Past, Infinite Dendrogram
A week had passed since his “mother” had told Albert about Infinite Dendrogram.
Now, he was inside the game.
Since he was somewhat differently shaped than the average user, connecting him had required some hardware modifications, but he’d been able to make it in.
He was now in a place that looked much like a lab. Ahead, he saw a man with a strange silhouette doing some sort of work. Although he had several inhuman features, he was humanoid in overall shape and wore glasses that gave him an air of intelligence.
“Hm?” The spectacled man noticed Albert, looked at him for a moment, then pensively laid a hand on his mouth and looked up at the ceiling.
“I’m surprised... Truly, I am.”
Those words seemed to come straight from the heart.
“How much time has passed since No. 0 compensated them with those key technologies? They actually created an information entity capable of logging in, and that’s even compatible with Embryos? I understand that they were provided some knowledge, but this... Even our own technology is partially... Wait. According to No. 10, the current publicly available technology is quite far behind this. Is it all due to this entity’s creator, then? Is it the work of someone extraordinary?”
Voicing his astonishment at the sight of Albert, the man seemed to be gathering his thoughts.
“First the outsider welcomed by No. 3, now this... The environment there is quite different from that in our homeland... Hm?” The spectacled man then seemed to regain his composure and looked at Albert again. “Apologies. This unexpected phenomenon had me a little shaken.”
The word “unexpected” made Albert a bit concerned. While he himself didn’t have a strong desire to play, his “mother” had asked him to provide reports about it.
“Oh. No need to worry. You logged in, which means you have a person’s... Well, the same qualifications as any other person. Let us proceed with the avatar creation.”
A few windows then popped up in front of Albert, allowing him to set his appearance.
He could hardly envision an avatar like himself, so he simply based it on a character from an old movie his “mother” had often watched.
Thus, he created a muscular man, received the necessary items, and had his Embryo implanted in his left hand.
But the moment he received his avatar, his entire body began telling him that something was really wrong.
An awful sense of discomfort consumed him.
“It will be difficult for you at first,” the man said. “But you are a rare entity indeed, so I personally hope that you will continue in spite of that. Though, being a Master, that decision is entirely up to you.”
The spectacled man—control AI No. 4, Jabberwock—spoke as if he knew what Albert was feeling.
“Regardless, welcome to Infinite Dendrogram. We truly appreciate your arrival.”
Following those words, Albert was flung into the air and plummeted toward the country he’d chosen as his starting point—Caldina.
✦ ✦ ✦
Thus, like many other players, Albert landed near Caldina’s largest city...
But he was overwhelmed by shock as the sensation from earlier not only did not go away, but actually got worse.
His sense of smell taking in the air, the tastes in his mouth, even the feeling of the wind caressing his skin—all this impossible information distorted his world.
The people behind Infinite Dendrogram claimed that it was profoundly realistic, but Albert’s problem was far more fundamental than that.
Many users suffered immense discomfort while playing NEXT WORLD, but none of them had felt anything close to what Albert was currently experiencing.
The five senses themselves—the fatal error that we call a human body—had rendered him unable to even move.
Albert Schwartzkaiser was an anomalous electronic life-form, and to him, the very flesh and blood avatar he’d received was a source of errors that tortured his senses.
In real life, he was a mechanical computer that simply contained the information that made up his mind. With his avatar granting him sensations he simply couldn’t have, Albert was overcome by a sense of discomfort that rendered him unable to even stand, and he collapsed on the sandy ground.
Assaulted by these unknown senses and unable to even activate the log-out process, Albert spent several hours like that.
However, the pain eventually vanished.
This was because his Embryo hatched, replacing his entire body with one that was fully mechanical.
The errors subsided as soon as that occurred.
Albert once again only had vision, hearing, and a degree of pressure sensitivity—senses he already knew well.
Thanks to the Embryo that had become his body, he was able to adapt to this world and overcome his suffering.
Having thus gained the ability to move, he proceeded to practice it. After about a week of such training, he could move as well as any other person and began operating like any other Master.
He engaged in the extermination of harmful monsters, tested himself in duels—he did much of what anyone might expect a Master to do.
Throughout all this, his body—Septentrion—evolved into a Superior Embryo. This caught the eye of Caldina’s president, and he was invited to join Sefirot. Since then, he’d followed her orders and continued to hunt UBMs, as well as battle wanted Masters.
The final and greatest exception to such work was his participation in The Tournaments.