The Velvet Room Bar is Open for Business

The attic of the Polo Cafe was still better than Leblanc's conditions.

Tang Ze, who was tidying things up, felt very fortunate.

It wasn't large, nor did it have windows, but at least there was a proper bed and a private bathroom. Those two points alone made him satisfied.

Fun fact: the bed the P5 protagonist slept on was made by arranging wooden boards on several plastic crates used for drinks.

The original owner's belongings were packed into three cardboard boxes and sent to the cafe ahead of time. Inside, besides replacement Teitan High School uniforms, there were three or four sets of clothes for each season, shoes, loungewear, some stationery, and then nothing else.

...It's too weird. Was the original owner a vacuum person with no personal hobbies or private possessions? Not a single personal item that could reflect their past life?

Then he thought about his brand-new phone.

What if all his original belongings were confiscated?

Not to mention, there was a high possibility that Bourbon had taken everything. Perhaps Tang Ze Zhao's electronic devices, books, and papers had all been taken.

With that thought, Tang Ze opened his commuter bag and took out the notebook inside.

As expected, it was a blank new notebook.

Tang Ze sighed and threw it back into the bag. "Good, perfect. Whoever did this did an excellent job, clearing everything out cleanly."

Never mind, his long year was about to begin, so there was no need to rush.

He was so hungry; he hadn't eaten lunch or dinner. There was a kitchen downstairs, but he couldn't just use the cafe's ingredients without asking first, right?

He didn't have anything on him...

Wait, no, he did have something on him!

Tang Ze sat up straight at this thought. Right, should he try out his Fourth-Dimensional Pocket?

To prevent the overly cautious Bourbon from installing surveillance equipment in the attic as well, Tang Ze pretended to reach into his bag to rummage around.

Then, he scrolled through the long list of items and chose the cheapest onigiri.

The next second, his right hand grasped the cool plastic packaging.

...It actually works. This is something else.

Tang Ze held the cold onigiri up to his eyes, squeezed it, and found it to be firm and elastic – indeed, a solid onigiri.

But could food with no expiration date really be eaten? To be honest, he also had Leblanc's super spicy curry on him, which had been aged for two years according to the game's timeline. He'd made it during his first playthrough, and he'd hesitated even in the game, let alone eating it in reality.

Touching his aching stomach, Tang Ze still opened the package, closed his eyes, and took a bite.

There was no strange taste. The rice grains were sweet and plump when bitten, and it was surprisingly delicious.

Tang Ze quickly devoured one, then looked down at the size of his commuter bag. He felt that hiding another onigiri was quite reasonable, so he devoured another one.

"This is so powerful. I'll try to put things in it later. If it works for both input and output, I'm already half invincible. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore!"

Fourth-Dimensional Pocket, yyds.

As his nerves relaxed, fatigue washed over him. The mental stress from a day of information overload was truly indescribable.

He took out his loungewear and slowly shuffled towards the bathroom.

He was already very tired and needed to sleep.

Blue, an endless expanse of blue, spread out before his eyes.

The crisp sound of wind chimes colliding and the sound of a door opening and closing followed. When Tang Ze opened his eyes, he found himself standing in front of a dimly lit bar counter.

The dark blue checkered floor tiles, the walls covered with a pattern of connected blue rhombuses, and the spotlights illuminating the bar counter covered with a Klein blue tablecloth all represented the same thing...

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, guest." The bartender standing behind the bar turned around, took a high-stemmed glass from the glass rack, and gestured for Tang Ze to come forward.

"A bar, huh..." Tang Ze raised an eyebrow, his expression strange, but he still chose a high stool and sat down. "My Velvet Room is a bar? I haven't drunk alcohol in ages."

"An excellent irony, wouldn't you say?" The bartender with golden hair and golden eyes propped his arm up and leaned casually against the bar.

Tang Ze sized up the other person, scanning from the blue fedora to the blue bow tie and vest.

He was quite handsome. His golden hair was styled into a neat pompadour. Although his face was entirely Asian with soft features, his slender facial contours were emphasized. This made him look more mature; if one were to guess his age, most people would say twenty-seven or twenty-eight. His demeanor and the vintage tone of the bar's background matched perfectly.

However...

"Regardless, it's not appropriate to let a minor into a bar." Tang Ze leaned his particularly youthful-looking face closer to the other person.

"I can't say for sure, guest. The Velvet Room is a reflection of the guest's inner self. Ordinary minors wouldn't reflect a bar." The bartender chuckled, adjusted the brim of his hat, and gave Tang Ze a formal, slight bow. "My name is Igor, and I am your assistant."

Here it comes, the part where he had to go through the usual script.

Tang Ze blinked rapidly. "So, are you going to recite those lines?"

"What lines? Like, 'This is the junction between dream and reality, mind and matter'? You already know, so there's no need to waste time on that." Not indulging Tang Ze's chuunibyou desire for a script, Igor gently shook his head and pushed the high-stemmed glass towards him.

"Ah, so you do know everything, including 'manga,' 'games,' 'transmigration,' and so on." Tang Ze tapped the empty wine glass, his tone not particularly surprised.

From Igor's previous response, it was clear he understood Tang Ze's implied meaning, which meant he knew about Tang Ze's true life experiences.

Igor nodded and readily admitted, "That's right. Whatever you know, I will know."

Tang Ze breathed a sigh of relief, easily accepting this setup, and even felt rather lucky.

It's worth noting that the foundational settings of the Persona game series are partly derived from Jungian psychology, possessing a strong occult and mystical flavor. Most characters who understand the truth of the world view are keepers of secrets, emphasizing a style that doesn't make much sense.

He shifted into a more relaxed posture, resting his head in his palm and exhaling a long sigh. "Hoo— that's good. Having to listen to riddles from a riddle-teller in my dreams is too much. Since you understand completely, let's be frank. Igor isn't here, is he? Is it because this world is so strangely stitched together?"

Igor, as the master of the Velvet Room who has appeared in several installments of the series, is depicted as an elderly man with white hair and a long nose. According to his setting, he is a puppet created by the personification of human reason, playing a role similar to a "wise guide for the protagonist," connecting the interludes with riddles.

In P5, his image also holds certain key plot elements. Without this character, it can be asserted that the world Tang Ze is currently in has completely deviated from the plot of P5.

Lavenza spread his hands, putting on an innocent expression. "I'm not entirely sure. Is it for that reason? But it doesn't matter, we're all destined to be 'outsiders' now anyway."

The moment the words "outsiders" were spoken, Tang Ze's face darkened.

"You don't have to mock me like that."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." Lavenza's smile showed no hint of "not meaning to." He simply shrugged again, looking nonchalant. "Don't mind it, it's all 'past life' stuff."

"Don't talk like I've been here for a long time. Yesterday I was just a happy shut-in at home. I closed my eyes and opened them, and now it's a 'past life'." As he said this, Tang Ze remembered the games he hadn't finished, and the manga and novels he hadn't caught up on, and couldn't help but clutch his chest in pain. "I haven't even played Zelda 2 yet!"

His life, which was free from worry about food and clothing, where he could have lounged until retirement, had fast-forwarded to life's graduation overnight. Who could have predicted this?

"But you're actually quite happy, aren't you?" Instead of playing along with Tang Ze's feigned wailing, Lavenza chose to directly expose his true thoughts.

Tang Ze's expression stiffened, and he coughed awkwardly twice, lowering his hand and returning to his lazy sitting posture. "...You can know that thoroughly?"

Indeed. For many people who lived stable lives and didn't seek excitement, a sudden transmigration was an unprovoked disaster. But for Tang Ze...

It was a stagnant pool of unchanging water, a future where the grave was visible with a single glance. His going with the flow was merely resignation, not a love for 평범함.

Thinking this, Tang Ze subconsciously stroked his now intact, smoothly curved knees.

"I am your assistant, your mirror, and even more so, your companion and accomplice." Lavenza tipped his hat in greeting, then gestured to the empty glass in front of Tang Ze. "It's bar operating hours now. Would you like a drink?"

"So, I already told you I don't drink anymore..."

"I understand, so do you want one?"

"Cough, yes."

Not at all surprised by Tang Ze's change of heart, Lavenza took out a bottle of liquor.

The reddish-amber liquid was poured into Tang Ze's glass. He leaned in to smell the liquor, which exuded a rich, grainy aroma, and raised his eyebrows again. "Is this Bourbon? Are you hinting at something?"

"Not a hint." Lavenza turned sideways, revealing the liquor cabinet on the wall behind the bar. It was quite empty, with only the first shelf holding various brands of Bourbon, tall and short. "It's that we only have this right now."

"Because I met 'Bourbon'? Such a simple and crude reason?" Tang Ze clicked his tongue but still picked up the glass and took a sip.

The smooth, sweet aroma and the long-lost alcohol made his eyes narrow, his lips involuntarily curling upwards.

"This is terrible. Quitting drinking isn't easy. If my craving hits now, I won't even be able to buy beer. I'm still a minor." Tang Ze mumbled complainingly as he happily took another sip.

"Don't worry, it won't affect your real-world state. Just think of it as a reward-like Easter egg?"

"Reward-like? Encouraging me to interact with people from the Black Organization just to drink more alcohol?" Tang Ze tutted disapprovingly. "Aren't you looking down on me a bit?"

"It's just an Easter egg, think of it as collecting achievements." Lavenza naturally knew how to soothe Tang Ze, and his words immediately calmed him down.

As a platinum player who had achieved all trophies and achievements, Tang Ze immediately felt respected. He no longer cared about this strange room function and began to ask the core question: "Alright, so what's my mission? Do I also have to fight in the cognitive world and prevent the cognitive world from merging with the material world?"

Tang Ze understood P5, and he also understood Conan. But when they were stitched together, he was a bit lost.

The P5 worldview is supernatural, although it's supernatural on a psychological level, equivalent to concretizing human cognition into a "real world." Those with the ability to influence the cognitive world can naturally influence the real world in return, carrying strong symbolic meaning, but it's still supernatural.

The logic of P5's main storyline, in terms of its worldview, is to explore the relationship between cognition and reality, and then make a choice at the end, saving the world by fearlessly facing the truth.

As for Conan, although Newton's coffin has been completely smashed here, kicking satellites and being a one-punch man, the manga still stubbornly pretends to be materialistic, not engaging in supernatural powers or strange phenomena, and is a genuine deduction manga.

Its main storyline is spy warfare and police-and-robber dramas, with the main focus on the battle of wits between the Black Organization and the police. "I predict, I predict your prediction," and so on, along with the Black Organization's decryption guessing game, gradually leading the protagonist to understand and defeat the Black Organization.

What would combining these two result in?

It's very strange.

Lavenza shook his head, negating Tang Ze's thought, and gave the first shocking answer of the night.

"That's not necessary. In this world, they have already merged."