Chapter 61, Eighteenth Cycle (5)

"Hagi and the squad leader have already caught the bomber," Matsuda Jinpei said, leaning against the wall and pressing his earpiece after defusing the bomb and taking off his bomb suit.

Standing in the corridor across the wall from him, Rei Furuya whispered, "Yes, you can rest assured, Hagi is safe now."

Matsuda Jinpei quickly realized from his tone that the security he was talking about was not simple security.

He suddenly stood up and almost ran around the corner to grab the blond bastard and get to the bottom of things, but the retreating colleagues from the Explosives Unit made him hold back.

"Did the plan succeed?" Matsuda Jinpei asked in a low voice.

"Yes, it was successful. I'll explain the details to you later. Let's retreat now," said Rei Furuya.

He also needed to sort out his thoughts; things seemed to have taken a bit beyond his expectations.

*

The five people met at an abandoned building that evening.

Rei Furuya turned on the signal jammer before he began to explain to them.

"In other words, my transfer from the Explosives Division to the First Investigation Division should have changed the world line by at least 1%. So the world line where I was killed by the bomb changed, and I jumped to a completely new world line where I at least won't be killed by the world, right?" Kenji Hagiwara summarized after listening to Rei Furuya's explanation.

"That's the current assessment," Furuya Rei nodded. "But we can't be completely sure. You should still be careful, at least until after the New Year before you can completely relax."

Matsuda Jinpei wasn't wearing sunglasses, so you could clearly see how his tense body and expression gradually relaxed, until finally a big smile appeared on his face, and then he punched Hagiwara Kenji next to him.

"Anyway, congratulations on surviving, hagi," he said. "You better live well, you bastard. It's really lame to die in the line of duty just a month after graduation."

Kenji Hagiwara chuckled and rubbed his shoulder: "Seriously, isn't it my turn to say that now?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu reached out and patted Furuya Rei's shoulder, gently comforting him: "Since the new save point is called 'The World Line Where One Cherry Blossom Survives,' then it should be confirmed that Hagiwara's fate of certain death has been changed. Don't worry too much. The system doesn't seem to lie about this before. You've finally passed a save point, so I think you need to relax and rest a bit now, Zero."

Rei Furuya turned to meet those gentle yet worried blue cat eyes: "...I understand. I'll get some rest after I've resolved the follow-up issues."

"Don't worry, don't worry. With the first victory, there will be a second and a third." Date Hang put his arms around the necks of the two from behind and laughed heartily. "We will definitely keep succeeding. As long as we work together, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome!"

“Of course, I’ve never doubted that.” Rei Furuya was bent over by the weight, but couldn’t help laughing along.

But he quickly became serious: "Although it's bad to talk about this now, we don't have much time, so let's start discussing the next issue."

Upon hearing this, the four stopped their playful fighting and gathered together to look at him intently.

In the moonlight streaming through the broken window, the blond youth's hair appeared as pale as silver, while the darkness made his skin appear even darker. Combined with his purple eyes and the absurd things he uttered, which were uttered by ordinary people, he seemed increasingly unlike a normal human being, exuding an air of the bizarre and mysterious.

"The first thing to be certain of is that both timelines and causality can be changed, and fate can be altered by humanity. So don't be afraid, we can definitely change that future where everyone will die, and we will successfully survive together."

"And this success is indeed worth celebrating. It means that we have finally found the right path and no longer need to try other wrong paths. We just need to work hard in this direction."

"But changing the world line also means a completely new future, which means that the world line we are in now is completely new. The future will become increasingly unpredictable, and there will be more and more uncontrollable butterfly effects. My future memories from the previous world line can no longer be used as a complete reference."

"Although it's only a 1% change and won't have much impact on most of the world's structure, it's by no means a trivial change. This will be the biggest butterfly effect so far."

"But that's alright. I believe that as long as we're not maliciously hunted down by fate due to the convergence of timelines, we can overcome any difficulties we encounter. The unknown future isn't scary either; it may represent more hope and more opportunities."

“I mean, there can’t be a worse future than the original timeline, can there?” Furuya Rei laughed.

The four, who had initially felt somewhat uneasy, agreed upon hearing this and their confidence in future victory grew even stronger.

Their biggest concern was that they would forget everything after reloading their saves, so even if Furuya Rei wanted to shoulder everything alone and work hard by himself, they wouldn't be able to find out or help him.

But now there's no need to worry anymore. They won't forget what happened before, and they won't let Furuya Rei act recklessly on his own.

Then they can start discussing boldly what to do next.

These five people were not timid or cowardly people to begin with. Give them a car and they would even step on the gas and fly into the sky. Onizuka Hachizo probably has a lot to say about this.

They talked for a long time about what the other people could do to make the world line change by more than 1% so that the world could escape that inevitable convergence range.

However, there are too many possibilities. Even if Kenji Hagiwara succeeds this time, no one can be sure until he does. We can only wait and see.

The next time will be on November 7th, four years later.

That was the turning point for Matsuda Jinpei's death.

Before parting ways, Matsuda Jinpei put his sunglasses back on.

"I won't die." The curly-haired youth grinned arrogantly. "I don't want a bunch of grown men dressed in women's clothing to attend my funeral. That would be too much of an eyesore."

*

November 22nd.

Matsuda Jinpei found an unsigned gift among his pile of birthday presents; the sender had simply drawn a 0 on the back of the box.

Matsuda Jinpei raised an eyebrow: "That blond bastard actually gave me a birthday present? I'd like to see what it is."

Upon opening the package, I found a wolf fang necklace inside.

Matsuda Jinpei: "?"

In this timeline, Matsuda Jinpei, who didn't dress up as a werewolf to catch the bomber on Halloween, November 1st, was bewildered and completely couldn't understand why the other party would give him such a gift.

He's always the type to ask directly, and Furuya Rei answered him again in an email.

This is an apology to Mr. Dentures.

Matsuda Jinpei: "..."

Matsuda Jinpei was so excited that his fingers flew across the keyboard, reaching a peak in hand speed.

"If you mention dentures again, I'll knock your real teeth out next time! And what kind of birthday present is this?! You yourself said it was an apology for the dentures! My birthday present can't be this simple, right? Aren't you supposed to have a lot of futuristic knowledge and be researching futuristic gadgets with some PhD? Let me play with them too! I promise I won't break all of them, and even if I do, I can put them back together perfectly! I promise! I swear!"

[I'm serious, Zero. I could totally join your research team, but the police regulations are really troublesome, so I'd prefer to work with the PhD you've commissioned. You can leave all the machine-related issues to me. I'm very good at taking things apart and repairing them, and even if there's something I don't know, I can learn it quickly. I can even learn relativity and quantum mechanics.]

[Let me help too. It's too painful to just watch and do nothing. Besides, this was originally my problem, so it's easier for me to change the world line if I take the initiative, just like Hagi.]

[If I could build you a Gundam, you could wipe out that organization and achieve a perfect ending, right? And Master Jing, you two could each build a Gundam, destroy that organization, and then come back and reunite with us as police officers.]

After reading the last sentence, Rei Furuya couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"What nonsense! Gundam? Are you really trying to fly to the heavens?"

"Alright, then go find Professor Agasa yourself, I'll give you the information. But police officers can't just take on multiple jobs, so I'll put you on an assistant file with Professor Agasa at the Public Security Bureau."

And, please, I really need this Gundam.

Matsuda Jinpei: "..."

Matsuda Jinpei was shocked: "Is this guy serious?!"

*

December 24th.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day passed peacefully.

The country's crime rate remains alarmingly high, and bombs still seem to be everywhere, but none of that poses a threat to their safety anymore.

As Rei Furuya said, the five of them are now just one step away from truly evolving into gorillas, and if it weren't for the world's malicious targeting, they would be able to overcome any difficulties in life.

Rei Furuya thought that perhaps the game's progress had truly entered a new phase.

Besides the abnormally stable life these past few months, there is another important reason.

After Rei Furuya made his third save point, three major events occurred in the chat group.

First, Rei Furuya successfully changed the world line, saving Kenji Hagiwara, who was to be killed by the fate of the world, and creating the third save point.

This proves that the "Lorentz Butterfly VS Laplace's Demon" plan is indeed feasible, and once the true causal relationship is found, it is not so difficult to solve. Humans can also overcome fate, which is a great hope for the group.

Secondly, Shinpei also received the system's "clearance reward." Unlike Rei Furuya's revival slot, his reward was the number of save/load attempts.

This is not a problem for Rei Furuya, Subaru Natsuki, Homura Akemi, and Rintaro Okabe, but it is very important for Shinpei Amishiro.

Shinpei's number of save/load attempts was already very limited, and the save/load refresh time was getting closer and closer. This system's completion reward finally allowed him to breathe a little easier, and he had more hope.

Third, the flow of time in different worlds is stretched even further.

When Furuya Rei watches them chat in the group, even though they send out just a few sentences at a time, it takes him several days to process them all.

He would receive a reply to his messages much later.

It's as if the signal on his side of the world is extremely poor and lagging terribly.

The one with the biggest difference in time flow between Furuya Zero and Shinpei Miyazaki is Shinpei Miyazaki. One minute in Shinpei Miyazaki's world is roughly equivalent to ten days in Furuya Zero's world.

Subaru Natsuki and Rintaro Okabe weren't much better off; one day for them was roughly equivalent to one month for Rei Furuya.

Moreover, the time flow rate seems to be increasing, without any definite pattern. If something significant happens around everyone, the time flow rate of the group chat will return to normal.

Furuya Rei is generally unable to use this group chat normally, and is completely unable to participate in everyone's discussions.

The difference in time flow between Homura Akemi and him wasn't that exaggerated; he could only barely have a normal conversation with Homura Akemi right now.

Rei Furuya rested his chin on his hand and thought about it seriously for a long time before finally concluding that it was about the "live stream effect."

In order to "simultaneously" broadcast "interesting" events happening in five different worlds to viewers in other worlds, to show only the most crucial parts, and to integrate the different situations in different worlds for a better live broadcast effect, the system adjusted the live broadcast time, thus affecting the time flow of the group chat.

In other words, the world time of the five of them is not manipulated; the only things affected are the chat groups created by the system to allow them to communicate, and the possible live streaming rooms.

This trend had been evident before, but this is the first time it's been this exaggerated.

The main reason for this change should be Zero, because his timeline is very long, spanning three years after three years, which is completely different from the timeline of others, which is measured in days and months. Therefore, he is the one most affected.

Based on previous speculation, the system is likely just a parasite of the world, and there's a reason why they call themselves observers.

They can make some interventions, but these are very limited, and they can basically only do minor things within the rules of the world. The only things they can completely control are group chats and live streaming rooms.

However, whether they can directly kill or brainwash a person within the rules is still uncertain, or rather, it is basically certain that the system can do so. For them, killing someone who is already destined to die within the rules of the world should not be a problem.

However, systems generally won't do that, as it's not very meaningful and could even result in significant losses. It's absolutely impossible for a system that has no emotions and only considers interests to do that.

This point being established is important for the descent of zero.

After all, what he's about to do will be even bolder and more dangerous, and if the system doesn't intervene, everything will be much easier.

Of course, this is just a hypothetical situation now; we'll have to try it to find out for sure.

Rei Furuya will never give up hope, but he will always be prepared for the worst.

*

December 31st.

For the first time since then, Furuya Rei and Morofushi Kagemitsu met with their three classmates and agreed to spend New Year's Eve together on a deserted mountain.

This time, based on the lessons learned from previous playthroughs, Rei Furuya considered things such as the flight paths of planes in the sky and the possibility of landmines and bombs being buried on the ground.

The other four were helpless about his nervousness, but there was nothing they could do but wait quietly with him for the final result.

"10——"

"9——"

The crowds at the foot of the mountain began their grand New Year's countdown.

"8——"

"7——"

"6——"

Kenji Hagiwara also started counting down.

"5——"

“4——”

The other four were taken aback for a moment, then laughed and loudly counted down to the new year together.

"3——"

"2——"

"1——"

Five people stood on the mountaintop and shouted loudly.

"0—!!!"

As the clock struck midnight and enormous fireworks burst overhead, confirming that January 1st of the new year had truly arrived, Rei Furuya's nerves, which had never relaxed, finally began to settle down.

Then he was pounced on by four gorillas.

"Happy New Year!" they shouted, laughing as they wished each other a Happy New Year.

Rei Furuya, whose hair was disheveled from being petted, also laughed.

"Happy New Year!" he said.

This is a true New Year, a new future full of hope.

*

The New Year is usually the biggest holiday, and unless there are special circumstances, police officers, except for those on duty, will also have a holiday during the New Year.

However, on the first day of the new year, Rei Furuya faced the biggest task of his life.

"You have successfully passed all the training and assessments, and you can now begin your infiltration and investigation of the organization."

"Your police file has been sealed. Public Security Police Officer Rei Furuya will not be able to reappear in front of the world until everything is successful."

"From this moment on, you are Amuro Tooru."

"You are an undercover agent, codename ZERO."

"You are an unsung hero, about to delve into the darkest and most wicked place in the world. Your true name is unknown, and your deeds cannot be proclaimed to the public."

Are you ready?