Knowing that this Ultimate Nightmare belongs to all of humanity, and now knowing that the Nightmare starts at this moment, He Shujün realises fully, that this Nightmare is about──The Apocalypse, that they’ve all experienced.

However, judging from reality, the Apocalypse on Earth lasted for over a year, and that’s without including when the Tower and stuff popped into place.

They can’t possibly spend that much time in a Nightmare run. There must be something else to it.

Or possibly, time would be jumping forward in this Nightmare, with only important turning points recreated.

But then, what are their identities in this Nightmare? Are they really simply who they were back on Earth?

Here, He Shujün can’t help but feel it would have been better if she and her companions had shared more information about their time on Earth back in the Tower.

No one knew the Ultimate Nightmare would turn out like this.

If they did, they might even have possibly been able to coordinate a quick reunion with each other to exchange information.

But…

He Shujün also realises now, that they wouldn’t have the faintest idea what the ending for this Nightmare would be like.

If it’s a recreation of the Apocalypse of humanity, then are they supposed to enter the Tower?

What are they supposed to do to resolve this Nightmare’s progress and ending then?

He Shujün thinks for a while, then tightens her fists and reins her thoughts back in. It’s not time to think about this yet.

There are two options for what she can do right now.

First, return to the classroom and pretend to be normal, and see what the Nightmare is going to show.

Maybe, it’ll give her memories back, the part about her fuzzy memories of the third year of senior secondary studies.

Or two, leave the school in secret, and look for clues outside the school. If this is a Nightmare with an enormous scene, then she might be able to find other Missiontakers or Tower residents.

After thinking about it for a while, she picks the second option.

She also knows that, she’s picking that, because she really doesn’t want to return to that classroom of hers.

She has an inkling that, she’d be unable to hold herself back from wanting to stay there and never leave.

It is… it is somewhere for which she’s been nostalgic for a long time. It’s where she lived for a long time. Her friends are there. Her books are there. The whole meaning of her life, was once there.

So she cannot afford to go back.

She quietly tells herself, “you’re in a Nightmare. Keep your wits about you. Stay with yourself. Don’t think about what’s already lost.”

Yes. It has all been lost. A lost time, that can never, ever come back.

What she missed, what she was nostalgic for, what she still remembered vividly…
Her last year of secondary school.

He Shujün quietly stands up on the bed of the school clinic’s rest area, slaps her cheeks to keep herself alert, and then opens the window to the clinic to leave.

She hid her school blazer in the locker of the clinic.

Her school didn’t mandate a uniform, and the regulations are increasingly lax for secondary six students.

Of course, it’s the first day of school, so they did need to them to look good for the day, and so most of the students would put their school blazer on over their casual wear.

He Shujün is going to leave the school, so of course she can’t be seen wearing it.

It’s fortunate the weather is nice and the sun is shining. It’s not too cold without her blazer.

When the school nurse is back at the clinic and sees He Shujün gone, it’s unlikely any other conclusion but ‘she’s already returned to her classroom’ would come to mind.

And the teachers probably wouldn’t find it odd if she didn’t return; she didn’t say when she’d return anyway.

Secondary six is a stressful time, too much for them to care about such minute details instead of teaching.

It’s likely someone would only discover that He Shujün is missing by lunchtime at the earliest, when her friends would come get her for lunch, only to find her not in the classroom or the clinic.

By then, He Shujün would have been gone for a long time.

After analysing everything, she deftly jumps out of the window.

There are few people still on school grounds during homeroom; it’s just past seven in the morning.

He Shujün unties the rubber band of her ponytail, adjusts her hair so that it looks more old-fashioned, and adapts her expression a little.

Easy enough for someone who’s been in the Tower for a very long time, having moved on from being a simple, naïve student a long time ago.

Looking at the rather mature-looking woman reflected on the glass, He Shujün nods in satisfaction.

A bit later, He Shujün nods towards the security guard standing at the school door, and leaves the school.

He might have thought she was a young parent, or possibly someone here on official business, but definitely not a student skipping class.

Having finally left the school, He Shujün sighs in relief, and looks back at her past alma mater, she thinks she feels a little conflicted.

There is still something tugging at her, telling her to go back there.

But she shakes her head at the thought.

Then she starts whistling a tune while mumbling, “now let’s see what surprises there are, outside the school…”

She moves on to the first intersection outside the school.

Here, He Shujün stops, and looks around the place oddly.

This isn’t how she remembered the surroundings of her school to be.

Her secondary school on Earth has a small shop selling stationery opposite this corner, then some food stalls followed, after which is a residential area.

She knows that many of the students of her year would rent those units for a year and move out from the dormitories to study better.

But right now, opposite of where she stands, is a gym.

He Shujün furrows her brows.

Right now, she can conclude that this Ultimate Nightmare isn’t actually a complete recreation of Earth; it couldn’t have been, either.

In this enormous setting, countless Missiontakers and Tower residents are assembled.

It’s possible every accessible location represents someone’s Nightmare – someone’s past experience.

There might even be scenes with more than one related people inside?

He Shujün takes a deep breath, and heads towards the gym.