Not a detective

Page 243

“Although I lost consciousness after that, you must have witnessed what happened next. I remembered what happened on Red Stingray Island. I thought that time would only rewind after I died, but actually I might not have died. Just like this time, I subconsciously thought that I would only travel through time after I died... But, did I really die back then?”

His memory stops at the moment he was lifted into the ambulance, and then he never regained consciousness.

After a period of time in a daze, he transformed into an infant, was born from his mother's body, and came to this parallel world of Japan, becoming Asakawa Riku.

Asakawa Riku was also born in 2008, on a birthday at the end of October. If the two worlds were to be time-bound, he would have died on June 7th, the day of his college entrance exams…

In other words, after about five months, he traveled to this place.

What's going on with these five months? Saying he's pregnant isn't accurate, since pregnancy lasts ten months. He initially thought he was a physical transmigrator, but now it seems that's not quite right.

He transmigrated into the body of an unborn embryo?

Or was it that during those "missing five months," Lu Chuanqian was still lying in a hospital bed, not declared dead, and still struggling to be resuscitated?

...Could it be that he was beaten to the point of near death by the thugs but still survived? What happened afterward?

Although Asakawa Riku remembers nothing, his experiences have taught him that memories are no longer trustworthy.

"What happens next..."

Asukai Shi was silent for a while before finally answering, seemingly having asked the right question: "Asa didn't die. After that, we took him to the best hospital, hired the best doctors, and he stayed in the ICU for seven days, finally saving his life. But he still hasn't woken up. The doctors say he's in a vegetative state and may never wake up."

She looked up, her eyes suddenly blazing with a fiery intensity: "So, I've come up with a way to save him."

"any solution……"

Asakawa Riku was stunned. What could Xu Qishi, who was just a student at the time, do to help a patient that even the best doctors couldn't do? Was she a medical student who had only recently started studying medicine?

However, her next answer surprised him even more:

"Because I am a [superpowered] person."

Winter of Man: Chapter Thirteen - The Writer

As Asukai waved his hand, countless images flashed before Riku Asakawa's eyes:

"After that, the group of murderers who harmed A-Qian fled to other places, but they were all arrested and brought to justice. Because the case occurred during the college entrance examination period and involved candidates, it had an extremely bad impact and caused a strong public outcry against those people. Some of the murderers committed suicide out of fear of punishment, the ringleader was sentenced to death, and the rest were also severely sentenced and basically stayed in prison forever."

"But that kind of thing doesn't comfort me at all, because no matter what, my Asahi is gone forever."

"He was just lying on the hospital bed, peaceful as if he were asleep, but no matter how I called him, he wouldn't wake up. When the doctor explained the concept of a vegetative state to me, it was like a bolt from the blue."

Asakawa Riku not only saw Xu Qishi staring blankly at her hospital bedside, but also his haggard parents going to the inpatient department to pay the bills...

He bit his lip, unable to bear to watch, but the next second, Uncle Xu and Aunt Xu came over. They comforted each other and took the initiative to cover most of the expenses.

Rescue, ICU, maintenance, nursing... these are all unimaginable astronomical figures.

Thankfully they were there; without their help, a family could very well have been ruined.

After so many years of getting along, the two families were practically one. Especially since Lu Chuanqian had saved Xu Qishi, which was like shielding her from disaster, Uncle Xu and the others treated this child like their own son. But this incident was an extremely cruel blow to all of them. He died, but he brought grief to those around him...

Asakawa Riku once wanted to accept his parents in Japan, but the thought of people crying for him there always made him unable to let go of the resentment in his heart.

Asukai Shi continues to tell her story:

"The doctor told me that in addition to the concussion causing him to be unconscious and lose consciousness, Ashen's physical injuries were also extremely serious. The vicious criminal had severed his hands and feet. Although his limbs could be reattached, his nerves might not be able to recover. Even if he regained consciousness one day, he would most likely be in a state of severe paralysis and might only be able to live with the help of a wheelchair."

“I know the doctor wants to persuade us to give up treatment, that would be more rational… but how could I give up! I will never abandon this!”

“Lu Chuanqian is already my husband…! We’re married! Even if I’m the only one who admits it, I will definitely stick to it. Even if he’s paralyzed after he wakes up, I’ll take care of him, I’ll push his wheelchair, I’ll cook for him. I just want him to wake up, to wake up… So in the end, I thought of that solution.”

"Using my superpower—[the writer]."

The girl beside the hospital bed silently took out a notebook, uncapped the pen, and began to write her first word.

From that moment on, the clarity and innocence of her youth faded from her eyes, replaced by a cold and sharp gaze. She made up her mind and no longer hesitated.

From that moment on, Xu Qishi truly became an adult.

"I discovered my writing ability when I was a child. To put it simply, it means that I can create a world in the books I write. This world can be manipulated at will according to my words. The fate of the characters and the direction of the story can also be modified at will. I can even enter the world of the book and experience every detail. All the experiences are real, just like a dream." When I was a child, I used it as my own playground, where I could avoid others and play secretly by myself.

"This superpower is called a superpower, but it's actually very useless. No matter what I create in the book world, even jewels and wealth, I can't bring it into the real world. Even if I become a queen or a god in it, it won't have any impact on reality. I can't bring things from the real world in either. I once tried to bring Asahi in too, but unfortunately I failed. So I never told anyone. Anyway, it's a useless ability."

"The only way I can think of is to treat the book world as a mental training room and study twice as hard inside. But unfortunately, the time flow in the book world is the same as in reality. If I go in to study, it's no different from studying outside, so it won't work. Besides, I'm not traveling in with my real body. It's more like splitting off a consciousness. In reality, I'm still writing on paper, so exercising inside won't do any good either... So, I've always thought this ability is pretty useless."

"Until this time, I finally came up with a way, a way to use this ability. Only this way can save Asahi."

Asukai Shi suddenly looked up at Asakawa Riku.

Her eyes, like a mirror reflecting light and shadow, were devoid of tears, replaced by a terrifying resolve.

Asakawa Riku's heart skipped a beat...

He seemed to have a vague idea of ​​what that so-called "solution" was.

Even though the truth is extremely cruel.

“From that day on, I began to write.”

“What I want to create is a vast world that I have never imagined before. In the past, I wrote down some short dreams, a narrow area, which I only needed to play in by myself. I didn’t need too many or too complicated scenes. But now I want to create a real world, a world that no one can see any flaws in. It must be highly realistic and cannot have any mistakes.”

"Therefore, I can only use the real world as a template and cannot deviate too much. Otherwise, with my knowledge, I may not be able to create a perfect worldview. But even with a real-world template as a reference, it is still a huge project. The stage where the story takes place cannot be our hometown. There must be an unfamiliar distance to blur the protagonist's 'observation'."

"Make him feel both familiar and strange, so that he can't tell that this is a fake world and thinks he is living in the real world."

"I consulted a lot of materials, built a virtual Tokyo, a virtual Japan, and added a large number of NPC characters... buildings... streets... scenes..."

"It took me five months to complete this project. During those five months, I barely slept, but I finally finished the foundation of this world before the end of the year."

"We can only add more details later; I can't worry about too many details right now. The most urgent task is to add an important character to this world—"

"That's you, Asakawa Riku. You are a character in my book. According to the settings written by Riku Asakawa, your birth was not a time travel, but a false soul that I created."

"My plan, my goal, is to cultivate you into a new 'Asahi's soul' and then transplant it into a real body."

Winter of Man: Chapter Fourteen - The World in the Book

"So... I've been living in a fictional world, a world in a book?"

Asakawa Riku murmured, still finding it hard to accept for the time being.

I thought time travel was outrageous enough, but this truth is even more unheard of and unbelievable.

He lived here for eighteen years, and everything around him felt so real, including everyone he met, who all had their own thoughts and feelings.

How can anyone believe it if I tell them now that it's all a fabrication?

“To give you a very simple example,” Asu asked calmly, but what made it all the more unsettling was, “can you remember the name of the high school we went to?”

"...Isn't that simple?"

Asakawa Riku smiled, but the smile quickly froze on his face: "XX...XX High School, Metropolitan XX High School..."

He found that no matter how he tried to pronounce those two words, they were very vague, as if he had swallowed them whole and skipped over them, his tongue uncontrollably getting tied in knots.

"Here's the proof."

Asukai Shi explained, "This is one of the bugs I left when I was creating the world. I forgot to design the name of this school, so its name has always been displayed as 'XX'. But I quickly realized that it didn't matter, because characters like you in the book wouldn't be aware of such obvious flaws, just like the brain automatically calculates and filters out these abnormal parts. So I left these bugs as markers to remind myself. As long as I pay a little attention, I can distinguish whether this is the world in the book or the real world, which is very convenient."

So that's how it is... Although Asakawa Riku was taken aback, he had vaguely come to believe it, but felt empty inside, unable to grasp the underlying truth.

He discovered that he didn't even know the name of the school he had been attending, and most absurdly, he didn't even know the names of his parents.

Parents in this world.

Asakawa... what was it again?

This feeling is the most terrifying. No matter how hard he searches his memory, a piece is missing, and not just this one piece, but more and more scattered gaps begin to emerge.

Asakawa Lu felt that he had just temporarily forgotten, and that he would definitely be able to find out his parents' names by going home and checking the household registration information.

But then I thought... really? What if it's like the school's name, something omitted or ignored? What if it's just a mosaic or a black bar covering it up...?

His parents are not needed in this story, so they were arranged to "go abroad to Africa" ​​at a young age, and there was no contact after that.

Even their names have been forgotten; perhaps the people themselves are no longer alive.

Seriously... does the concept of "foreign countries" or "Africa" ​​really exist in this world?

Perhaps only the places he goes and sees will exist, and the places he hasn't touched haven't been rendered yet.

Only in Tokyo, specifically in Shibuya Ward, will there be a Shibuya Ward; only in Kyoto will there be a Kyoto.

It does not exist anywhere else.

"So, this world really is... a book you created."

Riku Asakawa was defeated and had to accept the fact, looking at Uta Asukai.

Now he finally understood why Shizuka Asu was so powerful; she was essentially a god who created this world and had the authority to manipulate everything in it.

Therefore, neither Nue nor [True Warrior God] can challenge her, and even if Chizuko-senpai and the others came, they would only be throwing their lives away...

She could kill Asakawa Riku instantly with just a single word, and she could change fate and reverse time by writing a new sentence in a book.

Shiki Asukai is not the kind of 'god' born from faith and folklore in this world, but a truly transcendent being, a true god.

To be precise, she is the only human being in this world.

But as long as it's a "human", it surpasses all other NPCs in the world who are not "human".

They are not on the same level, nor are they on the same dimension.

Asakawa Riku smiled with relief, or perhaps with extreme helplessness: "That's why this world is such a mess, with all sorts of superpowered beings and monsters, and even organizations that manage it. Just because it's a book, you can set it up however you want? This does fit the concept of a novel. If I were a reader, I would definitely love this kind of extraordinary world."

He finally understood why this world, despite having so many extraordinary powers, could still maintain a semblance of peace.

A novel does need to have this kind of element to be interesting.

"I didn't add this."

However, Uta Asuka shook her head and denied it, saying, "I would never add such thankless settings. Unless absolutely necessary, I will not add physical entities. Adding elements of superpowers and monsters will only make the world unstable and cause all sorts of trouble, affecting my plans. This is not a product of my plans. It seems to have suddenly appeared in the process of this world's self-evolution. Even I don't understand what happened. It seems to have suddenly become like this... But that doesn't matter. The real anomaly is you, Riku Asakawa."

“Me?” Asakawa Riku pointed to himself.

"Yes."

Asukai Shi looked at him, her eyes seemingly filled with complex emotions:

"To put it bluntly, this world is just a warm bed, a cradle, a film studio, a water tank. The world itself isn't important; you are the most important. I created you based on my understanding of A-Qian, including your appearance, personality, and memories—they are all exactly the same. Because I grew up with him, I can guarantee a perfect replica. Your memories are inherited from him, which is why you believe you are Lu Chuanqian. But what I didn't expect was that you would be so obsessed with becoming stronger, even to the point of training to this extent..."

"Because I don't want to go through that kind of pain again."

Asakawa Riku interrupted, already knowing what the other person was implying: "You mean to say that I'm never your 'Asa,' right?"

Before today, he always thought of himself as a lucky "time traveler" who would have a chance to start his life again even if he died, so he cherished this precious opportunity.

But little did he know that his life and his destiny were all preordained; he was merely a character created by Asukai Shi.

To be precise, she was an "experiment" to bring her boyfriend back to life.

The purpose of Asakawa Riku's existence is simply to replicate his memories and personality, and then transplant them into the truly comatose Riku Asakawa, so that he can awaken.

Asukai Shi even went so far as to create a world for this project, a world that was indeed like a breeding ground... Asakawa Riku was like one of the ignorant lab rats in it.

He always thought he was Lu Chuanqian.

Actually, there are two people.

Winter of Man: Chapter Fifteen Why Dunt It

Silence suddenly filled the entire space.

Asukai Shi turned her face away, not daring to look at him.

Asakawa Riku remained silent.

He knew he should be angry at this moment, after all, he had been used, and his life had been staged, so how could he not be angry?

He thought he was a time traveler, but in reality, this world was also a fabrication created by others.

This is just a "dream therapy" similar to "Summer of the Snow Woman," except that he is not the "Yuki" who is being saved, but the "Black Snow" who is being eliminated.

It's the personality that was planned to be erased.

But looking at Asukai Shi, Asakawa Riku felt he couldn't bring himself to be angry.

He also knew that Asukai Shi did all of this to save him, who was lying in the hospital bed, and that she was willing to do anything evil to save him.

Asakawa Riku still believes in himself as Riku Asakawa. The two memories and personalities are intertwined, unable to be separated or distinguished.