A blood-colored city.
Once again arrived at, this soundless, blood-red city.
The pain had already disappeared.
That nightmare-like experience was like a dream; after waking up, there was no longer any pain.
There was only the pervasive blood color.
Only the silent city before his eyes.
No—this time, it seemed that some kind of sound could be heard.
Sounds of wailing screams, sounds of struggling with great difficulty, sounds of undergoing terrifying torment.
Sounds that arose from somewhere within this blood-red city, continuously echoing, and entering Takumi's ears.
What was going on?
Takumi looked toward the source of the sound.
Every time he arrived at this city, he would appear in the same plaza.
But this time, he discovered something different—he discovered a long fissure on the ground of the plaza that had not been there before.
He walked to the front of the fissure and lowered his head to look.
He saw raging flames spreading beneath the entirety of the city.
And within the flames, two twisted figures struggling, as well as one shadow after another that had already scattered.
Those two beastly parents.
For some unknown reason, those two people still maintained an intact appearance within the flames. They were burned without pause, suffering the agony of extreme punishment without pause, yet there was not the slightest injury visible on their bodies; they could only endlessly repeat this pain.
Aside from these two people, those porcelain dolls, those illusory human figures, had already mostly dissipated completely, leaving behind only a small amount of residue.
The bizarre entities derived from obsession, because they do not possess a real foundation, will therefore quickly burn out and turn into pure nourishment.
But the bizarre entities that possess self-awareness, those directly transformed from humans, will continuously repeat infinite pain—being constantly extracted, like a battery?
Takumi understood. At the moment when the Shirakawa Apartments collapsed, that was why he had spoken the words "granting immortality."
He had indeed given these two people immortality, or rather, the power of the watch, the power of this city, had given these two people immortality.
As long as Takumi continued to hold this watch.
This city would continue to maintain the existence of these two people.
Or rather, these two people were already unable to leave the city's supply. Once they lost the maintenance of the city's power, they would lose the foundation of their existence and then collapse and dissipate.
And the reason for maintaining the existence of these two people was very simple: their pain and despair, as the power of obsession-born bizarre entities, would be continuously converted into the power of the watch. As long as a certain amount of time accumulated, it could help the watch recover one rewind count, giving him one more chance to start over.
"So that's how it is."
Takumi had already understood.
At the moment when the Shirakawa Apartments were destroyed, the hand of his watch returned from 3 to 2. That was because the watch had digested derived bizarre entities such as the porcelain dolls and the intangible footsteps. These things had no foundational existence; like food eaten into the stomach, they would be digested very quickly, and therefore the watch immediately recovered one segment.
As for these two people, their existence was somewhat higher in status than those derived bizarre entities without foundations. Although they could not compare to the core obsession, they could already be reused repeatedly and could be used as a long-term source of energy output.
It was just that this process of utilization might be somewhat inhumane.
They had indeed obtained immortality.
An immortality of endlessly repeating extreme punishment within the flames formed by this bizarre power.
Unless Takumi, the holder of this watch, made the decision to grant them death, then in theory, they truly could obtain eternal life—although this kind of immortality was probably something they would be utterly unable to accept no matter what.
"Speaking of which, a normal person's will should collapse in this kind of environment before long, right? Why are they still able to scream with so much vigor? Could it be that their memories are periodically wiped?"
Takumi was still somewhat puzzled, but the watch had no intention of answering him.
In short, a stable method for restoring rewind counts had now been laid out before Takumi's eyes.
By the way, he also already knew the recovery speed of his rewind counts after having these two obsessions as an energy source.
At present… it would still take 893 days for this watch to recover one segment, to provide him with one new rewind count.
More than two full years of time—wasn't that far too long?
Takumi felt some regret. According to what he was vaguely guessing now—the characteristic that this watch would force him to fight high-end matches—these two pieces of scum firewood were simply not enough to burn. It seemed that if he wanted to pass on the flame—ptui, if he wanted to form a virtuous cycle—then he had to free more core obsessions, had to destroy more instances, and absorb more and more obsession existences. Only then would he have a way to deal with the increasingly difficult situations ahead.
Although, right now, he could barely handle even the instance in front of him, and whether there would even be a later was hard to say.
"Is the research base a dead place that you absolutely cannot leave?"
After personally experiencing that female bizarre entity's execution, Takumi had already understood: that world of the research base was the place where the other party's true body was. Wanting to find a safe way to resolve her obsession there was extremely difficult. Especially after already being "watched," whether Takumi would still be able to go to the research base after reviving was itself an unknown.
However, Maki and Kaguya—those two—their starting location was inside the research base.
Takumi vaguely felt that even if they honestly stayed within the research base, before long they would still fall into a situation of total annihilation. Perhaps that time was 15 days: after spending 15 days, that is, after the game's clear time limit, that female bizarre entity would enter the research base and go on a killing spree inside, killing everyone. And because Takumi, who had been "watched," had established a connection with that thing, his entry caused this process to be restored ahead of time, causing destruction to arrive early.
Just like how 304 had been repeatedly cycling through all kinds of events that happened within seven days.
This research base probably was also repeating all kinds of events that happened within 15 days. Just as an obsession's own characteristic, they always restore the past in a twisted and chaotic way, repeating again and again a past that had no idea how many times it had already been repeated.
And just like how Kaguya tore off the calendar, this time Takumi had done something similar: he prematurely brought the power of that core obsession into the research base, directly causing the plot to be massively skipped, and then immediately bad end—everyone was finished together.
Damn it, doesn't this mean that not only can I not enter the research base, I even have to watch out for other players who sneak into the research base after changing clothes? Once a single "watched" player runs into the research base, Maki and Kaguya will have to die ahead of time?
All kinds of possibilities made Takumi feel more and more depressed the more he thought about it, and he could not help letting out another sigh.
Clang!
The first chime of the bell rang out.
Takumi knew that he was about to restart the instance within that twisted cave.
At the same time, he had already sensed the connection between himself and Maki, knowing that he could now, at any time, expend one rewind opportunity to allow the other party to retain the memories of the first run.
But he did not do that.
Maki had witnessed the true appearance of that thing; she had seen that woman with her own eyes.
Most likely, she had already established a "connection" with that thing and was already in a "watched" state.
Her starting location was inside the research base. If she retained her memories, it was very likely that she would enter a dead-end situation right from the start, so she could not be allowed to keep her memories.
Tsk, if that was the case, then the situation over there probably would not change at all, right?
In a situation where there was no way to exchange information and they could not meet each other, how was he supposed to pass over all the information from the first run that he had obtained by trading his life for it? How was he supposed to let her know?
Clang!!
The second chime of the bell rang out.
Takumi's pupils slightly contracted at this moment.
He sensed something a bit different.
Within the connection established between him and Shijō Maki, there was a slight difference.
It was as if an additional choice branch had appeared. He could choose to let Maki retain her memories and have her rewind together with him.
He could also establish a connection between himself and her. Through this connection, no matter how great the distance, he could actively communicate with Maki, exchange information, and Maki could also at any time say whatever she wanted to tell him. No matter how great the distance between the two of them, zero-latency communication could be achieved. And this communication could be opened or closed at any time. Both sides would only let the other hear what they wanted the other to hear, and would not allow anything that should not be heard to be transmitted.
"Because I want to achieve zero-distance communication, did you give me this kind of power?"
Takumi lowered his head and looked at this battered, pitch-black watch.
He had already realized that, along with his repeated deaths and the regrets and resentments that arose from the depths of his heart time and time again, this watch was actually selectively satisfying his regrets, helping him accomplish those things that were difficult for him to do on his own.
But why? And what is the cost?
At present, the only person Takumi could establish this kind of communication link with was Shijō Maki alone.
Because only someone who genuinely believed in him, was willing to trust him unconditionally, and with whom there had been an exchange of bodily fluids—only under those circumstances could Takumi establish a connection with the other party.
In other words, being able to establish a connection with Maki was also thanks to that incident of tongue-kissing her in the rain before…
Once a connection was established, it was permanent.
And establishing a single connection required consuming one rewind count.
Clang!!!
After the third chime of the bell, everything began to dissolve, and it was the moment when Takumi began to return to the instance.
Without any hesitation, Takumi chose to establish the connection.
Even if it was a cup of extremely poisonous wine, right now he had no other choice and had to grasp it firmly.
So, begin—round two!
Click—
The hand of the watch moved from 3 to 4.
An intangible connection linked Takumi and that proud girl together.
He opened his eyes, and darkness spread out as always.
And faintly, the aura of that girl—who did not know where she existed—had already spread within his mind.
{How did you sleep?}
{Eh, Takumi-kun? Where are you? Why can I hear your voice, but I can't see you?}
He sent a voice that only the two of them could hear toward the girl, and then heard the other party's somewhat flustered response.
Takumi stepped forward and advanced toward the direction of the light within the cave.
That pink-haired girl also quickly appeared, meeting Takumi with the same panicked expression as in the first run.
Drip—
Within the darkness, a water droplet fell from a stalactite, splashing onto the ground and producing a crisp sound!
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