Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

The patterns on the spider lily on the snake egg suddenly changed slightly. A ray of light spread from the base of the flower to the petals, accompanied by a wisp of ethereal smoke.

A few seconds later, the eggshell extended long stamens, gradually enveloping the snake bone. After more than ten minutes, the snake bone disappeared, and the eggshell turned bright red.

Apart from that, there haven't been any major changes.

But Shinichi Higashiyama had already seen through it.

Within the Spirit-Nourishing Fire Eye, the snake egg, which was originally a chaotic mess, now has a small snake shadow that wriggles restlessly, yet tries its best to control something, preventing its movements from becoming too large.

He put away the other snake bone and said:

"Since it's not working, let's just fry some eggs."

The snake shadow inside the egg seemed to hear and understand Dongshan's meaning, and its body froze. Just as his evil hand was about to reach out, the snake egg began to shake.

Higashiyama Shin stopped what he was doing and watched quietly.

Ueda Slime had completely shrunk into the Soul-Gathering Umbrella, leaving only one eye exposed, much like when he was watching a horror movie.

Yes, Ueda, who is a spirit, is also afraid of horror movies.

Click.

During the violent shaking, cracks appeared on the top of the eggshell and then spread outwards.

Snapped.

With a crisp sound, the eggshell cracked open.

Immediately afterwards, a small white head suddenly peeked out from it.

Behind its head, there is a ring of feather-like red gills similar to those of an axolotl, but the difference is that this little snake's "gills" are shaped like spider lily petals and are much redder, forming a ring around its head.

(I searched for quite a while but couldn't find a suitable image, so I'll use the one of the American salamander instead.)

The snake flicked its tongue, seemingly confirming that the snake bone was on Higashiyama Shin's body. A hint of ingratiation could even be seen on its face, giving off the vibe of a sycophant.

Higashiyama Shin reached out his hand, and the little guy obediently climbed up, but he couldn't feel anything substantial.

He subconsciously increased the "power" of the Spirit-Nourishing Fire Eye, and saw the little snake's body tremble violently. Half of its body stood up warily like a groundhog, glanced at Dongshan Shen fearfully, and then swished away from Dongshan Shen's arm, burrowing back into the eggshell, while also closing up the eggshell that had just been broken open.

"It has a yin attribute, no physical form, and is completely different from the giant snake in the game. It is more like a spiritual creature."

"Does it mean there are juvenile and adult forms?"

Dongshan Shen withdrew his Spirit-Nourishing Fire Eye and tapped the eggshell with his finger.

After a while, the little snake cautiously poked its head out again, and only after confirming that there was no aura on Higashiyama Shin that it feared did it feel at ease to cling to Higashiyama's arm again.

As the snake attached itself to him, Shinichi Higashiyama felt as if he had gained some kind of new ability.

It's probably... Earth Escape?

It's not the kind of earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a type of magic that manipulates the earth), it simply means literally 遁走 (遁走 is a type of magic that allows one to escape into the earth).

Sensing that no one was downstairs, he tried to use his ability.

Concrete is also soil.

It's because the steel bars are sandwiched in the middle, so it needs to have the ability to atomize.

As a red light spread from the small snake to Dongshan's entire body, he suddenly sank into the ground and landed directly in the room downstairs.

“It’s quite convenient.”

This little snake looks a bit like a shikigami.

It can attach itself to itself and gain a certain ability, or it can be directly commanded to do something.

Its current drawbacks are that it's newly born, only has the ability of Earth Release, has poor endurance, and the snake itself has little impact on real-world objects.

The future is expected.

With a light leap, he returned to his room. With a thought, the little snake obediently climbed off his arm, its face full of flattery, gazing at him expectantly.

It seems that the snake bones played a significant role, possessing an instinctive and fatal attraction for it.

He took out the snake bone he had just put away and casually placed it on the table.

The little snake suddenly lunged, and the strip-shaped petals on its neck pierced into the bone, turning an even more vivid red.

This should be considered a form of eating, or more accurately, a form of nourishment.

The luster of the snake bones gradually faded, and the little snake revealed a blissful expression, as if it were very comfortable.

However, its body did not grow larger; it only developed some faint red patterns.

Should we give it a name?

Since it's a snake born on the other side of the river, then let it be called...

Just call it the other side.

The snake bone gradually shrank, becoming thin and long. The little snake didn't waste any time; it rolled up a petal and put it directly into its mouth.

After finishing its meal, it looked lazy, wagging its tail and looking around the room with its eyes.

Then it quickly focused on the Soul-Gathering Umbrella.

Ueda was startled and didn't even dare to leave his eyes outside, completely hiding inside the Soul-Gathering Umbrella.

After seeing the Soul-Gathering Umbrella, Bi'an became excited and looked at Dongshan with longing eyes once again.

"can not eat."

Shinichi Higashiyama issued a warning.

Its recipes actually contain spirits.

The other side was a little disappointed, so it decided to settle for second best and apply to live inside, as it could feel that the Soul-Gathering Umbrella was very attractive.

Dongshan didn't stop them.

The other side happily circled Dongshan twice before crashing headfirst into the Soul-Gathering Umbrella.

"Aaahhhh!!"

Three seconds later, Ueda Slime jumped three meters high from the Soul-Gathering Umbrella in a panic and hid behind Higashiyama.

"Brother! Help!"

The other side poked its head out, looking innocently at Dongshan.

"It seems like it wants to get to know you. Haven't you always wanted a friend who is also a spirit?"

Higashiyama Shinji was certain that the other side wouldn't eat Ueda.

"Really? But I'm afraid it might accidentally eat me." Ueda was instinctively terrified and dared not approach at all.

"Will not."

"Okay then."

Ueda barely regained his human form, his spirit trembling, and slowly approached the Soul-Gathering Umbrella.

The other side emerged from the umbrella, circled around Ueda, and startled the latter, who stood at attention and turned into a slime once more.

Soon, it seemed that the other side had lost interest in him and turned back into the Soul-Gathering Umbrella.

"Phew, I survived." For the first time, Ueda, who was originally a spirit, felt what it meant to be light as a feather.

However, he did not sense any murderous intent, hostility, or hunger in the other party's eyes.

It's mostly just innate curiosity.

Ueda remained cautious and returned to the Soul-Gathering Umbrella.

After the diligent sacrifice of outstanding employee Kosuke Iwasaki, the interior of the Soul-Gathering Umbrella has undergone a complete transformation.

The space was vast, surrounded by mansions, courtyards, caves and other buildings, while the blood pool had almost become a blood lake, occupying the central position.

It's a bit dark, like it's been filtered with a red filter.

Ueda cautiously returned inside, but before he could find the figure on the other side, he felt a tremor.

The original blood lake suddenly became turbulent, carving out a long, winding channel in the ground that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Then the surging blood gradually subsided, completing the transformation from a large lake to a river.

A small snake named Bi'an darts and dives in the river, and as it moves, flowers of Bi'an bloom on the once barren land beside the river.

It had a lot of fun, but the evil souls that gathered into a river of blood were in big trouble.

Dongshan didn't say that these things couldn't be eaten.

As long as it doesn't get an upset stomach, it's fine.

The sinful souls were manifested as fish of various shapes, distinguished by size according to the severity of their sins.

On the other side, he bit into a big fish and was about to swallow it whole when he saw Ueda secretly observing from the corner.

So it flew towards him with the fish in its beak.

"Huh? I...I don't want to eat it."

Ueda cannot eat these things; forcing him to eat them would only corrupt him with evil.

For him, the blood would continuously decompose these sinful souls, forming pure Yin energy, and he dared not absorb too much of this Yin energy at once, for fear of overexerting himself.

The other side, however, is completely unafraid. It has an innate ability to restrain these spirits, and it won't be contaminated even if it eats them one by one.

Bi'an glanced at Ueda strangely, swallowed the strange fish whole, flicked his tongue with satisfaction, looked around at the "rooms" inside, chose one that resembled a cave, crawled inside, and lazily curled up to take a nap.

Ueda finally breathed a sigh of relief.

My brother is right, the other side won't eat him.

It can't possibly eat all the big fish in the river, so why would it bother with such a tiny little pudding?

This makes sense.

Chapter 136: Theoretical Foundation

(This chapter focuses on daily life and investigative analysis)

Traditionally, Japan's Golden Week runs from April 29th to May 5th.

Komagome Academy was probably driven to despair by all the trouble and simply gave up the struggle.

After finally getting back to classes for two days, it was Saturday and Sunday, and then on Sunday night, the Chinzan-so incident happened.

Even schools have become "cover zones".

What kind of class is this?

So, out of desperation, they simply gave up and announced that there would be no school tomorrow, and that the holiday would continue until May 5th, creating a super-extended Golden Week.

We'll also prepare for online classes, so that if anything unexpected happens in the future, we can just take classes online together.

So, after a few days, Dongshan had a great time playing by himself.

"Brother, is there something on my face?"

On the plane, Higashiyama Doku, who was humming a song, suddenly felt uncomfortable. He turned around and found Higashiyama Shin looking at him with a frown.

With his bloodline suppression awakened, Dongshan Du spoke in a lower tone, very cautiously.

"I do have a question for you." Higashiyama Shin nodded, getting straight to the point.

"Please ask!" Dongshan sat up straight, ready to be grilled with questions.

Were you praying for schools to close again last weekend?

"Ah, how do you know—how could that be! Too many holidays are still not good, I understand that!" Higashiyama said righteously.

Shinya Higashiyama understood; there was no way he could escape.

Unfortunately, he had used his Spirit-Nourishing Fire Eye to investigate many times, and found that this was just an ordinary, unremarkable chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) student with no extraordinary abilities.

It seems the school is destined for bad luck.

Today is the 30st.

Shinichi Higashiyama is a man of conscience.

He always remembered the matter of finding an opportunity to bring Ueda Hiroshi's remains back to his hometown for burial.