Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

After that, Fang Zheng smashed all the surveillance cameras, and at the same time gave some of his own opinions to the other students who were still completely confused.

”You can think of this place as a giant codebase. Everything here operates according to predefined programs. Haven’t you ever wondered, if the Black and White Bear really wanted to make you fall into despair, why go through all this trouble? If it were me, I’d just bring in a few dozen Black and White Bears, tie you up, run you through the Top Ten Tortures of the Qing Dynasty one by one, and stream the whole thing. The effect would be absolutely Level One.”

”Uh.........”

They didn’t know what this ”Top Ten Tortures of the Qing Dynasty” Fang Zheng mentioned was, but just hearing him say that made everyone shiver involuntarily. Indeed, going by Fang Zheng’s explanation, the Black and White Bear had plenty of ways to make them even more despairing, so why insist on using such a time‑consuming, labor‑intensive method that also felt like it could easily backfire?

”The reason is very simple.”

As Fang Zheng smashed yet another camera, he explained to the group trailing behind him.

”It can’t do it. I think you all know this: when Black and White Bear appeared in front of you, it introduced itself as the headmaster. Simply put, once it acquired the position of headmaster, it gained the rights of a headmaster, and at the same time had to shoulder the obligations of a headmaster. This is a forced, fixed set of rights and obligations. If it wants to control the entire school and control you, it has to do it this way. Otherwise, whatever it does to you would have no effect.”

At this point, Fang Zheng paused for a moment, then pointed at everyone.

”And your identities are the ’students’ of this school. The obligation of students is to obey the school rules, and at the same time, if you break the rules, you are to be punished.”

”I see.”

Hibiki Kirigiri seemed to have realized something and silently nodded.

”I was wondering why Black and White Bear would提出这种古怪的要求, when clearly killing people violates the rules, yet it insisted on making that into a rule. Normally, if it wants us to kill each other, this kind of rule would only get in the way.”

”Exactly, because only those who break the rules can be punished. If it set killing people as a rule, then you wouldn’t be breaking the rules, and it would have no way to act against you. And besides... this also involves a principle of equivalent exchange.”

”Equivalent exchange?”

”Yeah. A school is a miniature society, and the systems and regulations in a society are relatively standardized rules. Look, generally speaking, it’s ’a life for a life’ when it comes to murder, so if you’re just a small‑time thief, or committing something like damage to public property, it’s hard to sentence you to death. But killing is different. No matter how many reasons you have, since ancient times it’s been taken for granted that those who kill must pay with their own lives. That’s why Black and White Bear specifically emphasized ’killing’ instead of anything else. Only in this way can it use that as grounds to execute you. But if you committed some other crime, then it would be much harder to define the boundary at which execution is justified.”

Here, Fang Zheng spread his hands.

”For example, say I stole a pair of fat panties—you can’t use that as an excuse to put me to death, right?”

”Uh.........”

Hearing this inexplicable metaphor, the people behind him all showed complicated expressions.

It might not get you literally executed, but if you got caught, it would absolutely be a social death.

”But... didn’t Black and White Bear just try to kill you earlier? Maybe right now it’ll send those... robots out to come after us?”

The ever-curious Makoto Naegi was clearly a bit uneasy. As he spoke, he subconsciously looked around, afraid that one of those giant Black and White Bears with razor‑sharp claws would suddenly jump out of some corner and tear him to pieces.

”That’s because my Attribute Level is different from yours.”

”Attribute Level?”

”Right. You’re students. And me? Put simply, I’m like some delinquent from another school who came here to cause trouble. Look, if you’re in school and you see delinquents from another school come in to stir things up, then of course the headmaster of the school has both the obligation and the right to Banishment them. But you are students of this school. If they want to make you ’drop out,’ they need a reasonable and legitimate cause.”

As he said this, Fang Zheng turned a corner; yet another camera came into view right in front of him.

”So Black and White Bear can go after me, but it can’t lay a hand on you. If it directly attacked you, that would be the headmaster failing in his duties, and its control over this building would instantly be revoked. As for me... heh heh, it does want to kill me, but...”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, Fang Zheng raised his Greatsword and slashed forward with force. With a loud ”bang,” the camera in front of him was instantly smashed to pieces.

”It just can’t beat me. Picture this: a headmaster watching a delinquent from another school smashing things, robbing and burning stuff inside his school, yet he’s completely powerless, forced to bite a handkerchief and cry in the dark. Isn’t that tragic?”

”...............”

Now that he put it like that, it really did sound pretty tragic.

”Also, there’s one last thing I need to say.”

Here Fang Zheng lowered his voice and fixed his gaze on everyone.

”Like I said, this Sealed World we’re in right now is the embodiment of rules. For me as an outsider it doesn’t matter, but if you violate the rules and are punished for it, there’s nothing I can do to help. Especially if anyone starts thinking about killing. If you kill someone and get caught, I’m not coming to save you. After all, just like I can’t force my way through the iron doors here, if I forcibly interfere with the internal operation of the rules, it will also lead to destruction.”

”You think we’re going to believe that kind of nonsense?”

At this moment, Togami Byakuya, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke up. Fang Zheng gave him a flat glance and shrugged.

”Believe it or don’t, that’s up to you. I’ve said all I’m going to say. If you’re set on seeking Death’s Embrace, that’s your freedom. But remember, once you make your choice, you bear the consequences.”

”You say you’re an outsider, but right now, aren’t you just as trapped here as we are?”

Togami Byakuya was clearly not intimidated by Fang Zheng just like that; on the contrary, he pushed his glasses up with one hand, stepped forward, and looked at Fang Zheng.

”What if it’s not someone else, but you who kills someone? You’re a Mage, you can use those strange Spells. If it’s you, then if we’re mysteriously killed off, we’d have no way to point the finger at you, right?”

”Which is why I’m saying you’re stupid.”

Fang Zheng let out a dry chuckle.

”You know what the highest realm of assassination is? It’s that as long as you kill all the witnesses, then there are no witnesses.”

Speaking up to this point, Fang Zheng narrowed his eyes and swept his gaze over everyone in front of him.

”In other words, if I take all of you out right now, no one will know how you died, and you won’t be able to leave behind any information. Maybe a few decades from now, someone will discover your remains here and start guessing what exactly happened back then in this place... Of course, that’s assuming the civilization on this planet hasn’t gone extinct by then.”

”............”

Hearing this, everyone instinctively tensed up, uneasily staring at Fang Zheng. Just as he said, as long as he killed them all, then the whole question of witnesses or no witnesses became meaningless, because as long as Fang Zheng was the only one left, the very concept of a ”witness” — would no longer exist.

”But relax, I’m not going to do that. Like I said before, I’m an outsider here. The rules of this place don’t apply to me, and conversely, I can’t make use of them either. Since Black and White Bear clearly specified in the rules that only if one of the students kills someone without being caught can they successfully leave, then a delinquent like me from the outside obviously doesn’t have the qualifications to take this exam. So right now all I can do is follow along with you, and if you manage to leave, I’ll just hitch a ride.”

”What if we can never get out?”

Makoto Naegi spoke up again to ask, and Fang Zheng just shrugged.

”Then we don’t get out. Anyway, there are mountains and water here, flowers and grass, food and lodging, and beauties to keep us company. It’s way better than the nuclear post-apocalypse hellscape outside. What’s there to complain about?”

Faced with Fang Zheng’s utterly nonchalant answer, everyone was completely speechless.

After taking out all the cameras on the first floor, Fang Zheng simply greeted them and went to hang out in a classroom. He was the only one without a student ID here, so naturally he couldn’t enter those personal rooms that needed keys to open. Besides, there were only fifteen rooms total, no extras. Unless some idiot’s brain short-circuited, went to kill someone and got themselves executed afterward — though Fang Zheng figured he wouldn’t be keen on living in a room where someone had died anyway.

”Phew.........”

Lying in the dim classroom, Fang Zheng was quite at ease. He pushed the desks together into a makeshift bed, then laid a mattress over them, and just lay down comfortably like that.

Still... this world, what exactly is it trying to test me on?

Even though it’s called an exam room, the system hasn’t given any questions. Everything Fang Zheng has done so far has been based purely on his own memories and judgment.

By the way, Fang Zheng did know that Danganronpa has an IF route where you can draw an Escape Device from the Gashapon machine in the school store, but he had just gone to check the store — there wasn’t any Gashapon machine at all. So clearly, IF is just IF; this world is obviously not going to hand you something that convenient.

But for Fang Zheng, this wasn’t anything worth paying special attention to.

In the original first game, the protagonists initially wanted to escape because they had no idea what the situation outside was like. But now Fang Zheng had already clearly explained it to them. Whether they believed him or not, that was something he wasn’t worried about at all. He didn’t know what Black and White Bear used to erase their memories, but this kind of drug has a time limit. Otherwise Black and White Bear wouldn’t have been in such a rush to arrange specific murder motives for them one by one; it could’ve just waited slowly until they broke down from the torment of time and then made its move, and it wouldn’t have been too late.

In fact, by the later stages of the game, as the drug’s effects waned, some people had already begun recalling parts of their memories — which shows that the memory manipulation in this world is really unreliable. If it were Shihou Souki doing it instead, she’d just snap her fingers and make you forget everything completely, and could even conveniently transplant an entirely new memory into your head.

As for whether someone would go looking for death, Fang Zheng himself didn’t care. He didn’t think everyone would believe him anyway. This world is bizarre to begin with, plus there are plenty of people in this group with weak wills and scrambled brains. Like that Biker Gang guy Oowada — his motive for killing Fujisaki in the game was downright baffling.

Fujisaki wasn’t even afraid of exposing his identity as a Crossdresser, yet you, a grown man, are still all shy and twisted up, terrified that your ”big bro sacrificing himself to save you” black history might get exposed? And say it does get exposed, so what? Isn’t that actually a moving story?

You kill over something like that? Are you brain-damaged or what.

The initial murder motives of Sayaka Maizono and Kuwata Leon in the game were at least still understandable. Sayaka Maizono being the first one... well, someone had to eat the tofu first. At the time, her desire to leave this place outweighed everything else, so wanting to kill someone wasn’t exactly unimaginable.

As for Kuwata Leon, after being attacked by Maizono, he suddenly realized, ”If she can come kill me, then I can kill her too.” You could call it self-defense, and killing wouldn’t weigh too heavily on his conscience, right? So he counter-killed her, likewise trying to escape this place. It’s just that unfortunately, he ended up flipping the car, got sent to the execution grounds, and was taken out by that wave of baseballs.

But the murder motives of Oowada and Celestia that came afterward were really ridiculous. Oowada was just like Fang Zheng ridiculed — probably a brain short-circuit. As for Celestia’s claim that she had her eye on Black and White Bear’s 10 billion yen and wanted to leave to live a luxurious life, that was probably a complete front — maybe only the desire to leave itself was genuine.

In fact, from what Celestia says to Kirigiri Kyoko before her execution in the game, she had probably more or less guessed that the situation outside wasn’t exactly rosy. That’s why she said that line, ”Is that really hope? I don’t think so.” Maybe Celestia knew that the outside world wasn’t great anymore, and staying here to endure the torment of waiting for death wasn’t what she wanted either. So, as the ”Ultimate Gambler,” she placed a bet.

If she won, she’d get out. If she lost, she wouldn’t have to stay here waiting for death. Either way, it was a kind of release; no loss, pure profit.

But Celestia, you never thought it through, did you? Yes, there are wins and losses at the gambling table, but in the end, the house always wins.

”Knock, knock, knock.”

And just then, a sudden knocking sounded at the door. Fang Zheng looked up to see a girl in a gothic dress, with black drill-like twin-tails and bright red eyes, walking in with a smile.

”Pardon me, may I disturb you for a moment?”

...Talk about mentioning Cao Cao and having Cao Cao show up.

”No problem at all.”

Looking at Celestia in front of him, Fang Zheng nodded.