The players were still stubbornly pretending, fooling themselves.
At this point in the story, Elysia paused as well. She noticed the flood of comments in the stream chat and, after thinking for a bit, decided she should say something.
"Hmm… is there anything you guys want to say?"
"Our Elysian Realm Task Force has to be good for something, after all."
But Mobius clearly didn't agree with that sentiment.
Mobius: "I don't want to say anything right now. I'm not in the mood…"
It was actually Pardofelis—still frazzled from the jump scare in the previous game design—who finally calmed down and responded to Elysia's question.
"Ely-sis, I think the viewers are making a fair point. After all, if the culprit really just wanted to kill Elysia, why bother scattering all those white sheets of paper?"
[Exactly, what was the point of throwing out all that 'Elysia is dead' paper?]
[Maybe someone came to ask the typewriter something earlier, got emotionally destroyed, and smashed it in a fit of rage?]
[Heh, rather than those convoluted theories you're all coming up with, I think this is just the writer being twisted—he wanted us to break down.]
[…Honestly, I think that last Captain might actually be right.]
In the end, the audience reached a conclusion: "The writer's just not human."
Unable to hold back, they flooded the stream chat to go after the writer again.
Seeing that the "Elysian Realm Task Force" truly had nothing more to say, Elysia moved on and pushed forward with the story.
There was still too little information.
Hopefully, the next part would give them something useful.
If the plot was a 10, and we're not expecting too much, at least by the end of Chapter 29, we should have at least 1 unit of useful clue, right?
Hmm… Elysia was likely to be disappointed. Because the final reveal at the end of Chapter 29 was a magical negative one.
...
In the game.
Kevin heard Mei's question, but didn't offer a clear answer.
He only said, "I'll make further confirmation."
Mei pressed harder: "And how do you plan to do that? No matter what... I don't believe she would just so coincidentally… die."
Kevin: "I already said. I'll confirm it again."
That answer—
Mei was clearly unhappy with it. At this point, why was he still being cryptic?
Elysia was gone. She was truly anxious now.
But just when she was burning with urgency, Kevin's answer still felt like "..."—no better than a typing indicator.
It reminded her of the past, in Arc City… how was she supposed to keep enduring this?
"I knew it."
"In that case, there's no need for us to continue together."
"Kevin, as a leader, you are… truly disappointing."
[Ancestor Kevin, now's not the time to be '...' like some stopwatch.]
[Urgent, urgent, urgent! I feel more anxious than Mei herself.]
[I feel like maybe Kevin already knows something Mei doesn't and just can't say it yet, which is why he's being cryptic?]
Whether or not Kevin had some unavoidable reason to play the riddle game like players speculated…
Mei and Kevin ended their conversation on a sour note.
Long after they left the archive room, the sound of footsteps returned outside the door.
It was Kosma.
"Griseo, are you here?"
From under the long table, a young girl slowly crawled out.
"You followed them here?"
"You knew they'd come here from the start?"
Griseo shook her head. "No… I just… followed the colors…"
Kosma fell into thought for a moment upon hearing that, then grew curious about what had just happened in the archive room.
"Did something happen?"
And he was worried whether Griseo had gotten into danger.
"Are you… okay?"
Griseo nodded. "Mm, it was some grown-up talk."
She paused, then suddenly asked something odd: "Kosma… are you an adult too?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because I never really understand them, but now… it feels like I'm about to start getting involved in… grown-up topics too…"
Kosma: "...?"
The players reacted exactly the same as Kosma when they heard that.
Players: "...?"
Not that the phrase "getting involved in grown-up topics" didn't sound a bit… yeah.
Though actually, yeah—it really did sound a bit yeah.
Honestly, they kind of wanted to send a comment saying: [Spread the word: Griseo wants to become an adult]
But what they were really thinking was…
Griseo's behavior now felt very different from before. Something felt off.
There was a weird vibe.
[I'm starting to suspect… could the culprit be Griseo?]
[It's not impossible. She seems too innocent, and that's suspicious.]
[Wait what? Is Griseo turning evil?]
...
"It's absolutely not Griseo."
Seeing that barrage of comments, Mobius—who had earlier claimed she wasn't in the mood—was the first to deny it.
Right after, others chimed in with agreement.
"Yeah, little Griseo can't possibly be the culprit." Pardofelis nodded repeatedly.
"Griseo is the least likely." Vill-V followed up.
"Agreed." Kevin delivered the final word.
Seeing this, Elysia blinked. She had originally wanted to say something, but now realized there was no need.
She continued tapping the screen.
The game's perspective shifted back to Mei.
After leaving the archive room, Mei went straight to Su.
Su asked, "You've already visited the archive?"
"Mm."
Mei clenched her fists. "But the typewriter… it had already been destroyed before we got there."
She then stated that she planned to find other sources of help.
That is—to leave the Realm and seek out Klein and Kevin in the real world.
However, before leaving, she wanted to hear the opinions of the other Flame-Chasers on the matter.
"No matter what, I'm sure—the answer I seek lies with Elysia. And just as I was about to reach it… everything fell apart."
"It feels like I've been toyed with by some unknown force."
"And for a long time now, I've had no patience left for that kind of manipulation."
Her words immediately made players think of one particular individual.
[Calling out a certain unknown blond-haired, green-eyed man.]
[It has to be Otto!]
[Otto: I'm already dead, stop blaming me.]
[No scapegoat ever escapes Otto's head. They have no other option.]
Meanwhile—
At MiHoYo Studio.
Everyone watching the stream instinctively turned to look at Hokuto.
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