A few minutes later, Dai Wu is outside of Xü Beijin’s bookstore, standing there as per the Nightmare’s development, waiting for the executed survivor to fall.

Though his mind is still distracted with what Xü Beijin told him earlier.

Dai Wu feels like he can still hear his words echoing in his mind.

He can hear the bookstore owner calmly, orderly speaking. It reminds him of the ocean, deep, but also impenetrable beneath the surface, dizzying him.

“How many Nightmares regarding the Apocalypse have you gathered up so far? I doubt it’s a lot, otherwise, you would have stopped pursuing the truth altogether, and merely dedicate yourself fully to your Second Life.
… I might be simply pushing what I would do onto you. It is understandable, I think, that a lot of people sincerely seek the truth.
… Anyway, there is one Nightmare that I know of, and I plan to send Missiontakers wishing to know the truth that way. I believe you have means to ‘coincidentally’ reveal the Nightmare’s information to the Missiontakers without arousing suspicion, no?
At least, as a side character level extra, you should be quite familiar with these means of giving Nightmares a push from behind.
… I’m sure a lot of people want to know how much I know, but… there is no benefit to knowing.”

Dai Wu heard the young man speaking with an expression so rich in emotions it is impossible to put into words, as he solemnly, or perhaps, soullessly, say, “sometimes, memories are a curse.”

Dai Wu can’t help but wonder, what memories? What does he know about?”

Could it be, memories of how they ended up in the Tower?

Dai Wu only has that one guess, because if you mention memories and loss of memories, that is all that anyone would know. Neither Missiontakers nor Actors know, or remember, or were forced to forget, about that period. About how, they ended up in the Tower.

But, does Xü Beijin remember?

Dai Wu does not know if his guess is correct, but he is feeling deeply unsettled inside. Imagine, if no one else remembers, except for Xü Beijin, and he has kept the secret to himself all these years…

Then he really could understand the existence of the dreadful, dark aura that he exudes sometimes.

It is a pain wrought upon by the ceaseless march of time.

Soon, Dai Wu takes a deep breath and stops imagining the dark ages Xü Beijin must have experienced all this time. It really is too tragic a tale.

Forcing him to divulge the secret itself is cruel enough now that he has come to appreciate the circumstances.

… Although it is for the greater freedom of the other Missiontakers and Actors.

A difficult decision that has Dai Wu shuffling his steps. He thinks he may have been too hasty to put everything out in the open with Xü Beijin.

However, the restless mood in the Tower is also urging him that the time is right. He wishes to take advantage of the flow and reach the truth. Then, to escape the Tower.

So he merely sighs while focusing on what Xü Beijin asked of him instead.

To know the truth, then Missiontakers must be arranged into the Nightmare Xü Beijin told him.

What Nightmare could that be?

Dai Wu is definitely curious, but Xü Beijin didn’t detail it any, merely telling him to head to his bookstore for a more thorough discussion after this Nightmare is over.

So Dai Wu can only keep his curiosity down.

Although that Nightmare aside, the motivation behind Xü Beijin is also bugging him. He can see how much of a burden this is all putting on Xü Beijin, but he does not understand why that is.

If Xü Beijin really has been guarding the truth in solitude all this time, then Dai Wu can sympathise with his mental state. This does not explain what he is doing, though.

Why was Xü Beijin so adamant in keeping this secret to himself and himself only, anyway?

He doesn’t look at all like he doesn’t want out of the Tower either, nor does he think that no one else but him should know the truth. It feels more like, he is fearful of something, and exhausted.

Which ultimately leads to the question of… What could Xü Beijin’s Nightmare be?

He said his Nightmare isn’t the Ultimate Nightmare; is he implying, that there is an Ultimate Nightmare somewhere else? Or merely, that such a thing does not exist?

Dai Wu’s expression is growing bitterer by the second. He rubs his hair while thinking, if only he really was what he told Xü Beijin he was, that he was a guy merely wishing to enjoy a Second Life with the interim goal of ‘Defeat NE.’

That was actually all that he was doing in the beginning, until the situation gradually changed.

Really, would anyone really willingly indulge in an artificial reality, forever?

They are the prisoners, trapped within this giant gaol. They do not even know, however, for what crime they are being subjected to this incarceration.

Could they have been innocent? What if they aren’t supposed to be locked up here?

Why can’t they know the truth behind everything? Why shouldn’t they seek freedom beyond this damned cage?

As far as Dai Wu can see, Xü Beijin is concealing and keeping information to himself, in what might be a self-indulgent fantasy of ‘pity’ and ‘mercy,’ that has him shouldering the secrets alone. He can only wonder if there even is meaning in that; is that not simply torturing both Xü Beijin himself and all the others?

That said… He might really be unable to convey the information to anyone else.

In the conspiracies, NE has always been the overseer of things from the topmost level. And Xü Beijin, might be its most important target of supervision of all the people here.

Dai Wu sighs, and then raises his head just in time to see the silhouette falling out of the sky. Against the backdrop of light, he narrows his eyes.

He’ll be picking up the corpse afterwards.

That is what Dai Wu’s role is in this Nightmare. The owner of the Nightmare, or more accurately, the body of his self in his happy dream within a Nightmare, has to be dealt with.

After that, the owner of the Nightmare will use the body again, or use some other body that has already died before, to relive his dream within a dream once more.

He might become awake briefly because of the suffocation the chest feels upon falling, but soon enough, he will decide to indulge in his happier dream once again. And Dai Wu, is the one who keeps and maintains his body in his dream.

In fact, if the Missiontakers were more patient and observant when they were exploring the different scenes, like the amusement park and other places in the ruins, they’ll have realised, that among those survivors, some would share the exact same features and appearance with the body lying here on the ground.

However, other than the man specifically heading into the fog, the Missiontakers have paid no attention to the other mundane survivors.

Dai Wu can only sigh for how inattentive and dense the Missiontakers have been.

Wasn’t looking for the true identity of the man fallen from the rooftop one of their objectives from earlier?

He is still positively hoping for the Missiontakers to be more capable, of course, in order to end the Nightmare sooner.

Dai Wu is dying to know the truth from Xü Beijin’s mouth.

After all these years, after all the years these humans here have already spent in this Tower, some of them have even become used to the boring, monotonous life already.

Even so… perhaps, thanks in no small part to the liveliness that has engulfed the Tower recently, Dai Wu can’t help but be hopeful as well.

What if, this is the chance, for them to take back the ‘First Life’ that was robbed from them?