Chapter 174: The Bomb That Was Destined to Explode
"It will definitely work next time" was not just empty talk. Chaomu had quickly reviewed the game before loading the save file and had confirmed this.
In Act 2, her strategy was actually correct—the time between Akai Shuichi's message that he'd found her and the bomb's restart countdown was a matter of seconds... or even less. All the errors were a fluke, and they ultimately lost to time.
But this time it's different. As long as they can eliminate the mastermind holding the remote control at the source, they don't have to worry about the bomb at all, and Kenji Hagiwara and his team members can evacuate safely.
And the source...
Before loading the save, Chaomu once again opened Akai Mimi's message bar and confirmed the address coordinates. This saved her the time of tangling with Black Face and the others, and Mimi's search for someone. This time, she should have plenty of time, enough for her sniper, Mimi, to blow that bastard's head off with a single shot.
The first time is unfamiliar, the second time is familiar, the third time... it is even more familiar.
After the familiar feeling of weightlessness, she returned to that time point again. Looking at the familiar yet somewhat provocative face of the little black face, she completely lost interest in saying anything weird this time.
...This is the third time! Although players don't actually need to reload the save file, it's still tiring to watch the same story every time!
"I won't waste my time with you today... I'll deal with what I need to deal with next time." With this thought, she headbutted the blond man in front of her, shook off the hand of the cat-eyed young man behind her, and swam out like a fish, hurriedly heading for the door. "Don't bother me, or I'll tell everyone about your affairs - you don't want Gin to find out, do you?"
Perhaps feeling threatened, the two undercover agents were surprisingly sensible and didn't pursue. As they hurried away, Chaomu immediately sent a message to Akai Mi via the system interface, sending her the complete set of coordinates.
[From the Supreme Invincible Raccoon King, who had just triumphed over Blackface: These coordinates, this person. Kill him.]
[From the Supreme Invincible Raccoon King who just defeated Black Face: Immediately, right now.]
At the same time, on the other side of the city.
Shuichi Akai had just finished an intelligence handover and was leaning against the car, preparing to light a cigarette.
A familiar message box interrupted his movements. He lowered his eyes to look at it, and the message that popped up on the screen made him pause slightly while holding his cigarette.
The girl who sent him the message usually only sent some weird emoticons and inexplicable thoughts, but this time, her words were more murderous than ever before.
His eyes stayed on the message board.
That string of coordinates...
An indescribable, cold, and sharp feeling of familiarity gripped his heart... as if he had just witnessed this scene through the scope not long ago. Along with it came an inexplicable feeling of suffocation and regret, as if he had personally experienced a tragic explosion.
This feeling came out of nowhere, yet it was so strong he couldn't ignore it—no, there was no need for excessive speculation or reasoning; this abnormality must be related to his "master." When it came to these "serious matters," she always had her reasons for doing what she did.
Akai Shuichi didn't ask "why" or "who"; he could always ask those questions later. Right now, what he needed most was to race against time. Time was the scarcest resource, and every second counted... He seemed to have learned a similar lesson before.
The remaining emotions and reason made a judgment for him at the same time. The man with long black hair took the unlit cigarette from his lips and threw it into the trash can beside him.
He opened the car door and took out his beloved AWM sniper rifle bag from the back seat. He whispered to the air, as if to someone on the other end of the line, "Understood."
The next second, the engine roared, and the Chevrolet rushed out like an arrow, aiming directly at the coordinates that he seemed to have already engraved in his mind.
After sniping his prey, he had plenty of time to ask his "master" about her new little secrets.
Shuichi Akai could ask his "master" questions and most likely get answers, but for Rei Furuya and Kagemitsu Morofushi, who were left indoors, no one could answer their questions.
The heavy door slammed shut, trapping the silence of the room and the two undercover agents with different thoughts inside - they both did not chase after the girl who had key information about them and even the power of life and death, but just watched her leave.
"Zero..." Zhu Fujingguang's voice was a little dry, "We... just let her go like this?"
Furuya Rei didn't answer. He simply stared at the closed door, a strange hollowness lingering in his chest. It was a strange mixture of relief at having survived and a sharp, stabbing pain. He even felt that if he had intervened, something irreversible, something even more horrific than his identity being exposed, would have occurred.
"I have a feeling, Hiro," he finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse, "stopping her would be the worst choice."
"You also have..." Zhu Fujingguang's expression was extremely complicated. "Just now... it was as if I had seen the ending. A very, very bad ending."
And that ending seemed to have happened more than once, a mockery of fate—how could a mortal possibly play against fate? Those destined to die were destined to die. Neither he nor Rei Furuya, nor the other classmates from the police academy who suddenly appeared in his mind, could change that outcome. They were just... pawns on the chessboard of fate.
"It's not an illusion." Fūya Rei turned abruptly, a storm gathering in his purplish-gray eyes. He began pacing the room like a caged beast. "Illusions can't explain this feeling! This memory, as if I've experienced it firsthand, carries with it real pain... This sense of déjà vu, a simultaneous experience for both of us, of the same event!"
He stopped and looked at his childhood sweetheart suddenly. An absurd thought that made him tremble broke free from the constraints of reason and blurted out: "Hiro, do you think...her ability is not to create illusions..."
The cat-eyed young man looked back at him speechlessly, with the same horror in his eyes: If it wasn't an illusion, then those scenes could be...what were they?
Furiya Rei didn't say it directly. He knew that although Koujunran's eyes showed the same shock and confusion as his, they actually had the same answer in their hearts.
Over and over again... rewriting reality. In science fiction or other works with supernatural elements, the ability to "rewind time" is actually not uncommon, but once it is applied to reality, for people like them who once believed in science, it is still a bit... too advanced.
However, in another world that they have never known, perhaps such an ability is not a fantasy.
Many incredible things had happened to Chaomu, all rooted in a lack of understanding of her. Now that he had a general idea of where to go, Furuya Rei didn't want to make the same mistake again.
"Vongola..." He secretly made up his mind, "I will definitely find out what kind of monster is hiding in Italy..."
If the public security authority is not enough, then we can rely on the authority of the Black Organization to investigate... Gin and the [Boss] definitely know something, which is why they are so tolerant of this Vongola lady... He always has a strange premonition that his current guess is just the tip of the iceberg for her, and she is hiding more secrets that are difficult for him to understand.
He would investigate not only her, but also the Vongola, the Italian Mafia, and all those "superpowers" that were considered urban legends and absurd stories. He would investigate them carefully. There might be more people in the world with similar or even more incredible powers, manipulating everything in corners that he could not observe...even fate.
When he realized this, a feeling of unease almost completely enveloped Furuya Rei. He pursed his lips and clenched his fists, forcibly suppressing the chill, and left with Yu Junran to see what the guy was going to do.
...He must know all her secrets - at any cost.
Beihu Shopping Center, men's restroom on the third floor.
The little raccoon, who had just skillfully crawled out of the door, sneezed a little, feeling that someone was thinking about her.
Most likely, it was Little Black Face who was cursing her behind her back. Little Black Face was mean.
She muttered this to herself, scratching the edge of the ceiling vent with her claws, hiding herself quietly, leaving only a pair of golden, beady eyes showing, staring intently at the movements below.
"...I feel like there's a sword of Damocles hanging over my head, ready to come crashing down and pierce me at any moment."
Hagiwara Kenji's inappropriate, smiling joke rang out again, but this time, he paused for a moment, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
Chaomu's ears twitched, and the tip of his tail brushed the cold iron sheet impatiently. Here it comes again, this flag-mongering idiot. Even after three rounds, he's still saying this. He's practically afraid he won't die.
She grumbled furiously in her mind while staring intently at her system interface. As long as Akai Mimi sent her a "Mission Accomplished" message, she could relax and watch Hagiwara and the others retreat. A happy ending would be achieved, and she could even go out for a late-night snack... barbecue! She was going to drain Hagiwara Kenji's wallet!
Everything went as smoothly as she expected, events progressed as planned, and there were no unexpected factors.
Almost as Hagiwara finished speaking, Shuichi Akai's avatar lit up in her message bar.
【From Mimi: Target cleared.】
Simple, efficient, and as reliable as ever.
Chaomu also breathed a sigh of relief, and his pounding heart calmed down.
But before she could relax for even half a second, another message from Shuichi Akai came immediately.
【From Mimi: Things have changed! 】
Chaomu: “…………?”
Her pupils shrank slightly when she saw the news, but Akai Shuichi was now more shocked than her.
Until this moment, Akai Shuichi had always been quite confident in his marksmanship. This confidence wasn't based on arrogance, but rather on various realities and experiences—all the common sense and experience in his mind helped him make the judgment that the man's head was shot by his bullet and should have been a corpse.
But the body was moving.
In the dim room, the man in mourning clothes, who was shot in the head by him and should have been dead, his body lying limp on the ground, unexpectedly "stood up" again in an extremely strange, dislocated posture, stiffly and shakily like a puppet lifted by invisible silk strings.
No, that movement couldn't even be called standing. The corpse was simply being propped up by some force, and in a twisted posture, it stubbornly reached out and touched the remote control that had fallen to the ground.
Faced with this horror-movie-like scene, even Akai Shuichi's mind went blank for a moment. But his sniper instincts kept him from hesitating, and without even bothering to communicate to his "master," he decisively pulled the trigger again.
——He must stop that man!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In an instant, three shots were fired.
The 7.62mm bullets accurately tore through the corpse's arms, chest, and thighs, leaving a large amount of blood. If the person survived the headshot, or even if his heart was on the right side, he would have been unable to move and unable to touch the remote control.
However, the man seemed to feel no pain, and his movements did not stop at all. He still reached out firmly, inch by inch, towards the button that decided the life and death of countless people.
This was beyond common sense... well, it was simply unbelievable. Akai Shuichi fired a few more shots, but the man... or rather the corpse, still pressed the button.
The bullets were used up, and the thing had already happened. The black-haired sniper gritted his teeth and stared at the corpse - after pressing the button, it seemed to have completed some kind of mission and fell to the ground twisted.
This time, he was completely motionless.
...What on earth is that...?
Shuichi Akai couldn't get an answer.
His mind was enveloped by a distorted feeling beyond common sense, and his usually steady hands were even trembling slightly. He wasn't afraid of the corpse, but instinctively felt as if he had witnessed something controlling everything...
……【destiny】.
Through the slightly shaking sniper scope, he suddenly saw a detail he hadn't noticed before - in the deepest corner of the room, away from the window, stood a shadow. The blurry figure seemed to be wearing wooden clogs, and the hem of the kimono drooped, swaying slightly in the wind.
Is there... someone else in the room? Is that "someone" controlling all this?
This reasoning should have made sense, and the corpse's movement seemed to have a far-fetched explanation. But Akai Shuichi's intuition told him that the answer was not so. His adrenaline was rapidly rising, and the thrill of facing the other side of the world made him feel terrible.
No matter what, I have to tell Chaomu about this. She might know the answer.
But this time, he didn't have time to send more messages, nor did he have time to continue exploring more mysteries - the world quickly reversed, time flowed in reverse, and even the figure standing in the shadows was blurred.
The game is loading at dawn and dusk.
The bomb's countdown suddenly returned to zero. This time, even she didn't have time to save people and was blown away.
She didn't even have time to react before the earth-shaking roar pierced through the ceiling, transforming into a tangible shockwave. The entire ventilation duct shook and twisted violently, and she was flung out like a stuffed toy in a washing machine.
...Haha, he was blown to death.
The player remained on the death screen of [Reload Save], thinking expressionlessly.
What happened? What exactly happened from Akai Mimi's perspective? He wasn't the type to miss, so killing the criminal shouldn't have been a surprise—his sniping skills were ridiculously high! Something unexpected must have happened, like the malice of the great world... Tsk.
But after reloading the game, Shuichi Akai was obviously unable to answer her, so that Chaomu began to doubt whether there was something wrong with her thinking: Did she miss the point, and should she go and kill the guy with the remote control herself?
Regardless of whether this solution is correct, her actions in [Action Round 4] have been determined... This time she has to follow Akai Mimi to see what is going on.
Time rewinds, and the save file is reloaded. This time, the player leaves without a word, and Black Face and Cat Eyes seem to have completely given up on trying to stop them. Upon receiving the message, Akai Shuichi waits in his car with a frown on his face, watching as a girl emerges from the nearest trash can and scurries into his car.
"What happened?" he asked bluntly as he drove. "I have a very strange feeling that this incident has happened more than once - what did you do?"
"I still have something to ask you!" The short-haired girl sitting in the passenger seat scratched her head anxiously. "What exactly were you going to say last time... But you definitely don't know what you want to say now... Damn it!"
"Last time."
That vague perception was confirmed, Akai Shuichi breathed a sigh of relief, and his understanding of her was updated again: Although he knew before that she treated this world as a game and thought she was just a psychic with some kind of cognitive disorder, but now it seems that she really seems to have the ability to "save and load" similar to the game... Damn it.
"So this is...how many times?" he asked. "I feel like it's more than once."
"It's the fourth time! That damn bomb explodes every time!" He seemed to understand, so Chaomu didn't have to explain and started complaining incessantly - she didn't even have anyone to complain to before, and because of this, her desire to complain was particularly strong this time, "What is this, a plot kill?! The first time was okay, the second time was only a few seconds away... The third time was even more outrageous. You sent me a message saying you had killed the criminal, and then told me that the situation had changed..."
As she recounted her story, certain "nonexistent memories" flooded into Akai Shuichi's mind. Arriving at the familiar spot, he frowned, parked the car, and led his master back to the sniper position, quickly setting up his sniper rifle. "Although I have some recollection, I can't fully answer your question right now... I can only say that I seem to have encountered something beyond common sense."
"Found him." He lowered his voice through the scope, "Just like last time, he's right there."
Chaomu followed him, leaning over the railing and peering through the binoculars he had brought with him. The man standing inside looked quite familiar, like a villainous NPC she'd seen before... Oh, yes, a member of the Hundred Demons Society, so it was normal for her to find him familiar.
"Shoot and see," she ordered. "You can shoot accurately, right? You won't miss, right?"
"At this distance, you won't miss even with your eyes closed."
Akai Shuichi's voice was calm, as if stating common sense. He held an ice cube in his mouth, his breathing steady, his heartbeat calm, and his finger pulled the trigger with mechanical precision.
The silenced gunshot was as dull as a heartbeat.
The bullet penetrated the man's forehead with pinpoint accuracy, and a bloody flower exploded behind his head. The man in mourning clothes didn't even have time to scream before his body collapsed to the ground like a puddle of mud, lifeless.
A shot to the head, just as steady as she imagined.
But what happened last week didn't make Chaomu cheer. Instead, he frowned: "So...what happened?"
Her eyes suddenly widened: "...?"
The corpse stood up in her sight, reaching for the remote control again in a rather contorted position. The sniper beside her also demonstrated his steadiness once again, repeating all his operations from the previous round... as usual, to no avail.
It happened so quickly that they could only watch as he pressed the button again and heard an explosion.
"...That's about it." Akai Hide said expressionlessly, "Now you see it too."
Chaomu: “……………………”
"*raccoon swear*?!" Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she blurted out a curse, "What is this? A health lock?! Or a delayed check?"
Is this a bad game?! Where's the realistic physics engine?! This isn't right! Nothing about it is right!
Even if you want to kill someone by plotting, at least use some logic, you idiot planner! How can this be possible in this world...
…Her curse words were stuck in her throat, and her gaze, like Akai Shuichi’s in the previous episode, stayed on the shadow in the room.
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Author's Note: Finally, the story is fully developed! I was exhausted from writing it (very sad). I think the next chapter will definitely win the resurrection match against Hagi.
The plot point of hagi is actually quite important, and it is also an important point for the development of Italy and the curse.
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