Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

We must hold on tight; we must not let go, even at the cost of our lives.

"Stop pretending. No one will care about this kind of trick."

The person on the opposite bed sneered at Park Min-woo, who was staring blankly, realizing that they had seen through his little scheme.

Park Min-woo had recovered and didn't say anything. He moved his body little by little and slowly lay back on the bed. Looking at the bed board above him, which had stopped shaking, he slowly regained the thinking ability he had when he was studying. His brain, which had been rusty for a month, seemed to have been lubricated, and his thinking became clearer and clearer.

As a sophomore majoring in English at Korea University, he had some understanding of European and American history, whether by choice or by circumstance.

With the knowledge accumulated during high school, perhaps we can analyze something from the game.

I never imagined that my past self would help my present self in this way.

The only thing he lacks now is social skills; he finds it difficult to determine whether someone is trustworthy based on what they say.

He only vaguely understood one thing: excessive enthusiasm usually means someone wants something from you. He learned this from that female classmate.

Therefore, the most important thing right now is to determine whether or not we should trust those veteran players.

"Damn it. I should have read more novels and read more comics."

Player Lobby.

The figures of the nine players solidified again around the round table, and they looked at each other in bewilderment.

Nobita and Uesugi frowned, seemingly lost in thought. Tadashi's eyes were unfocused, as if he were flipping through information. Hayato, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to say something, but whatever he said would probably be nothing good.

Taki looked around and, seeing that no one spoke, broke the silence first: "I'll go first. I was killed on the first night, but it was pitch black and I couldn't identify the attacker. But... it hurt a lot, a lot of pain."

She emphasized the pain, which went deep into the bone marrow.

"We..." Nobita came to his senses, his face showing a hint of defeat, "we were completely wiped out on the second day because we had agreed to share all the real information with each other in the back, but then the game was inexplicably judged as a failure, and a large amount of water was poured in, drowning us."

"It must be the game's host who said we were cheating; this must be a hidden rule. If we want to cooperate in the future, we can only do so through hints."

"Or you could try writing in the other person's palm."

After saying that, he looked at Iwasaki, hoping to know what Iwasaki and the other two had gone through.

Iwasaki's black mist form fluctuated slightly, and he did not immediately respond to Nobi. The black mist condensed into a pair of smoking eyes, which were fixed on Uesugi.

Uesugi, a professional information broker, understood what he meant: information needs to be exchanged for information, not for the two nonsensical exchanges between Taki and Nobita.

"Our goal in the game is to escape the dungeon."

"Here's another tip for us to play our roles well."

"At the beginning."

Uesugi started from the beginning, clearly and systematically recounting the layout of the dungeon, the angel and demon statues, the scroll rules, and the question-and-answer session.

Finally, she concluded: "In short, it's an 'animalistic killing' that makes us distrust each other and kill one another."

"The purpose should be to achieve some kind of ritual."

After listening for a long time, Iwasaki slowly spoke:

"Our goal is to unlock the dungeon; it seems this game definitely requires our cooperation to complete."

"We do not have the so-called tips for playing a good role that you mentioned."

"I, Yui, and Shima work as servants at Silver Cup Manor. Every day, we have to complete the tasks assigned by the butler, such as cleaning a certain room or finding a certain item from the storeroom."

"But there are some unspoken rules within the manor, and violating them will result in death. Our original characters should have known these rules, but we didn't inherit any memories of them, and we can't ask, otherwise it will definitely arouse suspicion. We can only explore them at the risk of our lives."

"Besides the tasks that must be completed, in the early morning, you need to throw an animal card into a statue that looks like a little devil."

"Before dinner, we need to select three questions from a pile of papers and place them into the statue of the angel."

"Then dinner is prepared, and the portions are large, with most of it consisting of fresh meat. These dinners are placed in the dining room, but only the butler is allowed to stay there; we don't know who the owner of the estate is."

"The scene outside the window is rather remote, probably in the suburbs. There are other servants around, but they are not allowed to approach the house, and we are not allowed to leave."

"The rules we've figured out so far are: you can't leave your room at night; you must complete the tasks assigned by the housekeeper; and some rooms have certain taboos."

"The next day, Yui opened a wardrobe in a room and died instantly."

"On the fourth day, I let the island leave the room at night and die immediately."

"On the sixth day, I tried to hide in the room above the restaurant one night. I didn't die. I could faintly hear the sounds of people tearing and biting each other while having dinner downstairs. But the sounds got closer and closer, and my body gradually stiffened until I couldn't move at all. Finally, something ate me piece by piece."

Iwasaki recounted all the information he knew, without holding anything back.

The situation is now clear: the players have been divided into two groups with seemingly completely different identities, but with the same goal.

The servants knew some of the manor's rules and taboos, but were completely ignorant of the dungeon; the prisoners, trapped in the dungeon's so-called Angel Game, had no concept of the manor's existence.

Cooperation is the only way to beat the game.

"No. You just said you threw the animal cards into the demon statue in the early morning, not the angel statue?"

Uesugi went through the clues on both sides and immediately noticed something was wrong.

First of all, the scroll in the dungeon at dawn came from the angel statue, and it wasn't an animal card, but an animal restraint chart.

"Didn't that animal card contain the restraint information I mentioned earlier?"

“It’s a demon statue, its eyes are closed. The first day it dropped a raven, the second day it dropped a scarab,” Yui replied. Before Uesugi could ask why she knew so much about the animals represented by those simple lines, she added, “The cards were from the butler, I don’t know the exact number, you can only draw one a day, and each animal has a corresponding English word.”

From this perspective, the relationship between the statues in the dungeon and the manor is reversed.

Furthermore, whatever animal card a servant throws down, the angel statue in the dungeon will release the animal that that animal can control.

However, because it was drawn by lot, the servants did not have the opportunity to choose an animal.

On the contrary, they can choose which three dungeons to appear in the dungeon based on those three questions.

But what is its purpose?

Could this help them determine what animal someone is more quickly?

That could be explained in this way, since the game only lasts nine days. If no player manages to kill two people within nine days, the game will likely end in a mass extinction.

This game only allows one playtime per day, so everyone cherished it and discussed it for several hours before it ended because a player in Peach Blossom Village took ten minutes longer than the time limit for vegetables to ripen.

Ethan timed it perfectly, and as if he were running at full speed, he darted through the gates of Peach Blossom Village.

Iwasaki reacted quickly and immediately followed.

"What are you still standing there for?" Uesugi looked at the person who had disappeared in the blink of an eye, then turned around and found that Hayato was still sitting in his seat.

Hayato looked around blankly, then hesitantly pointed to himself.

"Huh? It's my ripening fruit?"

"Nonsense! The carrots you planted!"

If they weren't members of the same association, Uesugi would have loved to go up and grab a couple of handfuls himself.

Thank you to "Longyu Xuanyuan" for the donation.

Thank you "giàoO(∩_∩)O" for the donation.

Chapter 271: Official Strategy Guide

Shinichi Higashiyama and the player ended the game at the same time.

After he exited the game, his consciousness entered the player lobby and spied on the players' debriefing discussions.

The result was better than he had expected.

Although the players had their own agendas, they maintained a cooperative tone overall and did not succumb to purely self-serving confrontations.

This was thanks to his arrangement, which placed Iwasaki and Nobita, the two core members, in the servant group and the prisoner group respectively, thus avoiding direct internal competition.

Within the servant group, Iwasaki had a decent track record, naturally becoming the leader.

Oshima Umeta has an easygoing personality and generally agrees with Iwasaki's ideas, making him a reliable executor.

Yui Hamasaki and Iwasaki have established a deep collaboration and work together seamlessly. Therefore, this small team is relatively stable.

The Prisoners group is more complicated, with a slightly more complex composition and three new players bringing uncertainty.

Fortunately, Lu something-or-other is simple-minded and Arthur is sensible, so even though Park Min-woo is quite suspicious, he doesn't cause much trouble.

In addition, five of the nine people are members of the Player Mutual Aid Association, which provides an inherent basis for cooperation.

Although Ethan is extremely selfish, he is by no means stupid. Once he realizes that cooperation is the only way to pass the level, he will become the most active promoter.

Given enough time for trial and error, finding a way to pass the level isn't difficult.

He also understood why the game's difficulty level was difficult to keep constant.

As the butler, he figured out how to pass the game on the first day. No wonder there was a special rule that prevented him from explicitly or implicitly telling players how to pass the game.

It turns out that the secrets of this game were almost completely unknown to the butler.

This is essentially a game where the more unified the players' will, the easier it is to complete the game.

If there is only one brain, and they completely trust each other without worrying about who might get more rewards or who might suffer more losses, they could complete the game in just a few rounds.

But once people's hearts are broken and there is no trust or cooperation among them, they cannot pass the test even if given a hundred chances.

Although the rules restrict him from explicitly or implicitly revealing the way to pass the level, they do not prohibit him from providing some additional assistance.

For example, the animal cards that the servants received originally only had simple line drawings, making it difficult to accurately identify the species.

He can thoughtfully add clear English names to the cards.

For example, he has the authority to assign daily tasks to the servants.

Despite his seemingly higher status, he couldn't just enter any room; he could only find out the purpose of those rooms through his servants.

He can then identify which room is more suspicious and may contain useful information, and assign it as a daily task for his servants to complete.

However, it should be noted that if opening a certain wardrobe would result in certain death, then assigning the task of cleaning the wardrobe would be tantamount to suicide.

The correct approach is to broadly summarize it as cleaning the room.

As for what areas are off-limits, let them risk their lives to obtain the information.

Finally, after summarizing where to collect clues that could be helpful to the player, and arranging them into tasks according to time, that's about all that Shinichi Higashiyama could do.

Headquarters of the Extraordinary Measures Department.

Since Leon has returned to America, the normal operation of the department is now being handled by Genji Himeko and Hiramori Ryu.

Having endured two days without sleep, Genjiko forced her eyelids, which were almost glued together, to rest her head on her desk piled high with documents, preparing to take a short nap, when the internal phone rang urgently.

"A new game has appeared."

Such a simple sentence instantly dispelled all sleepiness.

Genjiro sat up abruptly, took a deep breath, and shook her head vigorously.

She glanced at the time—four in the morning—and without hesitation, pressed the button for an emergency meeting.

After half an hour.

The meeting room, with its heavy atmosphere, was brightly lit, and the three extraordinary players who cooperated with the countermeasures department sat in the front row.

The surrounding area was filled with high-ranking officials from the Extraordinary Countermeasures Department, heads of various departments, as well as occult experts, historians, and psychologists who had been conducting research or waiting at headquarters.

What is the theme of this meeting?

"A summary of the third nationwide extraordinary investigation? It's far from over, and they probably wouldn't choose this time to release it. Has there been a major breakthrough?"

"Sigh, I heard that families like the Tsuchimikado and Kamo clans have been forced to offer up several direct descendants for human experimentation. Have they gained anything from them?"

"Hard to say."

Everyone had arrived, and Leon, who was on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, also joined via encrypted video.

Although his background was also an office of unknown location, he looked energetic and even relaxed on the screen, indicating that he was in a good mood.

The difference between them and the subordinates in the meeting room, who looked haggard, with heavy eye bags and sallow complexions from working overtime, resembling Kayako, was like heaven and earth.

Looking at the screen out of the blue, you might think you're watching a horror movie.

"The contents of this meeting remain top secret, so please keep it confidential. I don't want to go into the consequences of leaking information." This was Genji's opening statement.

These words instantly silenced the previously quiet meeting room, and everyone turned their serious gazes toward the podium.

In fact, their work is top secret. Strictly speaking, even the number of cups of coffee they drink in a day could be considered top secret.

But since Minamoto no Himeko mentioned it seriously, it means that this is a top secret.