Chapter 159 Fifty-Eight Weeks (7)

While Rei Furuya was staring at the clock, the other four people were staring intently at him.

So when Furuya Rei was clearly stunned, they immediately realized something was wrong.

"Did it succeed?" Morofushi Kagemitsu was the first to speak.

Rei Furuya snapped out of his daze, blinked, slowly raised his head, and gave the four tense people a bright smile.

"Yes, it worked!" He nodded with a smile.

"Yay!!!" Matsuda Jinpei jumped up excitedly, then slapped Shiruya Rei's shoulder hard, yelling gleefully, "We did it!!!"

Jianggu Ling: "???"

"Why are you hitting me so hard now that you've succeeded? Are you looking for trouble???" Could Furuya Rei tolerate that? Of course, he got up and started fighting with Matsuda Jinpei.

Kenji Hagiwara and Hiromitsu Morofushi breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but laugh as they watched the two bickering.

The sounds of Hiroki Sawada and Noah's Ark celebrating and trying to mediate were mixed together, making the room lively and cheerful.

Date Hang looked at them, a smile slowly spreading across his face. He threw away the toothpick he was holding in his mouth, strode over, grabbed one of them by the neck, and laughed loudly, "Alright, alright, I know you're all happy, so let's celebrate our victory first!"

He pulled the two back to the middle of the room, where Morofushi Hiromitsu and Hagiwara Kenji, who were sitting on the sofa, also stood up.

Bright lights shone directly above them, and five people below formed a circle. After exchanging glances, they all smiled and extended their hands.

"Clap!" Five hands clapping forcefully in the air.

"We won!" the five exclaimed in unison.

Hiroki Sawada and Noah's Ark's voices followed: "We won!!!"

Only they themselves know how difficult it was to get to this point.

But as long as the final result is good, it's all worth it.

Rei Furuya's smile was incredibly bright, and he was about to say something cheerful when he saw the four people's expressions change, instantly returning to seriousness.

Jianggu Ling: "?"

“Time is of the essence, let’s start discussing the deadly calamity of the descent into the abyss,” Date Wataru spoke first.

Morofushi Kagemitsu nodded: "Although I don't want to think that way, I am still very uneasy. I should prepare now. I'll go and investigate the intelligence first."

Matsuda Jinpei said to Noah's Ark and Sawada Hiroki on his phone, "The situation may be different now. Go and check the things I asked you to do before."

Hiroki Sawada and Noah's Ark responded immediately, having been prepared, and quietly began operations.

Kenji Hagiwara turned to look at Rei Furuya, who looked bewildered and dazed, and couldn't help but smile. He stepped forward and put his hand on Rei's shoulder, explaining, "It's the one we were discussing before. If you clear the stage too easily this time, it might actually be more dangerous. Like Kojinpei and Komorofushi, it might leave some unchangeable red butterfly on your death calamity."

When everything is going too smoothly, it might be a warning that they should hit the brakes, or perhaps there's a cliff ahead.

But at this point, it's impossible for them to easily step on the brakes and stop moving forward, and they have no way of knowing when to do so. They are unsure of where the danger lies until the very last moment.

Rei Furuya was aware of this, of course, but he felt there was no need to be so tense right now.

Or rather, after successfully saving four friends, his nerves, which had been taut for so long, relaxed for the first time ever.

He just wants to have some fun with everyone right now; he's not really worried about his impending doom.

“But is there any need to be so worried and anxious now? My death is still more than a year away,” he said.

"No, this is very important." Kenji Hagiwara pushed him back to sit on the sofa. "If we find anything wrong, we can start preparing now and reduce the number of times you might have to reload your save file."

Zhu Fujingguang had already quickly checked through all his channels, but found nothing different from before. He then looked up at the others and shook his head: "I haven't found anything wrong yet."

Hiroki Sawada and Noah's Ark quickly replied: "We haven't found anything strange on our end either."

Rei Furuya shrugged helplessly: "See? I told you it wouldn't be that fast. Even if there are any problems with my Death Tribulation, it definitely won't be exposed until Christmas Day a year from now. So for now, let's all relax and have some fun."

He smiled and tried to persuade everyone to relax: "We've all been too tired and stressed lately, and we can't keep going like this for a year."

"What do you think is the most likely area if a problem arises?" Matsuda Jinpei continued the discussion as if he hadn't heard him at all.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

A vein throbbed on Furuya Rei's forehead; he almost wanted to rush over and continue fighting, but he stopped when he looked up and saw the serious expression on the curly-haired youth's face.

“It’s still the organization after all.” Morofushi Kagemitsu frowned in thought. “One thing I’ve always been worried about is that Zero’s ability to read save files might be related to the organization. If the organization discovers that he can read save files, that would be the worst-case scenario.”

Kenji Hagiwara nodded in agreement: "And regardless of whether the organization and the system are related, in order to increase the difficulty of Kofuruya's death tribulation, the system will definitely tamper with it. Right now, the only thing they can do to deal with us is to manipulate the organization."

Date Wataru picked up another toothpick and bit it with his teeth: "And even without the system's involvement, the organization was originally the biggest cause of Furuya's demise."

Matsuda Jinpei concluded: "We can't do anything about the system for now, so we can only keep an eye on the organization. Even if we can't directly destroy the organization now because the world program is monitoring the progress of the plot, this restriction will disappear when Zero's final catastrophe arrives."

Hiroki Sawada's voice came from Rei Furuya's phone: "If all the problems only erupt a year later at the end of the game, the good thing is that we won't have to worry about the world program preventing us from destroying the organization. The bad thing is that we might not even have time to solve Zero's death crisis."

Hiroki Sawada really liked the cool nickname "Zero." Rei Furuya said that since they were all friends, there was no need to worry about honorifics, so he kept using that nickname. However, when chatting with Noah's Ark, he still preferred to call Rei Furuya "Sakura."

In fact, both he and Noah's Ark regretfully lost the memories of their time together in the previous cycle.

The way Sakura interacted with them in the last playthrough must have been quite different from how Zero interacted with them in this playthrough, especially since their first encounter was the hardest to recreate...

Morofushi Kagemitsu glanced at the various pieces of information on his notebook one last time, but still found nothing alarming. He then entrusted the investigation to Noah's Ark and Sawada Hiroki before closing his laptop and sitting down on the sofa next to Furuya Rei.

“Zero, you haven’t told us the CG for this save point and the name of the next save point.” He said in a low voice.

Having given up trying to persuade them, Furuya Rei, who was explaining his progress in the game to everyone in the reincarnation group chat, looked up and Date Wataru and Matsuda Jinpei sat down on the sofa opposite him. The four of them looked at him intently.

Rei Furuya blinked, put his phone away for the moment, and explained seriously: "This time, the HE side CG is 'A Match Made in Heaven,' and the sixth save point is 'The World Line Where the Four-Petal Cherry Blossom Survives.'"

Morofushi Kagemitsu was slightly taken aback: "A match made in heaven, a beautiful marriage brought about by the heavens? I see. It is indeed very suitable as the happy ending for this time. So, does it mean that the reason why our cycle is going so smoothly is mainly due to the help of the world program and the opening of backdoors? Because this was the world's purpose all along."

Are even matters of the heart supposed to be scripted and arranged like this? This so-called "perfect match" is truly...

Ida Kou said in a deep voice, "It's possible, but this CG was given by the system. According to previous practice, it might just be a summary of the core and reasons for the successful save? But no matter how you look at it, it is indeed a perfect match. So Natalie and I should get married as soon as possible. I really want to get married now."

Everyone else fell silent, turning to stare at the person who had suddenly started showing off their affection.

Date Wataru grinned: "You guys are too tense. I was just joking to ease the tension. Natalie and I are only engaged for now. It would be best to wait until everything is over, and when Furuya and Morofushi can participate openly and legitimately under their true identities."

"When are you getting engaged?" Furuya Rei asked happily.

“In a few days, I will go back to Hokkaido with Natalie to meet her parents, and then we will discuss the date together.” After saying that, Date Wataru quickly brought the topic back with a serious expression. “The timeline where the four-petal cherry blossom survives, so as expected, it is still the same as before. Next should be Furuya’s death calamity, the last cherry blossom, from now on February 8th to Christmas on December 25th next year.”

Jianggu Ling: "..."

So, can't we talk about something happy?

These were all things they had discussed before; there was nothing new, and they hadn't noticed anything amiss.

Yet they still anxiously and meticulously examined and pondered the matter again and again, as if his death was about to begin.

Rei Furuya scratched his bangs, but ultimately said nothing.

He certainly understood this feeling; he had been going through it all this time, and only now was he finally able to relax.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the four people whose "wishes" were bound to the game's cornerstone have all successfully survived their respective death trials. They will live well and will no longer be killed by the world.

They will have a bright future.

That's enough.

Rei Furuya was also very concerned about whether he could join that wonderful future where everyone was alive. He even looked forward to that life that made him smile just by thinking about it.

However, he no longer has the same strong obsession as before. Of course, it would be better if he did, but if it didn't work out, he wouldn't be in great pain. He would just feel regret and worry, but he wouldn't be anxious or uneasy about it.

Morofushi Hiromitsu summarized at the end: "First save point: 'Police Academy Under the Cherry Blossoms'; Second save point: 'Radiant Officers'; Third save point: 'World Line Where One Cherry Blossom Survives'; Fourth save point: 'World Line Where Two Cherry Blossoms Survives'; Fifth save point: 'World Line Where Three Cherry Blossoms Survives'; Sixth save point: 'World Line Where Four Cherry Blossoms Survives'. The subsequent developments will most likely follow the same pattern as before, and Zero's death throes will officially begin on December 25th, the game's finale, a year later."

"After all, the system doesn't actually have that much power. Many operations rely on the world program to be completed, which is like using someone else to do your dirty work. Moreover, the closer it gets to the official start of the game, the more difficult it is to tamper with things." Kenji Hagiwara frowned slightly.

Ida knew what he was worried about: "But precisely because of this, the system may very well tamper with things before the game officially starts, creating a red butterfly, and causing the storm caused by the red butterfly flapping its wings to reach the death calamity of the valley a year later, forming a huge tornado that has an unstoppable impact."

The problem now is that they can neither find nor determine where the red butterflies created by the system are.

Matsuda Jinpei clicked his tongue in annoyance, then suddenly stood up and slammed his hand on the table, leaning forward to meet Furuya Rei's gaze, who was slightly startled and opened his eyes wide.

“Hey, you blond bastard, listen up, you better not die,” he said. “I’m still waiting for you to become the Superintendent General so I can punch you and fulfill my old dream.”

Others: "..."

Rei Furuya was stunned for two seconds. He really didn't expect him to joke about this. He couldn't help but laugh out loud, but slowly suppressed his laughter under the serious gaze of the curly-haired youth.

"Okay." He smiled and agreed just as earnestly.

Rei Furuya is really looking forward to that future.

*

February 9th.

Since no matter how much they checked and investigated on February 8th, they couldn't find anything wrong, and with Rei Furuya's constant urging, the others temporarily put aside their worries and had a good rest for a day.

Furuya Rei had a mission for Bourbon. After completing the mission and returning to the safe house, he took out his phone and used a special password to enter the group chat where everyone was present.

【The Sakura Team to Save the World】

This group chat was established less than a year ago. It was created by Hiroki Sawada and specially protected with Noah's Ark for monitoring and checks, and Furuya for replenishment. It can be called the world's most confidential online chat group.

【—Zero has joined the chat group—】

Even so, they still used code names.

Noah's Ark is still Noah's Ark.

Hiroki Sawada used the pronunciation of "Hiroki" from his own name as his code name, and he was happy to be with "Hiro" and "Hagi," which immediately gave him a sense of being part of a team and having teammates.

It seems like they're the only ones online right now, and I'm happy to greet Rei Furuya.

Rei Furuya responded briefly before quickly scrolling through their chat history from the previous few hours online.

Most of the discussion revolved around how to survive Rei Furuya's final ordeal, but what made Rei Furuya act so strangely was one of their topics.

After scrolling for a full minute, he finally found the very beginning of the topic.

[Hiro: I'm still worried that Zero's identity will be exposed to the organization. Maybe we should destroy all the group photos.]

Rei Furuya stared blankly at the sentence, his breath caught in his throat, and even though the world program hadn't intervened, his heart still ached.

His finger twitched involuntarily, as if he wanted to reply no.

Those group photos were once the source of his strength as he occasionally looked at them at night, reminiscing and keeping him going.

He has already completely lost a Christmas photo, and now he's going to lose all the photos from his police academy days too?

[Hagi-chan: Although I agree, Zero definitely wouldn't want this to happen. If he could, he would have said it himself already.]

Yes, he had thought about it, but those photos from his previous life could have been saved for last.

[Squad Leader: I agree. According to what Zero said before, during previous save files, there was an instance where his undercover identity was completely exposed because of a group photo. In our own death mission, this possibility might be small, but in Zero's later death mission, it will become very high and dangerous.]

That was an accident. The world program was converging and needed to use the organization to kill him in order to restart the world. Perhaps the system was also involved, which is why the organization inexplicably discovered his identity and the group photo of the five of them at the police academy.

[Mazda: Then destroy them. Destroy all the photos that could expose Zero, and kill any potential red butterflies in advance.]

Mazda: When it comes to the most important thing—life safety—everything else takes a backseat.

[Mazda: If that blond bastard cares so much, then let him live. We'll take a lot more pictures after everything's over, even if he goes to the police academy. We can take hundreds or thousands of group photos together then.]

Hiroki: Yes, memories are important, but living is more important. As long as we are alive, we can create more memories in the future.

Rei Furuya slowly closed his eyes. After two seconds, he turned on his computer, dragged a file from a hidden folder, and began to click on each group photo one by one.

Because Kenji Hagiwara liked taking photos, Rei Furuya later felt it was good to record his life at that time, so the number of photos in the file was quite large, more than a thousand.

Of the more than a thousand photos, very few are serious. They were really having a blast and deliberately captured funny moments, which resulted in his album being filled with all sorts of bizarre and embarrassing photos.

Only after scrolling to the very end did some proper group photos gradually appear.

Because it was close to graduation at that time.

So they took many group photos in the classroom, dormitory, playground, rooftop, and school gate.

Rei Furuya carefully looked at each photo, examining each one three times over, as if he wanted to print the photos into his mind and preserve them forever.

It was half an hour later when he finished looking at the more than 1,000 photos.

The other four people also left work one after another and joined the group chat, continuing their previous conversation.

[Hiro: I'm sorry, Zero, I know that's important to you, but keeping those photos is really dangerous.]

[Hiro: It's okay. Things are different now. We will live on now and in the future, so it doesn't matter if we don't have photos anymore.]

[Hiro: But we can't lose you, Zero. You understand, we've come this far, and failure is absolutely not an option.]

[zero: I know, don't worry, I've already organized all the photos.]

Rei Furuya spoke first to reassure everyone who was worried, then quickly typed a sentence in the chat box, but couldn't send it for a long time, as if his fingers had suddenly frozen.

But in the end, he slowly pressed the send button.

[zero: Destroy them all. Burn the paper ones, and let Noah's Ark clean up the electronic ones to the point where no one can recover them.]

*

April 1st.

April Fool's Day is here again.

After getting up, Rei Furuya looked at the calendar and was a little distracted.

April is the season when cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and Date and Natalie's engagement was set for April, with the cherry blossoms as their witness.

But what captivated Rei Furuya wasn't this, but rather the special day of April 1st.

April 1st is the day when Rei Furuya was first reborn back to his police academy days, a day that left a deep impression on him as he repeatedly reloaded his save file at the police academy ten times.

It's still a bit unbelievable to think about it. Six years have passed since that day, and he has now successfully rescued four friends who were wronged by him from the scythe of death, and successfully created a future where everyone can live well.

Next, barring any unforeseen circumstances, once the game officially begins, all four of them will be completely safe, with only he remaining in danger of death.

Rei Furuya is no longer nervous; he has been relaxing for two months and is just waiting for the game to officially begin next year.

Although everyone was tense and uneasy, Rei Furuya has been really happy these past two months, experiencing a level of happiness and relaxation he has never felt before.

He was even seriously reprimanded by several people for not taking his own safety seriously.

Almost two months have passed since the death of Date Wataru. They have remained vigilant and have been investigating the organization and the police to prevent any "red butterflies" from emerging in the two locations that could endanger Furuya Zero's death.

But it remained quiet, and nothing unusual happened.

The only thing related to the main storyline during this period was...

Rei Furuya took out his phone and tapped Vermouth in the chat app.

[Bourbon: What are you doing? Got some time? I'm so bored lately, I was thinking of coming over to hang out with you.]

[Vermouth: What do you think? Have I done anything this year besides hunting down Shuichi Akai?]

[Vermouth: Damn Shuichi Akai, I can't let him get away with this. I'm setting up a rather dangerous trap.]

[Vermouth: Perfect timing! Come on over here and help me kill him!]

[Bourbon: Is this for real? You wait! I'll buy the ticket right away!]

Rei Furuya glanced again at April, which was marked with a red pen emphasis on the calendar, his expression serious.

In April, it was the time when Vermouth and Shuichi Akai met Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mouri for the first time.

Conan once said that it was probably that trip to New York that made Vermouth develop feelings for them that led to her being lenient and forgiving towards them on countless occasions afterward.

That's definitely a very important main storyline. In order to maintain this storyline, he should go and take a look. If the world line hasn't shifted, then he doesn't need to take action. If it has shifted, he can help bring it back. The world program won't do anything to him.

Rei Furuya turned a page of the calendar and saw that a date was also marked in red on the May calendar.

May 2nd.

It's Hiro's birthday.

After that day, Hiro will be 28 years old.

Hiro lived to the age of 28.

Rei Furuya couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth, and then picked up the red pen and drew a circle around May 2nd.

By then, Shinichi Kudo's New York incident would definitely be over. He would be able to make it to the class president and Natalie's engagement party, and also return to celebrate Hiro's birthday.

What birthday present should I give Hiro this time?

Rei Furuya was still thinking about this problem on his way to the lab.

After all, they've celebrated more than a dozen birthdays together, and they've practically given each other everything they could. It's really hard to think of anything else that would be a good birthday gift.

But even after he arrived at Shirley's lab, he still couldn't come up with any results. He had no choice but to put it aside for the time being and, as usual, go to the lab at the beginning of the month to check on the progress of Pandora's experiment before heading to New York in the afternoon.

Surprisingly, Shirley wasn't in the lab.

Because Bourbon would come to check and organize the research progress of the Pandora experiment at the beginning of each month, and he would chat with Sherry every time, Sherry would usually wait for him in advance unless there was something special going on.

"It seems the BOSS called her away." That's all the other people said.

This is not surprising, as Sherry is one of the few people who knows the BOSS's identity.

Rei Furuya, now in Bourbon mode, nodded without saying anything, then walked to the other half of the Pandora Lab, sat down in his office, and began organizing all the research data from the previous month.

After deleting the useless data and integrating the other relatively useful research reports, Bourbon got up and walked towards the conference room.

The lab has a conference room that looks like a small, dark room. Bourbon and Sherry always report their research progress to the boss here, so that important research data won't be leaked.

A blond, dark-skinned young man, wearing a long white lab coat and carrying a stack of documents, walked into the conference room.

I turned on the lights, closed the door, and then sat down in the chair in front of the big screen.

As usual, Bourbon waited quietly for the screen, which was comparable to a movie screen, to light up, and then reported to the BOSS on the progress of Pandora's research and future plans.

Even though the screen remained silent and did not light up after several minutes, he did not make any moves under the surveillance, but simply looked down and checked the report again.

Finally, after waiting for five minutes, the screen lit up, and the BOSS on the other end of the monitor finally had time to listen to his subordinates' reports.

Bourbon smiled and was about to greet them, but before he could speak, his expression changed drastically the moment the screen lit up.

"Thud!" The report in his hand fell to the ground and scattered everywhere.

Amidst the crackling sound of electricity, Bourbon's eyes widened in disbelief. He tried to get up immediately from the electrified chair but couldn't control his hands and feet to make any movement. He was completely frozen when he tried to look down at the chair.

His mouth and tongue were even paralyzed, making it impossible for him to even bite down on his venomous fangs.

When the current stopped, the blond, dark-skinned youth was completely stiff in the chair, his muscles trembling wildly. Only his struggling eyes showed that he had not completely lost consciousness.

The tightly closed door was opened, and a person walked in.

His steps were heavy, seemingly slow yet hurried, as if he were very excited.

When the other party walked up to him, Bourbon realized that it was actually a robot.

A robot with the perfect, handsome, and strong appearance of a human male, yet extremely stiff and obviously something is wrong.

Rei Furuya's heart sank.

Bourbon didn't recognize the robot, but Furuya Rei did.

That was the organization's boss's double.

“Bourbon, you have been very active since you joined the organization and have achieved remarkable results. The only other person in the organization with such achievements is Gin.”

The robot bent down and approached the immobile blond youth. The voice of the organization's BOSS came from his body, filled with a chilling excitement, yet he spoke slowly and deliberately, pretending to be calm, completely unconcerned that the person in front of him could not answer.

“You’re truly outstanding, Bourbon, but your excellence and value far surpass Gin’s and even exceed my expectations.”

Rei Furuya desperately tried to regain control of his body. His tongue moved stiffly, but he still couldn't bite down on the venomous fangs.

"Don't move. I know you have a poisonous fang hidden in your mouth, meant for suicide," the robot suddenly said, reaching out to pinch his chin.

During the descent, his breathing became labored, and his heart almost stopped beating.

Why...why does the BOSS know about this? And why...?

[System! I need to load the save file! Load the save file now!] He immediately said in his mind.

However, the system remained completely unresponsive.

"We are both God and the devil, because we want to reverse the flow of time and bring the dead back to life." The BOSS slowly recited this line that Furuya Rei was already very familiar with, his tone trying his best to suppress but still revealing an undisguised fanaticism.

"The research is still ongoing, and the experiment has not yet been successful."

The robot's expressionless body emitted a terrifying, yet joyful and manic laugh.

“But did you manage to do it, Bourbon?” he said.

[Triggered Special Circumstances]

Seventh save point discovered: "The Raven Is Staring at You"

[Automatically saving]

The system finally spoke, but what it brought was the whisper of a demon.

[Wait! No!! You can't save here!!!]

Rei Furuya frantically tried to stop it in his mind.

Save successful

“Bourbon, good boy, tell me, are you from the future?” The robot’s cold fingers lifted the blond youth’s chin, staring intently into his dark, purplish-gray eyes as it coaxed him softly.

"Do you possess the power to die and be reborn?" he asked.