In the real world, inside the Service Club.
Yukinoshita Yukino gazed at the light screen. Her mother's figure —still composed even when facing a god of death, even provocative and manipulative—was deeply etched into her eyes. She subconsciously swallowed..her throat feeling dry. She knew this would be Kuchiba Hiro's final crossroad: the end of revenge, or the beginning of a slide into a deeper abyss?
She tried to put herself in her mother's position. Facing such a cold, powerful, and murderous existence, could she remain as calm as her mother, even using words as weapons for such dangerous psychological games?
She had to admit, she couldn't do it.
Her mother's calmness in the face of life and death, her control as if she saw through human hearts and guided the situation, and the chilling implications hidden behind her words... At this moment, Yukino seemed to touch a corner of the iceberg of what her mother called "maturity." It wasn't just age or worldly sophistication, but the ability to deeply understand and coldly utilize human nature, rules, and fate in extreme situations.
Meanwhile, discussions on the internet had already exploded like boiling water, especially after Yukinoshita Ayano unfastened her clothes to reveal her neck and uttered that seductive and provocative line: "You can do whatever you want."
"Whoa! This plot is exciting! Do her! Then send her on her way! That's what I call revenge!"
"Kill! Kill them all! It feels so good to watch! Screw humanity, let's just destroy everything together!"
"Let blood flow like a river! I love watching this!"
A group of netizens seeking only sensory stimulation and extreme emotional release began to cheer wildly. Various bloody, violent, and primal comments filled the screen, as if through the internet, they could project themselves into Kuchiba Hiro's position and experience the illusory pleasure of deciding life and death and destroying everything.
These extreme remarks even drew the attention and concern of some netizens who were originally focused on plot analysis.
"My god... are these comments serious? I can feel the overwhelming hostility even through the screen."
"Although the plot in the light screen might have surreal elements, the ethics, hatred, and choices it explores are all based on our real-world values and human dilemmas. You can't watch it with the mindset of watching a popcorn movie!"
"Just a reminder, the light screen shows a possibility, a deduction based on realistic logic. If this kind of extreme hatred and destructive tendency became mainstream in our real society, what a terrifying sight that would be?"
Someone tried to think more deeply, steering the topic toward an exploration of the essence of "revenge":
"Someone mentioned that 'the premise of misfortune not reaching the family is that the benefits do not reach the family', but if we follow this logic and expand hatred to the entire network of relationships, what would be the result? It would mean not just the direct perpetrator, but their family, friends, and even the entire related social structure become targets of revenge... This is no longer revenge; it's the prototype of genocide."
This comment sparked more discussion about the limits of revenge.
"Yes, that kind of 'thorough revenge' is insane and impossible to complete. Kuchiba Hiro's revenge is essentially a release because his father is already dead, killed under a deeper system built by human wisdom and darkness."
One netizen tried to analyze based on the light screen's background: "Don't forget the 'Doomsday' setting. His father likely touched upon some truth that couldn't be made public, which is why he was silenced. This reminds me of a plot in an excellent sci-fi work —to ensure the implementation of the 'Seed Project,' those in the know must be eliminated. Because if the public learns the world is ending but a small group can escape, their reaction will definitely be to stop them at all costs. Their thought would be: if we're going to die, everyone dies together; why should you get to live? So it must be kept secret; deception is necessary to preserve humanity's last hope."
"Kuchiba Hiro's revenge is destined to be unsolvable. Because he isn't facing a person, but a cold mechanism that can sacrifice individuals for the 'greater good'?" someone followed up on the thought.
"I don't want to know all that background! I just want to know what Kuchiba Hiro will do! Will he kill her? Or will he be led astray by her words?" More viewers were concerned with the immediate direction of the plot.
Regarding Yukinoshita Ayano's baffling actions, rational analysis was not absent:
"I always feel like Lady Ayano isn't begging for mercy; instead, she seems to be constantly provoking and guiding Kuchiba Hiro toward a more extreme direction? Is she really not afraid of playing with fire and getting burned?"
This question received a response from a relatively professional psychological and sociological perspective:
"Your intuition is accurate. Ayano's remarks are classic 'sophistry' and 'issue escalation', commonly seen in the dissemination strategies of certain extreme ideologies. By constructing a grand (destroying nations, destroying humanity), extreme, and seemingly 'profound' narrative, she attempts to twist Kuchiba Hiro's specific, personal hatred into an abstract resentment against an entire race or civilization."
"The purpose of this technique is often to 'hijack' an individual's emotions, making them a carrier for extreme ideas. A magnificent-sounding narrative of 'destruction and rebirth' can easily make someone blinded by hatred fall into 'black-and-white' binary thinking, thereby losing the ability to judge specific targets and feasible means."
"But this move is an extremely dangerous gamble," the analyst continued. "She is betting that the conscience and rationality deep within Kuchiba Hiro have not been completely extinguished. When she magnifies hatred infinitely, expanding it to something as ethereal and impossible as 'the original sin of all humanity', it might instead act like a bucket of cold water, waking up those blinded by emotion. She is betting that when 'killing the woman, the mother, the lady, the defenseless mortal before him' is equated with 'starting a journey to eliminate all of humanity', Kuchiba Hiro will realize the absurdity and irrationality of it, thus becoming unable to strike."
"She is using her life and her daughter's life to bet that Kuchiba Hiro still has the ability to distinguish between 'specific hatred' and 'abstract destruction'. If she wins, she might delay death or even find a glimmer of hope; if she loses, it's eternal damnation."
Views online clashed fiercely, and the atmosphere inside the light screen also froze to the extreme. Everyone's eyes were focused on the blade on Kuchiba Hiro's arm and Yukinoshita Ayano's unprotected, fair, and fragile neck.
In the next moment, will blood stain the tea room, or will the blade drop dejectedly?
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