Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 70, Section 68: Obeying the Rules

[Congratulations to the player for successfully achieving the Bronze Trophy in the minigame "Subway"! The reward "Electronic Worm" has been issued.]

The first trophy for "Subway" has finally been won.

After a brief explanation, Higashiyama Shin understood the purpose of the reward within seconds.

Internet trace eraser.

It can completely or selectively delete or modify any activity he engages in online, and unless his online data has been closely monitored from the beginning, it will leave no trace after deletion.

It can be called the nemesis of big data.

It can also be used to create a super account that will never be tracked by the police and will be successfully deleted by the platform.

But it's not some kind of super hacking ability; the effect only applies to himself.

For a brass trophy, this is a very good reward, as it eliminates some potential problems that may have been left over from before.

He placed the electronic worm into his network, and soon he altered the content he had previously searched for that might contain a tail.

It should be changed to something that's "normal" for someone his age.

That's right.

It's about homework and knowledge.

"At this point, we've already unlocked the bronze trophy, so it seems we're not far from the ending."

Based on his previous gaming experience, Higashiyama Shin made the judgment.

After completing the Yamanote route and overcoming one more hurdle that determines the ending, you should be able to finish the game.

However, clearing the game is not the problem; the problem is finding the conditions for achieving a perfect clear.

He completed "Soul Swap" very early on, and spent most of his time afterward looking for a perfect way to complete it.

Hopefully, the requirements for a perfect completion of this game aren't too high.

In the normal gameplay, to achieve a perfect completion, you need to complete certain side quests or find key items.

So the best player right now is actually Tomoyoshi Nobi.

He truly explored every place he could, carefully analyzing and pondering every clue.

At Kasumigaseki Station, for example, after knowing that Hibiya Station was the correct direction, he deliberately wasted his life walking towards the terminal station to see if he could find any clues. As it turned out, walking in that direction would indeed result in him being run over by a train.

Of the three players, only he still had that bouquet of flowers with him.

The briefcase was forced to be used to attract attention at Hibiya Station, and it took up too much space in his hand, otherwise he wouldn't have wanted to throw it away, fearing it might play some hidden role in later levels.

Shin Higashiyama has discovered that when the character he controls is wearing that bouquet of flowers, their physical attributes seem to increase out of thin air.

Running and unlocking are much faster now. Without the bouquet of flowers, I'm often in a rush and need to time things precisely, but with it, I have plenty of time.

It's simply a godsend, an essential item to include in any build.

From the perspective of the character, this bouquet of flowers embodies his desires.

He longed to leave this awful place and return to the real world as soon as possible.

There are still people there waiting for him to come home.

These players have spent so many lives to get to the Yamanote Line, and the real person who actually exists probably also made it to this point, using only one life – he's practically a Tokyo Superman.

Is this the legendary power of love?
Higashiyama Shin put aside his emotions and continued to ponder the clues in the game.

The task for this level is clear: find anomalous points in stations that look alike and photograph them.

After capturing the anomaly, the photos actually contained the memories of the boy with the camera and his father. The difficulty wasn't in capturing the anomaly itself, but rather in the increasing difficulty as the stations progressed, with more complex hidden rules at each stage.

He got stuck at Ueno Station, where the anomaly was an extremely strange creature, which we'll call an elephant for now.

This thing looks extremely bizarre. Its rough skin is like tree bark, its bulky body is like a giant, moving rock, its nose is outrageously long, and its ears are enormous.

In this station, not only do you have to avoid provoking these things, get closer, and take photos, but you also need to be careful of the spirits hiding in the shadows. As soon as you press the shutter, you will definitely be attacked by them.

During this period, it is necessary to be mindful of the kerosene lamps that may go out at any time, and to keep track of the train's arrival time.

With so many factors converging, even if he had planned the steps meticulously, it was easy for him to make a mistake at some point, leading to his death.

"Based on the station names, this Yamanote Line should be a line that was just completed in 1925, which means it has a total of nineteen stations. Ueno Station is the ninth one."

"The ghost story about the eyeless boy on the Yamanote Line has also been found, but it seems unrelated."

Is the breakthrough point Nippori Station?

There are many legends about the Yamanote Line, and they all mention Nippori Station in unison, saying that it is the "breakthrough point" to break the loop.

However, according to the boy's request, he needed to take pictures of the abnormalities at each station before he would tell him how to leave.

Believe the legend or believe the boy?

Shinichi Higashiyama instinctively chose to believe the boy.

He is a gamer who follows contracts and sees things through to the end.

Even if he fails, it should only be a waste of two days. With the help of other players, he can afford to waste those days.

The reason he had this feeling was that he had grasped the key to this challenge.

rule.

This isn't like a series of rules presented in a supernatural tale, where numerous conditions are laid out and then followed. Instead, he has to figure out the rules himself. The fact that those strange beings didn't kill him the moment he got off the car is also a way of abiding by the rules.

Since even the supernatural must follow the rules, he naturally needs to as well.

Accepting the agreement is one such rule.

Once you understand this, what's left is actually the simplest trial and error, which tests your patience more than anything else.

After all, the players who have made it this far are all talented. They can solve most puzzles, but not everyone has the patience to do so.

Nineteen stations, nineteen repetitions; if any are missed, we might have to start all over again.

in the afternoon.

Exhausted, Higashiyama Shin finished the game and took out his notebook to start taking notes.

Higashiyama Doku went out to play again today, and Ueda Yoshi took advantage of the cloudy weather to wander around the neighborhood, leaving him alone at home.

He had taken advantage of his free time over the past two days to gain some basic information about the three players.

Nobi Tomoyoshi needs no introduction; we can skip that.

Uesugi Hitomi is a virtual YouTuber, or VTuber, who mainly plays horror games, which is quite relevant to her profession. No wonder she didn't seem scared at all from the observer's perspective, as if she were at home.

Kosuke Iwasaki was more difficult to trace; the only leads to a car accident and the Iwasaki family.

However, Shin Higashiyama was able to sense their approximate location. Seeing that Kosuke Iwasaki was in a nursing home and recalling the other's excited appearance when he first entered the game, it was easy to guess that he was disabled due to a car accident.

I created a file for each of them in my mind, noting their game potential and game compatibility, just like creating a five-dimensional chart for company employees.

Work hard and strive to make this unscrupulous boss invincible, invincible even in the heavens.

(End of this chapter)