Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

X Beijin stands up, and, in accordance with his status as an extra, he shows a business smile and asks Lin Qin, welcome, are you looking for any book in particular?

Lin Qin asks in turn, if I bought all the books in your store, would you fight with me?

X Beijin

He is looking at Lin Qin with this mystified expression, while the man with the baby-face is looking at him with his head tilted slightly and a serious expression that suggests he doesnt consider this proposal absurd at all.

X Beijin is silent for a moment before slowly saying, no, I wouldnt.

Lin Qin makes a disappointed oh, before replying, Im preparing drinks for you, though Ill give them to you later.

X Beijin is surprised to hear that, but then he sighs; he should say something, but he cant find the words.

Lin Qin has an expectant look on his face.

X Beijin cant help but wonder, what does it mean to Lin Qin for him to brawl with him? Why is Lin Qin so insistent on this?

For someone to be so driven in the TowerEven though he is the target driving him

X Beijin lowers his eyes, calmly apologising, Im sorry.

It was the answer he expected to get, so Lin Qin makes a disinterested sigh. He then stares back at X Beijin, asking, still not ready to give up yet, is there anything else I can do, then? I heard you like drinks, so I was keeping an eye out for you; is that not enough for you to agree to fight with me? I really wanted to know

I cant win against you, X Beijin answers, I also really want to know why you would think that

No, Lin Qin interrupts him in turn, it is possible you could win against me. You Youre special.

X Beijin asks, slightly exasperated at this point, I do not know what you see in me that makes me special, but I can tell you I dont know how to brawl, and I am not going to fight you, either, he then firmly adds, even if you try to bribe me with drinks.

A hundred bottles.

I X Beijin almost bites his tongue saying so, no!

Lin Qin stands up straight and furrows his brows, then asks, not even if I would pay for everything you drink forever?

X Beijin

He shakes his head resolutely while feeling speechless inside.

What do you think this is; what even is this paying for a lifetime of drinks thing?

If X Beijin didnt have such a good temper, he might already have been annoyed to death by Lin Qins clinginess, or rather, hes already close.

Lin Qin then suddenly says, you look like youre clearly tempted by the offer, though.

Im not

Yes you are, Lin Qin explains, you clearly like drinks, so I can give you what you like. Then, cant you also think about giving me a fight, that I like? My instincts are telling me you were definitely interested in the drinks I am preparing.

X Beijin

Seriously annoyed, he makes himself clear by pronouncing each word separately, not, fighting, means, not, fighting.

Lin Qin, refused yet again, sits sulking on the chair at the entrance to the bookstore.

Dj vu?

X Beijin is pouting inside, thinking about how hes going to take that damned chair away the next run of the Nightmare!

It is almost like a repeat of the last Nightmare, where Lin Qin sat at the entrance to his bookstore, and X Beijin sat behind his counter, quietly watching the stream, and being unable to interact with the viewers at all.

He cant help but wonder, if Lin Qin was born just for the sake of annoying him?

Instincts seriously?

Oh sure! Hes super interested in the drinks Lin Qin mentioned, alright!

But he is also firmly in the camp of not fighting Lin Qin!

It sounds like itll basically just be him getting a pummelling X Beijin can only hope that time will gradually chip at Lin Qins interest in him.

He sighs inside, and takes a sip of his glass of water in silence.

Lin Qin very timely interjects with a drinks

Im not going to fight.

Oh.

The bookstore is enveloped in awkward silence yet again.

X Beijin feels hopeless already.

This is just like that last Nightmare, isnt it?

Is it? Yeah, it is.

Same bookstore, his same self, the same Lin Qin, a same chair, and same silence.

They say its a gift to be able to meet someone during their short lives; he and Lin Qin would meet time and time again instead.

He should really be chasing Lin Qin out, but someone who treasures their life as much as X Beijin definitely doesnt have the courage to.

He has probably used up his whole lifes worth of courage on refusing to fight with Lin Qin.

In the end, all X Beijin could do is just turn his attention back on the other Missiontakers in the stream.

Acting as if this could save him from his embarrassing predicament somehow.

In the stream, meanwhile, the four Missiontakers, Scapegoat, Mu Jiashi, Ding Yi and Laosan, have run into the cashier Scapegoat and Selfish talked about earlier, that is, Dai Wu, who X Beijin talked to earlier.

Though Dai Wu did not tell him about the clues he had, and so, X Beijin cant help but be curious about what Dai Wu knows.

Mu Jiashi, Laosan and Ding Yi all stay quiet, so it is Scapegoat who instead is talking with Dia Wu.

Hello, we just met someone dressed in black who was trying to kill us Scapegoats lack of acting skills is on full display here the danger of the event he is talking about and his lacklustre, monotonous tone is in full contrast do you know who he is?

In the Missiontakers eyes, Dai Wu is just a simple information-providing tool-person NPC, and so they just need to trigger the appropriate keyword and the NPC will tell them the key information associated with it.

Just as they expected, the cashier looks quite nervous at the mention too, asking, man dressed in black? Is he, holding a machete?(TL: The appropriate response would have been the cashier calling the police, I think, but this is also an equally likely scenario in this novel for reasons you will see much, much later)

Yes!

The cashier seems really frightened and wouldnt really say anything useful. It is only after some prodding from the Missiontakers that he says, I I heard some rumours. They say that, the town had a case of a wife being murdered

A wife murdered?!

The cashier nods to say, after that, the killer was missing. The townsfolk were all saying that the weapon he used was a big machete, that is how he could turn his wife into

He wouldnt speak anymore; he looks terrified and disgusted.

The four Missiontakers are standing in a row in front of him.

Laosan then asks, and so that man in black was the killer?

The cashier hesitantly nods, quickly adding, Im not too sure, really. If you mention a machete, though I can only think of that.

Do you know anything else about that murder case, then?

The cashier shakes his head to say, I dont know much He looks like hes trying to remember, then he adds, oh right, the couple had a young son that was about ten years old, or so Ive heard.

A son? Mu Jiashi repeats what he said reflexively.

Ding Yi suddenly interjects to say, Laosan, your group said that before you were in this Nightmare, you met a boy, would he have been this surviving child?

Laosan is hesitant, but he nods in the end to say, possibly.

And that kid is the owner of the Nightmare? Mu Jiashi asks, then says, that would explain the source of this Nightmare; his father killed his mother

Ding Yi nods but asks, you dont know who the owner of this Nightmare is? Im sorry, I mean

I dont, Mu Jiashi tells her honestly, I just picked whichever door to go inside. I didnt find out what the Nightmare was.

Ding Yi is shocked.

She thought Mu Jiashi came back to the bottom floor to try and reestablish his name once more, and therefore would only enter a Nightmare when well-prepared, so that it would be all but guaranteed hed succeed.

She didnt imagine he would have picked a random Nightmare at all.

Was he that confident that he wouldnt lose himself in a Nightmare he did not prepare for at all?

There werent much information on this Nightmare back in the Tower, but Ding Yi chose to enter because she knew that both Lin Qin and Mu Jiashi went inside; this was her source of confidence.

And she was even more confident when she learned that the trio that Laosan is part of had direct contact with the boy in the Tower.

They came well-prepared, but so it turned out that Mu Jiashi

The man in question has his head down. He makes a bitter chuckle.

He said, I believe you know the reason that I returned to the bottom floor of the Tower, he rubs his cheeks and sighs to say, I can only tell you, that I am just a complete, total failure of a man, miss.

Ding Yi is silent. She really wants to ask, if he is seriously just going to wallow like this just because of that one failure.

The introverted and cool side of her prevailed, though, and given there are other Missiontakers present, she would not pry at Mu Jiashis wounds at this very moment.

Also, what Mu Jiashi has shown through his actions this Nightmare is evidence that he is definitely still that powerful Golddigger that was once a game changer in the bottom floor.

Though

That one failure of his sure was devastating.

Scapegoat is impatiently speaking up next to them, I have no idea what youre going on about But can you at least keep in mind where we are right now? We dont have much time left!

Sorry, Mu Jiashi quickly apologises, then thinks for a bit before asking the cashier again, do you know anything about that son of the couple?

The cashier shakes his head to answer, not really. Hes been missing for a long time, I think.

Mu Jiashi nods and falls into thought.

The mother is killed, the father is at large, the son is missing. It sounds like these would be the key issues they need to solve in this Nightmare.

He turns around to discuss it with the others, when he suddenly spies, out of the corner of his eye, that after hearing what the cashier said, Scapegoat clearly looks shocked.