Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

Yui looked at him.

Do you know what this game is about?

Oshima opened his mouth, as if he truly couldn't say he knew.

We can only vaguely guess from the game's name that it is probably related to the promise that Orochi made when he escaped from the game.

Therefore, the best approach is to start a game first, and then provide targeted training to new players based on the information revealed in the game.

He doesn't even have the same level of understanding as a new player who has just been selected!

"I'm the captain. For the rest of the game, I need you to follow my instructions," Iwasaki suddenly said.

Oshima had no objection to this; he was probably the player least obsessed with game rewards, and was more interested in finding a way to break the Orochi curse.

Regardless of what Iwasaki did in the real world, as a player who has achieved a perfect ending, his gaming talent is undoubtedly the strongest known in the team.

This is the new player.

"I agree to proceed. I'll leave the rest to you."

To Oshima's surprise, Yui did not object to Iwasaki's direct statement.

Thus, the team leader was decided, and unsurprisingly, it was Iwasaki.

Let's begin the game.

After the last person pressed start, the three were completely enveloped in white light.

Then, they lost all feeling in their bodies, as if they were floating in mid-air. In front of them, three pitch-black doors appeared, each with a line of numbers in the center.

1220, 1500, 1602

It looks like it's from the Gregorian calendar.

The year 1602 AD is the starting point of "The Demon Blade".

It seems they can enter through one door at the same time, or each choose a door to enter.

The three players cannot see each other, but they can sense each other's presence and can communicate directly.

Iwasaki stared at the three black doors and pondered for a few seconds.

"Island, you choose 1220; Yui, you choose 1500. For the first game, gathering information is the top priority."

"Yes."

Iwasaki believed that the difficulty curves of these three doors were different, and should be from easy to difficult, so he assigned the most difficult one to himself.

After determining which gate each person was responsible for, they each floated into the gate.

Other teams also adopted this strategy: in the first game, they took a cautious approach and focused on gathering information.

Nobi and Iwasaki had opposite strategies, believing that the first door should contain more crucial information, so they assigned it to themselves.

As you pass through the doorway, the pitch-black scene gradually brightens.

Nobita looked on in surprise as he gazed at the familiar pixel art style before him, a flood of memories of countless RPG games washing over him.

"God's-eye view, pixel-art RPG"

[Winter, the tenth year of the Jianli era.]

[Villages near Higa in Harima Province]

The camera zooms in.

From God's perspective, the interior of an ordinary, dilapidated house appeared before him.

There were two quilts around the fireplace.

The picture shows a woman sleeping, looking very uncomfortable, breathing with her mouth open; she is probably a mother.

The other picture appears to be of a boy, eyes open, lying on his side looking at his mother, seemingly lost in thought.

We're almost out of food at home.

The village has run out of food to borrow.

We need to find a way.

Okay, Nobita knows what he's thinking.

At this moment, an input box appeared.

He instantly realized that he would need to manipulate the character by inputting text, rather than directly controlling the character's actions as in ordinary games.

When it comes to Harima Province, it's the only one related to Onmyoji.

Ashiya Michiman.

He is a very famous Onmyoji, at least in Japan.

He is usually portrayed as an adversary of Abe no Seimei, and his image is primarily depicted as evil.

The year doesn't quite match.

I glanced at the sky outside; it was already getting light.

According to the ancient way of life, it's time to get up, even though it's the off-season for farming now.

"Get up and check on Mother's condition."

Input this text as a voice message.

The words transformed into bubbles, filling the character's head.

The character quickly gets up and goes to his mother's side.

My mother looks very unwell. But she's already finished her medicine. The pharmacist said we need to make sure she doesn't go hungry.

"I put my own blanket on my mother and wandered around the village trying to find a solution."

He followed the instructions and quickly left the house.

The view suddenly opened up, indicating that there must have been a heavy snowfall yesterday, and some people were shoveling snow in front of their houses.

A name appears above the character's head: Huiming.

Then the names of the villagers around them also appeared above their heads.

The name Huiming is not something that would be given to a typical farmer's son.

The character wandered aimlessly.

In this kind of weather, hunting would probably be fruitless, not to mention that hunting requires tools and permits, which this boy certainly doesn't have.

Moreover, Nobita discovered with a headache that, apart from the protagonist's monologues, the game offered no guidance whatsoever, not even an inventory interface.

"I need to think carefully about what I still have on hand."

Nobi could only use this kind of sentence structure to determine what else Hikari could do.

Perhaps we could check if the traps we set on the mountain yesterday caught any rabbits.

After this sentence appeared, a route was displayed.

Without delay, Nobi quickly sent Hikari to search for traps.

After walking for almost half an hour without seeing any villages, Huiming finally arrived near the trap he had set the day before.

One, two.

He found very clear footprints.

It led to the third trap he had set, and a sound could be heard coming from it.

Huiming followed the path, and two pixelated figures appeared.

One was named Yasuke, and the other was named Matsujiro.

Mi's assistant was holding a rabbit.

"Haha, I didn't expect that guy's trap to actually catch a rabbit."

"Let's go set up a few too."

"It was just a coincidence, and what's his is ours."

A countdown timer appeared in the input box.

Nobi hesitated for a moment and did not type anything.

As the countdown ended, Huiming, unable to bear it any longer, rushed out and crashed headfirst into Yasuke, who was standing among them.

The latter was knocked to the ground in the snow, and the dead rabbit in his hand fell to the ground.

"You little bastard, you're looking for death!"

The two realized what was happening and started punching and kicking Huiming.

Huiming possessed a fierce spirit; enduring the attacks of the two, he curled up into a ball, tightly protecting the rabbit in his arms.

In the end, both of them were exhausted and panting, but Huiming was still unwilling to give up the rabbit.

Yasuke also became ruthless, and with a clang, he pulled out a wakizashi. From Nobita's perspective, it looked like he had pulled out a short sword and pointed it at Himei's throat.

Something's not right. This villager is clearly just an ordinary farmer. Where did he get the knife?

"Huiming, hand over the rabbit! Or you'll die right here!"

Matsujiro shuddered and carefully grabbed Yasuke's arm: "There's no need, we're all from the same village."

"Don't think I don't know your family is planning to take over his land. I'm helping you!" Yasuke exposed Matsujiro's family's scheme, making Matsujiro's face turn somewhat awkward.

"Get out of the way," Nobita commanded.

Huiming shuddered, as if he were having a fierce internal struggle.

"You're asking for death!" Misuke had gone mad. He thought that Huiming was certain that he wouldn't dare to kill anyone. His eyes turned red with rage, and he plunged a knife into Huiming's throat.

In an instant, warm blood splattered on the snow, his strength quickly dissipated, and the rabbit meat he was clutching tightly in his arms was forcibly snatched away.

"Ahhh!!! What did you do?!" Matsujiro was at a loss, covering his head, looking at the seemingly hopeless Kumi, and then at Yasuke holding the knife.

"Shut up! You're an accomplice too. If you don't want anyone to know, come with me and bury him."

The image is blurred, and they can no longer see what they are discussing; the glimmer of life has been extinguished.

I am dead

Chapter 210: Radical Solution

After Nobita's character dies, he and his teammates appear in the space in front of three dark doors.

It seems to be the same as the previous games; no matter how long you play inside, it's counted as one hour in real time.

Renault spoke first: "Let me go first. My game is similar to a pixel-style RPG, where you control the character's behavior by inputting commands."

"The game begins in Nara in 1602. I am the head of the Urabe family, Urabe Shigemitsu. But within the family, I refer to myself as Doman Shigemitsu."

"The game begins shortly after the previous patriarch's death, the day after I succeeded to the throne. Before I could gather much information or even enter the battle scene, I was suddenly assassinated and died."

"I have a lot of tasks ahead of me. The timing coincides with the time when the Third Muramasa is to be sent to Edo. I need to find the assassin while retrieving the demon sword from Hosei and delivering it to the Third Muramasa."

"But I have very little information at hand, and when I try to probe for information with commands, if the questions are too obvious, they will accumulate 'suspicion'—I'll call it that for now."

"I think once that thing is full, it will definitely end in failure."

Renault sighed and looked in the direction of 'field'.

Players are in a void in this space and can only sense each other's approximate location.

'Tian' shared his travel experiences.

"My game mode is the same as Mori's. In 1500, the current head of the Doman family caused too much killing with the 'Holy Sword' and completely lost control. He was called the Sword Demon by the people at the time and regarded as a kind of monster."

"The character I control is named Doman Tadashi. As the son of the family head, he decides to kill the out-of-control family head and regain control of the holy sword."

"These are the clues I have so far. I think that holy sword is the demon sword that Mori just mentioned."

Renault suddenly realized: "They've gotten used to calling it the Demon Blade, but within the Daoman family, it is indeed called the Holy Blade."

From the clues between the two, Nobi can easily deduce that the first game's Hikari should be the first head of the Doman family.

The impoverished boy Kumei in 1220, the patricide and sword-wielding Dōman Tadayuki in 1500, and the assassination of Dōman Shigemitsu shortly after his accession to the throne in 1602—a family lineage spanning hundreds of years has become clear.