Afterward, Ryu arranged for Akihiko Kayaba to be placed in a care facility, while he himself went to a long-established hot spring inn. Ruri had already booked the entire place; for two days, no unauthorized personnel would be allowed inside, only the inn's staff and the Kuse Group's security team.
"For the next twenty-four hours, don't let anyone disturb my meditation."
"Just like before. I understand."
Ruri, in a formal sitting position, bowed her head, then respectfully withdrew, her quick, small steps taking her to the wooden doors on both sides of the room, which she slid shut one after another.
As the natural-grain doors all closed, the room instantly dimmed. Sunlight filtered through the thin paper windows, casting a serene and lonely twilight glow over the room~
Ruri's voice came from outside the door:
"From this moment on, no one is permitted to enter or leave this inn. No one, aside from myself, is to approach the vicinity of this meditation room."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The security personnel methodically began setting up visible and hidden posts, turning the courtyard and the central meditation room into a makeshift military restricted zone.
After giving her orders, the maid took one last look at the meditation room and voluntarily exited the courtyard herself.
She would come once in the evening and once at noon the next day to "await" her master's orders from outside the room, but in reality, she would have no contact with him, only making it seem so to others.
About two or three months ago, Kuse Ryu had developed a peculiar hobby—Zen meditation.
Though not as extreme as a Buddhist master's ascetic retreat that could last for months, Ryu would still sequester himself in the meditation room for a full day without any communication with the outside world. No matter what happened, he was not to be disturbed.
Ruri knew there was likely more to it, but she believed that if Ryu was doing this, he certainly had his reasons. Therefore, she never tried to probe, merely cooperating obediently and carrying out her duties with the utmost diligence, never once making a mistake.
Previously, Ryu would choose to spend this time at home, but now that his parents had returned from abroad with a guest, it was no longer convenient. Thus, they booked an entire hot spring inn, and he had even made an excuse to his parents in advance.
"Huuuh..."
Sitting on a cattail cushion, wisps of blue smoke rising from the incense burner filled the room with a faint, calming fragrance. A bowl of clear water on the table rippled slightly before gradually becoming still.
Ryu's mind gradually calmed, pushing all distracting thoughts aside.
Everything was ready. There were no more worries holding him back!
Ryu closed his eyes, and the image of a golden hourglass, its sand nearly depleted, appeared in his mind.
Suddenly, the brilliant grains of sand stopped falling, suspended in mid-air. The entire hourglass rapidly faded like an old photograph, turning into a black-and-white image.
The next moment, the image of the hourglass gradually faded away, and in the darkness, a delicate pocket watch was sketched out in silver-white strokes.
The instant it fully materialized, its three hands, clustered together, began to move—
Voom!
A silver-white brilliance enveloped Ryu's entire body from within, the splendid sight rotating continuously, like a universe of stars shrunk down countless times.
Strangely, such a beautiful scene cast not the slightest reflection upon the clear water in the bowl, as if it were all an ethereal illusion.
Swish!
The silver light rapidly converged, finally condensing into a single point and vanishing, and Ryu's figure disappeared from the room without a trace~
—
Tick... tock... tick... tock...
The hour hand of the silver pocket watch ticked steadily, precious time passing second by second, unwilling to pause or look back for even a moment.
This pocket watch calculated the period of time spent in the other world. Once its hour hand completed forty rotations, Ryu's twenty-day trial card would expire. To remain here any longer would require a renewal fee—unless absolutely necessary, Ryu was unwilling to spend his precious Destiny Coins on such things.
Generally speaking, there wasn't much that couldn't be accomplished in twenty days. After all, this was a 'fast-paced' world in every sense of the word.
Pssh! Whoosh!!!
Moist heat swept over his entire body, bringing with it a wave of discomfort. When Ryu opened his eyes, his entire vision was consumed by billowing steam.
Its source was a water tower pipe overhead. Whether it had been hit by a stray bullet or was simply in disrepair from age, a large ruptured hole continuously spewed hot steam, its toxicity unknown.
Ryu covered his mouth and nose, held his breath, and quickly moved away from under the water tower, walking to the edge of the platform to look down. A city sleeping... no, anesthetized in multicolored neon, nestled among countless points of metallic glitter, was reflected on his retinas.
This was the rooftop of an old building, about ten stories high, not tall enough to take in the entire city. Yet even this small corner was filled with bloat, decay, and chaos. Buildings of varying heights were crammed together haphazardly, bearing no resemblance to a modern metropolis.
The air was thick with the mixed smell of cheap distilled liquor and fresh machine oil, which did a good job of masking the stench of rotting blood and the sewers. Ryu's nose twitched slightly. A familiar, nauseating feeling arose, lending a sense of reality to his daze—
That's right, this is the smell. I'm back!
After observing his surroundings and confirming it was the same place he had left from, Ryu followed his memory to a corner of the water tower's scaffolding. He bent down and retrieved an oil-paper package from an inconspicuous spot on the inner side. Unwrapping it revealed an 'outdated' model of a microcomputer.
"Displays July fourth, 8:15 PM... Thirty-three days have passed, a little over one cycle, same as the time I spent in the main world."
Ryu nodded, once again verifying this rule.
Even if he spent dozens of days in the Cyberpunk world (his tentative name for this instance world), only a single day and night would pass back in the main world.
And however long he spent in the main world, a proportional amount of time would pass in the instance world upon his return.
—The 'System Card' didn't come with an instruction manual; rules like these had to be figured out by Ryu, bit by bit.
Although he had chosen a safe location, Ryu still scouted the area again. After confirming it was clear, he opened his 'zipper' and began taking out pieces of equipment from his personal space and putting them on.
Half-covered stereoscopic glasses, a portable brainwave receiver (for the neck), a lightweight exoskeleton sensor suit (hands and forearms), a surface net connection module...
All of them were extremely outdated, what could even be called 'cyber-antiques.' Not only were they expensive, but their performance was also far inferior to the currently popular cyberware components. However, they had one distinct advantage—
They didn't require a brain-computer interface. By transmitting signals through the sensor modules on his hands, he could make electronic payments and log into parts of the surface net (the public, human-controllable cyberspace).
—In this way, Ryu could passably disguise himself as a cybernetically enhanced individual.
It couldn't be helped. Pure-flesh humans were like endangered species in this world's setting. In a society where you could be shot and killed by a psycho just for looking at them twice, it was best to blend in with the masses if you didn't want to attract the attention of certain monsters.
Beep!
Once fully equipped, Ryu connected to the microcomputer he had left here. Instantly, a stream of notifications popped up on his glasses, all accumulated over the past month. There were a fucking thousand of them!
Ninety percent of them were useless junk ads and software notifications, which Ryu despised but could do nothing about.
The set of equipment he bought was a genuine antique, incapable of filtering modern ad-pushing software. He couldn't get rid of it even if he wanted to!
Fortunately, there was a categorization feature. After deleting the junk messages, Ryu looked at his private inbox and began to browse through it cursorily.
"Seven from Gloria... thirteen from Lucy... Doesn't look like anything urgent. I'll deal with it tomorrow."
________________________________________
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