Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 338, Part 85: The Age of Demons (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival)

[The Anatomy of Britain game is over]

This round of the game offers two player reward options.

[I. Calculated based on overall performance score; all players receive the same reward level. II. Calculated individually based on each player's performance score.]

[If one option is chosen, all players will receive an excellent level reward in this round of the game.]

[If option 2 is chosen, players Hao, Dao, and Zheng will receive an excellent-level reward, while the remaining players will receive a normal-level reward.]

After the game ended, Higashiyama Shin carefully reviewed the system information.

Is this still a choice?

The more rewards a player receives, the more feedback they will receive in return.

The Silver Cup Manor exists because the points pool is limited, so trade-offs must be made to ensure fairness and avoid ruining the player experience.

However, the scoring mechanism for performance in this game is not entirely the same. Since it's possible for everyone to excel, then it's better for everyone to excel.

As for the three who performed exceptionally well, he will make compensation in other ways.

After all, all the players showed a strong sense of cooperation in this round of the game, with Ikeda being the only one who was a bit out of place.

But Ikeda had his own reasons. Higashiyama Shin wasn't some evil capitalist. It's just a matter of the player taking a break. Besides, as soon as Ikeda regained control of his body, he immediately joined the investigation and provided crucial assistance.

As long as the player isn't deliberately delaying the game's completion or is genuinely bad at the game, Shinichi Higashiyama is generally quite lenient.

The dagger of forgiveness has found the right master in his hands.

Of course, this was also because Higashiyama was unaware of Ikeda's true situation when he was selecting players. Who would have thought that the game system could select a split personality as a player? His selection of people was basically based on pure scores.

If things continue to develop this way, and the two personalities are unable to reconcile, it will be hard to say who will become the dominant personality in the future.

The reason the dominant personality can now suppress the player personality is simply because the player personality suffered too much backlash when dealing with the manor lord.

Once he recovers and receives game rewards, his personality will gradually become so afraid that he'll only sleep twice a day for 36 hours at a time.
The players' rankings are slightly different. Iwasaki and Oshima are still in first and second place, but Ethan is now in third place.

It's highly likely that he discovered the Templar side quest and the origin of the dagger.

As is customary, he personally funds the ranking rewards to reward players.

Higashiyama Shin rummaged through his fashionable little junk, gave the newly acquired external power device to Iwasaki, bought three rapid cooling cards for Oshima, and Ethan simply gave him 100 points.

This round is a medium-difficulty game, so we need to be generous with our points.

Ethan's been wanting to build a guild anyway, so this ranking reward should be enough for him.

After finishing the player reward arrangements, he looked at the points game in the system store and remained silent.

Are these games hiding items as crucial as the Pure Silver Cup and the Forgiveness Dagger, or are they simply supplementary background content as part of the DLC?
If it's a key item, and he doesn't collect it, won't that cause some kind of bug in the game system?

Or perhaps it will become very difficult when the endgame is approaching due to a lack of key items?
After careful consideration, Shin Higashiyama purchased the cheapest version of "Lonely Boat on the Ice Sea" and set it to be released on October 5th.

Give players some breathing room, and let's see if the new game will arrive simultaneously or be delayed if they haven't finished it by October 15th.

Once these issues are resolved, the end of this round of the game can be considered essentially complete.

Of course, this was just the tail end of his plan.

Players also have their own loose ends.

The damage and reconstruction caused by the disaster are the responsibility of the entire nation.

In fact, after extensive repairs and reconstruction at great expense, Tokyo has begun to restore order and basic public services, and officials have started to encourage residents in some areas to return in an orderly manner.

Many people are just watching and thinking that Tokyo might have bad feng shui, as it seems like people are constantly encountering extraordinary events.

Tokyo was shut down recently, and surprisingly, no more extraordinary disasters occurred in the country; instead, things went wrong abroad.

Now that Tokyo is resuming operations, does that mean...?
Chiba's mother was tempted, because her company had not suffered any losses in the disaster, but was short-staffed. If Chiba's mother went back now, her status and influence would increase significantly.

When she talks about her career, she's a completely different person.

Shinichi Higashiyama supported the decision, not because of Chiba's mother, but because he foresaw a major event that would happen in Japan soon, and that Tokyo, which had been plagued by disasters, would be relatively safe in this event.

He had no interest in stopping it, because it was just one player's personal action.

Moreover, the resulting disaster was not particularly serious; ordinary troops were capable of handling it.

Outside of the game, and for matters that have little impact on him, players can do whatever they want, and he won't interfere too much.

London.

As night fell, the snow had long since stopped.

Near the financial district, on the empty rooftop of a surviving high-rise building, a series of footprints are imprinted in the snow. At the end of the footprints, Hamasaki Yui, dressed in a plain dress, sits on the edge, swinging her bare feet.

She gazed at the iceberg, humming an indistinct lullaby, her long, smooth black hair seemingly blending into the night.

After a while, she slowly stopped moving and looked at the shadowy side with a stiff smile.

"Did you find anything particularly interesting?"

Iwasaki slowly emerged from the shadows and gently shook his head.

Aside from some broken skeletons of the Ripper, there wasn't much of value.

The most important dagger has disappeared without a trace; perhaps it really was taken away by the White Dragon.

He gazed towards Westminster Abbey, a place now one of the few brightly lit spots in London. Tonight, the authorities were hosting a banquet in the name of God, and the extraordinary individuals who had come to help were naturally the most important guests.

However, given Yui's personality, it's not surprising that she didn't participate.

In reality, only Hayato and Taki participated in the Extraordinary Ones event.

Even Hirosue Eri, who was inexplicably found in Scotland, did not attend the banquet.

"Aren't you going to the banquet to gather some information?" Iwasaki asked casually.

Yui's smile widened, but it still looked stiff. She looked down at her feet and said, "You can't find any useful information from those places. They know I can snap their necks with a flick of my wrist, so why do they still dare to have wild thoughts about me?"

"Thoughts are the most private part of a person; it's not surprising what kind of thoughts come to mind," Iwasaki replied somewhat somberly.

“I see.” Yui looked up and continued to look at the huge iceberg surrounded by temporary barbed wire. “Yes, people’s thoughts are so complicated and messy. You’re right, what I hate is that what they say and what they think are completely different.”

"I also have an idea, but I haven't told you about it yet."

Iwasaki didn't respond, using silence to signal her to continue.

“When I was sixteen, Masayuki Taniguchi said he wanted to give me his heart, and I was very happy. I asked him to go to a hotel.”

"But when I tried to take his heart, he changed his mind."

“I’m not happy. What he wants to do has nothing to do with giving me his heart.”

"I had no choice but to cut his trachea first, and then remove his heart after he calmed down."

With a smile, Yui softly recounted her past.

“After I hid the heart, the police came to arrest me. At that time, I didn’t really understand why he asked me to murder him when he had promised to give me his heart. But I have to admit that I cut his throat before I took his heart. Without breathing, a person can’t live. So he died before I removed his heart.”

"Thinking about it from this perspective, it seems... I could indeed be accused of murdering him." "I never gave that heart away, after all, it was a gift from Masayuki Taniguchi, and it would be impolite to hand over a gift."

"Later I was put in a hospital, where I met many mental patients, and I realized that they thought I was mentally ill."

"But I know very well that I am not sick at all."

"I'm just bad at lying."

She paused for a moment at this point.

"I figured out a lot of things while I was in the hospital."

“I also made a friend who often tries to chat with me despite the nurses’ attempts to stop her. I learned that she is a peace ambassador and is working for the unity of all mankind. God, who is in control of everything, told her that as long as she continues to spread love, there will be world peace.”

“She spreads love in a very special way, just like what Masayuki Taniguchi once wanted to do to me. It seems that many people like to do this kind of thing.”

“She is a very good friend of mine. I like her very much. Not a single word she said was a lie; it was all from the bottom of her heart.”

"But not long after, perhaps because she had been in the mental hospital for too long, she actually contracted mental illness. But the doctor smiled and said that she was cured and could be discharged."

“I promised her that I would help her achieve world peace, but not in the same way she did. I hate being touched. But after I got out recently, I asked the authorities to check the records and that’s when I found out.”

"She committed suicide not long after being discharged from the hospital."

"She left a suicide note. It turned out that after she came out, she discovered that there were more places in the world at war than before she entered the hospital. She couldn't bear it, felt that God had deceived her, that human unity was impossible to achieve, and that all her efforts had been in vain, which led her to commit suicide."

"I was wrong, she really isn't sick."

"Since I promised her, and as her friend, I should also help her achieve her wish for world peace."

"I've heard it said that the two hardest things in the world are: putting your own ideas into someone else's brain and putting someone else's money into your own pocket."

"Now, I can do both, but I still can't change everyone's mind, so directly rewriting their thoughts won't work, I have to find other methods."

"Hao, you said you want humanity to be united like never before, what other ways are there?"

Iwasaki, like Yui, looked toward the iceberg and slowly said, "An unprecedented enemy. A lasting threat."

The wind stopped, and her downcast hair obscured Yui's profile.

"Yes, that's what I think too."

"The occurrence of extraordinary disasters is too unstable and unpredictable. Today, Britain can unite to deal with the giants."

"But what about a month, a year, or five years from now? It will still fall apart. I have to think long enough."

Iwasaki has always maintained a long-term working relationship with Yui, but also harbors a certain degree of wariness towards her.

Her way of thinking is quite different from that of many people.

But during this period of time, he hadn't shown any particularly extreme ideas in the previous rounds of the game, so I didn't expect to be waiting for him here.

He was prepared. Since he had chosen a long-term partnership, everything was negotiable as long as it wasn't an intolerable conflict of interest.

Even after listening for so long, with Iwasaki's sharp mind, he still couldn't quite figure out what Yui really wanted to do.

To create a global, ongoing disaster that forces all of humanity to unite?
It's very difficult. Even catastrophes like Ashiya Dōman or Jack the Ripper, which destroyed cities and countries, couldn't unite all of humanity.

He didn't think Yui could do it.

“You can’t do it,” he said bluntly.

Yui wasn't upset; instead, she nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I really can't do it."

"But do you remember that day I said that the Ripper's brain was filled with endless hatred?"

"Actually, I can get a similar feeling from the ruins of Mount Fuji."

"This explains that there was also resentment there, stirred up by Ashiya Dōman, but it was suppressed by the Jizō statue. Moreover, that resentment was different; it was very active, but trapped."

Hearing this, even Iwasaki's expression changed slightly.

"You think so."

“Yes, I want to destroy that stone Jizo statue on Mount Fuji.” Yui turned to look at Iwasaki and smiled, “to release all that hatred and let Japan return to the age of demons. That way, no matter what other countries do, at least…”
Japan can unite first, right?

Iwasaki was silent.

After going around in circles, I finally caught up with Yui's train of thought.

Should we unite first to lead others, and then unite ourselves?

This action did not actually cause much harm to Iwasaki's interests.

The only concern is that such actions might displease the white-robed masked figure who set up the formation.

But if you think about it a little, you'll realize that the possibility is very low.

The white-clad mask never cared about the lives of ordinary people; otherwise, he wouldn't have only appeared when things got out of control.

They shouldn't care whether the Jizo statue is destroyed or not; otherwise, even if all the players mobilized, they wouldn't be able to destroy the stone Jizo statue.

Since the stone statue is so fragile that researchers can scrape off a layer of dust with just a scratch, it shows that he did it casually.

“I have done my research. Hatred can be materialized, and one can feed on hatred. But because there is no ritual to manipulate it, and no leader, it will spread and wreak havoc throughout Japan.”

"If Japan wants to deal with this situation, it must set aside all contradictions and cooperate to establish a series of security zones."

"I don't intend to destroy the stone Jizo statue in Tokyo. That way, those demons won't be able to enter Tokyo, and the authorities will have a chance to breathe."

Yui seemed very serious, indicating that she had indeed given it some "careful" consideration.

"Moreover, the spread of materialized hatred takes time. During this period, as long as we cooperate sincerely, the losses can be minimized. However, materialized hatred is very difficult to completely eliminate."

"Without the suppression of the stone Jizo statue, the remains of Mount Fuji are like an unstoppable spring."

"Does the Extraordinary Measures Department know what you're thinking?" Iwasaki interrupted.

“I didn’t mention it to them,” Yui added. “That’s not a lie.”

Iwasaki said seriously, "Do what you think is right, but don't let anyone else know that this is what you've done."

"If other players insist on killing you, I will help you three times."

Iwasaki was not optimistic about the feasibility of this so-called plan.

From the moment the stone statue was destroyed, the plan was bound to spiral out of control.

But he didn't object. Yui was right; it's not easy to impose one's own thoughts on someone who has their own ideas.

Especially someone like Yui, whose abilities are related to her thinking.

Therefore, Iwasaki set a loss limit for himself, and once it was exceeded, he would give up.

"If you break the contract, you have to give your heart to the other person." Yui nodded gently, saying the promise she made when she officially teamed up with Iwasaki.

Iwasaki did not respond, and his figure had quietly disappeared at some point.

　Thank you "顾千风" for the 500-coin reward.

　　I was worried I wouldn't have time to write tomorrow, so I'm updating after midnight. That'll count as tomorrow's update!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)