Tokyo: Oreimo

"Did the fake blood clot?"

and many more....

Wait a minute!

Seeing Okabe Rintaro's self-talk appear in the chat box, Ling Nai was almost driven crazy.

"What's going on? Is it because it hasn't been used for so long that air got in and caused it to condense?"

"These things should be confirmed from the very beginning!"

That's too late.

The character illustrations of Makise Kurisu and Professor Nakabachi have appeared in the scene, and they have begun a conversation.

"What should we do? Reload the save?"

Throughout this process, it seems there hasn't been any opportunity to check the props.

Besides, even if you reload the save and find out, so what?

Given the already limited preparation time, it was simply impractical to send out additional ordinary artificial blood plasma.

"What should we do?"

Ling Nai was completely flustered. In this situation, it was up to Okabe to improvise.

The plot has continued to unfold.

"Think, we need to think, what other methods are there?"

"Get rid of Dr. Nakabachi shouldn't be difficult, the problem is the fake blood. If only there's something that can replace the fake blood..."

"Oh, right!"

What idea did he come up with?

As Ling Nai looked at the content of Okabe Rintaro's self-talk in the chat box, she suddenly had a vague feeling.

He must have come up with a solution that I, as an outsider, hadn't considered.

Before it could be explained, Okabe Rintaro appeared in the center of the screen as Makise Kurisu was knocked down.

"stop!"

"Who are you?"

"I am the one who yearns for chaos, to disrupt the world's governing structure, and also the one who comes to shatter your ambitions."

"My name is... Hououin Kyouma!"

"This guy, even at a time like this, does he still have to strike such an embarrassing pose? Does he expect the other person to be scared away by his crazy personality?"

Ling Naiyi was completely speechless.

"You're that kid from earlier, right? So, you two conspired to ruin my reception, didn't you?"

Dr. Nakabachi pulled out the switchblade again.

"What's wrong? What are you planning to do with that knife? Just to pose for a photo?"

"Are you afraid in the face of me, who possesses power comparable to that of a god?"

"Come on, you're trembling, are you scared?"

"What on earth is he doing, Okabe..." Ling Nai frowned.

She couldn't quite understand how the plot was unfolding; the fake blood was clearly gone...

Okabe Rintaro seemed no longer worried about it, and instead kept trying to provoke Dr. Nakabachi with his words.

Isn't he afraid that the other person might really go crazy and stab him?

Based on the last experience, the other party is fully capable of doing such a thing...

"Huh?"

Ling Nai seemed to have thought of something and suddenly realized what was going on.

"What would happen if I poked it in?"

"The fake blood is gone... Could it be that he plans to... use his own blood instead?"

In the next scene, Dr. Nakabachi was completely enraged by Okabe's words and actually stabbed him with a knife.

"All the conditions are met. Calm down, we're just one step away."

Seeing Okabe muttering to himself, he snatched the switchblade from Nakahachi's hand, scaring the man away.

Ling covered her mouth.

"This guy... he's actually planning to do that..."

"Don't move... Lie down now... I'll call an ambulance right away."

"Hello, is this emergency services? Please send an ambulance immediately, someone has been stabbed..."

Makise Kurisu was terrified by the scene and supported Okabe, her voice trembling as it came from the speaker.

"Didn't I... say I would save you, Kurisu?"

The next second, the trajectory of the stun gun appeared on the screen, and Makise Kurisu fell to the ground.

"It...it was a success..."

Ling Nai stared at the screen in disbelief.

This scene is undoubtedly...

"Was it actually successful in this way?"

A CG image appeared on the screen, extremely similar to the one shown at the beginning of the game in my memory, but with some differences.

"No, not quite enough. This amount of bleeding...is insufficient!"

"This guy, could it be...?"

Ling Nai saw a hand with its five fingers together. She trembled with excitement, and the mist in her eyes could no longer be held back, turning into tears that streamed down her face.

Bright red blood droplets appeared on the screen, and a shrill scream came from the speakers.

Crimson sprayed onto the screen, and then the background CG changed, becoming exactly the same as the one I remembered.

"It's done... This is without a doubt the one I witnessed... Makise Kurisu."

It all fit together perfectly; everything, everything, aligned perfectly with all of Okabe Rintaro's experiences at this point in time.

The commotion on the rooftop, the conversation with Makise Kurisu, and finally, that scream...

And this red-haired girl lying in the center of a pool of blood.

"He did it... Rintaro Okabe... He did it...."

"Deceived the world, and saved Makise Kurisu!"

Chapter 226 Don't you need to rest?

On April 13th, Steins;Gate was released.

Sales exceeded 30,000 units in the first week.

This number, placed within the visual novel market, is enough to make any company pop up champagne in celebration.

The Steins;Gate section of the Future Dimension Forum was overwhelmed with traffic on the second day after its release.

Discussion threads were being refreshed at a rate of hundreds per hour, and the server was on the verge of crashing. It was only after Gokou Mao urgently contacted the hosting service provider and temporarily tripled the bandwidth that the server was able to keep up.

The title of the top-rated post was simple and direct: "I fucking blow it away."

The poster's ID is "General Player", and the avatar is still the system's default gray human silhouette.

This is a stark contrast to the worried tone in that pessimistic post two months ago.

"First, I'll kowtow. I said before that Aniplex was taking too big a step and was afraid it would crash. Now my face is swollen, but I'm happy with the swelling."

The comments below have already reached over three thousand posts.

"Are you still there, OP? Does your face still hurt?"

"Hilarious! Where's the guy who said sci-fi is prone to plot holes? Come out and show your face!"

"The most amazing thing is that they actually made the logic work. The cause of Makise Kurisu's death, that metal woof, and the scream at the beginning all fit together from beginning to end. I was shaking when I got to the last chapter."

"I cried for ten minutes after reading that letter, the letter from the migrant worker soldier."

"It was only ten minutes upstairs? I cried so much that I went to work with swollen eyes the next day."

"Is anyone going to discuss the true ending? In the Goddess of the Future Operation, the scene where Okabe Rintaro stabs himself almost made me crush my mouse."

"That performance was amazing. The fake blood actually solidified. Rintaro Okabe actually used his own blood to fake the scene."

"After everything was completed, this guy still had to hold on until he confirmed that Okabe from that timeline had witnessed Makise Kurisu's 'death' before he let Amane take him away. It's truly admirable."

"Who do you think you are? This is Phoenix Inuin Kyouma! A real man!"

"Stop talking, I'm going to cry again."

The level of discussion peaked in the third week after the release.

It's not because of sales volume.

Sales are certainly rising, with cumulative sales exceeding 60,000 units in the third week, a phenomenal figure in this niche market.

What truly transformed Steins;Gate from a "popular game" into a "social phenomenon" was a late-night cultural program on NHK's educational channel.

The original theme of the program was "Subcultural Life of Young People in Japan," and it invited two critics, a sociology professor, and a light novel author as guests.

It turns out that the light novel author was a hardcore visual novel player, and spent an entire segment of the show praising Steins;Gate.

“This is more than just a game,” he said to the camera. “Even top writers in the industry would need years of honing their skills to create a work like this. I would call this a masterpiece. As a writer, if I could write such a work in my lifetime, I would die without regrets.”

The day after the show aired, Steins;Gate's daily sales quadrupled.

The word-of-mouth that was originally circulating only within a small circle was suddenly brought into the public eye by this program.

Light novels with "world lines" as a keyword began to appear in bookstores, "EL PSY KONGROO" became a popular hashtag on social media, and even maid cafes in Akihabara launched a limited-time "Lab Member No.00X" themed set meal.