Chapter 167 Fifty-Eight Weeks (15)
The images projected by the nightmare were intermittent, as if the signal reception was poor.
"Mr. Furuya...all four of your classmates are dead, right?"
"Explosion...car accident...and another one..."
The sound and images were extremely blurry, with a few strange images flashing by. The only clear image was Shuichi Akai, covered in blood and holding a gun. In the end, all the images shattered, and the distorted world broke apart like a broken mirror.
The dream world descended into chaos, like a dark storm in the universe, then turned into a raging apocalypse. Only a blond child stumbled through the ruins, carefully protecting four blue butterflies in his arms.
"No...no...no...absolutely not..."
As the scarlet butterflies suddenly appeared, blotting out the sky, the blue butterflies were quickly stripped of their wings and torn apart, their corpses instantly devoured by countless red butterflies.
When the last blue butterfly was torn to shreds in the blond boy's arms, he finally collapsed to the ground, trembling and curling up in a ball, reaching out his tender, scarred hands to grab his hair and keep saying no.
The child's blond hair swayed in the wind, like the flickering flame of a tiny candle that was about to go out but refused to be extinguished in this world ravaged by disaster.
This scene continued, regardless of howling winds and torrential rains or freezing snow.
Karasuma Renya irritably pounded the ground with his cane, making loud noises: "Why is this dream so unclear? It's almost over, why is it still like this?"
Shirley's bangs were soaked with cold sweat, but she felt a slight sense of relief.
"I don't know. I'm not an expert in this area. Maybe the person who created the program needs to take a look to determine where the problem lies," she said calmly, though she already had a general idea in mind.
Sure enough, after the person in charge of the Dream Chair program came and observed for ten minutes and then examined and studied it for half an hour, the conclusion was pretty much what she had guessed.
“He’s resisting too much,” the thinning-haired young researcher said anxiously. “He’s desperately resisting the hypnosis and stimulation, which has caused confusion and fragmentation in his dreams, and has also caused some damage to his mind and body. Let’s end this experiment for now.”
Karasuma Renya was furious, but there was nothing he could do but stop the Dream Chair from mentally stimulating Furuya Rei.
“It’s alright. He can only do this once, using such a huge amount of mental energy to violently harm himself to resist hypnosis and the dream chair.” Another elderly researcher spoke calmly, but his face showed two completely opposite emotions: indifference and fanaticism. “He doesn’t have the strength to resist a second time.”
*
Rei Furuya woke up directly in bed this time.
Yes, it wasn't the Dream Chair or the operating table, but rather the small folding bed that was originally prepared for Shirley.
However, his hands and feet were still bound, and he felt the restraint on his neck again.
He emerged from the nightmare.
Rei Furuya suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. His vision went black, but stars kept flashing in the darkness, and his head throbbed with pain.
"Are you alright?" came the girl's cool voice.
Rei Furuya opened his eyes, and Sherry, expressionless, walked over with a notebook in hand: "Who told you to resist so desperately? Your mental strength must have been damaged. How are you feeling now? Dizzy and nauseous?"
The Shirley in front of him even swayed a few times before transforming from several overlapping phantom images into a real person.
“A little…” Furuya Rei shifted his gaze to observe other parts of the laboratory. He didn’t see Karasuma Renya, but he did see two new researchers.
They were clearly different from the brainwashed men in black; they were wearing white coats and staring intently at him, as if he were an extremely precious lab rat.
He didn't recognize one of the young researchers with thinning hair, but the other, a chubby old man... was Tokiwa Eisaku, a professor at the Tokugawa University School of Medicine and one of the core figures of the Tokiwa Group.
In the future, he might even run for office with the organization's encouragement and enter the political arena, and even have Gin lead a group to assassinate his opponent, Tsuchimon Yasuhiro.
He was an agent of the organization and also one of the core members of the research team.
So, he was involved in both the medicine and the dream chair?
No, the Dream Chair is probably handled by the younger researchers there; it's related to the programming.
Eisaku Tokiwa was in charge of drug research.
After a brief analysis, Furuya Rei's headache worsened.
"Don't think too much, get some rest." Shirley pressed her index finger lightly against his furrowed brow, seemingly impatient, and said, "The fourth experiment failed because of your frantic resistance. All we got was the information that all four of your friends from the same period were dead. No wonder no one came to save you."
Rei Furuya quietly met her gaze.
"If you don't get proper rest, you'll suffer in tonight's experiment." The brown-haired girl withdrew her hand and sneered. "Or do you think you can temporarily avoid the experiment? Impossible, and your body can no longer withstand you resisting a second time in the same way."
“…I want to drink water,” Furuya Rei said slowly.
"Oh right, I almost forgot." Tokiwa Eisaku, who had been watching them and had even walked over, murmured softly, "Although I don't need to eat today because of the IV fluids, I still feel thirsty..."
Sherry poured a glass of warm water, and after being checked twice on the way back, she finally managed to deliver the water to Furuya Rei.
Furuya Zero slowly finished his drink and closed his eyes again.
He definitely needs to rest. Only when he is well-rested can he have the energy to face the next experiment and buy more time for everyone.
*
April 5th.
While bandaging her wounds in the safe house, Vermouth received another call from the BOSS.
"Your operation to hunt down Shuichi Akai in New York failed again?" The person on the other end asked ambiguously. "You were even seriously injured and almost captured by him?"
Vermouth gritted her teeth: "I'm very sorry, Boss, but the damn FBI is really cunning..."
If she hadn't met those two teenagers, she might have really died there.
But, but will angels smile at her and extend a helping hand to save her?
"Fine, if we can't catch him, we can't catch him. You come back first." Karasuma Renya regretted not being able to catch Akai Shuichi, the only one who was certain to have a deep entanglement with Furuya Rei, to provoke him. "There's something very important that you definitely don't want to miss."
He didn't say much on the phone, and Vermouth didn't ask any questions either, but simply followed his orders and secretly returned to the country.
Vermouth arrived in the early hours of April 6th.
They were blindfolded and taken to an underground laboratory before gaining some freedom, and then led to the innermost door.
She pushed open the door, and unusually, instead of focusing her attention on Sherry, who had the highest level of hatred, she couldn't help but look at the blond youth tied up on the operating table in the center.
It was Bourbon, but she had never seen Bourbon so weak.
In that instant, all the previous details and doubts came together.
The boss said he had a beautiful cat with dazzling fur, but it was so delicate that it could die at any moment. Scotland kept asking him about Bourbon's whereabouts for the past few days. Scotland's disappearance these past few days... now all the answers are in.
Vermouth's index finger trembled slightly as she instantly recalled those nightmarish memories.
She thought to herself, "Bourbon, how did you end up like this?"
Vermouth then looked at Sherry, who was recording some data, her eyes burning with hatred.
Sulli! It's Sulli again!!!
"Vermouth, come here." Karasuma Renya, who was sitting at his computer desk watching something with great interest, seemed to finally realize that his beloved child had arrived, and called her name with a smile to make her come over.
Vermouth lowered her head, then nodded, quickly composed herself, and walked away calmly, but still let out a cold laugh as she passed Sherry.
The brown-haired girl's lowered eyelashes trembled slightly, but she showed no other reaction.
“BOSS.” Vermouth stood respectfully before Karasuma Renya.
"I called you here to show you Bourbon's secret. You must be very interested, right?" The seemingly kind old man said while stroking the black cat on his lap with a smile. "However, your main task is to make Bourbon a little happier, persuade him to think more positively, and give up his pointless resistance."
“As long as he behaves well, he can regain his freedom just like you after the experiment ends. I can even give you the greatest rights to move freely within the organization. Worldly riches and honors, immortality beyond the world, and freedom—I can give you all of them,” he said slowly. “As long as you behave.”
The stunning global superstar with long, golden curly hair nodded obediently.
Karasuma Renya waved his hand. He originally wanted Sherry to explain everything to Vermouth slowly, but after remembering their bad relationship, he changed to someone else.
There are other urgent matters to attend to right now, so we should try to avoid causing any trouble.
After Vermouth left, Karasuma Renya continued to watch the latest video of the fifth dream experiment on her computer, rewinding to the beginning and playing it for the fifth time.
And then he dialed Gin's number.
“Gin.” He slowed his tone, making each syllable crystal clear, “hiro, hagi, class president, Mazda.”
"It was about six or seven years ago. The focus was on finding out which people in the police academy had names that were related to these nicknames."
*
Vermouth sat in her chair, slowly processing the shocking news. Even she hadn't expected Bourbon's secret to be so astonishing.
It wasn't until nine o'clock at night that the blond young man on the operating table finally woke up. When he saw her, his eyes widened slightly, and his dark purple eyes suddenly lit up.
"What? Are you so happy to see me?" Vermouth reached out and touched his face, which had never been so pale, and sighed. "But I didn't come here to save you, Bourbon."
The blond youth smiled, his eyes crinkling, despite his extremely bad mood: "I know, it's just that your timing is really unfortunate."
“Your expression clearly says, ‘Thank goodness I came.’” Vermouth raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" The blond youth just smiled, still looking quite happy.
“I know what you want, but unfortunately, I won’t let you die,” Vermouth sighed softly. “I’m here to protect you, Bourbon.”
This was originally an agreement between her and Bourbon, wasn't it?
She just hadn't expected that her intuition would be right; Bourbon really was a pitiful person, just like her, abandoned by the tides of time...
*
It was close to midnight.
The sixth Nightmare Experiment is about to begin.
Vermouth sat on the edge of the operating table, gently stroking the blond youth's head while softly humming the nursery rhyme "The Seven Crows".
"Crow, why do you sing?"
"Because on that high mountain, there are seven of the most adorable children waiting for her to come home."
"Let's go and take a look, it's on the high mountain in the distance."
"You can see, there are seven babies waiting for her in the nest."
"Seven adorable children..."*
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