Fei finds this equally strange.

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Given the clues presented in the Nightmare, Xie Ji is a central figure to the Nightmare, and even the first person to ever observe the object causing Raining Hellfire. That seems far too significant a role.

It feels like this entire Nightmare has been formed revolving around her.

The problem is, this Nightmare’s owner is a man.

Could it really be what Wu Jian is suggesting? The exceeding trauma of Xie Ji’s death has caused Ke Zhu to dream but wholly from Xie Ji’s perspective? It’s not completely unreasonable.

Fei kept getting a feeling that, for a Nightmare owner, Ke Zhu would be quite out of place, though.

She thinks about it, shaking her head, and finally says, “in any case, let’s hurry to the Museum.”

Wu Jian says, though, “when we’re there, it’ll be barely 10 minutes to the hour I think. It’s almost going to be the Raining Hellfire.”

“If we happen to be on the bus’ scheduled arrival, it’ll save a bit of time riding. Regardless…”

Fei bites her lips. If they don’t make it to the Museum in time when the Raining Hellfire strikes, and they died without shelter, they’d end up like He Shujün.

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But she has chosen to the face the actual truth. And, she trusts Mu Jiashi.

So she says, “let’s go then…”

Wu Jian nods sombrely, not saying another word.

Fei then turns to Mr Suicide and tells him, “we’re going to the Museum, but if we don’t make it… You can get off at the library.”

Mr Suicide looks at her, and says, “I’ll stay with you guys.”

Fei is slightly surprised, but then, thinking about Mr Suicide’s quirky desire for death, he might actually want to die in that Raining Hellfire.

So she leaves it at that, and asks Wu Jian, “you brought your Infocard, right?”

“Just one,” Wu Jian then asks, “who do you want to use it on?”

Fei seems to hesitate, and finally says, “Xie Ji. If she doesn’t end up being the owner, then it must be Ke Zhu.”

Wu Jian nods.

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So they quickly start making their way across the city to the Museum.

The viewers of the stream are watching their actions, and they comment,

“man, who is the owner of this nightmare even?”
“the owner: let’s play hide and seek [doge emoji]”
“but it looks to be KZ”
“eh? but I think xie ji sounds more likely… like, the whole nightmare is about her”
“here we must be wary of the evil scriptwriters intentions! maybe they want you to suspect that XJ is possible”
“Has everyone else noticed the three major conflicting points in this Nightmare so far?”
“three?”
“detective dalao! im sitting comfortably, so please begin your performance!”
“*quietly perks up ears*”

“Conflict #1: The arguing couple. Both options have qualities that do not match.
Though it is likely this is referring to Xie Ji and Ke Zhu.

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Conflict #2: The belief in the Raining Hellfire. Some people buy it completely, some people dismiss it entirely – even in the academic circle. There is no middle ground, either. Both sides are completely rooted in their beliefs.
Even when there are evidence and proofs to the one side, they still prefer to argue verbally; and for that matter, we have never seen any of the proofs directly, like any photograph of that object…
Which certainly makes me wonder what that object might be.
Of course, it’s a foregone conclusion that it exists, and it would cause a massive disaster, but with how vague everyone is referring to it… it’s like this is a topic to be avoided, or possibly, the Nightmare’s owner has zero detailed knowledge on it.
We must keep in mind that Nightmares form based on the Nightmare owner’s memories. What they do not know, they cannot make it up, and the Nightmare cannot feature it.
This is why it is more likely for Ke Zhu to be the Nightmare owner. Which brings me to…
Conflict #3: The clues in the library. If it is more likely that Ke Zhu is the Nightmare owner because of the lack of knowledge or detail on the object, then how are there all these detailed magazines and publications on the third floor in the library?
We’ve seen his attitude so far. He seemed dismissive enough that he would never read such information, especially when he would scoff at his own fiancée’s persuasions.
So the only possible explanation I can think of, is that after Xie Ji’s death, he finally abandoned his stubborn demeanour and, in a suffering of pain, hopelessness and unnatural calmness, studied all of that, everything that had to do with astronomy there.
What he learned has been reflected in his Nightmare as the complete, legible publications.
This is an explanation, but just like the explanation the two Missiontakers there have come up with, this is unsubstantiated. We may have found a way to rationalise everything, but it may have simply been the piece of fabric with the wrong colour that we used to patch up a hole in a piece of clothing.

Going with that piece of fabric analogy, what happened to tear the hole in the clothes itself, is also a matter worth considering.
But first, an offhand mention to Occam’s razor is due. Explanations that hinge on the fewest assumptions are preferable. So here, our piece of fabric is the least amount of things that must have happened, in my opinion, to give rise to this argument for Ke Zhu to be the Nightmare owner. But in fact, there may be other explanations, one that doesn’t even require us to fix an imaginary ‘hole in the clothing,’ that is much simpler, much more elegant, to the question.

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Why I am saying that, is because of the possibility that Xie Ji is the Nightmare’s owner herself. She would fit a lot of the usual characteristics we expect, for example, her link to all but one scene in this Nightmare. It would also be natural to expect her knowledge to be reflected in the magazines and journals in the library.
Besides that, we already know from the discussions of the astronomy enthusiasts that her initial attitude towards the unidentified object is to avoid talking about it. Even if she came out to break the news later, it is only because circumstances, that being that other people are also observing the object, has forced her hand.
This means that it is completely reasonable to expect her to subconsciously refuse to detail the unidentified object, just like how she thinks about it by default, and explains the object’s lack of presence in the whole Nightmare.
Why we are not going with this razor-sharp explanation is only due to one fundamental issue, which I will term Conflict #4: The players are adamant that the Nightmare owner is a man.
Phew…”

The wall of text from the detective dalao has finally made it through the screen. The viewers have all had to manually pause to read it all.

Although in the middle of that, Xü Beijin has switched the camera’s view.

Well, with Fei, Wu Jian and Mr Suicide heading off to the Museum, their perspective is likely going to be uneventful for a while, so it’s understandable… What is strange is where Xü Beijin has changed his view to.

The viewers are watching with great bafflement.

It’s the intersection right outside of the library, where neither Missiontakers nor mad people can be seen.

And yet, just off the side of the road, a box truck is parked there.

Author’s note: The science fiction novel mentioned in part 2 of this chapter, refers to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

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