Chapter 181, Seventy-Threeth Cycle (11)
Rei Furuya wasn't too nervous because he was already prepared, but the distorted save point time disrupted his mindset. Now it was time to see if his plan would be disrupted.
If the time discrepancy prevented him from successfully rescuing Miyano Akemi...
Rei Furuya's mind, which had been shaken by the time reversal last night, gradually calmed down.
It's okay. While the disorder of time may seem random, the events that have already occurred follow a pattern.
Even if there really is a problem, he will record the extent of each date jump and what happened, so that the next time he loads the save file, it won't be so sudden.
"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock—"
Under their watchful eyes, the hands of time finally reached midnight, then passed, ushering in a new day.
However, instead of checking the date immediately, Furuya Rei abruptly turned to look at his childhood friend beside him.
Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was sitting next to him just a second ago, has now vanished without a trace, leaving no trace of his existence.
Rei Furuya's pupils constricted sharply, and he immediately turned his head to end the recording and clicked replay.
However, the black-haired man who had just said that tomorrow was February 7th was not in the video. The video was quiet, with the calendar and clock pointed at the screen, and no one was speaking.
The date in the video is not January 29th, but February 9th.
Rei Furuya's hands had started trembling slightly at some point. He quickly searched through the photo album, but found nothing.
Of course, he deletes all the videos and photos after finishing his experiments every day to prevent others from discovering them.
Rei Furuya switched to his contacts and breathed a slight sigh of relief when he saw a familiar name still safely in the contacts. He dialed the number and, while waiting for the call to connect, turned his gaze to the digital clock and calendar on the table.
Today, the date on my digital watch has changed to February 10th.
The dates from January 30th to February 6th on the calendar have disappeared, and February 7th, 8th, and 9th have been crossed out. It is now February 10th.
It wasn't February 7th, when Miyano Akemi's ordeal began, but rather February 10th, the day Miyano Akemi died.
Rei Furuya's fist gradually clenched.
"Hello?" The call connected, and a familiar voice asked with concern, "What's wrong? Did something happen? It's nothing, you can just say so. There's no one else with me."
Rei Furuya's rationality returned quickly, his throat a little dry: "Hiro, what was yesterday's date?"
He sat back down in his chair, turned on the computer, and opened the surveillance video in the room, starting directly from January 29th.
“Yesterday was February 9th.” Morofushi Kagemitsu paused for a moment. “Zero, check the private messages in the Sakura group first.”
Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then shrunk the phone call screen and entered the Sakura group chat.
The private chat interface that spread from the specially configured Sakura team group showed six dates neatly arranged.
When I checked the full content at midnight, I found that the content posted by the five people in the group and an AI was basically the same. They were describing everything that had happened from January 29th to today in their own words, as well as the patterns that these dates had for them.
Rei Furuya didn't need to check every single surveillance video to know what happened during that time, and he even found an explanation within it.
Rei Furuya has been experiencing "daily amnesia" for a long time and can't remember the dates, so the group decided to compile and send him everything that happened from the day before he lost his memory to the present day at midnight every day.
Originally, they planned to have Morofushi Kagemitsu send it by himself, but they were worried that if Morofushi Kagemitsu was delayed by something and couldn't send it, so they decided that all six of them would send it, as long as Furuya Rei could receive one message.
After watching the events of the past few days in ten lines, Furuya Rei finally got to 11:59 PM on January 29th from the surveillance video.
The surveillance video was taken from a rather tricky angle, but it clearly showed that Morofushi Kagemitsu was in the room at the time, and that he didn't just disappear after midnight, but instead talked with Furuya Rei for half an hour before leaving.
According to the private messages Morofushi Kagemitsu sent him, they didn't notice anything unusual at the time. Once they were sure Furuya Rei was alright, he left to continue his mission.
Even the Scottish can't stay at Bourbon's house all the time. If they are discovered, they will either be suspected of acting out of character or have to rewrite the script. They would rather avoid adding to the danger and trouble.
Of course, if Furuya Rei's situation worsens, Morofushi Kagemitsu will still stay no matter what.
“I’ve finished reading it…” Furuya Rei let out a long sigh, his taut back relaxing slightly as he leaned back in his chair. “For me, yesterday was January 29th. You, who were sitting right next to me, suddenly disappeared. It scared me to death.”
Thankfully, nothing happened.
There's also good news: Akemi Miyano is alright.
Although I don't know why, the Hirota Masami who's been following the storyline with Edogawa Conan these past few days isn't Miyano Akemi.
Are they just people with the same name? But why are their storylines so similar? Is there something wrong with the plot?
The Miyano Akemi incident has run into problems, so what about Gin and vodka tomorrow?
After thinking it over, Furuya Rei decided to go and test the waters directly.
Although Bourbon hasn't had any missions lately, given his personality, it's quite normal for him to mysteriously wander around gathering intelligence and provoking Gin.
[Bourbon: Vodka, are you guys going to blow up the Shinkansen tomorrow?]
[Vodka: How did you know?! !!!]
[Vodka: We just received the mission! This intelligence has nothing to do with you, right?! Wait! You didn't plant listening devices on us, did you???]
[Bourbon: Bourbon knows everything (cat with a mysterious smile.jpg)]
Vodka was alarmed and repeatedly asked him if he had really planted listening devices on them, what he was planning to do, and whether he would come over to cause trouble tomorrow, but he received no reply. So he immediately reported to his elder brother.
Gin glanced at their chat history and gave a cold, ambiguous laugh.
"Let him be, don't worry about him," he said.
*
February 11th.
Rei Furuya updated his memo:
[January 29th (tomorrow) - Gold Coin Treasure Chest Map Event.]
[February 10th, (four days later) the Hirota Masami missing person incident (false)]
[February 11, (three days later) Shinkansen explosion incident (false)]
After revising the memo, Rei Furuya sat down at the table with a somber expression, lost in thought.
For others affected by the world's rules, three days have passed between February 10th and February 11th.
Most importantly, even the Gin and vodka used to bomb the Shinkansen were fake.
Those were two criminals dressed very similarly to Gin and Vodka. Conan Edogawa's bugging device only heard their plan to bomb the Shinkansen, without mentioning Gin and Vodka's codenames.
What exactly happened?
The influence of the world's rules shouldn't be this strange, right? Could it be the system's doing? But does the system have this ability? If it does, they couldn't possibly have won so many times, could they?
Rei Furuya couldn't help but rub his temples, feeling a bit of a headache. He was starting to doubt his own memories and perceptions.
Rei Furuya remembers clearly that Conan Edogawa said he met Gin and Vodka on the Shinkansen on February 11th and learned their codenames through a bugging device, thus getting closer to the organization.
How could this be fake?
If even the organization's storyline is fake, then what is real?
If the storylines involving Miyano Akemi, Gin, and Vodka are all fake, will Sherry's defection on February 13th still happen?
Has the plot changed? Or has time been distorted, and we haven't reached the actual plot point yet?
"Alright, if you really can't figure it out, then don't think about it anymore. Just rest and get some sleep first." Morofushi Kagemitsu took the pen from his hand, which he was gripping tightly, and placed the warm milk in his palm. "You're too tired. Sleep for three hours first, and I'll wake you up at 11:30."
Rei Furuya instinctively steadied himself, holding the warm cup with both hands, and only looked up at him after a couple of seconds.
Zhu Fujingguang smiled in a very "kind" way: "Hmm?"
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Rei Furuya obediently drank the milk, climbed into bed, covered himself with the blanket, and almost immediately lost consciousness.
He's been really tired lately. He's been staying up late every night and can't get a good night's sleep. He can only keep thinking about the chaotic reality in his lucid dreams.
But this time, he slept soundly and didn't dream.
【ZERO Observation Diary】
[Hiro: Zero's experiment is in trouble. He's getting anxious and uneasy, and he's also really exhausted. After drinking his milk, I sent him to bed.]
Upon waking up again, Rei Furuya's mind became clear once more.
Then his clear mind was immediately bombarded with a barrage of questions from the members of the Sakura team's group chat video.
Amidst the noise, listening to their voices, Furuya Rei's initially wavering heart gradually calmed down.
It's okay, it's okay. Things have come to this, there's nothing to be afraid of anymore.
The biggest problem now is that he needs to keep a calm mindset, absolutely not lose his composure, and not let his own speculations and wild thoughts cause him mental exhaustion.
Everyone is here. As long as he stays calm, this difficulty won't be a problem.
No rush, take your time. He wants to see what tricks the world and the system are up to.
*
Next to the Kudo residence and Professor Agasa's house, all the members of the Sakura Team secretly gathered again at the Matsuda residence.
Rei Furuya distributed his experimental research report to them: "After you've read it, burn it in this house. Don't keep it and take it out."
The five nodded, and Noah's Ark, holding the electronic version of the report, also agreed.
After they had almost finished reading, Furuya Rei didn't explain again and went straight to summarizing.
"Since the Valentine's Day murder on February 14, there have been a series of cases, including a monthly gift threat, an art museum murder, the 'Number One Night Under Heaven' murder, and a soccer player intimidation incident. These are all ordinary cases that do not involve the organization, and the organization's storyline seems to have come to a standstill."
"However, with so many cases and such a long time span, for everyone except me, it has only been less than a month since Shinichi Kudo shrunk."
Rei Furuya paused here, looked at the people looking at him, and said, "And today is February 5th."
He stood up, picked up a black pen, and began to scribble on the whiteboard containing the meeting minutes.
Everyone else watched attentively, without interrupting him or asking any questions.
Today, they have almost completely understood the current situation, digested the problem of different time flows, and can freely switch between the two cognitive systems and make comparative thinking.
"Time cannot be reversed, and what has happened cannot be brought back to the past. Only numbers can be reversed, not time and events. Even if today is February 2nd and tomorrow is January, it only means that January is in the order of February at this point in the world."
"The flow of time follows a pattern, but it is not entirely predictable. Continuing to dwell on it and make comparisons is not very meaningful. Getting entangled with chaos will only turn you into chaos yourself."
Rei Furuya pointed to the different time-jumping techniques he had listed with his pen cap: "So, we don't need to worry about the flow of time anymore. We just need to remember the dates of the key events and the methods of time jump."
Seeing the group of people nodding seriously like attentive students, Furuya Rei couldn't help but smile and sat back down in his chair.
His smile and relaxed gestures eased the tension, and they realized that the topic he was about to discuss was probably not so serious.
Rei Furuya's smile deepened, and he rested his chin on his hand, saying, "The plot regarding the organization hasn't appeared yet, so I can't be sure. But we can't waste time like this, so I've decided to see a psychologist today."
Upon hearing this, the five people who had just relaxed instantly widened their eyes, and even the Noah's Ark expression on the table seemed to display gibberish for a moment.
"Wait, is it really unnecessary to see a psychologist now? Are you serious?"
Somewhat worried and nervous, they began to try and persuade Furuya Rei in return.
“You’re perfectly fine. It’s the world and the system that’s causing this. We’ve already confirmed that, so why are you seeing a psychologist? Can you really trust that person? Why don’t you wait a bit longer? Master Jing is already studying psychology on his own.”
"Zero, don't worry, you're perfectly normal. It's just that the logic of this world is contradictory. You don't need to see a psychologist."
"Experiments have proven that there's a huge problem with the world. You're not still doubting yourself, are you? Or do you doubt that we don't trust you..."
Furuya Rei was both amused and exasperated, and helplessly gestured for them to be quiet.
“No, no, I’m even more convinced now that I’m fine, and I’ve always trusted you, but I still need to get checked.” He explained, “If I don’t get checked, there will always be this little thorn in my heart. After the check, I can be completely at ease. Just like you said before, it’s just for peace of mind.”
Rei Furuya looked at them earnestly, his eyes gradually softening: "I'm so happy that you trust me so much, I'm really happy, so I really want to put your and my own minds at ease."
"After all, this time distortion problem is indeed very likely a challenge set up by the system for my death tribulation. It is the beginning of my death tribulation and also the biggest fuse."
"So I started thinking a long time ago: what will the system use as my death trap? What could be enough to make me collapse even now? Only by identifying the enemy's target can we launch a precise counterattack. Once we know the enemy's methods, everything will be much simpler."
"Although the chaos is definitely not solely due to the system's power, it is absolutely a trap set by the system using the power of the world's rules to cause trouble for me."
"However, you have been missing the point all along. The real difficulty in this situation is not my doubt about the reality of the world after the time distortion, nor my own mentality and mental problems, but my connection with you and the world, the doubt and distrust between us, and the crisis of our bond. This is what will cause me the most harm right now, and I have been clear about this from the beginning."
As he spoke, Rei Furuya smiled, his blond hair shining brightly under the lights, his eyes clear and resolute.
“But now, that’s no longer a problem,” he said. “It turns out that even when faced with the most incomprehensible and outrageous things, the trust between us has never wavered.”
“We’ve already won,” Furuya Rei said with a smile.
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