Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

".Hao?"

“I never expected we’d meet under these circumstances, Satoshi.” Iwasaki Kosuke didn’t deny it, gently removing his gloves, and Asano Hi opened his palm.

【0111】

[Official Player]

Player information appeared in front of Nobita's eyes.

Nobi glanced at the corpses lying scattered all over the ground, his gaze growing cold, but he also opened his palm to the other person, and the two confirmed each other's player identities.

"Can you explain it?"

Iwasaki put his gloves back on, reached out, and conjured a wooden barrel from the shrine's altar to the space between the two of them: "I don't need to explain to others, but... I'd like to say a few more words to you. Open the barrel."

Nobita hesitated for a moment, then reached out and opened the lid.

The moment it was opened, Nobita's pupils dilated, and he dropped the lid he was holding.

There was a woman whose eyes had been gouged out, whose mouth was stuffed with salt, and whose body was surrounded by coarse salt. She was trapped inside in a contorted position, breathing very faintly.

Nobi immediately used his sword to split the barrel open, and the woman inside fell limply to the ground.

A strange pattern was etched into her bare skin, almost covering her entire body, and it was covered in blood, staining the salt grains red.

"You'd better not touch her, it will only cause secondary damage and make her suffer more." Iwasaki's words rang out in front of him, causing Nobita to stop halfway through his actions.

Nobita took a deep breath, slowly raised his head, and stared at Iwasaki: "They did this?"

"There are all sorts of strange beliefs in this country, aren't there? You may not know this, but this shrine is called the Shiozaki Shrine. Sometime ago, a person emerged from among them who claimed to be a messenger of the gods, mixed in his own ideas, and began to spread his own beliefs."

“Here, every year, such an offering is made. A pure young girl is chosen, her tongue is cut off, her eyes are gouged out, holy marks are inscribed on her skin, and then she is stuffed into a salt vat and buried deep underground to pray for blessings.”

“This kind of sacrifice has already been performed once this year, but in order to celebrate,” Iwasaki looked at Nobi with his dark face, “to celebrate that their leader survived on the Hibiya Line and witnessed the birth of the supernatural and the yokai, they believe it is the blessing of the Old Man of Shiodo, so they decided to make an offering once more.”

Iwasaki grabbed a dead man's head with its eyes rolled back and floated it in front of Nobita.

Do you recognize him?

At that moment, Nobita felt his hands and feet were ice cold.

This person was one of the people he saved from the monster's mouth on the monster train.

Ask for a ticket~

There will be another chapter tonight. Thank you to "March" for the 10000 coin reward.

Chapter 129: Guiding the Way

The person in charge of this shrine also had connections with the Arakawa Ryuzaku group and had done many dirty deeds.

That's why Iwasaki came here; the pile of information he just mentioned was something he discovered while searching his soul.

The scene of being rescued from the monster's mouth by the knight on the train was very vivid in the deceased's memory. Even if Iwasaki did not deliberately evoke this memory, it could be clearly seen in the soul search.

Unexpectedly, the moment they discovered it, they encountered the very person in question.

Nobita's eyes were unfocused, and he looked at his hands, which seemed to be covered in blood.

Could it be said that I indirectly caused this woman's death?

No, she's not dead yet, she can definitely be saved.

Nobi regained some of his composure and groped around among the nearby corpses, trying to find his cell phone to call for emergency help.

“Living like this will only be torture for her. If you really want to help her, or at least alleviate your so-called guilt, then kill her.”

In Iwasaki's language, life is light and fleeting, without any weight.

No one has the right to kill indiscriminately.

Nobita simply retorted without saying anything more.

Iwasaki tilted his head, looking at the woman who was on the verge of death.

“I know you’re still conscious and can hear our conversation. Tell me, do you want to live like this?”

The woman's body moved stiffly, and her still-intact fingers slowly traced crooked words on the blood-salt ground.

Kill me.

Nobita stopped searching for his phone, staring at those words, his fist gradually clenching.

"I hope you won't have to come to this filthy world in your next life." Iwasaki twisted his wrist, and with a snap, the woman's neck was instantly broken.

Nobi did not stop it, and no one has the right to kill indiscriminately, but a person who has been brutally tortured and whose future is hopeless has the right to choose to leave this world.

"Are you going to attack these people?" Iwasaki pulled, and the remaining people were dragged to the vicinity of the spilled blood salt.

The salt irritated their wounds, causing them to writhe on the ground like maggots.

But compared to this woman, their wounds were so insignificant.

One can imagine the intense pain she endured before her death.

Nobita, slightly out of breath, looked at the Hero's Sword in his hand.

This sword cannot kill kind people, but it will judge people's evil deeds.

If, according to basic moral principles, he deserves to die, then a sword can kill him.

If the crime does not warrant death, then an equivalent wound will be inflicted.

He raised his sword and plunged it into the heart of one of the men.

The person twitched a few times, then their health bar emptied, and they became completely still.

Nobi drew his sword and stabbed another person, with the same result.

He killed three people; they all deserve to die.

"Do you understand? Justice alone can't save this world." In Iwasaki's mind, Nobita's value as a partner was rising.

He originally thought this was a stubborn young man who insisted on justice, but he didn't expect him to be able to see things clearly.

“They certainly deserve to die.” Nobi met his gaze. “But I don’t believe everyone lying here deserves to die, nor do I believe you haven’t indiscriminately killed innocent people.”

Iwasaki's health bar is so prominent, which shows that he is not a good person.

Iwasaki fell silent.

How can they still maintain their original beliefs?

Nobi is right. He knows that some of the people here are innocent, and some were even brought in on the first day without knowing the full story, with the intention of becoming believers.

But he still killed them all, leaving only "cadres" behind, which is why he was so full of crimes.

"So, are you going to stop me?"

"I will, when you kill indiscriminately."

"Okay, then it seems we won't have the opportunity to cooperate."

Iwasaki shook his head, his body turning into black mist, drifting into the sky, passing through the broken ceiling and disappearing without a trace.

Nobi watched Iwasaki disappear, then slowly sheathed his sword.

The strong stench of blood all around him made him feel as if he had briefly returned to the sea of ​​blood at Hibiya Station.

He walked past several corpses to the altar in the temple.

Japanese shrines generally do not have figurative statues of deities, but rather use symbols or natural objects to represent the gods.

But on the altar inside this shrine, there is a half-human-sized statue made of salt blocks, depicting an old man with a smiling face.

Nobi tore the red cloth off the table, and the salt statue instantly fell to the ground, shattering into large and small pieces that soaked into the flowing blood and gradually dissolved.

He patted the red cloth clean and wrapped the woman up.

Nobita felt like he was holding a puppet, with many of its joints twisted and loose in an inhuman way, as if it would fall apart at any moment.

He carefully placed it on the table, stared at the corpse in silence for more than ten seconds, and then turned and left, disappearing into the shrine through the shadows.

Because of this accident, he has already spent half an hour here, and the remaining half hour is very risky to get to Saitama. If there is even a slight traffic jam on the way, he will be exposed.

Therefore, he had to implement the backup plan, go to a nearby alternative location to hide for 12 hours, and consider whether he should proceed with the original route.

Not long after Nobi left.

Black mist drifted out from the surrounding gaps and gathered in the center.

Iwasaki hasn't finished his sacrifice yet; he just tricked Nobita into leaving.

These sinful souls should not be wasted.

After arranging the ritual patterns and completing the sacrifice, Iwasaki's power increased even further.

But the higher the power, the more sinful souls are needed.

Since evil people can never be completely killed, it means that his strength can continue to increase.

After estimating the range and time of power increase that he could achieve by overdrawing ten years of his lifespan, Iwasaki had already planned the cause of his family's death.

The best way is to kill them one by one secretly. This way, his abilities won't be exposed much, and his real identity will be safe, which aligns with his long-held beliefs.

In other words, "it's not worth it to seek revenge by destroying your own future."

But after these days of killing, he discovered that the world seemed even dirtier than he had imagined.

Filth controls people, and people control the nation.

Dealing with them one by one in the shadows like this is just too unpleasant. Perhaps he should be more unrestrained, so unrestrained that those scheming, despicable, beast-like fellows live in constant fear of him, the judge who may appear at any moment.

To fulfill his sister's last wish and achieve perfect revenge, he didn't mind making it the perfect debut for his new identity, even if it would expose most of his abilities.

I wonder what nickname the official team will give themselves.

nigger?

Iwasaki chuckled softly, a rare occurrence, before transforming into a cloud of black mist and vanishing without a trace.

More than ten minutes later, Nobita found a new hiding place, between the air conditioning units on the roof of a middle school.

Tomorrow he can disguise himself as a student and leave when there are many people around and classes haven't started yet.

With many thoughts swirling in my mind, I lay on the concrete slab, gazing blankly at the starless night sky.

"I saved a bad person, and then that bad person killed an innocent person. So am I an accomplice?"

"When I'm saving people, I don't have time to distinguish between good and evil, nor can I possibly stab them with the sword of a hero before doing so."

"I feel that I made the right choice."

"But it's still very uncomfortable."

This is a problem that Nobita, a high school freshman, cannot possibly understand.

In fact, even academics have some reservations about it.

Kantian deontology holds that the act of saving a life is justified, regardless of whether the person being saved subsequently commits an evil act.

The principle of maximum happiness, on the other hand, makes a more utilitarian judgment: whether saving lives can satisfy the maximum happiness of the majority.

The moral luck theory aligns more closely with Nobita's current thinking: whether one can foresee the possibility that the rescued person might continue to do evil, and if one can foresee it and still saves them, then one must bear the consequences.

Feeling guilty and uneasy, Nobita didn't play games or go to the player lobby to find Uesugi tonight; instead, he took a nap.

When he woke up, it was already past seven o'clock.

The capabilities have been refreshed once again.

Nobita remembered the "Guidance" card. Since it made him appear at that precise time, it meant that participating in this matter would not be something he would regret.

that's the truth.

He wouldn't fall into a moral dilemma if he didn't know anything, but deep down he would prefer to know.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have realized so quickly that society is far more treacherous than he had imagined.

Every choice he makes could have unpredictable consequences.

He took out the cards and asked about the choices.

"Please tell me, should I head to Saitama and then go directly to Yamagata Prefecture, or should I stay in a certain ward of Tokyo?"

【Bunkyo District】