The Velvet Room Bar Is Open

The attic at Polo Cafe was still in much better condition than Leblanc.

Tangze was deeply grateful as he unpacked his things.

It was not very large and had no windows, but at least it had a proper bed and a separate bathroom. Those two things alone left him quite satisfied.

Fun fact: P5's protagonist slept on a bed made by placing a wooden board over several plastic beverage crates.

The original owner's belongings had been packed into three cardboard boxes and mailed to the cafe ahead of time. Aside from spare Teitan High School uniforms, there were three or four sets of clothes for each season, shoes, loungewear, some stationery—and then nothing else.

...Too strange. Was the original owner some kind of hollow person with no hobbies or personal possessions? Not a single item that reflected his past life?

Then there was that brand-new phone of his.

Could it be that all his original belongings had been confiscated?

Come to think of it, that was highly possible. Bourbon was already here. For all he knew, every electronic device, book, and sheet of paper Tang Ze Zhao had owned had been taken away.

With that thought, Tangze opened his shoulder bag and took out the planner inside.

Just as expected, it was a blank new notebook.

Tangze sighed and tossed it back into the bag. Wonderful. Perfect. Whoever had done it was exceptionally capable—they had swept everything clean.

Forget it. His long year of life was about to begin. There was no need to rush.

He was so hungry. He had not eaten lunch or dinner. There was a kitchen downstairs, but he could not just use the cafe's ingredients without permission. At the very least, he should ask first, right?

And he did not have any money on him...

Wait, no, he did!

Tangze abruptly sat up straight. Right, why not try out his Fourth-Dimensional Pocket?

To guard against an overly cautious Bourbon having installed surveillance equipment in the attic as well, Tangze first pretended to reach into his bag and rummage around.

Then, scrolling through the long list of items, he selected the cheapest rice ball.

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

...It really worked. This had some potential.

Tangze raised the cold rice ball before his eyes and squeezed it. It was firm yet springy—a solid, genuine rice ball.

But could food without even a stated shelf life really be eaten? To be honest, he still had Leblanc's extra-spicy curry on him, which had been sitting around for two years according to the game's timeline. He had made it during his first playthrough. Forget eating it in reality—even in the game, he had hesitated before eating it.

Rubbing his stomach, which was beginning to cramp, Tangze opened the wrapper anyway. Closing his eyes, he took a bite.

There was no strange flavor. The rice was sweet and plump beneath his teeth, and it was actually quite tasty.

Tangze wolfed one down, then looked at the size of his shoulder bag. It seemed perfectly reasonable to hide another rice ball in there, so he wolfed down a second one.

This was powerful. Later, he would have to see whether he could put things into it too. If items could freely go in and out, then he was already halfway invincible. There was nothing left to fear!

Fourth-Dimensional Pocket, forever the GOAT.

Once his nerves relaxed, exhaustion swallowed him whole. The mental strain brought by a day of exploding information was truly hard to describe.

Digging out his loungewear, Tangze slowly shuffled toward the bathroom.

He was already exhausted. It was time to sleep.

Blue. Boundless blue stretched out before him.

The crisp chime of wind bells and the sound of a door opening and closing followed one after another. When Tangze opened his eyes, he found himself standing before a dimly lit bar counter.

The deep-blue checkerboard tiles, the walls covered in interlocking blue diamond patterns, and the bar counter draped in Klein-blue cloth beneath several spotlights all signified the same thing...

"Welcome to the Velvet Room, guest." The bartender standing behind the counter turned around, removed a wineglass from the rack, and gestured for Tangze to take a seat.

"A bar, huh..." Tangze raised his brows, his expression strange, but he still chose a barstool and sat down. "My Velvet Room is actually a bar? I quit drinking heavily ages ago."

"Excellent irony, isn't it?" The blond, golden-eyed bartender propped an arm on the counter and leaned against it casually.

Tangze examined him, sweeping his gaze from the blue jazz hat to his blue bow tie and vest.

He was quite handsome. His golden hair was slicked neatly back. Though his face had the soft features of an Asian man, his lean facial contours stood out clearly. He looked fairly mature; if asked to guess his age, most people would say twenty-seven or twenty-eight. His temperament and color palette suited the retro bar setting perfectly.

But...

"Either way, letting a minor into a bar is inappropriate, isn't it?" Tangze leaned his particularly youthful-looking face closer to him.

"That is not for me to decide, guest. The Velvet Room reflects the guest's heart. An ordinary minor would not reflect a bar." The bartender laughed, adjusted the brim of his hat, and gave Tangze a formal, slight bow. "My name is Lavenza. I am your assistant."

Here it came—the part where they went through the motions.

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

"What lines? Something like, 'This is the boundary between dream and reality, mind and matter'? Since you already know all that, there is no need to waste time." Rather than satisfy Tangze's cringey desire to follow the script, Lavenza lightly shook his head and pushed the wineglass toward him.

"Ah, so you really do know everything too, including things like 'manga,' 'games,' and 'transmigration.'" Tangze tapped the empty glass, his tone not particularly surprised.

From Lavenza's answer just now, Tangze could tell he had understood the implication behind his words. That also meant he knew about Tangze's true life experiences.

Lavenza nodded and admitted it straightforwardly. "That is correct. Whatever you know, I know."

Tangze let out a breath, accepting the premise with ease. He even felt rather lucky.

After all, the foundational setting of the Persona series had evolved from Jungian psychology. It was steeped in occult and mystical elements, and most characters who knew the truth of the world operated like secret-keepers, speaking in a way that made no human sense.

He shifted into a more relaxed posture, resting his head against his propped-up hand and letting out a long breath. "Hah... That's good. Having to listen to cryptic riddles even in a dream would be torture. Since you understand everything completely, let's be open about it. Igor isn't here, right? Is that because this stitched-together world is too strange?"

As the master of the Velvet Room who had appeared in multiple entries of the series, Igor was an old man with white hair and a long nose. According to the setting, he was a doll created by the embodiment of humanity's rational side. He played the role of a wise man guiding the protagonist, connecting the interludes and speaking in riddles.

His appearance in P5 was also a key plot element. Without him, it could be said with certainty that the world Tangze was currently in had completely diverged from P5's story.

Lavenza spread his hands and made an innocent expression. "I'm not entirely sure. That should be the reason? But it doesn't matter. In any case, we are destined to be outsiders now."

The moment he heard the word "outsiders," Tangze's face darkened.

"You do not need to mock me like that."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." Lavenza's smile did not look remotely like he had not meant it. He merely shrugged again, looking utterly nonchalant. "Don't mind it. That was all in your 'previous life.'"

"Don't say it like I've been here for ages. Yesterday, I was still at home living happily as a shut-in, okay? I closed my eyes, opened them, and suddenly it was my 'previous life.'" As Tangze said that, he remembered the games he had not finished and the manga and novels he had not caught up on. He could not help clutching his chest in anguish. "I haven't even played Zelda 2 yet!"

His original life had been carefree. He could have lazed around until retirement, only for his life to suddenly fast-forward to graduation overnight. Who could have expected that?

"But you're actually quite happy about it, aren't you?" Rather than play along with Tangze's theatrical wailing, Lavenza chose to directly expose his true feelings.

Tangze's expression stiffened. He coughed awkwardly twice, lowered his hand, and resumed his lazy posture. "...You can really know things that thoroughly?"

It was true. For many people living stable lives without any desire for excitement, sudden transmigration would be an undeserved disaster. But for Tangze...

His life had been a stagnant pool, a future where he could see the grave at a glance. Going with the flow was merely resignation, not because he liked a peaceful life.

As he thought that, Tangze unconsciously stroked his current knee, whole and unscarred, its contours smooth.

"I am your assistant, your mirror, and your companion and accomplice." Lavenza tipped his hat to him, then indicated the empty glass in front of Tangze. "The bar is now open. Would you like a drink?"

"So, like I said, I don't drink heavily anymore..."

"I understand. So, would you like one?"

"Ahem. Yes."

Entirely unsurprised by Tangze's immediate reversal, Lavenza took out a bottle of liquor.

The reddish amber liquid poured into Tangze's glass. He leaned closer to smell its rich grain aroma, then raised his brows again. "This is Bourbon whiskey? Are you implying something?"

"It is not an implication." Lavenza turned slightly, revealing the liquor cabinet on the wall behind the counter. It was currently quite empty, with only the first row holding several Bourbon whiskeys of different brands and sizes. "This is simply all we have right now."

"Because I ran into 'Bourbon'? That simple and crude a reason?" Tangze clicked his tongue, but still lifted the glass and took a sip.

The smooth sweetness and long-missed alcohol made his eyes narrow, while the corners of his mouth rose beyond his control.

"This is terrible. Quitting drinking is not easy. If I start craving alcohol now, I cannot even buy beer—I'm still a minor." Tangze grumbled in complaint even as he happily took another sip.

"Don't worry. It won't affect your state in reality. Just treat it as... a reward-type Easter egg?"

"A reward? Encouraging me to get close to members of the Black Organization so I can drink more alcohol?" Tangze clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Isn't that looking down on me a little?"

"It is just an Easter egg. Think of it as collecting achievements." Naturally, Lavenza knew how to soothe Tangze. One sentence was enough to placate him.

Tangze, a player with every trophy, achievement, and platinum completion, immediately felt respected. He no longer cared about the room's strange feature and began asking the central question. "All right, so what is my mission? Do I also need to fight in the Cognitive World and stop the Cognitive World from merging with the material world?"

Tangze understood P5. He also understood Conan. But after they were stitched together, he was a little lost.

P5's worldview was supernatural. Though it was supernatural on a psychological level, essentially materializing human cognition into an inner world, those who could affect the Cognitive World could naturally influence the real world in turn. It carried powerful symbolic meaning, but it was still supernatural.

At the worldview level, P5's main story was about exploring the relationship between cognition and reality, then making a choice in the end and saving the world by bravely facing the truth.

As for Conan, although Newton's coffin had been thoroughly launched into the sky here—kicking satellites, becoming a one-punch man—the manga still stubbornly pretended to be materialistic. It did not deal in ghosts or spirits, and it was a traditional-style detective manga.

Its main plot was instead a spy drama and a cops-and-robbers drama, centered on the battle of wits between the red and black sides—I predicted that you would predict my prediction—along with The Organization's decrypting and three-choice guessing contest. Step by step, it pushed the protagonist toward understanding and defeating the Black Organization.

What could these two possibly combine into?

It was just too weird.

Lavenza shook his head, rejecting Tangze's assumption, and gave him the first answer that shocked him that night.

"That won't be necessary. In this world, they merged long ago."

Updates are generally in the afternoon, with two chapters a day.