Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

The contract that Senji Village made with the demon sword during his prime was very simple.

The demon swordsman taught him superb sword-forging skills and protected his family in times of emergency.

The price is that nine generations will be selected from Muramasa's bloodline, starting with him.

The first generation sacrificed one person's life.

The second generation sacrificed the lives of ten people.

The third generation sacrificed the lives of hundreds of people.

The ninth generation, a blood sacrifice. One hundred million lives.

Then, the contract ends.

It's unclear what Qianzicun was thinking at the time, that led him to agree to such outrageous conditions.

Moreover, the loss of control in the third and fourth generations shows that once the fighting gets going, you can't just stop whenever you want.

She understood the whole situation perfectly. The more people she killed, the harder it would be to control the demon sword; she would only be controlled by it in return.

Therefore, she chose to kill only one person.

That was Tokugawa Ieyasu.

This is her game strategy and goal.

Moreover, she also knew a way to temporarily enhance the demon sword's power without killing people and without affecting her mind: to use her own blood to consecrate the sword.

However, there is a limit to this. If you use this method too much, your body will become weak and your will will become weak, making you vulnerable to being attacked by the demon sword.

Therefore, it must be used with caution and only in unavoidable situations.

Unfortunately, even with her godlike perspective, there was one thing she simply couldn't understand.

Who was the person who intercepted the convoy and brought her the Myoho Muramasa?

Those who can manipulate skeletons must be beings like yokai or onmyoji.

Why would the other party want to save her and give her the demon sword? Is it to help her, or can they benefit from the chaos she creates by killing people?

Is he related to the previous two generations of Muramasa?

These things are currently unknown, and she hopes that more related plot developments will allow her to learn more later.

It's a wonderful feeling to play the role of an ancestor, especially when you uncover previously unknown secrets.

More importantly, she might be able to find a way to suppress Myōhō Muramasa in reality through the game.

This will prevent its outbreak.

"One hundred million people"

Repeating the number, Takii resisted the constant whispers emanating from the demon sword and headed towards Edo.

Chapter 147: The Benevolent Elder

"So, you can barely wield the demon sword without killing ordinary people?"

"Hmm, aren't you one of them?"

"I have a hard time controlling myself, just like how I am before I can't resist indulging in a meal, and how I am after I've finished eating it."

Player Lobby.

Nobita and Uesugi have completed their daily three rounds of games and are exchanging information that they can reveal to each other.

You can say almost anything, since they haven't figured out any endings yet and are still in the very early stages, so there's no need to worry about being judged as cheating.

"It seems that in this game, different players can create a gap between each other simply through their willpower. I didn't feel anything after killing people in the game, but after the game ended, that feeling came over me, and it was so uncomfortable," Uesugi Neko sighed.

She killed the hunter and his son in the game. At the time, she only felt a little sad. But after the game ended, the memory came back and she felt suffocated.

It was as if they were standing right in front of her, silently questioning why she had done this.

It took her about half an hour to calm down and slowly get rid of this moral dilemma.

Previously, death in the subway was agonizing, a form of physical torture. But death in the demon sword was instantaneous; having grown accustomed to the subway, she felt nothing. She had initially thought it would be easier, but she hadn't expected to experience mental torment upon waking.

It feels like if there were no morality, there would be no aftereffects.

Her sense of morality is still too strong.

"I don't want to kill people either. I originally wanted to walk the path of good first, and then the path of evil, but it takes a lot of effort to resist the control of the demon sword. The path of good is really difficult to walk. I can only try my best to control myself and not kill ordinary people." Nobita sighed.

He didn't kill ordinary people, but those who hunted him weren't all bad people either; many of them had no choice but to kill.

Otherwise, you won't be able to escape and the progress won't be made.

As a seasoned RPG player, he knew what those two progress bars meant after playing the game once.

The knife-shaped progress bar can be used as an energy bar.

The energy bar can provide effects including but not limited to healing, speed boost, and attack power.

Furthermore, when the energy bar is full—that is, when you have killed 100 people—you will gain a burst ability.

Nobita would call it his "moment of being possessed by a demon".

Similar to the burst mode in many games, for a period of time, the movement of the opponent's red dot slows down and their actions become slower, while your own speed increases, your defense is strengthened, and your recovery speeds up.

However, there is a price to pay for using the demon sword's energy bar.

The trade-off is that the humanoid status bar will slowly rise, especially after using "Entering the Demonic Realm" once, which will directly increase by one-fifth.

This humanoid status bar can be called the self.

The more it is invaded, the stronger it becomes, but at the same time, its self-awareness weakens and its control over the demon sword weakens.

When it's full, it means that even someone with the strongest willpower can't control the demon sword.

It's a very difficult choice. Becoming powerful leads to losing your mind, while maintaining your mind prevents you from improving. It's true that turning evil makes you ten times stronger, while turning good makes you nine times weaker.

When a game has such a judgment mechanism, it means that the game generally has three endings.

Good ending, bad ending, and normal ending.

Nobita believes that a good ending, which means not killing anyone, is the solution to a perfect ending. However, the problem is that he simply cannot do it. It's not that he can't think of a solution, but rather that he lacks the willpower to do it. It's the kind of ending that he can't achieve even if he sacrifices his life.

Even a normal ending would be difficult. After getting rid of Fa Cheng, waves of people came to besiege him, and dealing with them would require a lot of energy.

And coincidentally, those people were forcing him to go where there were many people.

This means that as long as he is willing to lower his standards, he can kill ordinary people to replenish his energy and then turn the tables on the attackers.

If you choose to stay true to yourself and not kill ordinary people, then facing an encirclement and suppression will be several times more difficult and very agonizing.

In comparison, the game's long timeline is nothing.

"I've calculated it. Each game session is exactly equivalent to an hour of sleep, regardless of whether the progress is fast or slow, or how long I spend in the game," Uesugi added.

"It's good. Otherwise, half a day or a whole day would pass in the game, and it would be troublesome to sleep that long in real life."

Nobita also noticed this.

"But three times a day is about the limit. If I play a fourth time, it might affect my condition the next day."

"Take your time, don't be too impatient. The historical information you find in reality should also be helpful."

Nobi nodded, looking around the round table. In addition to the original three, there were three more players shrouded in black mist.

Their individual IDs are 【森】【岛】【正】.

Considering that the fastest time to complete the game last time was about ten days, they shouldn't be appearing in the player lobby that soon.

Since his falling out with Nobita, Kosuke Iwasaki has rarely visited the player lobby. He usually just checks in briefly, and if he doesn't receive a system notification, he immediately logs off.

I didn't exchange a single word with them.

I wonder what kind of people these three new players are.

"Anyway, I have no hope of competing for a ranking. You'd better try your best and not embarrass us veteran players," Uesugi joked.

Rankings, please.

Nobita glanced at it.

[1. Correct]

2. Hao

3. Wisdom

4. Sen

5.Month

6. Island

His current ranking is precarious; only the top three receive a reward.

Nobody knows if they'll suddenly be dragged down by those behind them.

To be honest, although he wanted the ranking rewards, a better ending for his first clear was more important.

And we cannot ignore the possibility of finding clues in the game that are connected to reality, and whether they could trigger a disaster similar to the one that happened in the subway.

"I have something to do, I'm logging off now, let's keep in touch." Nobi estimated the time; it was already past 2 a.m., and he needed to do something.

"it is good."

Leaving the player lobby, Nobita wakes up in an elementary school classroom.

This is Sendai, the largest city in the Tohoku region.

He came here mainly to make money so that he could subsidize the disaster victims and rob the rich to help the needy.

As for where the money comes from.

He happened to know someone who had committed some heinous acts and was certainly not poor, having amassed a considerable fortune, making him a suitable candidate for the role of "benevolent elder."

He wouldn't feel guilty about killing Nobita if he were to deal with someone like that, but he doesn't want to kill anyone unless it's an extreme situation.

He took out a newspaper, stared at the pictures on it, and recalled them carefully before leaving the primary school.

The night was dark and the wind was high; dense clouds obscured the moon.

In a villa area, security guards were diligently patrolling. The surroundings were quiet; it was just another ordinary night.

"By the way, can we use the excuse of being extraordinary to ask for a raise?"

"Isn't that in Tokyo?"

"Have you forgotten what happened in Yamagata Prefecture a couple of days ago? I saw bombers flying overhead."

"Yes, among the rich people living here, is any of them cleanly made all their money?"

"You guys..."

salsa.

"Ok?"

The well-trained guards turned their flashlights towards the canopy of a tree, where some sounds had just been heard.

"wait for me."

He told his two companions, then approached the tree, peered up at it, and only after confirming that there was no one there did he return to the patrol team and continue patrolling while reminiscing about the previous topic.

Unbeknownst to them, while they were focused on the tree, a dark figure darted past in another shadow.

In a villa.

The over 90-year-old Shimizu Takashi lay in bed with his eyes closed and his brows furrowed, seemingly not sleeping soundly.

"It's not that I don't want to, I just—"

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, his head covered in sweat, and he was breathing heavily.

"Hehe. Dreams. They're all just dreams."

He sat up slowly, the nightlight turning on automatically as he moved. He picked up the water glass on the table, intending to take a sip—but his movement stopped the moment the rim touched his lips.

His old, dim eyes seemed to see a blurry black shadow, most of its body covered by shadow, sitting in his chair, facing him.

Shimizu secretly pinched herself. It wasn't a dream, and she wasn't mistaken. That outline was definitely a human figure!