I was the fourth disaster in Yokohama and was loved by everyone.

When the smoke cleared, Verlaine was already lying on the ground.

Zhu Yu: ???

Is it really over just like that?

The players couldn't beat the second phase no matter what they tried, but the other players beat it easily.

Haha, I don't believe it, it must be fake.

Verlaine, get up!

While she was in a daze, Dazai had already contacted Chuuya, and the two began to banter with each other from afar.

Everything seemed to have settled down, and everyone's tense emotions relaxed, until—

A flashing golden flare appeared in the sky, heading towards Chuuya and his group, or more accurately, towards Verlaine.

Dazai's gaze lingered on the suddenly appearing signal flare for a moment, his brain racing in a flash—he thought of N, who should have been under the control of the Port Mafia but had suddenly disappeared halfway through.

"Oh no..."

*

Zhu Yu's eyes were dead—how come there are three more stages? It's never going to end.

Unfortunately, the excitement belonged to them, while she had nothing.

She was forcibly pinned to the ground in the audience, experiencing absolutely nothing.

In order to deal with the fully unleashed monster Guivre, Chuuya also released Arahabaki, and the two singularities met—

Verlaine was defeated and on his deathbed.

He survives only because of the energy provided by the singularity; once the singularity's energy is depleted, his life will come to an end.

In his hazy state, he saw a figure he hadn't seen in a long time.

"...Rimbaud?"

His voice was so hoarse it was almost unlike his own, as if syllables were squeezed out from the depths of his soul.

The person who should have died nine years ago—the person he killed with his own hands—is now standing perfectly intact before him, even more peaceful and composed than he remembers.

Rimbaud's eyes were fixed quietly on Verlaine, a faint smile playing on his lips: "Long time no see, Paul."

"But now, it doesn't seem like a good time to catch up."

Chapter 106 Achieves the Ending

"You..." Verlaine asked with difficulty, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, "Did you come here to end my life yourself?"

His strength was rapidly waning, and his consciousness was becoming hazy. He realized that his broken body was bowing down to death.

Rimbaud knelt on one knee beside him, gently placing a hand on his shattered chest. The faint light of the subspace seeped through his fingers, and the excruciating pain that had been burning his internal organs was soothed by an invisible hand.

With his other hand, he took out a bottle of strawberry milk and, completely ignoring Verlaine's puzzled expression, forced it down his throat.

—Pain is being rewritten.

He felt his body bursting with new life under the guidance of a mysterious force, and his heart began to beat again.

"What is this?" Verlaine had regained his mobility. He straightened up and touched his chest in disbelief.

Rimbaud secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "I was worried that you might run out of singularity energy, so I specially found an alternative singularity and asked a superhuman with the ability to store energy to seal it up."

He pointed to Verlaine's chest, which had fully recovered: "I originally intended it as a substitute for your birthday present, since you didn't seem to like the last one very much."

"Looks like we've used it ahead of schedule."

Verlaine suddenly trembled violently, abruptly raised his head, and curled his lips into a self-deprecating smile: "Don't you hate me? Why don't you want to kill me?"

“I betrayed you, I almost killed you! You should hate me, Rimbaud! You should—” You should stab me through the heart with a knife, you should curse me with the most vicious words, you should let me rot in regret—these hysterical words rolled in Verlaine’s throat, but turned into a low, hoarse roar and were swallowed up.

He found that all he could do at that moment was lower his head and tremble.

Rimbaud simply sighed softly: "I'm sorry, Paul, it was my fault."

He looked at Verlaine as if gazing at an unfallen snowflake suspended between the sky and the abyss, neither purely white nor completely black.

His partner Verlaine stood in the crack of the boundary.

“When I said back then, ‘You’re no different from other humans,’ I was actually denying your unique suffering. I wanted to help you, but now I realize that was just self-righteous sympathy.”

His voice was lowered, filled with deep regret: "Back then, I was so insistent on making you forget your inhuman identity, but I forgot that this special body was originally a part of you."

"You are not a monster, nor do you need to force yourself to become human. Your very existence has a unique meaning."

“But… I betrayed you, you shouldn’t trust me anymore…” Verlaine’s voice grew weaker and weaker.

“We’ve all made mistakes, haven’t we?” Rimbaud held out his hand to Verlaine, just as he had invited Verlaine to be his partner years ago, waiting for the other to make a choice. “We’ve both almost died once. Death is also a rebirth, but some bonds cannot be severed by death.”

He looked at Verlaine, who was gradually calming down, his eyes filled with peace and acceptance, like a calm sea that held all the storms he dared not speak of: "Welcome back, Paul."

Welcome back, my partner.

That's not forgiveness; forgiveness is too much like a condescending judgment. It's simply the purest form of acceptance, like the earth calmly accepting a falling fruit, without asking if it's ripe or caring if it hurts.

Verlaine met Rimbaud's gaze, his eyes flickered, and the few seconds of silence felt like an eternity.

Just as Rimbaud was about to withdraw his hand with some confusion, Verlaine suddenly grabbed that hand and stood up with the force of the grab.

“I’m sorry, Rimbaud.” Verlaine’s voice was soft, but it conveyed his feelings earnestly. “I’m sorry…”

He had many things he felt sorry for, but he knew Rimbaud would understand.

Rimbaud nodded slightly and smiled.

“Then, would you like a bottle of wine?” he said.

*

Congratulations to the player for achieving the ending – "The Flowing River"!

Everything is a flowing river, not sediment at the bottom. Life's journey has its regrets and pains; despite the remorse, everything will eventually pass, won't it?

The "Stormbrello" arc is complete. Do you wish to continue the game?

[YES/NO]

Sitting on the cliff edge, Zhu Yu, lost in thought, stared at the unexpected system notification that popped up: ...

What if the NPCs are too powerful? Players have no room to maneuver.

Zhu Yu's expression turned serious, and for the first time in a long time, she began to struggle with a dilemma—should she accept the ending that had already been completed, or... stubbornly try to create a perfect ending?

After all, only a dozen or so of the player's teammates were left dead.

Among the grayed-out NPC avatars in the team list, there were several whose names she even remembered; they were NPCs she quite liked.

Ahhhhh... Players will protect their NPCs!

To leave himself a way out and avoid losing more than he gained by trying to steal a chicken, Zhu Yu gritted his teeth, spent some money, and created a new save file.

Damn, the players really went all out.

Zhu Yu, who has always believed that "why spend money on games," made an exception today (sadly).

After saving her current progress in the newly created save slot, she selected to load the save.

A flash of white light, and she landed at the very beginning of the team fight.

Then, the story reverts to the old path of the previous timeline after Rimbaud's appearance.

Zhu Yu: ???

the second time--

This time, he deliberately avoided Rimbaud and went straight for Verlaine.

Okay, he got wiped out immediately after starting the second phase.

The third time—

Once again, we avoided Rimbaud and carefully led our teammates to survive until the third phase, but it was still GG.

The fourth time—

They took the initiative to cooperate with Rimbaud and saved most of their teammates. However, the third phase came too suddenly, and most of their teammates were eliminated.

............

No, was Verlaine some kind of humanoid nuclear bomb?

Zhu Yu looked at the screen, puzzled, and it went black again.

She finally understood that fighting Verlaine was a trade-off: "successfully completing all three phases" and "having teammates survive perfectly" were two opposing conditions that could not coexist.

To achieve a perfect happy ending without any harm to her side, she would have to completely overwhelm Verlaine.

In summary—players need time to settle down.

Having been stuck here for quite some time, Zhu Yu breathed a sigh of relief and exited the game to calm his frustrated state of mind.

*

After distracting himself with a series of tasks, Zhu Yu finally logged back into the game.

On the game's initial screen, she stared at the large image of "Yokohama Story" and fell into deep thought—should she continue to stubbornly confront this plot point?

Or should I open a new one to change my mood?

Perhaps sensing her conflicted feelings, other maps that had already loaded but she hadn't yet opened floated before her eyes.

[Does the player want to unlock the new map?]

[YES/NO]

Wow, so enthusiastic! Of course, it's YES!

Please select a map.

Chapter 107: New Map Unveiled~

There are currently three maps to choose from: "The Boy Who Saw Monsters", "Mihana Town: The Brain Wars of the Great Detectives", and "Jujutsu Chronicles".

When you view the map, a corresponding background introduction will also pop up.

【The Boy Who Saw Monsters】: "Don't form bonds, or you'll only grow lonely." This is a mysterious world where monsters and humans coexist. A boy with special powers, a book of contracts filled with the names of monsters, and different choices lead to different paths.

Will you choose to distance yourself from humans and associate with yokai, or will you choose to hunt yokai and conquer new frontiers? Or perhaps... this warm yet lonely journey will ultimately become a miracle that heals each other.

【Mihana Town: The Brain Wars of the Detectives】: A deadly game where truth and conspiracy intertwine. Factions change, and your stance will affect the plot. Will you reveal the truth or become part of the shadows?

There is only one truth, but your choice can change everything.

[Tales of Cursed Arts: The night is thicker than blood; in the cracks where neon lights cannot reach, "they" are multiplying. Can you hear the whispers of the "cursed spirits"? Will you choose to become the savior who dispels the curse, or the king of cursed spirits who dances with the shadows?]

This unknown adventure awaits the awakening of your magical powers. The world is decaying, and you are the one to ignite the spark.

Zhu Yu glanced at the description and summarized: the first and third maps both have special ability settings, the second map was not clear, but it was probably a normal urban background with a lot of detective plot.

Ah... let's put aside the detective and reasoning puzzle maps for now.

The first map has monsters, which seems interesting, but "healing"? It's not like in Pokémon, where players send their monsters to fight, is it?

Forget it, the Beast Taming style is too old-fashioned for her.

After much thought, she found the new ability system, "Curse Power," quite interesting.

I decisively chose the third map.

【Loading......】

[The player already has the account "Meichuan Kuzi". Do you want to continue using it?]

【YES (Inherit current account progress) / NO (Create new account)】

Zhu Yu's eyes lit up; she hadn't expected such an unexpected surprise.

If she can inherit her account progress, she can level up in this map and then return to the Yokohama Story map.