Chapter 170, Sixty-Third Cycle (1)
April 22nd.
Furuya Reki is too stubborn, refusing to say anything and also manipulating dreams. Karasuma Renya has no way to deal with him, so he can only try to get to the people he cares about again.
Since Rei Furuya can manipulate dreams to deceive people, all the previous information is now invalid.
The intelligence included the fact that all his comrades were dead, and he was the only undercover agent in the organization fighting alone.
Karasuma Renya once again mobilized the organization's resources to investigate everything about Furuya Rei and the Public Security Bureau undercover agent, determined to find the person important to him and then capture him to threaten him into revealing the real information.
However, Karasuma Renya ultimately found nothing about the investigation.
Rei Furuya has specially encrypted the files of several of his friends who are easy targets, and all their old photos have been destroyed. Now, with Hiroki Sawada and Noah's Ark protecting them, plus the protection of the timeline, as long as Rei Furuya doesn't leak information, the organization will have no way of investigating their relationship with Rei Furuya.
As long as they are safe, there is nothing that can truly threaten Furuya Rei right now.
April 25th.
Although he was furious and wanted to start human experiments, Karasuma Renya ultimately did not dare to harm Furuya Rei. The most extreme thing he did was cut off flesh and bleed him, and then he continued to take good care of the person and only studied the flesh and blood he had taken off.
They even strangely activated a psychological counseling program for him, often leaving the black cat and black crow to play with him, to prevent him from having a mental breakdown and being abandoned by the system.
Rei Furuya pretended to be in better spirits, and he was indeed relieved.
His biggest worry was that Karasuma Renya might conduct some kind of human experiment that could affect his physical and mental state. If it was too serious, he feared that even reloading his save file wouldn't be able to eliminate those effects, and it might even affect his thinking and memory.
In fact, the frequent and hasty experiments with dreams, and dozens of nightmare experiments, have already had a certain impact on Furuya Rei. Even reloading save files cannot eliminate the effects, because the impact is on his mental state.
Having had too many dreams, both real and imagined, Rei Furuya sometimes exhibits two extreme opposite behaviors when conducting uncontrollable nightmare experiments in the subconscious depths of his consciousness: extremely rational and skilled, and extremely confused and disoriented.
It was because of a momentary lapse in concentration that the twentieth nightmare experiment on April 20th went wrong, causing the incomplete dream that was being practiced to be woven to be mixed with the unimportant images that were being presented to her through hypnotic suggestions. Karasuma Renya immediately noticed that something was wrong and then flew into a rage.
Rei Furuya's original plan was to start formally trying to show the fabricated dream to Renya Karasuma on the 29th, which would give him a few more days to train. Moreover, even if he failed, he could quickly start reloading the save file with everyone's help when the time agreed upon with Hiro arrived.
Unexpectedly, it failed nine days ahead of schedule.
However, it's not a big problem. Karasuma Renya won't do anything to him anyway. As long as the others are protected from getting involved, that's fine.
Besides him, Karasuma Renya will not kill Sherry and Vermouth, so you can try to involve them and find an opportunity to ask Sherry to kill him, just like in the 58th playthrough.
To prevent Rei Furuya from continuing to control his dreams with ease, the nightmare experiments have been intensified. Rei is worried that he might lose control and expose the organization's undercover agents, leading to the annihilation of all the other undercover agents.
It's fine that he'll die sooner or later, but he'd rather not involve others in the death. This playthrough has already failed, so he should reload the save file as soon as possible.
April 28th.
Under Rei Furuya's control and guidance, after two enhanced nightmare experiments, Renya Karasuma, in a good mood, temporarily let him go after Rei Furuya consciously released some useful and realistic images, and shifted his focus to Sherry and Vermouth, who were exposed in the dream.
He called both of them over, excitedly urging Sherry to quickly research aptx4869 and create a rejuvenating drug with no side effects. At the same time, he began experimenting with Rei Furuya's and Vermouth's blood.
April 30th.
Perhaps it was because the nightmare experiments had been conducted over a hundred times, perhaps it was because the stimulation from the drugs and the dream chair had suddenly increased, or perhaps it was because too much blood had been drawn, leading to physical weakness, but Furuya Rei truly lost consciousness and control during the thirtieth nightmare experiment in this cycle.
In this nightmare experiment, the dream chair presented everyone outside with images that were enough to shatter their worldview and all cognition.
This was the first time they had truly witnessed the memories of a reincarnated person dying and reloading their save file.
There are five playthroughs in total.
The cold, inorganic voice recited the names of those cycles: cycle 58, cycle 59, cycle 60, cycle 61, cycle 62.
Sherry killed him three times, he found an opportunity to say the name before Karasuma Renya knew about Shinichi Kudo and died suddenly once, and Scotland brought a bomb and blew up the entire laboratory, killing him once.
Then he was reborn again, and now he's on his sixty-third playthrough.
Furuya Rei has already gone through sixty-three cycles.
"It's true! It's real! Reincarnation really is real! Hahaha! I knew it! It worked, hahahaha!!!" Karasuma Renya wasn't even angry that Sherry had betrayed him. He was so happy that his pupils shrank and he trembled violently. In the end, he even fainted from over-excitement.
The other two lab technicians immediately began resuscitation efforts and then prepared to have the man in black take the person out for treatment.
Amid the chaos, Sherry silently approached the Dream Chair. Vermouth, who was lying weakly on the operating table, saw her but remained silent.
"Grab Sherry!!!" Tokiwa Eiseki suddenly shouted. With authority second only to Karasuma Renya, he could also order the men in black after Karasuma Renya fell into a coma. He had also been involved in the brainwashing drugs used on the men in black.
The nearly two-meter-tall man in black easily dodged Shirley's attack while remaining vigilant and grabbed her, tying her up.
“We don’t have time to deal with her right now. Just leave her outside and lock her up temporarily. Then take the boss out for treatment.” Tokiwa Eiseku didn’t even look at Sherry when he spoke. His eyes were still burning as he stared at the gradually dimming screen. Then he rushed to the dream chair and, together with another researcher, carried the still unconscious blond youth out of the operating table and strapped him back on. He excitedly circled around him, whispering something maniacally.
Vermouth, who was lying on the bed next to him, sighed and almost gave up struggling. She stared blankly at the pale-faced blond youth.
So...it's actually true?
It wasn't until this moment that they realized it.
Even now, they still can't believe it.
The brown-haired girl, carried out of the laboratory by the man in black, tried to look up inside.
The heavy door slowly closed, and with one last glance, she could only see a few strands of blonde hair, almost white under the light, through the obstruction of two lab technicians.
Shiho Miyano lowered her eyes, and as she passed the corner, she twisted her wrist, her fingers, which were bound but still movable, reaching into her sleeve to take out a spare card and quickly tossing it into a dark corner crevice.
It was clearly impossible to kill Furuya Rei under those circumstances where he had already been exposed.
Her goal is to get herself out.
Only when she comes out and leaves the laboratory will she have a chance to leave the access card with them, temporarily re-establish contact, and contact Noah's Ark to tell them about the new situation before entering the small, signal-blocked room...
*
After a period of chaos, it was already the early hours of May 1st.
Rei Furuya woke up.
The two researchers immediately surrounded him excitedly, bombarding him with questions.
Rei Furuya slumped his eyes, ignoring them, and instead extracted information from their words while observing his surroundings. Finally, he met Vermouth's gaze.
Vermouth was in a better situation than Rei Furuya; at least her hands and feet weren't tied, and her mouth wasn't gagged. She could speak freely, but she was unusually silent and unwilling to talk.
But now, she spoke up.
"You must persevere," she said. "If possible, could you tell me about your story after you succeed?"
Rei Furuya looked at her for two seconds, then slowly nodded and said, "I will protect your angel, and this is our promise for the future."
Then Vermouth laughed, and in an instant, the pale flower that was about to wither turned into a bright and dazzling red rose.
“Then I can die without regrets,” she said.
The two researchers were not concerned with what the two test subjects were saying about their successful escape in the future; instead, they were arguing about the follow-up experiments on Furuya Rei.
"Forget it! We can only decide the specifics of the experiment after the BOSS wakes up. For now, let's send someone to capture Scotland." Tokiwa Eiseki finally remembered the important person Furuya Rei had finally revealed in the dream. "Let Gin capture Scotland first, and the others capture the other four people. We also need to control their relatives and friends. I don't believe Bourbon will still refuse to talk."
Another researcher, reminded, slammed his fist on the table: "Right! Good, good! But the BOSS isn't awake yet. Can we really send Gin to arrest codenamed members like Scotland? Gin only listens to the BOSS..."
"Forget it, let's not make any rash moves and get discovered." Tokiwa Eisaku slowly calmed down, but his hand was still nervously pushing up his glasses. "Judging from the dream, Bourbon and the Scottish from the last cycle have already discussed the plan, and they must be ready by now. To capture them, we have to succeed in one go. Let's wait until the Boss wakes up and then mobilize the organization's elite forces to capture them all at once. Anyway, there are still two days until their agreed date. If the Boss hasn't woken up by tomorrow, then we'll..."
"Beep—" The lab door opened with a card swipe, and someone came in with a keycard.
The two researchers were stunned and instinctively turned to look, but they collapsed before they could even see the person clearly.
From this angle, Rei Furuya could see the doorway with just a turn of his head and immediately made eye contact with the person who came in.
“Zero…” Morabushi Kagemitsu called out to him in a trembling voice. He instinctively wanted to rush over, but reason made him turn around and close the door. At the same time, he took a USB drive and inserted it into the controller next to him.
A strange crackling sound of electricity flashed by, followed by the sound of Noah's Ark.
"Control of the laboratory has been gained, signal jamming has been disabled, self-destruct program has been triggered, it cannot be stopped, it has been detected, it will take three more minutes for others to break in."
What can you do in three minutes?
Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't even know how he got there. His gaze swept back and forth between the blond youth on the operating table, his expression growing increasingly grim. Sadness, anger, regret, and countless other negative emotions mingled into a giant sphere that then exploded.
So thin, Zero has lost too much weight, she's so weak that even her smile seems feeble.
We shouldn't have agreed to Zero's one-month plan; he should have come earlier.
If he hadn't discovered something was wrong with Sherry, would he have waited two more days before taking action? And what would have happened to Zero, who had exposed such important information?
Zhu Fujingguang dared not even think about it.
But he knew what he should do now.
He had no time to waste.
As Morofushi Kagemitsu quickly explained the intelligence on his side, he raised his gun.
His childhood friend lay on the operating table, smiling weakly, waiting for him to kill him.
“I’m sorry… Zero… I’m sorry…” Morofushi Kagemitsu was having difficulty breathing, his voice choked with emotion.
Killing Zero with his own hands was more painful than he had imagined.
Two minutes left.
The gun was shaking.
No, it was Morofushi Kagemitsu's hand that was trembling.
The sniper's usually steady hands were now shaking so badly he could barely hold the gun.
Morofushi Kagemitsu looked at his childhood friend lying on the operating table under the pale white light... Zero's dazzling blond hair and the helpless smile on his face as he faced the trembling gun barrel were so vivid that they were almost blinding. Every single strand of blond hair and the trembling purple eyes were incredibly clear.
Like a thunderclap, Morofushi Kagemitsu suddenly realized that this would probably be a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
This is different from the situation in the previous playthrough where they died in explosions one after another.
This time, he is about to personally shoot and kill his most important childhood friend.
"I'm sorry, Hiro." Rei Furuya, whose restraints had been removed, struggled to reach out and grasp the hand of Hiromitsu Morofushi that was holding the gun, trying to steady that cold and trembling hand. "I shouldn't have dragged out the experiment for so long. This time it was my fault that the plan failed. Let's move it forward next time, how about the 20th?"
The loose sleeves slipped down, revealing numerous injection marks and blood draw traces.
Morofushi Kagemitsu's face contorted in pain as he gritted his teeth and shook his head, saying, "April 10th, at most ten days."
“Okay, ten days it is.” Furuya Rei said immediately, then changed the subject, “Luckily today is not May 2nd. I didn’t want to give Hiro a birthday like this. It’s good that I didn’t leave Hiro with bad memories on his 28th birthday.”
The more Rei Furuya tried to appear relaxed and happy, the more distressed and pained Kagemitsu Morofushi became.
Tears gradually blurred his vision, but his hand holding the gun gradually steadied.
So Rei Furuya let go, his exhausted hand falling to the ground.
The nightmare experiment had just ended, and the effects of the drug had not completely worn off. The actions and words he had just performed had almost exhausted all his strength, and even made his breathing a little unsteady.
One minute left.
Rei Furuya caught a glimpse of Vermouth out of the corner of his eye; she had been quietly watching them.
"Hiro, don't worry, I'll be fine." Rei Furuya turned his gaze back to his childhood friend.
The black-haired, blue-eyed youth wiped away his tears with his other hand, gritted his teeth, and gripped the gun with both hands to make sure he wouldn't miss.
The blond youth, about to be killed and with a gun pointed at him, revealed a soothing, gentle smile, his tone calm yet firm.
"Don't worry, Hiro, I'm going to celebrate Hiro's birthday. I've already thought of a birthday present, and it'll definitely be something you never expected."
"I also want to attend the class monitor and Natalie's wedding, race cars with Hagi, become the Superintendent General of Police and have Matsuda punch me to fulfill his wish, see Hiroki and Noah's Ark grow up, and see how our joint efforts can make this country a better place."
"I have so many things I want to do, how can I die here?"
"Don't worry, Hiro, I have a strong will to survive. I have always had a strong expectation for the future and I will never give up hope. I will definitely survive." Rei Furuya made a serious promise to him, "We will definitely succeed."
Morofushi Kagemitsu gave a trembling "Mmm," tears streaming down his face again. His chest heaved violently, his heart ached so much he could barely breathe, and his muscles twitched from excessive grief, yet his hand remained steady on the gun.
"I believe you," the black-haired, blue-eyed youth said, a bittersweet expression on his pale face.
A strong, metallic taste of blood began to fill my mouth, because I had bitten my gums so hard that I had broken them.
Morofushi Kagemitsu moved his stiff finger, as if to pull the trigger.
The finger pressed down slightly, then snapped back when it was actually pressed.
My heart was pounding like a drum, deafeningly loud.
Morofushi Kagemitsu even subconsciously lowered the gun barrel, which was aimed at the blond youth's head, to a height where it wouldn't hurt him. Then, he immediately realized what was happening and hurriedly raised it again to aim at his childhood friend, who was showing a helpless and sad expression.
His index finger pressed down on the trigger, then lifted it, pressed down, then lifted it, pressed down, then lifted it, like his spirit being repeatedly pulled.
"Ten seconds left," Noah's Ark said.
Zhu Fujingguang's breathing stopped and his heartbeat abruptly ceased.
"Hiro." Rei Furuya suddenly spoke, a smile on his face, "Thank you, Hiro. I'm so glad you've always been by my side."
"Five seconds left," Noah's Ark said.
His arm muscles bulged suddenly, and the blue veins that bulged out from the excessive force seemed about to explode. Morofushi Kagemitsu pulled the trigger.
"Bang--"
Gunshots rang out deafeningly in the quiet laboratory, and crimson blood stained the pale operating table and the short blond hair on it.
Morofushi Kagemitsu's pupils dilated, and he suddenly calmed down.
He didn't look away, his eyes fixed on the bloody hole in the blond youth's head, then pointed the gun at his own head.
He carried out the plan rationally and calmly.
Sometimes a headshot doesn't kill instantly; the victim may retain consciousness for a few seconds and perform actions that ultimately lead to death.
However, if the brainstem is hit precisely, the person will die instantly without convulsions.
This is a technique that snipers learn to kill kidnappers while preventing harm to hostages.
Morofushi Kagemitsu needed that mere few seconds of time difference, and of course he could do it.
He must die before Zero to preserve the memories of this loop.
"Bang--"
Gunshots rang out simultaneously with the sound of a door being kicked open.
But when the organization's members broke in, all that was left in the laboratory were the corpses of the blond and black-haired youths, and Vermouth, who was laughing loudly.
[Morokushō Kagemitsu has died.]
[Achieve the Bad Ending: The Butterfly Effect - The Death of Morofushi Hiromitsu]
You are dead.
[End of 63rd playthrough]
[Resulting in a Bad Ending: Unforgivable]
[Load save/load]
【yes】
[Loading save file...]
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