Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game Xu Beijin is an extra in the game ‘Escape.’ His usual role is to lie on the floor to be the corpse, while observing how the Missiontakers scratch their heads to figure out a way to survive. All the other extras work extremely hard as if trying to win the next Oscar’s in order to leave this cruel, despairing world; while Xu Beijin has a simple, monotonous, tedious life. Until one day, he picked up a streaming system… Xu Beijin’s life has been entirely upended. While lying on the floor as a corpse, the audience goes “AAAAAAAH Host what’s that behind you uwuwu…” While he’s reading the script out loud, the audience goes “Hehehe Beibei’s so cute acting all serious! I want to lick!” While he’s working hard to figure out the truth about this world, the audience goes “Today our Bei is also the hardworking Bei!” While he’s… he’s working hard dating Lin Qin, the audience goes “?!?! This isn’t the horror game stream I signed up for!” __________ This one is super interesting! I usually don't read ones like these (in part because even reading remotely creepy things spook the shit out of me) but I am kind of hooked on this one. Hoping for any spoilers! In particular, why is the MC so averse to having anyone enter into his nightmare? __________ List of Nightmares Visited (the spoilers just describe the plot of the nightmares themselves not the overall plot of the story, ie. interactions w/ ML, MC's streams, etc.) 1. Doll maker's Shop (Ch. 1~25) Spoiler: scenario: the doll maker's daughter has gone missing, his wife divorces him, but the doll maker still seems completely obsessed in finding his daughter even though several months(years?) have already passed. Spoiler: rough details: When the mission takers first enter the nightmare the dolls in the shop will start to come to life and chase the mission takers. NORMAL ENDING would just involve completing each successive run from the dolls (I think). the only other settings in the nightmare(that is, other than the doll shop) are the street and the book shop. The owner of the bookshop(MC) ultimately gives the mission takers two pieces of information: 1) the doll shop owner said that his ex-wife used to harshly scold their daughter and 2)that the book shop owner had seen the ex-wife make detours on her way home to buy sweets for her daughter. Additional information in the bookshop is the newspapers containing an article on the daughter's disappearance All the dolls chase a mission taker except one, when the mission takers open the hatch to the second floor this doll comes to life and follows them to the second floor asking for eyes. When the doll doesn't receive eyes in within 5 minutes they rip out the eyes of the mission takers and the nightmare restarts The second floor has 4(?) rooms connected to a hallway: bedroom where the doll maker is sleeping, another bedroom, a study(?), and the room where the dolls were made. In these rooms the mission takers find several letters and the doll maker's diary, and later the MC finds another letter in the drawer of the counter on the first floor. The diary mentions the ex-wife's seeming apathy toward finding the daughter and presents the doll maker as a doting father, the letter between the doll maker and his friend similarly mentions this though while the friend comments on the ex-wife's temper they seem to defend the ex-wife, the last two letters come from the ex-wife to the doll maker calling the doll maker insane, loving dolls more than he does his daughter and wife, etc. the 'Difficulty' of the nightmare, as stated by the MC, is figuring out that all the negative opinions of the ex-wife only come from the doll maker the oddness of the doll maker is initially how normal he acts, given that most nightmare owners act insane, in addition to the fact that he seems to be sleeping when he is first found in his daughter's bedroom.-->these strange things are both found somewhat false as an insane split personality is revealed and the doll maker was not in fact sleeping but rather laying down while staring into space the doll that followed the mission takers to the second floor disappears when the doll maker is 'awake' the doll maker's split personality is 'doll like' and obsessed with dolls, while his other personality appears to be rational and 'normal'. The mission takers find that they can actually control which comes out with the letters found(ex-wife's=insane personality, friends=sane personality). the mission takers encounter a flash back from the day the daughter goes missing but it gets cut off as the doll maker heads to the first floor where the truth would've been revealed. the missing part of the flash back is revealed when the insane personality is out. showing how the doll maker turns his daughter into a doll after she asked him to make her the most perfect doll while the sane personality may have been subconsciously aware, they are not fully aware that they killed the daughter: whenever his sees the 'daughter' he cries(which is why she avoids him when the sane personality is out) the mission takers reach the TRUE ENDING when they realize that the 'daughter' doll is somewhat rational and find out she is missing her eyes. after confronting the sane personality, the daughter regains her eyes from an info card found in the tower's doll shop and the doll maker subsequently rips his own eyes out in remorse 2. Black Machete Man(Ch. 25~40) (I couldn't think of a better title that that...) 3. Loko Apartments(Ch. 40~55) 4. Ruins One(Ch. 56)(this is mtl name, I tried figuring it out a little but my chinese isn't good enough to translate it-->"废墟一区的地方") I tried writing some spoilers for the first nightmare but I'm not very concise and some details are probably not 100% correct or in the correct order. For those that haven't yet it's better to read the real chapters for this since they've already been translated and it's much more interesting to see the clues slowly reveal themselves in the story. As for the other nightmares, I don't know anything about them because I haven't read past the first nightmare yet.
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To add a few more details to get the thread going: The humans trapped in the tower are divided into two groups: Missiontakers and Actors Spoiler: Mission takers: 'outsiders' of the tower, they are the ones who have to solve the nightmares, they can chose not to enter any nightmares but then they will be stuck on the their floor in the tower. when solving the nightmares there are three types of endings NORMAL ENDING(Missiontakers get out of the nightmare but don't advance levels), TRUE ENDING(this is ideal for mission takers as it will allow them to ascend the tower), and BAD END((I'm not too clear on how this ending is achieved) if a mission taker gets too many BAD ENDS they will be forced to descend the tower). there are a few 'jobs' that have been developed within the tower: Carddealers(finds/steals cards and sells them to other mission takers; generally disliked for a multitude of reasons), Tailors(make clothing that are supposed to conceal a Missiontakers cards so they can't be stolen), Golddiggers(carries other mission takers up the tower, because this is difficult their success rate isn't usually all that great), Commodity Merchants(sells everyday goods(which are generally rare in the tower as the mission takers technically do not need them), usually doesn't participate in nightmares), Scheme Merchant(similar to Golddiggers in that they help people reach higher floors, they sell plans and information for nightmares). mission takers cannot directly harm other mission takers and while they technically cannot die they can get trapped in the nightmares permanently(?) Spoiler: Actors: 'residents' of the tower, assigned roles in the nightmares, treated as NPCs by mission takers who do not realize they are real people, harder for them to ascend the tower as their acting must assist the mission takers so they can reach the TRUE ENDING of their nightmare, are more limited by the Server and their degree of freedom depends on how important their role is in the nightmare(as in an extra vs supporting vs main) this freedom also can increase as a nightmare starts to collapse. story of nightmares do not seem to be related to the owner's real life, but if an actor gets too immersed they can become trapped in their role(insane). additionally nightmare actor owns changes when they go to higher floors and their old nightmare can be assigned to other actors, if actor is working as a supporting actor or an extra they do not get to choose they start working
Named Characters(some characters are given proper names, rather than just nicknames, so I'm listing them here) FYI these are mostly just mtl names MC=Xu Beijin: resident, owner of a bookshop, frequently plays minor/extra roles in nightmares as the owner of a bookshop, for some reason does not want to open his nightmare, treated as a monster who doesn't sleep by mission takers, likes drinks(I believe this doesn't mean just alcoholic ones but beverages in general) ML=Lin Qin: outsider, super strong, a 'bug-like' existence in the tower, treated as a boss in the tower, can force a SPECIAL ENDING in nightmares, enjoys fighting and desires to fight MC (who he treats as special bc for some reason he believes MC may be able to win against him) Spoiler further details are revealed later on: doesn't have any memories of outside the tower, while seeming simple minded does appear to have some common sense that would only be acquired in proper society Wu Shen: resident Spoiler (potentially former)owner of a doll shop, (potentially former)owner of the doll maker's nightmare, (former) neighbor to the MC, ascended to a higher floor after mission takers reached a TRUE ENDING in his nightmare Mu Jiashi: outsider, former 'Golddigger' who had 100% success rate, left his gold digging group for an unknown reason, returned to the lower floor of the tower after an apparent failure, consequently now has very low self esteem, used to be among the mission takers who wanted to enter MC's nightmare, was able to receive a clue to solving another resident's nightmare from MC by offering him a drink Ding Yi: outsider, former commodity merchant, known as a 'billionare' on the lower floors, apparently had relations to the Jiang twins, has a shy personality(weird considering her status as a merchant), has cyan colored hair Spoiler the colored hair and shy personality is apparently result of a trick card "unconditional(?) trust" which causes residents (and outsiders?) to easily trust her so long as she shows them no aggression Dai Wu: resident, treats living in the tower as a 'second life,' appears to frequently act as a cashier in other resident's nightmares Jiang Twin Sisters(to be clear I'm not sure of their exact names, my Chinese sucks but I think the mtl names given to them just roughly translates to Jiang Younger Twin Sister and Jian Older Twin Sister: Jiang Shuangmei and Jiang Shuangsi, I'm not very sure about this but im kind of too lazy to try and check the raws) - Jiang Shuangsi: older of the two, the brains of the duo, had relations with Ding Yi before she became a commodity merchant Spoiler became stuck in the Loko Apartment nightmare as an elevator after dying in the fourth run -Jiang Shuangmei: younger of the two, carries out tasks the older sister gives her, very dependent on her older sister, appears to be somewhat timid and mentally weak Spoiler after the 'death' of her sister seems to have become more independent Shen Yuju Su Enya: Spoiler MC's neighbor, had advanced to a higher level several years ago but returned to the bottom level for some reason, owner of 'Loko Apartment' nightmare, the one who told Mu Jiashi that MC liked drinks later becomes the owner of the nightmare that caused Mu Jiashi to experience his 'failure' I managed to finish reading the second nightmare, this one is kinda of confusing to understand Spoiler: rough details pt 1 the nightmare consists of several areas: the bedroom, the corridor, the carpark, the highway, the service area and the connected shops, and the gas station the mission takers are separated into two groups, one in the bedroom and one in the corridor. those in the bedroom are required to count off by a booming voice, the bedroom in completely dark and once the count off has started they are unable to leave the room until the count off is over; those in the corridor are chased by a masked machete man in black those in the bedroom are required to count off every minute and the order of the count is off: 12748635, if the mission takers get the count wrong then they are assaulted by the machete man until the minute is over and the machete man can only appear in one place at a time so if they get the count wrong and the machete man shows up the machete man will disappear/stop chasing the corridor group my class is about to start so I'll finish writing out the second nightmare later
Its been a day but I've read quite a bit more of the novel(at abt. ch 60) and then skipped around a little so I kinda know what happens at the end of the fourth nightmare, and a little more beyond that.
Translator here, might be necroing with this reply, but just in case anyone is still wondering Regarding Beibei's own Nightmare, Spoiler: What is Beibei's Nightmare Not exactly a 'Nightmare,' because it is simply the grey fog outside the Tower, where all the Collapsed Nightmares and the succumbed Missiontakers go. Spoiler: The reason Beibei wants no one entering it If Beibei's Nightmare is opened, while the Missiontakers are trapped in the endless Collapsed Nightmares, Xü Beijin himself is slowly wiped away as junk data in the grey fog and he (or his consciousness, at least) will cease to exist, unless a specific bug is triggered to halt and break this process.
Seme - Xü Beijin Uke - Lin Qin It's not clear at all from the story to be honest, and only hinted at in one line at the extra chapters. I'd say believe in what you think is appropriate for them. Spoiler: Why Lin Qin remembers nothing He was once an Ace Missiontaker/Actor that the Fy'ecas saw potential in and extracted along with a bunch of other high achievers. They all died due to the harshness of the environment in the universe and, as an experiment or something, they threw one of them, Lin Qin, back in the Tower with his memories wiped but his bodily attributes raised through the roof, and then promptly forgot about him. That's why Lin Qin remembers nothing They go into Beibei's Nightmare in the middle of part 3 of chapter 115.