Volume 4 - CH 67.1

The End Times

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

The Missiontakers are now on the south side of the ruins.

The last run, Fei and Wu Jian met the man who walked into the fog here. Now, after waiting a short while, they see the man once again.

Through the stream, Xü Beijin can also see the unsteady, emaciated man in tattered clothes, and is surprised.

He realises that this is the survivor he saw outside of the building in the first run. The ghastly man left quite the impression on both him and the viewers of the stream.

Xü Beijin is able to draw a path of his action patterns in his mind.

The man arrives at the ruins near the building, finding an obscure marketplace in some hidden corner, and exchanges for bread with the porcelain bowl in his hand. He then turns southwest until he arrives at the southwest corner of the ruins, and walk into the fog.

… The bread remains in his hand the entire time.

Xü Beijin rubs his chin, thinking if this might be a key person in this Nightmare. Could he even be the owner of the Nightmare, perhaps?

Meanwhile, Mu Jiashi and Fei have accosted the survivor already.

The man really looks like he’s on the verge of collapsing of hunger. His attention is all over the place, and his consciousness appears to be drifting away, until the moment Mu Jiashi tentatively points to the bread in his hand, when he suddenly snaps back to reality, taking a wary step back, and squeezing the bread harder into his hold.

He looks a bit more lucid, but Fei can still hear the rumbling of his stomach from way over.

She can’t help but ask, “if you’re so hungry, why don’t you eat the bread?”

“No,” the man replies with a horribly parched voice that suggests days of dehydration, “I must only eat at home.”

“Why?”

“Home… is safe,” the man repeats these words again, “home is safe… Outside home, unsafe.”

Fei and Mu Jiashi share a glance.

Then, Mu Jiashi asks, “where is your home?”

The man lifts his hand, pointing to the end of the road, “further… ahead.”

“Outside the fog?”

“Fog?” The man’s eyes widen slightly in surprise, “no. No fog.”

Mu Jiashi furrows his brows.

No fog?

Baldie told them before that Missiontakers cannot enter the fog, and Mu Jiashi is leaning towards him not having lied about it – There is no benefit to Baldie misleading them whether the world outside the fog really is related to the Nightmare itself or not.

Only truly malicious Missiontakers will give false information to mislead others.

Especially on the bottom floor of the Tower, where Missiontakers are on the exact same side, sharing in success, and in failure. There is no incentive for ruining their progress. At best, they might hide information or commit other shenanigans, but they would not outright lie and mislead.

Assuming Baldie told the truth, then that means this fog, is in fact a limitation placed on them by the Server──At least, that’s what Mu Jiashi thought the entire time.

So, a question. If this fog really delineates where they can make a move in this Nightmare, then why can Tower residents enter it? If NPCs can go outside the fog, does that not indicate that there are clues outside in the fog as well?

Mu Jiashi is genuinely feeling puzzled.

Fei is also baffled that the reply of ‘no fog’ came, but other than that, she is also feeling deeply worried inside – which is related to the reason she and Wu Jian came here in the first place.

Her expression almost immediately took a turn for the worse due to the worry.

No other Missiontaker noticed, save for Collector, who still seems giddy despite being told he has lost his memories, and is looking all around curiously.

He narrows his eyes as his smile deepens. Oh, my, it seems a lot of people are keeping little secrets in this Nightmare.

He exhales, happily.

He’s holding back from asking because they are asking for information on this Nightmare. He is not a bad guy, so he will put them on the spot later.

He’s definitely curious what secrets they are all holding.

After losing his memories of the first run, it seems fair to say Collector’s modus operandi has turned even stranger.

Many Missiontakers have the question of what exactly do the Collectors of Used Cards see themselves collecting? Why would they want cards that have no Uses left?

Well, yes, as mentioned before, some Missiontakers really do have an interest in collecting them, like stamps, for various reasons.

Collector here, in this Nightmare, though, is different. Different because, he actually has no interest in the cards themselves, but interested instead, in the Missiontakers who use them, or rather, in the reasoning behind the Missiontakers who use them──He, is interested in the story behind the utility card.

He is someone who is interested in learning about the secrets hidden in the deepest parts of people’s minds. Why do they choose to use this utility card? Why this one? Why that time?… He is curious about these things.

He is curious, about humans.

Since a long time ago, this Collector has been quietly observing, and collecting the stories of the Missiontakers he met. Each used card he has, represents a story he has collected, or, perhaps… represents a Missiontaker?

Suffice it to say, he has a natural, unique curiosity, and is always able to observe interesting things.

Like right now.

See, he has found out that the woman is hiding some sort of secret, hasn’t he?

Collector is smiling really happily──Do you see why he is never angry at the unwarranted animosity directed at him from Baldie? Do you see why, he can still smile, even while walking the ruins of a great civilisation?

Because he really is, genuinely, happy.

What the Missiontakers have been doing──Performing──satisfactorily pleases him.

How truly marvellous it was he decided to return to the bottom floor to collect more used cards. He knew it. He knew it would be the most lively, the most exciting during this period here.

The higher floors──Are filled with paranoid people. Paranoid workaholics with no meaning, no purpose, nothing but a drive to enter Nightmares and scout the Tower.

Even when this place is so interesting, with so many Nightmares, so many utility cards, and so many people here. He cannot fathom how someone could feel the Tower is depressed and burnt out and even hopeless, because all he can see, are interesting things.

This unique environment, he thinks, has nurtured unique beings; unique beings, stemming from humans.

That is why this is so interesting.

People like him must be rare in the Tower, he thinks, but, look at all the people partying without end every day, every night, all the time. Why could there not be someone that would be interested in people-watching every day, every night, all the time, in Nightmares?

At least, Collector is happy with this lifestyle.

His gaze settles down on Fei for a second, pondering how he could best fish out the secrets the woman is hiding.

What was that word that agitated her, again?

… The, fog?

Collector narrows his eyes, falling into thought.