A lone PC booted up with a subdued beep inside a dreary room. The light hum of running fans was all that filled the silence.
Images flashed across the screen, settling on Shiiko’s photograph.
“Shiiko Katsura: North River Co., lab four. Access confirmed.”
Her picture was replaced by security camera footage. A bright red “LIVE” icon flickered in and out of existence in the bottom left-hand corner.
“Alive... just... we... save... world!”
A muffled voice, drowned out by white noise, echoed throughout the empty room.
“Data... before the... tragedy... happening.”
In response to Shiiko’s voice, the word “IDENTIFIED” popped up on the screen.
“ID identification complete. Image identification complete. Voice identification complete. Shiiko Katsura. Status: Alive.”
✦ ✦ ✦
I entered a bathroom stall and switched my phone on for the first time in what felt like an eternity. I was greeted by none other than Field Battle’s official website.
Needless to say, smartphones didn’t come close to meeting the spec requirements to run a VRFPS game, but the official website had a messenger function and various minigames to provide players with entertainment outside the main game.
Upon logging in, the game’s guide, a.k.a. Raven, would pop in and tell the player all the latest news about the game.
Naturally, one would expect her to be absent seeing as there was no news to speak of, thanks to the apocalypse. Oh, but they’d be in for a surprise.
“Welcome, Hound Nine.” Raven’s miniature character greeted me with a smile on her face.
“Long time no see,” I said, eyes locked on her fabricated smile. The built-in voice-to-text feature spared me the trouble of having to type out my thoughts. It felt just like any old conversation. “Loving the new campaign, by the way. Teamwork makes the dream work, was it?”
“Glad to hear you’re making progress.”
“Sure am, but there’s just this one thing I don’t quite get that’s putting a little bit of a damper on my fun. Mind clearing it up for me?”
“I’ll try my best.”
I cut right to the chase. “Who are you?”
This is where she says, “Why, Field Battle’s mascot character of course!” I mean, technically she’d be right, but that doesn’t even begin to explain things.
Raven had recognized me on an individual level and had led me through her riddles. Not only had she given me a heads-up, but she had also given me hope that I could survive in this zombie-infested world and make humanity flourish once again.
She had to have known that the key to restoring humanity was the time machine. But how? Who was pulling the strings?
“Who sent you and why?” I pressed.
“I don’t have permission to answer that,” she said. “The extent of my intervention is determined through careful calculations. Deviating from them might result in the entire plan failing. All I can do is ask you to trust me.”
“Well, that there’s a whole load of nothing. Is there someone speaking for you in real time, or are you a program?”
Raven fell silent, smiling awkwardly.
Not allowed to say, huh?
“Just tell me one thing and one thing only: this isn’t a trap, right? You’re my—our friend, right?”
Even I was painfully aware of just how nonsensical my own question was.
Whether Raven was our enemy or our ally, she would naturally say yes. I waited for it... but what she said next surprised me.
“I have a message for you.”
“From who?”
“I’ll read it.” Raven averted her gaze for just a split second, then said, “I love you, Hiroaki. Survive... for me.”
“Uh, pardon?”
What the hell?! I found myself at a complete loss for words.
“Huh?!”
Suddenly, the screen went black. A “cannot display webpage” message followed.
Did the servers go down or did the data get wiped?
I tried refreshing the site, but to no avail.
“No, no, no.”
Who? What? Why?
Amid all this confusion, only one thing was certain.
“I don’t need you telling me to survive, whoever you are.” I sighed and turned my phone back off.