Chapter 124, Thirty-Three Weeks (2)
"Blonde bastard!!!" Matsuda Jinpei shouted from afar, raising his fist and charging over angrily.
Rei Furuya hesitated for a second, but ultimately neither dodged nor blocked, only slightly turning his body to prevent him from hitting the side of his face where the venomous fangs were hidden.
As a result, Matsuda Jinpei looked even angrier; his sunglasses couldn't hide his fury, to the point that passersby would probably immediately call the police if they saw him.
But the aggressive curly-haired youth's fist didn't land hard on Furuya Rei's face. Instead, it veered off course and struck his chest with a moderate weight.
Rei Furuya paused for a moment: "?"
Matsuda Jinpei said irritably, "I'm just afraid of knocking out your venomous fangs and poisoning you to death, otherwise I would have knocked out your dentures too."
Rei Furuya couldn't help but laugh: "Then you've avenged your dentures-kun."
Kenji Hagiwara and Kouya Date walked over, one on each side.
"Furuya looks pretty good, that's great." Date Wataru laughed and patted Furuya Rei on the shoulder. "On the way here, we were worried about what would happen if you hadn't recovered to your usual self, Furuya Rei."
Kenji Hagiwara, clutching his reddened face, clung to Rei Furuya's shoulder and whimpered, "Yeah, Jinpei really treats people differently! He's so gentle with Furuya, but he's so violent with Hagi-chan, waaaaah..."
Both Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei got goosebumps from that "gentleness".
Matsuda Jinpei rolled his eyes while rubbing his arms: "Who told you to dare hide such an important thing from me? You're totally looking down on me. I'm already being lenient by only punching you once."
Kenji Hagiwara grabbed Rei Furuya's hand and lifted it high: "But! Furuya-kun and I are accomplices!"
In an instant, all firepower was successfully diverted.
Rei Furuya, under the watchful gazes of his friends, could no longer laugh.
Kenji Hagiwara then grabbed Hiromitsu Morofushi's hand and raised it high: "And little Morofushi! We're all accomplices! So Hagi-chan can't be the only one punished!"
Morofushi Kagemitsu's smile froze slightly: "..."
In the end, all three of them were punished together. They sat obediently in a row while Date Wataru and Matsuda Jinpei, who were angry and had their hands on their hips, talked for a long time.
All three of them felt very ashamed and promised that they would never hide it from everyone again next time.
The main culprit, Rei Furuya, was targeted by the four of them. If he hadn't deceived Kagemitsu Morofushi on one hand and concealed the truth from Kenji Hagiwara on the other, the four of them wouldn't have been successfully deceived until Rei Furuya was on the verge of a mental breakdown before they finally joined forces to exchange information and discovered something was wrong.
Just thinking about it makes me scared and angry.
Rei Furuya put his hands on his knees and bowed his head to admit his mistake. He was then held down and rubbed by his four vengeful friends, which even messed up his disguise and made his hair stand on end. He was only let go after repeatedly apologizing and signing a series of unequal agreements.
However, the corners of his mouth remained happily turned up, never letting them down for even a second.
For Rei Furuya, having someone who worries about him and gets angry while disciplining him is actually a very rare and fortunate thing.
Because it means that there are still people who care about him and are concerned about him; he is not alone, and there are still people who will continue to take care of him.
When he was little, it was his mother; when he grew up, it was his teacher Elena; and then it was Hiro and his friends who were always bickering but cared for each other.
But in the end, Rei Furuya lost them all.
After that, no matter how serious his injuries became, no one would care for and look after him with such affection again.
Rei Furuya was also very happy to be criticized, for this bond that had been lost and then regained.
However, amidst his gratitude and joy, he also felt a little guilty, because he had been hiding many other things...
"Alright, since Furuya seems to genuinely realize his mistake, let's let him off this time." Date Wataru then looked at Morofushi Kagemitsu and Hagiwara Kenji, smiling broadly as he laughed, "After all, you've had it tough, and you've worked hard all this time. But remember to take us with you if you ever encounter any trouble again!"
Matsuda Jinpei snorted: "If there's a next time, I'm really going to beat someone up."
The three people being watched quickly smiled and shook their heads, indicating that there wouldn't be a next time.
So, after spending fifteen minutes "settling accounts," the five of them continued to discuss their business.
With Rei Furuya as the main narrator, the others thought together, sorted out and reasoned through everything, and finally found that the situation was indeed very tricky.
The reason why Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda were able to survive and complete the game is that they were able to change the cause and effect relationship and change the world line from the source, which is the simplest and most useful method.
However, this was not the case for Morofushi Kagemitsu, because the cause of his death was fixed in the previous save file and could not be changed.
Since Rei Furuya cannot reload the save file to go back to before that incident, he can no longer change the cause of Kagemitsu Morofushi's death, so the method to save Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda is completely useless.
Therefore, Rei Furuya could only try all other methods again and again, and after failing thirteen times, he rejected most of the feasible directions and confirmed the most terrifying fact that the world wanted to kill Kagemitsu Morofushi.
"We shouldn't be thinking about how to perfectly deal with accidental murders in the world," Kenji Hagiwara said calmly. "It's impossible to prevent them all, and Kofuruya's failure proves that. We shouldn't try that again. If we continue, even Kofuruya will go crazy sooner or later. As before, we still have to start by changing the world line."
“But the cause and effect relationship has been fixed. If the action is too big and exceeds 2%, Zero will die suddenly and the world will restart. What should we do?” Matsuda Jinpei frowned.
Rei Furuya and Kagemitsu Morofushi gently shook their heads, indicating that they had not thought of a way to safely change the world line.
“Since deceiving the world is a dead end, perhaps the only way to clear the game is to boldly change the timeline. It’s too dangerous and difficult for Furuya and Morofushi to keep directly confronting the world like they did before. How can humanity possibly fight against natural disasters and accidents? The direction is wrong.” Date Wataru agreed with this point and sighed with his hands clasped.
That makes sense, but if they exclude this direction, they can hardly come up with any other feasible path.
“Changing the world line is indeed the best way, but unfortunately the method of changing cause and effect can no longer be used.” Rei Furuya said helplessly. “And the biggest problem now is that, perhaps because this is an important part of the main storyline, changing the world line could easily trigger a restart. Even now, I’ve only confirmed that I can’t give others cheat codes and answers directly, but I’m not sure to what extent I can guide everyone to do so.”
"Speaking of which," Morofushi Hiromitsu suddenly looked up, "why did Zero tell us everything was fine?"
Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then hesitated under the intense gazes of the others before saying, "Because you are special to me?"
Kenji Hagiwara immediately started cheering, "Oh, oh, oh, I'm so touched, Furuya!"
Rei Furuya blushed and quickly explained, "I'm serious! You are my [wish] for reincarnation, and the basis for the creation of save points. The system's malice has always been directed at you. You can also have reincarnation memories, so in a sense, you are the same as my [player] identity. So these restrictions are useless against you, right?"
Of course, it's also possible that because they were all people who died before the future protagonist Conan was born, they wouldn't affect the operation of the game's plot after it officially begins, so the world program doesn't think it's necessary to care how much they know.
Rei Furuya didn't mention this possibility.
But those people started talking about their "dead" status without any hesitation.
“I suddenly thought of something. The three of us are different from Komorofushi and Kofuruya; we're not main characters, right? So, if we change the world line, wouldn't that help us avoid the world program's detection?” Kenji Hagiwara smiled innocently. “Since it's a program, it must be able to find some bugs, right?”
"Oh, oh, oh, Hagi, that's actually quite possible!" Matsuda Jinpei suddenly realized, revealing a terrifying smile that looked like a villain about to do something bad. "Besides, Hagi and I have survived our near-death experience, so perhaps we can be considered outsiders now? Maybe the world's program doesn't even consider us alive? And we're characters not yet included in the main storyline, so if we do it, maybe there will be unexpected results!"
Date Wataru stroked his chin: "That makes sense. Maybe because we're already considered 'dead' in the world program, unless we rush directly to the organization like in that 'collateral damage' cycle, we won't be in any trouble, right? We've been safe and sound ever since, haven't we?"
The three of them exchanged glances, and whether they had discussed it beforehand or simply clicked on a sudden connection, they all revealed knowing and eager smiles.
Rei Kōya and the various fuku Kōkō suddenly sensed something was wrong.
"Wait, what does everyone want to do?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked.
"Don't do anything rash!" Rei Furuya warned.
"Can you two be as reckless as me?" Matsuda Jinpei rolled his eyes.
Morofushi Kagemitsu: "..."
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Damn it! There's no arguing with that! Those five people only got together because they were so audacious and always causing trouble!
Rei Furuya and Kagemitsu Morofushi exchanged a glance and both gave each other helpless smiles.
There's no other way, so let's go crazy together one more time.
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