Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Everyone has gathered up, and moved where Chen Simiao told them.

Mu Jiashi is squinting his eyes and observing closely, but he fails to see the gap at all.

Blinking his dried eyes a few times, he asks, is it the lighting? Or maybe the design

Or, Fei says, drolly, the gap isnt in this game at all.

The Missiontakers go quiet after this.

They dont know why X Beijin is looking for the gap either, but since X Beijin said its what he needs, then the Missiontakers have decided to be hopeful about some secrets being hidden here.

But right now, they cant even see the gap itself.

Feis guess is certainly possible.

Perhaps the gap exists in reality, in that labyrinth on Earth.

But theyre in the game named Escape. Would the game really recreate that detail perfectly?

Besides, what could they do with a gap one millimetre wide?

Slowly, everyones gazes land on X Beijin one by one. Some distance away from them is Chen Simiao, who followed along quietly, but no one is paying attention to him.

X Beijin is himself looking at the place Chen Simiao identified, but his gaze possibly because of the environment, or otherwise because of his emotional state, is rather flicker. He looks hesitant.

He doesnt pay much attention to the Missiontakers gazes himself.

Staring at the area, X Beijin says, everyone, please walk back and forth ten times in front of this section of the wall.

The Missiontakers all look confoundedWhat did X Beijin just ask them to do again?

The straightforward A-One already says, woah there, so were literally tool-persons right now?

Well, he says hes treated like a pawn, but hes the first person to start walking as X Beijin asked him to.

X Beijin points out the path to them some distance towards the entrance, to this gap, and slightly overshooting it; the path itself is about five metres long.

While its not far, but walking back and forth in such an area is quite dizzying to the Missiontakers indeed spinning in circles while sharp colours flashed all around them has made some Missiontakers look rather ill.

Despite the confusion, they all followed X Beijins request to the letter.

X Beijin also pushes Lin Qin a little, saying, you go, too.

While Lin Qin would rather not leave X Beijin leaning on the wall, all he could do is just give X Beijin worried glances before going off, much quicker than the Missiontakers did, completely unfazed even after ten circles.

Lin Qin is the last one to walk back and forth on the section of wall there; Mu Jiashi is closely examining the part of the wall Chen Simiao told them about. And the moment Lin Qin finished walking around, Mu Jiashi can clearly see that, as if part of the electronic display is broken, parts of the wall is erroneously colourless.

Mu Jiashi cant help but rub his eyes.

The others notice his reaction and also checks out the wall.

They can all see that there is a black line, about thirty centimetres long, and about as thick as a strand of hair, suddenly making itself shown on the wall.

Its He Shujn blurts out with widened eyes, whats going on?!

The Missiontakers look at each other in disbelief, before all turning towards X Beijin.

Its a bug, replies X Beijin.

The Missiontakers perk their ears up, not even wasting time to ponder why X Beijin would know all this, but they just want to know what this weird line is.

X Beijin coughs a little, like hes pretending to clear his throat to mask his weakness.

Lin Qin is looking at him quietly but with a rather dour gaze. Its quite rare to see such an expression on his baby face, which makes X Beijin give him a curious look, before extending his hand to hold Lin Qins, successfully calming the little apple down.

Then he organises his thoughts for a while before answering the Missiontakers, telling them, this labyrinth and what happens inside is constructed based on the Nightmare owners memories; thats the basis of all Nightmares, really.

Therefore, this gap, if you ask the original owner of the Nightmare, does not actually exist. Nor would it exist in the Nightmare recreated thuslyAnd just in case, Im using the term Nightmare owner specifically. Im not talking about Tower residents.

The Missiontakers fall into thought, before understanding what X Beijin is getting at.

Tower residents are the ones who Act out the role of the owner of the Nightmare. They learn about the owners identity and memories, but it doesnt change the fact that its simply a plot.

Of course, its different for X Beijin, who is actually Acting as himself here

Not that that is something the Missiontakers need to know. Its too complex to explain for now.

While Lin Qin well, he probably knew all along, thanks to his outrageous instincts.

After mumbling about it in his mind, X Beijin continues his explanation,

But this game does not only reference the Nightmare owners memories when recreating these scenes, because Nightmares frequently feature others experiences or even happen to incorporate the scenes of others Nightmares, so,

When actually constructing the Nightmare, other peoples memories are also used as a referenceBy other people, that usually means people who are part of the Nightmare as well.

Here, X Beijin pauses.

The Missiontakers are already a bit numb. They have no idea why X Beijin would even know how Nightmares are constructed in the first place.

It only adds to the mystique already surrounding his identity, and made them question him being human more than ever.

And also why are humans memories referenced when building scenes in this game?

Perhaps an even more prudent question to ask is, why can they see human memory? This question gets scarier the more one tries to think about it.

Mu Jiashi himself is recalling the game design document Shen Ynj and Ye Lan saw.

Did they design this game based on that plan, or something similar? Then lock humanity inside?

But the Missiontakers would rather stop thinking about such matters. The more they thought, the more they might end up losing all hope and can only despair.

So instead, they decide to focus on what X Beijin just asked them about.