Chapter 172 Seventy-Threeth Cycle (2)
Rei Furuya opened his eyes and saw the familiar white laboratory.
He was slightly dazed, unable to distinguish whether he was still in the experiment, whether he had escaped, or whether it was all a dream.
However, he was only in a daze for two seconds.
The memories of his previous trip couldn't have been dreams; he wouldn't have deliberately created such a dream for himself, nor could it have been so realistic.
The dream he wove...
With a thought, Rei Furuya projected the scene of Shuichi Akai being shot in the head by Kir onto the wall.
It's so familiar; he's seen it at least a hundred times.
Okay, now he's completely certain he's dreaming.
Rei Furuya is already very familiar with this feeling.
However, this time he doesn't need to suppress himself anymore. His goal this time is to return to normal and resolve all the aftereffects.
Since a problem has arisen, we must confront it directly in order to find a solution.
We shouldn't be so cautious that we dare not do anything; that would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
The blond, dark-skinned youth had no expression on his face. His eyes swept across the room, and everyone in the laboratory vanished. The restraints on his hands and feet also came loose instantly. He then easily untied the restraint device around his neck, stood up, and stepped off the operating table.
The moment the feet touched the ground, the pure white laboratory transformed into a pure black movie theater.
Rei Furuya chose the best viewing spot in the middle, leaned back in his chair, and stared straight ahead.
The movie theater's giant screen lit up and began playing all the memories from this save point.
He was suddenly captured and taken to the laboratory by Karasuma Renya on April 1st of the 58th cycle, and escaped on May 1st of the 73rd cycle.
Sixteen playthroughs, fifteen deaths and save reloads.
Rei Furuya committed suicide three times, Shiho Miyano killed him seven times, and Kagemitsu Morofushi killed him five times.
The situation was urgent at the time, and Furuya Rei didn't have the mind to think too much. Now, looking at the development of events from a different perspective, carefully recalling and observing what happened and everyone's actions and expressions, he has some complicated feelings.
In fact, he didn't feel too much pain during this ordeal, especially after he was able to control his dreams so as not to expose other people's information. For him, it was more like a strange experiment and learning process, which was completely different from the death calamities he had faced when facing other people.
"Hiro, fire."
On the big screen, the blond youth leaning against the wall grasped the pale hand of the black-haired youth in front of him and the black gun, ignoring the crowd chasing behind him, and firmly pressed the trigger with his trembling, stiff fingers.
"See you next time," Rei Furuya says with a smile in the movie.
"Bang--"
Rei Furuya's eyelashes trembled slightly as he sat in the audience, but he didn't look away. He even forced himself to look into his childhood friend's trembling blue eyes as he watched him resolutely point the gun at him.
“Okay, see you next time,” Morofushi Kagemitsu said in a low voice.
"Bang--"
Rei Furuya, sitting in the audience, gripped the armrests tightly with both hands, his breathing ragged and his chest heaving.
Yes, only when facing Shiho Miyano and Hiromitsu Morofushi, who are trembling and about to kill him, before dying and reloading at the end of each playthrough, does Rei Furuya feel uncontrollably sad and distressed.
"As expected, no matter how many times, I'll never get used to this kind of thing," the black-haired youth said with a bitter smile as he attacked him for the fourth time, his eyes filled with astonishing pain and sorrow.
"How many times have I killed you?" the tea-haired girl asked him in a trembling voice, her eyes wet with tears.
Fortunately, Rei Furuya knew that Shiho wouldn't have any memories, and he also deliberately erased Hiro's previous memories, so it was as if nothing had happened.
Although I broke my promise and hid it from everyone again, this is really unacceptable. This is the one thing I absolutely cannot let Hiro have any memories of, or even know what happened.
Rei Furuya knew very well what it felt like to kill his childhood friend with his own hands. Even though they both knew that killing the other was only to save him, it couldn't make up for the pain of killing him with his own hands and watching a perfectly healthy person turn into a cold corpse.
Even if you understand the reasoning, it's not so easy to suppress your emotions.
What's more, he killed him five times.
Therefore, the best way is to not let him know what happened, and to act as if it never happened, and then there will be no problem.
If he wanted to act as if nothing had happened, he couldn't let on any hint of something strange, because Hiro would definitely notice something was wrong in his current state.
Therefore, he needs to carefully review his experiences over this period, examine where he might experience emotional fluctuations, and then consciously train himself to return to his original normal state.
For example, he used to just dislike crows, but now he has a special reaction to black cats. Even when petting stray cats, he subconsciously avoids eye contact with black cats and doesn't want to reach out to pet them. He also gets a heartbeat when he suddenly hears a cat meowing. These are all aftereffects. Although they are not a big deal, they will attract the attention of the observant Hiro. If he continues to investigate, he might be able to unravel the truth about the laboratory.
Vermouth's reaction to this was even more exaggerated than his, but she didn't care to change and just kept giving up.
But Furuya Rei couldn't do that. He had already decided that the save point "The Crow Is Staring at You" must never be known to anyone. He would only tell them the information he obtained after completing the game in one life.
As for maintaining a conscious state while dreaming... there's no need to change that, and there's no need to restore it. What if something happens in the future that makes Karasuma Renya use the dream chair on him again?
At worst, he can just stop dreaming altogether. If he's too tired to dream, he can let his body rest outside while he reviews his work and plans in his dreams.
Although they only have a vague understanding now, Karasuma Renya did indeed help him train his mental strength. Furuya Rei now has almost photographic memory, can access his deep consciousness to retrieve his memories, and can even create stories and watch movies in his own dreams.
However, weaving dreams also requires materials, and at least he can't create them out of thin air right now.
The material doesn't have to be real, but it must be detailed and familiar. For example, in his past life, he thought about how to kill Shuichi Akai every day, and he was very familiar with Shuichi Akai's way of dying and the manner of his death. Now, even if it's fake, he can practice weaving extremely realistic and detailed dreams.
On the big screen of the movie, there is a familiar man with long black hair, and a familiar way and manner of dying.
To make the appearance of short-haired Shuichi Akai later seem reasonable, there's even a scene where he grabs someone, cuts up the knitted hat, flushes it down the toilet, and then uses scissors to cut Shuichi Akai's long hair short, leaving him with only one other knitted hat to wear—this is indeed what he wanted to do.
Rei Furuya, seated calmly, was not at all bothered by the video of Shuichi Akai's death. Although watching it made him eat more, this was not the time to gloat. And while the memory was vivid, he didn't hate Shuichi Akai to the point of wanting to kill him; these were just excuses he was using from past emotions and memories.
He fast-forwarded through the dream-within-a-dream sequence and continued watching.
This is the 72nd playthrough. He persevered to the end in this playthrough, and the plan was perfect.
Although he didn't understand the principles behind controlling dreams, he had already practiced it to a high degree. Karasuma Renya hadn't noticed anything amiss, so he could be considered to have completed the game; all that was left was to save his progress.
Then he committed suicide.
This is because Hiro in this playthrough has the memory of being killed four times in the previous four playthroughs.
So he cleared the files and started over.
Fearing that he might save his game or that Hiro might discover his thoughts and reload the game with him, Furuya Rei killed himself as soon as he left the lab in a secluded spot.
However, worrying about saving seems unnecessary. He didn't save until he went to sleep. He probably won't save until the game officially starts and a new save point will be opened. And that save point is definitely a key save point related to the protagonist Conan.
Or perhaps we'll have to wait until Karasuma Renya completely lets go of his observations and suspicions about him?
In short, he cannot relax until he reaches that save point.
Even if he accidentally dies and reloads to the time when he was captured by Karasuma Renya on April 1st, it wouldn't matter, since he can clear the game once and then do it again. But it's just too troublesome and dangerous. It's better to clear the game directly.
Rei Furuya is confident, so he plans to start now to gradually dispel the layers of mental suggestions and hypnosis that have been building up over the sixteen cycles.
Those suggestions, hypnosis, and the complete state belonging to Bourbon can only occur in the laboratory. Once outside, they will cause a lot of trouble, and if not careful, they may really cause a big problem.
For example, in fact, apart from Scotland, there are no memories in his mind that Bourbon should have—the faces of the class monitor, Matsuda, and Hagi are already very blurry, and he has to think for a long time to confirm their names. Clear faces and names will never suddenly appear in his dreams.
He couldn't even remember Morofushi Kagemitsu's face before he grew a beard, because Bourbon only knew Scotland.
He still has memories of spending time with everyone, but their faces seem to be blurred and cannot be seen clearly.
He had to hypnotize himself into this state to ensure that he could focus on creating other dream images without any mistakes.
However, there are conditions to hypnosis; if he sees them again, he will definitely be able to recognize them.
However, if the hypnosis is not completely lifted, even if they recognize and remember at the time, they will forget again if they are not careful, because their subconscious will blur their faces and names.
Fortunately, he had two special group chats where he could see previous records, so he wouldn't be caught chatting strangely online.
After sorting through all his memories, Furuya Rei identified two of the most important and urgent issues that needed to be addressed.
First, the image of Shiho Miyano and Hiromitsu Morofushi killing him with expressions of despair and pain was so vivid in his mind that he would recall it whenever he saw them, causing a change in his emotions and expression. He needed to practice controlling his emotions.
Second, break the hypnotic suggestion as soon as possible and recall everyone's names and faces to prevent bumping into people and not recognizing them immediately, which could cause serious problems.
The first thing is a bit difficult and requires repeated practice.
The second one isn't too difficult. When giving the hypnotic suggestion, Furuya Rei set the conditions for dispelling it: all you have to do is look at their faces for a full minute, or you can use a photograph.
This is no small matter; it takes time to practice and recover, and he definitely needs a good rest.
He hadn't had a proper night's sleep in a long time, and he could feel that his condition was a bit strange. He wasn't tired, but he was very calm and rational, even a bit mentally unstable, and he felt numb and dazed, lacking a sense of reality.
Furthermore, Karasuma Renya was still relentlessly monitoring him, so he absolutely could not see anyone during this time.
If he were to brush past them with the same look he gives a stranger, it would be hard for him to explain.
Those guys are just as perceptive as him...
*
"How's Bourbon?" Karasuma Renya asked.
"Reporting to the boss, Bourbon hasn't come out of the safe house since returning. The lights in the room are off, so he's probably sleeping. No one has approached him during this time," the surveillance personnel replied.
Karasuma Renya was not surprised.
Even if Bourbon really has a problem, he won't act immediately; he probably needs to rest.
After hanging up the phone, Karasuma Renya frowned and pondered, but finally clicked on the video in front of him.
This was the tenth time he had repeatedly checked Bourbon's memory of the Dream Chair experiment this month.
However, he mainly watched the videos of five experiments; the others... were basically useless.
There were a total of thirty Dream Chair experiments, twenty-five of which featured Shuichi Akai's various ways of dying, making them incredibly realistic and detailed.
If Shuichi Akai hadn't been alive, Renya Karasuma would have truly believed that it was all real.
If it's not true, then it can only prove that even under the triple effects of hypnosis, drugs, and the dream chair, even though he himself was in danger, Bourbon's subconscious still hated and cared about Shuichi Akai the most, and his obsession with Shuichi Akai was terrifyingly strong.
Karasuma Renya tapped his fingers impatiently on the table, forced to start reviewing the experimental records from the beginning again.
Especially the first experiment, watching myself kill Shuichi Akai from a first-person perspective, although the logic of the events was still a little strange, the surrounding environment and the details of the characters were so perfect that they were no different from reality, even clearer than the real memories of ordinary people.
But Shuichi Akai is still alive, so this is all fake.
So... does Bourbon fantasize about 101 different ways Shuichi Akai might die every night?
Otherwise, why would these dreams feel so real? They must have become so familiar after repeated contemplation and practice, right?
Karasuma Renya looked utterly speechless.
He truly hadn't expected that Bourbon would hate Shuichi Akai so much, to the point of obsession. Even when he was in danger, all he could think about was how to kill Shuichi Akai, forgetting everything else.
This really doesn't seem like a reincarnated being.
And why? He originally thought that Bourbon should hate Scotland the most.
However, it makes sense. Shuichi Akai and Bourbon have been targeting each other from the very beginning. Scotland only suddenly broke out later and was relatively obedient and easy for Bourbon to control. Therefore, Bourbon's biggest obsession now is still to kill Shuichi Akai.
Moreover, although Shuichi Akai in the dream was also taciturn and died after saying only a few words, what he said was infuriating enough. Bourbon would sometimes say a few words when he was emotional.
If his reasoning is correct, this is probably... another relationship dispute?
Karasuma Renya pressed his brow, feeling a headache coming on.
Miyano...Akami?
Fortunately, Bourbon wasn't a love-struck fool like Scotland. Bourbon's situation was probably the first time he had feelings for a woman and wanted to pursue her, but before he could even make a move, Shuichi Akai snatched her away.
Bourbon, being such a proud man, naturally couldn't tolerate this and thus began to target Shuichi Akai. Despite his constant targeting within the organization, he gained nothing and was even tricked by Akai's collaboration with Scotland, suffering a major setback. Even after Akai's undercover identity was exposed and he defected, Bourbon never achieved a decisive victory. Even after confidently declaring to the FBI that only he could kill Akai and attempting to cause trouble, Akai ultimately survived.
This must have been the most infuriating and frustrating thing in Bourbon's life, and the fact that Shuichi Akai was impossible to kill no matter what he did made him obsessed with him.
This has nothing to do with Akemi Miyano anymore. Bourbon simply wants to kill Shuichi Akai to vent his anger, otherwise he might die of resentment.
Karasuma Renya sighed.
Well, if we haven't found anything wrong after all this, then it probably really isn't.
If we monitor Bourbon for a few more months and confirm that he has no problems after leaving, then it means that he was probably overthinking things.
This wasn't the first time such a situation had occurred, and Karasuma Renya had even gotten used to it.
There are indeed many people in the world who are ridiculously outstanding. They don't necessarily become all-rounders gradually through the long cycle of time. Geniuses can indeed learn something at a glance.
People like Bourbon can learn something very well, even after only seeing it once, and become quite proficient at it.
Gin, Scotch, and Shuichi Akai are all so outstanding that they are almost omnipotent, but none of them are as exaggerated as Bourbon, nor do they have the youthful appearance favored by time like Bourbon.
Perhaps he was too anxious, which is why he was thinking about it during the day and dreaming about it at night. It would be more practical to urge Shirley to develop a drug to reverse aging.
However, this is also a good thing. Now that Bourbon knows so much, he can become a member of the organization's core experiments, just like Vermouth.
Given Bourbon's abilities and temperament, he might be able to break through the long-stalled experimental progress.
Moreover, Shuichi Akai is ultimately his biggest worry. After dealing with the current situation, he can send Bourbon out to specifically hunt down Shuichi Akai, thus resolving their obsessions at the same time.
*
USA.
FBI headquarters.
Shuichi Akai, who was leaning against the window smoking, suddenly sneezed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com