Chapter Seven: Demo Playtest, Day Two, Answer Time ①, Scene One

Saturday, November 23^rd, 2024, 11:50 A.M.

 

Megalodon Manor smelled strongly of old wood, and the late autumn chill that even the heaters couldn't smother was proof that they were back in reality.

This was the first time Kamo had actually left his room since Roppongi had been killed.

Kamo looked at the floor plan, then went straight south down the hall. The sound of doors opening came from behind him several times, but he never once turned back, just focusing on moving forward.

...It would be lucky if Munakata has solved both incidents.

But what if he's only seen the truth in MICHI's case?

In that case, not only Kamo, but also Rena and Yukina would be killed. The thing that hurt Kamo most was the way there was nothing he could do about it now.

At the end of the hall was the lounge.

He turned the round doorknob and stepped inside. It was empty. It seemed he was the first to arrive.

On the shelves along the wall, paraphernalia related to MegalodonSoft games was on display. Figures, models, strategy guides, setting guides, and more. It felt like a small gaming museum.

There was also a round table in the center of the room.

The round table was the same as the one in Puppet Hall, large enough for eight people to sit around it. However, while the one in the virtual world was the color of ebony, the table in front of him was made of white wood. It also had a huge circular monitor on it.

“...Why is he in such a hurry to make his deduction?” Yuki muttered as he walked in the door. The others also filtered into the lounge, one after the other.

“Uh, yeah.” Kamo responded, a bit distracted.

Soon, Munakata entered, and all eyes were on him. A few moments later, Azuma entered, and then there were seven.

All of them were still wearing their VR operation suits and glove controllers.

Munakata was still expressionless, but his composure was forced. Kamo could see the flushing of his face and the intense excitement behind his eyes. In his hands he held a pen and a notepad.

Delivering the results of your deductions was a high risk move for the Detectives; one wrong answer and it was Game Over for not only the game, but your life.

That was why Kamo had advised Munakata not to deliver his answer yet, or to at least try to verify it... However, his concern had been ignored.

A familiar voice came from nowhere.

“This round's contestant is... Munakata Nozomi! ...Please state your reasoning in order. From which incident will you start?”

“Starting from the murder of MICHI.”

Kamo couldn't keep his fists from clenching.

There was a buzzing sound and the monitor on the round table lit up.

Kamo had thought it was just a normal monitor, but he was wrong. A 3D hologram was projected above the monitor.

“This is a 3D monitor. It's actually still in development, but it's at least good enough to project game screenshots.”

What was now being projected was a perfect image of the VR space.

It was Kamo's first time seeing glasses-free 3D... But more than that, he was surprised that the others were actually huddling together at the table. Because they were all leaning in in their desperation to see the image.

“Hey, you just stepped on my foot!”

Munakata shouted angrily and looked behind him.

His shrill voice scared Fuwa, who was next to him and shrank away. Behind him, Azuma and Kenzan backed away, both indicating with their hands that it wasn't them. Azuma stepped on Yuki's foot as she backed away, causing Yuki to step on Michi's.

Only Kamo was able to avoid getting caught up in the farce, though he was too dazzled by what he saw to notice who had originally stepped on Munakata.

Meanwhile, Kurata was still flatly reading off instructions.

“You can use the glove controller to move and zoom in or out the 3D image, which can show any location in game you need it to.”

Michi rotated the image of the main hall with the fingertips of her right hand as she asked “...This 3D projector won't be used in any tricks, will it?”

“No, it won't, because technology hasn't yet reached the point where it could project believable images of anything real. Besides, that would be super lame.”

Michi ignored the immature reason and gave a firm wave of her hand. The projected hall spun several times like a top before settling down. The 3D image in front of them flickered a bit, and everyone could tell at a glance it was fake.

Kurata continued in a low voice “Also, contestant, once you start your theorizing you can't stop... Are you ready?”

“Of course.”

Munakata looked perfectly calm as he sat down on a stool at the round table.

Kamo and the others followed his lead, straddling the stools fixed to the floor and taking their seats. This time Michi didn't bang her foot and descended smoothly.

Munakata looked around at all of them before placing his elbows on the table and interlacing his fingers.

“First, I'd like to declare a premise: before the start of yesterday's VR Crime Time, I set traps on the north and south doors connecting the main hall to the corridors.”

Munakata zoomed in on the 3D image, showing the two doors that led from the hall to the corridors. He then explained that he had glued the blades of utility knives to them.

Fuwa spoke up, confused. “Surely a trap like this couldn't have been hidden from Kurata, could it? I'm afraid the Executioner, who's working with her, won't fall for this.”

Munakata's eyes narrowed.

“That's right, my only target with this trap was the Murderer. I saw that only the trap on the north door had been triggered, and the blade on that doorknob was gone. But the residual glue held bloodstains that hadn't been wiped clean.”

Kamo had wiped the blood with a wet rag last night, but since he didn't have enough time, he hadn't been able to completely eliminate the traces, and some of it had stuck to the glue.

“Also, I picked up a piece of a black glove next to the dollhouse... that was cut by a blade. The person who fell for it must have wanted to check if the knife and glue were still in the drawer, that's why he walked back to the dollhouse.”

As Munakata explained all that, he used the round table's projector to show his room. On the table in MUNAKATA's room was the piece that had fallen from Kamo's glove.

Kenzan hummed and said “...So if anyone's avatar has an injured hand, then that person's the Murderer?”

Kurata gleefully interjected “Oh, if you put your hand over the screen with a glove controller, you can project your avatar's hand.”

“Like this?”

Kenzan reached out his hand and the 3D display projected a virtual hand. His was, naturally, unharmed. Then, the others all did the same.

Kamo gave up and also reached his hand out towards the round table.

The person who was most shocked... was Yuki. He stared at Kamo, all the blood drained from his face. Azuma also looked greatly affected. She was surprised because she had been working together with Kamo not long ago.

“...Please give the other person's full name when you reveal it.” Kurata interjected.

Munakata immediately spoke up. “I'm going to expose Kamo Touma.”

Fuwa looked at Kamo like he was disgusting, but said nothing. Michi, who was next to him, could still joke and said “Oh, so it was Mr. Kamo who killed me.”

Kamo displayed the wound that stretched from his right hand's index to ring fingers with a bitter smile.

“As you can see, my avatar does have an injury. But I don't plan on admitting to being the Murderer.”

“A pointless struggle.” Munakata said viciously.

Kamo turned to him and said “Did you forget? Even if I am the Murderer, the moment I admit that, it'll be viewed as surrendering. If I was the only one who'd die, I wouldn't care, but the hostages of the person who surrenders will also suffer the punishment.”

Azuma chose then to interject.

“I understand how you concluded that Mr. Kamo is the Murderer. But, couldn't he have murdered YUKI, not MICHI?”

“No, he couldn't have.”

“Why not?”

“Because the one who killed YUKI not only poisoned him, but also made a loud noise in the corridor. It's impossible to do all that without entering the southern section.”

Even though Munakata hadn't finished explaining, Azuma already understood. She took over the line of reasoning.

“I see. If Mr. Kamo had moved from the northern section to the southern section, he should have been hit by the trap on the southern door. But only the northern door's trap was triggered. It's a contradiction.”

Kamo sighed softly as he listened to their analysis.

...They go from explanation to understanding too quickly. The fact that these amateur detectives received invitations means that none of them are ordinary people.

Fuwa, still wearing his fierce expression, spoke. “Your reasoning isn't bad, but can you tell us how you cracked the locked room?”

“It was a simple physical trick.”

Munakata spoke lazily as he pulled up an image of the storeroom, where MICHI's body still lay, alongside the rubber dinghy and the shelf that had been thrown around the chamber.

“When we were testing how the locked room was created, we all agreed that the shelf was placed 45 centimeters from the storeroom door. Because when we sandwiched the rubber dinghy between the door and the shelf, the door wouldn't open.”

Fuwa nodded and said “And when we knocked it over, it landed exactly where it should have.”

“But that idea is completely wrong. The killer actually placed the shelf over a meter away from the door.”

Kamo felt as though all of his blood were leaving him. Even though the heating in the room was on, he still felt an icy chill. ...The thing he feared most was happening right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Azuma looked uncertain.

“If the shelf was that far from the door... even if the inflated rubber boat was sandwiched in between, there would still be over 55 centimeters of empty space. Although it's true he could have easily left the storeroom if he'd done that, it wouldn't have created the locked room.

“That's right, that's why Kamo blocked the door with ice after he left the storeroom.”

As Munakata finished with full confidence, Azuma looked even more confused.

“It's true there's an ice maker in the kitchen, but how could he have used ice?”

“Just put it underneath the shelves when you set it up. The key is that the shelf was flipped upside down.”

“...Upside down?”

“Just lay the crate of natural water on the floor of the storeroom beforehand, like this.”

Munakata picked up the pen and drew a diagram in the notebook. Kamo watched his movements with a heavy heart.

Michi didn't look convinced.

“But if the ice melts, the shelf will just fall over. If it loses its balance before the locked room is broken into, there's good odds it'll fall into the storeroom.”

“No, it won't. Ice melts under pressure.”

“Ah, so that's how it is. Just put different amounts of ice in different places.”

Michi drew the conclusion before Munakata could explain, which seemed to annoy him. He spoke on.

“As long as you put more ice cubes on the storeroom side than the door side, the pressure difference caused by it tilting will make the ice cubes near the door melt faster, thus causing the shelf to fall towards the door.

Munakata's continuous assault of logic made Kamo want to cover his ears, but the reality of the situation wouldn't let him.

Then Munakata took up his pen again and drew another diagram.

 Kenzan looked at the diagram for a moment and nodded in agreement.

“I see. Try to push the door like this, and the 'top' of the shelf will slowly slide along the floor into the storeroom.”

“As long as you keep hitting the door repeatedly, the shelf will eventually fall with the 'bottom' facing the storeroom door. That was the falling noise we heard. At the same time, the rubber dinghy would have been cut open by the shelf's edge.”

Kenzan pointed to the crate of water in the picture and said “But that doesn't explain the water on the shelf, does it? That shelf doesn't have a back panel, so even if you put the water on it, it'll just slide off when the shelf tilts... How did the box on the floor get on the shelf?”

Munakata smirked.

“Simple. The shelf is tilted at an angle so that the bottom shelf fits over the crate of natural water.”

Munakata drew up a third diagram. After a few smooth strokes, the third diagram was complete.

 

“When we opened the door, we found the rubber boat spread on the floor, slowly deflating. Because the case of natural water was inside the shelf, and the bottom of the shelf was facing the door, we mistakenly concluded that the shelf was placed 45 centimeters away from the door. ...That is the entire locked room trick.”

Kenzan didn't seem fully convinced, and said so. “It's a crime based entirely on luck.”

“That's right, it's a trick based on luck and probability. But... did you forget that this is a crime that occurred in a VR space?”

“What do you mean?”

“Unlike real criminals, the Murderer in this game can carry out simulated experiments in Puppet Hall as often as he wants. With repeated experiments and constant fine-tuning, it isn't hard to make the shelf fall exactly how you want.”

Indeed... Kamo had conducted many simulations of the crime while planning it.

The weather data in the VR space could be set at will, and there was no such thing as an unexpected gust ruining the whole plan. Because of that, he could easily get the exact same result as in his simulated rehearsals.

Knowing there was no way he could remain silent, Kamo grit his teeth and opened his mouth.

“...How do you explain the broken bottles of natural water?”

“Those should have been broken by the impact of the shelf falling. In turn, the water spilling from the bottles disguised the traces of the ice having melted. It's an effective way to destroy evidence.” Munakata countered with ease, convinced he had easily won.

Looking at Munakata, Kamo couldn't help it. He covered his face. The reason he was in such deep emotional pain...

Was because Munakata's answer was completely wrong.

Since he had given a wrong solution, Munakata would inevitably become a target for the Executioner. What hurt most was the way Munakata himself was unaware of that fact.

Kamo looked at the people around the table.

Almost everyone was looking fixedly at Kamo, who had been exposed as the Murderer.

There was only one person staring at Munakata like a man possessed: Yuki. Panic danced behind his eyes... Perhaps Yuki had also noticed the flaw in Munakata's logic.

A cheery voice suddenly came from the screen, breaking up the tense atmosphere.

“Oh, did I forget to mention? The player who is being accused has an obligation to defend themself.”

Kurata's words stunned Kamo.

“Defend myself? What do you mean?”

“If the result of the reasoning submitted by the Detective is wrong, then you have to present counter-evidence in order to survive. If your defense fails, then you AND the incorrect contestant get Game Over'd, and you'll both become targets for the Executioner.”

“You're... horrible!”

Azuma's voice shook with anger. However, it was Kurata's tone that suddenly went cold.

“Since you call yourselves detectives, you should at least be able to avoid your own traps. A detective that can't even disprove a false conclusion has no reason to exist... Of course, this is also a rule I set up just to whittle down the number of players faster.”

Kurata laughed like a crazy person.

The taste of rust filled Kamo's mouth. It seemed somewhere along the line he'd started clenching his teeth.

The success or failure of the counter-argument... it's a matter of luck, huh.

The person being accused had to organize a rebuttal to a claim they'd never heard before on the spot. To come up with logic in such a short time, how could one rely on anything but luck?

Moreover, even if the answer was completely wrong, there might not be any counter-evidence for the accused to present. A theory could fit all currently known evidence and still be wrong.

The most frustrating thing was that... even if he did succeed in disproving it and saving his own life, Munakata's fate was already sealed. Not only that, but if Kamo did succeed in disproving it, wouldn't that mean he'd essentially guided Munakata towards said fate?

“That rule is unfavorable for your Executioner, isn't it? Even if they're your accomplice, they don't have any advantages over us in terms of their odds of countering an accusation.” Yuki interjected in a calm voice.

“You don't need to worry about that. My Executioner accepted the risk when they joined the game. If they fail to disprove an accusation, they'll willingly kill themself and forge evidence of their murder as a final 'screw you' to your investigations.”

Yuki's calm mask vanished all at once, exposing an expression of pure disgust.

“So even the Executioner... you'd just abandon them?”

“Why are you talking like that? Someone who can't even disprove the low level reasoning you all have shown doesn't deserve to live.”

It seemed Munakata couldn't take it anymore, as he shrugged his shoulders and said “Why are you guys saying all these things that assume I'm wrong? There's clearly no way my theory can be disproven.”

Kamo's feelings were complicated, but he still turned to Munakata. “I'm not an expert on chemistry or physics, so I honestly don't know if your 'melting point decreases as pressure on the ice increases' trick would work out. But... even without that sort of expertise, I can assert that there are holes in Munakata's reasoning.”

“...Like what?”

“First off, it isn't possible to place the shelf or the crate of water so that the shelf will naturally land around it. How far the shelf slides before it falls is dependent on how much force the person breaking down the door uses. No matter how many times the Murderer repeats the simulation, there's no way to control for that.”

“Like I said, you can improve accuracy with experimentation. Moreover, no matter how many times you say it 'could' fail, it doesn't prove that you didn't do the trick I proposed. Does that really count as counter-evidence?”

Hearing Munakata's contemptuous remark, Kamo's mood grew heavier.

“Munakata, if you hadn't been so reluctant to do anything yourself, you would have seen it a long time ago. There's proof at the scene that I didn't use ice.”

Kamo pulled up the shelf that had become the center of the issue on screen.

Munakata didn't ask him to explain further, but observed the 3D projected shelf. Soon, his eyes widened.

“............Dust?”

The top of the shelf was covered in a uniformly thick film of dust.

Kamo had seen the top of the shelf with his own eyes when he and Yuki moved the shelf. But Munakata hadn't come over to help, so he hadn't seen the shelf up close.

His own laziness had struck the fatal blow... causing him to fail to notice the contradiction between his own logic and the evidence at the scene.

“The dust coating wasn't shaken off even when the shelf fell to the ground. However, if ice had been placed between the top and the floor, that would have been different, wouldn't it? In that case, water from the melting ice would have washed the dust from the top of the shelf. It certainly wouldn't be so even.”

Kamo reached for the screen again and brought up the bottom of the shelf. The dust traces left there were messy.

He looked at the bewildered Munakata and had no choice but to deliver the coup de grace.

“As you can see, the traces on the bottom of the shelf are uneven as a result of the bottle leaking over it. If the trick you described had been used, the dust on the top should have turned out the same way.”

At some point, Munakata had started scratching his head. When blood oozed from his fingertips where he'd scratched, he finally lowered his head and mumbled “You're right. It seems my theory was wrong.”

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