Volume 3 - CH 43.1

While the Missiontaker is using the toilet again, Xü Beijin understandably switched the camera to somewhere else.

The viewers weren’t exactly paying attention anymore, though, instead heatedly discussing the mysterious flush and whether there are ghosts in Nightmares.

Because the detective dalao is absent, so their discussion is rather disorganised, illogical, and headed everywhere. In the end, the four viewers gave up on it rather quickly.

Xü Beijin lets them discuss freely without his input, and instead, he is switching the camera source all over to observe the Missiontakers.

Then, the viewers instruct this newbie host on another way to use the streaming system, telling him, “Bei, you can actually put multiple views on at once.”

Xü Beijin looks rather shocked reading the comment, asking, “wha… where?”

“simulcast, right? it should be that function, and u can show multiple screens at once”

“yeah, try it Beibei!”

Xü Beijin does as they say, and successfully arranges for all six Missiontakers’ views to display together, naturally skipping over the thin man still in the bathroom.

Recalling him, Xü Beijin is feeling a bit sympathetic.

Playing a game but suddenly the stomach is acting up would, of course, give birth to shouts of ‘shit,’ not to mention when it happens somewhere like ‘Escape.’

Still… Xü Beijin is sure this is strange.

In the Tower, the need to eat, drink and defecate are eliminated. You can eat and drink, of course, but pissing and shitting… Nobody misses them, really.

Just like Xü Beijin who has forgone sleep for so long but only suffers a mild mental exhaustion and sleepiness and mild loss of focus, nothing else is particularly troublesome.

That’s how it is in the Tower, and obviously, it should at least remain the same in Nightmares.

Discounting the possibility that the Missiontaker just has a fetish with defecation, Xü Beijin is able to conclude that this may be a special setting in this Nightmare. Or… this fact alone may, in fact, be hinting at something already.

Besides the Missiontaker with the strange symptoms, the other Missiontakers are all staying on high alert, each one locked in a stand-off with the invisible stares in the apartment units.

Being invisible, it can’t be helped the viewers just think they’re fighting against the air instead.

Time passes.

When Lin Qin has had his fill exploring all the things in the apartment unit, Jiang Shuangjie, who has been trying to open the door to the apartment all along, finally reaches a breakthrough.

With a smooth mechanical clink, the door to the room that remained shut up to this point, is suddenly unblocked.

It has been about an hour since the Nightmare began. The clock hanging on the room’s wall is a clear indication of such.

The long, fruitless wait meant that Jiang Shuangjie, after confirming the passage of time, opens the door without a second thought and leaves.

There is a shapeless, cold gaze sweeping over her back over and over. It feels like several such gazes are cast directly on the apartment owners’ backs whenever they leave their homes.

Jiang Shuangjie almost freezes up, but still straightens her form and leave.

The door gradually closes behind her, and another ‘clink’ later, it indicates the door has been locked.

Jiang Shuangjie is hesitant to directly go explore immediately, instead, she turns around to first check the fingerprint sensor on the door. She uses her own finger, and with a beep, it is successful. Jiang Shuangjie sighs in relief.

Yet, when she then reflexively pushes on the door handle to open, she fails. Just like how it locked her up inside, this time, the door has locked her out of the apartment unit.

Jiang Shuangjie furrows her brows and is standing in place, thinking. In the end, she just keeps it in mind before turning around to check out the structure of this apartment building.

The complex is clearly an expensive, high-class one, as evidenced by the marble floor and the crystal chandelier hanging in the elevator lobby. The apartment is a long, rectangular block with three elevators each on both ends of the corridor. There are eleven units each floor.

The room Jiang Shuangjie just left from was Room 807. Room 808 is right next door.

She doesn’t know if anyone is in 808, or if even anyone is inside room 808.

That is when, suddenly, she could feel a light-hearted feeling in her chest. She knits her brows in pain.

She murmurs, “Shuangshuang…”

The pain goes away as mysterious as it came, and soon enough, she is all fine, but her brows are still locked in a worried crease. She is worried about what might be happening to her younger twin sister.

They always seem to share this inexplicable connection with one another. Sometimes, Jiang Shuangjie might even mistake it for her own hallucination; she is sure her heart is fine.

However, in Nightmares in the Tower, the strange phenomenon has saved them many times already. Jiang Shuangjie suspects this may be due to the fact that this is a game, and the game decided to amplify their connection as twins (TL: As for why no one has figured out this property of twins given there should be many of them? It’ll be revealed in, eh, a hundred chapters or so. I know. Hehe).

Jiang Shuangmei herself doesn’t seem to mind it at all; she would mention with a smile when her older sister brings it up, that, “oh, my dear sis, this is a good thing! They call it a ‘golden finger,’ you know!” (TL: Golden fingers is a Chinese term referencing ‘cheat’-like abilities a protagonist may possess in certain genres of novels)

Jiang Shuangjie’s twin younger sister has always been a bit happy-go-lucky like that. Living under the protection of her more capable older sister, she is usually the mindless drone that executes all the instructions while Jiang Shuangjie acts as the brain.

Even earlier, when they were still with Ding Yi, the rather inconspicuous and unnoticeable Ding Yi would be in charge of collection of information, handing them over to Jiang Shuangjie; Jiang Shuangjie analyses and decides; Jiang Shuangmei is in charge of executing those decisions.

Perhaps there really is some connection between brains and brawn, but Jiang Shuangjie’s information panel does reveal a significantly lower strength value compared to her healthy, jumpy younger sister. Though really, if they were fighting one-on-one, then Jiang Shuangmei, who refuses to think, is certainly no match for Jiang Shuangjie.

Jiang Shuangmei is rather easily frightened, too. She’s not really smart, or has strong mental fortitude… But, she’s Jiang Shuangjie’s younger sister. Jiang Shuangjie’s only companion, only family member, in this lonely, creepy Tower.

… She does not know if something might be happening to her younger sister.

On the up side, the Nightmare is still continuing, so at least, no one is dead yet; however, if what Jiang Shuangmei is experiencing is similar to her, with the frigid gazes and the odd furniture in the apartment unit… Then Jiang Shuangjie is even more worried about her younger sister.

She knows Jiang Shuangmei really fears these supernatural things.

And in this Nightmare… At least, at this point, Jiang Shuangjie hasn’t been able to figure out what is going on in this Nightmare at all.

She is regretting again. They acted way too rashly.

Even if it was because of Ding Yi’s… They still shouldn’t have rushed head-first into it. They should at least have chosen a Nightmare they knew better, instead of following behind the two Missiontakers they knew and push open that teleporting door.

Yes, she is certain that those two Missiontakers are capable… Or rather, she still believes in the men under Ding Yi.

But… They should still have been more careful.

Jiang Shuangjie takes a deep breath, leaving all the guesses for this Nightmare and thoughts about the past with Ding Yi behind for now. Instead, she must first find her younger sister.

She walks towards the elevator lobby.

That is when the light on the corridor, as if the electricity was unstable, flickers twice in rapid succession, scaring Jiang Shuangjie. She keeps walking forward, but her steps inevitably slow.

She grips her fists tight, warily keeping an eye on her surroundings.

Everything is quiet. The apartment building looks like it’s sleepy as always in the night. She can only hear the barely audible sound of the machinery of the elevator and the central AC working.

And then…

Some kind of shapeless eyes must have awakened, casting a gaze that almost felt physical onto Jiang Shuangjie’s back all of a sudden.

Behind her…!

She turns around with barely any hesitation, but there is nothing behind her, again. The gaze feels like it has moved along her perfectly, spinning around, still cast fixedly at her back. Wherever she turns to, wherever opposite her the gaze is staring.

Jiang Shuangjie has cold sweat on her forehead. She turns around a few more times before giving up on this futile course of action.

Instead, she hurries her steps, and ends up running in front of the elevator, quickly pushing down the button or ‘Down’ without hesitation. She is still being stared at. Her goosebumps are flaring. She murmurs, “come on… quickly, come on…”

Soon enough, the elevator arrives with a ‘ding,’ and Jiang Shuangjie walks inside, hesitates, before pushing on the number ‘4.’ Then, she crouches down at a corner of the elevator box, shivering.

Right now, her expression is practically the same as that of her younger sister’s.