Instructions
Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil
Right now, Xie Zhijin is standing outside the Tower alone.
Thoughts are flashing through his mind rapidly, having regained his memories. Outside of the Ultimate Nightmare, its influence on his brain has disappeared.
Which means, he is now shocked and mystified.
He left the Ultimate Nightmare. Through a simple door, no less.
So it turned out that door isn’t dangerous at all? It was… just, a door. A path. A way…
Inside is the Ultimate Nightmare, outside is… the outside, of the grey fog, which is currently basically covering up the Tower already? That makes the outside of the door the Tower as well.
It almost sounds like good news. Except, why is he out? Is he even awake or insane?
If he counts as awake, then is it going to affect the Ultimate Nightmare’s progression now that he’s left?
The Nightmare of all of humanity – besides him, now. Would there be a problem?
“Damn it…” Xie Zhijin’s expression is gloomy. After thinking a little, he follows the other madmen into the Tower.
He is going to see if falling asleep again would send him back into the Ultimate Nightmare.
He’d rather not be in the Tower all alone with these insane people, and… do nothing.
Powerlessness is the most scary to him.
He walks inside the Tower, then immediately notices something out of place – two young men walking on Respawn Avenue with their backs to him, who do not act insane at all.
Xie Zhijin thinks for a moment and immediately gives chase, yelling, “please wait! You two! Excuse me….”
Xü Beijin and Lin Qin are shocked to hear someone calling out to them from behind. They stop and turn around to face him.
Xü Beijin can see quite clearly this person is definitely not someone who has succumbed.
How did he end up here?
Furrowing his brows, his appearance is quite antagonistic right now.
Not that that deters Xie Zhijin any, who says, “I’m Xie Zhijin. I just left the Ultimate Nightmare…”
“What did you say?!” Astonished, Xü Beijin asks for clarification, “you just left… wait, did you walk through a door?!”
Xie Zhijin nods, unaware of the greater implications.
Xü Beijin asks again, “did you lose your memories regarding the Tower inside the Ultimate Nightmare?”
“Uh… I did,” Xie Zhijin looks slightly more doubtful, now, and he asks, “is that something bad… No, wait, I mean, is my leaving the Ultimate Nightmare going to affect it in some way?”
Xü Beijin scrutinises him from head to toe, then says, “it wouldn’t affect anything, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Xie Zhijin is a bit confused now. It’s a relief to hear it wouldn’t affect the Ultimate Nightmare, but… who is he? Why can he know?
Then, suddenly, he opens his eyes wide and asks, “you must be… you must be that bookstore owner Fei and Wu Jian are talking about, aren’t you? Xü… Xü Beijin?”
Xü Beijin, a little surprised, answers, “I am…”
Xie Zhijin is less visibly tense, saying, “that’s great. I’m the founder of the organisation Fei and Wu Jian are in. You might have heard of me,” then he looks over at Lin Qin, “and this must be the dalao, Lin Qin?”
Lin Qin nods calmly.
Xie Zhijin sighs in relief.
Though he then starts wondering about other things.
Why are Xü Beijin and Lin Qin not in the Ultimate Nightmare? Did they not sleep? Are they not humans? Did they walk through a door just like he did?
But Xü Beijin looked really surprised when he said he walked through a door, so that doesn’t seem likely.
His thoughts are all messed up.
Xü Beijin says, “you should come to the bookstore with us. I can answer your questions there.”
Xie Zhijin nods and quietly follows behind them. Having become impressed, he completely agrees with Fei and Wu Jian’s comments that the bookstore owner is entirely unreadable and mysterious.
And, aware of an intimate relationship between Xü Beijin and Lin Qin, he intentionally keeps a small distance between them.
Lin Qin, meanwhile, is mumbling quietly, “I thought it would just be the two of us…”
Xü Beijin, amused, gives him a glance while squeezing his finger, saying, “we need to get serious things done first.”
“And unserious things after the serious business?”
Xü Beijin “…”
Lin Qin sure is insistent.
Slightly bemused, all Xü Beijin can answer is “sure…”
Lin Qin appears happy with that.
Arriving at the bookstore and taking a seat, they’re finally away from all the madmen crowding the streets and still gushing forth ceaselessly from the grey fog outside.
Xie Zhijin has so many questions along the way.
Why is he outside the Tower when he walked through the door? Why are there countless madmen emerging from the grey fog? Is it related to the Ultimate Nightmare in any way?
Is he supposed to be insane as well, having came here through a door in the grey fog? Even though he feels he is awake and definitely hasn’t succumbed?
Why are Xü Beijin and Lin Qin not in the Ultimate Nightmare? They are… human, right?
Xü Beijin says, “let’s start with why you’re here at the Tower again back from the Ultimate Nightmare.”
Xie Zhijin nods a few times.
Xü Beijin starts explaining, “I believe you are now aware those who succumbed to Nightmares, Missiontakers and Actors alike, both end up in the grey fog, right there, outside the Tower.
The same is true for the Ultimate Nightmare. Succumbing to the Ultimate Nightmare naturally meant entering the grey fog.
But with the grey fog almost having consumed the Tower, so you can imagine why, ending up in the grey fog from the Ultimate Nightmare is equivalent to ending up just outside the Tower.
So now, all these madmen you see in the Tower, are those that have succumbed in the Ultimate Nightmare.
But, all this has implied that those who step through the grey fog and end up back outside the Tower… in other words, those who left the Ultimate Nightmare via the grey fog, should have succumbed to the Nightmare and lost their true sense of self.”
Xie Zhijin nods along with the explanation.
What confuses him is how he is still awake, even regaining his memories the moment he returned to the Tower.
Xü Beijin continues explaining, “you’re exceptionally special.”
This makes Lin Qin examine Xie Zhijin with especially critical eyes.
Though probably then thinking that this thirty-something middle-aged man has no qualities that would be attractive to Xü Beijin, Lin Qin finally looks away in disinterest.
Xie Zhijin, who was paying full attention to Xü Beijin, doesn’t know he just brushed past mortal danger.
Xü Beijin is still explaining, “I’ve heard from Fei and Wu Jian that, it was because you felt a certain Nightmare reflected your own experience in some way, that you created the organisation?”
Xie Zhijin appears a little surprised, but he confirms, “yes. In that Nightmare, it just felt really… unnatural.
It’s like, the place, and what is happening there… was familiar.”
Xü Beijin is quiet.
When the Fy’ecas cast humans into the game, they erased all memories in their minds of the Apocalypse – something easily achievable with their advanced level of technology.
However, it was comprehensive enough that it also erased other things indirectly.
For example, things in the Nightmares that might trigger their memories. Little signs and pieces of familiarity, etc.
They would become wholly ignorant of anything that might trigger their repressed memories, like they’ve been brainwashed.
Wu Jian should not have a reaction towards the word ‘Cangcheng’ or realise he was someone from Cangcheng;
Mu Jiashi should not recall he was a student at Qücheng University.
But, they would still have a vague sense in their subconsciousness.
The Fy’ecas, while they did censor all these potential triggers in their memories relating to the Apocalypse and their lives on Earth, Xie Zhijin appeared to be special, because while his memories were erased all the same, he still seemed to possess a sharp sixth sense, like an instinct, like a type of muscle memory in his body.
Xü Beijin suddenly realises something, and says, “and if my… memory, serves, before you entered the game, you are in a vegetative state?”
Xie Zhijin seemed a little lost, but he answers, “I think… well, yes?”
He replies, “if that Nightmare really depicted my past, then I think, I was the person who was hit by a football and hit my head on the concrete stairs, and ended up as a vegetable.”
He describes his past experience with quite the calm tone, having come to terms with his past, it seems.
Or possibly, even if he knows this is what happened to him, he is unable to resonate fully.
As he has forgotten. Like how, when he left the Ultimate Nightmare, he found his nostalgia for the past life on Earth disappear with it.
It’s all in the past; none of it can come around.
Xie Zhijin looks down at his own hands, losing himself in his thoughts. Gripping his fists, he can feel the feedback and reality firmly.
It is difficult to dispel the disbelief, therefore, that he is actually inside of a game.
A game that is artificial, inorganic, formed by data alone. And they, the ghosts, that wander through it.
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