Actually, Xü Beijin is surprised to conclude, that ultimately, the reason the Ultimate Nightmare’s difficulty is lowered, is still because of him.

Without his intervention, NE would not go into his sleep state, and the people who once succumbed in Nightmares will, naturally, ‘have to’ attack others in the Ultimate Nightmare.

That’s why it was he who indirectly lowered the difficulty.

It’s almost like, a version of ‘taking the blame’ where the blame just flew towards him and isn’t actually a blame, but anyway, that lowered difficulty has facilitated activities due to the increased safety for his human companions. They might be able to reach the situation he desired soon enough.

Meanwhile, Xie Zhijin…

Xü Beijin ponders about him.

Xie Zhijin, looking at him and Lin Qin, suddenly mentions, “I’ll go check out the people outside, then. I’ll come back if there’s something.”

As a grown, mature adult, Xie Zhijin isn’t about to let himself become a third wheel.

Lin Qin seems happy with that, nodding in response.

Xü Beijin advises, “I suggest not straying off Respawn Avenue. The situation might change dramatically on short notice. Take care.”

Xie Zhijin thanks him and then leaves the bookstore.

Lin Qin visibly relaxes; he usually tenses up subconsciously whenever there are strangers present. Especially Xie Zhijin, who he has never seen before, even if he introduced himself as the superior to Fei and Wu Jian.

Lin Qin asks Xü Beijin, looking at him, “what can we do now?”

Xü Beijin places the control panel in front of Lin Qin and shows him the Ultimate Nightmare’s current situation, telling him, “you can watch this to kill some time.”

Lin Qin “…”

Seriously…

The Missiontakers of the Ultimate Nightmare have no idea someone is watching them – through the stream, which Xü Beijin finally checks out once more after a long while. The viewers are clearly quite used to Xü Beijin disappearing every so often. It’s actually like he’s the director and they’re watching some TV drama.

Xü Beijin still apologises for having disappeared for a while, though.

To be honest, at this point, this streaming system has already played all its parts, but the viewers, the audience who brought Xü Beijin so much joy and warmth of accompaniment, the audience who he may never know beyond words on a screen, and when he leaves the Tower, who may be gone forever from his life as he might never use this stream service again…

Anyway, on the stream, someone seems to be doing his best to survive in the post-Apocalypse.

With some companions he’d found, he’s foraging for food atop the ruins of a city, and also scheming against and defending against other survivors’ schemes… very human behaviours, certainly.

The viewers certainly appeared entertained, expressing their opinions on how he is surviving thus far via the comment barrage.

That is when Xü Beijin chimes in with his apology, and then announcing, “everyone, because of circumstances, I might not be able to stream anymore in the future.”

The comments suggest great shock.

“oh no! without your handsome face how will i survive my Bei!”
“I know, Bei, you must be scared by how little viewership there have been! just go stream some other game!”
“yeah, you said an ending is coming right? so try something else!”
“Bei! so many games await you! dont give up!”

Xü Beijin doesn’t know how he can explain to the viewers that he isn’t actually interested in streaming gameplay.

He himself is pretty boring and introverted. At least, he thinks he’s not suited to be a game streamer.

Clearly, though, whatever the times, a face is highly important.

Xü Beijin is fiendishly handsome, so much so the viewers think it would be a waste not to see him in a game’s stream.

So Xü Beijin, who’s bad at refusing others’ kindhearted requests, and through some mess of communications, end up promising to the viewers that after a period of rest, he will still stream, but in another game.

Xü Beijin “…”

Damn it. He really needs to fix this personality defect of his.

He has his hand on his forehead, sighing.

Then he looks over at Lin Qin, and mutes the stream for now, telling him, “I’ve got a job now, I think. A game streamer.”

Lin Qin seems caught by surprise.

So Xü Beijin suddenly feels like teasing him, asking, “I’m prepared for my life after the Tower. What about you? Anything you want to do?”

Lin Qin appears to mull over it for a while, and then, taking into account his strengths, he says, “you do streams, I’ll be your bodyguard?”

Xü Beijin “…”

The little apple’s fantastical thought process strikes again.

Xü Beijin pats Lin Qin’s shoulders, slightly amused, then sighs and says, “you can be the streamer’s boyfriend.”

Lin Qin thinks about it some more, and then proudly declares, “only I can be your boyfriend. I’m the only one, that suits me.”

Xü Beijin laughs.

Then Lin Qin switches to a serious tone, promising, “I will get a job. I can take care of myself, and take care of you——It’ll all work out. We’ll be able to live freely in the outside world.”

Surprised, Xü Beijin looks at Lin Qin, amazed by his sharp wits once more. He probably didn’t notice it, but when he talked about how he got a job after the Tower, he sounded slightly unsure and worried.

Lin Qin heard it, though, and how it touches Xü Beijin that he did.

Xü Beijin sighs again, and says, “you’re right. We’ll live freely outside.”

Any kind of life is better than being locked up in this damned Tower.

After the interlude, he watches the stream once more – he sees the Maerton delegate is also watching the stream as well, while waiting for Xü Beijin’s signal.

He did tell the delegate the amount of time he expects is needed, but the Maerton didn’t leave at all.

Xü Beijin doesn’t know or want to speculate on what a Maerton might think of the humans as depicted here. Everything can wait until after they have left the Tower.

Then he switches over to Mu Jiashi and his companions – their reduced numbers have been bolstered once more.

Inside the fog, and after finally leaving the fog, they met more companions along the way, which convinced them further that the difficulty of the Ultimate Nightmare is reduced.

They decided against walking around in such a large group, though.

Firstly, it is seriously going to stand out;
Secondly, there are now numerous contradictions over where the fog actually appeared in the beginning, so they decide to split up to check each of them out.

There are three teams.

The one headed by Fei, Wu Jian, Jiang Shuangmei and Ye Lan will continue to Xie Zhijin’s home.
The one headed by Mu Jiashi, Shen Yünjü and Mystic will be heading to a hospital Mystic passed by earlier.

A residential area, a hospital, and a high school. All three are locations where there are claims the fog was seen very early on in the Ultimate Nightmare.

He Shujün actually suggested her high school when she met up with Mu Jiashi and the others and knew what they were going to do. She explained, “you’re not actually sure that neighbourhood is where the fog first appeared, right? When I came to the Ultimate Nightmare, I was in my high school. After I left, I walked to a nearby gym and met my friend there.”

She introduced the man she was travelling with. A tall, slender, slightly shy-looking man with round glasses. He introduced himself as He Xi.

“He was working out in the gym when the Apocalypse struck,” continued He Shujün, “we talked about what we knew in the gym, when some incident happened in the gym… Anyway, we left right afterwards, and passing by my high school once more, we noticed a strange fog that was visible in the campus.”

Shrugging, she said, “I think it might have been earlier than the grey fog was seen in that neighbourhood you talked about. Since we left the gym when the madness barely started spreading, which was a few minutes, I think.”

Mu Jiashi agreed after thinking about it.

While what happened to Xie Zhijin gave them the idea of seeking the first place the fog was seen, and speculated that it might be somewhere with key information in the Nightmare, but it wasn’t necessarily Xie Zhijin’s residential neighbourhood either.

Then when they met Mystic, and her experience was even more vague.

“I left home immediately and walked on the street… then there was a hospital. There were screams. I walked close by and saw the grey fog there.”

It sounded like she might have seen it even earlier than He Shujün did.

Another question worth considering was the speed of spread of the madness in these different scenes.

They had been in the Ultimate Nightmare far too long to have a clear idea of the amount of time passed. They might not even have kept the same track of time.

Without time to verify all these, Mu Jiashi decided to split up. They would head to all three locations.

So the three groups headed off in their respective directions. Passing through areas of grey fog, emptied streets, avoiding invisible doors and non-hostile but still creepy insane people, and also other Missiontakers and Actors who’ve recently succumbed to the Ultimate Nightmare… They slowly approached their destinations.