Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

Chapter 69: Attitude Reversal

"You can leave now. I won't pursue this matter, Mr. Koizumi. As for the statement, you need to apply to the police. I will cooperate in signing it once I receive the notification."

At the entrance of Ikeda Rui's house.

He continued to refuse Mrs. Koizumi's invitation to his home during her second visit.

Although it was his fault from every angle back then, his ex-wife's choice to divorce him was understandable.

However, during the negotiations, the lawyer hired by the other party threatened him to sign an agreement to relinquish all his assets, which left him with deep resentment.

Most importantly, he had absolutely no memory of the domestic violence.

However, his ex-wife had ample evidence, and he was indeed in a low mood and his mind was quite confused during that period, so he had no way to refute it and could only suspect that he had schizophrenia.

Although it sounds like he's shirking responsibility, at least his personality would never have considered resorting to violence against his ex-wife.

In order to avoid social death and imprisonment, he ultimately chose to compromise.

Mrs. Koizumi's smile was bitter, her expression delicate. She glanced carefully at Ikeda's tie—it was blue—before slowly speaking.

“I’ve spoken to him about it, but he doesn’t want me to sign a statement with you.”

"And, I'm here to apologize. I'm so sorry about that day. I just couldn't accept that Jia Yi was gone. I was too emotional. I didn't realize he was hiding nearby waiting for you. I'm sorry."

Her eyes were red, she covered her mouth, and lowered her head to sob.

I accidentally revealed the bruise on my neck.

Ikeda Rui frowned slightly.

Please accept my condolences regarding the passing of Keiichi Koizumi.

Mrs. Koizumi wiped her eyes and forced a smile, saying, "I believe the police will give us justice. It's just that Mr. Koizumi was always domineering and irritable; now that Yoshiichi is dead, he..."

A hint of fear flickered in her eyes.

"Don't you know I'm at Komagome Academy?" Ikeda Rui relaxed his guard a little.

"I don't know, I just heard that the school has a good atmosphere. We found out about him by chance from the police that he was quite mischievous since he was a child, so we specially chose a school with a good atmosphere for him."

Mrs. Koizumi sighed.

"But I didn't expect him to stay the same at school. Although we've always had a good relationship, he gets upset and stops talking to me whenever I bring it up. Maybe, maybe it's related to his father. Sigh."

Ikeda Eiji paused for a few seconds: "Was Koizumi's father the same as I was back then?"

Mrs. Koizumi gave a bitter smile: "I know you had no choice back then, but the mental pressure was too great. I don't blame you. The lawyer handled the entire lawsuit process. I was too scared at the time, so I didn't refuse. I'm sorry."

Ikeda Rui shook his head: "Let bygones be bygones. So what are you planning to do in the future?"

"In the future, I want to divorce him. If I can prove that he has violent tendencies, it might be much easier. If I can put him in jail..." Mrs. Koizumi pursed her lips, her tearful eyes staring blankly at Ikeda Rui.

Ikeda Rui nodded slightly.

"I understand."

Mrs. Koizumi rummaged through her bag and took out a bag of cookies: "I don't know if you still like honey cookies, please accept this."

Ikeda Rui stared blankly at the bag of honey cookies for a while before stiffly accepting it.

"I like it very much, thank you."

Mrs. Koizumi seemed relieved, exchanged a glance with Ikeda Rui, and then took her leave.

The two seemed unaware that a detective was monitoring their every move from a nearby parked car.

Metropolitan Police Department.

After dealing with his superiors and the press conference, it was already afternoon.

He didn't delay any longer and began contacting other organizations.

Finding an adoption record from the 30th year of the Showa era (1940), assuming it still exists, would involve extremely complicated procedures.

You need to deal with local legal affairs bureaus, municipal offices, and family courts.

However, Pyeongsang Ryong has never been a rigid person, or rather, a rigid person would never be in this position.

He chose to call a classmate who worked at the Ministry of Justice. After exchanging pleasantries, he inquired whether the classmate was free that evening and arranged to have dinner together.

"Chief, the person you assigned to keep an eye on, Ikeda Rui, just came to the Metropolitan Police Department." Nakajima Shingo knocked on the door and entered, handing the transcript to Taira no Ryu. "He reversed his previous attitude, choosing to prosecute Koizumi Hiroyuki and refusing to sign the interrogation form."

Ping Shenglong nodded slightly and quickly flipped through the transcript.

"Did Mrs. Koizumi go to see him?"

"That's right. I contacted him twice, and in between, I even applied to meet with Hiroyuki Koizumi. We talked about persuading Hiroyuki Koizumi to apologize to Eiichiro Ikeda, and that Eiichiro Ikeda shouldn't be the murderer, and so on."

"But Koizumi became very agitated, rejected Mrs. Koizumi's proposal, and claimed that he would make Ikeda pay with his life."

"What's interesting is that after her second meeting with Eiichiro Ikeda, Mrs. Koizumi went to the hospital for a medical examination to assess her injuries."

After Shingo Nakajima and Taira no Ryu finished processing this information, they took out a transcript.

"During our subsequent interrogation, Koizumi still revealed why he insisted that Ikeda was the murderer."

"It's probably Ikeda Rui's suspected schizophrenia." Before even opening the transcript, Taira no Ryu had already guessed the reason.

As Mrs. Koizumi's current husband, he has no reason not to know why she divorced her ex-husband.

The fact that it wasn't mentioned before is probably due to the agreement signed between Mrs. Koizumi and Eiichi Ikeda, which likely included confidentiality in this regard.

Now, he was so angry that he didn't care about any agreement anymore and just blurted it out.

He was clearly unaware that Ikeda Eizasa had confessed to this matter and even shared the indoor surveillance footage with the police, thus possessing a perfect alibi.

Of course, the most important thing is that Pyeongsung Ryong knows that this matter really has nothing to do with him.

Even if someone is mentally ill, as long as they do not pose a threat to public safety, they are still law-abiding citizens, and the police have no right to detain them in a mental hospital.

Not to mention that this whole thing was just Koizumi Hiroyuki's speculation from beginning to end, and it was completely unfounded.

If anyone's going to be arrested, it'll be him.

“Not only that, he also said that Ikeda hit his wife in the last few days.” Nakajima’s expression was strange.

Hei Shōrō paused in his movements: "He means that the injuries Mrs. Koizumi is currently undergoing for a medical examination were caused by Ikeda Eiji?"

“He didn’t know his wife was going to get a medical examination for her injuries, but he said she told him.”

"Follow the procedures, and the monitoring personnel will remain, but not too much effort will be required."

Time was of the essence. Now that it had been determined that Ikeda Rui and his group were not involved in the case, he did not want to concern himself with other matters for the time being.

In fact, today's press conference was largely due to the explosive news that a parent attacked a teacher with a weapon at the school gate and identified the teacher as the perpetrator.

This instantly drew attention from people who weren't initially paying much attention to the matter, putting even more pressure on the police.

After finishing some miscellaneous tasks, and seeing that it was almost time, Ping Shenglong got up and set off to meet his old classmate at a high-end Japanese restaurant.

Chapter 70: Obeying the Rules

[Congratulations to the player for successfully achieving the Bronze Trophy in the minigame "Subway"! The reward "Electronic Worm" has been issued.]

The first trophy for "Subway" has finally been won.

After a brief explanation, Higashiyama Shin understood the purpose of the reward within seconds.

Internet trace eraser.

It can completely or selectively delete or modify any activity he engages in online, and unless his online data has been closely monitored from the beginning, it will leave no trace after deletion.

It can be called the nemesis of big data.

It can also be used to create a super account that will never be tracked by the police and will be successfully deleted by the platform.

But it's not some kind of super hacking ability; the effect only applies to himself.

For a brass trophy, this is a very good reward, as it eliminates some potential problems that may have been left over from before.

He placed the electronic worm into his network, and soon he altered the content he had previously searched for that might contain a tail.

It should be changed to something that's "normal" for someone his age.

That's right.

It's about homework and knowledge.

"At this point, we've already unlocked the bronze trophy, so it seems we're not far from the ending."

Based on his previous gaming experience, Higashiyama Shin made the judgment.

After completing the Yamanote route and overcoming one more hurdle that determines the ending, you should be able to finish the game.

However, clearing the game is not the problem; the problem is finding the conditions for achieving a perfect clear.

He completed "Soul Swap" very early on, and spent most of his time afterward looking for a perfect way to complete it.

Hopefully, the requirements for a perfect completion of this game aren't too high.

In the normal gameplay, to achieve a perfect completion, you need to complete certain side quests or find key items.

So the best player right now is actually Tomoyoshi Nobi.

He truly explored every place he could, carefully analyzing and pondering every clue.

At Kasumigaseki Station, for example, after knowing that Hibiya Station was the correct direction, he deliberately wasted his life walking towards the terminal station to see if he could find any clues. As it turned out, walking in that direction would indeed result in him being run over by a train.

Of the three players, only he still had that bouquet of flowers with him.

The briefcase was forced to be used to attract attention at Hibiya Station, and it took up too much space in his hand, otherwise he wouldn't have wanted to throw it away, fearing it might play some hidden role in later levels.

Shin Higashiyama has discovered that when the character he controls is wearing that bouquet of flowers, their physical attributes seem to increase out of thin air.

Running and unlocking are much faster now. Without the bouquet of flowers, I'm often in a rush and need to time things precisely, but with it, I have plenty of time.

It's simply a godsend, an essential item to include in any build.

From the perspective of the character, this bouquet of flowers embodies his desires.

He longed to leave this awful place and return to the real world as soon as possible.

There are still people there waiting for him to come home.

These players have spent so many lives to get to the Yamanote Line, and the real person who actually exists probably also made it to this point, using only one life – he's practically a Tokyo Superman.

Is this the legendary power of love?

Higashiyama Shin put aside his emotions and continued to ponder the clues in the game.

The task for this level is clear: find anomalous points in stations that look alike and photograph them.

After the anomaly was captured, the photos actually contained the memories of the boy with the camera and his father.

The difficulty lies not in capturing anomalies, but in the fact that as you progress through the stations, the challenges become increasingly complex, with more intricate hidden rules at each stage.

He got stuck at Ueno Station, where the anomaly was an extremely strange creature, which we'll call an elephant for now.

This thing looks extremely bizarre. Its rough skin is like tree bark, its bulky body is like a giant, moving rock, its nose is outrageously long, and its ears are enormous.

In this station, not only do you have to avoid provoking these things, get closer, and take photos, but you also need to be careful of the spirits hiding in the shadows. As soon as you press the shutter, you will definitely be attacked by them.

During this period, it is necessary to be mindful of the kerosene lamps that may go out at any time, and to keep track of the train's arrival time.

With so many factors converging, even if he had planned the steps meticulously, it was easy for him to make a mistake at some point, leading to his death.

"Based on the station names, this Yamanote Line should be a line that was just completed in 1925, which means it has a total of nineteen stations. Ueno Station is the ninth one."

"The ghost story about the eyeless boy on the Yamanote Line has also been found, but it seems unrelated."

Is the breakthrough point Nippori Station?

There are many legends about the Yamanote Line, and they all mention Nippori Station in unison, saying that it is the "breakthrough point" to break the loop.

However, according to the boy's request, he needed to take pictures of the abnormalities at each station before he would tell him how to leave.

Believe the legend or believe the boy?

Shinichi Higashiyama instinctively chose to believe the boy.

He is a gamer who follows contracts and sees things through to the end.

Even if he fails, it should only be a waste of two days. With the help of other players, he can afford to waste those days.