Chapter 185 will resume updates starting today.
Day 12 of the Highway Survival Game!
"Termites?" Vermouth on the other end of the phone seemed a little surprised: "This is the Suzuki, the carriages must have been treated for pests before departure, how could there be termites? But why does it sound a bit noisy on your end?"
"Which carriage are you in?" Bourbon was taken aback by Vermouth's answer. Vermouth was a mystic, and even though he knew she had participated in the operation against Sherry, Bourbon still didn't know her exact location, given her ever-changing witch abilities.
However, according to his speculation, given Vermouth's personality, she would definitely have hidden in the position closest to Sherry. But his purpose was to claim the credit for capturing Sherry alone, find an excuse to personally hand her over to the organization's BOSS, and confirm the BOSS's identity so that the organization could carry out a full-scale encirclement and annihilation.
So before the operation, he made an agreement with Vermouth that he would lead the attack and Vermouth would assist him, drawing away those who might help Sherry escape. According to his speculation, the helpers who would help Sherry leave would definitely choose to keep a low profile.
She wouldn't ride in the more ostentatious and luxurious dining car, the few carriages behind it near the rear of the train. Vermouth should be hiding in the carriages in front of the dining car, near the front of the train.
The area from her carriage number 4 to the cargo hold at the end of the train, where the dungeon exit is located, is a termite hotspot. If Vermouth didn't see any termites, it clearly indicates that she was in a carriage outside the dungeon's coverage area.
Could it be that I guessed wrong and Sherry might be connected to the forces behind Conan? Or does Vermouth have information about Sherry's accomplices that I don't know about? Or is it just a coincidence that Sherry saved Conan and his classmates in Gunma Mountain?
Unfortunately, they happened to be on the same train, and coincidentally, they were within the dungeon's range. Vermouth seemed quite certain that if she instilled enough fear in Sherry, she would appear in the carriage they planned to use as their hunting ground.
The hunting ground carriage happened to be located within the termite-infested area of the instance, closest to the instance exit, yet Vermouth herself wasn't within that area. Was this a coincidence? Or was it hiding some kind of secret? It seems I'll need to investigate this thoroughly after this instance ends…
Just as Bourbon was thinking about these things, Vermouth, who heard Bourbon's voice, didn't hide anything: "I'm currently in compartment A of carriage 2, with a sleeping kitten. I've put some fear into Sherry, and I estimate she'll run to your hunting grounds on her own in a little while."
Tsk tsk! If Bourbon hadn't had to meet with Gin at the last minute, I could have used Bourbon to distract this perceptive cat and then struck before she could react. Now I had to go around in circles and lure her here before I could find an opportunity to attack...
"Cin! Vermouth is in carriage number 2..." Sure enough, she's in the carriage near the front of the train, outside the instance's coverage area, and quite far from carriage number 8 where Conan and the others should be. ...
Just as Bourbon was wondering if there was any connection between these events, Gin, upon hearing his reply, immediately ordered, "Tell Vermouth to change the plan. Have her find a way to lure Sherry towards us from the front of the car. If she resists, execute her on the spot..."
"Here?" Bourbon asked, feigning surprise, but secretly still hoped to capture her alive, using her as bait to uncover the organization's boss's identity, even though he knew that, for the future, Sherry might indeed be, as Vermouth had said, the most deserving target to be killed...
Gin gestured for Bourbon to look behind him at the passengers rushing towards the front of the train to escape the termites and the surrounding carriages that had been gnawed to pieces: "A person dying at a scene like this is unlikely to attract the attention of certain guys. It's best to take care of Sherry before Fatty and the others leave; maybe we can even save the trouble of disposing of the body..."
Bourbon immediately understood that after learning from the information that Sherry was likely the scientist who led to the development of that future drug, or the person who leaked the organization's research on the drug, he was inclined to silence Sherry.
However, ever since Sherry's defection, Gin seems to have always been inclined to treat Sherry the same way as Vermouth, even though the information he received from Rum was that the organization's boss's original order was to capture Sherry and bring her back.
It's as if he and Vermouth both knew that letting Sherry live would lead to a terrible outcome. Did he already know that Sherry's research project was problematic? Or was he very familiar with the dangerous research the organization was conducting? Or did he simply have a good relationship with Vermouth and chose to side with her?
...
Just as Gin and Bourbon were once again planning to completely eliminate Sherry, Shuichi Akai, who was in car number six, also encountered the second incredibly unbelievable thing in his life.
Because the voice seemed to appear directly in his mind, a mechanically synthesized, androgynous electronic sound:
[Announcement: Survivor Feng Xing Shou has leaked game information to a dungeon NPC, triggering a dungeon penalty mission. In one minute, the game's penalty mission will begin, requiring survivors to find the dungeon exit and escape from the pursuit of mutated termites!]
Being killed by mutated termites results in failure and death in the dungeon. Being blocked by mutated termites and failing to escape the dungeon before the time limit expires also results in failure and death. Successfully escaping the dungeon ends the penalty quest!
Game information leak? Dungeon NPC? Game penalty quest? Although he had previously deduced from the overheard content and the two sets of memories he had experienced that those words were not a huge lie deliberately meant to mislead him.
Now that I've personally experienced the information in my mind, I feel an unusually angry emotion, which makes me, who is usually calm and rational, always handle things with composure.
In that game, I was just a dungeon NPC, and the world I lived in was treated as a dungeon by the game developers? And now they want to use termites to hunt down the Wind Star Guardian in the dungeon?
Putting aside Gin, his sister's previous hostility towards the game was justified. This game doesn't treat the people of its world as equals, or even as its own kind. Was the creator of this game not even human?
Just as his expression changed drastically because of this information, Yukiko asked in surprise, "Akai-san, what's wrong?"
Why does he suddenly look so angry? This is the first time I've ever seen this investigator show such intense emotional fluctuations since I met him.
Her voice brought Shuichi Akai back to his senses. Seeing that her face only showed concern and no anger towards the game, his reasoning ability naturally led him to deduce a possibility. He immediately probed, "Didn't you hear anything just now?"
"A sound? What sound?" Kudo Yukiko was surprised by Akai Shuichi's question. Weren't they just discussing how to split up and act later? There was no sound in the carriage!
Upon hearing her reply, Shuichi Akai immediately deduced that even though they were in the same train car, Yukiko Kudo hadn't heard the mechanical announcement.
If you only hear your own voice, it means that the game announcement is not targeted at all NPCs in the game instance, but rather at NPCs who meet certain conditions.
Then, comparing the differences between himself and Yukiko Kudo, these two 'NPCs', he realized that he had learned some things about the game through eavesdropping, while Yukiko Kudo knew nothing about the game.
Adding to the game announcement content just now, we can conclude that the only 'NPCs' who can hear the game announcements are those within the instance who know relevant game information and survivors who leak game information within the instance.
If this speculation is correct, considering the content of the game announcement just now, it likely also indicates another thing: punishment missions have begun in the game instance. This punishment may not only target survivors, but also punish, or even silence, 'NPCs' who are already aware of the situation...
Just as Akai Shuichi's deduction was being confirmed, the scene that had occurred in the Fuusei Guardian's carriage earlier began to unfold in their own carriage. They saw termites, much larger than their actual size, gnawing away at the decorations in the carriage and crawling out of the floor, walls, and other areas.
Even the usually carefree and lively Yukiko Kudo couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Ah... termites... such huge termites..."
"Careful, let's get out of the room quickly!" Upon seeing such a large number of unusually large termites appear in an instant, Shuichi Akai quickly tested them and found that they were real, living termites with amazing acid corrosive power.
While marveling at the game organizers' ability to execute the release so quickly, which seemed more like magic than technology, he led Yukiko Kudo out of the room.
Unbeknownst to him, just as he opened the door to leave, four figures invisible to him from his dimension ran towards the front of the car. As they passed him, one of the figures paused for a moment before quickly catching up with the one in front...
Meanwhile, Conan, who had been meticulously planning everything since noticing the anomaly, encountered for the first time an inexplicable phenomenon in his life that defied scientific explanation: countless termites swarmed out from all parts of the train car, gnawing at everything, including the body of the murdered person.
Before he could deduce the truth of the case, everything was disrupted by the sudden appearance of termites, and the children were terrified by these enormous termites with incredible acid-corroding abilities, screaming in terror.
Fortunately, Kogoro Mouri and his daughter Ran Mouri, both highly skilled in combat, were at the scene of the murder in carriage number 8. They used chairs and other tools to sweep away the termites that were gnawing at their surroundings, preventing nearby people from being attacked by the termites...
On the other side, Shirley, who had originally planned to secretly find a place to take the antidote, sever ties with the children, and then go to the organization to die, was staring incredulously at the figure who had suddenly pulled her into the unfamiliar carriage. The familiar face and unfamiliar figure made her call out incredulously, "Sister..."
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