Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

Or is the train here only running every ten minutes?

Unfortunately, he gave the phone to the girl in the white dress, and the clock on the platform wouldn't move, so he could only rely on his senses to estimate.

The train slowly came to a stop. Iwasaki turned around and looked at the little boy, who was smiling and waving at him.

As he stepped onto the train, the doors immediately closed. The interior was exactly the same as what he had seen before, including the few scattered snack wrappers.

As the train started moving, Iwasaki began to silently count the days, calculating the time it would take to reach the next station.

However, five minutes later, he saw the faint light of the new platform.

Iwasaki frowned, watching the platform gradually approach.

"This"

Iwasaki didn't know until the train stopped.

This platform is exactly the same as the Shinagawa Station we just visited.

Apart from the different platform name and the absence of the little boy, everything else is exactly the same.

The number of pillars, the location of the seats, even the mottled walls.

Takanawa Station.

This is the name of the website.

If Iwasaki remembers correctly, this station was abandoned a long time ago, but a new station called Takanawa Gateway was built later.

Before the train doors closed, he hurriedly stepped off the train and immediately leaned against the kerosene lamp next to a pillar.

He carefully observed the so-called anomaly around him while silently counting the time, waiting for the next train to arrive.

About ten minutes later, a new train arrived.

Just like the previous train, it only stayed for less than a minute before departing.

Hey.

At the very edge of the pillar, a kerosene lamp suddenly went out out of nowhere.

"The trains only come a limited number of times? Is that what you mean?"

Iwasaki carefully counted the number of platform lights.

There are ten lamps in total, which is quite generous.

He had actually already discovered the only unusual thing about this platform.

That was an extra vending machine in a corner on the edge of the platform, almost completely swallowed by darkness.

He held up a toy camera; the lens was very blurry, and it seemed to only be able to photograph objects within a three-meter radius, making it impossible to capture anything further away.

From his current position, he can't get a picture of that vending machine.

After waiting for nine minutes, just before the next train was about to arrive, he quickly ran to the vending machine.

Gada.

Suddenly, the vending machine made a coin-insertion sound, and then a bottle of some kind of beverage landed in the dispensing slot.

chapped.

Iwasaki pressed the shutter.

A flash of light appeared, and a photograph slowly emerged.

Iwasaki didn't even look at the photo; he turned around and ran wildly toward the train that had just pulled into the station.

A strange roar came from behind him, along with a chilling aura that sent shivers down his spine.

Without looking back, Iwasaki only had eyes for the train with its open doors, and he rolled inside.

"Huffing and puffing."

Only then did he turn around, panting heavily, to look at the platform.

But there was nothing in sight, only silence, as if the commotion behind him had been nothing but an illusion.

As the train slowly started moving, he slowly sat down in the chair and took out the photos he had just taken.

"This"

The scene in the photo was actually during the day.

A middle-aged man was leading a boy who was wearing a hat and an eye patch.

They stood next to the vending machine, and the man opened a bottle of orange juice and handed it to the smiling boy.

"I love orange juice, but because of my illness, my family doesn't have any money, so my dad rarely buys it for me. I took a sip and said it didn't taste good, but I was lying to him. I wanted him to drink it with me."

I could faintly hear the little boy's voice in my ears.

After noting down these words, Iwasaki put the photo away in his pocket and quietly waited for the next stop.

Rumble.

The train pulled into Shinbashi Station.

Just as he had predicted, this platform was exactly the same as the one before it, at least from inside the train.

As Iwasaki stepped out of the car, he seemed to hear singing coming from somewhere.

Upon closer inspection, it was found against the wall, with an old cassette player on the floor.

The songs, carrying a sense of age and a distorted quality, lingered at this station.

I've fallen in love with this season of soft colors.

Just like falling in love with you, shining brightly that day.

Please keep running until the very end!

Please keep running until the very end.

"Don't give up?" Listening to music is one of the few ways Iwasaki relieves his boredom since he became paralyzed, and after being selected by his caregiver Goto and his sister, he can usually only listen to some positive and uplifting songs.

Among them, the song "Don't Give Up" was so badly played that I listened to it on repeat countless times.

This is clearly an anomaly on the site.

Iwasaki resorted to his old trick, valuing his life highly. He waited for the train to arrive at the station again, confirming that the arrival time was still ten minutes, before running to take a picture of the cassette player when the second train was about to arrive.

But by then, the songs on the cassette tape had already finished playing.

chapped.

Ok?

No photos have been released?

Iwasaki didn't have time to think and turned to run towards the approaching train, but this time the train closed the doors ahead of time!

He quickly turned his body to the side and slammed into the car door with a thud, instantly causing his shoulder and arm to go numb.

The pain itself is minor; the message it conveys is far more important.

Why did the car door close prematurely? Was it because he didn't capture the abnormality on camera?

The song... Oh right, the song has already ended, so he should have taken the picture of that spot while the song was still playing.

Moreover, after getting off the bus, you must take a picture of the abnormality before you can leave, otherwise you won't be able to get back on the bus.

After understanding the rules, he calmly turned around and saw several spirits with incomplete bodies laughing and joking as they rushed towards him.

"She's really ugly."

Iwasaki commented.

The spirit seemed to be enraged by these words. Its smiling face disappeared, and it pounced with a standard, shrill ghostly howl.

Chapter 65: Iwasaki’s past

A sharp pain, like being run over by a train but not immediately losing consciousness or dying, filled my entire body.

in reality.

He stretched his neck and above completely, his jaw clenched as if he were having an epileptic seizure, and he kept groaning. His body was instantly soaked with sweat.

"Mr. Iwasaki! Mr. Iwasaki, what happened to you?!"

Goto, the caregiver, rushed over from the duty room, her eyes filled with a startled look, her face bearing the marks of her sleeping face, and her expression full of anxiety and fear.

"I'm fine. I'm okay."

Iwasaki forced out a few words through gritted teeth, trying to regulate his heavy breathing.

He admitted that he had died quite a few times in this game.

It dies three times a day.

Some were stabbed to death, some were beaten to death, and some died inexplicably without knowing how.

Logically speaking, they should all have some resistance to death.

But none of those ways of dying, even when bundled together, are as thrilling as the way I just saw.

Each time is better than the third!

He could feel his body being torn to pieces with almost perfect clarity, yet he remained perfectly conscious, and then another round of excruciating pain would come before the agony had subsided.

It's simply suffocating.

He only has one life left today, and it seems he can only try again later tonight. Right now, he feels weak all over, which is a side effect of the intense mental stimulation.

The caregiver, Goto, brought over a basin of warm water, wet a towel, and carefully wiped away the large amount of sweat that had just flowed out of Iwasaki's body.

I also helped him change his clothes.

"Ms. Goto, I remember there are beds in the nursing room and the duty room, right?"

After calming down for a while, Iwasaki glanced at the sleep marks on Goto's face that hadn't completely faded and asked a question.

Perhaps this is a habit brought back from playing games.

After becoming paralyzed, he became extremely lacking in curiosity.

He doesn't seek to understand many things, like a living corpse.

It wasn't until he encountered this mysterious game that he perhaps saw a glimmer of hope for recovery, and his curiosity gradually returned.

In the past, he would never have asked such a question.

And now, perhaps they haven't completely stepped out of the game yet, and they have an instinctive curiosity about "clues".

Upon hearing Iwasaki's words, Goto subconsciously touched his face and lowered his head, saying, "I... I accidentally fell asleep on the table."

This was clearly not the real answer, but since Goto was unwilling to say more, he wouldn't press the matter further.

However, based on the rumors he had heard about Goto before, he could guess a little bit about it.

"My father once gave me a piece of advice. It may not be suitable for everyone, but it can serve as a reference for one's attitude towards life. I've slightly modified it based on my own situation. Would you like to hear it?"

It's unclear whether Iwasaki was saying this to Goto or just making an excuse to say it to himself.

Goto asked, somewhat puzzled, "What did you mean?"

"Don't be afraid to fight back. Even if you're like me and all you have left to use is your head, then smash your head against his body and bite his flesh, even if you're bleeding. A life that's too hesitant and indecisive is too dull."

After listening, Goto fell silent.

Several seconds later, a forced smile slowly appeared on his face.

"That sounds a bit willful."

This was the first time Goto had explicitly expressed his disagreement with Iwasaki.

Iwasaki wasn't annoyed; instead, he smiled and said, "Yes, if you're not satisfied, just say so. You can be gentle, but don't let everyone think you're a sheep."

Goto paused slightly, then pursed his lips: "Mr. Iwasaki and Ms. Iwasaki really do look alike."

What happened to my sister?

Iwasaki didn't expect her to mention her younger sister.

The Iwasaki family, to which Iwasaki belongs, is not small, but it is a large family that declined early on. It has almost no real business and survives only by relying on some small family companies. It has some reputation in the arts.