Volume 5 - CH 81.2

Casting those thoughts aside, Xü Beijin is focusing back on this Nightmare, particularly on the ‘re-creations’ and ‘déjà vu’s… whatever you want to call it. It is like something that is trying to imply some sort of truth.

Not just the truth in Nightmares, but also a truth relating to the nature of the Tower, beyond the Nightmares.

In fact, this déjà vu has already reared its head the moment the Missiontakers appeared in this Nightmare, even though back then, the Missiontakers were merely idly entertaining the thought of ‘escaping the Tower’ and ‘escaping the building’ being quite similar.

… Actually, going even earlier, when the news of this Nightmare first spread throughout the bottom floor of the Tower, people were already guessing this Nightmare related to the truth of the Tower, right?

Xü Beijin can’t help but feel slightly demotivated and tired. He asked Dai Wu to point out this Nightmare to the Missiontakers, but it seems, this first group of Missiontakers here, are still far away from the truth.

He glances over at the list of locations on the right of the stream, to see some Missiontakers have already arrived on a new floor. He switches the camera over.

It’s Jiang Shuangmei, Fei and Shen Yünjü, finally settling on where the button for one led to.

They have already confirmed this floor, the 18th, did not have additional elevators. In pure numerical terms, this is already the lowest floor they have ever reached via an elevator.

Although they don’t exactly have time to think about it, because they have met someone alive here.

… Well, you might find it difficult to call him a living human, in any case.

He is sitting on a chair. There is what appears to be a corpse on the office desk in front of him, from which he is currently peeling off slices of meat using a cutting knife, before more finely chopping the piece down, and place it into a paint bucket by his side.

There is another bucket beside him, possibly there to catch the blood dripping from the corpse; it is more than halfway through.

The ceiling of this floor already has its majority paved with the thing that was in the paint bucket.

And every so often, giblets fall from the ceiling. The person would stand up again and again to grab a ladder and ‘paint’ them back on again. He doesn’t so much as glance over at the group of people visiting at all, instead, he is merely concentrated on his work.

Fei is remarking blankly, “so, what we saw on the 21st floor before…”

Jiang Shuangmei’s tone is parched as well, “was from this… lunatic’s doing?”

All three Missiontakers are pale as corpses.

They were never expecting to see such a ridiculously fantastical, gory and disquieting. More concerning is the fact that the person doing this doesn’t seem to realise how he is doing anything that seems abnormal.

All three Missiontakers are looking at him with worried or frightened gazes. The man instead merely furrows his brows at the gaze, seemingly finding the three behaving oddly instead of him.

It takes all the courage Jiang Shuangmei can muster to even greet the person, “he-, hello?”

The person puts his cutting knife down with visible impatience before finally turning to face the group. He has a frigid, monotonous voice, “what do you actually want? Stop interfering with my work.”

“Your-, your work…”

The person explains, “yes. The explosion from before destroyed so much of our company’s facilities. I got assigned to redo the paint job, and I’m really pressed for time. I’ve only finished one floor so far. There is too little material to go on, damn it!

So, I would ask you to kindly move out of the way for me, alright?”

After the unfriendly conversation, he picks up his cutting knife again to continue his ‘work.’

The three Missiontakers now turn to each other with frankly horrified faces.

Fei takes a deep breath, but that doesn’t help her tone stop quavering any, “so, he was assigned to redo the paint job…” She almost gagged saying the phrase, before continuing, “so does that imply there are other assignments? Are they all so…”

Repulsive?

Jiang Shuangmei voices her thoughts directly, “I thought that disaster they kept referring to was some kind of natural or physical one, a great explosion of some kind, but…”

She glances over at the person wholly dedicated to this current job with confusion.

Shen Yünjü follows up, “it looks like their mental states are equally concerning.”

Jiang Shuangmei agrees, “something is definitely wrong with their values and ethics. He seemingly treats this ‘job’ as something normal… He must actually be clinically insane, right?”

Fei opens her mouth, but isn’t sure of what to say.

That is because she is suddenly remembering something, the fundamental reason that led her to enter this Nightmare.

In fact, she also thought at first, that the burning city outside of the building was what the ‘apocalypse’ was for this Nightmare, and one that could plausibly be connected to the aftermath she experienced in the Nightmare of the ruins she experienced before.

So it was all in all some kind of natural, or manmade disaster that led to some catastrophic… explosion, or something, that completely undid civilisation, and people had to scramble to survive, to run away, to live in the ruins afterwards… That was what she assumed.

She never considered the possibility that the apocalypse led to any mental health issues.

This may have been a more intangible, but also more terrifying apocalypse because of that.

This Nightmare…

Suddenly, she can’t help but wonder another question.

Why would there be rumours circulating around for this Nightmare in the first place?

She, and Wu Jian, were told of this Nightmare by Mu Jiashi, who must know this Nightmare well.

But if he already knew that much and has already traded this Nightmare with Fei and Wu Jian as part of a deal, it seems unlikely Mu Jiashi himself would try to spread further rumours of this Nightmare.

Fei and Wu Jian, of course, didn’t tell anyone about this Nightmare either.

So why is it, that this Nightmare would suddenly explode in popularity among the people of the bottom floor of the Tower, even attracting so many Missiontakers’ attention?

Fei gives it some thought, before concluding on——Tower residents.

The information first came from a Tower resident. A Missiontaker saw a Tower resident that kept mumbling about the Apocalypse, and came to discover this Nightmare owner.

But, a Tower resident…?

In general, Missiontakers viewed Tower residents as – insane, having all sorts of quirks, disabilities, even mental health issues… They would ascribe them the same essence as this Tower – dirty, depressing, deeply discomforting.

As for this Nightmare they are in right now…

Fei looks profoundly at the person sitting in front of his office desk, diligently completing his ‘work,’ and falls into thought.