Chapter 218 The Third Player

"Thank you for letting me know. I will pay attention to my safety."

Xi Haiqingdou sighed: "It's really unexpected that writing a novel would lead to being hunted down in this way by overly crazy readers."

"However, we might as well be optimistic and think positively. The protagonist of "The Unknown Wax Museum" committed suicide in the end. What if this unknown murderer also chooses to commit suicide in the end?"

"Even so, according to our colleagues' analysis, this possibility is not very high. Mochizuki-kun should try to prepare for the worst. After all, "The Nameless Wax Museum" is a first-person novel. The "I" in the text killed the "I" in the end. Naturally, the murderer killed himself. But in the reality outside the text, the former "I" can be interpreted as the author of the novel."

Sakaguchi Bingwu said tactfully: "And judging from the image that the other party has shown, his state is not very stable, but it is obvious that he values ​​you, so the target is most likely still you, so you'd better be careful."

"As for our young colleagues, although their abilities are still far from perfect, this is also a form of protection. Recently, I would like to trouble Mr. Mochizuki to be more tolerant and wait until these cases are over."

Xi Haiqingdou: "...Do you want me to thank you for your thoughtful protection from the Special Powers Special Agents and give each of you an autograph?"

"Really? Mochizuki-kun, you don't have to thank me. This is our job. Of course, it would be even better if you, Kurumi-sensei, were willing to send me a set of the "Mochizuki Kurumi Novels Collected Edition" published last year. Last year, my wife and I were both away on business trips, so it was a pity that we couldn't get the books."

Xi Haiqing Dou: Thanks for the invitation. He really didn’t thank me.

"Then I'll leave it all to your Special Powers Special Agent Department. I feel relieved." He forced a smile.

"The price of a complete set of the collector's edition is 8,000 yen. Remember to give me the money. By the way, remember to pay the postage when the time comes."

Then he hung up the phone neatly.

It took a long time to find the book that Sakaguchi Binggo wanted. Nishimi Haruto used his non-existent conscience to think about the price he had just given Sakaguchi Binggo on the phone, took out a pen, flipped the pages of the book casually, and signed his name "Mochizuki Kurumi" on several books one by one.

——Well, this way it’s not a rip-off.

After packing the books, Saikai Haruto turned on his computer and started searching for "Mochizuki Kurumi" while thinking about what Sakaguchi Bingo said before.

This is not the first time that "Mochizuki Kaoru" has disappeared for a week. When he was still serializing his novels, he once stayed at home for a month without stepping out of the house. Sometimes he didn't even reply to messages. Whether it's him, his editor, his neighbors, or Sakaguchi Bingwu, they should all be familiar with this.

So this time, Nishimi Haruto also boldly left the "Mochizuki Kaoru" alias at home to "sleep" for a week, and did not even choose to "entrust it to others".

Unexpectedly, just one week later, such a thing happened - it just happened to be related to "Mochizuki Kurumi", and he just happened to stay at home and have not moved.

Should we say that Sakaguchi Binggo trusted him enough that he did not send anyone to sneak into his house to investigate during those days, otherwise he would probably have seen him "sleeping" the whole time - of course there is also the possibility that he just happened to confront Rimbaud directly.

Perhaps a more likely possibility is that he was indeed cautious enough and remembered his previous warning very clearly, and that this matter was not that serious for the Special Powers Division. Otherwise, even with his previous "warning", Sakaguchi Binggo would have brought people in on the pretext of "taking emergency measures" and even demolished his house.

With his fingers flying on the keyboard, Saikai Haruto began to search for "those cases" that Sakaguchi Bingo mentioned. It had been less than a week since the first case was discovered, and although "Mochizuki Kurumi" had a mysterious past, she was still a famous mystery novelist, so it was not difficult to find them.

Xi Haiqing Dou clicked on them one by one and went in.

"It is suspected that the crime was committed by a fanatical fan of Kurumi Mochizuki"

"The crime scene is highly consistent with the scene described in the second case in Kurumi Mochizuki's work "The Nameless Wax Museum""

"According to the reasoning of a well-known detective, the method of death of the victim in this crime scene is exactly the same as the method of death of the victim in the third case in "The Unknown Wax Museum""

"The scene left traces of the criminal's crazy love for Mochizuki Kurumi"

…

Nishimi Haruto quickly glanced at the following content and found that most of it was similar, and it all matched what Sakaguchi Binggo said.

"The Nameless Wax Museum" was written by Kaoru Mochizuki last year. It is a first-person novel that uses a narrative trick. It is only in the later part that it is revealed that the "I" in the text is both the protagonist of the novel and the murderer. Almost all the victims in the previous cases were killed by her.

The protagonist of the novel has a pattern of killing people every other day. From the death of the first victim to the death of the last victim, a total of half a month passes.

However, although a total of seven people died in the film, strictly speaking, only six of them died at the hands of the protagonist - the first victim was the protagonist's husband, who had committed suicide before being killed by the protagonist.

Perhaps it is for this reason that despite the media exposure, there has been no copycat crime corresponding to the first case in the novel.

The seventh and last person to die in the novel is the murderer herself, who died by suicide.

According to Sakaguchi Binggo's understanding, it is possible that the last person the murderer wanted to kill was the author himself.

However, Sakaguchi Binggo was still a bit euphemistic when talking about the letter left by the murderer. Some media showed the contents of a part of the letter. Saikai Haruto curiously clicked on it and could only say that the tone was so passionate that it sounded like a "love letter" from an illegitimate child. Almost the entire letter was filled with "love" for "Mochizuki Kurumi" written in red pen, as if she was going to come to him in the next second... He was so embarrassed after reading the first two sentences that he didn't want to click on it again.

Apart from these obviously insane statements, Saikai Haruto can now barely sort out this information and deduce a conclusion similar to Sakaguchi Binggo:

This guy really "likes" and cares about him, and after seven days, the other party will either commit suicide (although the probability of this is not high at the moment) or come to kill him.

No wonder Editor Maeda told him not to worry about what happened recently or to go traveling for a while.

Moreover, everything was exactly as described in the novel, even the clues seemed to be copied directly from the book, but the murderer seemed to have "disappeared" from the scene. Apart from the two "handwritten love letters" with handwriting that might be the murderer's own, there was no other trace.

As a result, there are still many people who are just watching the fun and making sarcastic remarks, saying that the murderer's purpose was to attract the attention of "Mochizuki Kurumi" and make him take the initiative to stand up and confront the murderer.

Saikai Haruto: ...What a huge black pot that fell from the sky.

... Could it be that the bad luck of "Igarashi Yuuki" has been passed on to "Mochizuki Kaoru"? No way?

[The feng shui of Yokohama is really bad.] He sighed and complained to the system in his mind: [This kind of crap happens everywhere all day long.]

He has offended everyone by writing novels, and even copied the crimes. He is indeed a Yokohama citizen, mentally ill to the point that he is so creative in his novels.

[This is the inherent property of the fixed main scene city in comics. The host is calm, after all, this is Yokohama. ]

The system tried to comfort him in a gentle and kind electronic voice: [However, this matter should not be too troublesome or difficult for you to solve. After all, the most troublesome and difficult things are in the plot, and it is not time for the plot yet.]

[…seems to make sense?] After all, in the world of the second dimension, generally speaking, things that appear in the "plot" and are related to the "plot" are not necessarily the most difficult, but difficult things will always appear and be mentioned in the "plot".

Xi Haiqing Dou hesitated for a moment and shook his head again. [No, it’s hard to say.]

Although this world is called the "two-dimensional world", in Saikai Haruto's opinion, it is no different from the real world in terms of authenticity.

At least, this is true for Saikai Haruto, the players, and ordinary people living in this world. The "protagonist law" does not exist for them, and even a tiny "accident" that does not exist in the plot may take someone's life.

If you die in this world, you will not have a second life. People cannot "refresh" or "revive" like in a game, or rewind events by "save" or "load".

Even for Saikai Haruto, once the vest dies, it cannot be "re-used" again without special circumstances - the situation of "Igarashi Yuuki" is only a one in a billion accident, and "Igarashi Yuuki" is no longer "Shijukuin Yusuke".

The same is true even for the people who appear in the plot - when the plot does not deviate, the safety of the "main characters" is naturally guaranteed, but once the plot deviates, the fate of the "main characters" will also be affected and become unpredictable, and even sudden "accidents" are not impossible; although it may not necessarily lead to death, after the "plot" is over, outside the plot, who knows whether there will be new changes in their future?

In short, it's always better to be cautious in everything.

Each vest has only one life, and he doesn't have a blood-locking hack. At least he doesn't want to tear up the card because of anyone or anything outside the plot - that would be too much of a loss.

[So I really hate "accidents" like this that are not part of the plot. It's like unpaid overtime.] Saikai Haruto suddenly sighed without thinking: [Originally, I was just an ordinary college student, but after traveling through the two-dimensional world, I directly experienced the life of a social animal in advance... Is this life? ]

[No,] the system forcefully refuted him: [Generally speaking, this is the direction of light novels.]

Xi Hai Qing Dou: "..."

[System, I advise you to shut up. ]

Xi Haiqing Dou continued to think.

In fact, it is not particularly uncommon for copycat crimes to "bring novels into reality". This is not the first time that "Mochizuki Kaoru" has encountered this. Moreover, it is normal for all kinds of strange people and things to appear in Yokohama.

But also because it happened in Yokohama, according to what Sakaguchi Binggo said on the phone, this matter also involves people with special abilities, which is a bit worrying.

This is probably the real reason why the Special Powers Agent Department came after him.

People with special abilities... Who knows what these "people with special abilities" will do to "ordinary people"?

People with special abilities are always different from ordinary people.

...So, he still has to check?

Otherwise, if he was accidentally assassinated for no apparent reason after seven days, the result would be hilarious.

If he hadn't known Sakaguchi Binggo for seven years and hadn't understood his personality to some extent, he would have suspected whether this was the "bait" he had deliberately put out.

A "bait" specifically designed to catch him.

Even if he could see it at a glance, this matter has nothing to do with comics and forums. Even if he "shows off his skills" and "displays his power" to solve this matter, it will not appear in the comics. The luckiest case is that at most a few paragraphs will appear in some "spin-off novel". No matter how well it is solved, it is essentially no different from "overtime work".

But he still has to "voluntarily work overtime", and even work overtime without pay.

After all, the result of taking shortcuts and being lazy is that Murphy's Law will always prove to be correct.

Even the worst-case scenario of "tearing the card" has a chance of happening. What if he is unlucky enough to capsize in a seemingly insignificant place outside the plot?

The painful lessons he had learned in the past twenty years had taught him a lesson.

Xihai Qingdou sighed softly.

He really hates working overtime.

[So after all, this is all Yokohama’s fault! ]