Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 322, Section 69: Cause and Effect

Ethan and his group used an empty house in London as a temporary base.

Ethan was sitting in his study, sorting through all the clues that started at Silver Cup Manor.

Ever since he learned the name of the knight in the illusion, he felt that everything had connected.

From the plantation owner whose only name was Hugo, to the source of Jack the Ripper's power.

Richard de Hastings.

Grand Master of the English branch of the Knights Templar from the 1160s to the 1180s.

Born into a branch of the wealthy and prestigious Hastings family.

During his tenure as a division commander, he provided famine relief, mediated conflicts, and spearheaded the construction of the Temple Church. On the day of its completion, he provided each worker with an extra week's worth of rations and a pair of leather shoes. All of this earned him a reputation for kindness and gentleness.

But historical records abruptly cease in 1185, and this person seems to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace in history.

However, the earlier visions mentioned the fall of the Holy City, which was the catalyst for the Third Crusade, in 1187, indicating that he was still in England at that time and held a relatively high position.

The third side illusion that Ethan activated in Whitechapel today showed Richard hiding the dagger under the altar in Whitechapel.

Without a doubt, Jack the Ripper obtained this dagger and gained special powers. With these powers, he could no longer control his jealousy and hatred, which grew unchecked, and he became the real Jack the Ripper.

Despite the fact that, judging from Richard's tone, the dagger should have chosen a pure person.

Richard himself was indeed a kind and forgiving person.

But perhaps he never imagined that the dagger would be used to target a Ripper.

As for why the dagger chose the Ripper, Ethan looked through the detailed records of Silver Cup Manor and found the answer.

First, the manor owner's name is Hugo. Several people in the Knights Templar can be identified by this name; two are founders, and one is the second-in-command of the last Knights Templar.

The subtle clues given by Silver Cup Manor indicate that the Silver Cup was given to him by the leader. Such a thing should not be given away easily, and even if it is, it would be given to a relatively important person.

The fact that it now includes the special warning, "Do not be blinded by greed and hatred; the Holy Grail does not belong to humankind," suggests that the situation may be urgent, and they had no choice but to give it away.

So it's very likely that the last captain gave it to Hugo, the number two in the group, before he was captured, even if the two didn't actually have a good relationship.

Hugo once sided with the French king and opposed Jacques, and left behind a record of embezzlement on several occasions.

Even if it's not good, it's still better than this thing being obtained by the King of France or the Pope.

Coincidentally, the last leader of the guild, Jacques de Morlet, had always been known for his restraint and generosity.

So he helped Hugo escape the pursuit. Knowing Hugo's character, he gave him a special and solemn piece of advice that Hugo could never forget, even after hundreds of years, when he had almost completely lost himself.

Driven by remorse, hatred, or even greed he himself couldn't admit to, Hugo, who had survived by chance, ultimately disobeyed the captain's warning and used the Silver Cup to gain power.

In 1314, the year the last captain was to be burned at the stake, he used the power of the Silver Cup to silently kill the Pope and the Dharma King, who had been cursed by the captain before his death, making it seem as if they had died accidentally due to the curse, thus making up for some of the debt he owed to the captain.

But once he was tainted by power and immortality, he could not escape them. He continued to play the Angel Game, and in order to better disregard human life, he even moved to the New World. Perhaps the Civil War was instigated by him, all for the sake of obtaining more resources.

Only at the very last moment did Hugo's remaining rationality awaken him to the truth.

The connections are now complete.

Richard's tolerance, the Ripper's jealousy; Jacques' generosity, Hugo's greed.

The seven virtues are the opposite of the seven deadly sins.

So, what's next in the game?
It will be humility against arrogance, temperance against gluttony, chastity against lust, diligence against sloth, and gentleness against rage.

Ethan's mind was completely clear. He comfortably closed his eyes, lay back in a chair, and slowly let his thoughts wander.

"I should be the first. No, that weirdo Tian probably thought of it even earlier than me."

"Does this mean a key item will appear in each round of the game? Do we need to collect them all?"

"Why would an item that corresponds to the seven virtues lead its holder to commit the seven deadly sins?"

"The Knights Templar play an important role; they should know something, at least the founders certainly did."

The origin of the seven items is certainly unclear at the moment, but with only two games played and the second one not yet finished, he has already pieced together so many clues, which he finds quite impressive.

Unlike the previous version, Ashiya Dōman's plan to rebuild Yomi was not clarified until later in the story.

However, in terms of timeline, they are quite close.

The reason is most likely related to the decline of spiritual energy, and even the collapse of the Yellow Springs in Japan.

Many people now doubt the revival of spiritual energy, but players know that their power is at least as different from that of spiritual energy as plugging in a power source versus plugging in a shop assistant.

Many opponents' first reaction upon encountering them is usually, "Holy crap, where does your power come from?" and the second is, "Holy crap, how do you know so many secrets?"

Just watch, even the Ripper won't escape this pattern. He'll be furious when he finally appears after the ritual is complete.

Ethan suddenly opened his eyes.

Arthur, who was standing next to him, almost instantly pulled out his revolver.

“They’re here.” Arthur’s intuition was pure instinct, a cowboy’s intuition.

Ethan nodded, stood up, and opened the window: "Please come in, Demon Mist and everyone."

As soon as Ethan left the window, a wisp of black mist extended in through the newly opened window, forming the shape of a Ringwraith, followed by a cat named Uesugi.

Tuk Tuk.

It was Nobita who knocked on the door.

Now that everyone was present, Iwasaki, seeing that Ethan showed no sign of resistance, roughly guessed what he was thinking: "Did you deliberately let us find out?"

“Intentional? Not at all.” Ethan sighed dramatically. “On the one hand, I know that there will be more ceremonies later on. Given your cooperation with the authorities, it’s impossible to hide it from you. I also don’t want to negotiate with the authorities.”

"On the other hand, if I approach you, you might not believe me. It's better to let you figure it out yourselves. There are so many smart people out there, you'll definitely be able to figure it out."

Ethan knew that his credit score was now negative, and any cooperation was highly unreliable, which showed he had a certain degree of self-awareness.

"What I have now is a crucial clue that may run through all of this version of the game. You can choose to force me to tell you, or you can give me a chance to cooperate and join you to share information—at least in this round of the game."

Ethan has some hidden lines he hasn't said yet. If you force him to reveal them, he'll go all out later, causing chaos and casualties, which will lower the game's score.

Anyway, his current body is just a paper doll inhabiting his body.

However, that was a strategy he had to resort to; he certainly didn't want to do that.

Iwasaki and Nobita exchanged a glance.

“I agree, but how can you prove that you didn’t withhold the clues you gave us?” Nobita asked.

“President, you can see the completeness of the clues.” Ethan still addressed Nobi as President, smiling. “I don’t think you want to waste your time on me, right? According to the pattern, the jealousy of freedom should be starting to appear.” “Alright, we’ll cooperate, but only for this round of the game.”

“I suffered a great loss; this clue is extremely important.” Ethan’s smile faded as he sent all the information about the three illusions that he had prepared in a private message to Iwasaki.

“I’ve already sent it to Hao, and he’ll distribute it to everyone.” Ethan didn’t explain why he did this.

After staring at Ethan for a few seconds with his completely black face, Iwasaki casually forwarded the message.

Ethan knew that there was no fairness among the players, only a fragile balance. The fact that there had been no casualties so far was largely because the rewards for killing players were too low.

Many games require cooperation, and no one is certain whether killing other players will result in penalties.

Even though there are no rules outlining this, nobody wants to be the first to do it.

After all, from the perspective of the game, cooperation among players is encouraged more than competition.

But things are different now.

If his assumption is correct, then it means that in addition to the silver cup, six more items that can be considered divine artifacts will appear in succession.

The first item was obtained by your demonic mist, and everyone had objections, but no one dared to do anything about it.

However, if one is too greedy, no one wants to see the strong become so powerful that they have no equal. Sooner or later, they will be forced to unite and become enemies.

"If we have a meeting to discuss this, it will be held in the round table hall. Please give us half an hour's notice." Nobi glanced at the message briefly, without looking at it in detail, and said to Ethan.

"Thank you, I trust the association's integrity, President."

Trading an important Templar side quest for clues about the Ripper that he might have some understanding of, and that wouldn't be too bad, is definitely a loss.

But life requires trial and error. Ethan is now paying the price for his previous failed decisions in the game, and it is foreseeable that he will be affected in the future as well, and will need to continuously pay this kind of hidden cost.

But until the very end, anyone can be a winner.

The third round of the ceremony was much more low-key than the previous ones. Perhaps the Ripper was afraid and dared not be as arrogant as before, creating a large-scale panic in advance, fearing that he would suffer divine retribution from the torrential rain that day, causing the ceremony to fail completely.

Players and officials can only ponder the corresponding meaning of freedom through knowledge—medical schools, brains, and appearance—burning.

To this end, they strengthened control over prisons and even brought zoos under military control.

As it turns out, they were indeed partly right.

Just as zoo management was being tightened, riots broke out at both London Zoo and London Wetlands Zoo.

These things, like those contaminated animals in Florida, have been enhanced, broken through defenses, and attacked humans.

Fortunately, players and officials who had made preparations in advance returned to defend in time. London Zoo only had these two zoos, and it was hard to say whether there were even 500 medium and large animals in total. They were no match for the British army, which was filled with grief and indignation.

He's really a noob.

"NO!"

A rampaging gorilla was stabbed in the chest by Taki, and it uttered a resentful utterance in standard London English before dying.

He drew his sword, flicked away the blood from his heart, and the blade was as clean as new.

Taki showed no joy, his brows furrowed slightly. With such numbers and strength, these animals posed virtually no threat. Did the Ripper not know that?
Even if he were an old-fashioned person, he should be aware of the power of human firearms and know that such a small number would hardly cause the necessary damage.

Animal freedom exists outside of zoos.
Taki's expression changed drastically.

"pet!"

The Palace of Westminster is the Houses of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

If you're still not clear, just mention Big Ben and many people will recognize it.

Due to the damage to Whitehall and Downing Street, the nation's central institutions have now all moved there.

There will be no retreat for the time being. Many Londoners are holding out and they dare not run away in advance. They have simply selected a few places as staff centers so that they can move there immediately in case of emergencies.

William V did not return to his Windsor Park, nor did he even leave Clarence House, but instead stayed at the Houses of Parliament, continuing to call on the nation to weather the storm together.

It could be said that most of his courage came from that rain that day.

It suddenly made him perk up, and his body seemed to become ten years younger. He felt an itch on his scalp every day, and there was probably hope that his hair would be rekindled.

At this moment, as the head of the Anglican Church, I have enjoyed God's grace, so I must not back down!
Otherwise, we'd make ourselves a laughingstock among the Catholics!

In particular, the Pope had already arrived in London.

The Pope was filled with regret; he was so distraught he could barely breathe, and he unleashed a torrent of abuse on those who had advised him against going to London immediately, all in the name of God, before he finally calmed down.

Then, without stopping, he took a private plane overnight to meet with William V, who seemed (but was not) a bit younger. After a private meeting, he was nailed to Westminster Cathedral, where he displayed the holy relics he had taken from the Vatican and called on believers all over the world to pray together.

The two were not far apart, and neither was willing to leave, claiming that they were determined to hold London to the death and that God would protect them.

"A pet?!" Leon exclaimed in disbelief upon hearing Kurosaki's guess.

As he searched the system, he anxiously asked, "How likely is that? Do you know how many cats and dogs there are in London?! There are over a million registered! Even if half the population of London were gone, even if we only count medium to large dogs, there would still be hundreds of thousands."

"I take responsibility for my reasoning." The slightly serious voice came through the phone.

Leon sighed heavily, prepared his words, and reported to Collins.

Meanwhile, there are two hours left until the countdown to the third round of ceremonies.

At the memorial site of the Reformer's Tree in Hyde Park, which was almost deserted. (Note 1)

A small, blood-stained dog walked slowly to the tree-shaped center, its blood staining the black and white stones.

It lay on the ground, its body swaying incessantly. Within seconds, its form twisted and deformed, flesh torn apart, bones clearly visible. Soon, it transformed into a thin, wet humanoid shape.

"Heh. Loyalty will eventually turn against you, the warm fireplace will be stained with blood, and who will be the master of the house then?"

He laughed, then suddenly looked up at the sky, two lines of bloody tears streaming down his face. He plunged his hands into his chest cavity and pried open the newly formed ribs.

"No one can stop me from destroying this twisted country."

Even God!

　Note 1:

　　The Reformers' Tree was originally a large oak tree in Hyde Park, London, which became a symbol of the British workers' struggle for universal suffrage in the mid-to-late 19th century.
　　In 1866, the Reform League held several rallies in Hyde Park demanding the right to vote for all adult men. During one demonstration, this tree was set on fire and destroyed, leaving only a charred stump.

　　The tree stump was then used as a natural "bulletin board" and a platform for speeches, where protesters nailed signs and declarations to it, making it a symbol of "the people's right to gather and speak out here," which also led to the later formal designation of the northeast corner of the park as Speakers' Corner by the council.

　　The original tree no longer exists. In 2000, Hyde Park laid a black and white pebble mosaic circle around the site of the tree stump to permanently commemorate the reformer's tree and the tradition of free speech.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)