Chapter 129, Fifty-Seventh Cycle (1)

"Zero, how did it go? Did it succeed?" Morofushi Kagemitsu turned and asked.

"Matsuda has succeeded." Furuya Rei nodded. "Hiro's life-or-death ordeal will definitely be over this time."

He spoke with such composure and calmness, yet those two sentences contained a terrifying amount of information. This contrast made it even harder for people to react and process it in a short time.

It took Morofushi Kagemitsu almost half a minute to fully react: "Wait? Zero, you—"

Meanwhile, Rei Furuya had already turned around and started typing rapidly on the keyboard: "Sorry, Hiro, time is of the essence right now. I'll explain to you slowly later. Can you call Matsuda over right now?"

While making a phone call to Matsuda Jinpei, Morofushi Kagemitsu walked up behind him. Many things flashed across the computer screen at high speed. Sometimes it was dense data, sometimes it was emails that had been sent out, and sometimes it was photos of shops and shopkeepers on the street. It was completely incomprehensible what he was doing.

The blond youth was focused and concentrating on processing the countless pieces of information in the virtual world. Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't dare to disturb him, but just squatted down beside him, propping his chin up and watching him in a daze.

Morofushi Kagemitsu wondered how much Zero had gone through without his knowledge.

Is there anything he can do to help?

If he sleeps for a few minutes right now, will he regain the memories of the previous game?

“It’s no use.” Rei Furuya suddenly spoke up. “In the last cycle, I was the one who died first because I went too far in testing the rules, so no one else has the memories except me.”

Morofushi Kagemitsu blinked, realizing that his childhood friend hadn't even turned to look at him, but even so, he had been paying attention to his expression and thoughts the whole time? And so precisely... so skillfully, how many times had he done this before?

Morofushi Kagemitsu had so many questions he wanted to ask, but he dared not interrupt his childhood friend, who was as taut as a bowstring stretched to its limit, for fear that the slightest disruption to his plans would shatter him.

They were already near the Ferris wheel where the bombing occurred, and Matsuda Jinpei arrived quickly.

Along with Kenji Hagiwara and Wataru Date, they also made excuses to avoid media interviews and subsequent statements and came over.

As if he had timed it perfectly to arrive, Furuya Rei finished his online work, got up, closed his laptop, picked up his bag, and then pressed the bewildered Matsuda Jinpei into a chair.

"You... what's wrong?" Matsuda Jinpei turned to look at him, his brows furrowing. "What happened? Did you just come back from the future?"

Rei Furuya didn't intend to hide it from them, and Wataru Date and Kenji Hagiwara could easily tell.

"Hmm." Furuya Rei nodded, placed his palm on Furuya's fluffy black curly hair, and said with a smile, "Matsuda's death trap has been safely saved and ended. Now it's Hiro's time for his death trap. I need your help for today."

"Hmph, then leave it to me!" Matsuda Jinpei laughed. "Whatever it is, I'll handle it perfectly for you!"

Rei Furuya began to undress him: "It's actually very simple. You and I are the closest in build, so you'll need to disguise yourself as me for the next two hours."

Morofushi Kagemitsu was even more confused. Even he couldn't guess what Furuya Rei was going to do. He could only go over and help Matsuda Jinpei quickly change into Bourbon's clothes before he could explain in detail.

Matsuda Jinpei wasn't resisting, but he was a little disgusted with Furuya Rei's clothes: "What's with all this fancy stuff? Do you always wear clothes like this? Are you a male escort?"

"No, no, no, Jinpei! Do you know how much this outfit you're wearing costs?! Just this shirt alone must cost hundreds of thousands, right? And this jacket and the jeweled tie... wow, this whole outfit must cost at least tens of millions, right?" Kenji Hagiwara exclaimed in surprise, his eyes wide.

"What—" Matsuda Jinpei's hand, which was casually tugging at his shirt, froze.

Date Wataru squatted in front of Furuya Rei's huge bag, watching him take out different clothes and disguise tools. He even saw something inside that made the policeman's body tremble. His expression gradually changed from curiosity and shock to complexity.

"Is this Doraemon's magic pocket?" he asked Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was helping to organize things beside him.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was still pondering his own impending doom when he finally broke into a laugh after a couple of seconds.

Rei Furuya looked at the four noisy people and couldn't help but smile. He then coughed and said, "Alright, let me start explaining to you from the beginning."

The four immediately fell silent, their expressions turning serious as they looked at him intently.

"Matsuda's file was finalized at exactly 12 noon; he's safe."

Furuya Rei was multitasking, disguising Matsuda Jinpei while explaining the whole situation in the simplest terms.

"But at the same time, the information that Hiro was an undercover agent was also sent from the Metropolitan Police Department to Rum by the undercover agent. This is something that cannot be changed before the save file is loaded."

"Hiro's death throes will begin immediately after 12 noon on November 7th and will continue until December 31st. However, the throes will usually be brought to a maximum extent on December 7th. After that, the 'Final Destination' mode will be activated every day, and it will indiscriminately affect anyone involved in this event until December 31st."

Kenji Hagiwara looked solemn, just like he had been in that situation.

However, he can escape the convergence of world lines by altering the causal lines, while Morofushi Kagemitsu's cause is already fixed and cannot be changed before the save file is saved...

"So far, I have tried every method I can think of, and they have all failed."

All four of them froze, their eyes widening slightly, and their breathing becoming erratic.

All the methods I could think of... how many times did I fail?

"Don't worry, I've found a way to succeed. There are two key points in this plan."

"First, we still need to change the timeline."

"Second, we need to increase Hiro's importance to the world, so that the world feels that Hiro is essential to its existence."

"Therefore, firstly, as long as we kill Rum before he can spread the information, and at the same time control the undercover agent who leaked the information, we can directly change the causal relationship that Rum knew that Hiro was an undercover agent, thus causing Hiro's death, and allow Hiro to jump out of the world line convergence range and reach a new world line where he can live indefinitely."

Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but step forward: "But is this really okay? Killing Rum directly will definitely cause Zero to die instantly and restart the world, right?"

"So this is the necessity of the second point."

Rei Furuya's tone was frighteningly calm.

“Let Scotland replace Rum,” he said. “Hiro, you go and complete the main storyline after Rum.”

Morofushi Kagemitsu was completely dumbfounded: "W-what? Wait? Zero? Is this...is this even possible?"

"Why not?" Rei Furuya gazed at him quietly. "Hiro can become Kogoro Mouri's top disciple and second disciple with me, work as a chef at the sushi restaurant next to the coffee shop where I work, scare Conan, the main character, with me, and go through the Rum storyline with him. Then we can solve the Haneda Koji case related to Shuichi Akai together. It's perfectly fine, right?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu was almost convinced by him, feeling that it might actually be feasible, but...

"But how do we replace Rum's storyline?" he asked. "Is this the reason Zero mentioned for his sudden death in the last playthrough when he overdid the rules?"

"Yes, after several attempts, I have now found a way to safely replace Rum with Scotland."

Furuya Rei continued to apply wheat-colored foundation to Matsuda Jinpei's neck, who was sitting obediently like a primary school student, worried that it would affect the disguise effect.

"The organization's boss is very old, and the weaker those old people who hold power are, the more greedy and fearful they become. Even in death, they want to hold on to everything and take it to their coffin."

"Therefore, no matter how strong the young people in the organization are, they do not get any real power to manage the organization. The BOSS does not even allow the members to form cliques and gather together often. Instead, the organization is divided into four departments, all of which are controlled by him."

"The operations team, the intelligence team, the research team, and the logistics team."

"Rum is the second-in-command, the head of the intelligence group, and he has always been very ambitious. He is cunning, treacherous, and impatient. He has even secretly begun to learn from the BOSS to disguise and hide his true identity, making his subordinates call him 'Boss' and 'that gentleman.' What do you think the organization's BOSS thinks of him?"

The four exchanged a glance: "We are wary."

“Yes.” Rei Furuya nodded. “What the organization’s boss fears most is not the police, but the veteran members who have accumulated power in the organization for many years and are waiting to fight for their positions as soon as he dies. So, once he has an excuse, he will immediately send people to kill them.”

“Take Pisco for example,” he said. “Rum is just too high-ranking and too powerful, so the organization’s boss doesn’t dare to take direct action against him for the time being.”

"However, the BOSS has wanted to get rid of Rum for a long time, which is why the BOSS strongly supports Gin's rise to power and opposes Rum."

"So, all we need to do is find a reason for the BOSS to reveal to the BOSS's people some of Rum's hidden schemes and his ever-growing ambitions..."

Rei Furuya chuckled: "We don't need the Boss to kill Rum immediately. We can't wait that long. But as long as the Boss has the idea of ​​killing Rum ahead of time and starts to prepare to kill him, it means that Rum is a dead end within the world's programming."

"Once the causal relationship is successfully established, his plot will be distorted by the butterfly, the immortality of the main character will be temporarily taken away, and I can kill him and immediately manipulate his role so that Scotland can perfectly take over and let the world program continue to operate smoothly."

"But, but if that's the case, it will definitely cause the world line to change by more than 2%, right?" Morofushi Kagemitsu still couldn't figure it out.

“Yes.” Furuya Rei actually agreed. “But this is not me directly telling others the answer. It’s just guiding them a little by stepping on the bottom line of the world. The main characters who are more important than Rum have their own thoughts and actions that cause huge changes in the world line. It won’t make me die immediately. Instead, it will determine that there is a problem with the program and then slowly check it on me before killing me to restart the world.”

"During this period, we can use other methods to turn the plot back on track and let Scotland successfully replace Rum. As long as it works smoothly, the world program will not kill me again."

"This plan can be described as a sleight of hand, or a substitution; it alters the timeline and deceives the world," he said.

Not to mention the other three people who weren't very clear about the organization's specifics, even Morofushi Kagemitsu was confused.

But looking at the confident and calm Furuya Rei, they immediately felt reassured that even if they didn't understand, they could definitely succeed.

After recounting all the background information, Furuya Rei began to explain his plan to them from beginning to end.

"First, I used some tricks online to influence Rum's actions at this time, so that he couldn't deal with the intelligence that Scotland was an undercover agent. I also had the Public Security Bureau control the undercover agents in the Metropolitan Police Department to send Rum more misleading information to confuse him and make him think for a while. This will change the timeline by 0.3%."

"Then, I guided the BOSS to know about Rum's hidden ambition and power, which made the BOSS immediately want to kill Rum and start preparing to deal with him. Rum's plot breaks down, which will cause the world line to change by 2%."

"But because of the causal logic of the program, even if I kill Rum before he spreads the news that Scotland is an undercover agent, the world will not kill me directly for the time being."

"Killing Rum is just the beginning. The real focus is on getting the main storyline back on track after it has strayed too far."

"Actually, the things I said and planned to Hiro that he could completely replace Rum, and my strong expression to the world that I would only cooperate with Scotland to follow Rum's storyline during the main storyline, and that the world program could operate smoothly, had already brought the world line to a close by at least 1%, which I have already proven in a certain playthrough."

Rei Furuya paused here, his gaze sweeping over Wataru Date, Kenji Hagiwara, and Jinpei Matsuda, and said amidst their puzzled looks, "Also, you guys are too amazing as police officers. You'll definitely have an impact on the protagonist Conan's investigations in the future."

Matsuda Jinpei's eyebrows flew high.

Huh? What the hell? Is it their fault that they're too strong? Are they supposed to play dumb?

"So you need to start having this kind of thinking and behavior now. At least when Conan is around, you should restrain yourselves a bit and give the little detective more opportunities to do the work of a detective and show your abilities in solving cases. Help him out more often. This is what we are doing to bring the world lines closer together, pulling the main storyline back to its original setting a little, and reducing the errors in the world's programming. This brings the world line convergence to 0.5%."

Matsuda Jinpei lowered his eyebrows.

Oh, it's just that we're letting that little detective play a bit longer and show off a little more, then it's fine.

Kenji Hagiwara and Wataru Date shrugged and agreed with a smile. After all, Conan wouldn't appear at every crime scene, right? As long as they didn't steal the spotlight and plot from Conan when he did appear, it wouldn't be a big problem. They were police officers, not detectives.

Furuya Rei smiled, finally finishing the disguise on Matsuda Jinpei.

Then, he began to disguise himself.

“Very good. Now, step one, stopping Rum; step two, getting the organization's BOSS to start preparing to deal with Rum; and step three, pulling the timeline back a bit, are all complete.”

The four were stunned. Thinking back, it was indeed true, but this was too fast!

"The current situation is roughly: world line change 0.3% + world line change 2% - world line convergence 0.5% - world line convergence 1% = world line change 0.8%, which is still within a safe range, but it cannot escape the world line convergence range."

Rei Furuya continued explaining with practiced ease, as if he had done it many times before.

"But if Matsuda disguises himself as Bourbon and goes to the organization's bar in Scotland to establish an alibi for the investigation into Rum's death, and I go to kill Rum at the same time, the world line will change by 4% again."

"In other words, that adds up to 4.8%, which is enough to cause the world's programs to malfunction and start checking," Rei Furuya said. "We must reduce this 4.8% to below 2% by December 7th to pass the game."

Morofushi Kagemitsu frowned slightly: "Does Zero really have to be the one to kill Rum?"

Rei Furuya nodded: "No one else can do it. I guess it's because in the main storyline, not only Gin and I, but Rum also died in that explosion, so it can be considered that I killed him."

Time was of the essence, and he didn't want to dwell on that, so he continued, "Scotland's actions are extremely important in the next step of reducing the world line deviation."

"Scotland must contact the people involved in the Haneda Koji case from back then, Hiro. I'll send you Asaka's information later. You need to guide her to mistakenly believe that you are Rum's man and know the inside story of the Haneda Koji case, thus planting the seeds of cause and effect for Scotland's future involvement in the Rum storyline. This is a change in the world line, and also a convergence of the world line, as high as 1%."

"Subtracting this 1% leaves 3.8%."

"With this 1% participation in the main storyline, Scotland will be able to participate more easily in the power struggle after Rum's death. I'll orchestrate a grand scheme. Bourbon will lead the way first, then Scotland and Rye will cooperate to suddenly betray Bourbon. Scotland will climb over Bourbon and Rye to become the new head of the intelligence group. The Whiskey Group's relationship must sour and disband. Bourbon must resent Rye again, and Rye must also become suspicious of Bourbon's identity and... and..." Furuya Rei gritted his teeth, "and feel a little guilty, so Scotland must do something terrible to Bourbon and implicate Rye in the process."

Morofushi Kagemitsu: "..."

The three people next to them all wore complicated expressions that seemed to say, "What are you guys doing? This entertainment circle is really messy."

Furuya Rei, trying to maintain a serious expression, continued, "Once this plan is completed, the world line will converge to over 2%, directly reducing the world line deviation to below 2% and above 1%, allowing Scotland to successfully replace Rum and survive on that new world line."

The other four were utterly amazed by this audacious and meticulous plan.

All I can say is, he truly lives up to his reputation as Rei Furuya.

Rei Furuya had finished his disguise and was giving a final explanation to Hiromitsu Morofushi: "Although Scotland replaced Rum, it only took away his position in the main storyline. He still can't become the second-in-command in the organization. Or rather, the organization's boss won't let any young and promising person take his power, so there's no need to worry too much about encountering a lot of trouble within the organization."

Morofushi Kagemitsu couldn't help but laugh: "But I have a feeling that after this plan is completed, my reputation in the organization will definitely become quite terrifying, right? Will anyone still dare to mess with me?"

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya: "Anyway, this is a good thing!"

Morofushi Kagemitsu immediately smoothed things over skillfully: "Of course, as expected of Zero, Zero is really amazing, thank you for your hard work, but I have one last question."

The valley tilts its head.

“Zero, you’re incredibly skilled.” Morofushi Kagemitsu gazed silently into his eyes. “Just how many times have you cycled through this save point?”

The expressions of Date Wataru, Hagiwara Kenji, and Matsuda Jinpei instantly turned serious, their eyes sharply fixed on Furuya Rei.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya lowered his eyes: "I'll tell you the specifics after this is over. I need to start taking action now."

Rei Furuya quickly escaped from his friends' encirclement.

However, as soon as he left that warm and natural, relaxed environment, all the expressions on his face disappeared.

It's like a robot programmed with only one objective.

In his eyes and mind, all emotional influences had been eliminated, leaving only a meticulously planned scheme that could not afford the slightest mistake.

*

[1. Homura Akemi: From "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", currently on her 101st playthrough, has died 0 times.]

[2. Rintaro Okabe: From Steins;Gate, currently on his 73rd playthrough, has died 0 times.]

[3. Rei Furuya: From "Detective Conan," currently on his 57th playthrough, and has died 57 times.]

[4. Subaru Natsuki: From *Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-*, currently on his 37th playthrough, and has died 37 times.]

[5. Shinpei Ami: From "Summer Revisited," currently on his 23rd playthrough, having died 23 times.]

*

November 7th.

12:35 PM.

In a sushi restaurant in Shinjuku, Rum, who was disguised as a chef, finally finished dealing with the orders from the unexpectedly large number of customers. He wiped his hands clean and prepared to take out his phone to deal with a bunch of strange undercover information he had received half an hour earlier.

During this time, while making sushi, he also thought that no matter what the other circumstances were, the first piece of information that came in, that the Scottish spy was an undercover agent, definitely needed to be investigated thoroughly.

Suddenly, a great deal of noise came from the street outside. The two or three customers who were still in the shop peeked out to see what was going on and then excitedly ran out as well.

Rum glanced at it and, finding it to be just a celebrity-led promotional event with generous rewards, returned to the store uninterested.

There was another employee in the store, but ten minutes ago he glanced at his phone and suddenly exclaimed in alarm that something had happened at home and he had to go back first. Now he is the only one left.

Rum abandoned his naive and simple-minded persona, sat down with a serious face, and opened the series of emails, preparing to read them through again from the beginning and extract the key parts for his subordinates to investigate.

"Um... excuse me, excuse me, may I ask..."

Rum immediately turned off his phone, his face instantly breaking into a warm smile as he stood up and said, "Welcome! What would you like to order, sir?"

The man, who looked to be in his early forties, had an ordinary face. He hesitated for a moment as he entered the store before taking off his black hood. His eyes darted around the store, but he didn't dare to make eye contact with him. His voice was weak and stuttering, and he was clearly a socially anxious person.

"Excuse me, are you... the amazing homeless chef everyone's been talking about?"

But why should someone with social anxiety force themselves to talk to him? Shouldn't they usually just quietly look at the menu, quickly order, and then retreat to a quiet corner?

Rum's smile remained unchanged, but his body language shifted: "Yes, I am indeed a wandering chef who has only recently arrived here. Is there something you need from the guest?"

"Yes, yes..." The man took a deep breath, then suddenly bowed and shouted, "Please take me as your disciple!!!"

Rum: "..."

Rum: "?"

Rum was utterly speechless. After careful observation, he deduced that the man was also a long-time sushi chef. He was too lazy to listen to the man's stammering request to teach him how to make such delicious sushi and his willingness to pay any price. He gave perfunctory "uh-huhs" and wanted to get rid of him so he could deal with the matters in Scotland.

But the man seemed to have gone all out before finally daring to take this step, and he simply lost his composure and rationality, relentlessly pestering her.

Rum was really annoyed. He warned the man not to follow him anymore, then turned and lifted the white curtain to go into the kitchen.

But then the man's footsteps hurriedly followed him in.

Rum was truly about to explode now. He turned around and roared, "You—"

Rum's anger was instantly sucked away by the dark muzzle of the gun, and a chill ran from his feet to the top of his head.

"Bang--"

Celebratory fireworks were set off on the commercial street outside, and the crowd cheered with joy.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Rum was already dead the moment he was shot in the head with the first shot.

But Rei Furuya fired four shots with a cold look in his eyes, and the kitchen was completely stained with blood.

His heart was throbbing violently from the world's warning, but he was used to it and it didn't affect his actions or expressions in the slightest.

Rei Furuya put on gloves, took Rum's phone from his body and put it in his chest pocket, then stood up and fired again at his chest.

"Bang!"

The phone and Rum's heart shattered together.

The revolver, with five bullets, was empty.

With Rum's death, intelligence that exposed the Scottish undercover agent's identity was cut off.

Rei Furuya pulled up his large black hood, turned and left the sushi restaurant with a blank expression.

Turn the impossible into the possible, reverse cause and effect, transcend the convergence range of world lines, and control the truth of the world.

This is what reincarnators can do.

*

December 7th.

A month later, the uproar caused by Rum's death has largely subsided.

No one expected that the biggest winner would be Scotland, which seemed the most honest of all.

He betrayed Bourbon's trust, used his partner Rae to rise to prominence, defeated Curaçao and Pisco, became a favorite of the BOSS, took over the command of the intelligence group, and was even able to rival Gin of the action group.

It was at this time that they realized that Scotland was also an all-rounder like Gin, with excellent sniping skills, strong physical abilities, and a smart mind. He would be an outstanding talent no matter where he was.

However, putting aside Scotland's strength and his cunning and manipulative nature, the biggest topic of conversation among the members of the organization during their leisure time was the relationship between the three members of the now completely disbanded Whisky Group.

For example, Lei was the second biggest winner because this opportunity also earned him the attention and promotion of the BOSS, and his status in the organization rose rapidly.

On the contrary, Bourbon, who was originally the highest-ranking, suffered a major setback this time. Although his status did not decline, the contrast with his two former partners who made rapid advancements was quite damaging. Moreover, he lost face due to being betrayed by Scotland and tricked by the Scottish-Rye alliance, and has been unwilling to appear in public for a long time.

As one of the three main characters, Ray wasn't entirely sure why things had come to this point.

Whether it was Rum's death, Scotland's sudden change of heart, or Bourbon's downfall, it all seemed to be related to him, yet he couldn't quite grasp the key to it all.

For example, right now, after the task is completed.

Bourbon, his face dark, tossed the USB drive containing the intelligence to Scotland, then glared fiercely at Ray, not wanting to say a word, and prepared to turn and leave, suppressing his anger.

“Wait, Bourbon.” Scotland grabbed Bourbon’s arm.

Lei: "..."

No, why was Bourbon caught so easily? He himself seemed stunned for a moment, then became even angrier. It seems that his body and subconscious had become accustomed to the approach of Scotland?

"Tch, let go!" Bourbon forcefully shook off Scotland's hand. "What's wrong?"

Scotland looked helpless: "We haven't seen each other for a long time, I just wanted to say a few words to you."

Bourbon immediately let out a cold laugh: "I have nothing to say to you."

As Lei watched the show and gathered intelligence while smoking, he was glared at fiercely by Bourbon, who was taking his anger out on him.

Okay, Ray admits that his anger was indeed understandable this time, but he didn't expect Scotland to turn on Bourbon so ruthlessly, betraying him and climbing over him to get ahead.

To be honest, Ray was shocked and began to doubt his previous feelings, so even though he was disliked, he wanted to observe more and figure out what was going on with Bourbon and Scotland.

Bourbon seemed unwilling to stay with them for another second and turned to leave again.

Scotland stepped forward, grabbed his attacking fist, smiled, and whispered something in his ear, causing Bourbon to freeze instantly.

Then, Bourbon, despite being very unwilling and angry, was still successfully pulled into Scotland's car.

As the car drove away, Lai, who had been left behind by the two, slowly exhaled smoke from his mouth, his eyes serious.

Sure enough, Scotland had something on Bourbon that they could use against him.

Was it because of that trap?

As Ray recalls that incident, his suspicions about Bourbon's identity remain.

Could it be that he really collaborated with a vicious member of the organization to frame an undercover comrade?

Could Bourbon really be an undercover agent? And then Scotland used this as leverage against him?

Lei: "..."

Oh no, really?

*

After closing the door to the safe house, the tense atmosphere between Scotland and Bourbon immediately transformed into the close and natural relationship between Morofushi Kagemitsu and Furuya Rei.

"That guy Lei's eyes disgusted me." Furuya Rei rubbed his arms, getting goosebumps.

Morofushi Hiromitsu had already opened the refrigerator door: "Zero, what do you want to eat tonight?"

Rei Furuya joined him in the research, and they squeezed together in the kitchen to work. By the time they finished eating, it was already 7 p.m.

There are less than five hours left until the event ends on December 7th.

Rei Furuya couldn't relax; he remained tense until the very last moment, always ready to start the next loop.

Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't say anything. He had originally planned to take the opportunity to find out how many reincarnations Zero had gone through, but seeing how tense Zero was, he couldn't force him to ask right now.

In the end, he simply sighed silently in his heart and chose to sit quietly on the sofa with his childhood friend, watching the news on TV.

Finally, they even started watching Kamen Rider.

Until the clock struck midnight.

The time changed from 12:00 on December 7th to midnight on December 8th.

[Fourth save point: The world line where the two cherry blossoms survived has been completed]

[Achieve the HE (Happy Ending) side story: The Great Escape]

[Fifth save point discovered: The world line where the three-petaled cherry blossom survives]

[Automatically saving]

Save successful

"It's a success!"

Rei Furuya suddenly turned around and hugged Kagemitsu Morofushi tightly.

"Hiro! We did it! We finally did it!!!"

"Hiro! You survived! I finally saved you!!!"

Morofushi Kagemitsu was initially very happy to celebrate with his childhood friend, until he noticed that Furuya Rei's fingers were trembling uncontrollably.

“…Zero?” Morofushi Kagemitsu frowned and became nervous.

Rei Furuya shook his head and said he was fine, he was just too excited. He sent the prepared news of victory to Hagi and Matsuda, who were also waiting for the good news.

Then, there's the cycle of reincarnation.

[Rei Furuya: I did it!]

[Rei Furuya: Everyone, please don't give up. Experience has shown that as long as you never give up, a Reincarnator can accomplish anything.]

[Rei Furuya: The anthem of humanity is the anthem of courage. Please, again and again, without ceasing, save yourselves from the fires and waters of this world a thousand times, ten thousand times, without hesitation.]

With trembling fingers, he managed to send these three most important sentences into the reincarnation group, giving a glimmer of hope to the boys and girls who were still in despair. Furuya Rei then realized that he really couldn't hold on any longer, and that he no longer needed to force himself to keep going.

“Hiro…” The phone slipped from his hand, and Furuya Rei subconsciously looked up to confirm his childhood friend’s presence in his shaky and blurry vision, and tried to reach out to him.

"I'm here, Zero." Morofushi Kagemitsu immediately grabbed his hand, but before he could ask any questions, his childhood friend was terrified when he suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed as if the power had been cut off.

He almost had a heart attack and thought his childhood friend had died suddenly again. He checked the blond youth in his arms repeatedly and was relieved to find that he had just fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Morofushi Kagemitsu broke out in a cold sweat, holding his childhood friend who was still unconscious but still clinging to his hand tightly, and smiled bitterly.

"Seriously, Zero, you must have been messing around again. When you wake up, you'd better tell me everything that happened."

He reached out his other hand and gently stroked the blond youth's head, gradually relaxing the furrowed brows that remained uneasy even in his unconscious state.

"However, let's get some rest for now."

"Thank you for your hard work, Zero. Goodnight."