Chapter 135, Fifty-Seventh Cycle (7)
Vodka almost didn't recognize Bourbon when he saw him fully armed.
They were truly armed from head to toe, with only a quarter of their face showing.
Yes, only a quarter of his face was visible.
Bourbon was wearing huge black sunglasses and a black mask, as well as a hat and scarf. If it weren't for his blond hair and unusual skin tone, Vodka wouldn't have been able to recognize him.
And if he remembered correctly, wasn't Bourbon the one who hated red the most? Why was he still wearing that red scarf that Scotland had given him even after he woke up?
With so much time to spare, there must have been other options, so the only possibility is that Bourbon put it on himself.
How did Scotland do it?
Bourbon also saw Vodka, paused, and immediately unleashed a terrifying killing intent as he strode towards them.
Vodka looked around in a panic, but couldn't find Gin, who could protect him. He had no choice but to face Bourbon's raging anger alone.
"Haha, Bourbon, are you feeling better? Are you ready for a mission today?" Vodka greeted him first, his face covered in cold sweat.
Bourbon looked nothing like a patient who had been feverish and unconscious just two days ago. He rushed over with terrifying force, grabbed Bourbon by the collar, lifted him up, and slammed him against the wall—this guy was incredibly strong! Was he a gorilla?!
“Vodka, I’ll settle the score with you later for spreading rumors about me to Gin and Ray,” Bourbon said through gritted teeth. “But remember this: I have nothing to do with Scotland! I just have a cold!!!”
They were exposed as expected!
Damn it, Gin will never betray him, it must have been that guy Ray who did it!
Vodka, feeling guilty, immediately nodded: "Yes, yes, Bourbon, you just have a cold, so you need to be careful to keep warm in winter."
"Tsk, I really did catch a cold, but I'm fully recovered now. If you don't believe me, don't leave later. I'll have a good match with you in the training room so you can experience it for yourself." Bourbon let go of her hand and suddenly sneered, "Vodka, if you don't clear all the messy things out of your head, I'll send everyone the picture of you crying while watching a romantic drama."
Vodka: "!!!"
Bourbon turned and left.
Gin happened to come out of the conference room over there. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Bourbon's outfit and even made a couple of sarcastic remarks as he passed by.
But Bourbon ignored him, his every step exuding murderous intent, and walked straight past him into the conference room.
Now it seems the situation has reversed from before.
In the past, it was always Bourbon who mocked Gin, and Gin would just endure it and not want to talk to him. It's quite rare for Bourbon to be so embarrassed like this.
Having finally gained the upper hand in the verbal exchange, Gin was in a good mood and even came over to patiently ask Vodka, who was leaning against the wall in sorrow, what was wrong.
Vodka didn't dare to say anything, afraid of being scolded by his older brother. He could only push up his sunglasses and say, "Bourbon threatened me. He forbade me from talking about his relationship with Scotland anymore, saying that nothing happened between them and that he just had a cold and fever these past few days."
Gin sneered upon hearing this: "Boring, what a lame excuse."
“Right, right, who would believe that?” Vodka immediately nodded and retorted. “I was going to tell him that Scotland would be coming to join us on the mission tonight.”
But now, as expected, they're not saying anything.
Vodka was looking forward to seeing Bourbon's reaction to Scotland, and was also curious about how Scotland would react to Bourbon's denial.
*
Bourbon is here to see the boss.
Of course, only the BOSS can see him through the monitoring system; he can only see an electronic screen.
“Bourbon, I don’t even recognize you dressed like that,” said the BOSS, who also used a synthesized voice.
The blond youth paused for about three seconds after sitting down in the chair, then finally sighed, got up, walked to the cabinet by the wall, and took off his hat, sunglasses, mask, scarf, and gloves.
After observing him for a while through 360-degree surveillance, the BOSS was completely relieved.
Apart from slightly red and swollen eyes and bandages wrapped around the back of his hands and wrists, Bourbon looked exactly the same as before. His mental and physical condition were not greatly affected and would not affect his mission.
Scotland still knows what's good for them, so we'll leave them alone from now on.
That's fine, it's better for them to keep each other in check.
*
Bourbon came out very quickly, in less than ten minutes.
No one knows what the BOSS said to him, but he seemed to be in an even worse mood.
“Come on.” Bourbon put his hat, mask, scarf, and coat aside, but still wore gloves on his hands. He beckoned to Vodka with his finger and grinned, revealing a cold, murderous smirk. “Let’s have a fight, and I’ll show you how my body is now.”
Vodka gave me a stomach ache.
Despite his imposing physique, his combat skills are actually quite average. He's only good at using firearms, but he can't exactly shoot Bourbon, can he?
His specialty is IT! He's completely incomparable to Bourbon, who claims to be an intelligence operative but can actually fight Ray to a standstill!
Gin scoffed, tossed away his cigarette, took off his long black trench coat and tossed it to Vodka, then stepped forward and said, "I'll fight you."
Vodka's injuries haven't fully healed yet, and if he were to fight Bourbon, tonight's mission would be in jeopardy.
Moreover, Gin was also very curious about how far Bourbon could go. If Scotland could really affect Bourbon's strength and turn him into a useless person, then he couldn't just sit idly by.
Vodka, holding Gin's clothes, stood by the training ground, deeply moved, watching the two fight and cheering for Gin.
Upon hearing the news, Lei rushed over and stood at the door for a while, his gaze lingering on the hat, mask, coat, and red scarf on the chair before walking over to Vodka and trying to extract more information from him.
Ray: "Why are they fighting?"
Vodka: "Isn't it all because of you? You must have told Bourbon my name, that's why Bourbon came to cause me trouble. Luckily, Big Brother is here!"
Ray: "I didn't say your name. Didn't you ever think that it was Gin who said it when he was mocking Bourbon?"
Vodka: "?"
Vodka: "Impossible! My brother would never betray me!!!"
Lei was speechless.
He stopped speaking and began to observe the two people in the room intently.
Although Gin doesn't usually take action himself, his sniping skills and physical combat abilities are among the best in the organization, making him a formidable opponent that Ray considers very troublesome.
Gin wouldn't hold back just because his opponent was in poor health, unless he wanted to play cat and mouse, but that was clearly not the case now. Gin was consciously testing Bourbon's reaction ability.
Bourbon didn't look injured at all, and there was no sign that he had been running a fever and was unconscious just a few days ago. He even punched the railing so hard it bent.
However, as he moved, his wrists and arms, hidden under his gloves, were revealed, covered in white bandages.
If there's no sign of bleeding or injury, then it's to cover up some marks that they don't want others to see.
For example... marks from being tied up?
"Ray!!!"
Bourbon, unable to bear it any longer, abandoned Gin and suddenly attacked Rai, who had been staring at him with strange eyes.
Ray skillfully caught his fist, flipped over and entered the training area to fight him.
Gin didn't care. He walked out, took the black trench coat from Vodka, and put it on, deciding not to continue.
He was relieved to find that Bourbon's strength had not been affected. Since that was the case, he figured he could let them cause trouble as long as it didn't affect the organization's mission.
Although Scotland must have released Bourbon after he recovered, he probably wasn't seriously injured beforehand. Otherwise, how could Bourbon have fought Gin and then Rye when Vodka's injuries hadn't even healed?
That guy was just venting and exercising; he even seemed more energetic than before.
It seems that Scotland really motivated him. Maybe he won't slack off with Vermouth anymore and will instead work hard and actively to complete tasks.
Unlike Gin, who was more concerned about the mission completion of his organization members, Ray was more curious about Bourbon's current situation.
For example, Gin wouldn't care if Bourbon wore sunglasses while fighting him, as long as the sunglasses didn't affect his strength.
But Lei will care a lot and be very curious.
Although it hadn't reached the point of "the fever of curiosity" that he had mentioned to his mother, Ray's investigation of Bourbon yielded no results, and he couldn't even confirm whether Bourbon was an undercover agent. So he could only try to slowly gather information from Bourbon himself.
He was genuinely curious: Why did Bourbon insist on wearing sunglasses? Why were his wrists wrapped in bandages? Where did those bandages extend? And what were they trying to cover? What was the real situation between Bourbon and Scotland? What was the real situation between Bourbon and Cherry Blossom? And what was Scotland's attitude towards Cherry Blossom? The actions of these three would undoubtedly impact the organization and Ray's own plans, and couldn't be ignored.
After Gin and Vodka left, Ray took a punch from Bourbon and finally managed to knock off his sunglasses with one hand, while his other hand hooked the edge of the bandage on Bourbon's wrist.
"Whoosh—"
The black sunglasses were flung off, and the white bandages were suddenly ripped off and floated in the air, revealing the conspicuous bruises and needle marks on the blond youth's dark skin, as well as his slightly widened, still somewhat red and swollen eyes.
"Ray!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Oh dear, it seems we've gone a bit too far.
*
After leaving the base, Furuya Rei took several deep breaths of the cold air to calm down.
He got into his car and sped away from that unlucky place.
We arrived near the mission location two hours later, with one hour left before the mission officially began. We were still in the preliminary preparation stage.
All he had to do was sit in his car with his laptop and provide remote support. Finally, he was responsible for handing over that important document, which was a very simple task.
Rei Furuya thought for a moment, then took out his phone and entered the reincarnation group chat.
The time flow in the group chat became out of sync again after waking up from a three-day coma at the bottom of the valley.
He could only judge everyone's current situation by looking at the previous chat logs and the intermittent, difficult-to-connect conversations that followed.
Currently, only he and Homura Akemi can probably catch their breath for the time being.
He successfully passed the most difficult hurdle, while Homura Akemi finally figured out all of Kyubey's situation and was basically able to prevent Kyubey from getting close to Madoka Kaname, turning her into a magical girl and then into a witch, so that she could only kill her... Although she was still in the loop and had not found a solution, at least she no longer needed to kill Madoka Kaname with her own hands.
The other three are not doing so well.
In that dangerous shadow world, Shinpei and his companions encounter more and more outrageous dangers that are beyond the comprehension of the normal world.
No matter what, Rintaro Okabe can't find a world line where the two people most important to him can both survive. He has already given up on the world line where Kurisu can survive, and is now wallowing in self-blame every day in the world where Mayuri has successfully survived.
Subaru Natsuki was unable to restore Rem's health, and could only continue onward with regret and determination, searching for a cure for Rem in more places.
[1. Homura Akemi: From "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", currently on her 102nd playthrough, with zero deaths.]
2. Rintaro Okabe: From Steins;Gate, currently on his 76th playthrough, has died 0 times.
[3. Rei Furuya: From "Detective Conan," currently on his 57th playthrough, and has died 57 times.]
[4. Subaru Natsuki: From *Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-*, currently on his 39th playthrough, and has died 39 times.]
[5. Shinpei Ami: From "Summer Revisited," currently on his 24th playthrough, has died 24 times.]
Rei Furuya stared at the shocking list of members for a full three minutes before exiting.
After a complete honesty and outpouring with Hiro, and with everyone's comforting words, he is now able to approach his fifty-seven cycles of reincarnation with a very calm and rational mindset.
As it turns out, none of those fifty-seven cycles were wasted. Through those fifty-seven reincarnations, every little bit of exploration and probing into the system and the world finally allowed Rei Furuya to fully understand their goals and logic, and to skillfully use their rules to reverse cause and effect, manipulate the truth of the world, and achieve his own goals.
The system wants energy, which comes from human emotions and outbursts of feeling.
Therefore, they will manipulate the world's program to fix the cause of Morofushi Hiromitsu's death before the save file is loaded, so that Furuya Rei can never load back to change this cause and save Morofushi Hiromitsu. They will make him repeatedly experience the death of his most important childhood friend, fall into utter and irreversible despair, and finally find unexpected hope in the face of death.
Yes, there's a 50% chance the system won't let him completely despair.
The resurrection card is real and effective. The system may be waiting for him to try all methods and fall into utter despair, waiting for Morofushi Hiromitsu's death to be saved and enter a new timeline. Then, it may successfully use the resurrection card to bring Morofushi Hiromitsu back to life, making him a virus-like existence in this world, just like the system itself. The immense despair and hope they experience during this period is what the system wants.
However, Rei Furuya dared not gamble on this possibility. There was also a 50% chance that the system would make him lose his most important childhood friend forever, because the system confirmed that even so, Rei Furuya would not really break down and despair. At least he would not break down and become useless before he had done everything.
Even after losing half of his body, Rei Furuya will continue to live with deep-seated pain and regret, completing all the tasks he has set for himself.
He also needed to make sure the others survived to the end, and to destroy the organization to protect the country.
Compared to the former, Furuya Rei felt that the latter might be the development the system wanted, so he would never allow Hiro's death save file to become a reality.
So, after recovering a bit on his forty-sixth loop, he continued to try other possibilities.
He began to explore the world and systems from the most fundamental essence of everything.
The guess remains the same: if the system is indeed broadcasting live, then the emotions and feelings of the viewers are also very important.
While it is obvious that for the system, a small number of targets with high energy are more important than a large number of targets with low energy, and the energy of one person, Furuya Rei, is preferred over the energy of the audience, the energy of the audience should not be underestimated and can definitely be one of the factors that influence the system's decisions.
What could evoke a greater emotional response from the audience than the death of Morofushi Kagemitsu?
Yes, aside from those who frequented shady places, most viewers probably hoped that Morofushi Kagemitsu would survive; this was a genuine and sincere wish.
However, in reality, for most viewers, the despair energy of Morofushi Kagemitsu's death far outweighs the hope energy of his survival.
Negative emotions are more likely to overcome positive emotions in humans. The same event can trigger a response of several times more energy to cancel each other out, which is why tragedies are more memorable than comedies.
The death of Morofushi Kagemitsu will leave them in despair for a very long time, and will remain a source of eternal regret.
If Morobuchi Kagemitsu survives and goes crazy with joy for a while, their emotions will gradually fade and they will become ordinary again.
Therefore, it is essential that the way Morofushi Kagemitsu survives be something extraordinary, making the audience anticipate his survival and subsequent developments many times more than if he were to die and leave the stage.
In that case, not only will the system not hinder his actions, but it will also help him to act more smoothly.
After resolving the system-related issues, we need to consider the world program problem.
The reason why Morofushi Kagemitsu could not get over death was ultimately because the world could not tolerate his continued existence.
Why?
Because the cause of Morofushi Kagemitsu's death is fixed and cannot be changed, the program is fixed and can only follow that formula, Furuya Rei can no longer change the world line through this bug.
Because Morofushi Kagemitsu is both important and unimportant. He is an important character in the main storyline, so his plot cannot be changed; his final fate is death. However, his role is not important enough to influence the world's programming and allow him to continue living. Having completed his assigned tasks and role, he should leave the stage. Death is his predetermined destiny.
To change the world's program, the only option is to create a perfectly timed bug. This bug would allow Morofushi Kagemitsu to survive, but not so much that it would paralyze the world's program and force it to restart.
Morofushi Kagemitsu's "importance" is undeniable, and his storyline must continue.
However, Morofushi Kagemitsu's "lack of importance" can be changed.
When Morofushi Kagemitsu's importance outweighs the impact of the program error caused by his survival, and when the world discovers that it can continue to function even with a program error, it may not bother to fix the bug.
Even if there are bugs, it doesn't matter. Aren't there plenty of bugs in the world program? As long as the program can function normally, it's fine, as long as it doesn't affect the main storyline later on.
Therefore, the plan to swap plot points between Scotland and Rum came about.
The success of the plan also meant that Furuya Rei's guesses and tests were all correct. He was certain that the system was really broadcasting live and that there were viewers watching them. He was even basically certain that the "protagonist" of that live broadcast was his own world, and he had also thoroughly tested and understood the logic of the world's program.
Furthermore, he has now trained his body into a human-shaped worldline change measuring instrument. Even if he can't obtain such clear values by repeatedly testing every matter like he did in that month, he can still determine the probability within a very small margin of error.
Therefore, once he gets past the class monitor's death hurdle two years later, everything should be much simpler, and he's even confident he can pass the test on his first try.
Rei Furuya exhaled softly, and white mist filled the car window, blocking the view outside.
He stretched out his finger and slowly drew a circle on the cold window.
No, it's not a circle, it's 0.
Zero, zero, the valley zero, is the only exception.
The only thing he couldn't be sure of was whether he would survive when the game reached its final ending and Rei Furuya faced his death.
Because Rei Furuya is too special, both for the system and for the world.
The experiences and methods he explored might be completely unusable for himself.
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