Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Selfish stops the car and then quickly turns to the rearview mirror to look at the scenery behind. He gulps. He is anxious.

Right before now, the car of the man in black was still chasing after him, almost catching up by the end. His foot was pushing on the petal to the absolute limit as he rushed into the vicinity of the service area

And now, the car of the man in black, is gone.

Selfish pushed hard on the brake immediately afterwards and, with heavy breathing and a stern expression, he pokes his head out of the window to check behind him. His face immediately relaxes when he sees the car is really gone.

He gets out of the car and drags the boy on the backseats outside.

Before he can do anything, though, there are suddenly people blocking his way. Selfish raises his head reflexively to see two angry men standing right before him.

A few minutes later, many Missiontakers have assembled by the flowerbed in the middle of the service area.

Laoda and Erge are nowhere to be found, but the rest of the six Missiontakers are all present, even Lin Qin who didnt feel like moving was convinced out here by Mu Jiashis patient persuasion to keep order.

So X Beijin is now able to see the Missiontakers all on the stream and also talk freely with the viewers again.

Four of the Missiontakers seem to be standing near each other, while Selfish and Scapegoat look like theyre cosying up. The little boy is crouched on the ground, shivering, only revealing a pair of eyes to sneak peeks at the adults.

With Laoda and Erge absent, Lin Qin silent, and Ding Yi and Mu Jiashi both quiet, Laosan speaks up in the end.

He seems to be holding back some anger as he asks, in the final moments of the last run of the Nightmare, did you really not hear that key piece of information?

Yeah, Selfish says, looking all whatchu gonna do, I told you we almost got the answer when one of you died. Ha, you bunch of useless cretins

What I am saying, Laosans eyes are reddened, glaring, and saying, is that, you are lying.

Selfish rolls his eyes at him, makes a mocking ha to say, do your worst digging up the truth, then.

He is clearly admitting to Laosans accusation, then. They really did learn something in the last run of the Nightmare, but he doesnt plan to divulge.

Laosan angrily complains, we should be cooperating

Cooperating? Selfish gives him another ha and says, lemme make this clear to you. I, never, fucking, said, that, I will be working together with you bunch of useless dumbasses.

You!

Mu Jiashi takes a step forward and puts his hand on Laosans shoulder, calmly telling him, we dont need to waste time talking to him.

Laosan glances back at him, clearly not ready to give in yet, saying, but

Mu Jiashi instead turns his gaze over to Selfish and continue to calmly say, the problem is, this little boy.

They both look down at the boy crouching on the ground, who, noticing their gaze, tries to shrink even further. He is still trembling. He is in clothes that are too big, unfit for him. Perhaps he took them out of his parents wardrobe. He is in fear, but he is silent. He isnt even crying.

Mu Jiashi is quiet for a moment before telling Selfish, I believe you brought him here for a reason. Since were also here, though, we want to ask for information from him.

Since were also here is quite the manipulative logic here, though its not like Selfish wasnt himself a manipulator. He looks at the crowd in front of him with this ugly expression.

Lin Qin takes a step forward impatiently, scaring Selfish, who is taken aback and yelling out sharply, whatever, just ask!

Lin Qin gives him an odd look but isnt interested in analysing his emotions. He just tells the rest of them, you guys keep going.

Then he leaves the flowerbed, headed for who-knows-where.

Mu Jiashi doesnt dare asking either, and in fact, hes slightly amused seeing Selfishs face going white and blue. He didnt expect this surprising result after inviting Lin Qin here.

Then he crouches down to maintain equal eye level with the boy and gently asks, little boy, do you remember

Though the boy in question seems unresponsive to Mu Jiashi. Or rather, he has just covered up his ears to whimper. He is clearly unreceptive.

Selfish makes a mocking tch, but Mu Jiashi is unaffected. He merely furrows his brow to sigh.

Then, he stands up and examines the Missiontakers on his side, falling into thought, before tentatively asking, missus?

Ding Yi was blanking out by the side, but she is the only missus present. She pauses for a moment, looking at Mu Jiashi, and gets it. She walks forward.

When she kneels down in front of the little boy, even Selfish cant help but hold his breath a little.

While he was driving here, he also tried to get the boy to talk, of course, but he ignored him entirely. In fact, if he spoke any harshly, the boy looks like he would just start bawling then and there.

This Nightmare owner really is a pain to deal with.

Though, while the rest of them might be able to interrogate nothing, Ding Yi could prove differently because she is female.

Assuming the boys father did kill his mother, then he might naturally become fearful of men. Women might work better in this case.

This is going to be an important test, now, and everyone is nervous.

Even the viewers arent typing as many comments in the stream right now.

X Beijin is also slightly nervous, but he did also divert part of his attention to focus on where Lin Qin is going, worried he might suddenly pull a The Lin Qin Strikes Back.

Though he didnt end up in the bookstore, instead, according to the stream, his name is now below a slightly surprising placeThe supermarket.

Why is Lin Qin at the supermarket.

Right, there are also Laoda and Erge. X Beijin glances down to find them hanging out at the gas station What are they even doing there?

X Beijin is so curious he wants to switch the camera source over, but he knows that the most important thing here is the conversation between Ding Yi and the boy.

So he forces himself to turn his attention back to the video.

Ding Yi has knelt down before the boy, who was always secretly sneaking peeks at the outside world, and when Ding Yi shows up in his vision, he looks a little bit dazed.

Ding Yi isnt really good at talking to boys, so she can only show the most gentle smile she thinks she can muster.

Mommy

The boy is muttering.

Ding Yi is about to speak up when the boy suddenly says, no, no. Mommy, she was daddy, he He opens his mouth but doesnt say a word for a while before finally producing the word, its killed. I know. I saw it. Killed.

He begins whimpering after that, but looks like hes trying hard to keep his voice down.

Ding Yi puts her hand on her head and gently caresses the crying boy, whose body tenses up and shakes in fear for a moment before calming back down.

After a small while, Ding Yi softly asks, you saw it?

The boy begins to murmur while whimpering, but because he is crying pretty hard now, its difficult to discern his words. Behind him, Selfish and Scapegoat both look impatient.

Finally, after a hiccough, the boy says, daddy made me count.

The Missiontakers all pause in surprise.

The boy continues, when he slashes, I have to count up The boys says with tears streaking across his face, when I count a wrong number, daddy would call me trash, but, but mummy was crying

He says, before succumbing to crying again.

Did he understand what was going on? He probably did. Yet, what else could he have done?

In the stream, after three seconds of total silence, the viewers explode.

??? so numbering off meant

I thought that last nightmares father was as perverted as anyone could be, I was wrong, Ill repent

oh uh poor kid

I was wondering why the numbers spoken when numbering off went off the rails after one and two So it was because the boy was witnessing his own mother being slaughtered and told to count, like some sort of countdown for his own mothers life?

no wonder the numbers were wrong

i dont know what to say maybe, thank god this is just a nightmare, just a nightmare in a game

someone is acting as the boy, right? like an actor just like the host? if this was just someones script, that is a bit of a relief

The comment makes X Beijin fall into thought.

Thats true, if the Nightmares in the Tower were mere scripts inside a mere game, then it would really be a relief.

Meanwhile, by the flowerbed in the middle of the service area, besides the boys cries, everyone has fallen silent.

The boys fear, cowering, cries, all seem justified now. Also, the wrathful man yelling number off! and a useless piece of trash that cant even count properly can just go to hell! in the dark bedroom is also explained with that.

He is chastising his son for being unable to count properly to ten while simultaneously killing his own wife.

Ding Yi takes a deep breath. There seem to be tears appearing in her eyes. She continues softly caressing the boys head to soothe him.

Mu Jiashi, crouched opposite her, can see her watery eyes. He cant help but furrow his brows.

Something feels off. While he has heard about Ding Yis characteristics and her accomplishments, he never came to know her well, therefore, he cant tell exactly what feels off to him right now.

He turns his attention back to the boy.

He is slowly calming down. His eyes are all reddened, bulging, and wide open, looking at the woman in front of him with this stupefied look.

Ding Yi softly asks, as if she is afraid she would spook the boy further, did you know, why daddy was doing that?

I didnt know, the boy replies without much change in his tone, I didnt know, why daddy suddenly

The Missiontakers all furrow their brows.

Ding Yi then tries asking some more questions, but the boys responses are unhelpful.

Right now, they know basically nothing about the truth of this Nightmare besides the counting. Mu Jiashi, Laosan and Ding Yi huddle together for a heated discussion. Selfish and Scapegoat are standing to the side all quiet.

Selfishs lips are moving. He looks like hes muttering something to himself.

Scapegoat looks much more anxious. His gaze keeps drifting from Selfish, to the boy, to the supermarket. He appears restless.