Chapter 146 The Puppet

"Alright... you two..." After watching for a while, Feng Bujue spoke, stopping the Tsukamoto brothers' argument. "The monkey show ends here."

The two were actually quite obedient and stopped immediately, both turning to look at Brother Jue.

From a game perspective, the reactions of these two NPCs were reasonable—they were waiting for the "player holding the key item" to make that "final choice."

"This kind of argument, like two shrewish women cursing at each other, won't lead to any result, no matter how long it lasts," Feng Bujue said. "Because you've been refuting each other for so long, but there's been no substantive content."

"So... I'll demonstrate instead," he said, pausing for two seconds and turning his gaze to Tsukamoto in the Illusion of Yang. "Let's take the information you provided, for example. Several things just don't hold up logically. For example... you said that eliminating 'it' was your master's lifelong wish, and he was still worried about it before he died."

"Heh... then I'm curious, why didn't your master seek help from other onmyoji (Japanese occult practitioners) to deal with it in the twenty years between encountering 'it' and kicking the bucket? Don't tell me that you're the only onmyo bureau (In ancient Japan, it was a government agency similar to China's astronomical observatory; the earliest records of the Onmyo Bureau can be traced back to 675 AD, and it was abolished in the 3rd year of Meiji, i.e., 1870; the Onmyo Bureau mentioned here by Brother Jue refers to those folk onmyoji organizations that still claimed to be Onmyo Bureau after the 20th century, similar to martial arts sects) left in all of Japan... You just said that we should escape and find 'powerful onmyoji' to help, which shows that there are still many onmyoji in the world, right?"

Having said that, Feng Bujue turned to face Tsukamoto in the Illusion of Yin: "And you... your story about the government brainwashing the children is somewhat believable, but... the rest of your story has the same problem as your 'twin brother'." Brother Jue spread his hands. "If everything you said is true, why didn't you just find four or five onmyoji colleagues to come here and take care of 'it' in those six long years? If it were me... I could do this kind of thing twice in six days."

Having said that, the expressions of the two Tsukamoto brothers changed.

However, according to the script's flow, the "choice" was still in the player's hands, so...

"Having said so much," the calmer Tsukamoto spoke up again at this moment, "who are you going to believe?"

This question was like a final ultimatum. At this point, Brother Jue had to make a decision immediately... either choose one of the two Tsukamoto brothers, or quickly take the plot to the "hidden truth" line; otherwise... he might trigger the worst team wipe ending.

"I believe both of you," Feng Bujue gave his answer two seconds later, "and... I don't believe either of you."

"You... what does that mean?" the weakened Tsukamoto asked immediately.

"The information you two gave is not entirely false," Feng Bujue said, "but it's also mixed with false parts..."

"Hey... then which one of them is real and which one is fake?" At this time, Gui Xiao couldn't help but ask from the side.

"Heh..." Feng Bujue smiled, not directly answering the question, but continuing, "By combining the stories told by these two, and analyzing and reverse-thinking about those illogical parts and the content created 'to guide our actions,' I have roughly restored the real parts..."

He strolled leisurely in the room, like a detective performing a reasoning show, and... enjoying it.

"The descriptions of the causes and consequences of the '520 massacre' by the two Tsukamoto brothers are not problematic... it can be said that they are basically the same," Feng Bujue said, "but on one question, they both lied, that is... twenty-six years ago, was the seal created by the Nara priest... really not strong?"

As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the two Tsukamoto brothers seemed very puzzled.

"I think that's impossible," Feng Bujue observed their expressions, smiling and continuing, "It's impossible in terms of both reason and emotion... Even if the Nara priest himself could accept it, the 'relevant departments' who invited him wouldn't; therefore, I can be sure that the seal twenty-six years ago was very strong... it might even be stronger than the original seal of the Maō Shrine."

After pausing for half a second, Brother Jue continued: "Then... why are we trapped here by 'it' at this moment, in this place?" He quickly gave the answer himself, "Obviously... behind this incident, there is a key figure—Watanabe."

Feng Bujue took a few more steps, turning to face his teammates: "Everyone should still remember the [Hidden Mission], right?"

"After you mentioned it, of course we remember it..." Ruoyu replied in an almost sarcastic tone.

"Heh..." Brother Jue smiled at her, and then said, "Let me help everyone go over the people in that Class 2-A group photo again..." He raised one hand, counting on his fingers, "First, let's talk about the four adults... Principal Miyamoto, hanged himself at home; homeroom teacher Sato, mentally disturbed; the biology teacher and music teacher whose names are still unknown both died in the 520 massacre, and their souls still wander in this space." Saying that, he raised one hand again, "Then let's talk about the nine children... Suzuki Takayuki, died in a fire and turned into a vengeful ghost, and the vengeful ghost Suzuki was killed by 'it' again; Noguchi Eiji, died from the ghost transformed by Suzuki, and his soul is also trapped here; as for Togashi, Minamoto, Sawada, Dekomori, Sanzenin, Yamada, these six are us six..."

Saying all that in one breath, Feng Bujue put down his hand: "Have you found the problem? To complete this hidden mission [Investigate the whereabouts of all the people in Class 2-A], there is only one target left... that is, to figure out the situation of class president Watanabe."

"Speaking of that..." Gui Xiao then said, "Could Watanabe be the ghost we first saw... that is, the one who turned into black smoke at the staircase on the second floor and dropped a piece of equipment?"

Hearing that, Feng Bujue asked, "What do you think?"

"How would I know..." Gui Xiao said, "The group photo doesn't mark the names of those children, I can't even tell which child is Watanabe, how can I judge who he looks like? Besides... it's not impossible that appearances change a lot after growing up, right?"

"Alright, it seems that your thinking is still pretty clear," Feng Bujue laughed. Judging by his tone, this question was purely to test Gui Xiao.

Sure enough, the next second, Brother Jue continued: "I can tell you clearly that that ghost is not Watanabe; he was just a victim of that massacre back then, about the same as those guys who stretched out their arms from the lockers..."

"You can tell?" Gui Xiao asked suspiciously.

"Yes," Feng Bujue replied, "In the 'Illusion of Yang,' I have confirmed the identity of each child in the group photo one by one, and by the way, I also remembered the faces of most of the dead whose bodies were relatively complete... Therefore, I can be sure that Watanabe as a child and that ghost are not the same person."

"Then..." At this time, An Yueqin thought of something, and her gaze couldn't help but shift to the two "onmyoji." "Could he be..."

"Neither," Feng Bujue shook his head, denying An Yueqin's idea, and continued, "There is no doubt about the identities of these two, they are Tsukamoto Shota... this onmyoji does exist, but... he has already been killed by 'it'."

Because Brother Jue's previous words involved some keywords such as "mission," the content heard by the two Tsukamoto brothers had been processed by the system, and they had no chance to interrupt, but at this moment, the two seemed to have gone online again, expressing strong disapproval of Brother Jue's words...

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

"Do I need you to tell me about my own life and death?"

They both seemed confident and righteous, and there was no trace of acting.

"You see... the truly deceptive place is here..." Feng Bujue ignored them, and continued to say to his teammates, "Both of them... think they are real, and both think that what they are saying is the truth."

"What exactly do you mean?" The calm Tsukamoto seemed to hear some clues, and then asked.

"It's very simple..." Feng Bujue replied, "The memories that went wrong are not ours... but..." He looked left and right at the two Tsukamoto brothers, "...yours."

Whether it was the weakened Tsukamoto or the calm one, they both showed surprise and doubt when they heard this conclusion.

"Although the contact time is not long, as a person who has studied many psychology books (he had read some when he was a child, trying to analyze whether he was crazy, and later did some unsystematic studies out of interest), I quickly discovered... there is something wrong with both of you," Feng Bujue said, "In my opinion, you should be two parts of the same person's personality; you were separated by 'it', and your memories were distorted separately, doing what you thought was right."

"Impossible!" This time, the two Tsukamoto brothers spoke out these words in unison.

"Heh... don't believe it?" Feng Bujue continued, "I'll give you a test and you'll understand..." Saying that, he immediately looked at the weakened Tsukamoto and said, "Apart from your parents, say the name of any relative." Before the other party could answer, he looked at the calm Tsukamoto, "As for you... what did you eat for breakfast today?"

After the voice fell, the whole place was silent for a full thirty seconds...

"Look... it's easy to test," Feng Bujue said, "In short... your memories lack details, because 'it' can't do that to that extent."

At this time, the expressions of the two Tsukamoto brothers became very strange, and they both supported their foreheads with their hands, as if they suddenly started to have headaches...

"So... now let's go back to the previous question," Feng Bujue continued unhurriedly, "How did we get to this point?" He asked and answered himself, "The answer to all this... lies in Watanabe."

*Zzzzt*

Just as Brother Jue said the name "Watanabe," the red light bulb on the ceiling suddenly went out.

*Snap*

In less than a second, Feng Bujue very decisively and calmly turned on the flashlight in his hand.

Two more seconds passed, and his teammates also turned on their flashlights one after another. At this point, they no longer cared about the battery consumption... because this script was obviously coming to an end.

"Uh... those two... where did they go?" Xiao Tan was the first to bring this up after the lighting was restored.

The others naturally noticed—at this moment, the two Tsukamoto Shota brothers were gone, and only the six players were left in the dim room.

"Look! There's something there!" Xiao Ling still had sharp eyes, and she immediately noticed that there was a small piece of glowing shard in the place where one of the Tsukamoto brothers had stood.

"There's also here..." Ruoyu reacted quickly as well, and she immediately turned her flashlight to the place where the other Tsukamoto brother had been, and found that there was also a piece of shard there.

Five seconds later, Feng Bujue picked up those two things very neatly, and showed the item descriptions to his teammates.

And the descriptions of these two items were exactly the same—

[Name: "It's" Kidney]

[Type: Plot-related]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Function: Can be embedded in "It's" body.]

[Can it be brought out of this script: No]

[Note: A miniature organ made of green jade, faintly revealing spiritual energy.]

"Humph..." Brother Jue put the two pieces of jade into his pocket, snorted coldly, and then tilted his head to say to his teammates, "Let's go, let's go downstairs."

No one asked any questions, everyone just silently followed Brother Jue out of the warehouse and back to the corridor on the first floor through the stairs...

Just as they were preparing to move towards the "exit door," they found... in the middle of the corridor, there was already a figure waiting there.

It was a man with a bloodless face, looking about thirty years old, with a middle part hairstyle, wearing a very ordinary t-shirt and pants, and... holding a puppet in his chest.

"Do you want to die that much? Traveler from another world." The voice came directly from the man's chest, and it was a hoarse female voice.

"Hmm... let me think..." Feng Bujue pretended to think, "On one side... is risking death to reveal the truth." He paused, "On the other side... is pretending to be deceived by you, making a painless choice, and then leaving here in a 'false victory'... hmm... it's really hard to choose~"

Brother Jue's tone was full of sarcasm, extremely arrogant.

"What's the difference between the two for you?" The voice replied, "Even if this world is completely destroyed after you leave, it won't have any impact on you, right?" Its tone seemed slightly excited, "Could it be... just to block my way, you would rather let all the efforts you and your companions have made so far go to waste?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Feng Bujue said weakly, narrowing his eyes, "I'm not interested in 'blocking your way' on purpose, I'm just acting according to my own principles and interests, if you have to say that I'm blocking the way... it's you who blocked mine."

"You'll regret it..." The voice became cold and violent, "You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Ha! Hahahaha..." At this moment, Brother Jue laughed loudly, laughing almost maniacally, "I... hahahaha... don't know who I'm... hahahahaha!" He laughed so hard that he could barely speak.

After a full half a minute, Feng Bujue suppressed his laughter and stepped forward... approaching the other party while saying, "I'm not sure what you're thinking, but... I'm very sure that the person who 'has no idea who he's dealing with'... is you." At this point, a look of excitement flashed in his eyes, "But... don't worry, I'll let you know who I am right now."