He Shujün shakes her head in her mind while thinking about what Ning Xi said carefully. Then she asks her two companions, “do you think that was enough information?”

They’ve already figured out that Ning Xi is the one behind everything, and how this tour to hell came to be. If so, should they be looking for the door next?

He Shujün looks over at the door to the mansion. They should be able to leave via the door if they already know everything.

Shen Yünjü voices his concerns, though, hesitantly suggesting, “I feel that it was… far too simple?”

He Shujün thinks about it in detail, and says, “you mean, this Nightmare, didn’t have some clear… influence of the Apocalypse?”

“While you can say that Ning Xi was ‘insane’ for doing this, but it’s not unheard of for someone to do this out of pure malicious paranoia.”

Shen Yünjü explains, “there are sometimes those murder cases in real life that are just plain bizarre. Some people’s minds have nothing but grudges held within.
Purely from the information we’ve acquired, it could even be argued… this place isn’t affected by the madness at all.”

He Shujün nods along, and says, “I see! The atmosphere is certainly too normal.”

But she can’t think of anything that is really out of place. If she had to point something out… she suggests with a doubtful voice, “it seemed suspicious Ning Xi gathered all the people she held a grudge towards without any trouble.”

How did Ning Xi even pull off arranging only her enemies into the tour?

However much she schemes, it’s ultimately up to the tour agency who determines the makeup of people coming along for the tour. Ning Xi herself said she didn’t have a good experience with the tour agency last time, too, and picked it again to take revenge.

And from the description of the people present, there are also people who knew Ning Xi from a long time ago, or plain didn’t know her at all.

Why would they be willing to tag along for the ride?

For example, that high school graduate. Would his parents really have just let him go to this remote and isolated location after his Gaokao for a trip alone without insisting on coming along?

And even more so for that retired elderly teacher. Going on a skiing holiday? Can his body even handle it?

Thinking about it this way, He Shujün realises that there is this deep, unsettling wrongness underlying the whole thing.

This is not a novel, after all, but something that apparently took place in reality.

Another suspicious point is how Ning Xi, this thin and powerless-looking woman, actually managed to kill her boyfriend. Zhang Quanhao is physically imposing, but there wasn’t even the slightest sign of struggle in the room.

Zhang Quanhao gave up on fighting entirely? For love? Even when faced with mortal peril?

It sounds almost delusional.

He Shujün’s questions also allow Shen Yünjü and Ye Lan to come to the same conclusions.

Mystic is staring at Ning Xi in the meantime, and also at the others in the tour group. She mutters, “they are one… they do not resist their fates… They are slaves to their fate, and welcome their deaths…”

Her words both shock and cause an epiphany in the Missiontakers.

Ye Lan immediately focuses on the rest of the people in the tour group, and sees that they are far too calm considering they just heard Ning Xi’s confession.

Impossible! They definitely heard her, and even if they know Ning Xi wanted them dead, their reaction is far too mundane! This makes no sense.

They were all going pale and panicking when the Missiontakers mentioned more deaths taking place in the future. Why do they look so unaffected right now?

Missiontakers ignore Tower residents when they do their analysis. This is what they do in this and other Nightmares.

Having treated Tower residents as NPCs for so long, it’s almost by habit that they fell to the trope of thinking the NPCs wouldn’t pay attention to their words.

But in fact, Tower residents, of course, have their own opinions and perspectives as assigned by their scripts. It is just that they mostly only listen quietly.

Here, though, the clear conflict is that, hearing the Missiontakers tell them they will die, made them panic, but the imminent death threat from Ning Xi elicited no reaction.

Here, upon seeing the confusion of these unexpected visitors, Ning Xi starts giggling.

She asks, “now, are you more interested in hearing how Zhang Quanhao died?”

He Shujün decides to play along, asking, “how? What did you do to be able to kill him?”

“It’s because, a-Hao simply committed suicide!” Ning Xi starts cackling manically, adding, “he agreed, he will sacrifice his life for our grand performance!”

The others start nodding along, and says, “yeah… we all, all of us, agreed.”