Chapter 121, Twenty-Seventh Cycle (1)
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"Zero, how did it go? Did it work?"
Rei Furuya pushed aside the computer, immediately stood up, walked over and grabbed his childhood friend's hand, which was still holding a sniper rifle.
"We're almost there!" he exclaimed excitedly. "This time we successfully broke through December 7th and reached December 8th. Although we ultimately failed, Hiro survived until December 7th. The problem arose on my side, so this is a huge breakthrough. I see hope for success!"
Morofushi Kagemitsu was taken aback. He put the gun aside, pulled his childhood friend, who seemed a bit off, to sit on the steps next to him, and said soothingly in a soft voice, "Zero, don't rush. Tell me slowly, can you start from the beginning? I just finished dealing with Matsuda's matter and don't know anything yet."
Rei Furuya blinked, realizing what he'd done, "Ah, sorry, I got a little too excited..."
"It's alright." Morofushi Kagemitsu reached out and touched his head with a mixture of heartache and worry. "Zero must have gone through so many failures and pains to finally find this glimmer of hope. You've really worked hard."
Rei Furuya smiled, his eyes bright as if burning with intense flames: "It's alright, as long as I can save Hiro, I don't care if I have to reincarnate hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of times!"
Morofushi Kagemitsu sighed silently, not wanting his childhood friend to see his expression, he leaned forward and reached out to hug him.
However, he didn't want Zero to reincarnate so many times, but he couldn't say it. Saying it would be denying all of Zero's efforts so far, and would become the greatest force that would hurt him.
“Zero, tell me everything.” He took a deep breath and said earnestly, “Let me work hard with you.”
Rei Furuya had no intention of hiding anything from him. This ordeal was far too dangerous, and he dared not conceal anything from Hiro, as any mistake could lead to failure.
Starting from the later part of the twentieth playthrough and continuing until the end of the twenty-sixth playthrough, there were a total of seven failures.
“Actually, we spent the last midnight of the last cycle together,” Rei Furuya said. “I was worried that the world line would converge again in a way similar to an earthquake, so as soon as the mission was over, I disguised myself and went to find you. I decided to stay by your side and fight against the world with you.”
"But in the end nothing happened, and Hiro survived to December 8th." Furuya Rei smiled happily, then snorted, "But not long after, I received a message from Rum, and had to leave you to do a mission. Who knew it was a trap specifically set for me."
"It's all the FBI's fault! It's all that bastard Akai's fault for acting recklessly! Otherwise, with the intelligence so tightly sealed, how could Rum have discovered our identities? The FBI is indeed a bunch of useless cowards who only know how to cause trouble!!!" Furuya Rei cursed through gritted teeth.
“This time…” Morofushi Kagemitsu struggled to process the vast amount of information from the seven timelines.
“We’re still working with Akai this time,” Furuya Rei said. “Although I hate him and he messed things up in the last time loop, the development with him involved is definitely different from before, and there’s hope for success.”
Morofushi Kagemitsu frowned, somewhat reluctant to cooperate with Akai Shuichi.
Rei Furuya carefully analyzed for him: "Shuichi Akai is a very important character in this game. If the main characters who can't die have the 'luck' that protects them from the world, then Shuichi Akai's luck will be extremely strong, probably the strongest besides the protagonist. So the world will definitely not let him die, and with the world lines converging, it won't let him expose his undercover identity now."
“Then, if Shuichi Akai helps Hiro fake his death, the fact that Hiro faked his death won’t be discovered,” Rei Furuya affirmed. “Because once Hiro’s fake death is discovered, Shuichi Akai will also be exposed.”
“I might survive if two conflicting timelines converge and collide, but Zero will be identified as a bug, his identity will be exposed, he will die, and the world will restart.” Morofushi Kagemitsu disagreed. “In the end, we will still fail. I think this path is not feasible. Let’s try other methods.”
“This is the most promising solution right now.” Rei Furuya gripped his shoulder and said firmly, “Let’s try a few more times. I want Hiro to survive safely, and I will also try my best to prevent the world lines from converging on me. I can do it.”
Morofushi Kagemitsu stared at him for a long time before finally agreeing reluctantly: "Of course, I've always believed that Zero can do it, I'm just a little worried about you getting hurt..."
Rei Furuya laughed: "It's okay. This time, let's try telling Shuichi Akai my identity as well. That way, even if Shuichi Akai still wants to verify it, he can confirm it quickly with the evidence we give him. We won't need to go through so much trouble to use so many FBI agents to investigate in Nagano and attract Rum's attention."
Morofushi Kagemitsu was very worried, but he couldn't dampen his childhood friend's enthusiasm. He could only suppress his unease and smile as he agreed to start working with him.
*
November 7th, 7:30 PM.
After compressing the time by half an hour again, Shuichi Akai will be able to meet Rei Furuya directly upon returning to Japan.
Half an hour is still until Rum's text message arrives, which should be enough.
Shuichi Akai's brainstorming session ended before the door opened.
He temporarily put aside his doubts about the cherry blossoms suddenly appearing to help him complete the task quickly, returned to his perfect Lei Yi state, and then opened the door.
Inside the door, it was quiet and dark. Rye was a little surprised that neither Bourbon nor Scotland were there.
But just before he closed the door and turned to turn on the light, a barely audible noise in the air startled Ray, who abruptly turned around, drew his gun, and pointed it at the person behind him.
A blond, dark-skinned youth dressed in black stood in the darkness, pointing a gun at him with a dangerous and malicious smile on his face.
It's Bourbon.
“Shuichi Akai,” he said, “you were careless.”
Ray, who was originally able to calmly stand up and confront him with a gun, instantly lost his composure after his real name was called and turned back into Shuichi Akai in shock.
Rei Furuya was delighted to see the way Furuya's pupils dilated in shock, and it took him a while to suppress his laughter.
Hahaha! Shuichi Akai, you deserve it! Who told you to trick and scare me like that with the Kudo family before! What goes around comes around! That shocked and confused look on your face is hilarious, hahaha, it's totally worth taking a picture, framing it, and hanging it on the wall to admire every day!
The extremely vengeful Rei Furuya was inwardly laughing loudly, but his face twisted into a grim, bourbon-esque smile as he said, "What? Surprised? Did you think you were hiding your identity well? FBI!!!"
"When did you find out?" Akai Hideaki's eyes sharpened as he gripped his gun tightly. "Who else knew?"
Just as the tense atmosphere reached its peak, someone suddenly pressed a switch on the wall, and the dimly lit room was instantly illuminated.
Rei Furuya, who was well-prepared, was completely unaffected. Only Shuichi Akai was caught off guard and subconsciously closed his eyes for a moment before opening them wide and turning to look.
Through the blurry vision, a familiar figure gradually came into focus.
It's Scotland.
"Zero, stop playing around, business is more important." The black-haired, blue-eyed youth had a helpless smile on his face.
Akai Shuichi: "..."
Akai Shuichi: "?"
Rei Furuya snorted, put away his gun, and proudly raised his chin at Shuichi Akai.
"What a fine expression, Shuichi Akai," he mocked. "It's a pity I couldn't take this coffin-face photo that would prove you don't have facial muscle necrosis. Otherwise, this SSR-level FBI ace's shocking photo would definitely be auctioned off as a painting worth billions."
Shuichi Akai immediately reverted to his cold, coffin-like expression and asked in a deep voice, "What's going on?"
"Alright, alright." Morofushi Kagemitsu pulled his childhood friend back to the sofa, then smiled apologetically at Akai Shuichi, "Mr. Akai, please sit down too. Things are a bit complicated, let's talk about it slowly."
Shuichi Akai silently watched the two of them for a while, then finally put away his gun and sat down opposite them.
"Who exactly are you people?" he asked coldly, frowning.
Rei Furuya burst out laughing when he saw Furuya's reluctant yet helplessly wary and confused expression.
"Hahaha! Hahahaha—"
Morofushi Kagemitsu helplessly helped his childhood friend, who had fallen onto him laughing, and sighed, "Seriously, Zero, you're laughing too much."
Akai Shuichi: "..."
Akai Shuichi was completely expressionless.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Akai, Zero isn’t usually like this.” Morofushi Kagemitsu turned to try to explain to him.
“Zero?” Shuichi Akai ignored Bourbon’s laughter and began to think seriously, keenly grasping the key point.
Rei Furuya finished laughing, and three minutes had passed. It was time to get down to business.
"yes."
Shuichi Akai saw that the blond youth finally turned serious, sat up straight, and looked him in the eye earnestly.
He also noticed that Scotland next to Bourbon wasn't paying attention to him; Scotland was almost always staring at Bourbon, seemingly worried or nervous about something.
What is it?
“FBI, Shuichi Akai.” Bourbon called his real name again and said seriously, “We are also undercover agents, eagles that hunt crows just like you. We’ve come to you to confess for future cooperation.”
Shuichi Akai's attention was instantly focused on the blond youth who was speaking, and he paused for a moment when his eyes met those bright, almost burning eyes.
He was still reeling from the shock of discovering that Bourbon was also an undercover agent, and looking at this righteous-looking blond youth, he felt even more astonished and questioned the meaning of life.
"Let's get to know each other again. My name is Rei Furuya, and I'm a public security police officer..."
The blond youth abruptly stopped mid-sentence, trembling as he clutched his chest and collapsed, only to be caught by the blue-eyed youth who had been watching him the whole time.
"Zero? Zero?! Zero!!!"
Shuichi Akai was completely stunned. Even with his brilliant mind, he couldn't understand what had happened. He could only instinctively step forward and try to save Bourbon, who had suddenly collapsed, by following the rescue methods for cardiac arrest and cardiac arrest.
“zero…”
Rei Furuya could still hear his childhood friend's desperate and painful cries, but he was no longer able to respond.
Damn it, revealing Shuichi Akai's true identity now would still change the timeline too much, wouldn't it?
It failed again.
Sorry, Hiro...
You are dead.
[End of 27th playthrough]
[Resulting in a Bad Ending: Extreme Joy Turns to Tragedy]
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