Chapter 300 Zero Playthrough (7)
—Would you like to sign a contract with us?
Under the dim sky, a cold drizzle fell on the cemetery, and the devil tempted the desperate.
The man's head was bowed, his long, wet black hair obscuring his face, making it impossible to see his expression.
But anyone who saw this scene could tell that he was already teetering on the edge of madness.
"Look," the system's voice echoed in his mind, "If you don't sign a contract with us soon, your childhood friend will have to carry out the mission for you."
Rei Furuya closed his eyes, observing the images the system was showing him in his mind, without saying a word.
Even without speaking, the system could discern his true emotions from his angry brainwaves.
"Even so, are you still going to refuse us?" the system asked. "You don't have much time left to hesitate. Once the contract is signed, there's no going back. Do you understand?"
"How can I be sure this isn't something you made up to deceive me?" Furuya Rei finally spoke.
Despite being very worried, angry, and anxious, and knowing that this was highly likely to happen, the blond youth still said it.
He tried to appear calm and said, "Unless you let me have a real-time conversation with Hiro to confirm the truth."
The system could taste every emotion in the energy he emitted.
"No," the system said. "You cannot contact anyone before signing the contract."
Rei Furuya's face instantly darkened: "Are you sure you want to do this? If you really drag Hiro into this, I will hold a deep grudge against you. Even if we sign a contract, I will deliberately sabotage everything... You probably don't want an undercover agent who hates you, do you? I'm a professional when it comes to being an undercover agent."
"You won't," the system affirmed. "If Morofushi Kagemitsu truly binds himself to us, your actions will actually be restricted. If you're alone, it's indeed possible that we'll perish together."
The blond youth gritted his teeth, his expression dark and unreadable.
"You can't even commit suicide now," the system said. "Rei Furuya, you have no other choice."
*
"This is absolutely the best choice you've ever made," the system said to Morofushi Kagemitsu.
Zhu Fujingguang ignored them, and the system didn't care either.
The choice to sign with Morofushi Kagemitsu was the best they had ever made; it was simply perfect. The system became increasingly convinced that this timeline could succeed.
This choice was so perfect that they were worried something might go wrong on Furuya Rei's side that would prevent the contract here from succeeding. They even signed a contract with Morofushi Kagemitsu first, and then sent him the delayed footage.
At this moment, Morofushi Kagemitsu had already signed a contract with them and was on his way home to handle the aftermath.
The systems repeatedly examined and observed the scene of the contract signing and Furuya Rei's current struggle.
After the original storyline of the world ends, even the system cannot freely reload saves, since the story points that could be considered as the starting point for reloading are gone, and it is not easy to exploit loopholes in the world's rules.
But once they or the descent zero are observed, the time flow rates of the two spacetimes synchronize, and if they want to change it again, they need new energy to start from scratch.
The time flow in the zero loop is the most unique, existing independently of all other world lines.
However, when the Furuya Zero-Sum System arrived here and observed this place, from that moment on, the timeline of the Zero Cycle was synchronized with the time flow of the world line of the 73rd Cycle.
No matter how much time has passed in other timelines, they cannot affect the slug valley zero-sum system, but they can affect other observable timelines.
This is also a major reason why the system dares to recklessly travel to the future and try to abduct Morofushi Kagemitsu.
However, after the story ends, the system loses the predictable script and can no longer observe the future after each choice. It can only know a general direction.
As Rei Furuya said before, the universe is infinite, but what they observe is finite.
When a script exists, everything unfolds within the plot set by the world's rules, and is also under their control.
But once it's all over, if they want to get involved again, they'll have to expend enormous energy gambling on every uncertain future, which is not worthwhile.
They should use every bit of energy for the best possible choice.
Even if you fail, you can start over; it just takes more effort.
Sometimes, even the systems don't know how they failed.
The systems don't even know how to make them fail.
Among so many different timelines and so many different ways of dying, even if they knew the future, they didn't understand why they would fail, so they could only avoid that timeline.
After much thought, the only explanation seems to be "miracle".
Humans often create miracles that defy rules and common sense, mostly triggered by different emotions.
Therefore, they are even more convinced that emotions are an unsolvable virus.
Therefore, they learned to fight poison with poison and use emotions to control humans.
Some systems have also raised concerns: "Could a situation like Homura Akemi and Kyubey's occur? Kyubey pushed Homura too far, causing her to become a demon and kill Kyubey. If we push them too far, might we inadvertently give them enough power to defeat us?"
Other systems responded in succession:
"How could that be? Kyubey and we are not even on the same level."
No matter how hard they struggle, they cannot obtain energy that transcends dimensions.
This has never happened before; it doesn't make sense.
However, it doesn't make sense for us to be defeated by humans. Emotional energy is the easiest to obtain and the most powerful, but it is also the easiest to lose control of.
[When influenced by emotions, even if they gain immense power, humanity will gradually descend into madness; we possess an absolute advantage.]
We've already set up a save point before Morofushi Kagemitsu signed the contract. If it fails, we can just come back and start over.
[If it weren't for the immense loss of the energy that Rei Furuya brought, we should have gone back to before we signed the contract with Rei Furuya and terminated the deal once we observed the future of the world line where he and we perished together.]
[That would mean we'd die soon too. Not only would we lose the energy from Furuya Zero, but the energy we'd have to return to would also render us almost useless, leaving us with no energy to organize another cycle of the game.]
Ultimately, they all agreed that signing a contract with Furuya Zero was both the best and the worst option.
The system faces a dead end: without emotional energy, they will perish along with their original universe, while attempting to acquire emotional energy from other universes will only result in them being killed by humans who possess emotional energy.
Now, not only Zero has no other choice, but also the system.
*
Zhu Fujingguang had no other choice.
Even knowing it was a trap, he still had no choice but to jump in.
Because Rei Furuya is still trapped in the pit.
"Can't I really see Zero right now?" Morofushi Kagemitsu asked.
"I'm sorry, the agreed conditions have not yet been met," the system said.
Morobuchi Kagemitsu remained silent.
The system gathered his anger and reassured him, "It will be soon. We also hope you can meet as soon as possible and start working together."
The system reviewed the screenshot of the original contract again and suddenly said: "You don't seem surprised by the current situation, and you're not as angry as we expected."
Morofushi Kagemitsu said, "I have always thought of you with the utmost malice, and this is indeed something you are capable of doing."
[...] The system attempted to explain, "But this isn't our problem; it's Rei Furuya's side that's unwilling."
That's why Morofushi Kagemitsu initially made so many random and nonsensical wishes as a test.
Things like, "My wish is that everything I desire will come true," "My wish is that you return Rei Furuya and immediately leave this world, never to approach us again," "My wish is that I can possess power greater than yours," and "I will sign a contract with you in place of Rei Furuya to carry out missions," etc...
The system could only sternly tell him that they were not wish-granting machines. Although they were supposed to grant wishes, strictly speaking, they were just cooperative relationships involving labor contracts, and logic had to be followed.
After that, Morofushi Kagemitsu's wishes became much more serious.
"My wish is that I, Morofushi Kagemitsu, will always stay by Furuya Rei's side, no matter which time or space he is in."
At Rei Furuya's grave, a man with long hair made this wish.
But the system still rejected it.
[Any wish for "eternity" is impossible to fulfill, and people cannot stay together forever. Even time travel has its own channels, and temporary separation is inevitable.] The system said.
Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't seem surprised by the result and continued to express his next wish without hesitation.
"My wish is that no matter what Rei Furuya goes through, I can be by his side and face it with him," he said.
The system refused again: [This is also impossible. Two human individuals can't do everything together unless we directly put you into the same body. Besides, it's not good for your missions; what if you need to separate? It would be a very wasteful option for us.]
Morofushi Kagemitsu expressed that he was somewhat interested in being in the same body and asked if he could become Furuya Rei's system.
The system politely declined.
How can a human virus infiltrate a system?
"This won't work, that won't work, you guys are really useless." Morobushi Kagemitsu sighed.
The system was also tired of playing along: [Stop trying to find loopholes. This is your last chance; please make a sincere wish.]
Zhu Fujingguang calmed down.
The rain stopped, but the wind was still strong, gradually taking away the body's warmth.
The sky gradually darkened, and the world before my eyes grew increasingly gloomy, making it impossible to see the road ahead.
Or perhaps, what lies ahead is an even deeper abyss.
Morifushi Kagemitsu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, his blue eyes were filled with unwavering determination.
"My wish is that no matter which time or space Rei Furuya travels to, I can follow him there like a shadow," he said.
The system was finally satisfied.
The contract is established.
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