Volume 5 - CH 90.1

Did Not See

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

It’s quite obvious that those who died were the three Missiontakers below the 9th floor.

Almost as soon as the Missiontakers opened their eyes, Teen, Fei and Mystic all started breathing heavily, while they recovered themselves from their intense fear.

Especially Teen, who, unfortunately, has already seen his third death in this Nightmare so far. He really isn’t doing too well.

Resurrections do not mean much when the feeling of death is so genuine. Having died three times in rapid succession, the Missiontaker’s face is so pale, he looks like he could faint at any time.

Suits is furrowing his brows looking at the trio, and asks, “what happened to you?” Then, he adds, “did… the three of you all die together? What happened?”

A bit later, Fei has finally reoriented herself enough.

She gradually reveals how they discovered elevator Four under the 9th floor, saying, “we concluded we were trapped, so we were not sure what to do.

That is when, though… one elevator… suddenly, arrived on our floor out of nowhere.”

Suits is shocked, asking, “there’s one more elevator?!”

Fei nods, telling everyone, “there are seven elevators in total in the building.”

“How did we miss the seventh elevator shaft in the first place?” Suits is mystified, continuing, “we’ve thoroughly looked through… wait, was it, like an elevator installed for the 9th floor and below?”

Fei seems to be thinking and then concurs, “I suppose the company there added it themselves for their staff only, the staff being… the madmen on the 9th floor and below for now.”

Fei clearly looks terrified when she mentions those madmen, seemingly having been through much trauma dying in their hands.

Teen takes another deep breath, and having recovered, he follows up with a nervous, impatient tone, seeing Fei stopping, “the elevator is situated a corner away from elevators One, Two, Three and Four.

The floor was basically pitch black, so we didn’t notice there being an additional elevator at all… Regardless, those people just suddenly popped up, and said things like… ‘you’re making it boring just stopping here,’ ‘the game can’t continue like this’…

Then, they killed us.”

The information the three Missiontakers gathered with their lives is certainly significant, significant enough that the rest of the Missiontakers all exclaim, “a game?!”

Suits then says as a flash of brilliance strikes him, “a game, and considering the ‘Rule’ the woman was referring to…” He looks awfully unamused as he concludes, “so it really was a game company below the 9th floor?!”

Fei hurriedly asks, “what do you mean by ‘Rule’?”

Seeing Suits quite absorbed in his thoughts, Jiang Shuangmei takes over to explain what they saw happen in the cargo elevator on the 9th floor, and the rules about ‘pretending,’ and also, her claim of being the little girl’s mother.

Jiang Shuangmei then casually remarks, “so if we want the Nightmare done, we can just take the little girl to…”

“Wait, what?!” Wu Jian cuts her off with a tone of astonishment, “she, she said she’s the little girl’s mother? Then who was the woman dalao Lin Qin and I met on the 16th floor?!”

The other Missiontakers look confused, so he quickly tells them what happened to them on the 16th floor, and also realising something, “a ‘Rule’? Could it be that her Rule is that she cannot go look for her daughter, like the woman in the cargo elevator… Are sane survivors unable to leave the 16th floor maybe?”

Teen is having information overload, and after a bit of reorganisation, he focuses on the big issue, asking, “so why would there be two people claiming to be the little girl’s mother?” Then he murmurs, “no, wait, in the second run of the Nightmare, Mystic already took the little girl to the 9th floor.

If that woman there really was the little girl’s mother, then the Nightmare could have already ended; why did the little girl not recognise her mother? That makes no sense!”

He is thoroughly confused.

For now, the Missiontakers are all baffled by what has happened so far.

While they wanted to look for the little girl’s mother, they failed; when they wanted to see if Mystic can be a substitute for the role, two people jumped out, both claiming to be the little girl’s mother.

Is this Nightmare… for real?

Suits is furrowing his brows, when he suddenly remembers something important, and quickly says, “regardless, we have a problem; we must stop the little girl from wandering around.”

Lin Qin, having no interest in listening to analysis anyway, tells them simply, “I’ll go.”

Then he quickly dashes for the stairs.

Suits glances over at Wu Jian, thinking he might be following after Lin Qin as usual, but for some reason, he seems to be absorbed in some thoughts, not noticing Lin Qin leaving at all.

Suits knits his brows, but, seeing everyone else also absorbed in their thoughts, he decides to let Lin Qin go alone; anyone could fall victim to the insanity in the building, except Lin Qin, with that physical prowess of his.

What has Wu Jian completely stunned, is Fei… Or more precisely, what Fei just concluded.

After Jiang Shuangmei told everyone about the ‘Mushroom,’ Fei was visibly blanking out. When Wu Jian was too overwhelmed and looked towards Fei for help, he noticed Fei murmuring.

“Pretending? Acting?”

Fei’s voice was extremely quiet, her lips barely moving. If Wu Jian wasn’t standing right next to her, he probably couldn’t have discerned what words she was even muttering.

Fei keeps going, “Acting in a Nightmare? In a Nightmare… Dreaming… in a Nightmare?”

Her memories flash right back into her last Nightmare, where she acquired information on this Nightmare from Mu Jiashi; the Nightmare was a ‘dream within a dream,’ a format Fei had never experienced, which piqued her curiosity.

And now, this Nightmare.

Fei’s thoughts detracted momentarily, and Wu Jian remained confused.

Fei continued muttering, “a dream in a dream… a performance in a Nightmare…” slowly, the word are rearranged, “a performance? An act… An act in an act.”

The last phrase her mind landed on has her silently gasp. She turned visibly distressed——What in the? Why is she linking up the two Nightmares like so?

A nightmare in a Nightmare; a scripted plot in a scripted plot.

There are Nightmares in the Tower… but, are there scripts, in the Tower?

Fei’s teeth were chattering. The pain was flashing through her forehead. Her brows were deeply furrowed. She was wide awake.

Her hands were trembling, her fingers a death grip on Wu Jian’s, making him feel the same pain. He looked at her, wondering what was going on.

“An act in an act!” Fei yelled at him in a whisper, “an act in an act! A dream in a dream! Do you get it?! An act in an act! Those Tower residents! In the last Nightmare, that Nightmare owner…

We convinced him of the futility of torturing his nemesis in his own nightmare with barely a few words… Do you not find that suspicious?! The Tower residents… Nobody suspected them!”

Wu Jian, staring right at her, slowly turned pale; he seemed to slowly understand what Fei was implying.

He looked like he had his soul sucked out of him as he muttered, “no, no way… no damned way… how could something like that…”

Fei’s throat was parched, she was breathing even more heavily than before. With trembling lips, darting eyes and a hopeless gaze, she said, “we… us, we… humans… no, impossible… all those years…”

Fei is overwhelmed by disbelief.

When she saw the madness of the people in this building earlier, she already thought that these madmen resembled the Tower residents somewhat. Yet… That sense of déjà vu…

These mad people are merely Acting! It’s all play pretend!

Then, those Tower residents… are they, also, Acting?

Fei murmurs, “it’s fake, all of them, fake… Who, are they?”