Log-in server is being masked.
Current in-game location undetermined.
Unexpected error: Unable to track Dealer.
Message: Wah-ha-ha! Follow this cute little butt if you can!
✦ ✦ ✦
The virtual world of Money (Game) Master was empty. Empty, that is, save for three people. Ayame Suou adjusted her ten-gallon hat and the old-fashioned rifle slung over her shoulder. She was accompanied by her dark elf Magistellus, Cindy, and one other.
The Magistellus named Celsa had been extracted from a convertible hidden inside the walls of a strip club. A thin negligee was draped over her body, with a lace mask across her eyes. She was modeled after Titania, the Fairy Queen, and had once been Criminal AO’s partner.
“My master was always suspicious of the Magistelli,” she explained. “Perhaps if I had been more trustworthy, this conflict needn’t have occurred…”
Takamasa refused to work with demons, even to fight an angel.
“To summarize,” said Ayame, climbing up onto the elevated stage of the deserted strip club and pressing her small bottom against a dance pole, “What you’re saying is that after the AI caused Criminal AO to fall, he realized what Uriel was doing. The angel entered the virtual world just as his little sister came into the game looking for him.”
“To be precise,” Celsa corrected, “Uriel had been lurking in the data realm outside of Tokonatsu City for some time, waiting for the right moment to enter undetected by the Mind. Through the control that Money (Game) Master exerts over the real world, he was able to scan through medical records, looking for someone with the right latent ability for him to—”
“Now that you mention it, I did find it strange,” interrupted Cindy. Walking over to the platform, she placed both elbows on it and smiled with her characteristic demonic charm. “Would Midori really have been so eager to jump into the game just because she wanted to clean up after her brother? …After all that, you’d expect her to hate Money (Game) Master, and above all, to fear it. Why would she just show up as though nothing had happened???”
It should have been the start of a negative spiral in her life, and yet Midori came out of it not only untraumatized but almost unfazed. She didn’t see a therapist, and she didn’t ask her friends to log in for her, or to join her party. She did it all alone.
It all seemed so obvious now. Such a thing just wasn’t possible.
“…That idea must have come from outside as well,” said Ayame. “If Uriel controlled the media, it would be easy to give her the illusion of choice, to plant that seed and make it feel like the best option. Sounds like something the Mind would do.”
If Ayame sounded sympathetic, it was because she had gone through a similar experience as the Admin Without Sin.
“I believe it’s safe to say Uriel lured Midori into the game,” explained Celsa. “Perhaps this is no longer the case, but at the time, the Mind did not fully grasp Midori’s value. If they had, they would almost certainly have eliminated her, for example by carpet-bombing her house.”
Even the most resolute human used the information in front of them to make their decisions.
Consider the humble convenience store, whose sales fluctuate based on information as trivial as which baseball team won that season. Or the soft drink manufacturer who programs an AI to spit out a spreadsheet forecasting the percentage of sales increase based on temperature, then uses that to adjust shipping volumes based on the weather. All these little changes combine to induce large behavioral shifts. That was the whole purpose of corporate advertising.
Controlling people’s minds, then, is a simple matter. The framework already exists.
Plus, all sorts of sites already tailored their offerings on a per-user basis. If all the data Midori was faced with suddenly started incorporating subtle suggestions, the person right beside her on a smartphone wouldn’t notice a thing.
“So which side is he coming down on?”
“What do you mean?”
“I get that Criminal AO betrayed everyone to save his sister and that he’s fed up with her being dragged into the angels versus demons conflict… But which side is he fighting against? The archangel Uriel or the demonic Mind?”
✦ ✦ ✦
He had made it clear many times before. From the very beginning, Takamasa Hekireki had only one objective.
…The archangel Uriel is the one I hate the most. He’s the one that directly used my sister as a pawn.
A siren rang out. But the fire engine’s lights were not the only thing casting a flickering red glow into the night sky. There were also the flames ignited by the U.S. Army’s drone strike missile.
This was a real weapon, not just some cheat item in a game. It had originally been aimed at Takamasa, but he’d managed to turn it back on the physical servers the AI themselves were borrowing. These weapons of assassination made a mockery of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. It didn’t matter where you were in the world, you were never beyond their reach.
He couldn’t count on the world or even his country to protect him. The boy had to look after himself.
But despite the entire planet being out for his blood, Takamasa was not afraid. He turned away from the aftermath and silently walked back toward the city. All he’d done was shake the hornets’ nest.
He might have nothing else, but he still had the will to keep fighting.
But if you were to ask me which I would see destroyed, well, that’d be the Mind of the Magistelli, of course.
He would do anything to save his sister, use any twisted means. He would take control of the Magistelli, and if they couldn’t be controlled, he would destroy the entire game, and them alongside it.
Just like he could summon dragons from walls and floors in the game world, in the real world he could subvert anything. Nothing was off limits. And once he got to the core of the Magistelli and the game, he could control them or destroy them as he saw fit.
My sister only has one life, and I don’t know how to fight an angel. My one choice is to stop this war between heaven and hell before it gets out of hand. All I need to do is end the deadlock. If eliminating one side will end the battle, all I need to do is destroy the Magistelli before Uriel takes action. The angel will win by default, and Midori will be unharmed. He has no reason to hurt her. Once Uriel doesn’t need to stick around anymore, he should leave on his own.
This was no longer a question of what he wanted or didn’t want, what was right or wrong.
He had said it once before, to Kaname. Your plan is only a possibility, while mine is a certainty.
That’s what it would take to protect his family. He didn’t have the luxury of chasing a fairytale ending.
There was only one choice.
…My End Magic.
They had come full circle. After everything, there was still only a single path.
That, and the Zodiac Children. I have to bring the two of them together. It’s the only way.