Chapter 28: Eight Playthroughs of Save Files (1)
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"Hey! Blonde bastard! Let's fight!" The curly-haired youth stood in front of him, fist clenched, and taunted him with a smile.
Furuya Rei sighed inwardly; he had become quite adept at fooling Matsuda Jinpei.
This time, he didn't reveal even the slightest flaw.
Watching the sullen and angry curly-haired youth walk away, Furuya Rei finally turned his gaze away and walked to the huge cherry blossom tree.
"I hope I won't see you at this time again next time." He reached out and gently pressed his hand on the trunk of the cherry blossom tree, whispering words that no one but him could understand.
The cherry blossom tree seemed to understand, and in the night breeze that blew by, it shed countless pink cherry blossom petals, as if to encourage him.
Rei Furuya smiled, patted the cherry blossom tree, turned around, and climbed over the wall to leave the police academy.
Even in the darkness of the night, Furuya Rei navigated the path with remarkable skill.
Having reloaded his save file so many times, he was naturally familiar with the area around the police academy, and could even draw a map by hand without much thought.
His destination wasn't far; it was the mountain next to the police academy.
The mountain was very high and remote, uninhabited, and the instructors would occasionally take them there for training.
He died there, and no one will find out until the world restarts.
Based on previous intelligence and deductions, the world will likely remain like this until something similar to a CG is generated before a new playthrough begins.
Perhaps those unknown entities were also collecting the despair of others besides him, or it might just be for research and a twisted sense of humor, but it wouldn't last long after his death. It should end at the moment when the person who saw his death reached the peak of their despair.
That's exactly what Kyubey did, and the unknown entities on his side wouldn't be too different. The patterns are so similar that they can almost all be considered as certainties rather than deductions or guesses.
However, there are still some guesses he is not entirely sure about.
"Phew—" Furuya Rei finally reached the top of the mountain, leaned on his knees and let out a long breath, wiped the sweat from his face, straightened up and brushed his hair back.
The chill of early spring is biting, freezing even the young.
The wind on the mountaintop was icy cold, blowing the hem of the blond youth's blue police uniform, but it did not shake his tall, slender, yet very steady body.
He took a step forward, and beneath his feet lay a deep abyss and above him was a terrifyingly large full moon, yet he laughed.
"Hey, you guys are here, right?"
He casually leaned against a rock on the edge of the cliff, resting his chin on his hand and carefully sensing everything around him. His eyes, however, were filled with sharp aggression, even a terrifying killing intent, as he looked up at the moon.
"I have a few questions for you."
The only sounds on the deserted mountaintop were the wind and insects; there were no creatures to talk to, making the blond youth seem to be talking to himself.
"First of all, I was wondering why the last person who died before I reloaded the save file became a ghost and also had the memories of the previous playthrough into the next playthrough."
"Becoming a ghost to see what happens next, and carrying memories into the next playthrough, is to make the game more interesting, and to allow you to collect more energy of hope and despair."
"But how did you determine which person was the [last one]?"
Rei Furuya picked up a round stone next to him, tossed it into the air, and then clenched it tightly in his palm after it landed back in his hand.
"In each cycle, it's not just one person who gets into trouble. Unless you can completely control every detail of how things develop and be omniscient, unless you can even control and know what happened at the end of each cycle, how many people died, and when I activate the death rollback, how can you know which person is the 'last one'?"
"But you don't seem to be completely omniscient and omnipotent. If you were, you wouldn't have chosen me to start this game, and you wouldn't need me to accomplish any of your goals." Rei Furuya sneered. "Even in a game, if you knew all the details of every playthrough, no one would want to keep playing, right?"
"So I have a guess: in fact, everyone who dies in each playthrough, except for me, becomes a ghost. But when a new ghost is born, the previous ghost disappears, and in the end, only the ghost of the last person who died before I loaded the save file is left, carrying my memories and coming to the next playthrough with me, right?"
Still, no one answered him.
"How dare they toy with us like this..."
Rei Furuya gritted his teeth, his hand gripping the stone trembling with rage, and suddenly hurled the stone at the moon in the sky.
Of course, the stone thrown by humans couldn't hit the moon in the sky; it lost momentum and fell limply into the dark cliff.
"Thump—"
Even in the dead of night, the faint sound of stones falling to the ground was still quite noticeable.
Rei Furuya's other hand sank deep into the mud beside him, leaving a deep mark that looked like five fingers.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them three seconds later, regaining his composure.
"Then comes the second question."
The blond youth wiped the mud off his hand and picked a red wildflower from the side, holding it up to the full moon.
"I've been thinking, after so many reincarnations, why is it that every time, the important people around me are so easily in danger and miss all the safe paths, only to head towards the tragedy of death? Why are they the only ones who seem to be maliciously targeted by the world, dying under the influence of some tiny butterfly effect that I can't even notice? Why only them? Why always them?"
The red flower slowly turned between his fingers, its bright red petals trembling in the night breeze, like a butterfly gently fluttering its wings in the silvery moonlight.
Is it because of me?
"Rei Furuya asked softly."
"Is it because I value them so much that they keep encountering danger and dying in this game, thus leading me to restart the game again and again?"
"Is it because Hiro is my most important childhood friend that he is the most dangerous and the most difficult to control? Is that why his difficulty level is the highest? Since something as unpredictable as the fifth playthrough can happen, how many times do I need to reload to perfectly save him?"
The flower suddenly tilted and fell over, its stem snapped off by the dark-skinned finger, just like countless butterflies that had been killed in the past.
"Although I didn't make any wishes to you when you forced me to sign the contract, I was indeed guided by you to think about what I would do if I could go back to the past or bring the dead back to life?"
"You said you wanted to reverse the flow of time and bring the dead back to life." Furuya Rei smiled, a mocking look on his face. "You were deliberately guiding me back then, weren't you? You started this game based on the wish that arose in my heart at that moment."
He lowered his eyes and plucked a petal from the flower.
"For someone like me who had just destroyed an organization, protected the country, completed a mission, but lost all those close to me and was on the verge of death, what was the first thing that came to mind when I heard this sentence?"
Rei Furuya recalled the image and sound of the four people laughing at him, telling him he was too slow and urging him to hurry up.
“Of course, we should go back in time and save them,” he said.
He ripped off the second petal.
"So, after you forced me to sign a contract and bind me to you, you just set that as my wish and started this game based on that, right?"
"So, whether it's the crucial save points or those ridiculously difficult events, all the malice they seem to be facing as if the world is targeting them, all of these are born from this, right?"
"So, it's because I vowed to save them, because I care about them so much, that they are targeted by the world's malice, and that's why they keep dying, right?"
"Even during my time at the police academy, it was difficult to get through safely. You could explain that with the butterfly effect, but I don't believe there wasn't some deliberate arrangement or setup by you. This is the result of the combination of your malice, the price of a miracle, and the outcome of making a deal with the devil, right?"
"But why should they be the ones to pay the price? Although I want to save them, and although my wish is to save them, it is still my wish, so why should they bear the consequences? You can target me, why target them?"
He ripped off the third petal.
"It's not just me, it's Homura Akemi too, because she became a magical girl by wishing to go back in time to save Madoka Kaname. So no matter what she does, even if everyone else survives, Madoka Kaname will ultimately die on that witch's night, right?"
"And then there's Subaru Natsuki. He keeps getting back in time because of the Witch of Jealousy's love. He's determined to save Emilia, the first person to show him kindness after he arrived in the other world. That's why he keeps getting back in time. And the fact that Emilia is so similar to the Witch of Jealousy makes the cycle of reincarnation more and more difficult. The main reason is that he cares about Emilia the most, right?"
"The same goes for Shinpei Amiyo. Ushio was his childhood friend whom he loved, and he was the first to die. It was because of Ushio's death that he returned to that island, and then began the cycle of reincarnation, where he met the shadow Ushio. But now even the shadow Ushio is dead, and Nagumo-sensei, who was the first to believe in him and gave him the greatest help and support, is also dead... However, it seems that there is hope for the shadow Ushio to be resurrected. Ushio is still his driving force, right?"
"Everyone in the group has had different experiences, but the core issue is the same. Isn't this all something you deliberately arranged? It's like some kind of game setting, and then you put us all in one group chat..."
He ripped off the fourth petal.
"To maximize the game's effects and visual appeal, and to continuously draw immense energy from countless cycles of hope and despair, you repeatedly place the most important and cherished people around us in the most dangerous and easily fatal situations, making them brush past countless safe possibilities and leading them to tragic endings time and time again. Then, you make us struggle through cycles of despair and hope to save them, thus initiating a cycle of reincarnation and ultimately drawing immense energy from our world. That's your goal, isn't it?"
"..."
Aren't you going to answer?
Rei Furuya smiled and plucked off the last, fifth petal.
He got up, walked to the edge of the cliff, raised his hand, and let go. The bare stem of the flower, devoid of petals, immediately plunged into the dark abyss.
"It's okay if you don't answer. Whether it was set up by you on purpose or simply because you are the people we value and are closest to, so you are the ones who are most affected by the butterfly effect, it is indeed a fact, right?"
The mountain breeze ruffled Furuya Rei's blond hair, and the moonlight illuminated his sharp, crazed purplish-gray eyes.
【what are you up to? 】
Finally, the voice in his head spoke for the first time, except for announcements at key moments. It was still the same voice that couldn't distinguish between men and women, didn't know the number of people, and had no emotion. It seemed to be just the system AI asking because the game had a bug.
However, Rei Furuya will not answer them now.
"So there are things you don't know." He curled his lips into a mocking and provocative smile. "I thought you knew everything I was thinking, but it turns out you're nothing special."
"Then let's try it next time and see if I can succeed."
The blond youth laughed and jumped off the cliff, spreading his arms like a bird as he soared through the air.
But humans don't have wings, so he quickly landed.
"Bang--"
[...]
You are dead.
[End of Eighth Playthrough]
[Result in a Bad Ending: Sacrificing One's Life]
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