Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 327, Section 74: Piercing the Sky

"We can't demolish it! This is a treasure left over from the Queen's era!"

Inside a private museum, a collector desperately stood in front of a statue of a young girl that he had hidden, as if he were guarding his wife.

“All full-body statues in London need to be removed. This is the highest order. The King and the Pope have already taken the lead in destroying their own statue collections in London. If you continue to resist, we have the right to take violent measures.”

The soldiers, disregarding all reason, vigilantly watched the statue behind the collector, maintaining their distance and keeping their guns constantly aimed.

"Not all statues will come to life. I swear on my life, my statue hasn't—"

Halfway through his sentence, the collector stared blankly down at the sight of the girl's marble hand piercing through his chest from behind, grasping his heart and bursting out of his chest.

That was a precious statue that he would wear gloves when handling.

But now they're playing with his heart instead.

"The statues are back to life! The statues are back to life!" The team responsible for checking the statues was prepared and reacted quickly, throwing out an explosive backpack and then evacuating the museum.

With a loud bang, the collector and his beloved statue were reduced to pieces.

Most statues cannot withstand such heavy firepower; only the more famous statues have relatively agile movement and defense.

However, it has now been almost completely wiped out by players.

"I thought the Ripper must have hated Queen Victoria, but I never imagined he was possessing the statue of the Queen."

Having just dealt with yet another troublesome statue, Hayato stopped his motorcycle, leaned against the wall looking slightly tired, put his hands behind his head, and started talking to Oshima.

“So-called jealousy is not about hating wealth, status, or knowledge itself, but about hating that you can’t have them and that you’re shut out.” Oshima looked at a couple embracing and crying not far away, who seemed to have gone through something, and his face was gloomy.

“Jealousy is an emotion only mediocre people have! I’m not jealous of those customers who go to restaurants to eat pasta. If you want to eat pasta, you have to find your own way!” Lu Du put his hands on his hips and launched into a tirade.

You could say she's knowledgeable, but she often lacks common sense; yet you could also say she's unknowing, because she occasionally comes up with words that don't fit her age.

It seems that Ludu is a supporter of the theory of hard work. That's good, because what Oshima is most worried about is that a large number of players follow the principle of pure profit first, hate the injustice of the world, and want to cause a big disturbance at any time, making the whole world restless.

The three of them have been spending all their time together these days, and they've gotten to know each other much better.

Hayato may seem like a righteous character from a shonen anime, but Oshima can vaguely sense that Hayato doesn't actually have much of a sense of justice. He's more inclined to believe that the players in the Players Association have helped him, so they are his friends, and he feels obligated to stand by his friends.

Furthermore, they cannot tolerate the strong bullying the weak, even when the strong are in the right.

When Ludu's words don't involve money, he acts like a teenager, but when money is involved, he becomes timid.

Before doing anything, you should confirm that there is no need to compensate for any damage caused.

And her pasta is delicious.

"The countdown is over. We still haven't found the location for this ceremony." After resting for a while, Hayato sighed as he watched the final countdown slowly end.

Even though the players destroyed most of the troublesome statues, the Ripper had clearly made ample preparations before the unrest even began.

The chaos created by those statues is nothing more than a routine attempt to confuse the public and obscure the true location of the ceremony.

The countdown is over.

The ground trembled slightly.

Oshima and his companions sensed something and quickly climbed to a high place, where they could see a park in the direction of which crystalline polymers were rapidly growing. Upon closer inspection, they could see all sorts of strange statues attached to them.

This polymer grew very quickly, taking over the entire park in just a few minutes. It stood tall, and its shape was almost identical to that of a liver, giving it a rather artistic appearance.

The fourth round of the ceremony has been completed and is currently being evaluated.

[Ceremony Completion Rate: 40%]

Overall rating: Good

[Countdown to the Fifth Ceremony: 40:00:00]

"Let's go see what the latest clues are."

When the three arrived, Nobita and Taki were already there.

“We just checked this place yesterday, but the activation range of the Mercy Crystal was too small, so we missed it,” Nobita said with some regret.

After failing to find a node at 17 Whitechapel Backstreet, they began looking for a suitable place for the Ripper to work or stay.

The liver was found in Burgess Park, which at the time was likely a coal and brick factory. Workers in this field were generally from the lower rungs of society and were mostly Irish immigrants.

At that time, many Union Jack members believed that Irish people were not even as good as black slaves.

These places have very lax identity checks, but the work is extremely tiring with no job security and low wages.

However, it was a good place for the Ripper to lay low after destroying the Whitechapel altar, so Nobita and Taki activated the crystal here, but neither of them triggered the node. Now, upon comparison, they realized that the location was off by about several tens of meters.

"Have you already activated the node?" Oshima asked.

Taki nodded and briefly described what she had seen: "Yes, quite a bit of time has passed in the scene. It seems that the Ripper has contracted tuberculosis and has been fired."

"However, he met a friend named John during this time who was willing to help him by finding him a miracle doctor. But considering that the next ritual is related to wealth, I suspect he has been scammed."

"Has he not been to 17 Backstreet during this period?" Nobita felt that this clue could not be overlooked.

"It's hard to say. Since it's already a new round of rituals, perhaps we can try to reactivate it. But we have less and less time." Taki did not rule it out.

Nobita's expression shifted, and after a few seconds of silence, he let out a breath.

"There's no need to go. Sen has already confirmed that there is indeed a node there."

The former No. 17 Backstreet.

Ethan transcends time and space, standing before the two workers.

One was the Ripper, who had changed quite a bit but was still very ugly, while the other was a slightly handsome man he didn't recognize, only knowing that his name was John.

"N-forget it! Let's go back." Allen cautiously glanced at the red kerosene lamp by the door, lacking the courage to go in.

"What's going on? This isn't like you. You used to be quite talkative at the factory, didn't you?" John patted him on the shoulder, his gesture as friendly as a good brother's, and tried to pull him inside.

As the two were struggling, the sound of a door opening and conversation came from a doorway not far away.

"Are you really coming again tomorrow?"

"Of course, I'll remember to leave a timeline whenever I've lied."

“I’ll prepare a set for you.” Allen stood there, staring blankly at the couple who walked out the door.

John stopped what he was doing, looked at the woman's face, raised an eyebrow, and almost whistled.

"Is it her?" John asked in a low voice.

Allen nodded very slightly.

The man at the door left, and the woman waved with a smile, then her gaze fell curiously on the two people pulling at each other not far away.

Noticing his daughter's gaze, Allen immediately unleashed unprecedented power, frantically breaking free from John's grasp and turning to flee.

John watched the woman's figure disappear quickly into the darkness, shrugged, coughed lightly twice, and walked towards her with interest.

"Ma'am, are you free tonight?"

“If you bring enough five shillings, I’ll have time,” the woman replied with a smile.

"Wow, that's really expensive. Hopefully it's worth the price." John took out five shillings, which was two days' wages for him.

"You won't be disappointed, sir." The woman smiled, took the money, took his hand, and led him into the store.

The screen ends.

Ethan listened to their conversation, but his attention remained focused on the direction of the vanished Allen, confirming that he must not have seen John talking to the woman.

“Interesting. John’s spending habits are not like those of a working-class person, nor does he seem to treat Allen as a good friend as he appears.”

In the player lobby, by combining the latest information from both nodes, players can easily detect that something is amiss.

"You said he coughed twice, was it the kind of cough to clear his throat, or a physiological cough?" Nobita pressed.

“Most of the time it’s physiological,” Ethan replied. “But since he was working in a brick factory without any protective gear, lung problems are quite common.”

“That’s true, but his cough seems different from other people’s. I suspect,” Nobita said, offering his guess. “John is an asymptomatic carrier of tuberculosis, but he knows he has the disease, so he deliberately befriends some people, acts intimately with them, then infects them, and then introduces them to a miraculous doctor he knows who’s sucking out their marrow.”

No one refuted Nobita's deduction; based on the current clues, it is indeed highly likely.

First of all, someone like Alan definitely craves friendship. If he has a friend who is a good actor, doesn't mind his appearance, and treats him intimately, he will be more happy than wary.

Secondly, Allen had always wanted to go to medical school, so it's impossible that he hadn't saved up some money for it.

Given his past tendency to boast, he may have revealed this information about himself and thus been targeted.

It's a bit like a pig slaughtering scam, the kind where they take everything and leave you with nothing.

In those days, tuberculosis was a terminal illness, and the rate of spontaneous recovery was not high.

It's like taking your money and your life at the same time.

"So, is it possible that the prostitute was Mary Jane Kelly, the last woman killed by the Ripper?"

"To summarize, the gist of the story is that John infected Mary as well, which is why she ended up in the lower class."

"Interestingly, the Ripper may not have known that the other person's infection was largely due to him."

Ethan continued to expand on Nobi's analysis.

"The difference is that the Ripper ultimately turned the tables with that dagger, while Mary, even after healing herself, was completely reduced to the bottom of society, no longer pretty, and could only take on street prostitution jobs. She even had to pay her rent in arrears."

"In this respect, it is consistent with the police's previous investigation files."

"According to the archives, we also know that on the night Mary died, there was an argument in the room. The people Ripper had killed before were all on the street and had no time to waste. The fact that Mary was the only one in the room shows that Mary was special in Ripper's eyes."

"Coincidentally, after Mary died, there were no new victims in the public eye."

At this point in the game, most of the basic information has been revealed, and everyone can deduce the most likely course of events from the additional clues and the information presented earlier.

This isn't difficult; the difficulty lies in how these clues relate to the ritual to stop the Ripper.

For the next forty hours, the city remained under martial law, with players scrambling to search for any potential key points or areas where new disasters might erupt.

But this time, until just over ten minutes before the countdown ended, all of London was silent, as if this round of the ceremony had been abandoned.

However, in the eyes of the players, this only shows that the Ripper was particularly well prepared for this round of rituals.

There's absolutely no need to attract their attention or disrupt their actions beforehand. The word "wealth" is far too intrusive.

The City of London, Big Ben, and the Stock Exchange can all be linked to it.

The answer will be revealed in these last ten minutes.

One of London's landmarks, The Shard, towering into the clouds, suddenly began to twist and shatter from bottom to top with its massive glass curtain wall, the glass shimmering in the sunlight as it fell.

Immediately afterwards, instead of exploding or collapsing, the entire tower, like a model held by an invisible giant hand, began to sink into the depths of the earth in a seemingly slow but actually rapid manner, defying the laws of physics.

The foundation seemed to have turned into quicksand, and the reinforced concrete structure was like a person who had accidentally walked into quicksand, being swallowed up inch by inch by the earth in panic.

Fortunately, London has suspended all construction except for public safety reasons. While the Shard may not be completely deserted, the fact that the number of casualties has been kept below double digits, given the scale of the incident, is quite remarkable.

In just a few minutes, this once iconic skyscraper of modern London vanished completely from the ground under the watchful eyes of countless terrified people throughout the city, leaving behind only a bottomless, enormous crater, as if the heart of the city had been ripped out.

"The earth admires the height of the sky, and I will give it the form of flesh and blood to pierce the crown of falsehood."

In the sky, the Ripper's resentful voice echoed throughout the city.

As soon as the words were spoken, at Stockwell Underground Station in South London, the earth tore open, accompanied by a terrifying roar of viscous flesh proliferating and bones dislocating, and an indescribable colossal tower burst forth from the ground, piercing the sky.

That was the Shard Tower that had just disappeared.

But in the short few minutes it disappeared, its original glass and steel body shattered into pieces.

In its place stands a living, breathing, ever-growing tower of flesh and blood.

The original glass curtain wall has been transformed into a translucent fascia covered with mucus and blood vessels; the steel skeleton has mutated into thick and ferocious muscles; countless indescribable connective tissues wriggle and open on the surface of the tower, spraying out a foul-smelling orange-yellow liquid.

The entire tower resembles a giant, distorted life form that has been forcibly stretched out. Nearby residents can hear countless shrill wails emanating from the tower, sounds unlike anything humans could make, which are difficult to block out even when covered.

These screams sounded like they came from hell.

This is the organ that represented wealth in the mind of the Ripper. No, flesh and blood are the foundation of the human body, so it's not an organ, but it's still a fitting description.

(End of this chapter)