Elysia's words made Vill-V silently complain in her heart.
But Vill-V didn't voice that complaint aloud.
Because she had already promised Hokuto not to spoil the plot for Elysia or anyone else—at least not until Elysia advanced the story to certain points herself.
Why did Vill-V obediently agree to that?
Hmm... probably because Hokuto was one of her only two stable investors.
After all, finding investors willing to consistently fund her so-called "genius junk" research—cough, her "creative masterpieces"—was no easy task.
Even Vill-V herself often had no idea what the final version of her devices would look like.
An investor might have expected a simple, ordinary ans of transportation...
But what erged was a box labeled with nas like "Den of Serpents," "World-Eater's Serpentine Limb," or "Anti-Kevin Armant: Model 244"—nas so over-the-top even Pardofelis wouldn't dare open it.
While Vill-V remained silent, Elysia continued muttering to herself, and with no one to interrupt, naturally moved on to pondering the next plot developnt.
In the ga—
Vill-V believed they had to stop everything before greater sacrifices were made.
And to help their trio detective team cooperate better, she hoped i would use the Consciousness Collector to prove her innocence.
But i suspected Vill-V had left a backdoor in the device. Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs NovєlFіre
Because that's just the kind of person Vill-V was—she always left backdoors in her gadgets and then gave people a shocking surprise.
To that, Vill-V simply spread her hands.
"Well... that's sothing you'll have to discover for yourself. After all, mories don't lie—right?"
Seeing the tension rising between the two, Pardofelis quickly tried to ease the mood with a kind comnt: "I'll go with i-nee too."
Upon hearing this, i hesitated for a mont, then nodded.
Having made her decision, she acted imdiately and used the Consciousness Collector on Vill-V.
The screen went pitch black.
After a while, it gradually lit up again.
But!
This ti, the two didn't fall into a particular mory—they found themselves in a dim, empty space.
A scene i in-ga was all too familiar with.
The players were even more familiar with it—so would say it triggered a bit of PTSD.
This was... Vill-V's ntal world?
But why was it... the Theatre of Domination?!!
They all found it hard to comprehend.
Only a few, like Mobius, suddenly furrowed their brows, recalling a setting about Vill-V that had only been briefly hinted at.
[Not this place again!!!]
[Don't tell the Herrscher of Domination isn't actually dead?]
[Didn't we agree the Theatre of Domination wrapped up during Crostin's arc?]
[Theatre of Domination: I never said I wrapped, welco back to the show~~]
[We're ho, everyone. Wuhu, yayayayaya.]
So players were stunned by the Theatre of Domination's return—this thing was even more resilient than Welt doing sit-ups.
Others simply kept the s coming.
Elysia moved the cara and looked around. All the familiar models confird this really was the Theatre of Domination.
But... why had Vill-V's ntal world beco the Theatre of Domination?
Wasn't the Vill-V in the story a mory form that had never left Elysian Realm?
How could she possibly know what the Theatre of Domination looked like?
Still confused, Elysia turned back to trigger the next dialogue.
And Pardofelis and i's upcoming conversation provided the explanation.
i recalled that when she entered the Depths back then, she and Vill-V had exchanged mories.
Vill-V must have seen i's thoughts at the ti and used them as a blueprint... to reshape her own ntal world.
Once she understood the chain of events, i cald herself and led Pardofelis to search for Vill-V's scattered mory fragnts within the Theatre of Domination.
With the path ahead now clear, the ga transitioned into free movent mode.
Players now controlled i to explore the Theatre of Domination.
To be honest, while traversing that place, listening to the Theatre's eerie BGM, and passing by those massive, creepily lifelike puppets hanging from the ceiling—
Whether i herself felt creeped out was unknown. But the players sure did.
Thankfully, a lively, adorable cat-cat was accompanying them, helping to ease the tension just a bit.
Back to the main story.
At first, players only found two mory fragnts from Vill-V's daily life.
One showed why Vill-V's inventions were always so flamboyant—every personality liked to "lend a hand" when the expert made a tool.
A tragedy for the experts, truly.
The other showed Vill-V developing Anti-Kevin Armant: Model 736, and inviting its "exclusive user" Kevin to test it.
Kevin: "So… there are at least 736 versions now?"
Elysia also showed up as a bystander to this test.
And after it ended, Mobius suddenly arrived on the scene—clearly looking for Vill-V for sothing.
The composition of the scene was already painting a Hell Scroll—after all, out of four people, three were already shattered.
Hmm...
They'd best get used to it quickly. Even more Hell Scroll-like scenes were coming—like thirteen people, all thirteen already...
Still, although these two mories were full of flavor, they had nothing to do with i's investigation. Not a single useful clue.
So, i and Pardofelis had no choice but to delve deeper into the Theatre of Domination.
The two moved quietly through the empty theater corridors, glimpsing fleeting mory fragnts like sparks—briefly igniting, then vanishing.
Eventually, they reached the highest floor of the Theatre.
There, mirrors scattered across the hall distorted the space and reflections of people into a fragnted maze.
Seeing this bizarre scene, Pardofelis said uneasily, "This place… it really gives the creeps, i-nee. Let's hurry and get out of here."
She didn't even know what exactly she was afraid of. But deep down, she felt seriously unsettled.
Maybe it was that sixth sense of hers—an instinct to avoid danger.
Unfortunately, this ti, she didn't follow it like she usually did.
In fact, when she found a tightly locked mirror, she even eagerly volunteered to unlock it.
She really hadn't heard the saying:
Curiosity killed the cat.
Of course, aside from curiosity, Pardofelis also had a more sincere reason—
"This is the only thing I'm good at. If I can't even handle this, how can I say I'm helping you, i-nee? Don't worry, I'll definitely get it open."
"i-nee, why don't you go check out the other mories first? I'll catch up right after unlocking this."
[Why can't cat-cat walk past a locked door without touching it? Is this an occupational disease?]
[No no no, I think Pardofelis just really wants to help.]
[Agreed with above. I'm starting to like cat-cat more and more.]
[Still... suddenly splitting up like this feels like a bad idea.]
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