Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Dai Wus suggestion takes the other Missiontakers a moment to take in. They all turn their gaze to the wheelchair-bound Tower resident.

Next to him, Su Enya well, given the appearance shes chosen,Xie Ji, rebukes him, who knows if the Missiontakers would trust your men?

Dai Wu shrugs, saying, they will. And we can at least try. Us Tower residents have more difficulty traversing floors, but we can relay messages through Nightmares instead. Besides, the higher floors are in complete chaos.

In fact, the bottom floor is far more peaceful right now.

It is the result of the accidental leak and subsequent uncontrolled propagation of the information regarding the Tower residents identities that Fei and Wu Jian tried to send upstairs.

And Tower residents on the higher floors are generally less fearful of NE, too, so theyre happy to oblige when questioned, easily putting on a show of obviously, duh, you only realised that now?

So those Missiontakers higher up have become shellshocked and terrified.

They realise they havent even understood this layer of truth behind the Tower, never mind escaping the Tower.

The truth itself is also rather depressing to boot.

The Tower residents are also humanity. Great. HurrayNow they know whoever is behind this all is even more all-powerful than theyve ever thought, and nothing else.

What, hope?

Who the heck thinks theres even hope in escaping anymore?!

Thats how the higher floors completely went haywire.

Well, news of the Ultimate Nightmare did help sober up the Missiontakers and Tower residents a little, but nothing else.

Ding Yis difficulty with transferring messages up the floors is also largely because of the chaos above.

Before theyve entered X Beijins Nightmare, many of them have already arranged for further information on the Ultimate Nightmare to be sent back upstairs, but its been a few days and no replies have come back down yet. Looks like it may have been caught up in the chaos.

Mu Jiashi bitterly smiles and says, looking rather down, it seems, before we could even start saving them, theyve already given up on being saved

He Shujn disses him immediately, and youre certainly the champion of giving up, right here.

Mu Jiashi

The other Missiontakers all start chuckling in response.

Since theyve come to learn what made Mu Jiashi call himself a loser, theyve started to tease him all the time. Mu Jiashi is vexed, but he also thinks, it might be better this way. Wounds heal better when exposed to air, and he doesnt exactly have time to wallow in defeats of the past either.

Besides, its not even right to call it a defeat, as its more a wake-up call from reality.

Humans often hit moments of self-introspection at arbitrary moments, coming to realise whether they were good or bad, or just or hypocritical.

Mu Jiashi shakes his head at the thought.

He Shujn also quickly gets back to business, saying, honestly, you should really stop picturing things so pessimistically.

She says with a cheery tone, weve been through the worst part already; whats the worst that could happen compared to how it was when we first entered the Tower?

The other Missiontakers also fall into thought at that mention, recalling their own experiences.

The age when they just entered the Tower. It was brutal, barbaric, bloody, and abyssal.

That hopeless age was filled only with murders and betrayals, as everyone fought tooth-and-nail when they didnt understand the mechanics of going up floors very well.

It was chaos itself.

Oftentimes, order belies merely a faade of civility, but it is at leastorder.

The new normal nowadays of not trying to go up the floors in a hurry is largely because the motivation named hope is gone. Perhaps a cruel twist of fate, but losing hope has brought peace and order back to the Tower.

They are no longer hostile to everyone who isnt themselves, or try to drag each other down so much. Carddealers have become rightly condemned.

It wasnt like that in the beginning.

The Missiontakers are quiet, all having been through, and survived that age.

What of those who were murdered, or otherwise didnt survive?

Look out the window, and youll find your answer among the grey fog.

The mood has settled as their earlier excitement and restlessness gives way to silence.

They continue to wait. Everything has been arranged now, and they have to wait for the result of whatever X Beijin ends up talking to NE about.

Here, Fei cant help but recall her earlier guesses.

The relationship between X Beijin and NE

After pondering a little, she bites her lips and looks over at Wu Jian, who looks back at her, confused.

Fei seems to have resolved herself, and tells everyone her concerns, then asks, what do you think is the rason he is looking for NE?

The Ultimate Nightmare, replies Mu Jiashi, he said so himself.

The Ultimate Nightmare, repeats Fei, what could it be, really?

No one could give her an answer.

Wu Jian looks around and, after thinking, asks another question to help lift the mood a little, Im actually curious about why his Nightmare is the grey fog outside the Tower.

The other Missiontakers all look stunned.

Wu Jian rubs his chins. With his unique sharpness andrather unconventional thought process?Hes managed to come up with a question no one noticed before. He continues, I mean, look, all the other Tower residents their Nightmares, arebasedon something, right?

Something like their own experiences in the Apocalypse, even though they are only Acting as the owner, and have a plot, but that is based on reality not just based,re-enacted, even.

Then why would the bookstore owner, have a Nightmare of the Tower itself or more precisely, a part of the Tower? His Nightmare is, like, the Tower itself

Wu Jian doesnt sound too sure of himself by this point.

Mu Jiashi looks like he has an epiphany.

Ye Lan is mumbling quietly to herself, its true his Nightmare, does not fit the norm.

Theyve ignored the problem all this time. Or rather, theyve been too overwhelmed by the information barrage since theyve snapped awake in the grey fog. All the information on the Apocalypse, Nightmares, the Tower and all the underlying truth, but they ended up overlooking the Nightmare itself.

They always knew that X Beijin was quite special in the Tower, but this is a bit much, isnt it?!

The Tower residents also present, Dai Wu and Xie Ji, are also looking odd.

They both have their respective Nightmares, but thinking about it, they also immediately realise how strange X Beijins Nightmare is.

Hes almost completely unlike any other Tower residents, although his countenance all this time also hinted to that effect somewhat.

They start to quietly analyse all possibilities, but in the end, their topic ends up wandering back to the Apocalypse and the Tower itself.