Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 183: Opening Your Heart
late at night.

A cluster of vacant and abandoned factory buildings in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto.

"Gentlemen, I don't know why you suddenly want to increase your 'recruitment' efforts, but our principle is not to ask our clients too many questions."

"These are the last batch of 'resumes' we have during this period."

"The major events that happened in Koga today have already affected Kyoto, and the authorities have tightened their grip on the situation. However, once things have calmed down, if you two still have needs, we can continue to cooperate. I really appreciate doing more business with such generous customers as you."

The president of Narita Company stood at the door, subtly gesturing to his subordinates behind his back, and greeted the two men dressed in black who walked in with a smile.

Today's deal is a big one. The other party originally only agreed to three people, but suddenly asked to increase it to thirty, and even hinted that they would take as many as they wanted. This puzzled him, so he only dared to send twenty people over to test the waters.

They also brought their most capable cadres, eight armed men, to escort them, ensuring that nothing went wrong.

In other words, he knew that the police definitely wouldn't have time to set a trap for him today; otherwise, he wouldn't have accepted such a deal with so many people without a few previous collaborations.

Unless it's an amount that can't be refused.

Unexpectedly, for such a large transaction, only two people came to make the handover. They were dressed very discreetly, wearing sunglasses and trying to conceal their identities. One of them was carrying a briefcase.

It doesn't seem to pose any threat.

The people on the perimeter did not find anything unusual, and as usual, there was not a single car in sight nearby.

It seems he was overthinking it; these are probably two business people who want to cooperate long-term.

The two stood in front of him, neither of them speaking, but simply staring at him silently.

President Narita's smile remained unchanged, and he showed no embarrassment: "Would you two like to inspect the goods first? I can assure you that all twenty men sent are quite young and have no hidden illnesses."

One of the people opposite him didn't listen to him finish speaking. Instead, he opened his briefcase, revealing neatly stacked US dollars inside, and presented them to him with both hands.

"This is my sincerity, and I hope to see your sincerity in return, President Narita." The speaker was another person, who was wearing sunglasses and looked at Narita's men who were guarding the perimeter.

They've already been discovered? They're definitely got some skills.

"Haha, don't take it personally, I was just trying to avoid anyone disturbing the transaction. Since the customer doesn't like it, let's take it all back."

Narita's smile widened as he looked at the gleaming green banknotes. He gestured behind him, and his subordinate picked up a walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

Soon, the three henchmen who had been hiding nearby broke free and jogged back.

Narita also briefly checked the box of banknotes and found them to be genuine.

"I hope our cooperation will be 'inseparable' and 'open-hearted'." The mysterious man showed no intention of taking the money box back.

“Yes, yes, that’s a wonderful phrase, inseparable! Open your hearts! Come, come, please, both of you.” When Narita saw the other party casually hand him the box of banknotes, he knew he had met a super big client.

If you maintain good relationships with such a large client, the profits from a single transaction can be more substantial than in the previous three months.

"You wait here," the mysterious man said to the person beside him, turning his head slightly.

"Ahem, you two, wait here too. If the guests have any requests, you must do your best to fulfill them!" Narita called out two people and warned them.

"Yes!"

Narita and his group entered the abandoned factory.

He had already converted it into one of his shipping points, and those people were hiding in the basement below.

The two people left at the door saw that the other person didn't seem to be a talkative person, so they didn't say much. They stood quietly to the side, seemingly chatting casually, but their eyes were always on the person and their surroundings.

Furthermore, the earpiece also carried the sounds of Narita and the others talking, ensuring that they could know the situation inside immediately.

However, they weren't the only ones wearing headphones.

"This batch of goods is very good, I like it very much."

After hearing his father's words, Tadashi silently took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket and lit them.

The two men almost simultaneously put their hands on their waists, and only after seeing that the other was smoking did they secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

Tadashi twirled the lighter around and put it back in his pocket.

But when he pulled his hand out, he found he had a gun.

"You, you are a monster—Gu!" The screams coming through the earpiece rang out simultaneously with the gunshots from the scene.

Boom!

"Ugh! You!"

Tadashi quickly hid in the darkness and swiftly shot the two men several times, rendering them unable to resist. He then approached and fired a final shot into each of their heads before dragging the bodies to a dark spot. He appeared to be quite well-trained.

"Help, help!"

"What the hell is this!"

"Ahhh!! Let me go, let me go, I can get you more!"

The cries coming through the headphones grew increasingly exaggerated, reaching a peak before abruptly stopping and returning to calm.

All that remained were some strange, sticky noises and crackling sounds.

They were inseparable, completely open with each other. After waiting for about half an hour, the small door was opened from the inside.

Takatsukasa Tetsuto emerged covered in blood.

He passed by Tadashi, walked to the two still relatively fresh corpses, reached out and inserted his hands into the center of the corpses' chests, and then pried them open.

The ribs were irrationally flared outwards.

With practiced ease, Takatsukasa gripped the heart tightly, and then the heart began to beat. A surge of reddish-black energy flowed through his arm. The heart gradually withered and shriveled, the corpse became tainted with a deep black, and the skin slowly began to harden and harden.

Tadashi silently watched all of this unfold before moving the two transformed corpses into the abandoned factory.

After finishing everything, he looked at his father's back, his clothes stretched taut as if something was writhing beneath his skin: "Father, won't having so many people with you at once have an impact on you?"

"Don't worry, I can control it."

Takatsukasa's heavy breathing gradually subsided. He turned around, and the distortion on his skin had disappeared, but his body still looked bloated, as if he had suddenly gained dozens of pounds.

"I underestimated their extraordinary reaction speed, as if they knew about my plans in advance."

"The first batch of people killed was too few, far from achieving the effect I wanted. Therefore, I need more people to bear that malice and control it."

"Child, I need you to do something for me, but you will die."

Tadashi lowered his head: "Please give your orders, Father."

“You’ve been working tirelessly all year without a break. Take a day off. Tomorrow night, I’ll tell you what to do.” Takatsukasa patted his adopted son’s shoulder, his eyes swirling with struggle.

"Yes, I understand."

The two disappeared into the darkness.

Player Lobby.

"So, the one who obtained the Heart of Endurance wasn't a player?"

Uesugi Hitomi summarized the results of their discussion.

"Is it really not 'Hao'?" The most common supernatural news I see on Oshima News is about where the demonic mist appeared and how many deaths it caused. It's almost become a psychological imprint.

Muramasa Taki shook his head: "I'm sure it's not."

Based on the access granted to her by the police, she has roughly confirmed Iwasaki Kosuke's true identity.

The name 'Hao' is the biggest flaw.

If he had used 'Iwa' or 'Saki' instead, Taki wouldn't have been so certain that the list of suspects would most likely have been the same as the official one, with Iwasaki Miyabi as the main suspect.

But after thinking it over, she decided not to expose it for the time being, and she didn't even intend to tell the other players.

Many people now believe that the Demon Mist is indiscriminately killing, but in Taki's opinion, this is already a result of considerable restraint. Otherwise, with Iwasaki's abilities, he could have easily destroyed the superstructure single-handedly earlier, plunging society into turmoil.

But he didn't do that, which suggests that his underlying nature is somewhere between lawful evil and neutral evil, and hasn't reached the level of chaos.

Since the other party has chosen to retain their identity in reality, it would be better to create more ties for them in reality, thereby preventing the birth of a truly invincible person as much as possible.

In the current situation where there is no certainty of success, rashly attacking Iwasaki would only shatter his last remaining concerns and cause even more deaths.

I don't know if this counts as appeasement.

Other players don't know how Taki found out, but considering her collaboration with the official team, it's quite possible that she knows crucial information that they don't.

Of course, there is another possibility: one of the five people may have lied.

Nobi suppressed his doubts and looked at Reno: "'Mori,' what did you find there?"

“I hadn’t found anything before, and now the area is cordoned off and surrounded by the police. I don’t dare to go near it. Besides, with Ms. Muramasa there, she definitely knows more than I do.” Renault shifted the question to Taki.

Taki nodded: "I was just about to tell you about this. Those monsters were originally corpses, nine in total. When they were about to be buried, they woke up and killed the people burying them."

"Based on the dashcam footage from the person who initially reported the incident, a highly suspicious vehicle was found. The person inside fought with the monsters and managed to escape. Police suspect he was the one who hired the cleaner to dispose of the bodies."

"However, according to surveillance footage, the car didn't go down the mountain; it disappeared. The police are now investigating the car's origin and whereabouts,"

Uesugi took notes: "It seems that the person who obtains the Heart of Shinobi has a high social status. He knows people like the Cleaners and can make nine people disappear without a trace. He must be a gang leader or a high-ranking official or tycoon."

"Yes, so the other party is probably not from a small place like Koka, but from places like Kyoto or Osaka. Koka is currently under martial law, so he is very likely to cause riots in other cities next, although we still don't understand what his purpose is."

“Perhaps it wasn’t for any particular purpose,” Renault said. “The monster’s heart had clearly been absorbed; there wasn’t a single drop of blood left. So even the owner of the Heart of Ninja might not have known it would cause such a thing. They simply wanted to absorb the heart’s blood to restore their power. Otherwise, why would they have the Cleaners bury it? Don’t you think so?”

“You’re right, but we can’t rule out the possibility that it was intentional. I’ll be stationed in Kyoto from now on. What are your plans?” Taki didn’t deny Renault’s guess.

“Then I’ll go to Osaka and take a look. Anyway, Shinobu has already been taken by someone else, so there’s not much point in staying in Koga,” Renault said.

Nobi thought about the map layout: "If I go to Nara, it will form a triangle, making it easy to provide quick support if any problems arise."

Then he set his save point in Kyoto so he could quickly appear if anything went wrong.

As for leaving the scene, Taki would probably be happy to cover for him.

(End of this chapter)