Chapter 110, Twentieth Round (29)
The bomber's escape was within their expectations; a lone bomber wasn't the problem, it just meant the plan could indeed begin.
There's a more pressing issue now...
"So, Zero, what nightmare did you have?" Morofushi Kagemitsu grasped his cold, stiff hand. "Did it have anything to do with me?"
Rei Furuya was pulled into the room and sat down. His gaze darted left and right a couple of times, but he couldn't hold back in the end and confessed under his childhood friend's worried gaze.
"I dreamt that you committed suicide again..."
The despairing memories from his dream returned, causing him to instinctively grip his childhood friend's hand tightly, his mind unsettled.
After listening attentively, Morofushi Kagemitsu gave a helpless smile and reached out to embrace his uneasy childhood friend.
“It was just a dream, Zero. Don’t be afraid, don’t let it affect you. How could I possibly commit suicide?” He gently patted the blond youth’s back. “If you think about it carefully, you’ll find that the development of this dream is very chaotic and lacks logic, isn’t it? It’s just because Zero is so afraid of this development that he tends to imagine this possibility even more. Combined with his past memories, it all makes up this nightmare.”
“But such nightmares will no longer become reality.” He assured him firmly, “Because I will absolutely not commit suicide. I know very well that even if I die, Zero will come and reload the save to save me, so trust me, Zero.”
Rei Furuya already knew this, and even in his chaotic dreams he noticed something was wrong, but when Hiro solemnly said it himself, it was a truly powerful tranquilizer for him.
"Of course I believe Hiro, it's just... it's just..."
“But this development is indeed the most likely.” Rei Furuya couldn’t help but grip the back of his shirt tightly. “Not only will the world lines converge perfectly, but I will even hate Akai more, and my despair will reach its peak at that moment…”
No matter how you look at it, that was the most likely outcome, and also the outcome he feared the most. That's why he had such a detailed and terrifying nightmare just before the day of his death.
Rei Furuya paused, recalling the terrifyingly realistic details of the later part of his dream. He suddenly stood up, frowning seriously, and said, "Could this be a test from the system? To see if I can withstand such despair? Otherwise, why would I dream of such a despicable FBI bastard? To maintain realism, could the system have actually brought in Akai's spirit to act with me? Is it because they're worried we'll survive the Death Tribulation again, so they've dragged in that bastard FBI bastard to cause trouble?"
Morofushi Kagemitsu was also taken aback, and asked suspiciously, "It can't be, right? Was Akai Shuichi's reaction in the dream very realistic? What exactly did he do?"
Zero only told him that Shuichi Akai stopped him before he committed suicide. Even after the explanation, he firmly believed that Bourbon was too impulsive and had some mental issues, treating reality as a game, which delayed his save time and caused him to save the game. However, he did not explain in detail how Shuichi Akai stopped him.
Since Zero, who was both at odds with and collaborated with Shuichi Akai in his past life, said this, it means that Shuichi Akai in the dream must have done something unusual or reacted in a certain way, right?
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Rei Furuya pouted: "I don't want to talk about it."
Morofushi Kagemitsu: "..."
Morofushi Kagemitsu sighed, "Alright, then should we confirm whether he has the memory of that dream?"
Rei Furuya tilted his head and said seriously, "Should I send him an email using Bourbon's identity and directly reveal his real name?"
Zhu Fujingguang's forehead was covered in sweat: "No way, he'll be scared to death. He might come looking for us with a sniper rifle tonight."
"Tch." Furuya Rei regretfully abandoned the plan. "Never mind, if he has his memories, he'll definitely show some unusual reaction. It might be easier to just threaten him not to make any rash moves."
"But revealing my identity so early and cooperating with him could very likely affect the main storyline and cause a butterfly effect, right? What if the world line changes by more than 2% at once, causing the world to restart?" Morofushi Kagemitsu did not agree with Furuya Rei risking his life and mental state.
"Rebooting is fine. It's good to eliminate a wrong path." Furuya Rei shrugged and laughed jokingly, "After having that dream, I already felt that being able to successfully reload the save and give me a chance to change things was a good thing."
“Actually, I’m now wondering if I should just reload the save file,” he said. “The Yamaguchi-gumi has created too many dangerous butterfly effects, and I’m a little worried about the aftermath. If I could do it all over again, I should be able to handle those problems better, and I could also save that CIA agent. Hiro wouldn’t have encountered those things in the castle…”
"Furuya," Morofushi Kagemitsu interrupted him.
Rei Furuya froze, his expression instantly cracking, and he could only stare blankly at his childhood friend who had suddenly called him by his name so formally.
"Zero." Morofushi Kagemitsu wasn't referring to the nickname "Zero," but rather to the name "Zero."
Rei Furuya immediately sat up straight, nervously clenching his hands on his lap.
“We discussed this a long time ago about how this isn’t just your memory, but a memory we shared, and how much I value everything we’ve experienced together,” Morofushi Kagemitsu said seriously. “So, what I’m going to talk about now is something else.”
Rei Furuya nodded obediently.
When Morofushi Kagemitsu saw him like this, his expression softened slightly.
“Does Zero know what I’m most worried about right now?” he asked.
Rei Furuya stared at him for two seconds, then hesitated before asking, "My mental state and psychological problems?"
"So you knew too." Morofushi Kagemitsu smiled, lifted his bangs, and flicked his forehead with his finger, quite hard, with a crisp sound.
Rei Furuya winced and covered his forehead, looking aggrieved but not daring to utter a sound.
“Zero, never think that you can just die and reload the game.” Morofushi Hiromitsu earnestly cupped his face and looked him in the eye. “You absolutely cannot think like that. Your life, which you cannot ignore, should have a place for you. Your safety and health are more important to us, do you understand?”
Rei Furuya stared blankly into those earnest blue eyes for a few seconds before snapping out of it and explaining softly, "I know I would never disregard my own life, but sometimes it's really necessary for something more important..."
“Now is not the time to give up.” Morofushi Kagemitsu rubbed his childhood friend’s baby face, which still looked like that of a high school student, and laughed. “Don’t you often say that yourself? It’s not time to give up yet.”
Rei Furuya struggled to free his head and stared at him helplessly.
"We can't have another four years." Morofushi Kagemitsu gazed at his childhood friend with a gentle yet firm expression, his worry and sorrow barely concealed.
“Zero, even you can’t endure this cycle of three years after three years of dark undercover work any longer. There’s a limit to how much human beings can endure.”
"Before saving others, I hope Zero can save himself first, okay?" he said.
*
Rei Furuya sat blankly at his desk in his room, the light from his open computer illuminating his expression, which shifted between being moved, happy, blissful, dazed, and conflicted.
But those expressions ultimately remained fixed on a mixture of guilt and determination.
No, it's okay. He's perfectly mentally healthy and in good spirits. This is just preparation for the necessary success.
Rei Furuya placed his hands on the keyboard.
One Hundred Ways to Commit Suicide
Click search.
The webpage redirected instantly, and a large slogan appeared on the computer screen.
This world may not be perfect, but there will always be someone protecting you.
[Tokyo 24-hour free psychological crisis counseling hotline: XXXXXXX]*
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Rei Furuya couldn't help but laugh, then awkwardly scrolled down to seriously study the hundred ways to kill himself.
For example, hiding poison in teeth.
Some spies hide poison in hollowed-out dentures, then bite down hard to break the dentures and swallow the poison to commit suicide. This is one of the most difficult methods of suicide to prevent.
Potassium cyanide or other cyanides are generally used as poisons.
You can also apply poison to your collar and lick it when no one is looking, thus committing suicide before anyone can react.
besides……
*
November 6th, 9:00 AM.
Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji were still on duty together, observing a suspect from inside the car.
Matsuda Jinpei has been temporarily transferred from the Explosives Unit to the First Investigation Division due to the Yamaguchi-gumi incident. He is a new recruit and is being mentored by Hagiwara Kenji.
When Matsuda Jinpei was introduced to the First Investigation Division by Inspector Megure, Hagiwara Kenji was so excited that he almost jumped up and raised his hand, loudly saying that he wanted to mentor the newcomer, Jinpei, as a senior.
Inspector Megure agreed.
"Hagi, did you not sleep at all last night?" Matsuda Jinpei frowned at his childhood friend who kept dozing off. "Driving while fatigued, you really are something, Hagiwara Kenji."
Kenji Hagiwara woke up with a start, sat in the driver's seat and rubbed his face: "Ahaha, after all, at a time like this, Hagi-chan can't sleep at all."
Matsuda Jinpei clicked his tongue: "I'll sleep at your place tonight. If you can't sleep, I'll just punch you unconscious, okay?"
Hagihara Kenji: "..."
Kenji Hagiwara: "Jinpei! Violence is forbidden!"
Kenji Hagiwara, feeling happy, got off the bus to buy coffee in an attempt to wake himself up from his drowsiness.
A moment later, a strange man wearing a baseball cap opened the car door and got into the driver's seat.
Matsuda Jinpei stared at him: "A cherry blossom?"
The ordinary-looking man curled the corners of his mouth: "Five petals."
“What about Hagi?” he asked.
“It’s Zero.” Matsuda Jinpei understood instantly.
Master Jing may seem gentle and approachable, but he is actually the most polite, reserved, and distant among them. He won't call them by their nicknames as intimately as Zero does.
So far, Matsuda Jinpei has only ever heard him call Furuya Zero "zero".
“Hagi didn’t sleep last night, he was so sleepy he was dozing off, so he went to buy coffee,” Matsuda Jinpei answered Furuya Rei’s question, then asked, “Did something happen that brought you here?”
"I guess so. Just in case, I'll send you some equipment." Furuya Rei said, taking out two guns from his person.
Matsuda Jinpei was startled, then his eyes lit up instantly. He immediately took off his sunglasses and took a high-end gun to play with: "Wow, this is good stuff. As expected of the Public Security Bureau, they can really get anything."
"Don't you dare take it apart!" Rei Furuya watched his movements warily.
Matsuda Jinpei: "..."
Matsuda Jinpei looked up, staring at him with dead fish eyes: "Do you think I'm some kind of destructive husky?"
“You’re quite self-aware,” Furuya Rei laughed. “But someone once said that Matsuda-kun is like a fierce Doberman Pinscher and an adorable Shiba Inu combined and then divided by two.”
Matsuda Jinpei: "?"
Matsuda Jinpei: "What kind of strange description is that? Who said that? I don't know anything about it."
“I think it fits quite well.” Rei Furuya tilted his head and suddenly asked, “Matsuda, shouldn’t you get your dentures replaced?”
Matsuda Jinpei clutched his cheek as if in pain, and asked warily, "Why are you suddenly asking about dentures? Want to fight?"
He just suddenly remembered that dentures are usually replaced every three to four years.
Just as Furuya Rei was about to speak, he noticed a commotion outside the window on Matsuda Jinpei's side; it seemed like people were arguing.
Matsuda Jinpei heard it too, and immediately turned around, only to find that it was the ramen shop they were keeping an eye on.
Rei Furuya, leaning on the steering wheel, chuckled and teased, "Looks like you're getting to work, officer."
"Hmph, not as busy as our Public Security Bureau Chief," Matsuda Jinpei chuckled, teasing him in return.
The two looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Matsuda Jinpei put on sunglasses, got out of the car, and went to the scene. Furuya Rei then left a small package on the driver's seat before leaving.
Matsuda Jinpei has a lot of work, especially today, it's ridiculously much.
He and Kenji Hagiwara caught two robbers, stopped an out-of-control bus, and saved a person who wanted to commit suicide by jumping off a building in one morning.
In the afternoon, they immediately began conducting interviews and investigations for the cases at hand. Then they encountered a murder case. Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda raced each other on a motorcycle and caught the criminal who was trying to escape. They didn't get out until 3 p.m. after taking his statement.
Moreover, Matsuda Jinpei came out first, and Hagiwara Kenji, who was speeding, still needs to be educated.
When Matsuda Jinpei got into Furuya Rei's car, he was surrounded by black aura.
“This city is definitely not ordinary.” Matsuda Jinpei grinned like a villain. “This is really interesting.”
Rei Furuya: "...Officer? Officer? Please watch your facial expressions."
Matsuda Jinpei clicked his tongue, fastened his seatbelt, and said, "But it's still too much trouble. I just like to defuse bombs in a pleasant way. Let's finish the mission quickly and return to the bomb disposal team."
“It will be over soon.” Furuya Rei drove to Shibuya. “It’s confirmed that Pramia will indeed be operating in Shibuya, as will that civilian revenge organization… I’ll teach you a few Russian phrases; you might need them later.”
"How come you even speak Russian?" Matsuda Jinpei exclaimed in surprise.
“I also know Sanskrit. Would you like me to recite a passage from a Buddhist scripture for you right now?” Furuya Rei smiled and raised an eyebrow.
Matsuda Jinpei: "...What exactly have you been learning these past few years?"
“Because I initially wanted to thoroughly understand the world and the concept of reloading save files, I even studied Buddhist scriptures,” Furuya Rei said. “Then, repeatedly reloading save files did have a certain impact on my mental state. In order to alleviate this anxiety, I learned multiple languages and various skills that I didn’t know yet, just like the literary giant Ango Sakaguchi, in order to relieve my mental anxiety and enrich myself.”
“Sakaguchi Ango?” Matsuda Jinpei exclaimed in surprise, “The literary giant who wrote ‘On Decadence’?”
Rei Furuya nodded: "When Ango Sakaguchi was 22 and in college, he slept less than four hours a day for a year and a half, which led to severe neurasthenia. But he actually cured himself by learning various languages, including Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, French, and Latin. So I thought I could try it too, and it worked really well!"
Matsuda Jinpei smirked, rolled his eyes dramatically, and said coolly, "You two are indeed very similar, including the fact that you're both so reckless as to not sleep properly."
Rei Furuya said helplessly, "How could that be? Rest is also part of the job. Except for special circumstances, I always get a good night's sleep."
Matsuda Jinpei's face was full of disbelief: "Then what percentage of your life do your special circumstances represent?"
Rei Furuya blinked and gave an innocent smile.
Matsuda Jinpei crossed his arms and sneered, "I'm sure you have really bad dark circles under your eyes. Don't think that just because you have dark skin, other people can't see them."
Rei Furuya surrendered: "Okay, mainly because there have been too many important things happening recently. I'll get some rest after this matter is resolved."
“It will succeed,” Matsuda Jinpei said firmly. “I told you I wouldn’t die.”
Rei paused for two seconds.
"Yes." He nodded with a smile. "It will succeed. I won't let you die."
*
It turned out completely differently from what I dreamed about.
For Rei Furuya, things at Pramia went incredibly smoothly.
Morofushi Kagemitsu had already been lying in ambush in the building where the bomb had been planted. Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei arrived later, followed by Hagiwara Kenji and Date Wataru.
With ample intelligence and preparation, the five of them worked together to catch Pramia, who had been committing atrocities in countless countries and remained at large, completely off guard. When they were captured and their masks were knocked off, the expressions on their faces were utterly incredulous, as if they had seen a ghost.
The civilian revenge group member who fell into Pramia's trap was also safely rescued. The bomb failed to explode and was disarmed by Matsuda Jinpei. Pramia did not escape but was captured. It couldn't be better.
But that's not the case for others.
This is especially true for Morobuchi Kagemitsu.
Despite all the preparations, Rei Furuya's arm was still injured by the grenade blast, and his facial disguise was also ruined.
Pramia saw his true face: a blond, dark-skinned policeman.
Even though Pramia was shot in the shoulder and chest by Morofushi Kagemitsu from the rooftop next door, and was taken away for treatment and then imprisoned, and shouldn't be able to cause any more trouble after that, Morofushi Kagemitsu still couldn't help but frown and worry about what impact it would have on Furuya Rei being seen by Pramia and his activities with the police.
However, Pramia's strength was truly absurd. Once she keenly sensed the presence of a sniper, she could even frantically dodge bullets on the wide rooftop and escape by jumping off the building.
With such skill, it's no wonder that so many people around the world couldn't catch her.
Morofushi Kagemitsu wanted to continue the pursuit, but Furuya Rei stopped him, allowing the police, who had been lying in wait, to intercept and arrest Pramia.
However, unlike Morofushi Kagemitsu's worries, Date Wataru was angry.
With his hands on his hips, Ida Wataru sternly reprimanded the four people standing in a row in front of him.
"Hagiwara, what's wrong with you? You were already out of sorts today, and you even got injured when you were speeding and forcing the criminal to stop. And then you instinctively tried to catch Pramia's knife with your hand. Don't you want your hand? If it weren't for Furuya's shot, you would never be able to defuse a bomb or drive a car again!" Date Wataru unleashed his aura after bandaging him up.
"I was wrong, I will never do it again next time." Kenji Hagiwara obediently and quietly listened to the reprimand with his head down.
"Matsuda, don't provoke a prisoner with a gun if you're unarmed. Are you out of your mind?" Date Wataru said angrily as he looked at Matsuda Jinpei beside him.
Matsuda Jinpei retorted, unconvinced: "Who told her to interrupt my pleasant bomb defusal process? Besides, I wasn't unarmed; Zero gave me a gun."
"But when you're defusing the bomb, you don't have a free hand to hold the gun. What's the difference between that and being unarmed?" Ida Kou said sternly.
Matsuda Jinpei calmed down, looked around guiltily, and finally scratched his curly hair even more messily, whispering, "I know, I won't do it again next time."
"Morofushi, you need to be careful when chasing the enemy. If I hadn't held you back just now, would you have fallen straight down the stairs?" Date Wataru's gaze turned to Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had been well-behaved and quiet all along.
"Actually, even if I fell, I was confident I could grab the railing and flip myself onto the balcony below..." Seeing Date Wataru's increasingly dangerous gaze, Morofushi Kagemitsu immediately changed his tune, "Of course, this kind of behavior is very dangerous, and something bad could easily happen. Fortunately, the squad leader stopped me. I will definitely be more careful next time."
“Finally, it’s Furuya.” Date Wataru’s serious eyes looked at Furuya Rei.
Rei Furuya's skin tightened instantly, revealing an innocent and obedient face.
“Although I’m happy that you trust me, it was really too reckless of me to suddenly have to catch you and throw you from one building to another! I even broke out in a cold sweat after I threw you out. What if I hadn’t reacted in time? What if you hadn’t landed successfully? I know you’re capable, but you can’t just do things like that!” Date Wataru frowned.
"I acted impulsively..." Furuya Rei lowered his head and admitted his mistake. "I'm sorry, I promise I won't do it again next time."
Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji whispered to each other:
"The class monitor also told us not to call him class monitor anymore, saying that he is no longer our class monitor. But what else is he if not class monitor, right?"
"That's right, that's right. The class monitor is indeed the class monitor. I don't even dare to add '[酱]' when I call him class monitor. This has always been Hagi-chan's regret."
"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?" Date Wataru glared at them.
The four of them shook their heads vigorously together.
"Honestly, they're all the same. Even after graduating and becoming police officers, they still act recklessly." Ida Kou sighed. "Since you still insist on calling me class monitor, then I, as your class monitor, will have to keep an eye on you so you don't mess around and lose your lives. Any problems?"
"No problem! Thank you for your hard work, class monitor!! The class monitor is the best!!!" the four shouted in unison.
Date Kou choked for a moment.
The five of them exchanged a glance and couldn't help but laugh.
In short, it's great that everyone is alright.
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