“No need,” Penguin Assistant replied.

Rabbit Beauty also coldly added, “How many times do I have to tell you to understand that Xiongji-kun and we are completely different characters. He doesn't have the ability to see through dimensions, nor does he have the intelligence we do. In fact… he can't even follow logic and common sense in the general sense. He's just a pervert who was born to be set as… constantly committing crimes, constantly confessing, and constantly being arrested.”

“That’s right.” Penguin Assistant continued, “We just led him into the alley, scared him away with pre-prepared fake corpses and prop blood, and then I shouted.” He looked at Xiao Tan. “In this incident, your performance surprised me quite a bit. I thought you were just another guy's sidekick, but I didn't expect… your reasoning to be quite plausible, and about seventy percent of it coincided with the truth.”

Xiao Tan didn't feel happy at all when he heard this praise. Because he was afraid of saying the wrong thing, he didn't respond, and he kept his expression as unchanged as possible, but… he was thinking in his heart: “That reasoning forcibly made to help Xiongji escape conviction… actually coincided with the actual situation?”

“After creating the illusion of Penguin Assistant’s death, we observed you for three days.” After a few seconds, Rabbit Beauty continued, “During these three days, Xiongji was quite well-behaved and didn’t commit any crimes. And Cat Saburo and Falcon Taro didn't show any further abnormalities. So… we conducted another crucial test…”

“You let the already dead Penguin Assistant appear in front of Cat Saburo and Falcon Taro…” Before Rabbit Beauty could reveal the answer, Feng Bujue interrupted, “…is that right?”

“Hmph…” Rabbit Beauty snorted coldly, which was considered an affirmation of Jue-ge’s reasoning. “Anyway… after that, the fact that you are ‘high-dimensional controllers’ was basically verified.”

“Next, we temporarily remained still.” Penguin Assistant continued, “Following Rabbit Beauty-chan’s ‘retreating to advance’ strategy, we tolerated your behavior and observed your patterns of action in order to infer your purpose and identity.”

“Jue-ge… at that time…” At this moment, Xiao Tan thought of something and called out to Feng Bujue.

“Ah… I know.” Before Xiao Tan could speak, Feng Bujue knew what he was going to say, so he replied directly, “The real purpose of the system suddenly arranging side quests for us… was actually to disrupt the investigation of these NPCs.”

“Changing the time period when we controlled Cat Saburo and Falcon Taro, allowing us to obtain more information…” Xiao Tan continued.

“Unfortunately… we didn't even have a concept of these situations at the time.” Feng Bujue replied in a low voice, “If we had been a little more aware, we could have conducted multiple counter-tests during the outing…”

“Sigh… only thinking about these things now…” Xiao Tan sighed, “We seem to be a bit guilty of hindsight…”

He was right; it was no longer meaningful to discuss these things now.

“Well… we’re almost at the main point.” Penguin Assistant said, “That is… the ‘Phantom Thief BeArs_eye Incident’…”

“That incident was indeed Xiongji’s own doing.” Rabbit Beauty said, “He wrote the crime prediction card himself, and BeArs_eye's identity was also obvious.”

“When you were talking to Xiongji in the school toilet, I was hiding in the innermost cubicle, standing on the toilet lid.” Penguin Assistant said, “I heard all of your conversation.”

“After school, Penguin Assistant found me and quickly formulated a plan.” Rabbit Beauty said, “In this plan… we asked Hirata-kun to help.”

“I guessed that…” Feng Bujue said, “It's unlikely that you two elementary school students could mobilize so many police forces and arrange such a grand scene just to catch a few panty thieves…”

“I can interfere with the thinking of those supporting characters to a certain extent.” Hirata explained in a timely manner, “And Inu no Suke… is just a supporting character.”

“That night…” A second later, Rabbit Beauty continued, “When you were surrounded and arrested, your reactions confirmed that… you are definitely not ‘readers,’ ‘viewers,’ or ‘time-travelers’; you two have a clear, yet unconventional purpose—to prevent Xiongji-kun from being arrested at all costs, and to mitigate his guilt when there is nothing else you can do.”

Penguin Assistant said, “This characteristic is completely consistent with what we know about ‘players.’”

Rabbit Beauty continued, “In addition to your intermittent control of Cat Saburo and Falcon Taro… we understood… your mission is to constantly appear in the plots where Xiongji is about to be arrested and prevent him from being arrested.”

“The investigation into you can be considered over.” As Hirata said this, he slowly approached the two players. “In the days that followed, Rabbit Beauty still pretended not to know anything, playing her role in the usual way, revolving around Xiongji… and maneuvering with you.”

“Of course, since I decided to retreat to advance…” Rabbit Beauty interjected, “…I naturally deliberately held back.” She spread her hands and shook her head. “Otherwise… Xiongji would be arrested every time, and nothing you said would be of use.”

“And I… have been secretly responsible for monitoring you.” Penguin Assistant said, “To test whether the ‘control time period’ rule observed earlier was completely correct.”

“When everything was ready…” Hirata continued, “I… brought you here.”

“Hmm…” Xiao Tan heard this and was already covered in cold sweat. He whispered to Jue-ge, “In this way… the last side quest before coming here… was the system giving us the ‘ultimate hint’…”

“Yes.” Feng Bujue replied, “The system gave us a whole morning to think… but I… didn't expect it…”

“Even after that side quest was completed, the system didn't give up. It used a transition scene to remind us that the next main quest was the last chance to see through these NPCs…” Xiao Tan continued.

“I’m really ashamed…” Feng Bujue pondered, “Familiarity with the script world has become a burden… If someone who doesn't know much about *Hiyori* were to play this scenario, they might have noticed something earlier…”

Their sighs couldn't change anything. At this time, the man who controlled everything was…

“In this world, Hirata-kun’s abilities are unmatched.” Rabbit Beauty said.

“He has been preparing for a long time. Unless there is external intervention, you will never be able to escape from here.” Penguin Assistant also said.

“Those players who came to this world before let me know… ‘you’ can ‘force quit,’ so I have nothing to fear.” Hirata stared at the two and sneered, “Hehe… That’s why I prepared for so long…”

Before he finished speaking, Feng Bujue had vigilantly opened the game menu and tried the option to force quit the scenario, but…

\[Operation Failed]

The system voice announced an extremely terrifying thing.

In the same second, Xiao Tan saw a slight change in Jue-ge’s expression and instantly realized something. They really had a tacit understanding, and Xiao Tan also summoned the game menu in the next second and silently tried to force quit…

\[Operation Failed]

The same prompt entered Wang Tan Zhi’s ears.

“I see…” Feng Bujue was silent for a moment, then looked up at the three NPCs and said, “That's why… after the Phantom Thief BeArs_eye Incident, you waited so long before bringing us here.”

\[Main Quest Changed] As he spoke, the system prompt came again.

Both Jue-ge and Xiao Tan quickly scanned the quest bar… They saw that \[Before the end of the scenario, find a way to hide your identity as a 'player'.] had been erased, and replaced with \[Leave the game pod].

“Hehe… System-kun has also worked hard…” Feng Bujue could actually still laugh, “Is this considered forcibly changing the quest…”

“Jue-ge…” Wang Tan Zhi’s expression was extremely serious. “This… should be the most terrifying quest I’ve ever encountered since I started playing…”

Now that things had come to this, they had no scruples when talking.

“Leave the game pod… that’s easier said than done…” Feng Bujue said, “We’re playing in sleep mode, and it’s difficult to wake up on our own without disconnecting the neural connection.” He stroked his chin and muttered, “To disconnect the connection with the power of the real world… unless someone opens the game pod from the outside, or we have some physiological problems… like urgently needing to go to the toilet, or experiencing obvious discomfort such as pain or itching to a certain extent…”

“Then it seems hopeless…” Xiao Tan continued.

“Yeah…” Feng Bujue replied and looked at Hirata again. “Hirata-kun, you are indeed very powerful… In your ‘domain,’ even the ‘system’ of our world cannot compete with your abilities.” He shrugged. “Although I also know a few guys who can make the system ‘unable to forcibly disconnect’… they only exist in the data layer of *Thriller Paradise* itself. But you are different… you forcibly suppressed two high-dimensional spiritual hosts in your own dimension.”

“Heh…” Hirata sneered, “Flattering me is useless, accept your fate…” His killing intent suddenly bloomed as if it had substance. “I will let you two so-called ‘players,’ so-called ‘high-dimensional beings’… also experience the feeling of having your thoughts manipulated by others. After being hit by my Consciousness_attack, when you wake up from your world… you will either become mentally deranged lunatics or drooling idiots…” He laughed strangely. “Hahaha… wouldn’t that make a great comedy duo? Hahahaha…”

He laughed for a while, then his expression suddenly turned ferocious, and he shouted, “Get back to your own dimension! Go perform your damn comedy manga!”

At this point, Hirata seemed to be ready to attack, but…

“Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo~” A perverted laugh came from the sky.

“Oh… finally here…” Feng Bujue smiled in relief, “Heh… I thought we were doomed.”

“Wha… what’s going on?” Xiao Tan’s expression changed from surprise to doubt, completely confused.

Feng Bujue smiled and said to Hirata, Rabbit Beauty, and Penguin Assistant, “You… have all oversimplified a ‘person’.”