Zongman: Evolution Paradise

The normal Fujimura Taiga has a rather boisterous personality, unlike the quiet Yukino Yukinoshita.

In Shirou Emiya's own opinion, it would be more normal for Taiga Fujimura and Shinji Matou to switch roles.

Thinking that Fujimura Taiga hadn't come to see him for the past few days, Emiya Shirou wondered if something had happened that he didn't know about...

"fine."

Yukino Yukinoshita replied calmly.

Although she learned about Fujimura Taiga's character from Jolyne, she noticed that Jolyne had no intention of pretending to be Matou Shinji, and Yukino Yukinoshita naturally didn't want to pretend to be Fujimura Taiga either.

Moreover, Yukino Yukinoshita, seeing Jolyne's current behavior, was already on the verge of losing her composure.

Jolyne was continuing to peel the apple with a knife, but unfortunately, the peel that was originally on the apple broke off instantly, shattering the nurse's heart.

Jolyne didn't mind and continued peeling the apple, leaving it pitted and uneven, before handing it to Shirou Emiya next to her.

Emiya Shirou looked down at the slightly oxidized apple in Matou Shin's hand.

Seeing that the patient didn't intend to accept it, Jolyne simply showed a puzzled expression and then waved the apple at Shirou Emiya.

Emiya Shirou accepted it and took a bite of the apple.

咔哧

The sound was like the apples Adam bit into for Eve's blasphemous act against the gods.

Seeing Shirou Emiya take a bite, Jolyne said with satisfaction, "Hmm... isn't there a saying, 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'? Eat more, maybe I can get discharged sooner."

Unfortunately, Shirou Emiya wasn't suffering from a headache or fever; he had already undergone the amputation of both legs.

If it weren't some kind of golden apple, eating more apples probably wouldn't have much effect on the condition.

"Shinji, thank you for your blessing."

Emiya Shirou thanked Jolyne quite gently, which could be considered somewhat kind.

The heroic spirits almost couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Seeing that Shirou Emiya was still like this, Jolyne sighed, touched the flat blanket, and said to the patient, "If you're sick, you won't recover any faster if you just stay in bed all the time."

Jolyne got up from the hospital bed, pushed the wheelchair in the corner to the bedside, and lifted the blanket off Shirou Emiya.

"Why don't we go play soccer together?"

Jolyne stared at him with her dark eyes and made a serious suggestion.

"..."

Yukino Yukinoshita's face twitched; she was almost unable to control her expression.

The nurse was unsure of what they were up to and paced anxiously, unsure whether she should step in to stop them.

Emiya Shirou laughed, extending his hand to Matou Shinji in front of him, and said, "Alright, but it looks like I can only be responsible for guarding the gate now."

"Of course."

Jolyne took Shirou Emiya's hand, helped him into his wheelchair, and pushed him along. Jolyne also politely waved goodbye to the nurse.

"We'll come back later."

"Hmm...maybe?"

After crossing the corridor, Jolyne pressed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive at this floor. As the elevator doors opened, Jolyne pushed the wheelchair and carried Shirou Emiya inside.

As he entered the cramped elevator, Shirou Emiya's smile began to fade. He looked out into the corridor where the nurse was hurrying towards him, calling out, "Wait for me! I'm a caregiver, I'll go with you."

No one pressed the button to open the door. As the elevator doors closed from both sides, the light and shadow on Shirou Emiya and Jolyne's faces completely disappeared into darkness.

Chapter 238 Time

Let's rewind to when Jolyne entered the ward...

Having spent half a day sensing outside the hospital without detecting any trace of magic, Medea had already lowered her expectations.

"Ugh, hurry up and show yourself! I want to go back and cuddle with Master after this..."

Medea thought to herself, rather displeased.

Fortunately, after meeting with Emiya Shirou, the matter will soon be resolved.

After Jolyne borrowed a hair tie from Yukino Yukinoshita and tied the collected flowers into a bunch, they followed the crowd into the hospital.

Having found Shirou Emiya's hospital room, Medea turned the lock and the door opened, her gaze falling on the protagonist her master had mentioned.

At first glance, he looks like an ordinary person.

At second glance, is this a person?

Medea hesitated for a moment, then continued to observe the red-haired boy on the hospital bed with some uncertainty. After thinking for a while, she communicated with Medusa, who also had some skill in magic. Finally, Medea accepted the conclusion she had come to in her mind with some astonishment.

“Master, I think I understand why the supernatural beings in Fuyuki City have been expelled.”

Through magic, Medea's voice appeared in Jolyne's ears.

"This Shirou Emiya is definitely not a normal human being. If we were to describe him, the word 'vessel' would be more appropriate."

"His existence is like an overflowing black Holy Grail."

"The mystery of Fuyuki City... no, the mystery of this city definitely doesn't just come from Fuyuki City... and all of this is sealed beneath his body..."

Mystery is, of course, the extraordinary.

Jolyne listened to Medea's explanation, glanced helplessly at the protagonist, sat on the edge of the hospital bed, picked up the apple beside her and continued peeling it.

Is Emiya Shirou a vessel?

The mystery that extends far beyond Fuyuki City is now entirely contained within Shirou Emiya's body.

It sounds like some kind of mystical being stuffed a world into their body.

"During the Fourth Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu Emiya didn't summon Saber, so he didn't destroy the Black Grail, and he even put that thing into Shirou Emiya's body?"

Jolyne thought to herself.

"Could it be that someone wished for this world to lose its extraordinary abilities and return to normalcy, and then the Black Grail absorbed all the mysteries?"

"But does the Black Grail in Fuyuki City have the power to sweep across the world?"

"Even if they exist, those few mages in the Fate world shouldn't ignore it, not to mention the various hidden figures within the Fate universe."

"Furthermore, since it is the Black Grail, no matter what wish is made, it will eventually lead to the destruction of the world. If someone wishes for the world to return to normalcy, even if the Black Grail is activated, Fuyuki City, where those girls are so happy, should not exist!"

"There must be other unforeseen circumstances."

Thinking it over, Jolyne, connected by magic, asked Medea, "Can we take action directly?"

"No, Shirou Emiya is not someone who can be killed easily now."

Medea continued, “His life is sustained entirely by a mysterious entity within him that is almost tangible.”

"Hmm... To give a simple example, the principle of osmotic pressure, we can think of mystery as concentration. The concentration of mystery in Shirou Emiya's body is almost solid, which is hyperosmotic, while external attacks with insufficient mystery concentration are hypoosmotic. Therefore, external mystery cannot affect his body at all."

"I even doubt that Esdeath's time stop could stop Shirou Emiya's time."

"That's the case too. The magic I used to probe him at first didn't get any feedback, so I thought he was just an ordinary person."

"The mystery of this concentration is entirely due to the fact that his body sealed it away from Fuyuki City, which is why I call him a container."

Jolyne pondered, "In other words, if we want to kill this Emiya Shirou, we must at least reduce the mystery within him first."

Actually, there are three options.

The first method involves using a purely physical attack without any mystical element. However, since the Black Flash draws energy, it is not purely physical damage, and it is obvious that a normal physical attack would be unable to harm Shirou Emiya.

The second possibility is that the concentration of the mysterious force from the external attack exceeds the concentration of the mysterious force within Shirou Emiya's body.

The first two options are difficult to achieve, so Jolyne only proposed the most likely solution: to reduce the concentration of the mystery in Shirou Emiya's body.

"That's roughly it. Master, are you ready to take action?"

Medea asked.

"No!"

"We can't make a move here."

Jolyne knew that Emiya Shirou was not someone who could be defeated in a short time.

If we make a move here, other players will definitely be drawn to it!

What will happen when other players come over?

Jolyne impersonated Shinji Matou, while Yukino Yukinoshita impersonated Taiga Fujimura.

These two identities are: one is Shirou Emiya's friend, and the other is Shirou Emiya's family member.

Jolyne couldn't speak for other players, but she was certain that Emiya Shirou would prioritize killing her.

And so, Jolyne completely pieced together the pieces of information provided by the park.

[Intelligence 1: The Holy Grail War has a referee, but this referee is not impartial]

[Intelligence 2: As is widely known, the Holy Grail War involving seven people will definitely produce an eighth Servant]

[Identity Planting...Disguise your identity well...]

The referee is Shirou Emiya, but Shirou Emiya is unaware that he has become the referee in Paradise's eyes.

There was no intention of informing Emiya Shirou of the fact that this paradise in Fuyuki City, where the Holy Grail War was initiated, was located.

It was because this ordinary Fuyuki City had such an extraordinary local that the park enhanced the game by adding an identity layer and setting up a rule that ordinary people could not discover the extraordinary, in order to prevent players from being too reckless and being discovered directly by Emiya Shirou.

And identity placement?

There's something fishy about the identities these people have planted in the park!

Jolyne's Shinji Matou, Yukino Yukinoshita's Taiga Fujimura, Makoto Ito's Kazunari Ryudou, Steve Rogers' Master Souichirou Kuzuki...

These people who were replaced all had some degree of closeness with Shirou Emiya. What would happen if Shirou Emiya discovered that his friend's identity had been replaced by an extraterrestrial demon from Paradise?

The red-haired boy will naturally become the "unfair referee" that the park talks about!

That's why the park is reminding players to disguise their identities.

For a referee to be unfair, they need to have the power to blow the whistle biasedly. Judging from Shirou Emiya's current situation, the Servants in the Fourth Holy Grail War are probably all in his hands.

Jolyne handed the peeled apple to Shirou Emiya, not expecting to be able to impersonate Shinji Matou when she appeared before him.

After all, Esdeath and Makoto Itō had already been attacked by Iskandar, which meant that the referee already knew about the Holy Grail War that was taking place. If anything was amiss, Shirou Emiya would naturally be able to tell that Jolyne and Makoto Itō were the same kind of people.

A type of player who came from the amusement park!

"Since you want to make this ordinary Fuyuki City so wonderful, then Shirou Emiya, you don't want to fight in this place, do you?"

Jolyne looked at him and hinted at this.

Shirou Emiya lowered his eyes, a consciousness awakening within him. He took a bite of an apple and heard Jolyne invite him to play soccer.

Naturally, the red-haired boy lying in the hospital bed would not refuse such a suggestion.

He smiled kindly and extended his hand to accept Jolyne's invitation.

"Okay, but it looks like I'll only be able to guard the goal now."

"Of course."

"We'll come back later."

"Hmm...maybe?"

As the elevator doors gradually closed, the atmosphere inside the elevator gradually became tense and filled with tension.

Chapter 239: The King's Army

Back in time...

As the elevator doors closed, the smell of disinfectant filled the narrow space. None of the people spoke, enjoying the calm before the storm.

Soon after, the elevator began to descend, and with the tremors, the skincare product advertisements on the inner wall appeared somewhat eerie under the dim lighting.