2 - Second
Before I was even sure the Chaos Gate had flashed, I was already standing at the entrance of Highland City Dun Loireag.
A blue sky reminiscent of early summer. The strong rays of the sun. Long, winding wooden bridges that jutted out in midair, coiling around the mountain faces like a three-dimensional labyrinth. Far below, a sea of white clouds gently rolled by, pushed by the breeze.
About to start running toward the center of the root town, I wondered just how high up it was. Since it was called "Highland City," I figured the height should be something worthy of the name. Could it be higher than Mt. Fuji? I’ve only ever been to Mt. Fuji once, on a family trip a long time ago. Instead of climbing it, we drove around the base in the car, sightseeing along the way. I was a third-year in elementary school. That’s the extent of my experience with mountains. I did once go to a picnic on the hill behind my school, but that of course wasn’t a true mountain. It was more of a mound than anything.
So I had no means of determining just how high up Dun Loireag was, nor how precisely it had been recreated. The howl of the wind coming through the FMD gave me the feeling it was really high up, but again, I had no way of knowing for sure.
Ah, but it wasn't the time to think about things like that. The time for our meeting had long since past. I started running across the bridge.
If this were real life, there’s absolutely no way I’d be able to run so quickly over such a rickety structure. With footwork I possessed only inside the game, I slipped past the other PCs coming and going, glancing at the rocky crags extending upward as I ran. I passed the bridges that led to the equipment shop and the magic shop, and before long my destination, the grunty farm, came into view.
I stopped just before the entrance and jumped a few times with both feet. It was something of a habit of mine within the game.
When I’m logged into “The World,” I sometimes get a strange feeling, almost like vertigo. I guess it’s something like a vague sense of discomfort I get from slipping from reality into the virtual game space. There's a strange disconnect in sensation. To shake that off, I hop up and down a few times to better sync my body with the virtual version of it compiled in the game as my PC. At least that’s the theory BlackRose came up with when she called me out on my hopping the other day. I can’t say myself what the real reason is. Well, I guess habits are just like that.
Inside the fence of the grunty farm, that very same BlackRose was idly standing around, leaning against a sword as tall as she was. A young grunty frolicked around her feet.
“Oink! Oink!”
When I passed the grunty shop NPC and entered the farm, BlackRose noticed me. The look she gave me was half relieved and half exasperated.
“You’re late, Kite! Laaaate!”
“Sorry. My homework took longer than I thought.”
After apologizing for my tardiness, I pointed at the baby grunty at BlackRose’s feet. “Seems like you’ve grown pretty attached. Are you going to try raising him?”
BlackRose picked up the grunty and peered closely at the ugly tip of its nose, appraising. She shook her head. “Emm, I think I’ll pass. Whenever I raise them, for some reason they all end up turning into Noble Grunties.”
BlackRose set the wriggling grunty back down, pulled her hair back with her left hand, looked at me, and smiled. In her expression I saw not BlackRose, but the player Hayami Akira. I quickly looked away.
Six months had passed since the end of our battle with Morganna.
Six months ago, BlackRose and I, along with our friends, put an end to the incident occurring within “The World” that began blurring the line between the virtual space and reality.
I joined the fight to help my friend Yasuhiko, who had fallen into a coma while playing the game. Likewise, BlackRose fought to save her younger brother, who had suffered the same fate. Everyone joined for their own reasons, and we came together to take on the “god” within “The World,” the autonomous program Morganna Mode Gone.
Once it was over, everyone started talking about meeting up offline. I immediately agreed. I wanted to better get to know the friends I had made playing “The World,” and more than anything I wanted to meet BlackRose and thank her in-person.
Akira got to the café a little late, and when she came in, it was just like BlackRose herself had burst out of the game. I could see the tanned female warrior in every single one of her mannerisms. I knew from the e-mails we’d exchanged that she was two years older than me, but she looked truly stunning in her high school blazer. For some reason I got strangely nervous sitting next to her, and I ended up spilling my cola all over the floor. In my scramble to mop it up, I didn’t get to express my gratitude to her, which had been my plan from the start. Even now I’m mortified thinking about it.
“So, what about Lios? He isn’t with you?” BlackRose asked.
“No. I’m by myself. He isn’t here yet.”
I looked around the grunty farm. The wasn’t any need to check; BlackRose and I were the only ones in the farm. The only others were the young grunty and the grunty shopkeeper.
“What’s with that guy? Calling people in and then showing up late,” complained BlackRose, who didn’t harbor many great feelings about Lios.
“I mean, whenever Lios e-mails us, he never has anything good to say, does he? I have a really bad feeling about this. He’s going to push something really annoying on us, I’m sure of it. Isn’t that how it always goes?”
“Sorry about that.”
We were surprised when the grunty farm owner we had thought was just an NPC suddenly started speaking.
“Lios, you’re here?”
BlackRose and I were both taken aback.
“Yes. It’s me. I got here before either of you and I’ve been waiting.”
The rugged grunty shopkeeper folded his arms and looked sharply at us from the eye that didn’t have a patch. His pompous attitude pretty much confirmed that he was the C.C. Corp. system administrator Lios.
“Hey buddy, quit going around pretending to be an NPC. You’ve got pretty bad taste to be doing that.”
“You’re the ones who mistook me. I simply chose the most suitable body to come here and logged in. There’s no problem with that,” Lios said moodily, his tone grouchy.
When I first met him, I wondered why he was always in such a huff and if there wasn’t some sort of deep reason for it. Now that I know it’s just his personality, I’m used to it and don’t think much of it.
If you really think about it, using an NPC body to surprise the people he’s meeting with could be his way of being playful, which is to say it could be his way of showing affection. But it could also not be. Actually, I don’t think it is. Nope. Probably not.
While I was thinking this BlackRose’s face began to turn an alarming color, so I stepped forward and put myself between them.
“So what is it, Lios? What did you call us about?”
“Right. The truth is, an area concealing a remnant of Morganna was discovered.”
“A remwhat?”
“The unfavorable legacy left behind by Morganna Mode Gone. In other words, a surviving Data Bug. We believe this could be the last one.”
BlackRose and I looked at each other.
After Morganna disappeared from “The World,” the illegal monsters dependent on her, Data Bugs, had seldom shown signs of existence. After the incident, to reopen operation of “The World,” CC Corp performed a thorough long-term investigation, and concluded that the Data Bugs in “The World” had ceased to exist.
And yet, one did.
“Late last night a distinctive data wavelength indicative of a Data Bug was detected in an area, and as a result of our analysis, we’ve concluded it to be the last monster outside of the system specifications within ‘The World,’” Lios explained gravely.
“There’s one thing I should say. If we delete that databug…” Lios paused there.
“That is, if you data drain it, your bracelet will probably disappear.”
I was shocked by Lios’s admission.
“Huh?! What’s that supposed to mean?” BlackRose shouted, equally surprised.
“The data wavelength the bracelet gives off and the data wavelength of the newly discovered databug are inverse matches. It's similar to when you fought Cubia. Back then, you destroyed the bracelet and eliminated Cubia. This time, it’s likely the bracelet will disappear when you data drain the databug.”
I looked at my right wrist. Of course there wasn’t anything there. Only when I unleashed the power of the Bracelet of Daybreak, which bestowed upon me the divine protection of Aura, the goddess of “The World,” did the geometric patterns of the data sequence take shape and appear on my arm.
“There must be some mistake. That’s…”
“No, I think Lios might be right.”
BlackRose looked at me, shocked.
This whole time I’d been wondering why Aura entrusted this bracelet to me after the incident. Until Lios’s revelation, I’d thought it was simply my duty to protect it.
But hearing it said out loud, it was actually quite simple.
I would restore peace and stability to the world, because that was the will of Aura and the bracelet.
I looked to Lios and nodded. “If there aren’t any databugs, there won’t be any reason for the bracelet to exist, either. It makes sense that it would disappear.”
“I understand. So this will be my last task as the owner of the bracelet.”
I felt a dull ache in my chest at my own words.
Lios folded his arms and turned away from us, trying to avert his eyes.
“Then go. The enemy should be lurking on the lowest level of the dungeon. The keywords are…”