Chapter 269, Seventy-Third Cycle (99)
Eight years ago.
A scene from Toichi Kuroba's magic show.
The fire raged, turning the entire sky red and illuminating the screaming crowd in the pitch-black night.
The venomous snakes were lurking among the crowd, and the mood for appreciating this beautiful scene that they had experienced on previous occasions was long gone.
After all, even the most beloved scene will become tiresome if experienced repeatedly.
"Damn it, just end this insane game already! It's so annoying, I wonder if the spiders succeeded this time... If they don't, I'm really quitting!"
After muttering a few curses under his breath, the venomous snake calmed down a little.
He was initially averse to entering this holographic game and didn't believe there was any Pandora's secret hidden within, but he had no choice but to accept the BOSS's words.
What annoyed him even more was that because he had always failed in his battles with Phantom Thief Kid when stealing gems, the BOSS's trust in him had diminished, and now the main task was being handled by Spider. He even had to follow Spider's plans now.
Spider is narcissistic and arrogant, calling himself the world's top assassin and the world's number one illusionist. He boasts of his exceptional intelligence and criticizes him for being simple-minded, so this time he didn't even tell Spider the details of the plan.
That guy just told him what to do and what not to do, which was infuriating.
Now that things here are over and nothing has happened, even though he didn't want to, he still opened the spider's chat box to report.
"Hey, it's still the same on my end. That Black Feather Thief is totally dead, there's absolutely no way he could have survived. What about yours? If you fail again, I'm really not playing with you anymore!"
There was no reply from the other end.
Viper clicked his tongue and continued sending messages: [What are you doing? If you don't reply, I'm coming down to find you! If I have to reload and start over in this crappy game again, I'm seriously quitting!!!]
This time, the other party finally replied.
"Don't come down. Calm down and observe carefully from outside to see if anything has happened. Something seems off this time," the spider said.
The viper immediately perked up: "What? What happened? Did something happen to you? Did you finally find Pandora in that lousy lab?!"
There was a three-second silence on the other end, followed by a text reply: "I did enter the core area of that lab this time, but this isn't where they study Pandora. I think I've come to the wrong place."
However, there was also an unexpected discovery. Spider said, "I suspect this player is Kaito Kid (image)."
Furthermore, the experiments here also involve &%*（￥%）】
Viper: "?"
"What the hell?" he asked, bewildered, followed by a red exclamation mark.
[You have entered a special storyline; chat functionality is temporarily disabled.]
Viper: "???"
He clicked around in a daze, and was shocked to find that not only was communication in the game cut off, but communication with reality was also cut off.
[You have entered a special storyline and cannot log off temporarily.]
"Smack!"
Gin threw away his half-smoked cigarette, stomped on it, pulled out his gun, and grinned menacingly.
"Very well, the death game has finally begun."
*
Twenty years ago.
Dusk Villa.
Carmel listened to Mr. Akai and stayed outside instead of going into the tunnel with him.
Then, he watched helplessly as the tunnel was suddenly hidden behind the wall again by the rumbling mechanism, as if it had never existed.
"Huh? Ah??? Where's the door???" Carmel approached in shock to check, only to find a golden wall. He was almost arrested by the police who rushed in, who mistook him for someone trying to pry open the gold.
After he finally managed to explain that he hadn't taken any drugs or caused any trouble, he realized that the situation was getting a bit bad.
Just now, police officers who had been lying in ambush nearby rushed in with guns, pinned down those who looked like they were high, and quickly arrested them and took control of the scene.
Yujiro Ishihara is reporting to someone who appears to be his superior about the investigation into the Twilight Villa incident—someone is attempting to replicate the Twilight Villa tragedy from twenty years ago. The purpose is unclear, but it may be related to the legendary "treasure," or it may be that antisocial criminals want to use the tragedy and the "treasure" to lure detectives and greedy individuals into committing an even bigger tragedy.
Players had mostly followed the game's protagonist into the tunnel earlier, and then quickly lost contact with them.
This connection includes live streaming, the world channel, and private chat.
Even in the real world—the game's offline function has been turned grayed out.
Carmel was handcuffed by several police officers and stood there blankly.
ah?
Could it be that some bug caused him to be stuck in the game and unable to get out?!
Ahhh! Mr. Akai!! Help me!!!
*
Shuichi Akai touched his arm, which was so cold it gave him goosebumps.
The air conditioning in this place is very strong, which may also be due to the eerie scene in front of us.
A quick glance at the dense array of pink brains and scarlet butterfly patterns before him brought back memories of the series of events he'd witnessed at the Twilight Villa—the obsessive pursuit of immortality by those powerful figures—and the bizarre sacrificial scene and time machine he'd seen in the basement of the Nagano Church. He also recalled the information his superior had given him before he entered: the organization seemed to be conducting some terrifying secret research deep in the mountains of Tottori Prefecture…
A conclusion was quickly reached.
Is the organization also carrying out this "brain in a vat" project in reality?
Shuichi Akai recalled some rumors he had heard about FBI members before.
The FBI does indeed disregard laws and ethics in its intelligence gathering and wiretapping activities; most secrets are not secrets to them.
Therefore, Shuichi Akai knew that some wealthy Americans, after successfully conducting experiments on mice, had begun injecting themselves with the blood and brain fluid of young people to make themselves younger—although it was outrageous and insane, similar things were not uncommon among the upper echelons, only those who succeeded were few and far between.
Of course, there are even more crazy people.
If we could extract the brain separately, with such advanced technology, it wouldn't be impossible to rejuvenate the brain and live longer, and even transfer consciousness into the online world to achieve immortality.
If this continues to develop, it might even reach the level of digital life that transcends the physical body, which would instantly change the entire world order.
God is dead...
Shuichi Akai frowned, opened the player's game panel, and clicked the grayed-out exit button.
Is the organization's goal...? No, that can't be right either.
If it were really that serious, Bourbon wouldn't have kept everything from them, and Conan Edogawa wouldn't have trusted Noah's Ark so much.
You have discovered one of the X Organization's greatest secrets—the [Brain in a Vat Project]
You have triggered faction mode.
Please select the faction you wish to join.
A blur flashed before my eyes, and when I regained my senses, I found myself in a completely different world.
Conan Edogawa's mind, which had been in turmoil, instantly calmed down. He cautiously looked around, but to no avail.
Because this is a blank space, nothing at all, just the initial whiteness.
And those two selection buttons in front of you.
Black tissue.
The police are in red.
Conan Edogawa did not make a choice immediately, but tentatively explored and pondered in the void.
Things were far worse than he had imagined.
That brain-in-a-vat project probably exists in reality.
It may have started fifty years ago, with participants including scholars and prominent figures in the financial world who participated in the Twilight Villa forty years ago.
...Based on the situation at Agasa's villa, Professor Agasa's uncle might also be one of them.
The great figures that people thought were long dead are actually living in another inhuman form and still secretly controlling the world's power and wealth.
If this were to be exposed, it would absolutely cause a sensation around the world.
Conan Edogawa paused, his eyes widening slightly as the words Jodie and Ai Haibara had spoken flashed through his mind.
“Our next focus will be on Tottori, where the organization is definitely hiding a huge secret project.”
"That's Pandora's box that can't be opened; you absolutely mustn't go."
In another moment of distraction, he saw a flock of red-eyed crows silently staring at him outside the Dusk Villa.
Conan Edogawa clenched his fist.
Could the lair of that crow army be located in Tottori Prefecture?
Regardless of whether the organization's headquarters are in Tottori or not, the brain-in-a-vat experiment was definitely conducted in Tottori.
The Karasuma Group's massive cash flow, its tight security comparable to a military base, and the stern dissuasion from Haibara, a former researcher at the organization—the answer is already quite clear.
So here's the question: why reveal such a secret that the organization has kept hidden for so long and set up such a grand scheme now?
Conan Edogawa looked up at the game panel that had been following him, staring at the multiple-choice question.
Countless pieces of information flashed through my mind: rumors of a half-true, half-false tragedy at the Twilight Villa; a groundbreaking holographic game; a suspenseful mystery novel with a time-travel theme; information that was obviously abnormal and used to attract celebrities from all walks of life to join the game; a wealthy player behaving strangely at a banquet...
Oh no! Their target is those players!
Conan Edogawa suddenly turned around, but behind him was still an endless expanse of blank space.
He gritted his teeth and directly reached out to answer the multiple-choice question.
The red button lit up.
Will you choose the police side?
【whether】
Conan Edogawa pressed hard on the "Yes" button.
The moment his fingertips touched it, red paint poured out of the red cube like a tidal wave, spreading rapidly across the surrounding white space and turning the entire white area red in the blink of an eye.
*
All the players disappeared, and the once crowded and spacious basement was now left with only three people.
The main characters are Kudo Yui and Oki Masaya, as well as the Dark Baron.
"It's finally over!" Baron Dark Night let out a long breath, but it came out in a female voice.
She removed her mask, revealing a beautiful face, and said with a annoyed expression, "Scotland, you didn't say this mission would be this exhausting before we came. If I had known... well, if I had known, I would have participated from beginning to end too. But Bourbon, it didn't have to be like this. You did it on purpose, didn't you?"
Chongya ignored him, instead squatting down in front of the blond boy and giving him a gentle, apologetic hug, saying, "I'm sorry, Bourbon, you really had a tough time this time. But this really wasn't me trying to mess with you, it was the BOSS..."
"Shut up, this is none of your business, go back to your control room." The blond kid shoved him aside, then kicked him in the knee with his short leg. "Who sent you? Does the boss know? I think you really want to die?"
The child's kick didn't move the man at all. The blue-eyed, black-haired man even laughed out loud and said, "Sorry, but you're really cute like this."
"..."
The blond child turned into a blond youth and produced a gun out of thin air.
Vermouth added fuel to the fire with glee: "Scotland, I advise you to leave. Don't stand here watching the show. Bourbon is angry enough already; don't provoke him for now. Besides, Gin and his group should have started making their move too, right? Are you sure it'll be okay if you're not there?"
Scotland raised his hands, surrendering with a helpless smile, but his eyes were still on the blond youth. He said, "Then we'll see you in the next dungeon."
Bourbon fired a shot; the bullet grazed him and shattered a glass jar containing a brain.
The pinkish-white brain matter spilled out of the glass tank, the scattered wires crackled, and the base emitted a loud alarm.
Scotland glanced back and sighed, "Are you going to cause me trouble before you leave? Fine, fine, I'll go back and fix the scene first, then you can start working."
"Get out of here."
Scotland reluctantly rolled away.
After he left, the NPC, Masaya, collapsed to the ground, just as the original storyline had suggested.
After laughing, Vermouth's conscience returned, and she stepped forward with concern, gently stroking the blond youth's face. She asked, "Bourbon, are you really alright? Even without pain detection, the holographic game is so realistic. You must be in a lot of pain dying so many times, right? Actually, I can handle the rest of the work by myself. To be honest, I feel sorry for you this time. Scotland is getting crazier and crazier. You should be careful of him."
“I’m fine, it’s just a game, it’s nothing to me.” Bourbon took a step back, put away his gun, frowned at the large head, and said, “With these people who don’t even have bodies, their descendants and the new recruits will probably find it hard to believe and will hesitate. We still need to be the final pushers.”
After saying that, he looked at Vermouth, raised an eyebrow and asked, "As for you, you did very well on my first mission. How about you?"
Vermouth smiled and said naturally, "My mission is complete. Kudo Yusaku is not someone the organization should be wary of. If the organization needs me, I can take care of his whole family at any time."
Bourbon smirked and turned to say, "Let's begin the second mission. I'm really not interested in what's going on here; I want to go find the FBI agents and have some fun. If it weren't for the boss's orders, I would have gone with Gin and the others."
Vermouth sighed, "Do you think I want to associate with those guys? The thought of running into those inhuman old geezers is just irritating."
“Who told you to be their only hope?” Bourbon said. “It’s only natural that they would get so worked up about immortality.”
“It’s not the only one now.” Vermouth glanced at the brains with disgust. “The experiment is going very smoothly so far. If we can successfully establish that metaverse and control the real world, then the plan for another digital life form will also have a chance of success.”
“Who knows?” Bourbon said softly. “No one can be sure what will happen until the very last moment.”
“You don’t look happy,” Vermouth said, leaning closer with a probing look. “The others are ecstatic about getting a little bit of the information.”
“You don’t look happy either,” Bourbon said, glancing at her briefly.
"Tsk." Vermouth stepped into the portal. "Immortality isn't a good thing."
"Yeah, anyway, I don't want any eternal time."
Bourbon sighed and then stepped into the portal.
"Even if a person could achieve physical immortality, their mind would go insane."
At that time, the world will also be destroyed along with mad humans.
Not to mention that what Karasuma Renya wanted to do was to drag the entire world into another level of life and attempt to establish himself as a god to control the entire world and humanity across time, space and life and death, forcing everyone to obey the rules he set.
It's hard to imagine what a terrible world that would be.
The Brain in a Vat was just the initial plan, an experimental subject for Karasuma Renya to test other insanely greedy individuals.
His true goal is an eternal digital life.
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