Chapter 79, Nineteenth Cycle (1)

Save file loaded successfully.

You have started your nineteenth playthrough.

"Hagi and the squad leader have already caught the bomber."

Furuya Rei heard Matsuda Jinpei's hushed voice behind him.

It's Matsuda Jinpei from three years ago. He's currently in the building where Hagiwara Kenji died on November 7th, three years ago, at the moment when the explosion was resolved and the data was saved.

Once he was sure it was safe, Furuya Rei finally let himself reach out his trembling hand and clutch his chest tightly. He leaned against the wall for a few seconds before he could barely regain his composure.

He recalled his own situation at the time and replied in a low voice, "Yes, you can rest assured, Hagi is completely safe now."

"...The plan succeeded?" Matsuda Jinpei paused for two seconds before becoming excited.

"Yes, it was a success. I'll explain the details to you when we meet tonight. Let's retreat now." Furuya Rei's voice was filled with ease and joy.

But no matter what, he couldn't manage a smile on his face hidden in the shadows.

Because no one could see him, he didn't control the expression on his face. With that terrifying look, he took out his phone and quickly began to process the aftermath of this save file transfer.

He didn't have much time to grieve and suffer; he had to pull himself together as soon as possible and be in perfect condition for the new cycle.

This time, he will have even more to do.

*

Furuya Rei knew where Morofushi Kagemitsu was lying in ambush.

However, if the danger was successfully resolved, they originally did not plan to meet. They planned to wait until the other three arrived in the evening and then find a secluded place to meet together.

However, Furuya Rei sent a message to Morofushi Kagemitsu, telling him to wait where he was and then come downstairs to meet him immediately.

That was in the alley near the building where Date Wataru and Hagiwara Kenji had just arrested two bomb thugs. The alley was deep, narrow, and dark, and Morofushi Kagemitsu, wearing a dark blue hoodie that covered half of his face, was standing inside.

Unlike three years later, he still had a noticeably slender build, and his arms, even without his hood, hadn't developed any obvious muscles from years of being a sniper. His fair and clean face was even more youthful.

Then, those bright, round, blue, upturned cat eyes curved happily the moment they saw him.

Seeing that familiar smile, Rei Furuya's tense nerves suddenly relaxed.

"Zero." He heard his childhood friend call his name in a gentle and cheerful voice, and the desperate cries that lingered in his mind gradually disappeared.

"Hiro." Rei Furuya could no longer control her emotions and rushed over to hug him. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

Fortunately, Hiro won't remember those painful things.

He will no longer allow Hiro to access those memories of reincarnation.

"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly apologizing..." Morofushi Kagemitsu was a little surprised and held his back and patted him gently. He quickly realized what had happened when he noticed that his childhood friend, who was always as warm as a furnace all year round, was now surprisingly cold.

However, Morofushi Hiromitsu did not react violently. He simply turned on the signal jammer, then quietly embraced his childhood friend in the darkness, as if trying to convey warmth to him, and said softly, "Zero, did you just come back from the future?"

Rei Furuya gave a low "hmm": "Three years from now, in the final step before the organization is about to be destroyed."

"You can destroy the organization in three years? That's fast! As expected of Zero, you're amazing." Morofushi Kagemitsu praised with a smile.

“But I still failed.” Rei Furuya lifted his head from his shoulder and met his gaze into those blue eyes full of understanding and encouragement. “Hiro, aren’t you going to ask me why I apologized to you?”

Morofushi Kagemitsu tilted his head and smiled, "Because, as long as you don't lie to me and abandon me to go and risk your life alone, I won't be angry, and I will always forgive Zero."

Because he believed that apart from this incident, Zero wouldn't do anything excessive to him.

Jianggu Ling: "..."

Rei Furuya buried his head back down.

So that's why he's apologizing.

Damn it, how is he supposed to bring up that plan now...?

*

After Rei Furuya briefly explained to Hiromitsu Morofushi what had happened in the future and why he had reloaded the save file, and after regaining his composure and returning to his perfect state, Rei Furuya said goodbye to Hiromitsu Morofushi.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was quite worried about his condition and wanted to go back with him, but Furuya Rei refused.

"I have some things to do, see you tonight, everyone." He smiled and said he was perfectly fine.

Morofushi Kagemitsu himself wasn't the type to spend an entire day leisurely outside, so he had no choice but to agree.

“Okay, goodbye Zero then. Feel free to call me anytime if you need anything,” he said.

Rei Furuya smiled and winked at him, saying, "You too, Hiro. I've learned a lot in these three years, and I'm even quite skilled at disguise. You can come to me with any problem. Even if I can't solve it, I can find someone else who can."

Morofushi Kagemitsu paused for a moment, then gave a helpless smile: "Seriously, it's a good thing that Zero is getting stronger and more reliable, but don't overwork yourself. Looks like I need to work even harder too, I can't let Zero leave me too far behind."

Rei Furuya scratched his cheek, not daring to say that he worked so hard so that everyone could live a more relaxed and happy life, otherwise he would definitely be criticized for not taking care of himself.

As soon as the two separated, Furuya Rei took out his phone and started working.

He really has a lot of things to do. First and foremost, he has finally synchronized his time with everyone else in the group.

This synchronization period certainly won't last long. It's just that everyone is going through something important together right now, so we're temporarily synchronizing them to let them chat and stream to the audience.

In any case, Rei Furuya is finally able to use the Reincarnation group chat normally again after a long time.

He noticed it as soon as he came downstairs and reminded everyone.

But it didn't seem to work, because everyone appeared almost at the same time to warn each other to be careful.

Five "small" signs were sent out in unison, and the five people remained silent for a few seconds.

Okay, no need to say more.

Since they've already had time to send messages, it means that what happened on their end has already occurred, or even ended.

When Furuya Rei opened the group chat again, the other four people had already finished chatting, and the situation was similar to before, with nothing special.

He scrolled through the records, got a general understanding of their situation, and then began to recount his own story.

[Rei Furuya: Actually, it's not surprising. There were signs before. Whether it was the system not allowing me to cheat and quickly finish the game, or the laws of this world not tolerating my disruption of the original main storyline, the probability of failure was very high.]

[Rei Furuya: But I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. Based on previous predictions, the sudden change should only occur when things truly alter the world line.]

[Rei Furuya: I originally thought that even if it failed, I would wait until the day the plan was officially executed. I didn't expect that just by presenting the plan to the administrator, the game would be immediately restarted, and I would die of cardiac arrest right in front of Hiro.]

Rei Furuya was actually quite annoyed by this.

[Okabe Rintaro: In other words, putting aside the uncertainties of the system for now, purely from the perspective of the laws of the world, if the world line needs to change by 1% to successfully escape the original world line convergence range, but exceeds 2% or slightly higher, will you be warned by the laws of the world or directly judged as a bug and erased, and the world restarted?]

[Rei Furuya: Yes, if we call my world a game like "Detective Conan," then Conan, as the detective, eliminating the villainous Black Organization is the main storyline. All the changes we make to the world line revolve around this main storyline. Therefore, if I destroy the organization before Conan is even born, the world line will definitely change by more than 50%, and may even directly disrupt the most central main storyline of the world.]

[Homura Akemi: This is too difficult. To save people, we have to change the world line, but if the world line changes too much, it will be judged as a bug and the world will be erased and restarted. How do we strike the right balance?]

[Wang Dai Shenping: And then there are the systems. Their role can't be ignored; they certainly play a crucial part. Looking at it from the top down, you can see that while systems can't influence the laws of the world, within the bounds of those laws, they can do almost anything.]

[Natsuki Subaru: What's going on?! What are we supposed to do? Are we going to have to try so many times again? But honestly, just thinking about Furuya-san's three years of hard work being destroyed and having to start all over again from scratch makes me feel so overwhelmed. If this keeps happening like the previous save points, repeating the same thing over and over again, even Furuya-san couldn't take it, right? No! We have to find a way to solve this!]

[Rei Furuya: Don't worry, I already have a fairly complete idea.]

[Rei Furuya: The system's saying that haste makes waste wasn't just a sarcastic remark; it also gave me new insights.]

[Natsuki Subaru: Mr. Furuya already has a solution? That's amazing! As expected of Mr. Furuya! Is there anything we can do to help?]

[Shinpei Net Agent: Is this something I can talk about and discuss with everyone?]

[Rei Furuya: Hmm, I'm thinking about the feasible range of 1% and 2%.]

[Okabe Rintaro: If we're comparing it to a game, then it's like the deviation value of the game's main storyline, right? Is it about researching what the main storyline of this game actually is, and then determining the scope of influence of all events?]

[Rei Furuya: Yes, that definitely needs to be studied, but that's not what I'm thinking about right now.]

[Rei Furuya: I'm wondering, is this 1% figure based on the original worldline or the most recent worldline?]

[Rintaro Okabe:! ! ! 】

[Rei Furuya: If this 1% is based on the latest timeline, then the range of things I can manipulate is much larger.]

[Rei Furuya: If the first world line changes by 1%, and the second world line changes by 1%, then the total change is 2%.]

[Rei Furuya: If I keep changing things slowly like this, wouldn't it be okay if I could completely change the world to 100%?]

*

[1. Homura Akemi: From "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", currently at stage 68, has died 0 times.]

[2. Rintaro Okabe: From Steins;Gate, currently on his 43rd playthrough, has died 0 times.]

[3. Subaru Natsuki: From *Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-*, currently on his 26th playthrough, and has died 26 times.]

4. Rei Furuya: From "Detective Conan," currently on his 19th playthrough, and has died 19 times.

[5. Shinpei Ami: From "Summer Revisited," currently on his fourteenth playthrough, and has died fourteen times.]

*

The weather in November is already quite cold.

Rei Furuya put away his phone and put his hands in his pockets.

The wind was a little strong, which messed up his hair.

Rei Furuya looked up at the azure sky and slowly exhaled.

The exhaled hot air turned into white mist upon encountering the cold air, obscuring the view, but it quickly dissipated, and the world became clear again.

Three years is indeed a long time.

So, what will we learn this time?