But there you are, you’ve made it out in one piece, somehow. The sole survivors, with nothing but what remains in your pockets. 

Chapter 1: The Unattainable

The screens mounted around the carriage flicker to life, the static fades to a high definition live feed of Lóng in a room the children would all recognise as the very first execution. As expected, Lóng stands in the centre of the stage with a single spotlight pointed at him. 

Though unlike Koda, Lóng has all of his limbs and thus begins to dance to the upbeat jazzy song despite his obviously differing taste in music.

Mechanical arms shoot out of the ceiling and ground, metal clamps snapping at his arms and legs. Only ever managing to latch onto thin air as Lóng dances past each arm.

「You know, for something that I programmed you'd think that it would be able to catch me」

A brief grin flashes on the screen as Lóng spins past and onto the next location.

Chapter 2: The Game

With his ponytail draped over his left eye in some childish mockery of the girl who once stood in this place, Lóng struggles against the rope that binds him, each movement he makes appearing laborious and painful. Cydai comes into the booth and Lóng perks up and waves, the rope falling around his feet after his nails tear through the frail material. Snagging the giant Vocaloid plush on his way out, Lóng grabs Cydai’s hand and runs to the next area.

Chapter 3: The Crisis

Lóng sits down in the dressing room like the royalty he believes himself to be, allowing the mechanical arms to serve him.

 They behave much more than they did for our favourite pink haired support girl, giving Lóng a transformations into classmates. Each outfit gets a firm look of distaste from Cydai when Lóng poses. Finally growing bored, the arms droop and restore his original outfit for him to move to the next room in.

Chapter 4: The Waltz

The spotlight once again dramatically switches on the reveal Lóng standing centre stage, his cloak draped around his elbows to reveal his bare torso to the fake audience.

「I must say, Zun really must have had no shame. Even I feel quite disgusted.」

Lóng pulls his cloak back on and puts a hand to his chin in thought. A lightbulb moment hits him and Lóng grabs Cydai’s hand once again, but this time to waltz.

In response to Cydai’s rage, Lóng smiles even more brightly. Only to be punched in the face when the music dies and Lóng leans Cydai back in the most cinematic ending to a waltz.

Chapter 5: The Chase

After bursting through the wall and into the new room, Lóng dusts himself off. The CRT, the timer, the soon to be thrown bottles. His eyes seem dull as he approaches the door, the same old puzzles, no more entertaining than the last. Even after his many years of life perhaps one of his only regrets was being unable to find a challenge worthy of him.

Lóng kicks the door open after a number of tries, expecting to see the hanging body of the girl he’d killed just for the locksmith boy’s execution. Instead, perched on a simple stool, leaning against the tree is the corpse of a once bright and beautiful young woman, now reduced to a lifeless pale corpse. For a moment, Lóng falters, a profound sadness washing over him. That one moment proves to be fatal as a bottle flies out of the room left behind him and strikes him in the exact middle of the back of his head. He stumbles forward and crashes at the black haired corpse’s feet, before he can gather himself, the synthetic grass gives way much like a trapdoor, sending Lóng and Zhihao’s body into a dark pit of slides, spikes, and trapdoors. 

His judgement, impaired by the prior injury, slow his movements, rendering him almost unable to dodge the traps and dangers this new level held. But all good things must come to an end, as Lóng is impaled by a spike that tears straight through his chest. The retraction of which causes blood to spray in numerous directions. The floor beneath him gives way one final time, prolonging their descent into the ground. 

Using the last of his strength, Lóng reaches out to the falling corpse of his bride and smiles. If he couldn't bring her back to him in this world, he would simply have to go to hers. There was nothing he could have wanted more.

Chapter 6: The End

Drenched in his own blood, Lóng -or Xiuying perhaps- delicately holds the corpse of Zhihao in his arms. Despite being impaled by a spike, his grip on her body remains firm, never again will she leave his embrace. Their free fall seems to last for minutes, hours, days. Time is but a distant concept now, as death has finally knocked on his door. His consciousness begins to fade from blood loss, but not fast enough for him to die before slamming into a coffin, shattering what little bones were still intact.

As the lid slams shut, Lóng smiles and pulls Zhihao close once again. But that's not all, the screen displays a digital clock. Counting down to.. something.

“Hello---!” Cydai finally, and abruptly, stops with a static filled chuckle.

“Right, perfect, come on come on, the audience grows tired so now to our main event!~” You could all hear the creepy smile, followed by the obviously auditory claps.

“Will you all make your way to your faaaaaaaaveeeeeeorite place; The Subway! Go go go, we’ve got a trial to undergo!”

You all, unknowing as to why the summons to the subway was necessary, make your way there, with the sadly familiar train carriage waiting to be boarded.

Once you all gather there, Cydai begins to explain:

“I know there was no dead body per sey, and it might seem odd, but let us end on the most interesting segments of our show! A Trial! You’ve all investigated, right?~ You have questions to ask, mysteries to solve and even a culprit to catch, hehehe!”

You all make your way to the spacious appreciation room to find Cydai tapping their foot impatiently. 

“Alright good, you’re all here, perfect! See the thing is... there’s not a lot of you is there? And you seeeeee.... I don’t know how much longer this soft, cozy ‘We’re all friends!’ attitude is able to last, because the viewers are getting quite bored, sigh sigh...” They rambled slightly, allowing everyone a moment to back up on what they said. First of all: They said the word sigh out loud, secondly: viewers...?

Cyber Daidoru’s smile became devious and then fell into an expression of fake concern, 

“You guys knew your Entire experience was broadcasted live riiigghhht? And the people have been LOVING it. But yeah. Now they’re bored and so I think the best way around it is to make all of you self aware and fight the one behind it all for your freedom! The grand finale will be explosive! So whaddaya say kids? Not that you have much of a choice in this but, if you want to say something say it now!”

Welp. They continue on, not actually giving you a chance to object :( “Well, I don’t know how the board of directors will take to this idea, but I think it’s time you guys dug into the real meat and bones of this operation, hmm? Y’know, find out who’s been pulling the strings! I’m sure you’ve found evidence here and there... but goodness... there’s just.... so much more than meets the eye.”

They give a little giggle, “I know you all have gotten a bit of a head start, but I’ll just give you a time limit of 6 hours, and we’ll see how you do from there~”

And with that, they were gone.