Chapter 885: I am thou, thou art I

As the game's story progressed, Zhang Yi gradually grasped the basic settings of the game.

This was a blend of a traditional visual novel and an RPG.

First, players needed to complete various daily activities in the game, such as studying at school, working part-time, watching movies, reading books, or even eating burgers. Through these activities, they could raise their courage, dexterity, and other ability points, and gain favorability with various personality-based NPCs.

Different ability points corresponded to different NPCs; if the ability points weren't up to par, the corresponding favorability events couldn't be triggered.

These progression-based daily activities didn't bore Zhang Yi; instead, he found them quite addicting.

In-game daily activities included, but were not limited to: eating burgers, working part-time, playing arcade games, watching movies, reading books, attending classes, fishing, and even dating girls.

As a next-generation game, Chen Xu had paid more attention to details compared to the original version. Players could experience richer daily life; of course, if they didn't want to, they could skip directly and just obtain the corresponding data.

Moreover, besides Shibuya, Shujin Academy, and other places, there were many more locations, but they were not yet unlocked. They would clearly be unlocked as the story progressed.

As for combat, it was a very traditional dungeon crawler, but the rich Persona fusion and cleverly designed Palaces made this seemingly retro RPG quite engaging.

Finally, Persona also had unique and profound spiritual connotations. The Seven Deadly Sins BOSS design gave each character in the game an extraordinary story.

At first glance, the game seemed to tell a story where Ren Amamiya, an ordinary high school student, lived a normal school life with his companions, enjoying his youth like any other peer, but secretly transformed into a masked phantom thief, challenging society's darkness and evil with his justice and conviction.

Coupled with the game's manga-cartoon style and slightly chuuni setting, the game appeared, on the surface, to be full of youthful passion and brilliance. Especially Ren Amamiya's cool entrance seemed to deepen players' impressions even further.

However, as the game's plot advanced, and as characters from the protagonist's party and BOSSes appeared, players would realize they were completely mistaken!

The game's true story tone was actually somber and dark, which formed an exceptionally extreme contrast with the strong and vivid art style. The protagonist and his friends, whether combat companions or outside supporters, were almost all maliciously oppressed for various reasons, burdened by heavy mental shackles.

Yuki Mishima, a classmate of Ren Amamiya and Ann Takamaki, managed the Phantom Thieves of Hearts' official website and provided intelligence for their operations, but had long suffered physical abuse from Suguru Kamoshida.

Tae Takemi, the female internist doctor from Yongen-Jaya, had left her previous hospital due to her superior's concealment of facts and false accusations.

Yusuke Kitagawa, one of the four companions who joined the Phantom Thieves of Hearts in the game, was adopted as an orphan by the art master Ichiryusai Madarame and taught painting skills. However, his respected teacher was actually a scumbag who exploited his mother's paintings for money and preyed on his students' creations.

Starting with Ren Amamiya, one could say the origin of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts was a rebellion against the undeserved suffering and torment they endured.

When they finally gathered to confront the darkness, every opposing antagonist character in the game could be described as heinous and even insane and depraved.

The stench and ugliness emanating from their twisted souls seeped out unashamedly, igniting a fury in the players' hearts even through the VR gaming pod, making them want to scream.

This profound depiction of evil resonated highly with real-world dark sides; they weren't mere lunatics purely seeking destruction, but rather individuals who created pain and evil for their own gain.

Such a visceral and depressing depiction of villainy was not only found in the game's antagonist BOSSes, but also radiated from the NPCs serving as mere background figures.

After resolving the Suguru Kamoshida incident, most players likely expected heroic treatment. However, upon returning to school, the feedback they received was quite the opposite. Not only was there no sense of accomplishment from eradicating evil and upholding justice, but they were met with various blows.

Some were indifferent to Suguru Kamoshida's bullying, only worried about negative repercussions for themselves; some students, like armchair strategists after the fact, claimed to have seen it all coming; others calculated how Suguru Kamoshida's incarceration would free up power in the volleyball club, wondering if they could profit from it.

All these displays of indifference and baseness made players realize that the justice upheld by the Phantom Thieves of Hearts hadn't really changed the world.

And this was demonstrated even more vividly throughout the subsequent gameplay.

The public's torrent of vulgar remarks perfectly matched their hunched figures. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts' cries couldn't reach them, nor could their inner passion inspire them. So-called justice and conscience seemed so minuscule in the face of their indifference.

The ugly side of humanity was laid bare before the players' eyes, and even if the Phantom Thieves of Hearts could enter others' hearts and make them repent.

But this dark and evil human heart was so terrifying and heavy that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts' meager efforts would not only go unrewarded but would also be easily devoured.

But what made all players sincerely relieved was that Persona was not a tragic story.

When the game entered Sae Niijima's Casino Palace, all the truth was revealed to the players.

In the prologue, Ren Amamiya was arrested by the police in the casino due to being betrayed by a traitor in the team.

Goro Akechi, a high school detective who claimed to be righteous in the game, with his Persona, Robin Hood, a symbol of justice.

But in reality, he was one of the masterminds behind the "vegetable-ization" phenomenon, and he deliberately framed the Phantom Thieves of Hearts for these incidents to get close to them.

However, a skilled hunter often appears as prey. Goro Akechi painstakingly framed the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, but he didn't know that Ren Amamiya's betrayal and capture were all part of a trap, a trap specially set by the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Even before Makoto Niijima, Sae Niijima's sister, joined the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, during a TV interview, Ren Amamiya, Ann Takamaki, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Morgana had already detected issues with Akechi.

At the time, Akechi chatted with the three Phantom Thieves and one cat, mentioning he'd overheard something Morgana said. But because of the corner, he didn't realize it was Morgana who spoke. And if he hadn't entered the mental world, or Palace, no one would have seen Morgana as anything other than a normal cat, and thus wouldn't have understood what it said.

This was further confirmed when Akechi interacted with Ren Amamiya and the others, entering a Palace World and feigning surprise at Morgana's ability to speak, thereby exposing himself again.

So, in private, Ren Amamiya and the others knew Akechi was problematic. They deliberately staged a ruse of feigned injury as a baiting tactic, planning to lure out the true mastermind behind the "vegetable-ization" phenomenon, who was backing Akechi.

Upon arriving at Sae Niijima's Palace, everyone outwardly proceeded to clear the casino Palace normally. However, when stealing the Treasure, they secretly swapped the real Treasure with a fake one they had prepared, without Akechi's knowledge, to prevent Sae Niijima's Palace from collapsing. Ren Amamiya intentionally drew fire to allow Akechi to lead the police into the Palace and capture him, taking him to a special interrogation room.

As for the location of this interrogation room, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts had already known it, because in the cognitive world, only the courthouse was distorted into a Palace. The police station, however, was like reality and had no dangerous Shadows, which meant that as long as they didn't see the courthouse, even the Phantom Thieves wouldn't realize they had entered the Palace World.

Simultaneously, in the Palace World, everyone had a corresponding cognitive being. For instance, at the beginning, Suguru Kamoshida in the academy had conjured a cognitive Ann Takamaki within his Palace to fulfill his desires.

At this point, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts tied up the cognitive Ren Amamiya, an ordinary high school student in Sae Niijima's Palace, and brought him into the interrogation room to serve as a decoy for Akechi to silence. They also hid the other cognitive beings to prevent the real Akechi from discovering the truth.

Ultimately, Ren Amamiya, in reality, used a brief moment to convince Sae Niijima to show Akechi the crucial item, his [phone], thereby allowing Akechi to enter the Palace World. This completed the golden cicada shedding its shell trick, and they uncovered the true culprit behind the "vegetable-ization" phenomenon: Masayoshi Shido, who was about to become prime minister and was also the powerful figure who had falsely accused Ren Amamiya of assault.

“So, this was all a plan? They’re all cunning old foxes! And the foreshadowing was laid all the way back at the TV station!?”

Playing up to this point, Zhang Yi was stunned. Even though he had vaguely suspected Goro Akechi had issues during the game, he never imagined that Joker's capture was a plan orchestrated by Joker himself.

He recalled how he was utterly terrified when Akechi 'shot' Joker in the head earlier.

But the amazing part didn't stop there. Unlike the initial simple story of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts stealing hearts and punishing villains, here the entire worldview and story completely unfurled.

Mementos, the distorted Palace located beneath Shibuya Station, was initially treated by most players as just a randomly generated dungeon for leveling up and completing side quests.

Its biggest use was raising Ryuji Sakamoto's favorability and then using Morgana's cat-bus to run over monsters for money. But in reality, it was the ultimate BOSS: humanity's heart.

Deep within Mementos, the colossal Holy Grail encompassed the dark side of everyone. It was the collective unconscious of countless people.

Personas, in essence, were born from the idea that people often become what others perceive them to be; in simple terms, people turn into what others expect of them, just as Gustave Le Bon wrote in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind.

In the bustling streets of Shibuya, everyone was a prisoner of their own subconscious. Lust, greed, sloth... these were the seven deadly sins shared by the human subconscious. But as long as there was a rebellious heart, there would eventually be a day to break free from the prison of consciousness.

Because deep within people's consciousness, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts were there: I am thou, thou art I.

(End of Chapter) <>