Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game

Lin Qin is also wondering what happened to X Beijin.

Hes fainted, but he looks like hes having a nightmare instead.

His furrowed brows, and the cold sweat, and his mouth that is mumbling something inaudible.

Lin Qin is worried, anxious, and irritated. All the emotions mix together, to form something called, helplessness.

He is watching the one he loved suffer, but he is unable to even share in the burden.

Watching X Beijin, his gaze changes subtly.

Hes always been a mad dog, and X Beijin knows, though hed hide his nature a little when hes there.

Lin Qin is now wondering, if he ends the Nightmare here, would X Beijin be able to wake up?

He starts considering the possibility.

A-Two is watching Lin Qins expression with worry. Something terrible might be happening. Then he looks at X Beijin and quietly prays for him to wake up soon.

X Beijin is dreaming.

Dreaming in a Nightmare. It sounds like a joke, but thats what is happening to him.

He can feel some kind of warmth surrounding him. A realistic warmth, like someone is embracing him.

He needs to wake up.

But for this moment, do let him indulge in this dream for a bit. Just for a moment.

He is dreaming of the past.

He once told Lin Qin, that after graduating university, he went and took over the family bookstore.

Its exactly what it sounds like. A small bookstore in a little town without much business day in, day out. X Beijin himself was wishing only for an idyllic lifestyle, so he didnt need much money.

His life was, well, as dull as dish waterBut in a different manner to how it was in the Tower, he was free.

He could go on a trip if he wanted to, or laze about like a salted fish. Unlike in the Tower, when he has to force himself to idle as an Extra.

Forcing himself to idle, isnt that much different to forcing himself to work, is it?

But anyway, X Beijin has been living quite the dream retirement life pre-Apocalypse.

And his parents were even more free than he was, always traveling the world somewhere, probably forgetting they even have a son watching the bookstore at home.

Then, the situation changed in an instant.

The Apocalypse

Well, the word was something that would be brought up occasionally, or even often for some people, but enough in frequency that its largely lost its horror element. It was just another common word for something that gets thrown around a lot.

They didnt think something would truly happen that deserved the original meaning of the word. It was the stuff of legends and myths. Exaggerated after years and generations of retelling and reimagining, until it was some fuzzy, unclear kind of imaginary creation.

So when the Apocalypse did happen, no one realised or called it that.

The Missiontakers of the Tower now know it to be the Apocalypse, because they have the benefit of hindsight. No one knew in the beginning.

They just felt that, there were a few more insane people around, huh? And murder cases are on the rise, like they usually do. The neighbours are arguing more. The traffic is getting worse. Hospitals are overflowing with patients.

As they always bloody do.

No one could associate this with the Apocalypse in their right mind.

Who would? Its the life theyre already used to. The minutiae is changing, little by little, and thats it.

They wont think its the Apocalypse. In fact, they dont even think their lives have changed any.

Oh man, so many people have gone insane nowadays. Stress kills, am I right? is what they would think.

A casual conversation topic, all too easily abandoned for the next trough of topics.

Things changed slowly, bit by bit, and life went on.

It was that years winter when X Beijin received news of his parents passing. They were in the south where its warm, to stay the whole winter.

They said they wanted to come back for Chinese New Years, but they probably wont make it. They couldnt find any tickets.

X Beijin, bored, thought, maybe he could do something else than watching theCCTV New Years Gala, his parents arent going to be home anyway

He would never see them again.

He wonders what separation in life and death truly meant. Theres always been a bit of a distance between him and his parents. He cant tell exactly, but its like, his parents are always so far away, perhaps as far away as the other side of Earth.

Well, now theyre on the other side of the river.

In his dream, X Beijin watches the familiar scene replay. A snowy, sleepy winter day, when he was informed of his parents deaths.

X Beijin feels like, he is watching all this from on high, cold and distant.

Why?

Because he cant actually remember.

Everyone thought he still remembered what happened in the Apocalypse, and still has all his memories. They thought he remembers everything that happened from the spread of the madness until humanity entered the Tower. Everything. Each and every memory.

They thought he had the memory of this man named X Beijin.

But he actually doesnt.

He just knows. Unlike the Missiontakers, who havent even the inkling of what happened in the intervening time, he knows what happened in the past, but he cant feel any sense of immersion, or feel it was what he went through.

Because his memories are also cut off the moment before the Apocalypse it was a lazy afternoon when he was reading books, lying on the couch. His parents were downstairs, talking about where to spend that winter.

Then, his memories are cut off. Some gargantuan, earth-rending black rift cuts though his mind there.

After that, all the things he knew. Messy, complicated, disgusting. Both his own happenings, and those of others. He remembers them, all of them, unable to forget.

Sometimes, he cant help but wonder, is this really what he went through?

Did he actually receive news of his parents death on a snowy winter day? Did it really happen that way?

What about the others in his memories? Were their pasts exactly as depicted?

When he once said that memories sometimes end up a curse, he does not only refer to his own memories, but equally, the memories of the others past that he remembers.

All these memories add up to an overwhelming sense of despair for X Beijin whenever he tries to view them.

If they were all genuine, then everything is beyond saving.

But if they were not, then, what was real?

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