Chapter 117, Twenty-Second Cycle (1)
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"Zero, how did it go? Did it work?"
Rei Furuya's body trembled slightly.
“Zero…?” Morofushi Kagemitsu immediately dropped his sniper rifle and ran over to hug him to comfort him. “What’s wrong, Zero? Are you alright? Did you just come back from the future? It’s alright, it’s alright, I’m here perfectly fine.”
Rei Furuya clutched his shirt tightly: "I'm sorry, Hiro, I failed..."
“It’s okay if you fail, just try again,” Morofushi Kagemitsu said immediately.
“But this time, you’re all dead.” Furuya Rei’s grip tightened. “Dead from the organization’s armed helicopters, dead right before my eyes…”
Morofushi Kagemitsu's breath hitched. He couldn't imagine what Zero must have been feeling at that moment. He could only hug him tighter and try to transfer his body heat to him.
“It’s alright, we’ll learn from this experience and this won’t happen again.” He reached out and stroked his childhood friend’s blond hair. “So, tell me everything, Zero, let me share the burden with you, okay?”
Since it was a helicopter strafing, Morofushi Hiromitsu wasn't sure if he would be the last to die. He was a little worried that Zero was hiding many details from him because he thought this loop was too cruel.
Fortunately, he was indeed the last to die, and Zero didn't hide any details from him.
Even when his face turned pale as he recalled the deaths of his four closest friends, Rei Furuya's voice did not tremble once more.
He would even comfort Morofushi Kagemitsu: "It's alright. There were indeed quite a few flaws last time, but this time we will definitely eliminate all the hidden dangers and pass the level perfectly. This time we will definitely be able to make all the preparations in advance and kill those red butterflies."
With time running out, after the two returned to the safe house, Morofushi Kagemitsu immediately took a nap to prepare to obtain his own perspective on the memories.
Although it's just a single dream and you won't remember too many details, you'll gradually forget it as time goes by after waking up, eventually turning it into just an ordinary nightmare.
However, if you record the moment you wake up, you can still retain a lot of information, especially the event of your death, which you can't forget even if you want to.
During this period, Rei Furuya compiled all the details into text and sent them to Wataru Date, Kenji Hagiwara, and Jinpei Matsuda.
The three are still dealing with the aftermath of the bombing. The prisoner's escape and subsequent attempt to retaliate by bombing the police has caused a huge uproar, especially since the incident occurred in a prominent shopping mall Ferris wheel with such high foot traffic. Many people already know about it.
Matsuda Jinpei, the people's hero who almost sacrificed his life for the 12 million hostages in Tokyo, was also surrounded by reporters taking pictures. Afterwards, he had to go back to the police station to write a report... which means they wouldn't have time until at least 3 p.m.
However, none of these are problems, because Furuya Rei no longer intends to involve the three of them.
Telling them everything was just to prevent them from messing around and running into the organization again without knowing anything.
The other three, though very unwilling and wanting to resist and work together to help, could only obediently help secretly at most, as being too obvious would only make things worse, so they had no choice but to agree.
After finishing everything, Furuya Rei withdrew his hand, leaned back on the sofa, and pressed his temples wearily and with a headache.
He hasn't had a proper rest in a long time.
Since then, I've been rapidly cycling between 12 hours and two days. The only time I rested was the three hours I spent sleeping in the dark room during the last cycle. Even then, I slept very restlessly because of the ubiquitous cameras and didn't dare to actually fall asleep. I could only rest with my eyes closed.
The last time I had a good night's sleep was during the six hours I slept soundly with my childhood friend in the early morning of November 7th.
Even Rei Furuya was starting to get a headache from the intense, high-speed loop and witnessing his friends die one after another.
But now is not the time to rest; time is too tight.
Rum has now received information that Scotland is an undercover agent, and the reason why he only sent people to hunt down Scotland at night... there are probably three reasons.
First, Rum also needs to verify the authenticity of the intelligence.
Second, Scottish partner Rye, whose loyalty needed to be tested, was tricked by Bourbon into going abroad and is currently on an urgent mission and cannot get away. He can only fly back tonight.
Third, before Scotland discovers that he has been exposed, find his whereabouts, confirm his location, and then secretly observe whether Bourbon, who is with him, is an undercover agent.
Therefore, this safe house will soon become unsafe.
Once Hiro obtains the memories from the previous timeline and gets information from him from another perspective, the plan for this timeline will be decided and action will begin immediately.
Rei Furuya closed his eyes and let his brain and eyes rest for five minutes. He only got up from the sofa when he heard the alarm clock and his childhood friend's hurried voice coming from inside the room. He waited for the other person to finish recording before going over to open the door.
The young man with black hair and blue eyes sat on the edge of the bed with his head down, his expression obscured, but one could see that he was trembling and clenching his teeth, and the veins on the back of his fair hand holding the phone were bulging.
Rei Furuya walked over and stood in front of him: "Hiro..."
Morifushi Kagemitsu leaned forward slightly, his head resting weakly and heavily against him.
“Zero, everyone got involved because of me. I couldn’t save them…” His voice choked with sadness, filled with self-blame and pain.
Rei Furuya sighed and gently stroked his childhood friend's soft black hair to soothe him.
He knew that, just as he would rather die several times himself than accept everyone dying in front of him, Hiro could not accept the development that would involve the other three and lead to their deaths at the hands of the organization.
Or rather, that was the consequence they found most unacceptable.
“It’s alright, we won’t let them get involved this time.” Rei Furuya reached out and hugged him tightly. “We already know all the information, so they don’t need to take any more risks.”
"Hmm..." Morabushi Kagemitsu leaned against his childhood friend's chest and took a deep breath, slowly calming down.
He is a very sensitive and emotional person with a strong sense of empathy and responsibility, but he can also quickly regain his composure and rationality to handle the aftermath of a situation.
Even though I may feel sad about many things, I will never waver in my most fundamental beliefs and decisions.
More sensitive than the average person, and more determined than the average person.
"Zero." Morofushi Kagemitsu's eyes gradually turned serious. He suddenly stood up and reached out to pull at his childhood friend's mouth. "When did you hide poison in your teeth?"
Jianggu Ling: "..."
So Hiro's ghost saw everything afterward...?
"Well, it's after the nightmare where I was prevented from committing suicide and the game was saved. Wait, Hiro, there's nothing to see here. I can't really tell the difference between him and Mako—" Rei Furuya was subconsciously forced to take several steps back to try to stop him, but in the end, he was backed against the wall with nowhere to hide.
"Don't move, let me check," said Morofushi Kagemitsu.
Rei Furuya met his gaze, and finally had no choice but to obediently open his mouth. He pointed to one of his right molars to indicate it to him, and said in a muffled voice, "It's this one. I pulled it out, hollowed it out, filled it with poison, and made it into a denture. It was a very simple procedure..."
Morofushi Kagemitsu cautiously poked the tooth with his finger, as if it were a bomb: "What kind of poison is inside?"
"Cyanide." Furuya Rei was still a little guilty.
After all, right after Hiro begged him to save him first, he turned around and searched for a hundred ways to kill himself, then put a poisonous fang in his mouth to commit suicide...
After confirming that the fang was still sturdy, Morofushi Kagemitsu withdrew his hand, still worried, and said, "Won't you accidentally bite it while eating? What if it breaks during a fight? You knocked out Matsuda's dentures before, didn't you?"
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Rei Furuya: "No, usually not. I'll be careful."
Morofushi Kagemitsu still frowned, but only sighed and did not say anything to accuse him of not valuing his life or breaking the promise.
Rei Furuya breathed a sigh of relief.
"I will do my best." Morofushi Kagemitsu reached out and touched his cheek where the venomous fangs were hidden, then lowered his eyes and said seriously, "As long as we can clear the game safely as soon as possible and get through the most dangerous moment of my death, Zero will no longer end his life in this way to reload the save and start over."
*
On November 7th, at 6 PM, Scotland defected ahead of schedule.
Rum, furious that he had confirmed Scotland was an undercover agent and was carrying out the final arrest plan, immediately sent everyone in Tokyo to capture Scotland.
The requirement is to capture them alive if possible, and if that's not possible, you must find an opportunity to kill them.
Bourbon, who was closest to and had the strongest ties with Scotland at the time, was the first to receive the news. He immediately went to hunt down Scotland and successfully killed him on the rooftop of an abandoned building before the police could come to his aid. He then blew up the building before the police arrived, destroying all the evidence and bringing the matter to a perfect close.
Rum and Gin watched the kill video that Bourbon brought back repeatedly, but found nothing wrong, and temporarily believed Bourbon's innocence.
However, the routine three-day review period for Bourbon and Ray will still have to be carried out.
Before Bourbon was locked in solitary confinement, Vermouth rushed back to see him.
"What did I say before?" Vermouth leaned against the door with her arms crossed, her expression a mixture of mockery, helplessness, and sigh. "You actually managed to get caught by Scotland, and with such a serious undercover operation deceiving you... I really didn't expect that Scottish man to be even more terrifying than I imagined."
“Even the most terrifying person died at my hands.” Bourbon sneered, his expression terrifying. “It’s just a pity there wasn’t enough time. Otherwise, I would have tortured him thoroughly and then dismembered his body and thrown it into the sea to feed the fish. Even blowing his body into fireworks would have been too good for him. This is the price for deceiving me.”
Vermouth could understand why Bourbon was so angry after thinking about how the people in the organization would view and mock him. For the proud Bourbon, it was indeed an unbearable humiliation.
Vermouth was quite happy to watch the show; as long as Bourbon didn't actually get into any trouble, she was very eager to see him get frustrated and angry.
"Then have a pleasant trip to the little black room, little Bourbon~" The blonde, blue-eyed, red-lipped, sexy beauty blew him a kiss and a wink, then left with a cheerful smile.
Bourbon entered the small dark room with a dark face and was somewhat surprised to find Ray inside.
"This is the first time I've ever heard of two people being allowed into a dark room at the same time. What bad luck." He glanced disdainfully at the long-haired man whose knitted hat had been pulled off, and pulled up a chair to sit in the corner furthest away from him.
Ray glanced at him coldly: "Who do you think is to blame?"
"Tch." Bourbon impatiently crossed his legs. "Blame that damned undercover agent who's already dead, for daring to deceive me. Damn it, I still feel so resentful. He should have been brought back and tortured properly..."
Lei's face remained expressionless; he didn't want to talk to him anymore.
November 11th.
Bourbon and Ray were released from the dark room after passing the review.
Even after returning to work for the organization, the Whiskey Trio's partnership completely broke down, and the relationship between the two survivors deteriorated further.
November 15th.
Rei Furuya has resumed normal communication with his friends, and the danger has largely subsided.
But looking at those two lines on the calendar, he still felt inexplicably uneasy.
[Suitable for: house cleaning, bathing]
[Avoid: All activities are not advisable]
Rei Furuya checked every detail along the entire route and found no problems.
The same thing still applies in the reincarnation group; everyone is still trapped in a deep and stressful predicament, and no one can escape it.
Rei Furuya could only console himself by saying that even if he cleared the game, he wouldn't get a definitive answer until December 7th.
He got up and thoroughly cleaned the house inside and out. Finally, he took a bath, and his tense nerves finally relaxed a bit. He figured he could get a good night's sleep tonight.
Until the phone rang.
"Zero! Gao Ming-ge is missing!!!" Morofushi Kagemitsu said anxiously, "We've been keeping an eye on his safety, haven't we? But just now, the people monitoring and protecting him said they can't find him anywhere!"
Rei Furuya's warm body, which had just finished a bath, instantly turned cold and stiff.
"It's okay, Hiro, don't panic. It might not be the organization's doing. Maybe something else happened." Furuya Rei quickly put on his coat and went outside. "Be careful not to expose yourself. Go and search Nagano carefully. I'll go check on the organization."
“I’m already on my way to Nagano.” Morofushi Kagemitsu took a deep breath. “Zero, you need to be careful too, don’t expose your identity.”
“I’m fine, the point is you, Hiro.” Rei Furuya gripped the steering wheel tightly. “If it really is a butterfly effect caused by the convergence of world lines, then its goal should be to use Komei to lure you out and expose you to the organization before killing you to complete the final convergence of world lines.”
“But once I’m exposed, it means Zero will also be exposed.” Morofushi Hiromitsu said calmly, “Even if I stay hidden and don’t expose myself, if the organization finds out that Scotland is Morofushi Hiromitsu and Komei is also captured by the organization, then Zero will also be exposed.”
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
They know the reasons, they understand everything.
However, knowing something doesn't mean they won't do it. Even if they know it's a trap, they can't just ignore it and will risk their lives to step into it.
"It's alright." Furuya Rei had already begun to calmly consider the next cycle. "Even if Gao Ming is accidentally exposed and gets captured by the organization, we can try to be honest with him about the situation next time and work together to avoid this situation. There's not much we can do from the sidelines, but if Gao Ming knows everything himself, with his intelligence, this situation won't happen again."
"Won't this affect the main storyline?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked.
“It’s unlikely,” Furuya Rei said. “Gao Ming already knew about us. Only by telling him everything can we help Gao Ming, who is closely related to Hiro, escape this butterfly effect that’s hard to guard against.”
Morofushi Hiromitsu was silent for two seconds, then suddenly whispered, "Zero, I'm sorry, but brother..."
"Don't apologize to me!" Furuya Rei suddenly interrupted him with intense emotion, startling Morofushi Kagemitsu.
Rei Furuya immediately realized what was happening and quickly apologized, explaining, "I'm sorry, Hiro. It's because... because every time before I failed to load the save, the last thing you said to me was this, just like when Hagi Matsuda's countdown started and the Final Destination declaration praising the police officer. So I couldn't help but lose control of my emotions a bit..."
Morofushi Kagemitsu sighed and said helplessly, "I understand. I won't say it again. Zero doesn't need to apologize to me at all. Let's work together."
"Hmm!" Furuya Rei took a deep breath.
Having prepared for the worst and planned for the best, both of them calmed down considerably.
Or rather, it's a calm madness.
*
“Bourbon, you’ve come,” Rum said. “If you hadn’t come, Rye would have taken the chance to interrogate my brother Scottish.”
"Haha, thank you Mr. Rum for giving me this opportunity. I finally have a place to vent my pent-up anger!" Bourbon said happily, thanking him.
"Is he Scotland's brother?" The blond, dark-skinned youth stepped forward, looked at the disheveled black-haired man tied to a chair, stroked his chin, and carefully examined his face. He smiled and said, "The two brothers do look very alike. It's just that this beard is a bit deceptive. Even if I saw him on the street, I probably wouldn't immediately suspect that he was related to Scotland. So how did you find out about him?"
While Rum was explaining how he had discovered by chance that Morofushi Takaaki was Scotland's older brother and that Scotland's real name was Morofushi Kagemitsu, Morofushi Takaaki was also looking at the blond, dark-skinned organization member named Bourbon in front of him.
He only looked at it for a few seconds before lowering his eyes again, his long eyelashes and slender, upturned eyes remaining calm and undisturbed.
Throughout the entire process, those calm blue eyes remained completely undisturbed.
But Furuya Rei knew that Morofushi Takaaki definitely recognized him.
After all, Hiro had introduced him to Komei twice, once as a child and once as a teenager, and his current appearance was basically unchanged from his teenage years. The "Mr. Kongming" with his superb memory would never forget his younger brother, his most important childhood friend with such distinctive features.
“We just caught him not long ago. I’m still sending people to investigate the people around them based on the names and clues of Morofushi Takaaki and Morofushi Kagemitsu. We should get some important information in a few days,” Rum said. “In the meantime, you can torture him as you please as long as you don’t kill him.”
The place where Morofushi Takaaki was located was the underground interrogation room of the castle where they had been imprisoned before, and the room was filled with all sorts of interrogation tools.
Bourbon was very clear about the organization's methods.
In addition to the tortures they used, such as "branding with hot irons," "death by a thousand cuts," "electric shock," "water torture," and "ten fingers connected to the heart," there were other methods of torture.
The organization also has more than 100 kinds of tortures, such as the "tiger bench," "tongue lock," "bamboo clamp," "skinning," "combing," "brain clamp," "dismemberment by a cart," "playing the pipa," and "intestine disembowelment." These are all collected from various countries and are enough to be used on tough undercover agents and traitors, making them wish they were dead and go crazy, revealing information and regretting that they were born.
“Lay is coming too,” Rum suddenly said. “He’s already at the door. He said you beat him to it last time, and Scotland has always been his partner. He would be embarrassed if he didn’t seize this opportunity to redeem himself, so he’s here to interrogate Scotland’s brother.”
Bourbon suddenly turned his head.
The interrogation room door opened, and a long-haired man in a black trench coat walked in with a cold expression.
“I agree. You two can take turns interrogating the Scottish brother,” Rum said with a laugh.
Bourbon glared at Ray, grabbed an interrogation tool, and stepped forward, saying, "I'll go first!"
Lei watched expressionlessly, seemingly unconcerned.
But in reality, he had already made up his mind.
Rescuing Scotland's brother from this heavily fortified castle, which had already been the site of an undercover operation, was virtually impossible. Therefore, he needed to find an opportunity to give the policeman an easy release as soon as possible, so that he wouldn't suffer too much torture from Bourbon and expose the information about the comrade that Scotland would rather die to protect.
"Sorry, Brother Gao Ming..."
Morofushi Takaaki looked up in surprise and saw that the blond youth holding the torture instruments had already shed his fierce disguise and, taking advantage of the close proximity to hide from the surveillance behind him, gave him an apologetic and reassuring smile.
Then, blood slowly flowed from the corner of his mouth.
"Bourbon?" Rae noticed something was wrong, frowned, and took two steps forward to check on him.
However, the blond, dark-skinned youth collapsed weakly onto Morofushi Takaaki, then slowly slid to the ground, lifeless.
Zhu Fu Gaoming stared blankly down at the body of the blond youth.
How clever and perceptive he was! He had already deduced the current situation clearly, and in the brief contact just now, he clearly sensed what decision the blond youth, who was calmly facing death but whose body was trembling, had made and how painful it was.
It must be that there was a deadly poison hidden in its teeth.
Zhu Fu Gaoming sighed inwardly and slowly uttered his name.
zero.
You are dead.
[End of 22nd playthrough]
[A Bad Ending: All Efforts Failed]
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【yes】
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