Chapter 111 Midnight Phone Call

Day 10 of the road survival game!

"Uh! Location tracking? His phone isn't a satellite phone..." When Hagiwara heard Fuuka's question, he naturally didn't understand what she meant, since location tracking was only a function unique to satellite phones back in 2007 when the accident happened.

However, he did understand the solution she proposed later. And because he understood it, even with his strong ability to adapt to changing circumstances, he couldn't help but show a look of astonishment on his face. Then he couldn't help but laugh at himself, "I really was blinded by a leaf, and my concern made me confused."

Such a simple solution, and I only realized it after you taught me, Feng-chan! Indeed, Xiao Jinping and I didn't need to rush at all. Perhaps we could have helped Xiao Morofushi without even leaving the instance!

"What did Feng-chan say?" Matsuda, who was standing to the side, saw that his best friend's expression had returned to its usual relaxed and carefree state, without the previous struggle and heaviness. Knowing Hagi as he did, he knew that Hagi must have found a solution to the problem that had been troubling him, which made him curious and ask.

When Hagiwara saw Kojinpei asking, he relayed what Kazesei-no-Kami had just said to him.

Matsuda immediately realized what was going on. In 2011, before his accident, there were indeed mobile phones that could activate location services, but for Japan at that time, that was not a popular mobile application capability.

Since his own work didn't require it, he hadn't activated it. Now, upon hearing Feng Xingshou's suggestion, he immediately praised it while operating his phone, saying, "That's a good idea. Feng Jiang's calmer-headedness when faced with problems is just too good."

Sure enough, even though their appearances are very different, and their personalities seem to be very different as well, as that person's younger sister, the junior schoolmate also has amazing strengths. To describe this personality in Chinese, it should be called the "wise but foolish" type!

As he thought about it, he turned on his phone's location service. As the map unfolded on the screen and the coordinates were confirmed, Matsuda looked bewildered with his beady eyes: "Where are we...?"

"What's wrong?" Hagiwara noticed Kojinpei's expression and curiously leaned over to take a look, only to find himself looking equally bewildered: "Ono Advertising Company, 7-12 Beito-cho! What a coincidence?"

"What's wrong with this address?" Feng Xingshou couldn't help but ask out of curiosity when he saw their strange reactions without explaining why.

Hagiwara Mikaze Seishoku didn't remember, so he quickly reminded her: "The place where Komorifushi committed suicide was the rooftop of the abandoned building at 7-13 Beido-cho."

“Same town! Number 12 and number 13, they should be very close, right?” Feng Xingshou had been to Japan before, but even though he hadn’t attended a language school and only had a superficial understanding of Japan.

She understands words with similar meanings to Chinese characters, such as "町" in Japan, which is similar to the division of towns and districts in China's capital. She knows that "一番地" in Japan generally refers to the ownership of land such as a detached house or a building.

Hearing her ask this, Hagiwara nodded: "These nearby neighborhoods are either next to buildings, or across the street, or diagonally across, or similar places."

"That's strange. Furuya said that Keidan's time of death was 00:47 on the 7th, and we entered the instance at 23:47 on the 6th. According to the calculation of 1 hour for an instance."

The instance should have destroyed at the exact time of Jing Dan's death. Now, the location of the destruction is so close to where Jing Dan died. If the instance had destroyed a few minutes later...

We can also speculate that the organization destroyed the body to cover up the crime, which led to the destruction of the nearby abandoned office building. However, the time of the destruction of the instance coincides with the time of Jing Dan's death, and the distance is so close.

"This doesn't make sense! What happens here at 12:47? Is it related to what happened over there in Jingdan?" Matsuda snapped out of his surprise at the address and realized something was wrong.

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"Could it be that the organization's people created some kind of devastating danger in this abandoned office building while obstructing the police's rescue of Komobushi, or that the organization's people premeditatedly drove Komobushi to this generation?"

"They had already set a trap in this area, waiting for Komorofushi to enter before activating it? So after Komorofushi's suicide, they simply used some kind of destructive method to erase all traces of their activities in this area." Hagiwara speculated.

He knew in his heart that this reasoning was somewhat far-fetched, and the time difference of a few minutes could not be explained. His reasoning would only be reasonable if a few minutes had passed since 0:47 and the organization members had all evacuated.

After all, no matter how ruthless Gin's organization is, it wouldn't unnecessarily launch a sabotage operation immediately after confirming the death of its undercover police officer without waiting for its own personnel to evacuate...

Matsuda had naturally thought of all this, so after hearing his speculation, he said, "Since this place is so close to where the accident happened in Komorobushi, we don't need to rush. Let's first look around and find out what the crisis is about to destroy this place."

Perhaps finding the source of this crisis will reveal the truth: was the destruction accident accidental, or is it related to the death of Koshufuku? Right, the first priority is to find the dungeon exit so we can safely leave when it ends.

"Okay!" Hagiwara nodded, and after hearing Kaze agree in his ear, he discussed with Matsuda: "This time, Kaze and I will search for the dungeon exit together, and keep an eye on the Destruction Crisis. You go and check the environmental information here and the place where the incident happened in Komorofushi!"

"OK!" After agreeing, Matsuda lifted his long legs, opened the door, and walked upstairs.

As Hagiwara watched Jinpei's retreating figure, he felt like he had forgotten something. It wasn't until he heard Fuusei whisper in his ear that December was warmer than the Survival Highway that he suddenly remembered his plan from yesterday and quickly caught up with Matsuda: "By the way, Jinpei, can I borrow your phone for a moment?"

"What are you doing?" Matsuda asked as he handed over his phone.

After taking the phone, Hagiwara dialed the squad leader's number while saying, "We need to figure out what to do with our spare clothes and warm clothing! And since we can't contact Kofuruya and the others right now..."

It's best to tell the squad leader about the car accident directly and tell him to be careful. I just don't know if he can get here in about 50 minutes.

“It should be fine. He was just transferred to the Metropolitan Police Department a little over a month ago, and his rented apartment isn’t far from here. If he’s not working on cases in distant areas, he can get here within an hour.” After learning about Hagi’s plan.

Matsuda said without any politeness, "Oh, and tell the class monitor to prepare a few extra boxes of chewing gum for me, besides the clothes! And please, don't make the clothes black."

Hagi is still alive, so I can't wear such unlucky clothes.

"Heh... I bet the class monitor is going to have a real headache later." Hagiwara couldn't help but laugh at the thought of his class monitor being woken up in the middle of the night by a friend who had suddenly come back to life to go buy clothes and chewing gum. He wondered if it would scare him and make him think that a midnight ghost had attacked.

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Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, Ida Wataru, who was woken up by his cell phone ringing in his rented apartment, stared wide-eyed at the caller ID on his phone screen, his forehead dripping with cold sweat.

I instantly snapped awake. Tomorrow seems to be the one-month anniversary of Matsuda's death. Could it be that the guy didn't become a Buddha and is calling me in the middle of the night to reminisce? -_-|| Science, science, we must believe in science. Ghosts and such don't exist.

He figured it must be a colleague from the Metropolitan Police Department who had contacted him about a case related to him, which was why they were calling him on his phone. After convincing himself of a reason, he finally answered the call, but his palms were now covered in cold sweat…

"Moshi moshi! Good evening, class monitor!" Hearing the phone ring, but not hearing the class monitor's voice on the other end, Hagiwara realized it was Kojinpei's phone and instantly guessed what the class monitor was thinking.

Seeing this, Hagiwara, who was essentially just a 22-year-old young man, was overcome by a mischievous impulse, or perhaps he didn't know how to tell his friend the good news that he was still alive.

He greeted Date Wataru in his usual flippant voice, then added with a wicked grin, "Long time no see! Did you miss me and Jinpei? I've missed you, my old friend, terribly!"

"..." It wasn't Matsuda's voice, it was Hagiwara's? After hearing the voice from the phone, Date Wataru's mind went blank for a few seconds, but Hagiwara was as frivolous as ever.

Yet his voice was strangely relaxing, and his mischievous tone when he was deliberately playing pranks made Date Kou instinctively widen his eyes and retort, "What kind of naughty idea are you up to?"

"Haha... No way! How could someone as good as me have any bad intentions!" Wanting to play a prank on the class monitor isn't a bad idea at all! Hagiwara saw Matsuda's crescent-shaped eyes widen because of his words, and immediately winked his beautiful purple eyes at him.

Hearing that familiar laugh, with a slightly mischievous tone, Date Wataru instinctively pinched his thigh hard. The intense pain confirmed that he wasn't dreaming, and he sat up abruptly in bed, asking incredulously, "Hagiwara, is that really you? You're still alive?"

"Heh... Looks like you're really sober now. I thought you'd think I was some kind of midnight psychic!" Hagiwara said, and imagining the class president's mindset just now, he couldn't help but laugh again.

"I'm the man in Japan who believes in science the most!" Date Wataru, who had just been genuinely frightened, rolled his eyes speechlessly, because there were no remains of Hagiwara when he died, and Matsuda had repeatedly expressed his doubts that he did not die at the scene of the explosion.

As a close friend, he had naturally heard about these things, so Date Wataru quickly accepted that Hagiwara was still alive. After confirming that he wasn't dreaming, he immediately got up and asked, "What exactly happened? If you're still alive, why didn't you come back?"

"Do you know..." He was about to say that Matsuda had been wearing black mourning clothes for the past four years and rarely smiled, when he suddenly remembered that the phone he was talking to was Matsuda's number.

The investigation report on the explosion site where Matsuda died was similar to that of Hagiwara; both only showed the destroyed scene and no bodily tissue belonging to Matsuda. He immediately realized, "Matsuda is still alive? He's right next to you?"

"As expected of the class monitor, your reaction is really quick." Hagiwara praised with a smile when he saw that the class monitor had guessed it. However, he knew that the dungeon time was limited, and besides, there was the Sword of Damocles, which was related to the life and death of Komorofushi, hovering above his head.

There wasn't enough time to catch up with his friends today, so after laughing, he said directly, "Squad leader, I don't have time to explain in detail about me and Xiaozhenping right now. We also need you to keep this a secret from the police and our families."

"Jinpei and I can't appear before them yet. We're contacting you now because we need your help with something. How far are you from Beika-cho 7th district? Can you get here in about 40 minutes?"

In the line of work as a criminal investigator, anything is possible. When Date Wataru heard Hagiwara say this, and thought about the explosion scene of the two of them, he thought that they were valued by the Public Security Bureau, just like Furuya and Morofushi.

They need to be registered as deceased members of the public to do certain jobs, and now they're in trouble and need his help! He immediately replied, "My rented apartment is in Beika Town, right next to Beika Town. It's only a 20-minute drive to Beika 7-cho."

"That's good. You can go to any nearby convenience stores and clothing stores that are still open to buy them for us..." Hagiwara breathed a sigh of relief when he heard how far the squad leader was, and quickly told the squad leader what emergency supplies they needed.

At least four sets of clothes to change into? XXL size women's clothing, down jacket? Snow boots? And chewing gum... Date Wataru listened to Hagiwara mention the items he needed to deliver and felt completely lost.

What kind of job would make them need me to buy all this for them? Plus-size women's clothing too? -_-|| I can't even imagine what their job entails! Oh well, I'll ask them in person when I deliver it!

Ida Wataru is mature and steady. After working as a grassroots criminal police officer for several years, he has become even more capable. Even when faced with such a perplexing request, he readily agrees and plans in his mind where to buy all the necessary items later...

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"All done!" Seeing the squad leader hang up the phone and go to get the things he had just mentioned, Hagiwara was quite happy: "Kaze-chan, Jinpei, we'll all have changes of clothes when we get back today!"

"Ugh! Buying so much stuff all at once, can the class monitor's wallet handle it? Will he be broke this month? Will Natalie argue with him about this?" Matsuda thought that each item they asked the class monitor to prepare wasn't expensive on its own.

But all these things together would take at least several months' salary for the squad leader to cover. After all, police officers' salaries are really not high, and he has a girlfriend who spends more than him, so I'm a little worried about the squad leader's wallet.

It was the first time that someone other than his brother had spent money on him, and he felt quite embarrassed. Hearing Matsuda's concern, he couldn't help but say, "If only we could bring those super valuable wines we collected into reality."

Leave a few bottles of wine for your friends to sell; that should be enough to buy all the stuff we just had, right? It's a pity that things from the future, once they appear in the past, will return to where they should have been in this timeline.

"Maybe not!" Hagiwara heard Kaze say that, and suddenly remembered that Kaze was only able to collect those things that should have been destroyed in the dungeon, while the phone used in the last experiment was something he found outside the dungeon and gave to Kaze to keep.

He couldn't help but speculate: "Unlike the cell phone I found outside the instance, those bottles of alcohol were things that should have been destroyed within the instance. Perhaps when they were made into instance resources by the game organizers, they were no longer limited by real time and space?"

Otherwise, if survivors painstakingly collect supplies and bring them back to reality, wouldn't they instantly revert to the location and time of their destruction, just like those cell phones? This contradicts the game announcement that after upgrading the trailer, players can bring the vehicle and supplies back to reality for use.

"You mean that the only resources I can retrieve in reality and return to their original time and location are those that you collected, which still belong to reality and haven't been turned into dungeon items by the game organizers?"

"If I find something in the instance itself, it won't disappear even if I take it to the real world of the past? So it's okay if I take out the wine I collected in the instance?" After realizing what Hagiwara meant, Kazesei-no-Kami said.

Without even considering the possibility that his conjecture was wrong, he directly sensed the storage boxes containing wine in his backpack space, but then remembered that his friend's profession was a policeman.

If you give him something particularly valuable, like a bottle of wine that costs millions of dollars, not only will you not be able to sell it to recoup the price of those other goods, but it might also cause him unnecessary trouble.

So he specially selected a wine that was somewhat expensive but wouldn't attract too much attention, prepared several bottles, and took them out to try to transmit them into reality through Hagiwara's body. Sure enough, after these wines appeared in reality, they didn't disappear like the cell phone last time.

Matsuda looked at the bottles in the storage box and knew that the junior had specially chosen the brand with the class monitor's situation in mind. He was happy for her thoughtfulness, but said calmly, "Looks like you guessed right again."

"It's a bit late to realize this now! We should have thought of this possibility when we were experimenting with the phone." Hagiwara said this, but he didn't really care that he only realized it now.

Instead, upon seeing the storage box on the ground, he deliberately teased her in a slightly frivolous and mischievous tone: "Feng-chan! Are you taking out the wine now so that Xiao Jinping and I can hold it and check the status of this instance later?"

"Ah... I forgot I needed to check the dungeon." Feng Xing Shou realized they hadn't found the dungeon exit yet, and quickly packed up the storage box on the ground. He said to the two of them, "Seven minutes have already passed! Let's get started!"

OK!

"Oh……"

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So the three of them finally got back on track and began exploring the dungeon again. They split into two groups and went their separate ways. After Matsuda went off on his own, Hagiwara and Kaze Seishoku also walked out of the door on this floor and began looking around for the dungeon exit.

However, the exit of this instance was stranger than the previous ones. The distance restrictions in the previous instances were very obvious, but this time it seemed that there were no restrictions at all. Whether Fengxing Shou followed Hagiwara upstairs or downstairs, he did not notice the existence of the instance boundary.

Of course, the location of the dungeon exit was not found, nor was any reason for the building's destruction found, because not only were there no eight eggs installed, but water, electricity, and natural gas were also cut off, making it completely abandoned.

In this situation, even an abandoned building couldn't possibly be destroyed, right? Furthermore, there's the information gleaned from observing subtle clues on the walls by shining a phone light on them after leaving the floor.

They learned that their base of operations in the instance was Ono Advertising Company, located on the 8th floor of an abandoned office building at 7-12 Beito-cho. The building had a total of 9 floors, and the abandoned office area on the 9th floor led to the rooftop terrace.

And quite coincidentally, the rooftop of this abandoned building was less than a meter away from the rooftop of the building where Morofushi Kagemitsu had his accident. With Matsuda and Hagiwara's long legs and physical strength, they jumped over it with ease.

Feng Xing Shou didn't have their physical abilities or strong hearts. Even with the help of her water manipulation skills, and confident that she could jump over it, she didn't dare to try unless necessary.

She did try to reach out her arm to explore, and found that there was no boundary between this building and the 13th floor building. Obviously, if she really wanted to go and collect supplies, she should be able to get there.

However, at this moment, Mr. Morofushi Kagemitsu had not yet escaped to that building. The rooftop was still silent, but from the rooftops of these two buildings, one could see ambulance lights and fire truck lights at several intersections in the distance.

There was still smoke coming from several buildings and the park area. It was probably the scene where the organization that Furuya-san mentioned caused the accident and hindered the police's rescue of Morofushi Kagemitsu. The commotion was indeed quite significant...

Seeing this situation, and knowing that the dungeon exit point was definitely not far from the cause of the destruction, Matsuda suggested, "Why don't we go downstairs and take a look? Maybe the point of destruction for this dungeon is downstairs."

“It’s also possible that the dungeon exit is in another building. The dungeon area is so large for the first time in the game, there must be some special significance to it.” Hagiwara did not disagree with Matsuda’s suggestion, but thought there were other possibilities.

This was the first time Feng Xingshou had encountered a situation where he had been in the dungeon for almost 20 minutes and still hadn't found the exit. He was getting really frustrated: "Let's all go check it out! It's been 17 minutes and we still haven't found the dungeon exit. This dungeon is really strange."

So the three of them decided that this time they would not split up, but would go down from the 8th floor together to check the situation. The result was still the same: they found no dangerous items, no traces of anything that could have caused the building to collapse, and of course, no dungeon exit.

Even when Feng Xing Shou walked out of the building, she was able to leave without any problems, unlike other instances where she was confined by the instance boundaries. This long-lost feeling of freedom to walk on the streets made her a little excited.

However, after seeing that the dungeon's boundary had not bound the Wind Star Guardian inside that building, Hagiwara and Matsuda's expressions became even more solemn than before. They exchanged a glance.

Neither of them revealed their speculations about the potential dangers of such a large-scale instance, but simply looked at the other party and said calmly, "It's 12:10 now, and there are still 37 minutes until Jing Dan's incident."

There are still about 10 minutes until the class monitor arrives as estimated. What should we do? Should we go inside the building in Block 13 together, or should you take Feng-chan inside to find the dungeon exit? I'll stay and wait for the class monitor.

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"Let's go up and take a look together! I have a feeling that today's dungeon is not as simple as the time and place of Xiao Morofushi's death." In uncertain and dangerous situations, it's best not to split up, so that we can help each other if there is real danger. Hagiwara thought to himself as he held Kaze's hand tightly.

It's a bit strange, the feeling is completely different from when my brother pulls me along! Feng Xingshou felt her fingers being held tightly, and her heart inexplicably started beating faster. She wanted to pull her hand away, but she was also reluctant to do so.

Finally, under the pretext of worrying that it would be inconvenient to talk to Hagiwara after withdrawing her hand, she silently pretended that nothing had happened, and deliberately acted as if she had no guilt at all, asking Hagiwara in a serious tone in his ear: "Hagiwara!"

Given the sheer size of this instance, do you think the entire instance will be destroyed when the destruction timer expires, or will only the area around the exit experience some form of damage?

o(￣ヘ￣o＃) With such a serious and earnest tone, Hagiwara would never have realized that he had actually felt his heart flutter for a few seconds just now because Hagiwara had held his hand.

"Ahem...anything is possible. We'll have to find the dungeon exit and observe the area to be sure." Feng-chan is so cute! Did she think she wouldn't notice when she spoke seriously in a trembling voice? It seems she's not indifferent to him after all! Hagiwara is quite pleased right now.

Unaware that he had been exposed, Feng Xing Shou secretly breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, but also felt that his words had been a bit abrupt, and was about to say a few more words to smooth things over.

Then, seeing the familiar dungeon exit appear on the wall below the metal staircase of the building, they were taken aback: "Why is the dungeon exit here this time?"

"Have you found the dungeon exit?" Hagiwara heard the voice beside him and immediately stopped, looking around as if searching for a place that resembled the dungeon exit and the site of the Cataclysmic Crisis, while asking, "Where is the dungeon exit?"

Matsuda was unaware that the two had just been secretly flirting. Upon hearing Hagiwara's words, he immediately observed his surroundings and noticed that this abandoned building was different from the office building next door.

The abandoned office building next door is taller, and all the staircases are inside the building. This abandoned building here is also nine stories high, and its architectural style is quite similar to some apartments. There are elevator doors inside the floors, but no stairwells.

Each floor has several separate doors, and layers of metal staircases wind their way up the exterior of the building... It feels more like an abandoned apartment building. Where is the exit of this kind of building? And what caused its destruction?

Seeing that they were unsure of the location, Feng Xingshou quickly replied, "It's on the wall below this metal staircase, right next to the ground!"

"The outer wall of the first floor? Not upstairs, and not inside the building?" Upon hearing Feng Xingshou's answer, Hagiwara walked towards the location she pointed to and began to examine it in surprise.

Matsuda also determined the location from his words and went to check the situation.

However, what they saw puzzled them again, because neither the location of the dungeon exit that the Wind Star Guardian pointed to nor the surrounding area showed any signs that could have caused the destruction.