Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 179, Section 177: I am extraordinary.

"Hey, it's already 5 o'clock. It's about time to get ready."

"Okay, light the tools and wait a moment."

"Is the crane's power off? It's best to double-check, just to be safe."

Near Koka City.

At a construction site, workers were finishing their shift and preparing to go to a nearby bathhouse for a nice hot bath.

"By the way, when was Kawakami Real Estate established? I don't think I've ever heard of it before," a worker asked casually.

"I heard it's a newly established company preparing to enter the real estate industry. Although I'm not very optimistic about it, why wouldn't we work if there's work to be done?"

"No wonder it felt so awkward to coordinate."

The workers' voices gradually faded into the distance.

Shortly after they all disappeared, a van drove into the construction site.

The car stopped at an empty warehouse next to the main construction site, and the gate closed automatically.

Four men got out of the car. Three of them were middle-aged men dressed casually, while the other one was a younger man in a suit. He got out of the driver's seat and said with a smile to the three of them, "Then we'll have to trouble you three teachers today."

"Everyone says not to call us teachers anymore, it feels weird."

"In short, we'll help you dig, you just need to pay us, and once it's unearthed, we'll pretend nothing happened."

The three of them lit cigarettes one after another, and casually spat a mouthful of phlegm onto the ground.

The man in the suit glanced at the remaining marks on the ground, which had been carelessly wiped with a shoe, and nodded with a smile: "I understand."

After the three finished a cigarette, they took out tools from the car and walked over to lift the tarpaulin that covered two-thirds of the warehouse, revealing a site that looked like an archaeological excavation. The site was more than a meter deep, and it was clear that they had been digging for quite some time.

On the other side, there were also some illegible stone tablets and broken earthenware pots piled up.

These items, which could still be considered antiques, were simply discarded in a corner, ignored by everyone.

They've been working for two weeks now, and it's clear that the construction outside is just a smokescreen; their main purpose is the excavation inside.

All three were experienced veterans, and they could roughly guess that the other party had simply used some means to determine that there were valuable antiquities in this place, which was why they had invited the three professionals to come and dig for treasure.

They are very willing to take on this kind of work, as the risks are generally low.

They naturally won't touch what the other party specifically requests, but they're usually willing to accept some scraps generated during the process. More importantly, they can also get a considerable amount of hush money and service fees.

The only troublesome part of this job was that the area provided by the other party was a bit too large, and there were no underground cavities, so we could only use this stupid method to carefully dig it up little by little, and pile the waste soil on the construction site outside to be transported away together during the day.

"Yes, we explored this location yesterday, and we've basically reached the bottom. What's next?"

"That location seems rather suspicious."

"Unfortunately, he wouldn't say what it was related to."

"Hey, hey."

"Ok?"

The man who spoke was covered in sweat, held his breath, and gently pointed in a direction.

The other two looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a seemingly transparent old man appear there, staring blankly at something.

The group shook their heads and blinked hard at the same time. The phantom figure disappeared suddenly, as if it were a hallucination.

"Did you see it too?"

"Correct."

The three exchanged glances and nodded, then discreetly looked in the direction of the man in the suit. As usual, he was sitting in the car looking at his phone.

If one person sees something strange, it might be an illusion, but if three people see it at the same time, then it certainly isn't.

Therefore, what is buried here may be related to the extraordinary beings who have been in the limelight recently!

Because of the Muramasa Demon Sword incident, an unprecedented craze for antiques has swept the country, and a number of museum robberies have occurred, leading many museums to announce short-term closures.

This country, no, I should say the whole world, has countless people who yearn for extraordinary opportunities. Could it be that they've stumbled upon one?

Thinking about this, their breathing became rapid.

"The old man was looking in this direction, it seems. We..."

"No, dig in other directions first, and then do it around midnight, after he's asleep."

"clear."

They pretended to be nonchalant, deliberately raised their voices to say a few nonsense words, and then continued digging.

midnight.

After confirming that the man in the suit had fallen asleep in the car, the leader began to lead the two men to dig towards that location.

"This...this is a shimenawa? Impossible! The things inside are at least several hundred years old. How could something like this have been preserved for so long without rotting?"

The group unearthed a section of a rope-like structure, and upon closer inspection, discovered it to be a boundary rope frequently used in Shintoism.

You can still see the amulet hanging above, which seems to have some writing on it.

Under the flashlight beam, the words were barely legible.

Namo Myoho Renge Sutra

Isn't Shimenawa a Shinto practice? How come Buddhism is involved?

"Keep going, dig along the rope."

The leader didn't want to give up this rare opportunity, and the more he did so, the more it proved that there was indeed something inside.

One of them glanced around furtively, tapped his phone discreetly in his pocket, and then stealthily looked back.

The other person pursed his lips and touched the soft dagger hidden at his waist.

The three continued digging with different thoughts in mind. Just as they were about to dig it all out, they heard a faint sound beside them.

You'd better stop.

"Who?"

Stop.

The eldest brother ignored everything and continued digging. Soon, he had dug out the entire area surrounded by the barrier rope.

"Well, this way I can finally get some rest, but you guys... you're in trouble."

The moment it was dug up, the barrier rope silently broke into several pieces and scattered, then turned into black ash.

In an instant, as if a cold storage door had been opened, a sinister atmosphere spread out, startling the other two, who couldn't help but take a few steps back, their faces filled with hesitation.

This scene looks like something I've seen in movies when I was a kid.

Their actions are tantamount to courting death, and what follows is the unleashing of some terrifying being.

And they, as extras, were about to be eliminated. "Found it! Almost found it! Hahaha, extraordinary, extraordinary! I will be extraordinary! All those who disobey, die!"

The eldest brother seemed to have been provoked by something. He was panting heavily, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was moving recklessly, digging at the mound of earth in the middle with his shovel with a clear objective.

The two men, who had been hesitant, were suddenly stirred up by their leader's actions. Their breathing became heavy, and their rationality began to crumble.

Why, why should he be the one to dig me up? I'm the one who should be qualified to become an extraordinary being! Who does he think he is!
"Found it! This is it, that's right, I can feel it—click!"

The eldest brother felt a tickling sensation in his throat, and then his mouth was tightly covered.

Blood flowed down the cut in his throat, quickly soaking the boss's clothes and dripping onto the iron box that was tightly bound by several chains.

The eldest brother in his arms gradually fell silent, but before the man with the sword could even smile, he was suddenly struck on the back of the head, and everything went black.

clap clap!

The last man still wouldn't let go of his unconscious companion, grinning maliciously as he repeatedly smashed him with stones until he was completely smashed into a pulp. Only then did he stop with a sigh of relief, and then impatiently pried open the iron box that the leader's corpse was tightly clutching.

"Mine, this is mine, you damned bastards, you two piles of dog shit dare to call yourselves extraordinary?! Haha, hahahaha."

Bang.

A gunshot rang out.

The last survivor lay down in the mud with a smile on his face.

The man in the suit was standing on the edge of the pit at some point, holding a pistol with a silencer in his hand, and the formulaic smile on his face was gone.

He changed into a raincoat, put on gloves, took an oilcloth and rope, walked to the bodies, packed them all in, and then carried them into the van by himself.

Only after this process was completed was the phone call successfully made.

"Father, everything has been taken care of."

"Okay, give it to the cleaner. You take that thing there."

"Yes."

The man in the suit carefully wrapped the iron box with an even larger box, seemingly unaffected by the cold, evil aura emanating from it.

He drove the van out of the construction site and into a desolate wilderness. He got out of the van, left the clothes he had used for the crime behind, and drove away in another car that had been parked there earlier.

Not long after, the van was driven away by a hooded man, and its destination was unknown.

The man in the suit arrived at a relatively remote detached house, carrying the iron box, opened the door and went into a room on the second floor.

Tuk Tuk.

"come in."

The man in the suit opened the door and walked in. The entire room had been transformed into a hospital ward, filled with various medical instruments.

A gaunt old man lay on the hospital bed, looking as if he was about to die.

"Father."

"Let me see the item first."

"Yes."

He took out the iron box, which still carried a mixed smell of dirt, rust, and blood.

But the old man was completely captivated by the aroma.

"I didn't expect the map to actually be there. Did they deal with that guy named Kawakami?"

"He died at home from a brain hemorrhage caused by excessive drinking."

"I always trust you to handle things well, child. Come closer and let me take a good look—heh, it's definitely not a good thing. Are you so eager to stir up people's minds?"

The old man had a smile on his face that was hard to decipher.

"As long as there's still vitality, then it's best to open it up and take a look."

"Yes."

The man placed the box on the table, took out the hydraulic pliers he had prepared beforehand, and snapped the iron chain binding the box with a soft snap.

His expression turned solemn as he slowly opened the iron box, staring silently inside.

"How is it?" the old man asked when he didn't respond.

“There are three shriveled hearts inside, but,” he reached out and carefully lifted them, “they seem to have stopped moving.”

In his hand were three barely discernible, dried-black hearts. Two of them were particularly small, about the size of walnuts, each connected to the other heart by a red, blood vessel-like tube. These were the best-preserved hearts, about the size of a small peach, and not as shriveled.

As soon as he finished speaking, the two walnut hearts turned into powder and fell into his palm, as if confirming his words.

"Quiet." The old man gently shook his head and closed his eyes.

The man held his breath.

In the silence, apart from the ticking of the medical instruments, they seemed to indeed hear the beating of a third heart in the room.

The heart is still beating.

The old man coughed twice and got out of bed.

He picked up the scalpel beside him, lifted the clothes covering his stomach, and made a precise incision, then another.

"Put it in."

The old man put down the knife and used his hands to pry open the layered abdominal cavity.

The man in the suit's eyes flickered. "Father, perhaps we can try it with blood first. We don't know what the reaction will be yet."

"Reaction? I left a will. After I die, all my assets are yours, including my corpse. You can use it for whatever you want, cough cough."

"I don't have time. Whatever the outcome, even if I'm parasitized, I'll accept it willingly. If I become a threat to you, then kill me. Understand?"

The old man spoke calmly, and his eyes showed little fear.

"Yes."

The man cleaned the heart as thoroughly as possible, blowing away the fresh ash, and then stuffed it into his father's open abdominal cavity.

"Go in a little further."

".yes."

After finally managing to insert the suture, he pulled down the automatic suture machine and was about to disinfect and stitch the wound when his father suddenly reached out to stop him.

That force?
The old man's hand, which had been resting on the man's arm like withered tree bark, gradually became shiny and elastic. The granulation tissue on the man's abdomen healed automatically without leaving a scar.

"This is my new life."

The old man touched his face; though wrinkles remained, his strength was greater than ever before.

"I am extraordinary."

(End of this chapter)