Volume 5 - CH 89.5

Seeing the three Missiontakers remain quiet to her inquiries, the female Mushroom gets more anxious, biting her finger, pleading, “did something happen to my daughter? Please tell me. I need to know, please.”

Suits is unconvinced, telling her, “if you’re really worried for your daughter,” he says, sharply, “then right now, you should be going to the 31st floor yourself.

I understand not taking the elevators, but you can still take the stairs, can’t you? Still, you remain in this cargo elevator, even trusting us strangers on whatever we tell you… Why?”

The woman explains, “I cannot…” Her words turn increasingly vague, “I don’t dare. I must not leave this place. It is… the rule.”

The three Missiontakers are surprised.

Jiang Shuangmei asks, bewildered, “rule?”

Suits examines her expression closely and says, “if you really want to know what happened to your daughter, then tell us… what rule?”

The woman looks like she is mentally struggling.

The Missiontakers are convinced this must be a piece of key information. If her daughter really is as important as she claims she is, then she should have told them immediately.

But her hesitation and doubts, is telling the Missiontakers, that whatever she knew, it was possibly even more important than what a daughter could mean to a mother.

That, or…

Suits has an idea.

Perhaps the woman really isn’t the little girl’s mother, after all.

In any case… What might that rule be?

Finally, being stared down by the three Missiontakers, the woman slowly explains, “I must stay here. It’s… the rule, for a ‘Mushroom.’ That is why… I must stay.”

The Missiontakers gawk at her in astonishment.

She knows she is a ‘Mushroom’? Is she even really insane? Would any insane person have been able to diagnose their own insanity? A self-conscious madness?

Yet the way she said it, there was no insanity, no cowardice, and no fear. She was like anyone who was sharing a little secret, quietly, but firmly, telling them what she knew.

And… She knows she’s a ‘Mushroom,’ who has to abide by ‘Mushroom’s rules… Is she merely putting on an act? What kind of strange setting does this Nightmare have?

The three Missiontakers look at each other nonplussed, simultaneously baffled.

The moment the woman spoke of the ‘rule,’ Xü Beijin, sitting on the 16th floor, almost immediately sits upright.

In a sense, of all the Nightmares in the Tower, this one, at least on the bottom floor of the Tower, is the only one he knows of that allows Actors to imply a sense of ‘Acting’ within.

This means that, in this Nightmare, Actors are actually able to double-imply on their own assigned Acting roles, and it only comes down to whether the Missiontakers are able to pick up on that.

That is because, in this Nightmare, the Actors, are Acting as the characters that are pretending to act like survivors. Put simply, it’s Acting within an acting performance.

Because of this set up with survivors acting themselves in this Nightmare, so in order to facilitate Missiontakers’ progress through this Nightmare, the Actors can imply the ‘rule’ for this Nightmare in a certain sense. That is, the fact that they are acting as their respective assigned roles in this building.

The Mushroom Actors Act as ‘Mushrooms;’ the Janitor Actors Act as ‘Janitors;’ the Cannibal Actors Act as ‘Cannibals;’ the sane survivors Actors on the 16th floor, Act as the ‘Sane’ in this building.

In fact, before this, there were also parts of this Nightmare that shared qualities with the Tower itself. The frequent ‘déjà vu’s were not only limited to scenes in the Nightmare, but also outside, featuring the Tower.

So, Xü Beijin is sure that, if they are sharp enough, then perhaps they would be able to draw a connection between the similarities of the survivors of this apocalypse-ruined building, and Tower residents.

Unfortunately, after the ‘Mushroom’ has said the ‘rule’ for this Nightmare out loud, the three Missiontakers do not look disproportionately surprised; then they sink straight into thoughts regarding this Nightmare.

…Xü Beijin can’t help but lament the misfortune; if only it were Fei and Wu Jian here.

The two conspiracist-Missiontakers, could certainly have gleaned much more information.

Unfortunately, those present here are Suits, Jiang Shuangmei, and Shen Yünjü.

All three, who have never had a reason to suspect the Tower residents.

Xü Beijin sighs and buries his emotional stirrings away to calm back down.

Before him, Lin Qin and Wu Jian are discussing what to do next.

More accurately, Wu Jian is explaining his plan, while Lin Qin is asking Xü Beijin, whether that plan is feasible.

Xü Beijin “…”

Wowzers. This actually is his first time ever seeing someone treat the Tower residents as Missiontakers.

He can’t help but recall how, what the Missiontaker who crossed him way back in the past said, was actually right all along. He really is like some outsider that is pretending to be a Tower resident… At least, in Lin Qin’s eyes.

Speaking of, there are probably also only two groups of people in this world in Lin Qin’s eyes.

One group, consisting of himself and Xü Beijin; the other, consisting of every other moving object.

Xü Beijin is having a devil of a time concentrating to be honest, so he merely replies, “I feel like his plan is pretty good.”

Wu Jian suggested that searching for the little girl can definitely take place alongside exploring the building.

The last run, Lin Qin and Fei didn’t have time to go through all the floors between the 16th and 9th thoroughly, so this time, instead of blindly searching for the little girl, they could get something important done as well.

With Xü Beijin’s seal of approval, Wu Jian quickly nods to reaffirm his position, “yeah, we don’t even know where the little girl could be even if we want to search.”

Lin Qin also nods.

That, though, is when the ‘mother’ of the little girl, standing beside them, yells out, “wait! No! Search for my daughter first! Please go look for her first!”

Wu Jian is surprised, and merely remarks, “then why don’t you go look for her yourself?”

The woman falls silent.

Xü Beijin also watches in silence, feeling like the woman is building a lead-up into the matter of ‘Acting’ any time soon. She is an Actor Acting as a character who is trying to pretend to be a sane survivor, so by that ‘rule,’ she cannot leave the 16th floor.

Just as ‘Mushrooms’ cannot leave where they are hiding, unless they are forcibly, threateningly, removed from where they were, like a certain other Mushroom Lin Qin handled before.

Unfortunately, and to Xü Beijin’s great disappointment, the woman did not mention the ‘rule,’ and instead, merely walks quietly back to the side, standing there in silence, even reverting to how she looked merely mildly concerned previously.

Wu Jian is still staring at her, confused.

That is when he realises that something must be terribly wrong here. The woman definitely didn’t look like she didn’t love her daughter, then why, would she not search for her at all, even when it is clear she may be in great danger?

Then, inevitably, he wonders, is this woman really the little girl’s mother? What kind of mother is she even being, here?

Unlike the woman on the cargo elevator, though, she didn’t mention the ‘rule,’ and so, all Wu Jian can do is merely stay confused at her, until finally, he shakes his head and turns his attention elsewhere.

Lin Qin has already said his goodbyes to Xü Beijin, and is walking towards the emergency stairwell. Wu Jian hurriedly follows.

Yet, the moment Lin Qin’s hand grabs onto the door handle of the 16th floor, their visions go out.

The Nightmare has restarted.

Wu Jian opens his eyes, even more baffled than he was.

So, this time, who died?