Chapter 39: Funahiki Gyō's True Purpose
"So, what is your decision, Mr. Rovel?" Funahiki Gyō pressed, his smile unwavering as he extended the invitation once more.
"These stakes still aren't enough," Rovel replied, shaking his head again without a moment's hesitation.
The practiced smile on Funahiki Gyō's face faltered, the corners of his mouth tightening almost imperceptibly. He hadn't anticipated this. He had revealed the Level 20 Titan mecha, a display of overwhelming power and resources, yet this man, Rovel, remained completely unmoved. Was he truly so haughty?
'No,'Funahiki Gyō corrected himself, his mind racing.'Is he genuinely unwilling to cooperate, or is this just a prelude to demanding more from me?' He studied Rovel, trying to gauge the depths of his thoughts.
"I don't trust you," Rovel stated plainly, shrugging as if the reason were the most obvious thing in the world. "You're offering me nothing but empty promises. What's to stop you from kicking me to the curb the moment I give you what you want? I'd be left with nothing."
"Then... what is it that Mr. Rovel desires?" Funahiki Gyō asked, his tone cautious and probing.
Rovel paused, feigning a moment of consideration before delivering his prepared answer. "You've likely noticed that Raiden Mei shares the exact same surname as Raiden Ryoma, the man who was arrested and imprisoned just a few days ago."
He let the statement hang in the air. "And as it happens, Raiden Mei is Raiden Ryoma's biological daughter. I just so happened to receive a mission directly related to her..."
"You want to know Raiden Ryoma's whereabouts?" Funahiki Gyō's eyebrow shot up, his gaze sharpening with suspicion.
"That's not important," Rovel said with an indifferent wave of his hand. "What matters is that Raiden Ryoma left something for his daughter inside ME Corp. To complete my mission, I need to retrieve it personally."
"What is it?" Funahiki Gyō pressed, his eyes narrowing.
"No comment," Rovel replied coolly, crossing his arms in a clear gesture of finality.
Funahiki Gyō's small, beady eyes stared intently at Rovel, a silent battle of wills unfolding between them. He seemed to be trying to peel back the layers of Rovel's calm facade and peer directly into his mind. Rovel, however, simply stood his ground, his expression placid and unreadable.
A long moment passed.
"Fine," Funahiki Gyō finally conceded. "I agree."
The swiftness of his capitulation caught Rovel off guard. He had expected more haggling, more resistance. That Funahiki Gyō would agree so readily sparked a flicker of suspicion in Rovel's mind. This was too easy. Far too easy.
His initial theory had been straightforward: Funahiki Gyō wanted to cooperate with him to get closer to Raiden Mei. But the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. Funahiki Gyō didn't truly need Mei's help to kill Death Soldiers. A man of his standing could easily hire a small army of players to weaken the monsters for him; all he needed to do was land the final blow to get the credit.
, he now possessed a Titan mecha. Even if his piloting skills were clumsy now, a few days of practice would make him a walking fortress. Killing Death Soldiers would become trivial.
So, if it wasn't for her combat ability, what was it? Perhaps Funahiki Gyō wanted to use him as a bridge to build a relationship with the natives of this world? But even that seemed flimsy. Would he truly take on the immense risk of sneaking someone into the ME Corp CEO's office just for a chance at goodwill? The potential costs and benefits were laughably unbalanced.
After all, Cocolia, an executive of Anti-Entropy, was a far more valuable and dangerous figure than a Level 31 Raiden Mei who had lost her family fortune and status. From a purely logical, profit-driven perspective, no player in their right mind would risk offending Cocolia for Mei's sake. The mere possibility of being discovered was a catastrophic risk.
Rovel's mind churned, processing the variables with his meta-knowledge. Raiden Mei was a critical experimental subject for Cocolia. She possessed a natural Stigma, just like Seele, and Cocolia likely believed she could use Mei's power to somehow rescue her adopted daughter from the Sea of Quanta.
And that wasn't all. Raiden Mei also carried the Gem of Conquest within her body.
Cocolia had two primary objectives. First, to experiment with Mei's Stigma in hopes of finding a way to bring Seele back. Second, to recover the fully activated Gem of Conquest to power her ultimate weapon, the Moonlight Throne.
'Therefore, I, who am constantly by Mei's side...'The thought sent a chill down his spine.'...have I already been marked by Cocolia?'
Fearing he might interfere with her grand plans, Cocolia would undoubtedly seek to remove him.
Funahiki Gyō knew Rovel was a player. He knew that if Rovel died in the game, he would simply respawn at a safe location after twenty-four hours. A temporary solution at best. To truly get him out of the picture, they would either have to kill him in the real world—an impossibility, given that Rovel was in Shenzhou, far beyond the Funahiki family's reach—or they would have to make it impossible for him to contact Raiden Mei within the game itself.
Suddenly, it all clicked into place. The game had a Crime System.
All they had to do was lure him into a trap, frame him for a crime, and have him thrown into a virtual prison. They could confine him at a fundamental game level, severing his connection to Mei and completing their plan.
The pieces on the board began to shift in his mind's eye, revealing a far more complex scheme. Funahiki Gyō's public cooperation with the Zhou family was the first layer, a smokescreen designed to send a signal to Rovel. Their subsequent "cooperation" in killing Death Soldiers was the bait. Anyone with half a brain would assume that Funahiki Gyō's target was Raiden Mei. That was the second layer, the obvious misdirection.
But Funahiki Gyō was playing on the third layer.
By making Mei the apparent target, he concealed his true objective. His goal was never Raiden Mei. It was... him.
Isolating Mei by taking him out of the equation—was that Funahiki Gyō's purpose? Or, more accurately... Cocolia's?
As the chilling possibility settled in, Rovel's brow furrowed slightly. It wasn't even that difficult to see how they might have predicted his move. Raiden Mei's father is arrested, so of course the player by her side would likely receive a mission related to it—either to find Raiden Ryoma or to uncover evidence of his innocence. His demand to enter ME Corp would have been the final piece of the puzzle, confirming their suspicions. Funahiki Gyō's initial token resistance was just another psychological gambit, meant to lower Rovel's guard completely.
Even if Rovel's goal hadn't been ME Corp from the start, once their "cooperative relationship" was established, they would have found a hundred other pretexts to lure him there and spring their trap.
The entire affair was a carefully crafted scam, and he was the mark.
"Happy to be cooperating with you," Rovel said, nodding as if he hadn't just unraveled their entire conspiracy. "Notify me when you're ready."
Even with his eyes wide open to the deception, Rovel didn't refuse. He stepped willingly into the snare.
'In fact...'he thought, a faint smile touching his lips,'...this is the perfect opportunity. I can use their trap to meet the second protagonist ahead of schedule—Bronya Zaychik.'
Cocolia couldn't possibly be in Changkong City personally at this time. Even after orchestrating Raiden Ryoma's downfall, she had to operate from the shadows, taking over ME Corp by proxy. She couldn't afford to leave any evidence that could be traced back to Anti-Entropy's Sovereign faction. Even if the Conservatives suspected her, they could do nothing without proof.
Therefore, the most likely person to be acting as her agent in the city was Bronya. And while Bronya was still technically a villain at this point in the story, that hardly mattered to Rovel.
Still, some preparations were in order.
"Happy to be cooperating," Funahiki Gyō echoed, his signature smile plastered back on his face as he extended a hand.
Rovel merely glanced at the offered hand before turning on his heel and walking away. It wasn't a grand statement; he just found the man, and by extension his hand, repulsive.
Funahiki Gyō's mouth twitched, a flicker of annoyance breaking through his carefully constructed facade. He said nothing, however, simply watching Rovel's retreating back.
Once Rovel was gone, Funahiki Gyō retrieved a communicator.
"Your Excellency, it went very smoothly. Rovel Suou has agreed to cooperate with me," he reported, his voice dripping with deference.
A cold, clear female voice responded from the other end. "Very good. You've done well. After this mission is completed, you may come and report to Anti-Entropy headquarters."
"Thank you, Excellency Cocolia!"
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