Rail of Mobius: Part 3

2022-02-07 4:45 PM

Zerovirus

aaaalright folks i'm back this afternoon with more RAIL OF MOBIUS

title screen changed again

now it's just us alone apparently

honestly not sure what the logic here is- i was expecting us to be hanging out with ji hengsheng tbh after that scene last night

Zerovirus

let's see how far i can get. last time we left off on... literally getting a marriage proposal from our ~~platonic~~ extremely nonplatonic childhood friend of opposite gender. and then we had drowning flashbacks and collapsed. again. we have got to stop doing that.

avunvain

oh she had better not be dead

Zerovirus

...we're having a flashback of the first loop, it seems.

At the very start of the third day, the 0th hour of the 3rd day of December, before the bonfire at Midway Station, Ji Hengsheng kissed my forehead.
That kept me tossing and turning for hours. I couldn't sleep. I mean, who could, after that? By the time I was able to get to sleep, it was 5AM.
As a result, I overslept the next morning; when I woke up, the Tour of Time was already approaching the Terminal Station.

Se Yue comes on the intercom again and announces that fact.

Se Yue: The Tour of Time is about to reach the Terminal Station. All personnel, please fasten your seatbelts for your personal safety.

That intercom announcement wakes our protagonist up at last. They check their watch. It's 11:50- almost noon, and only ten minutes from the designated end of the trip. (Wow, they're still using watches? I guess it's not very far in the future at all. Who wears a watch these days??)

Wu Shi: Can't believe I slept through the entirety of the final day of the trip.

dysphere

Watches are status symbols nowadays, but it also sounds like the high school isn’t for upper class people usually

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: It's all Ji Hengsheng's fault, aaaagh.
I reach into the pocket for the box she'd given me, last night, at the bonfire. The box with the diamond ring in it.

He flashbacks to her proposal again.

Guy's still not sure how to react!!!!!!!! come the fuck on dude just get with her already literally everybody, in-story and out-of-story, is shipping you two

avunvain

that "aaaagh" is very battler

a nice little flourish dialoguewise

oh i got the correct number of a's

Zerovirus

Wu Shi takes out the ring and stares at it for a while, not really thinking about anything, just kind of, letting his mind go blank for a while, before- A huge vibration shakes the entirety of the train. It flings him out of the bed in his quarters.

Se Yue (over the intercom): The train has encountered an unexpected situation. All passengers, please grab tightly to guardrails without panicking. I repeat-

uh-ohhhhhh.

it's the music from the prologue.

avunvain

does she do all the announcements

Zerovirus

it's not only the music, it's the dialogue, line for line.

zerovirus: alarming music is playing in the background and the screen is flashing red. > An ear-ringing alarm rings incessantly.

Zerovirus

starting from THIS message, word for word.

The train starts flipping every which way, Wu Shi hits his neck, starts bleeding- the one deviation there is this time is that,

Wu Shi drops the diamond ring.

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: The ring...
That was the ring that Hengsheng got me.
Wu Shi: I can't... lose it.
I reached my hand out for it immediately, but just as my fingers grazed the ring-
The train shook violently once again! Unable to resist this massive force, the ring and I were both flung up into the air.
I crashed into the wall and folded like a dirty towel, while the ring bounced off to god knows where.

and then the window cracks.

zerovirus: > ??: Wait.....

Zerovirus

and then it's this scene again.

Wu Shi: Wait...
Wu Shi: I don't... want to die yet!

and- fuck, did my game crash AGAIN?

this build has some stability issues or something.

whatever, i'm great at rapid clicking

Zerovirus

yeah so guy drowns to death. it hurts a lot.

but then, as the world goes dark, there's this cool animated spiral effect on the image that makes it obvious that we're un-flashbacking, now

jjjqance

Hengsheng is gonna be torn up

Zerovirus

-aaaand he wakes up.

Wu Shi: AGH!

He wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. The sheets are absolutely cold with his sweat. He spends a while just breathing and repeating to himself, over and over, 'I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive...'

jjjqance: Hengsheng is gonna be torn up

avunvain

"it's barely been an hour after i reverse-proposed-to-be-proposed-to!"

Zerovirus

Then he looks around properly. He's in the infirmary- the twelfth car of the train.

The closest car to the thirteenth car.

He looks around but he doesn't see anybody else here other than himself. The other beds are shrouded in curtains, though, so he can't be sure that there isn't anybody else occupying those sickbeds.

He checks the time.

Three in the morning, on the final day of the trip. Location: infirmary car. Loop number: two.

yeah okay so we've got a LOOP COUNT in our fucking timestamp format now

that's not ominous at all!!

jjjqance

I thought we were already on loop 2

Is it 0 indexed

Zerovirus

no, yeah, we're still on loop 2, he just had a flashback to loop 1

jjjqance

Ohh

Zerovirus

now he woke up from the loop 1 flashback and found himself in the infirmary, at 3AM

as a reminder, the trip is slated to end at noon today

so he has basically nine hours to figure out what's going on and hopefully stop it

jjjqance

Good idea

Zerovirus

well, he will once he realizes that, as the designated looper protag, only he can save the day or whatever

he hasn't quite come into that heroic mindset yet

still in the 'aaaa what is happening' phase.

Wu Shi goes through the usual questions- am I delusional? Am I dreaming? Did I imagine it all? He discards all of these ideas, on the grounds that, holy shit, no, he totally actually died, that was an EXTREMELY distinct experience.

He thinks about how much he suffered, how the water filled his lungs and filled his body with pain that wouldn't go away no matter how much he weakened, and nearly vomits.

He then gets out- the ring Ji Hengsheng gave to him at the bonfire. He hadn't lost it. The fact that he hadn't lost it meant that this was a different timeline- in the previous timeline, he dropped the ring and it was lost for good. If he has it, here, that must mean that what he remembered hadn't come to pass yet.

That piece of evidence, more than anything else, convinces him that time had indeed reversed itself for him.

Wu Shi: ...But then, how did I reverse time?

It wasn't like he remembered doing anything special after all. He just drowned to death, nothing special. What exactly caused him to become the looper here?

In any case, he knew one thing for certain.

Zerovirus

At noon on December 3rd, the Tour of Time, which had just arrived at its final station, encountered some kind of unexpected problem, leading to the car in which I was resting at the time being filled with water, drowning me to death.

Now, it was 3AM, which meant-

Wu Shi: I've got nine hours until the accident happens.

Guy's on a mission now:

If I don't do anything, it's all but certain that I'll drown to death a second time.

But also:

Wu Shi: ...why did I only recall these memories at the Midway Station? What happened there to trigger it? Why didn't I wake up at the start of the tour with all these memories?

He tries to think back about it, and gets distracted thinking about Ji Hengsheng kissing him again. But- no, that wasn't the exact time; the exact time of him regaining his memories was-

The midnight transition between the 2nd and the 3rd. 0:00 on December 3rd.

Wu Shi concludes that the time machine seems to have a memory-sending-back radius of exactly 12 hours.

He doesn't know why, but he decides that he's not going to waste time trying to figure out something he can't figure out, and instead decides to prioritize stopping the accident that's going to happen in nine hours.

Except, uh, he's got no fucking idea how to do that, either.

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: ....How do I stop it?
This was an undersea tunnel, it wasn't like there was anywhere we could go to avoid the disaster.

Yeah, if the seawater got in the train, that means it got into the tunnel as well, by definition. Even if he convinced the conductor to stop the train, if the tunnel broke the train would still get flooded with water anyways. And that was if he could convince anyone.

Wu Shi: Who would possibly believe me?

Se Yue: Hello! I'm here to believe you!

well, no, she doesn't actually say that, but, gosh, talk about a timely appearance.

jjjqance

Didn't he already have some memories? Did he regain more of them?

Zerovirus

Se Yue: So it was you. You were the one who turned back time.
Wu Shi: ...How'd you know?
Se Yue: I didn't. I've just been asking everyone I've run into the same question, and observing their reactions.

so... wait, you're telling me... that you've been..... spreading the rumour... that there's a time-traveler on the train named the Tour of Time,

i thought you were killing anybody who gave that information away, lady

jjjqance: Didn't he already have some memories? Did he regain more of them?

Zerovirus

he had random images flash through his head accompanied by chronic headaches, but they didn't really cohere into a narrative history. now they have.

avunvain

it's not as if anything you do matters unless it's the final loop

Zerovirus

the major thing he's gained here is that he knows when the accident will occur.

avunvain

and how likely is the first loop, where she has no information, to be the final one?

or, the second

Zerovirus

Se Yue gets right to the point, asking him what happened in the last loop. Wu Shi's not sure whether to trust her or not, but eventually he explains to her the events of the previous loop.

Zerovirus

Se Yue: So, what you're saying is, before we reach the terminal, there's going to be an accident that leads to your death?
Wu Shi: Ayep.
Se Yue: Weird... That doesn't make sense, does it?
Wu Shi: What about it doesn't make sense?
Se Yue: Your testimony is paradoxical in one very specific way.
Wu Shi: ...Which way?
Se Yue: Heheh, I don't think I feel like telling you... unless you say please?
Wu Shi: Wow, you are still as awful as ever.

jjjqance

If he died, how could he have activated the loop

Zerovirus

obviously, yeah

i'm surprised wu shi hasn't already pointed that out

given he sort of came close to thinking that

jjjqance

Maybe his head slammed into the switch in the accident

Pretty lucky

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: I don't suppose anybody less awful could possibly sit on the throne of the Cesium Corporation as its princess, young mistress.
Se Yue: And you continue to be as rude as ever! Happy to see that dying horribly hasn't changed your personality a bit.
Se Yue: Also, stop calling me 'young mistress'.
Wu Shi: Doesn't your maidservant call you that all the time?
Se Yue: Well, yeah, but she's an employee of Cesium, so she's kind of obligated to call me that. But you're not the same as her, uh... like, we're both classmates at the same high-school, aren't we?
Wu Shi: What should I call you, then? Your imperial highness?
Se Yue: I'm not some distant royal on a tour, alright?
Wu Shi: Then how about, Wave-Dashing Silver Snow Maiden?
Se Yue: I categorically refuse to acknowledge anything that chuuni.
We Shi: Earthling???
Se Yue: ...Y'know what, forget it, young mistress is fine.
Wu Shi: So, super ultra young-mistress-sama, what do you think the cause of the accident is?

Se Yue suggests that, given the way he described it, it was probably a structural failure in the undersea tunnel.

Zerovirus

Se Yue: Large amounts of water, pouring in, might be able to derail a single one of the train cars, resulting in that car leaving the tracks and becoming submerged eventually.

Wu Shi: So, what should I do to prevent it?
Se Yue: .........
Wu Shi: Hello? Hey?
Se Yue: .............

really giving off strong energies of 'you're fucked' there

Zerovirus

Se Yue: ....Let's just make a timeline first.
She gets out a pad and a pencil, and starts jotting notes down.
Se Yue: On the first loop, after the incident occurs at 12:00 on December 3rd, someone utilizes the Tour of Time to reverse time, resulting in the thirteenth train car appearing at the end of our train on the second loop.
Se Yue: Let us designate this someone- the user of the Tour of Time- as S.

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Why S?
Se Yue: S for 'start'. The start of all things. No other meaning to it.

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: No, I mean, the user was me, right? Why do we still need a symbol if we know I used it?

Wu Shi is still under the impression he's the user, but Se Yue corrects him by saying, no, dude, you died, so it couldn't be you.

Someone else used it, so that someone is S.

jjjqance

S for 'someone else'

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: So, if I'm not the time-traveler, then what am I?
Se Yue: ...Probably just a victim?
Wu Shi: ...A victim?

I mean, yeah, dude, you died, that makes you pretty much the victim. But Se Yue means something else.

Se Yue: The Tour of Time needs... fuel.

avunvain

S(ome asshole)

Zerovirus

holy shit Wu Shi actually grabs her by the collar.

Wu Shi: WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

Wu is really a terrible mc lol

jjjqance

Gasoline dude, chill

Zerovirus

Se Yue: The mastermind of this game is S.
Se Yue: As the victim of this situation, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome of events.
Se Yue: You're nothing more than the pawn of S.

Se Yue seems... weirdly tolerant of our rudeness, now.

Wu Shi gathers that it's because she's pegged him as death fodder.

Apparently, Se Yue is... convinced that we're fuel for the Tour of Time, and what that apparently means is, we're destined to die no matter what we do.

avunvain

ahhh. so presumably our task is to end it before the people we love become fuel

knowing we're doomed but our loved ones can survive

Zerovirus

Wu Shi hasn't quite come to terms with being consigned to inevitable death, so he's not letting Se Yue go without hearing some better news- but then,

Qian Yuan shows up and slaps us so hard we let Se Yue go.

Zerovirus

Qian Yuan: You rude piece of shit.
Qian Yuan: The only reason why I haven't broken your arms is because you're technically my senior at school. But if you try anything like that again...

Wu Shi is not about to be cornered by the murdermaid, and also he's panicking because he's just been told he's going to die again, so he... uh, he shoves the two of them out of the way and makes a run for it.

Se Yue: Wait! Don't do anything rashly! Further complications may push this timeline to the point of no return!
Se Yue: If you run into S, make sure to tell them that they absolutely must stop using the Tour of Time to reverse time!

Wu Shi...

refuses to listen.

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

I'm going to start believing that "Wu Shi" is actually an insult meaning "idiot"

jjjqance

I'm sure S, who offered Wu Shi as fuel, will surely listen

Zerovirus

I can't trust her words.
She's not on my side.
She's shown no sign of trying to help me, or even of trying to keep me alive at all.
Who does she think she is?
She's not the time-traveller.
I am.
I am the master of this story.
I will be the one to change tragic destiny, to save as many people as I can. That's why I traveled to the past- because I am the hero of this story.

oh, right.

Wu Shi has that whole

hero-complex survivor's-guilt problem.

avunvain

oh, hey, Tidus Finalfantasyten

Zerovirus

yeah, this tracks.

avunvain

good to hear your narration again, buddy

Zerovirus

You can't change anything.
The accident will certainly happen, and you will certainly die as you are destined to.
Don't make me laugh!
I will change the ending.
No matter what I have to do, I will avert my destined death!

well, uh,

you can't say he's, uh, given up on being proactive, at least,

December 3rd, 4AM Location: Roof of Train, 2nd Loop

i, uh, holy shit????????

he's gotten on the ROOF of the train?

that's a THING you can do?

i thought this train was, like... cylindrical.

there's a place for you to stand??

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

I mean you can get on an open air platform between cars

Zerovirus

no, he's DEFINITELY on the roof,

dysphere

Where’s the room between the glass so the water doesn’t get in?

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

I'm hoping they also have a terrace on the roof for the apperitivo

dysphere: Where’s the room between the glass so the water doesn’t get in?

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

I think that's the train

and on the side you can see the tunnel

Zerovirus

that is the train, yes. you can see the walls of the tunnels.

dysphere

I thought the tunnel was narrower

Zerovirus

i thought so too but i guess no it's a way bigger tunnel

So, Wu Shi has... fled to the train roof, because,

after running from Se Yue and making it very clear he's going to go against her will again,

Se Yue has mobilized all the maids to search every inch of the train for him.

So he's on top of the train, grabbing onto whatever he can hold onto for dear life to keep himself from being blown off the top of the train.

Wu Shi: I can't let myself get caught.
Wu Shi: If that's the case, then all I can do now is....

Zerovirus

He... gets out a cellphone with the Cesium Megacorporation logo on it. Apparently, in order to ensure student safety, they gave every student a cellphone that could act as a 'temporary communication device'. The phone could only be used during this trip, but it could be used to communicate with anyone on the Tour of Time either through speech or through texting.

so, let me get this straight

jjjqance

...

Zerovirus

you are, hiding, from people looking for you, while you are, carrying, a phone that they MADE for you, which is designed to allow anyone to find you and communicate with you.

i- man, i guess you don't know about gps trackers, huh.

avunvain

smart kid

zerovirus: i- man, i guess you don't know about gps trackers, huh.

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

tbf he's on a moving train

not sure GPS would work well

under water too

but definitely a tracker

Zerovirus

true, i guess, but, like... god, there's got to be some way to track him.

whatever.

he uses it to call Yu Guang.

dysphere

A way to track him through the network

Zerovirus

Yu Guang: ....Blerghwhatsthebigdealman.

jjjqance

"100 maids are after me"

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

At that point he could post on his insta a selfie with the location written

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: I've got something very important to tell you.
Yu Guang: Have you any idea what time it is, dude?
Wu Shi: 4:01 AM, exactly.
Yu Guang: Yeah, most people use this time to sleep.
Wu Shi: Just listen to what I'm about to say.
Yu Guang: Alright, what've you got for me that's so serious you had to wake me up now?

avunvain

"TIME TRAVEL" "okay, recite my Best Friend Time Travel Password"

Zerovirus

ITS A CHOICE FOLKS

Trick Yu Guang into coming out by telling him about a swimsuit model
Trick Yu Guang into coming out by promising him stupid amounts of money
Threaten Yu Guang

avunvain

THREATS THREATS THREATS

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

Why do you need to trick him???

jjjqance

These all seem like dumb ideas

Zerovirus

they really do

jjjqance

Our protagonist isn't the IQ type is he

Zerovirus

let's threaten him i wanna see it ahaha

avunvain

i wonder if it'll be a jokes-threat or a real-threat

"get out here or i'll show your crush your baby pictures"

Deleted User

swimsuit model is just so dumb that's what I'm gonna vote for

avunvain: "get out here or i'll show your crush your baby pictures"

Zerovirus

oh my god that's EXACTLY WHAT IT IS

holy fuck

i clicked threats to see what it was and

that's actually exactly what it is

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

it's like "how to ask your friend to go to a restaurant with you" 1) trick him with a promised bj 2) trick him with a date with his crush 3) trick him saying you're dying

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: If you don't get out here right the fuck now I'll show all those photos I took of you in a maid outfit to everyone in the class.

avunvain

maybe i'm in a time loop.

Deleted User

wow

true friendship right there

Zerovirus

Yu Guang: Excuse me? I'm pretty sure I've never crossdressed before.
Wu Shi: Are you sure?
Yu Guang: Uh, yeah? I mean... mostly? Let me think....
Yu Guang: .......
Wu Shi: WHY DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT?!
This idiot wasn't sure? I was just bluffing him!

Yu Guang: I, uh, no, I mean, of course I've never done such a thing, it was just that the way you said it shook my conviction in my memory.
Wu Shi: WHY ARE YOU STUTTERING?! STOP STUTTERING! YOU'RE MAKING ME NERVOUS TOO NOW!

Wu Shi: Let us agree to never bring this topic up ever again.
Yu Guang: Agreed.

avunvain

yu guang it's okay

Zerovirus

uh.

guess

we're

doing

every

option

one by one

because this is apparently a gag scene

despite the background music being sad thoughtful gloomy emotional music

this is actually nothing but gags

avunvain

he's going to die midway through the second option

Zerovirus

ji hengsheng will jump out from under his bed like a horror monster

avunvain

get set up for comedy and then it just hits you midway through

Zerovirus

she's going to be like, 'your money is only for meeeeee, your faaaaamily', and then her neck's going to bend unnaturally and she's going to eat yu guang's eyeballs or something

the money option is...

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Yu Guang, if you come out here right now I'll give you five thousand yuan.
Yu Guang: You think I'm Ji Hengsheng?
Wu Shi: Damn, you're right-
Yu Guang: -I'm nowhere NEAR as cheap as her! Make it ten thousand!
Yu Guang: Wait, no, is that too high? How about seven thousand?
Wu Shi: THAT IS NOT HOW HAGGLING WORKS,
Wu Shi: ...Also I've only actually got three hundred on me.
Yu Guang: ...That is not how haggling works either, dude.

Damn, it looks like money is ineffective on Yu Guang. Then I'm just left with...

okay so it's swimsuit models and threats again. god i swear if there's actually some sort of pattern i have to do right here to get the golden ending i'm going to be so upset

time for swimsuit models i guessssssss

Wu Shi: I suddenly really want to swim?
Yu Guang: Eh? At four in the morning?
Wu Shi: Yeah, I just, y'know, really have the urge.
Yu Guang: Uh, well, I mean, you do you, man-
Wu Shi: Also I invited Qian Yuan to go swimming too.
Yu Guang: WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT SOONER?

oh my fucking god so there was actually a correct answer

that's so stupid ahaha

Wu Shi: Meet me in the swimming car, the fifth car.

jjjqance

If the option had mentioned Qian it would have been obviously right

Zerovirus

Yu Guang: I CAN FINALLY SEE QIAN YUAN IN A SWIMSUIT! WAHOO~!

avunvain

now we're getting the bad end because we didn't understand yu guang's heart

Zerovirus

Yu Guang: The fifth car is it? Yeah, give me just a split second- no, a split microsecond, I'll be right there!

Wu Shi hangs up.

He hangs up, and goes the opposite direction,

because his goal was never to meet up with Yu Guang in the first place,

but rather, to have Yu Guang make a loud ruckus about meeting him at a predetermined time and place,

to distract all the maids searching the train into converging on that location,

so that he could go elsewhere undetected.

Wu Shi: Sorry about using you as a tool, Yu Guang. But, as my good friend, it is your contractual obligation to serve as bait for my master plan, every once in a while.

heyo, that's actually surprisingly halfway clever

it makes sense that they'd be trying to catch him by watching his friends, so making his friends move about is a decent distraction!

Wu Shi: I was worried that maybe they'd be able to listen in on my conversation through the phone or if they had a tracker in it to find me with...
Wu Shi: But, if either of those things were true, then they'd have long since found me already.
Wu Shi: Therefore, I can conclude my plan has been a success.

jjjqance

IQ brain

Zerovirus

Wu Shi imagines how hilarious it will be, for the maids to have surrounded the swimming car only to find that the only person there was Yu Guang in swimming trousers.

He wishes he could go grab a photo!

Great blackmail material.

Alas, actual serious business comes first.

...serious business apparently means calling Ji Hengsheng.

Ji Hengsheng: What's the matter?

Deleted User

obv serious business means calling ji

Zerovirus

oh, the phone connected very quickly, and Ji Hengsheng sounds very awake.

Deleted User

D O U B T

avunvain

she's out doing contract mercenary work again

gotta kill to earn the money for that happy family life!

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Eh? You're not asleep?
Ji Hengsheng: I just committed to one of the most important decisions a person can ever make in their life a few hours ago! What, did you think I was going to just go back to bed and promptly fall asleep?
Wu Shi, who totally actually stayed up five hours last timeline because of that proposal: Oh yeah I get you sorry.

avunvain

god, i love your VN translations

feel genuinely privileged to have seen so many of them in so many different places

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: I'm just a bit- razzlebrained, yeah, sorry.
Ji Hengsheng: That's what I love about you, kid. So what's the big deal?
Wu Shi: I was going to cruelly use you as bait for my master plan as well but actually I just changed my mind.
Wu Shi: Please come and help me.
Ji Hengsheng: ...Help you? With what?

Wu Shi tells Ji Hengsheng everything.

well, good to see you're telling someone everything!

Deleted User

once again

yu guang is the third wheel

Zerovirus

though it's unfortunate because either ji hengsheng is the culprit or it's that one random NPC student whose name i have already forgot

like, they're really the only possible options at this point i think

Deleted User

mebe ji is the sacrifce

and future wu shi was the culprit all along

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: I know it sounds unbelievable, but-
Ji Hengsheng: I believe everything you said instantly and completely, because ever since we were kids you never lied to me about anything serious and I don't believe you'd start now.

oh my god she starts to cry a little over the phone.

Ji Hengsheng: It must have been so hard for you..... 😢

Deleted User

JI IS BEST GIRL

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Why're you crying?
Ji Hengsheng: Because I can imagine how awful it must feel to die...

avunvain

these kids are so savvy, jeez

oh god i'm calling them kids. oh god i'm old

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Agh, there you go again, making me worry about you.
Ji Hengsheng: You started it! Literally! I am crying because I am worried about you! That is what this is!

Wu Shi: But no seriously dying: awful. Would not recommend.

Wu Shi: If at all possible, I would really prefer not to experience it ever again- not even a single time more.

jjjqance

She's probably so accepting cause she the culprit

avunvain

we should measure number of time loops full of death and suffering in microhomuras

jjjqance

(I still ship them)

avunvain

cute girl culprit theory!

jjjqance

Honestly if hengsheng is a time terrorist bent on destroying the cesium corporation i will love her even more

Zerovirus

Before I talked to Ji Hengsheng, I was more motivated by fear than anything else. I was scared- scared of the idea of dying, of it hurting again.
But after I called her, something in me felt like... like I was now going to do this, for a better reason than just fear.
Like I'd picked up bravery just by hearing her voice.
Now, even if I occasionally remembered what it felt like to die of drowning, my breath no longer choked up in panic.
I still didn't know who it was that turned back time.
But now that they'd given me an opportunity, I was going to make the most of it.
Not just for my own sake- but so that Hengsheng wouldn't cry anymore.
I'm definitely going to avert my death! I won't let Hengsheng cry over me!

Wu Shi communicates his location to Ji Hengsheng, and hangs up.

He didn't really have a concrete plan for what he was going to do with her, mind you- he just thought that having a partner would help bolster his resolve and courage.

jjjqance: Honestly if hengsheng is a time terrorist bent on destroying the cesium corporation i will love her even more

avunvain

"oh shit oh fuck i put my intended fiancé in the time gas tank, fuck, i have to lie to him about why i'm crying..."

Zerovirus

Wu Shi, after hanging up, thinks about the situation again.

Wu Shi: So, after the accident that leads to me drowning, the mysterious S, who witnessed this happen, uses the time machine and uses me as fuel to go back in time.
Wu Shi: Right, so, fuel. What the hell is fuel? What does that even mean?

How did the time machine even work? There were WAY too many unresolved questions.

Wu Shi: ...Maybe I should have asked Se Yue more questions....

GEE, YOU THINK.

jjjqance

oops

zerovirus: > Ever since that incident when I was 17 years of age, a question had followed me in the back of my mind. > --Having sacrificed another person to save myself, did that make *my life* qualitatively different from the lives of everyone else?

Zerovirus

ohhh i see where they're going with this, this is supposed to be, like, a thematic echo of that one thing,

that whole 'if you sacrifice someone to save your own life, does it qualitatively change the meaning of your own life' question

the story's putting wu shi in the position of being the one who has sacrificed someone else to live and the one who is being sacrificed for someone else to live probably

i think that's where this is going!!

anyways, Wu Shi is like

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Okay, I think I've got two major plans.
Wu Shi: One: avoid the location of death at the appointed time. Don't be in the eleventh train car when the accident occurs.
Wu Shi: Two: figure out who S is supposed to be.

and then a strong wind blows past him, almost knocking him off the top of the train. god imagine if that's how he dies, like he thought he was being so clever and then nope he just fucking falls off the train and breaks every bone in his body like a jackass

Pulling himself back on the train, he spots something interesting!

Wu Shi: It opened?
The thirteenth train car's door had opened??

Wu Shi: The last time I saw it, the doors to that car were locked tight!

Then he turns around to face the front of the train again and oh hey it's you.

jjjqance

Ji has arrived!

just like she said ❤️

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

the doctor is going to be the childhood friend or princess

Zerovirus

I turned my neck suddenly, and saw an unauspicious spectre standing there before me on the train's back.
I was stunned for a moment-
No.
I touched the scar on the back of my neck for a moment.
This person before me wasn't a spectre of any kind.

Wu Shi: I'll never believe in spectres or magic! All crimes can be solved with human methods! UOOOOHHHHHHH!!

Zerovirus

He stood before me like a person, and I could see his shadow on the train.
He wore a long robe that disguised every hint of his build from me, and on his emblem was the Se family crest; his face was obscured by an unsettling mask.
Despite standing on the back of the train, where the winds blew strongly, he stood ramrod-straight.
Wu Shi: Who are you?

Wu Shi: ANSWER ME! Who are you?

avunvain

there's like

one other male character on this train, man

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

you think it's a guy?

avunvain

odds are it's not a he

just, statistically

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

maybe it's the future Wu *

came back to haunt him because he was so cringe

it's like Karkhat 2

Zerovirus

guy pulls out that rusty iron pipe again.

??: Don't meddle.
He spoke in a raspy, mechanical voice.
He didn't speak himself. Rather, he raised a phone; the voice had come from within the phone.
He was using the phone to substitute for his own voice.
??: Don't do unnecessary things.

okay so it's totally one of the characters we know and probably a girl even, goootcha, game. fingergunsright

Zerovirus

??: The secrets of time belong to ME.
Wu Shi: That's how it is, huh?
I finally knew who you were.
Wu Shi: You're S-

and then he bashes our skull in with a metal pipe.

nightpool

Wu Shi: Then how about, Wave-Dashing Silver Snow Maiden?

zero I would like to re-emphasize that you are ridiculous talented at translation. this whole scene. gosh.

Zerovirus

Something shattered atop of my neck, and the continuous line of my consciousness was disrupted once again.

heyooooooo it's 11:50 you know what that means?

it's tiiime for bad thiiings to happeeeeennnnnn

Deleted User

DEATHDEATHDEATHDEATHDEATH

Zerovirus

DIE THE DEATH

SENTENCE TO DEATH

GREAT EQUALIZER IS THE DEAAAAATH

jjjqance

🪦

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

like dude can't you block the heckin' pipe?

Zerovirus

Se Yue's making the... same announcements over the intercom.

...Did you prerecord these?

You're not adjusting them AT ALL for new information???

Just telling everyone to put on seatbelts again?

You think seatbelts will save them??

nightpool

maybe she just didn't want to tip her hand to the culprit

avunvain

what, is she supposed to run all the way to the first train car to yell into the microphone, then back every time there's an emergency

chaoscrowlkanigami: like dude can't you block the heckin' pipe?

Zerovirus

previously that scene established that he was using both hands to clutch onto the roof so he didn't get blown off- though then i guess i have to ask how he got the phone out.

avunvain

these time trips are like 99% emergency anyway, she'd never get a chance to make friends!

Zerovirus

Wu Shi is having a bad day.

zerovirus: previously that scene established that he was using both hands to clutch onto the roof so he didn't get blown off- though then i guess i have to ask how he got the phone out.

Chaos' Crowl Kanigami

but the plague doctor is standing up and using his metal bar ? ahhah

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: What time is it?!
Wu Shi: ....Ohhhh fucknuggets.

zerovirus: > ??: *The secrets of time belong to ME.* > Wu Shi: That's how it is, huh? > I finally knew who you were. > Wu Shi: *You're S-* and then he bashes our skull in with a metal pipe.

nightpool

is this a truncated word or just him saying the name that he and se yue gave the theoretical culprit

the - is confusing me

Zerovirus

the latter yeah

i have a feeling we'll be using THIS image a lot

yep, same dialogue and everything,

Wu Shi: Damn it...
The ring Hengsheng gave me had once again been jolted out of my grasp by the tremors.
Wu Shi: Am I... going to die again?

yes. the answer is yes.

nightpool

man I'm really worried about Ji being the culprit.

Zerovirus

Last time it'd been quicker because I'd been surprised. I hadn't had as much time to anticipate my own demise.
This time, I could see it coming- and because I knew exactly what to expect, I was really able to properly savor the experience, this time.

avunvain

S, having just murdered Wu Shi: "I'm... S? S-what? That means literally nothing to me, was he — all I can think of is him calling me 'essential.' Why would he be calling me essential??? Damn it, now I'm going to be trying to figure it out this entire time loop."

nightpool

oh wait

no, I've got it

Zerovirus

Mysterious shadow: Hang on! It's okay! I'm here to save you! Don't give up!

nightpool

we're the culprit

zerovirus: > Last time it'd been quicker because I'd been surprised. I hadn't had as much time to anticipate my own demise. > This time, I could see it coming- and because I knew exactly what to expect, I was *really* able to properly savor the experience, *this time.*

Straw

jeez

avunvain

scuba ghosts

Zerovirus

...is what this scene isn't. it's actually- as Wu Shi is about to die, he's able to open his eyes and see, oh, shit, he's not the only one here that's drowning.

HA HA I GOT YOU

zerovirus: > Mysterious shadow: Hang on! It's okay! I'm here to save you! Don't give up!

nightpool

JI!!!!!

Zerovirus

YOU THOUGHT THERE WAS HOPE

THERE IS NO HOPE

ONLY DEATH BY WATER

nightpool

nooo

avunvain

WAS THERE NOT EVEN ANY DIALOGUE

Zerovirus

THAT'S RIGHT! WE'RE NOT EVEN DYING ALONE!

nightpool

ZEROOOOOO

avunvain

WERE YOU JUST FUCKING WITH US

Zerovirus

GET OWNED

nightpool

this is why you're the best translator

avunvain

zero i would pay money for your vn translations

Zerovirus

anyways Wu Shi can't even tell who it is as he's drowning, just that there's someone else drowning as well. ngl i'm seriously expecting them to reuse that frame except it's ACTUALLY scuba divers saving him, in the golden ending

it's so- perfectly blurry for that purpose i feel like

jjjqance

but the scuba diver didn't have time to put on his safety equipment and he died of the bends

nightpool

anyway I would like to advance the theory that we're the culprit, because we have to save ourselves from the fire that killed us a few years ago

and close the time loop

Zerovirus

rapid rewind, spirally visual effect that i failed to capture for the third time in a row, we're back at the bonfire

Ji Hengsheng: My choice, is placed in your hands.

oh we're EXACTLY HERE HUH.

avunvain

oh i thought we were going to be at a flashback to the fire that almost killed us

Zerovirus

she kissu kissu us, we get a terrible headache, we collapse to the floor, we get all our memories back but luckily this time we don't seem to completely collapse.

In the second loop, I still wasn't able to prevent my own death...

I clenched my fists in regret.
Ji Hengsheng: Uh... are you alright?

jjjqance

i wonder if there are 2 time cabooses now

zerovirus: > Wu Shi: Eh? You're not asleep? > Ji Hengsheng: I *just* committed to one of the most important decisions a person can ever make in their life a few hours ago! What, did you think I was going to just go back to bed and promptly fall asleep? > Wu Shi, who totally actually stayed up five hours last timeline because of that proposal: Oh yeah I get you sorry.

nightpool

you know, it's kind of confusing that the fact that we completely collapsed on the floor and ended up in the infirmary doesn't rate a mention here.

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: I'm... fine...
Ji Hengsheng: Don't even try lying to me about this! You look like a sheet of paper.

nightpool: you know, it's kind of confusing that the fact that we completely collapsed on the floor and ended up in the infirmary doesn't rate a mention here.

Zerovirus

she definitely didn't mention it at all, yeah.

almost like she was expecting it...........

Deleted User

hmmmmm

HMMMMM

nightpool

man if ji doesn't have a good reason for putting us through this I'm going to be so upset

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Come on, I thought you said I never lied about the serious stuff?
Ji Hengsheng: I guess.....
I pat her on the head.
Wu Shi: If I really can't take it, I'll ask you and Yu Guang for your support, don't worry.
I have never told a lie in my life.

nightpool

TELL HER

jjjqance

wow she remembers??

her saying that, i mean

nightpool

come on JUST because telling her led to you immediately getting killed in the last loop isn't a good reason not to try it again.

Zerovirus

I pushed myself to my feet and forced myself to follow the rest of the students back to the train.
Ji Hengsheng: Uhhhh...
Wu Shi: Hmm?
Ji Hengsheng runs up next to me and hesitates, like she wants to say something to me but isn't sure how to say it.
Wu Shi: Uhhh...?
Finally, she just turns a big, big smile to me.
Ji Hengsheng: Do your best, Wu Shi!
She pulls my sleeve and points to the jewelry box she'd just given me.
Ji Hengsheng: Don't forget, I'll always be waiting for your response!

jjjqance: wow she remembers??

Zerovirus

the original chinese phrasing seems to be intentionally ambiguous between 'she literally remembers saying it last loop' and 'it's a thing she's said about us before, as a platonic childhood friend of opposite gender, to us'

so, i guess, if we're really analyzing that, i think the game writer was definitely grinning while they wrote that.

squiiirm, players.

Zerovirus

Hengsheng.
I've never lied to you before.
But I also haven't told you the complete truth.
Ever since the accident a year ago, I felt like there was a part of my heart that didn't belong to me anymore.
It was a strange feeling.
Even though I knew I was on this side of things, it always felt like there was another Wu Shi watching me from above.
I felt like there was a- distance- between myself, and myself.
In terms of psychological diagnosis, this was apparently something called 'disassociation'.
Sometimes, because of this disassociation, I'd feel like I was living in nothing more than a dream.
But, here, it was this disassociation that saved me.
Maybe most people would, after dying cruelly twice in the same way, break and give up on taking action.
But I could just rub my scar and calm myself down.
Get your head in the game again.
Put your mind to it and figure things out.
Because this life of mine doesn't belong to me, alone.

Wu Shi: Come on. It's time for round three.

fade out of black and-

oh, WOW. we're going RIGHT for the money.

y'know, good going, kid

took you long enough to investigate the obviously suspicious important place

but i'm glad you're doing it now rather than wasting another few deaths

avunvain

oh i do always love "this life doesn't just belong to me any more" as...

well it doesn't seem framed as a pathology so much here

since it's giving him Determination

Zerovirus

also i'm going to propose a theory of my own

each loop is 12 hours long, right

half a day

i'm going to theorize that there is an 'exchange rate' between fuel and time-traveled, to the tune of one death per 12 hours

and that the ultimate goal of this is to, as many of us suspect, to avoid Wu Shi's original death in the fire,

jjjqance

ohhh! cause there was someone else in the car dying with him!

Zerovirus

by creating enough Fuel for the whole year, yeah

which means... well let's assume that only one other person dies per loop

that means that we get 12 hours per loop, so we'd need to loop 365*2 loops to get a year's worth of time

that's like over seven hundred deaths

jjjqance

that checks out

Zerovirus

nnnnot very good.

BUT:

there's a hundred students on this train.

jjjqance

oh i thought there were a thousand

Zerovirus

if EVERYONE here dies horribly except S, the mastermind who's probably Ji Hengsheng in this theory

jjjqance: oh i thought there were a thousand

Zerovirus

yeah no i guessed a thousand as a graduating class but the story has firmly stated there are about a hundred students here

anyways given that there's, like, a hundred students- if they ALL die each loop, it might only take, what, seven loops??

maybe even FEWER, if we kill all the maids as well, though it's... unclear how many maids there are on the cruise.

anyways my big prediction is that this game will last no longer than 7 loops at most.

and that the number of loops is tied to the number of deaths.

jjjqance

wait hold on. Wu died the first time, and then 2 students (Wu + someone else) died the second time. But Wu went back 24 hours the second time, right?

Zerovirus

no, it's always been 12 hours

between the original timeline (which i'm going to call loop 1 since that's the way the game numbers it) and the second loop we went back 12 hours but wu shi fell unconscious for three

so he only had nine

so he came up with the distraction plan and crawled on the train's roof, called ji, and then got ganked by S

and then we went back again and we're back at december 3rd 0:00, i.e. midnight

jjjqance

Zerovirus

...except... huh.

December 3rd, 3AM. Location: Infirmary car (12th train car). Loop: 3.

we... went to the infirmary of our own volition?

and, what, took a three hour long nap???

avunvain

this train is ridiculous

Zerovirus

either way it's 3AM now. and the narrative is acting like things went the exact same as in Loop 2.

Upon seeing Se Yue stride in, I immediately made my status as a looper clear.

Wu Shi: I am someone who has traveled between times. I know what is about to happen in the future.
Wu Shi: Let's skip past all the mutual deception and save ourselves the time.

jjjqance

wow

ur just pulling our chain again aren't you

he probably said some dumbass shit instead

Zerovirus

Se Yue, unsurprisingly, didn't react much to my words.
Se Yue: I don't understand what you're saying?
Wu Shi: Sure you do.
Wu Shi: I know that to use the Tour of Time, something called 'fuel' is needed. ~~According to you in the last loop, I am that 'fuel'.~~ wait no he didn't say that he just thought that sorry
Wu Shi: You were planning to explain this all to me, and before you knew I was the time-traveler you were mentally referring to them as 'S' in your minds. S for Start.
Wu Shi: Also, you hate it when people call you 'young mistress'.
Se Yue: ...Looks like you're actually telling me the truth.
...Excellent. I've successfully deceived her into believing that I am the mysterious 'S'.

WHAT THE FUCK WHY

I THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING SMART BUT YOU WENT BACK TO BEING A DUMBASS

nightpool

adstscacahavsfafavavscsgacaca

jjjqance

omg

avunvain

gj wu shi

nightpool

well at least this...... clears her of being the murderer?

jjjqance

omggggg

nightpool

maybe?

jjjqance

this is amazing

avunvain

truly batoraing it up

Zerovirus

it... kind of makes sense, if you assume that she's never going to tell mere fuel anything of import

avunvain

some random girl in your class you don't like: clearly your beatrice

Zerovirus

Now that she thought I was 'S', I could exploit that and get some useful information out of her.

Subrosian Smithy

incredible

Zerovirus

Ohhhh, Wu Shi went to the infirmary of his own volition, in order to- wait for the princess to show up just like in the last loop.

jjjqance

genius

Zerovirus

And while he was waiting there he spent his time thinking about who S was.

jjjqance

IQ level 105

Zerovirus

He's suspicious of Se Yue because of that whole 'family crest on chest' business, but now he's not so certain, because Se Yue's reaction didn't betray any signs of being confused by someone else claiming to be S.

If she were S, she should at least be momentarily confused why someone ELSE would want to pretend to be her, to her.

nightpool

we already knew this from her initial shocked reaction to the car though I think

but it's good to have it unambiguously confirmed

Zerovirus

Se Yue: How many loops are we on?
Wu Shi: This is the third loop.
Se Yue: ...You monster.
Se Yue: Even knowing what the cost of the Tour of Time is, you continued to use it.
Wu Shi: What're you talking about? You invented it, didn't you?

wait what? she's the inventor of the time machine?? where's this coming from dude?

Se Yue: I'm not like you. I've never used it.

i'm sorry so you ACTUALLY ARE THE INVENTOR OF THE TIME MACHINE???

jjjqance

bruh when you invent a human sacrifice machine you don't get to act high and mighty

avunvain

not a confirmation!

Zerovirus

Se Yue: After I knew what it was I'd invented, I sealed it away.

avunvain

oh that is i guess

Zerovirus

HOW DID YOU INVENT A HUMAN SACRIFICE MACHINE BY ACCIDENT THOUGH

LIKE HOW

'at last! my time machine is complete! wait, shit, why does it require human sacrifices, i didn't tell it to do that...'

avunvain

look into the theory, build a prototype, then realize that a lot of your people are dying since you started it up

zerovirus: HOW DID YOU INVENT A HUMAN SACRIFICE MACHINE BY ACCIDENT THOUGH

nightpool

maybe she thought she could power it with chickens

Zerovirus

like what, it just GREW a receptacle for fucking human souls???

jjjqance

maybe it involves a contract with a demon or somethin

Zerovirus

Se Yue: I had to seal it. Otherwise, there would always be people who would want to use the power of time to dominate the world.
Wu Shi: This wouldn't have been a problem if you hadn't invented it.
Se Yue: You're right.
Se Yue: But, I've done nothing wrong.
Se Yue: No matter what it is that I do, that thing is always the right thing to do.
Wu Shi: ....I don't even know the right way to describe that level of hubris.
Yep, still didn't like her one bit.

Se 'I have done nothing wrong because I can only ever do correct things by definition' Yue

jjjqance

she's charlie from chili and the chocolate factory

nightpool

I mean

probably she would have a better argument if she managed to destroy it

but still, come on. it's not like she's a monster

Zerovirus

Se Yue: Even if I don't know how you did it, but you've definitely activated the Tour of Time and reset the world, and by the looks of it, you have no intentions of ceasing your actions, is that correct?
Wu Shi: That's right. Before I achieve my goals, I will never stop.

uh, dude, be careful, i feel like she's going to pull a pistol out of her pocket and shoot you if you keep talking like that

jjjqance

"maybe if you didn't invent human sacrifice machines you'd have more friends"

Zerovirus

Se Yue: Even though I don't know what your goals are, I have to warn you, that no matter how many times you reset the world, your desired outcome will surely never manifest.
Wu Shi: Then how about this?
Wu Shi: There's plenty of inexplicable mysteries about the Tour of Time.
Wu Shi: If you can convince me, then maybe I'll decide to stop here and now, hmmm?

wow talk about transparently baiting for information.

Se Yue: I see. So that's your goal, is it?
Se Yue: Continued penetration of the stream of time, an ill-conceived attempt to comprehend the entirety of the Theory of Time.

The way she phrases it reminds Wu Shi about how, last loop, 'S' talked about how the 'secrets of time' belonged to them and them alone.

Maybe that was what 'S' wanted? To loop time until they could understand the mystery hidden within time itself?

okay wu shi cool it on the mysterianism there

jjjqance

the mystery inside time is ...

tim

it's a guy named tim

Zerovirus

Se Yue: Even if I told you the theory, you would be incapable of replication.
Se Yue: Or, rather, even if you were able to rebuild a time-machine of your own, it wouldn't mean a damn thing.
Wu Shi: I'll be the one who decides whether or not it means anything, thanks.

Se Yue: Well then, you should listen up closely to what I'm about to say, and hopefully afterwards you'll be equipped to make the correct decision.

oh my god i can't believe this worked

you just fucking blindly faked your way into an infodump

rather than convince se yue that you were a threat that had to be put down with an army of deadly paramilitary maids or something

Deleted User

true protagonist energy

avunvain

like one of them actually likes her

the rest are just

phoning it in

Zerovirus

she gets a piece of paper out and begins to explain to us.

and- oh god this is going to be horrifying to translate

it's my two weaknesses of translation: technical language AND western names transliterated phonetically into chinese

Deleted User

It's the promised time

PROVE YOURSELF

Zerovirus

oh god i can't do this

she's throwing stupid amounts of technobabble at us

like, schrodinger's catboxes, quantum bullshit, names of german scientists whose names are like six characters long in chinese

half of which i can't actually read because they're in traditional rather than simplified

jjjqance

is it just normal technobabble or does it seem like it might be plot relevant

Zerovirus

Se Yue: You've at least heard of general relativity, right?
Wu Shi: Oh, yeah, that's the stuff that one Einzbern guy came up with, right?
Se Yue: EINSTEIN! EINSTEIN came up with relativity!

it's basically Se Yue establishing that she is so much smarter than Wu Shi is. i don't think it's plot relevant.

avunvain

oh god did he actually say "Einzbern"

Zerovirus

he actually said 'Eiztein'

but the joke was the random appearance of the Z

so i figured Einzbern would be a funny way to embellish it

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Look, I couldn't help it, from my perspective you might as well have just put a magical curse on me with all those bizarre incantations you were using.
Se Yue: They weren't incantations, they were theories of physics!

i'm honestly a little sad that my powers of translation were defeated here but i managed to translate the one pun in this segment

and that's what counts really

after that whole gag segment, they start talking about, like, actual business.

Se Yue asks why, if time travel is so easy, why they don't see time travelers from the future all the fucking time.

You'd imagine there would be tons of time tourists if time travel were as easy as building a hyperloop.

Wu Shi guesses that maybe there's time cops?

There are definitely no time cops, Se Yue tells him.

oh thank god for the actual plot-important stuff they have the translations there for you

jjjqance

huh, didn't know that had a name

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Right, the Novakid self-compression principle-
Se Yue: The NOVIKOV self-CONSISTENCY principle!

jjjqance

WOW Wu Shi knew it and i didn't

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Why did all time physicist people have to be born with western names?

what follows is some incredible zero escape level pseudoscience interpretation

Deleted User

isn't that VN in general

Zerovirus

Se Yue: The Novikov self-consistency principle asserts, simply, that the universe we inhabit is one that is already the result of all travels in time which have been performed.
Se Yue: If a time traveler S goes back in time, the universe will change itself for that person.
Wu Shi: Changing the universe, huh? Sounds cool.
Se Yue: Can you be a little more serious, please?
Se Yue: Imagine that a time traveler S goes back in time.
Se Yue: In order to prevent a time paradox, do you know what'll happen?

Se Yue: He'll forget that he's a time traveler at all.

that is not at all the novikov self-consistency principle, girl

but, hey, we're here for bullshit pseudoscience aren't we?

nightpool

eh, it mostly works

jjjqance

man just a few days ago someone on the subreddit was saying something like this and i was trying to argue it was nonsense

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: He'd forget? Then what would be the point?!
Se Yue: That's why you never meet people from the future.
Se Yue: Because they themselves don't even remember that they're from the future.

jjjqance

this is the same thing as just not going back in time at all

jjjqance: this is the same thing as just not going back in time at all

nightpool

which you have to admit is very self-consistent

Zerovirus

Se Yue: Even if S did something different from in the last timeline, it'd be meaningless, because to him, it'd be the first time he did such a thing.

I... guess they're... operating under the assumption that, going back in time means you overwrite the mind of your past self? like, time travel as a wholly mental operation, not one that leaves you with two physical clones?

jjjqance

seems so

Zerovirus

anyways, given that this is apparently the logic this story works under, Wu Shi then asks how come he can remember his own memories.

jjjqance

pretty sure that's NOT how "closed timelike curves" (the relativity concept) work

Zerovirus

Se Yue: That's what the Tour of Time is for. That's the big problem it solves- not time travel itself, but memory retention through time-travel.

Zerovirus

Se Yue: That's why, when we time travel, we aren't going physically back in time, or bringing things from the future to the past with us.
Se Yue: As long as we bring our personality, memories, and experiences- the things in our brain- back with us, then that's all we need.

okay so what i think she's saying that nonphysical time travel is the ONLY kind that gets around this setting's version of the novikov self-consistency theory

if you go back PHYSICALLY you lose your memories, but if you ONLY send your memories then you can go through okay?

man, that's so fucking weird/wrong but whatever

nightpool

I'm.

okay

sure

Zerovirus

just roll with it i guess

as long as the story's consistently playing by its own rules then everything's good 💯

Se Yue also explains that, uh,

apparently,

this is also why the Tour of Time is an undersea hyperloop

rather than a regular old train on the surface of the earth

jjjqance

is this gonna have something to do with catboxes

Zerovirus

because, when you time travel, according to the novikov self-consistency theory, the entire universe rearranges itself to allow for your arrival. but changing the entire universe is too difficult to do with just one person; you're too tiny and the world is too huge. BUT, if the universe could be artificially shrinked, to just the size of a single hyperloop, if you could causally isolate the region of the universal reconstruction away from the rest of the universe, then it would be possible to facilitate it technologically.

jjjqance: is this gonna have something to do with catboxes

Zerovirus

so yes basically she's saying this is a catbox.

well, she hasn't actually said anything involving schrodinger's anything yet

but the basic idea is that this is a causally screened location and thus a miniature universe that's way easier to time-travel in

which is- not actually factually true, we are NOT causally screened off, we can see photons coming in from outside-

but whatever, it's a story!

Straw

zzz time loop stuff get back to Ji tbh

Zerovirus

this is why your romantic power is the raditz of this universe, Se Yue

you're wasting our time on incoherent theories of spacetime rather than flirting with us in a memorable and fun way

zerovirus: you're wasting our time on incoherent theories of spacetime rather than flirting with us in a memorable and fun way

Straw

Se Yue isn't going for the narrative angle, evidently

Zerovirus

oh my god she's talking about deja vu now

jjjqance

me consuming any literature: romance story: yawn time loop story: get to the romance already

Zerovirus

deja vu is some kind of physics representation of space time alternate realities nonsense god fuck

apparently if you've ever had deja vu you're actually a time traveller

except you forgot you're a time traveller

jjjqance

well, that makes sense in-setting

Zerovirus

good thing you're in the infirmary already, girl, because you definitely need medical attention more than i do

jjjqance: me consuming any literature: romance story: *yawn* time loop story: get to the romance already

Straw

I feel like this game is a time loop murder mystery that just happened to get a great romance writer tbh

Zerovirus

so how's that fucking, thirteenth train car, go

into this theory

that's a pretty fucking physical object

Straw

Causing it to be an incredible rom com

nightpool

just wait, one day we're going to learn how the time loop stuff happens in flower and you'll feel bad for making fun of time loop stories

zerovirus: so how's that fucking, thirteenth train car, go

Straw

Yeah good point

marzipanWhale

Samium is driving the time train

jjjqance

hey flower has romance! kinda

nightpool

flower definitely has romance

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: So... you haven't explained HOW you do any of this, yet. Just the what.
Wu Shi: So, okay, sure, I've overwritten my past self's mind with my future memories and that's how I'm back here.
Wu Shi: How do you do any of this.
Wu Shi: How does any of this actually come to happen.
Wu Shi: What does the thirteenth car have to do with it? How does it turn back time?
Se Yue: I haven't turned it back.
Wu Shi: Buh?
Se Yue: I've merely added on. That's why there's a thirteenth car at all-
And then things happened very quickly all of a sudden.

jjjqance

i have no idea what the last part means

Zerovirus

trust me, i don't fucking understand either

nightpool

the last line?

it seemed pretty self explanatory

Zerovirus

i'm trying to translate with respect for original wording at this point because i get the impression that every word counts

jjjqance

no the last half of the convo

nightpool

oh, well, i'm sure we're not supposed to know that yet

it's going to get interrupted by Whatever Happens Next

Zerovirus

Se Yue stopped talking all of a sudden, and a few drips of blood flowed down her forehead.
And then, like a puppet whose strings had been cut, she collapsed.
Wu Shi: ....You again.

holy shit did S get a gun,

did S get- how did they just fucking knock Se Yue out like that instantaneously

pipe to the back of the skull??

nightpool

syringe

Zerovirus

S: I warned you not to do anything unnecessary.

yyyyep they're lugging a bloody pipe around.

pipe to the back of the head i think it is!

avunvain

would you get blood drips from a — oh that'd do it

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: What are your goals, S?
Wu Shi: Judging by that pin you're wearing, you're part of the Cesium Megacorporation as well.
Wu Shi: Do you know who it is you just struck down, there? It was your own corporation's heiress.
S: And?
S: She is the inventor of the Tour of Time.
S: For that, she has made herself responsible for countless sins.
Wu Shi: Sins?
Disregarding my question, S kneeled down besides Se Yue and took something out of her pocket.
S: She is the cause of all of these wrongs.
S: Did you know?
S: Using the Tour of Time, to send your consciousness to the past, consumes 'Fuel'.

avunvain

"i did know, thanks"

...though knowing that makes wu shi much more of a threat

Zerovirus

S: Do you know what that 'Fuel' is?

We did not, so, S decides to show us.

S: The 'Fuel' is right next to you.

S walks over to one of the closed sickbed units, grabs the curtains, and flings them wide open.

jjjqance

ommgggg

Zerovirus

Leather bags, of a certain size and shape.
Perfect for carrying... a certain thing.
As soon as I saw them, some primal instinct was screaming at me,
don't open them,
you don't want to see what's inside them,
but, driven by my curiosity, I couldn't help but do so anyways.

Ding dong! A body has been discovered! But, like, for real this time.

yep, 's a dead corpse. cold and stiff.

who though?

c'mon, don't show us just the feet, show us the face.

avunvain

nice shoes loser

jjjqance

maybe it's rando NPC girl

avunvain

was she wearing pants

this person has pants

jjjqance

hm true

JaxThePyro

SMH who brings corpse bags to the school trip

nightpool

who is random npc girl again

i feel like i missed this

jjjqance

i mean if you're on a time train that operates on human sacrifice, good to have some around

Zerovirus

okay, here's S's words, translated as literally as i could:

S: By placing the dead inside the thirteenth train car, the Tour of Time is transformed into a time machine.

zerovirus: oh shit it's YOU???

Zerovirus

her

nightpool: who is random npc girl again

avunvain

girl with white hair and glasses

her yeah

Zerovirus

S: That's right, so long as you pay the cost, the Tour of Time will send the user's consciousness to the past, and the so-called 'Fuel'-
S: Is 'a person who has died'.

hm.

y'know, that's not so bad!

you can buy corpses from the morgue probably.

say it's for cutting-edge science research.

you wouldn't even be lying.

S: That's right. In the first loop, your body was the corpse I used.

nightpool

oh i forgot his first vision of this guy was a hallucination, too

Zerovirus

S: After you drowned, I loaded your corpse into the thirteenth car and reversed time.

nightpool

which means it could totally be chang you

JaxThePyro

Wait how do you put the corpses in thirteenth car if it only appears when the time machine is used

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Y- you...!

I felt like I wanted to throw up.

jaxthepyro: Wait how do you put the corpses in thirteenth car if it only appears when the time machine is used

Zerovirus

good fucking question. it's possible S isn't telling us the full truth! could you imagine? the culprit lying to us?

also, like... really, the presence of the corpses here implies, if anything, that anybody could use the time travel devices freely

because presumably going back in time can't magically make a corpse evaporate into thin air

so you can just burn the same corpse over and over again if you prepared them before you embarked on the tour

dysphere

I've not been keeping up but I thought the corpses would be consumed

Zerovirus

the story has not stated that's a thing that happens!

but it might be true.

it certainly is a reasonable assumption to make.

but i'm assuming it isn't, and what actually happened is more like... time travel cryonics??

like, idk, someone dragged our drowned-but-not-fully-braindead body to the time machine to send our mind back in time to 'save' us

and just used a regular already-dead corpse from the corpse bag

jjjqance

S's explanation also doesn't explain why Wu Shi's mind went back

Zerovirus

yeah

like, now that i think of it it's totally obvious that someone worked very hard to save us, not to kill us

which implies maybe there's two different 'culprits', someone who caused the accident and someone who wanted to save us afterwards?

nightpool

se yue, maybe?

Zerovirus

god, if she's behind this as some kind of effort to destroy her own creation wouldn't that be a heckuva thing

jjjqance

i have a bad feeling the twist is gonna be that Ji is the bad one 😦

Zerovirus

oh no yeah if the 'someone worked super hard to save wu shi' theory is true then ji is totally behind the mask here

that's completely in character for her

what's not clear is why she wouldn't just...

tell us...

that she was behind it,

nightpool

well the person behind the mask did in fact knock us out and then kill us last loop

right?

Zerovirus

maybe she's both trying to save us AND go back in time to save us from the fire a year ago?

nightpool: well the person behind the mask did in fact knock us out and then kill us last loop

Zerovirus

they knocked us out but that does not guarantee they killed us

it's possible and i think likely that they knocked us out, sighed, and dragged us to the time box again.

zerovirus: maybe she's both trying to save us AND go back in time to save us from the fire a year ago?

nightpool

that was my working ji theory yeah.

Zerovirus

and that's what happens every time we faint.

ANYWAYS BACK TO THE GAME

Wu Shi suddenly thinks about something Yu Guang brought up, a while back.

Yu Guang: Se Yue doesn't come to school very often, because she's obsesed with some kind of dangerous experiment, and these experiments-
Yu Guang: -use people as subjects.

Wu Shi: So... that's the truth of the Tour of Time. You (Se Yue)... invented such a terrible thing!

Qian Yuan: It's me! I'm arriving just on time and AAAAAAAAAAAAA

Qian Yuan: You bastard! How could you do such a thing to the young mistress?
Wu Shi: I- what?? It wasn't me!
Qian Yuan: Who else was it?! You're the only one here!

okay.

so apparently we're hallucinating.

again.

great.

jjjqance

didn't Wu Shi say earlier he disassociates...?

so possibly Wu Shi is actually S

Zerovirus

Qian Yuan: YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THE YOUNG MISTRESS!

nightpool

that makes very little sense

Zerovirus

we dissociated so we could stop ourselves from hearing the truth about how the 13th train car operates??

i mean, at that point, i feel like we're getting close to anime-style multiple personalities as a trope

jjjqance

well, that's what i was getting at

Zerovirus

anyways, in response to a murder maid advancing on us, we hop out the window and make a swift escape.

4AM, roof of the train, loop 3.

hmmm. we've been HERE before haven't we.

we have GOT to come up with a better place to hide than here.

last time we got ganked by S.

Wu Shi tries the same trick as last loop- calling Yu Guang to distract the maids- but this time, no matter how hard he dials nobody's picking up.

He considers calling Ji Hengsheng- but decides not to as well.

Last time he tried doing that, what he managed to summon was S instead.

zerovirus: > Qian Yuan: YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU FOR THE YOUNG MISTRESS!

nightpool

did the scene just. end? here?

Zerovirus

This place was too dangerous; he couldn't risk her showing up at the same time as S, and S killing her instead.

jjjqance

hm, though S showed up this time even when he didn't do that

nightpool: did the scene just. end? here?

Zerovirus

pretty much yeah. the next line is basically him deciding to run for it.

i mean, i guess he didn't see much of a way to explain himself to Qian Yuan.

it did look fairly incriminating.

nightpool

i'm just surprised he was able to get away from her

Zerovirus

that's plot armor baby

if you died to her you'd actually die for reals and you wouldn't be able to loop again!

i have zero doubt that qian yuan is fully and completely capable of actually committing a real murder.

anyways, Wu Shi sits there on top of the train and has just

absolutely no ideas.

He can't call any of his friends, and he doesn't know who to trust, and he's starting to contemplate the possibility that S is hiding in plain sight on the train as one of the students or maids or something.

Even one of his friends, possibly.

He calls Yu Guang a few times again, and then sends Yu Guang some texts, because he wants to talk to someone, but-

ＮＯＭＡＴＴＥＲＨＯＷＭＡＮＹＴＥＸＴＳＹＯＵＳＥＮＤ，ＨＥ＇ＳＮＯＴＧＯＩＮＧＴＯＲＥＰＬＹ．

JaxThePyro

Rip third wheel friend

avunvain

psychic messages

Zerovirus

S does in fact confirm that they sent the reply text using Yu Guang's cell.

No psychic messages in this one, yet, sadly.

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: I'm warning you, if you do anything to my friend-
S: I haven't done anything.
S: Why don't you take a look at what you've done to him, rather?
Wu Shi: Me?
S: That's right.
S: You.
S: Ha.
S: Haha.

S: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

My screen was, in a moment, overflowing with the same character, repeated over and over again.

Wu Shi: ...What's so funny, damn it?

avunvain

ooh, format screw

Zerovirus

S: I'm laughing because you don't even understand the real meaning of 'fuel'.
Wu Shi: I know what fuel is. You told me that fuel is a human corpse burnt to time-travel.
S: You don't even understand the definition.
S: Consider:
S: Is fuel reusable?
Wu Shi: Eh?

S: Whether gas, diesel, or natural oil,
S: Can any of these things be reused after they've already been burnt?

jjjqance

oh here we go

Zerovirus

I felt a chill go up my spine.
S: That's right.
S: It's natural to understand, isn't it? Fuel cannot be reused.
S: The Tour of Time's operation is simple. As long as you pay the cost, you will acquire the equivalent gain, like a self-serve vending machine.
S: But, costs cannot be reclaimed, just as fuel that has been burnt cannot be reused.
S: On the first loop, you drowned to death.
S: I used your corpse in the thirteenth car to fuel the reversal of time, to begin the second loop.
S: In the second loop, you learned of my existence and so I struck you so as to cause you to faint.
S: Now it is the third loop.
S: But that begs a question, doesn't it?
S: In the second loop, who did I use as fuel in order to begin the third loop?

Wu Shi: Wasn't... it... me again?

S: Of course not.

S: Did I not just explain this? Fuel cannot be reused.

So... who did you use as fuel?
Was what I wanted to ask.
But, for some reason, my trembling fingers just couldn't type the characters...

S: You know who I used already.

nightpool

better question—why?

Zerovirus

S: After all... you saw the 'fuel' in the infirmary car already, didn't you?
S: Wasn't there someone else in the dormitory with you, when you drowned, in the second loop?

hm! yep! that sure was a thing that happened that we're remembering!

Wu Shi: WHO WAS THAT PERSON?!
S: Why don't you visit the infirmary, and find out, for yourself?

Straw

If Ji ends up being used for fuel eventually I'm going to be so mad

avunvain

so fuel exhaustion's atemporal, then

nightpool

which is weird, right?

jjjqance

ok but why is WU SHI NOT ASKING WHY HE IS STILL ALIVE

avunvain

does that mean wu shi is going to die in every timeline

nightpool

the lady kind of already told us that

avunvain

for that matter, what changed to put some other person in the drowning car this go-round?

Zerovirus

i mean, we're all assuming the culprit is sympathetic and has a secretly emotionally poignant motivation, because this ain't any of us's first visual novel rodeo,

but from the perspective of someone who has no reason to assume this

i could see them being so freaked out that they just forget to, like,

turn their brains back on

jjjqance

oh. maybe the way it works is that if they die at a certain time t, they always die at that same time in future iterations? And we've now passed that point for Yu Guang but not Wu Shi?

Zerovirus

4:30 AM, 12th train car (infirmary), 3rd loop

We're back in the infirmary.

We need to know.

jjjqance: oh. maybe the way it works is that if they die at a certain time t, they always die at that same time in future iterations? And we've now passed that point for Yu Guang but not Wu Shi?

nightpool

that doesn't make sense because yu guang was definitely alive this time last loop, we called him

jjjqance

wait that [what i said earlier] doesn't make sense either, since Wu Shi was in the infirmary for a while. The body had to have already been there

Zerovirus

Qian Yuan and everyone else is gone; apparently i guess this includes Se Yue as well.

you'd imagine that Qian Yuan would have put Se Yue up in one of the sickbeds and then put a guard on her but no

they're just not here

nightpool

maybe she Got Better

Zerovirus

my theory is that there's just, physically, two yu guangs now- a corpse that was brought back with the 13th car, and the real one who's just not at his phone because ji hengsheng asked to borrow it to prank wu shi with

and the alive yu guang has no fucking clue about any of this shit

zerovirus: i could see them being so freaked out that they just forget to, like,

nightpool

wait i'm not following.

what does this mean?

Zerovirus

i was replying to wu shi's failure to inquire about why he was also getting his memories back every loop too

guy's just freaked out and not reasoning good

nightpool

ahh

Zerovirus

here we are. heart pounding, knees heavy, ji's spaghetti

I gently pull back the covers-

avunvain

welp

it was him or ji

or unnamed female student i guess

Zerovirus

avunvain

unnamed female student is absolutely going to be big important, incidentally. i will bet money on this

Zerovirus

Wu Shi freaks out. Silently, of course. Wouldn't want to attract the attention of patrolling maids of doom.

Hm. Wu Shi doesn't. even. check him for a pulse.

He's just convinced that Yu Guang is dead.

On the basis that his face is pale, alone.

god, this level of shitty body-check would NEVER pass muster in umineko, lemme tell you that much.

avunvain

punch that corpse in the face just in case it wakes up and goes "ow!"

avunvain: unnamed female student is absolutely going to be big important, incidentally. i will bet money on this

jjjqance

she HAS a name (i just don't know what it is)

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Why?!
Wu Shi: How... how could it be him?!
Wu Shi: Why did this have to happen?!
S: I told you, didn't I? Not to do anything unnecessary.

jjjqance: she HAS a name (i just don't know what it is)

nightpool

chang you

avunvain

oh right

i'll put money on chang you being important

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: But... the second loop... he was fine the second loop... I even talked to him over the phone...
S: This is why I told you not to take any unnecessary actions.
S: Did you not foresee something like this?
Wu Shi: ...Foresee this?
S: During the second loop, you did something you did not do during the first loop.
S: You called Yu Guang, on the roof of the train.
Wu Shi: And?
S: You underestimate your own import.
S: As a time traveler, every action you take has the power to rewrite the universe.
S: You are the master and center of this world; all things revolve around you.
Wu Shi: ...What?
Didn't Se Yue just tell me that I was nothing more than fuel? And S had just confirmed that, too- that I'd been nothing more than fuel for his plans.

avunvain

she's way too incidental and minor not to be important

Zerovirus

Now he was telling me that I was the master of the world?

looks like we've got two S's, one 'real' and one less real?

shrugs

Zerovirus

dramatic sad choir music is happening now wow

S: When you wake a person up at 4AM to meet someone, but stand them up at the time and place you were appointed to meet, resulting in him having a restless night that lacked sleep- what do you think he would do, exactly?
Wu Shi: He- he would-
Yu Guang would-
Yu Guang would try to make up for lost sleep by spending the morning napping in the men's dormitory rooms, same as me,
even though he was supposed to be somewhere else at the time, somewhere else that he would have been had it not for my own intervention in time,

Wu Shi: Which means- which means that-

avunvain

nice job, protagonist!

Zerovirus

avunvain

you've already fucked up your whole "life debt" situation!

now you're carrying two lives shackled to your ankles!

Zerovirus

S: You killed him.
He raises a syringe, its tip gleaming in the cold light, and advances towards me. I can't find it within me to resist.
Wu Shi: N-no, that's not-
S: You killed him.
S: His death is the result of your actions.
S raises the syringe towards my neck.
S: Please stop doing unnecessary things, from now on.
S: Good night.

okay wow we're just going to LET the mysterious masked culprit forcibly put us back on schedule for death by drowning huh

avunvain

death doesn't feel particularly consequential, so maybe Wu Shi's learned to live with it

not live with it

as the case may be

nightpool

so wait

who was the fuel for the first loop then

what????

I am confused

Zerovirus

S claims we were the fuel but like obviously that's fucking bullshit

jjjqance

i think we're supposed to have a lot of questions

Zerovirus

i'm rather inclined to believe that S is lying out of her ass to us

it's totally her, there is no way it's anyone other than one of the cute girls in this game

nightpool

well we've already ruled out two of them

and there are two left

jjjqance

also why does S even care? it seems like she's happy to use people as fuel to trigger the time machine

Zerovirus

i also think that S is making up the nonsense about fuel being non-reusable- like, what would that even LOOK LIKE, exactly?? yu guang drops over dead the moment the time loop begins again?

yu guang pops out of existence like a soap bubble and reappears as a corpse in the 13th car??

why couldn't there be a live Yu Guang and a dead one at the same time?

nightpool

just to be clear, have there been two loops or three? if we're on the third loop?

Zerovirus

the 'first loop' is the un-altered 'original timeline'

we've physically performed two loops

nightpool

haven't there been 3 activations of the machine? or am I just confused by the flashbacks.

Zerovirus

but the game calls each timeline a 'loop'

so the machine has only activated twice

Loop 1 -> first use of the time machine, S claims they used us -> Loop 2 -> second use of the time machine, S claims they used yu guang -> Loop 3

but now we're at the end of loop 3.

and the machine has just been activated again.

AND THIS TIME I CAUGHT THE SPIRALLY SPECIAL EFFECT

I DID IT!!

but, yeah, given that we go immediately from 'S injects us with something' to 'time loop spiral special effect', i guess we slept through our own fucking drowning.

nightpool

well I guess this time they used se yue

Zerovirus

We're back at the midnight bonfire at the Midway Station. Loop four.

nightpool: well I guess this time they used se yue

Zerovirus

ah, that would make a lot of sense.

Ji Hengsheng once again places her choice in our hands.

nightpool

maybe ji would stop killing people if we finally told her yes

Zerovirus

don't leave us ji hengsheng ;_;

whenever you leave us bad things start to happen

just stay with ussssssssss

zerovirus: whenever you leave us *bad things start to happen*

nightpool

that's odd!

jjjqance

🤔

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: I want to be family with you, for reals-
Wu Shi: ...Not my...
Ji Hengsheng: -forever and- what?
Wu Shi: ....Not my fault...
Wu Shi: It wasn't me... it wasn't me... It wasn't me!
Ji Hengsheng: Wu Shi?!
All I could do was repeat the same words.

traumatized lightless dark eyes of despair, wooooo

nightpool

TELL HERRRR

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: Wu Shi! What's wrong with you?! Why do you look like you've given up all hope all of a sudden?!

nightpool

please ji you're traumatizing the dude

Zerovirus

Wu Shi: Don't you bother me.
I pushed her away from me with perhaps more force than I needed to.
Wu Shi: Let me be alone for a moment...

nightpool

NOOOO

oh dear god no

ji is going to be fuel this loop I can tell

avunvain

boy you are gonna die double hard this time

nightpool

we're getting punished for that one

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: H-hey, Wu Shi-
She reached towards the edge of my shirt to try to stop me from leaving.
Wu Shi: DON'T TOUCH ME!
I slapped her hand away.

I can't capture it but Ji Hengsheng's portrait goes through like three rapid changes of expression in a single second.

Wu Shi: ...Get away from me. Stay away from me.

Wu Shi: Don't get involved with me any further, ever again.

jjjqance

YOU JERK

he deserves everything

Zerovirus

What if something I do causes Ji Hengsheng to die, as well, like Yu Guang?

HEY DUDE HOW ABOUT YOU GO FIND YU GUANG

RIGHT NOW

ISN'T HE DANCING RIGHT NOW

GO TALK TO HIM

nightpool

what were the expressions can we get a play by play

Zerovirus

GO STARE AT HIM SO HE DOESN'T TELEPORT INTO THE BOILER ROOM AND TURN INTO A CORPSE

nightpool

could any of them possibly be described as cold and calculating

nightpool: what were the expressions can we get a play by play

Zerovirus

shock, disbelief, sadness- i can't get screenshots fast enough to grab'em and there's no rewind option, just a dialogue archive i can scroll up, and i don't wanna click through everything again sorry

nightpool: could any of them possibly be described as cold and calculating

Zerovirus

nah

nightpool

yeah that tracks

oh dear god

jjjqance

HE MADE JI SAD he's going to suffer for this

nightpool

I will admit I appreciate how hard this story is leaning into like. how traumatizing this would be to experience

even if I'm frustrated by the protagonist being stupid

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: But... you look like you're suffering.
I needed her to stop looking after me with such an expression of concern.
Wu Shi: It's nothing to do with you.
Ji Hengsheng: But-
Wu Shi: Do you not understand the words I am saying?!
Wu Shi: I have never lied to you.
Wu Shi: I have only ever spoke my mind directly and unvarnishedly!
From my pockets, I pick Ji Hengsheng's diamond ring, and throw it to the ground.
Wu Shi: Don't get close to me! I don't want you at my side!

yeesh, they're going in hard with the breakup scene

jjjqance

i'm suffering rn

nightpool

I can't watch this

Zerovirus

SHE'S CRYING YOU MADE HER CRY HOW DARE YOU

nightpool

this is the stupidest thing

Zerovirus

oh my god you broke the ring when you threw it that's just TOO MUCH

nightpool

I take back what I said about the trauma this is a premeditated and fully fully stupid choice

Zerovirus

She hugs the fragments of the ring and sobs her lungs out.

melodrama/10

Wu Shi turns away from the scene. It's hurting him basically just as much to do this, but he has to do this for Ji Hengsheng's own good.

god that trope.

that ancient dead-horse trope.

you know you're creating a self-fulfilling prophecy right

this is going to lead to ji hengsheng following you around like a sad puppy

resulting in her being in the same room as you when you drown this loop again

Wu Shi hardens his heart and flees.

2AM, infirmary car, loop 4.

Yu Guang heads straight for the infirmary.

sorry, uh

Wu Shi.

he's there to check up on Yu Guang.

Specifically, whether Yu Guang's corpse is there or not already.

In an hour Se Yue's going to show up there as well, but Wu Shi has no plans to stick around for her arrival.

He just wants to check up on the corpses.

However, when he gets there, one of the curtains- has already been opened. Inside it is a bed- with a sealed leather bodybag on top, of course.

Wu Shi checks it.

Wu Shi: ...So it's you this time, huh.

Qian Yuan's dead?

???????

no, wait, sorry, back the fuck up, what?

jjjqance

welp, it's either Ji or whats-her-name next

avunvain

chang you

jjjqance

yeah her

Benedict

oh, that's why she didn't catch up with him last loop

she couldn't very well chase him when she was dead

Zerovirus

The fuel for the first loop was me.
The fuel for the second loop was Yu Guang.
The fuel for the third loop was Qian Yuan.
𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆:

oh fuck.

we have health?

we're in climax inference already?!

oh god oh fuck save save save

okay. options.

avunvain

oh my god

what are those options anyway

Zerovirus

Every loop, S relied on ambush to kill a person.
OR
Each time S travels through time, an additional person must die.

i mean it's not the first

we didn't die by ambush

it's got to be the second

Zerovirus

....well... that was... anticlimactic. i hit the second and, yep, it's the second, that's the right answer. and then there are no further questions. i was expecting more questions. but i guess maybe the health meter is... across the whole game?

we check Yu Guang's bodybag- which is, according to the text narrative, still there, yep.

avunvain

theoretically, there's a ton of students who have absolutely nothing to do with us, maybe one of them could die instead of our beloveds

Zerovirus

Wu Shi apologizes to it, and then leaves the infirmary, right before Se Yue arrives.

He hides in the connection area between the infirmary and the next car.

the game didn't show me the image of Yu Guang's bodybag again, though, but I have no reason to believe that the text would be lying to me.

avunvain

did

did wu shi open yu guang's bodybag

or just see it

jjjqance: HE MADE JI SAD he's going to suffer for this

Straw

He must suffer for this tbh

Zerovirus

Going through it word-by-word...

zerovirus: SHE'S CRYING YOU MADE HER CRY HOW DARE YOU

Straw

noooooooooo

nightpool

I'm so mad about this it's the stupidest trope in the book

Zerovirus

I pulled the curtains (to Qing Yuan's corpse) closed, and turned to the sickbed that held Yu Guang.
Wu Shi: ......
Even though it was the second time I'd seen it.
But if I didn't clench my fists, I would have broken down screaming and sobbing.
Wu Shi: I'm sorry...
Towards Yu Guang, who laid there on the bed unbreathing, I lowered my head.
Wu Shi: I'm really very sorry...

that's the word-for-word translation for that scene

it is... ambiguous if he really saw it or if he just saw the bed and the bodybag.

nightpool: I'm so mad about this it's the stupidest trope in the book

Zerovirus

absolutely.

and here i was praising them for being very mature and open about communicating.

jjjqance

well

we were praising Ji

Zerovirus

...this is weird. Wu Shi suddenly feels like he's... floating. He looks around, thinking that perhaps there's already a leak and that there's water causing a feeling of buoyancy, or something. But there isn't. He feels woozy, like he's already surrounded by water, and the world starts feeling far away- is he dissociating, is that what's happening here,

He feels a weight on his back.

avunvain

syringe of druuugs

Zerovirus

ITS BEST GIRL JI HENGSHENG HUGGING HIM FROM BEHIND!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE'S HEARTWARMING PIANO MUSIC PLAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYTHING IS FINE JI HENGSHENG IS HERE AND SHE'S TELLING WU SHI IT'S FINE AND THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY

jjjqance

uhhh

Zerovirus

this is absolutely sickening. she's completely forgiving him for his tantrum. oh my god.

unbelievable. ji hengsheng is unacceptably blessed with cinnamon-roll characteristics.

avunvain

everything is absolutely not going to be fine

jjjqance

uhhhhhh

maybe she doesnt know how to process

nightpool

maybe we should show her the dead bodies

avunvain

noooo don't traumatize jiiiii

nightpool

well it's not like trying to protect her from it has worked well for us

avunvain

or do it's probably justified

yeah she'll be

nightpool

and yeah there's a 50/50 chance it's justified

avunvain

much better protected if she knows

if she's not just s

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng tells a story about how...

okay so when Wu Shi was young, apparently, he ran into Ji Hengsheng crying her eyes out this one time. Like, in elementary school.

Wu Shi's like, 'okay, so, uh, did I help cheer you up? I don't remember this at all.'

and Ji Hengsheng said,

'absolutely not. you were nowhere near that cool, what you did was start crying along with me. everyone made fun of you for it. you wound up with the nickname of 'crybaby' for, like, weeks after it.'

'but when people made fun of you for it, your retort was,'

'it's not embarrassing to cry when the people you care about are sad! sharing other peoples' emotions is cool, not lame!'

'and that was ACTUALLY cool.'

'and that was when i knew that- you were the kind of person i wanted to spend as much time with as i could.'

jjjqance

God this is the cutest story

Zerovirus

'you've always been the most honest person you could be, with me.'

'if you really said things like that to me, back there... the only possible explanation is, that you really meant it.'

nightpool

well "she immediately saw right through him when he tried to lie" is definitely not the worst outcome.

Zerovirus

'you could never have meant to say those things just to hurt me. that's not you.'

'...tell me what's going on?'

'it's clearly something very serious, isn't it?'

'you wouldn't have told me to leave you alone, otherwise.

jjjqance

Wu Shi does not fuckin' deserve this girl

Zerovirus

honestly he really does not

i don't think that anybody deserves this girl. she is an actual angel.

jjjqance

Even if the story IS super cute

nightpool

which is why she's the killer ofc

Zerovirus

anyways, of course, we tell her everything.

she, of course, believes us instantly and completely, just like in the second loop.

then she hugs us and rubs us on the head while crying about how awful it must have felt to die three times now.

ooh, new song- a background track with flutes. kind of a 'we're in a pinch but we're determined to pull through' vibe to the sound.

Ji Hengsheng: So, to sum it all up, there's a super bad meanie named S, who's been using the Tour of Time to reverse time, to cause you to incessantly drown before the train can reach the terminal?

Wu Shi: Yep, that's about right.

Ji Hengsheng: ...Hmmm... What should we do?

The space around Ji Hengsheng is like a different space altogether. Around her I can always feel calm.

nightpool

\> find Chang You and interrogate her

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: I wonder how much money it'd cost for S to spare you?
Wu Shi: I really don't think they're after money.
Ji Hengsheng: WHAT?! They don't need money?!

avunvain

>kick the holy bejeezus out of chang you using ji hengsheng's money-powered brute strength

jjjqance

i was gonna joke about her bribing S earlier

missed my chance

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: I guess this guy's not as awful as you made him out to be.
Wu Shi: This is a very strange conclusion you have come to.
Ji Hengsheng: There's a saying- only dead baddies and baddies that don't want money are good baddies.
Wu Shi: That does not even make a lick of sense. Please stop inverting exotic new terms like 'good baddie'.
I knew she was just trying to banter with me to lighten me up.

jjjqance

Omfg

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng asks if they should try to recruit the princess, but Wu Shi declines; he's still not sure if the princess is an ally or an enemy, and given what happened last loop, where he came out with full disclosure to recruit the princess, things ended in tragedy anyways, he's not at all inclined to try again this time.

except dude you did not come out with full disclosure

you, quote, unquote, lied to her and pretended that YOU were S so you could pry information out of her.

that is not the same as full disclosure and cooperation.

nightpool

hey quick question

if the only reason he could remember the loops in the first place was because he was fuel

Zerovirus

what's yer question, soldier.

nightpool

doesn't that mean qian yuan and yu what's his name should remember the loops now

Zerovirus

it's not at all implied that fuel can remember the loops; se yue described that as an anomaly.

in fact, he's about to ask that, right now, in the game!

nightpool

wow!

Zerovirus

Wu Shi changes the topic- to why he can retain his memories, if he's not S.

which, hey, for all we know you ARE S somehow.

S sure seems to show up a lot when you're alone.

Ji Hengsheng: Is it because maybe the Tour of Time suffered a bug?

This is not an explanation with any prediction power, Ji. We love you but that doesn't predict for jack shit.

nightpool

it's not like anything se yue told us had predictive power

Zerovirus

Wu Shi is convinced that everything that happens is happening according to a consistent and logical model, though.

Armed with his belief, and quickly flashing back to Se Yue explaining the Nanokid correlation theory again,

..........

he concludes that his power to 'retain his memories'

is the result of the God of Time imparting upon him a solemn duty that only he can fulfill.

nightpool

checks out

Zerovirus

THAT'S THE OPPOSITE OF A COHERENT AND LOGICAL MODEL YOU FUCK

nightpool

don't worry ji is about to call him on that

Zerovirus

Ji Hengsheng: What's the duty?
Wu Shi: I'm not sure. But if you think about it, it must be very important.
Ji Hengsheng: Mmmhmm!

zerovirus: is the result of the God of Time imparting upon him a solemn duty that only he can fulfill.

Straw

>Ji totally buys it

jjjqance

smh my head

Zerovirus

Ji is nodding her head, yep

she, uh, she's buying it

Ji Hengsheng: That's the Wu Shi I'm so proud of!

Straw

#TooGoodForWu

nightpool

okay that's it she's the killer

Zerovirus

All of this is interrupted, suddenly, by a vibration from our phone.

I reflexively check it, to find that an unknown sender has apparently texted me an image of some kind.

Ji Hengsheng: What is it?

Ji Hengsheng: Why's your face gone dark all of a sudden?

Straw

>It's a body

Zerovirus

It's a ~~selfie!~~ video!

~~Multiple selfies.~~ one continuous video!

S: I'll be waiting for you at the same old place.

oh, not a photo, sorry, a video.

zerovirus: ~~Multiple selfies.~~ one continuous video! > S: I'll be waiting for you at the same old place.

Straw

Kind of wondering how they're taking this video if you can see their phone...

Zerovirus

S has sent us a selfie video of them, inviting us to the 'same old place'.

Wu Shi and Ji Hengsheng conclude that the mysterious S must surely mean the roof of the train.

Ji Hengsheng suggests that they team up!

Straw

Better take Ji this time tbh

yay

Zerovirus

Wu Shi can distract S, and then Ji Hengsheng can leap on'em from behind!

jjjqance

2 phones?

Zerovirus

Then they can work together and take apart the culprit's facade, once and for all!

jjjqance: 2 phones?

Straw

Impossible tbh

Zerovirus

And Wu Shi... has no misgivings about this! I was expecting him to come up with some bullshit about, like, 'oh no i can't expose you to that kind of danger! it would be irresponsible and i care about you too much, my platonic childhood friend of opposite gender.'

instead Wu Shi's like,

'hell yeah'

'let's fucking get this bitch'

'he won't know what hit him'

and then they fucking actually high-five.

nightpool

I was... also expecting that!

Zerovirus

and the screen fades to black.

and THAT is where i think i am going to cut it for tonight!

nightpool

I hope that this puts the ji culprit theory to bed but I'm also certain it won't

Zerovirus

no yeah this is absolutely more evidence for ji as culprit if anything

a prerecorded video like this is exactly the kind of thing you send as an attempt to set up an alibi

like, the way ji showed up here, it's clear that she rehearsed her speech

and if she rehearsed that, she could have set up plenty more things in the meantime.

nightpool

oh I meant the thing where she tackles the culprit

but yeah, I mean. yeah.

sigh

Zerovirus

ooh, we have a new title screen now!

can't wait for the golden ending where we have everyone onscreen.

that's got to be a thing eventually.

jjjqance

She looks so glum

The face of someone who has made a harsh resolve

2022-02-08 6:22 AM

lupoCani

I'm ... actually sad to have learned this story has blasphemed Novikov.

lupoCani

I miss the good old days where invoking that word was reserved for properly geeky time-travel stories that knew the rulesets.

...

lupoCani

Also about the fuel, I think all they're saying is a person, once used, is invisibility marked as unavailable for further invocations?

2022-02-08 9:13 AM

jjjqance

starting to feel the S = Wu Shi theory honestly (either as a split personality or because of time travel) like, we know Wu Shi has a bit of a complex about other people being sacrificed for himself. meanwhile all the stuff S says to Wu Shi kind of reads like a person hating on himself for this