Chapter 26: Sixth Playthrough (1)

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You have started your sixth playthrough.

"Hey! You blond bastard! Let's fight!"

In the blurry, swaying vision, there was a huge cherry blossom tree, a shower of pink cherry blossoms falling from the sky, and a defiant young man with curly black hair.

"..." Furuya Rei's trembling fingers gripped his chest tightly, and he finally couldn't help but cough a few times before slowly recovering from the aftereffects of dying in the fire.

"Hey! What's wrong?" Matsuda Jinpei paused for a moment before immediately stepping forward to check on him.

“Sorry… I’m afraid it’s not possible today.” Furuya Rei reached out to stop him from getting closer, tried to steady his breathing, and straightened up to say to the curly-haired youth, “I’m not feeling well today, let’s reschedule for another time. I suddenly remembered that I have something very important to do right now.”

Matsuda Jinpei was taken aback, frowning as he looked him up and down: "I would never take advantage of you in this state, but what happened to you? You were fine just now, how did you suddenly become like this? Did you hide some sudden illness when you entered the police academy? Hey, are you out of your mind?"

"No, I just suddenly got an upset stomach today." Furuya Rei finally regained complete control of his body, spun around in front of him perfectly, and clenched his fist and laughed, "My body is fine. Next time we fight, I'll show you how hard my fists are, but I really have something to do right now."

"Tsk, alright, I'll let you off the hook for today, but I'll teach you a lesson again later." Matsuda Jinpei could only reluctantly agree in the end.

Matsuda Jinpei left angrily, while Furuya Rei slowly walked back to the dormitory.

He passed by the 144th floor but did not stop; instead, he went straight back to his dormitory.

Rei Furuya drew back the curtains and opened the window, pulled out a chair and sat down at his desk. He then pressed one hand against his forehead, tilted his head to look at the moonlight and cherry blossoms outside, and began to think.

Why?

What exactly went wrong?

He had tried so hard, he really tried his best to keep things the way they were, but in the end he still failed.

Failure at the last step before success, all previous efforts were in vain, and then returning to the cherry blossom tree where it all began, starting from scratch.

Even though he had prepared himself mentally, he still couldn't accept the outcome immediately when it actually happened.

He genuinely believed he could safely reach the second save point after graduation, since everything was progressing smoothly, wasn't it? Not a single out-of-control butterfly had emerged, hadn't they?

Or is it that as long as he, the biggest butterfly of rebirth, exists, it is impossible to completely avoid the butterfly effect?

Even he couldn't possibly remember every detail of his six months at the police academy. Maybe he ate something different for breakfast one day, maybe he took a step with his left or right foot in a different order, maybe he slept a little later or woke up a minute earlier, maybe he accidentally stepped on an ant, maybe he let an extra leaf fall as he passed by, maybe he took an extra breath of air at a certain moment. And so, without his knowledge, a butterfly was born, and then at the most critical moment, it flapped its wings and took his friend's life.

Or perhaps, like when he couldn't safely leap over the cliff in his third playthrough as before? If Hagi hadn't bumped into him from behind, he probably would have died that time, which also seems to have nothing to do with the butterfly effect.

What was the reason for that?

Because, if those events that narrowly escaped death were to happen again, would death not spare you this time? In other words, is it simply a matter of luck?

Because humans are inherently complex beings, the thoughts of different people can change dramatically at any time, and they will do completely different things, and this is entirely uncontrollable. It is impossible for him to completely control everyone's thoughts.

Because the development of the world is not a regular straight line, but a chaotic spiral with countless possibilities, which can give rise to countless different futures at any time.

It's impossible that it was because he didn't catch the five-petaled cherry blossom at the beginning that he couldn't catch the cherry blossom flag at the end, right?

But if he catches that cherry blossom, wouldn't that create another obviously uncontrollable butterfly, which would then lead to the frenzied creation of countless butterflies stirring up a tornado that destroys everything?

No, we can't think of it that way. The fifth playthrough is still better than the others. We just need to get through the last event so that we can survive the police academy and he will soon have his second save point.

This is the best result so far, which shows that suppressing the butterfly effect is still effective. Perhaps once the answer to that problem is found and solved, we can be completely safe.

But what was the reason for the final failure?

If he doesn't make any changes, won't that happen again? Then everyone still won't be able to graduate alive, and he will still choose to die and reload to start from scratch, just like before.

Therefore, he first needs to figure out the reason.

Why didn't Hiro emerge from the inferno at that time? Was the anomaly in Outer Guardian the reason? If so, what caused the anomaly in Outer Guardian? What exactly happened on the second floor at that time?

"Knock knock knock knock!" A rapid knocking sound suddenly broke the silence of the night.

Then came Morofushi Kagemitsu's emotionally unstable cries: "Zero! Zero! Are you there, Zero?!"

Rei Furuya stood up to open the door, but he hadn't actually closed it. He was just waiting for Hiro to wake up from his dream and come to him.

Therefore, in his anxiety, Morofushi Kagemitsu subconsciously pressed the doorknob to open the door, paused for a moment, and then rushed in and hugged the blond youth not far away.

“Zero!!!” Morofushi Kagemitsu hugged the blond youth tightly to confirm his presence, then took a step back to carefully examine the other’s face. After finding that there was no problem, he leaned weakly on the other’s shoulder.

Feeling his heartbeat and body temperature, Morofushi Kagemitsu's wildly beating heart slowly returned to its original position, but his body was still trembling uncontrollably.

"Hiro? What's wrong? What happened? Don't panic, you can tell me slowly, I'll listen." Rei Furuya reached out and hugged him back, while gently stroking the young man's trembling back.

"I...I think I had a nightmare...no, two nightmares!" Morofushi Kagemitsu clung to his childhood friend's clothes like a drowning man, tears streaming down his face uncontrollably, his breathing unsteady and his speech incoherent. "But...but the second nightmare was just too real, so real that I thought it was real...I thought you were really dead, I thought you were dead too, I thought you died after our parents died..."

"It was just a dream, calm down, Hiro. It was just a nightmare. I'm still alive, standing right in front of you." Rei Furuya looked down and saw his childhood friend's bare feet, which he was so anxious about. He took his cold and sweaty hand and slowly led him to sit down on the bed. With his other hand, he took a piece of paper from the table next to him and gently wiped away the fear that was a mixture of sweat and tears on the face of the blue cat-eyed youth.

He lowered his voice and guided the other person: "What kind of dream was it? It scared you so much. Can you tell me about it? Let me help Hiro analyze it."

Morofushi Kagemitsu completely trusted his childhood friend. Countless times when he had nightmares about his parents being killed and was so afraid and distressed that he couldn't sleep at night, his childhood friend would always be the first to notice something was wrong, and then hug his pillow and talk to him.

Each time, the two of them would curl up together, talk, and gradually fall asleep, then greet the next day's sunshine together.

Even in college, the blond youth still kept an eye on him, always noticing something was wrong with him since they shared a dorm room, and then gently comforting him like he was doing now.

Morofushi Kagemitsu gradually recovered from this familiar sense of security. He held his childhood friend's unharmed hand tightly, and then looked closely at the other's beautiful, smooth blond hair and textured bronze skin. His exquisite and perfect features were without any damage, and his clear, droopy purple eyes were still very cute. They even looked a bit like a beautiful blue sky under the moonlight shining through the window.

As a result, the terrifying image of the blond youth in his dream, gradually being consumed by flames and becoming broken and charred, finally faded, and his palpitations and suffocation were relieved a little.

"I... actually, I don't remember many things clearly now, but that last moment was really, really clear..."

Morofushi Kagemitsu held his childhood friend's hand tightly and leaned against him, slowly recounting the terrifyingly real nightmare he had.

He gradually calmed down. Yes, how could that be? It must have just been a nightmare, right? Only dreams would be so blurry, leaving only the final, terrifying memory and an unbearable palpitation and fear, right? Just like how he always woke up from nightmares about his parents being murdered and then couldn't breathe.

So it's not so strange to dream of finding the murderer and then dying yourself.

But why am I suddenly having nightmares about Zero dying?

He could never possibly involve Zero in danger, could he? He had never even considered the possibility of Zero dying, let alone in such a gruesome way.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was still somewhat uneasy.

However, the blond youth seemed to sense his unease and said many things to reassure him, successfully dispelling his anxiety.

“How could I be the kind of person who would recklessly rush into a collapsed fire scene under those circumstances? Wouldn’t that be suicide? Why would I commit suicide?” The blond youth looked at him mockingly. “On the contrary, Hiro is perfectly capable of doing something like that, isn’t he?”

Morofushi Kagemitsu looked away sheepishly, and retorted guiltily, "Don't talk nonsense, it wasn't that dangerous when I rushed into the fire in my dream..."

After all that, it was already 3 a.m.

When the blond youth reminded him, Morofushi Kagemitsu was startled. He quickly stood up and said with a smile that he was fine and wouldn't disturb Zero's rest any longer, as he had to go to school and train tomorrow.

“Well then, see you tomorrow.” Morofushi Kagemitsu said with a smile under the moonlight outside the door. “Good night, Zero.”

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Rei Furuya smiled as he stood in the darkness inside the doorway. "Goodnight, Hiro."

The door was closed gently.

Then, with a "click," the lock was fastened.

*

Morofushi Kagemitsu's thoughts were still somewhat stuck in that nightmare.

As he pondered something, he walked to his dormitory. He paused for a moment when he saw the door wide open, then sighed helplessly.

He was so panicked and scared when he woke up that he ran straight to Zero without even putting on his shoes, and of course, he didn't remember to close the door.

Fortunately, it was only two or three in the morning, and everyone was asleep. Otherwise, it would have been really embarrassing if someone had seen the mess he had made in the room in his panic.

Morofushi Kagemitsu's action of closing the door suddenly froze, and his blue cat eyes slowly widened.

Wait a minute? Why is Zero still awake so late?

Zero's bed was even neatly arranged, and he stood at the door dressed in his best, as if he were waiting for someone.

Moreover, thinking about it now, it doesn't make sense. If it were before, Zero would never have brought up the time to let him go back to sleep alone after having a nightmare. In fact, even if he refused out of embarrassment, Zero would still have smiled and spent the night with him.

Morofushi Kagemitsu suddenly opened the door, which wasn't fully closed, and hurried back in a panic, eventually even starting to run.

“Zero! Zero?!” Morofushi Kagemitsu stood in front of the door with the name “Furuya” written on it again, but no matter how much he knocked and called out, no one opened the door for him.

He gritted his teeth and tried to pry open the doorknob, but he couldn't open it at all.

The door was locked.

At the same time, a very familiar smell of blood gradually wafted in from the crack in the door, as familiar as the overwhelming crimson of blood in countless nightmares.

Zhu Fujingguang was stunned.

"...zero?"

*

You are dead.

[Sixth playthrough completed]

[Achieve a Bad Ending: Facing Death with Unwavering Spirit]

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