced to end up like this from the appearance.

Maybe hes been through torture, or maybe, his body was drenched in a torrent of water until everything became bloated, from his clothes to his body.

He Shujn and A-One look quite hurried when walking in, while Shen Ynj and Ye Lan merely looked stern and collected, like they usually are.

He Shujn is the first to try and chat with the person.

Yet, unfortunately, none of her questions could elicit a response.

The persons eyes are all unfocused. He doesnt react to anything at all. He Shujn suspects he might not even have heard what she said, since not even his eyes moved or ears twitched at all.

A-One seems confounded by this, standing by He Shujns side, saying, this is weird. When we were here before, he would mumble stuff that are ridiculous. Why isnt he reacting at all now?

Shen Ynj comes along and asks, what did he talk about before?

A-One recalls in his mind and then says, actually, these people would all talk about similar stuff, like being hopeless, thinking it was all useless and whatever, but none of it felt useful at all.

Shen Ynj looks disappointed, then starts speculating, so he talked before, but not now. Would it be because he has undergone changes between this Nightmare and the normal Nightmare in the Tower?

Youre saying, hes succumbed? A-One falls into thought. He still hasnt internalised the fact that the people that appear in these scenes are the succumbed who failed to hold onto their sense of self.

After thinking about it, he says, shrugging, its possible, but how are we even supposed to gather information from him like this? He rubs his chin, then suggests, maybe theres some condition to trigger?

Ye Lan also tries talking to the person, but she is ignored all the same. She shakes her head and says, lets go and check out the other places first.