Volume 6 - CH 94.3

While some find the kerfuffle to be nothing but hot air, some have become diehard converts of the theory, going on lengths together with other Missiontakers who believe in this newfound revelation of the Actors simply Acting.

They do not dare doing it in the open for fear of NE and the possible surveillance of whoever was behind all this, but they would exchange information in cryptic messages, to discuss their guesses.

Though it didn’t take too long for all the eddy currents beneath the surface to settle back down.

Since… You know, what use is there?

Even if they realise that the Tower residents are players trapped in this Tower, just as they are, or are even their own fellow humans, what they would feel finding out would not be joy, but a momentary shock followed by… a deeper depression.

Yes. New victims have emerged.

But so what? Even if the Tower residents themselves are working with them, they still cannot leave the Tower.

Besides, after their short interaction these few days, they’ve already realised from the indirect words of the Tower residents, that they are under even more stringent limitations and shackles from NE. They are barely able to act out of character at all, and have even stricter class divide within them.

For example, an extra-level character, who basically knows no clues regarding the Nightmare itself.

And even if they did know things and want to relay the information to them, what they say must still pass NE’s own scrutiny. They cannot just tell them everything.

After coming to life briefly, the Missiontakers of the higher floors have, therefore, returned to a state even less energetic than before.

While the news itself has yet to spread downwards to Missiontakers on the bottom floor of the Tower, the more information-savvy of them are already aware of the rather inexplicably bleak atmosphere surrounding the upper floors right now.

But they’re currently too preoccupied to investigate with how much has been going on here.

Right now, the Missiontakers of the bottom floor are still pouring into the Nightmare featuring the post-apocalyptic ruins, many are now ready to storm through the Nightmare with the malfunctioning elevators, and now, this mysterious Nightmare that was supposedly from the higher floors.

They’re too busy.

Many of the Missiontakers still haven’t even thoroughly gone through the two Nightmares yet when this new possible candidate for the ‘Ultimate Nightmare’ has emerged. They find themselves torn between which Nightmare to go through first.

Of course, some of the Missiontakers did choose to go through this third Nightmare first.

Why?

Because some people have realised something.

They came down to the bottom floor having heard the ‘Ultimate Nightmare’ is on this floor; when they did come, they realised the Nightmare in question wasn’t the ‘Ultimate Nightmare.’

But then, ‘the exit to a building should be on the bottom floor and not the top floor’ has convinced them to stay.

So where does that leave the ‘Ultimate Nightmare’?

Nobody knows.

Now suddenly, this Nightmare owner claiming their own Nightmare comes from a higher floor sounds almost like a hybrid that might just be it.

If it were some kind of Nightmare that randomly, unpredictable appears on some floor of the Tower…

Imaginations have gone wild.

They’d wondered how nobody turned up to verify or disprove the rumour that ‘someone has left the Tower successfully’ from any floor. What if, it was because, nobody was sure which floor it even came from?

… What if, the ‘Ultimate Nightmare,’ is one that precisely resides on no particular floor?

Once, Missiontakers all convinced themselves the ‘exit,’ the ‘Ultimate Nightmare,’ must be on top, but nobody from the forefront of exploration has found out where that is.

That is why they are now looking back down in retrospect.

While it was fruitless at first, but hearing about this Nightmare which supposedly should have been on the higher floor, suddenly emerging on the bottom floor…

So they’re wondering, could this be it? No doubt nobody figured its precise location out if it changed every now and then, right?

For all these reasons and possibly some more, some of the Missiontakers are prioritising this Nightmare.

The others with less information at hand or are simply too late to the party, are as established, still meticulously working through the Nightmare with the ruins.

Mu Jiashi looks the four unknown Missiontakers over. People who have hurried to this Nightmare already at this point in time, would be more capable than not, with sharp vision for current affairs, perhaps.

So this Nightmare… time to laze about, then?

He thinks, almost as a joke.

He’s been to this Nightmare, and knows what its True End is about, but this time, he’s here for a different purpose; besides, Bad Ends on the bottom floor aren’t exactly that threatening.

Especially when Lin Qin is around.

The serendipitous circumstances mean he can search for the information he is after without reservations for what the other Missiontakers might be facing.

Simply brilliant.

While thinking so, he suddenly hears someone making a deep breath.

Looking over, he can see a male Missiontaker who has very long hair.

He looks like he is enjoying himself very much, his face almost a drunken shade of red, and he says, “I can smell it; it is the fragrance of my beloved death.”

Mu Jiashi “…”

Oh bollocks. Some kind of deviant is in this Nightmare, it would seem.