Extra story: Ackie

[Author's Note: This was the first chapter I wrote before decided to change the story from being a VR game story to the current story. It's unfinished so make of this what you will. At least now you know where Ackie/Akeji comes from.]

1.

“This job is surely boring.”

“Quit yapping, you got paid more than you deserve,” the guy sitting next to me replies, he has been coding some games while I do nothing but testing jobs.

“It can’t be helped! In the first place you got that position all because you are lucky- nevermind,” I sigh. “It sucks living in Tokyo like this, graduated some prestigious university just to compete against hordes of foreign programmers.”

“If you had any talent you wouldn’t have to complain in the first place,” he leaves his seat to refill his cup of coffee. “You said I was lucky, but it’s even truer for you, getting a job from REQDAI all because they have more trust on natives than foreigners. Besides,” he sighs, “the competition from foreign workers don’t even amount to much.”

I know that.

I just love griping however.

“Still, it’s been a while since the company last made a game based on medieval European settings. You think they are gonna lay off a lot of us soon?”

“Don’t spout bad omens. And besides you are wrong, they are actually gonna put us on a project soon. A huge one, the very exact medieval European setting you are speaking of,” he sips the coffee.

“Just kidding, having to test 3-4 games of that very genre in one month was really nauseating. At least they should hire lots of quality artists who know how to do character designs.”

“Anyway, there will actually be a huge job for you. Something that actually matches your level.”

“Finally,” I make a gut pawn, “something that matches my actual competence.”

“Mostly because you got a degree from Toudai though, and your name happens to be on the top of that sorted list – I mean reason why they hired you here.”

“…”

My name is Akeji.

University graduate, who has just ended the painful days of being unable to find my very first job 2 months ago.

Well, you know how hard it is to survive in Tokyo without having a job right?

…yet I still managed to stay inside my own room for 6 months straight.

“You just reminded me of my very own horror stories. But never mind,” I sigh, “what am I gonna do with this new, huge project?”

“Well, you are gonna be the player, the protagonist himself.”

“Same as usual…”

“No, not exactly,” he crosses his arms to make an X, “well yes, in some ways what you have to do are just the same as when you have to test play all those games. However, there are some other things you have to do as well.”

“Which is?”
“Why do I have to spill all the beans? Our Project Manager is gonna assign that to you tomorrow. Just wait.”

“Sheesh. And here I thought you knew something special.”

“Well,” he returns to the computer, coding (crazy how swift his coding speed is), “I know one thing for sure: this would be the biggest project, perhaps one with the highest amount of money being poured onto, with the most massive production efforts you would ever see.”

“…for a medieval European setting game?” it does truly sound like a big deal, but I can’t resist the temptation to make a joke.

“You say it like the entire country doesn’t have a thing for that sort of game already. Much more spaces to explore than a game sets in feudalist Japan.”

True, I can’t imagine a single girl who would love to fantasize being a princess being married off to some random hairy ossan (old men). Having knights fawning over them would be much preferable.

The dominant demographics of this company’s audience is mostly male, but they do try to cater to the female crowds too – omnipandering is always something to strive for, unless you happen to make games for *cough cough*.

“I do hope there shall be a grand cast of voice actors,” I scratch my chin, “and artists too”.

“Let’s just wait, and see,” my colleague says.

And by the way, his name is Yamato.

Nobody needs to remember our names, we are just the typical ordinary guys who could be found anywhere else.

“So,” I enter the office room, “where’s my new project?”

“Oh, Kikuchi-san?” that’s my surname, “Nice to see you here. You must have heard of our newest game project from your friend and colleague Ishigeru-san?” that’s Yamato’s surname.

“Of course, Hinata-san. I have heard of it, but not the details.”

“Of course. Now I will tell you about this game project… well we say that but we actually haven’t determined whether it’s truly a game or not… more like a simulation.”

“A simulation?” I look at my boss, then Yamato who’s leaning his back lazily on the chair.

“Well, although if all didn’t come well, perhaps we can only end up with some video game product. You definitely must know well of how technologically advanced our company is, right?” he asks with a slight smug tone.

“Well yeah, of course.” I shall never forget all those buzzwords about ‘intensive experience’, or ‘enhanced optimized graphics’. I don’t remember the exact words for them. “I have done my job on a lot of our company’s video game projects. Namely Fantastica Magica and Grimworld. Fantastica Magica features a system that allows players to interact with the beautiful characters and chat with them like they are actual living anime characters, thanks to the integrated AI. Grimworld on the other hand features in-game realtime system. That is to say, we do employ some of the most cutting edge technologies for our games.”

I go on to blabber whatever come to my mind.

Although deep down, perhaps needless to say I find those games to be far from groundbreaking. The AI feature was a nightmare for the developers (I have heard horror stories from them who attended Toudai as I did, except they were the top students – wouldn’t really an issue if they got paid high enough to make up for all the burnt out efforts), although at least it worked well enough our game. It’s a big deal because it’s a mobile gacha game by the way, you don’t typically make such a game that can be played on non-high end devices let alone mobile devices – as far as I know. Grimworld’s realtime system is hardly new for the last 20 years, just that they do it well this time.

“Ah erm yeah,” he doesn’t even pay attention to the nonsense I tried to spout, “anyway the project you are involved with shall involve some of our high-end technology. Maybe needless to say since REQDAI was founded with the aim to do big, and without high-end technology we wouldn’t be able to make anything like that.”

Ah, yes, of course. I wonder what is it this time, some self-produced gaming gear?

“Let’s go”, he signals me to go after, I look at Yamato, “I will come by, maybe”, so he replies.

My boss presses on the B3 button by the elevator. So we are going to the basement huh? I have to say I have never come here by myself, because why should I? I don’t happen to be that type of employee who prefer to get into trouble by wandering around to places I may not be welcomed. Although I’m not sure if any of these places has ever been any secretive. Hearsay has it that they are for experimenting with technological devices and similar stuff (so that’s where you get the REQDAI gaming headphone from - as expected of my company, you may say).

“So here we are, and this is what you are gonna work with from now on.”
The sight that hits my eyes surprises me much more than it should.

“…until the end of the project at least.”

It’s mostly a white color room, but look very advanced and all the tools here… look so… advanced (I don’t have a wide range of vocabulary myself, no?).

A place where you can imagine yourself creating truly innovative stuff. Very modern and professional.

“Hmm? Anything bugging you? You look fazed here.” he asks.

“Ah no! I just... get a little bit distracted.”

“Anyway, as you may already know well of all the advanced technologies that REQDAI has been doing and making,” no I am not, this is my very first time seeing the company having anything that resembles more of a high-level company that one that scams people through marketing and gacha games, “and… this is our latest one.”

“Well, that looks like that machine that people use in hospital to diagnose patients.” I say innocently.

“MRI machine, yeah. The very idea of this machine is actually based on that, you lie in it just so your consciousness wouldn’t get disrupted during your experience in-game.”

Does it really need a machine for that? And what does he mean by “consciousness wouldn’t get disrupted”?

“…or simulation. Whatever the term you prefer,” he continues.

Erm… I have a lot of questions and wild guesses here boss.

“So… my job here is…?”
“Right.” He comes to a table and picks up a… small book? He looks at it then me and back to it again. “Well, before we do this… I guess I should let you experience what this machine is like first. Get in here, lie down.” I follow suit, he puts an eyeband on me, “This isn’t important, but would be safer, or not really, just to be sure.”

Well, I hope he wouldn’t do anything to me while I’m in this state (would he?).

Click, maybe noise of the lid being shut, then the tube I’m lying in seems to be getting pushed into the machine, and another lid shut.

Hey! This is scary! If something happened here this could very well be my coffin! Whoever thought of this machine design?!

“Hello? Can you hear me?” My boss’s voice channels into the machine, sound like there’s a way for communication. Or… maybe the lids aren’t soundproof in the first place to begin with.

“…”

“Hello? If communication doesn’t get through, then I have to pull you out now.”

“I hear you! I hear you!”

“Very well. So, are you ready?”

“Huh?” Is he gonna do something to me?

“Press on the button to your left hand.”

My hand feels something like a button on the left side of the tube. I press on it.

A surge of heightened feelings comes to me.

Like I’m losing myself… into a vortex…

…

…

“A success isn’t it?!” I can hear my boss’s excited voice from here, right before I am aware of where I am and what I am doing and any other stuff.

Well, first off, in front of me seems to be a battleground.

“Are you listening?”

Next thing is: I am wearing tactical gears and clothes, the type you typically see on those American movies.

“Kichiku-san?”

I even have… a gun. A sub-machine gun, as far as I remember the name of these stuff from the MMOFPS games I have played, on my own hand.

“Huh…”

“Kichiku-san? If I don’t hear your answer then I’m gonna terminate your session.”

“Ah! Yes! I do hear you!”

“Very well. How is it over there?”

“Are you observing me from the room?” I ask.

“Yes. From my own laptop, through this software… which isn’t our business right now so if you want to ask you have to do so later. For now, everything works well right?”

“Well you ask if everything works well but I’m not even sure what to make of all these… this is…”

Like another new world, which looks very unreal due to the weird colors and graphics.

But it is a world that I experience directly, just like my daily reality.

My hands look shaderish, but they do feel like my hands. I can even feel what I touch, or grasp.

“Amazing.”

“I know. Third time I heard that. Now I guess you see what a world in simulation is like, through that sort of machine. Very well. Now try to use that gun to eliminate the enemies.”

“Huh?”

I see like some moving people far ahead.

“Now go.”

Come on this is abrupt. Why do I just…?

But I decided to cast my hesitation aside and stop asking questions. Raise the gun up, and…

There’s a crosshair right before my eyes.

“Sugoi! …would I die if those guys shoot me though?”

“…? Why does it matter? Well, you won’t since this is just a demo simulation, dying just to respawn is a hassle for demo purpose. This shouldn’t need to be said.”

“Would I feel pain if they shoot me?”

“Erm no, although this sort of sensation could be added… but well there of course are risky issues with it so we decide to never implement. So are you trying out to fight them or not?”

I proceed to step forward, another step, then eventually run toward them.

I run so fast, like a wind!

They all look at me. Oh snap why am I running right to them?! Should have just pulled out the gun to shoot them.

They splatter their shootings toward me! The bullets hitting me keep making me flinched, so I decide to roll toward some cover.

I can even conjure a menu of weapons to be chosen, all these feel absolutely natural and intuitive, like you are just breathing.

“Well since it’s not like I can die anyway.” I pull out a knife and plunge toward them, slashing them all over. It truly feels exciting! The sensation is like you are cutting some lemons. I switch to a sub-machine gun and proceed to shoot the remainings.

Like a real action movie. I doubt in real life it can even feel like this.

My mouth gasps, as this is all just awesome.

“How is it?” My boss asks.

“It’s really incredible, Hinata-san!”

“It’s good that you know what the simulation is like now.”

“Can I fly here?” I ask as I try to jump and swing my hands up and down, but doesn’t seem like I can do that.

“Well, a game’s features are always predicated on how they are programmed beforehand. This game has no such… oh well actually you can in debug mode.”

His voice becomes silent. And then the very sense of my body feels numb. No feeling at all.

But yet, I can see that I am moving… away from my very previous body! Hey!

I see what this is… I try to move through the objects. And it feels creepy how you can get into… the void, once you passed through the wall or something like that.

“Wish granted, no?”

“Well, that’s not exactly wrong but…” I ruefully move up toward the sky above, only to an extent so that I wouldn’t touch the ceiling of the level, “…you know what I mean.”

“Haha sorry sorry. Alright it’s time to end our session. Can we end it now?”
“Yes.” I affirm.

“Good.”

Then the vision before me abruptly disappears. Like a TV that shuts down.

Now the feeling of my own body returns. It doesn’t exactly go away once you got into the simulated world, just that your actual body’s feelings get superseded by stronger simulated sensations, if that’s the way to put it.

“You can get out by pressing the button on the right.”

In a swift moment, it feels like the machine just ejected my tube out and the lid of the tube open, in less than 2 seconds. All smoothly.

“…”

I take off my eyeband. Well, easy enough. Though sure is awkward.

“Erm, boss. So once you got into the simulated world, your body is like paralyzed right? Well if so then it seems dangerous.”

“Yeah, people have been researching on this and coming up with ideas as well. Although if there are external disturbances, your consciousness shall return to real world immediately, which is why people made this machine in the first place to begin with.”

“Sound scary that your consciousness flies to some alternative reality.”

“Well don’t fret on some technical terms, that’s just how some researchers call what you perceive. In practice how it works is not that scary, not something you would fret.”

I touch the machine.

“What is it called?” I ask.

“It’s called the Disturbance Resisting Machine. DRM or so we call it. It’s not all disturbances proof, just to ensure the minimum required. Somebody slams on the lid and you will immediately wake up. So no need to worry stuff like earthquake and you get stuck in the coffin forever. Even though… I would love to wonder if staying in the machine would be better in such a scenario.”

I let a loud breathe out. After all that experience it just feels so… simulated, if you catch my drift. I lie back to the tube like a lazy monkey (where else would I lie, this is better than the cold ground).

“So now that you have known about the simulation and some ideas about it… Your job would be simple, and is mostly the same as what you usually do: to play test the game we assign you. That’s what the project is pretty much about. Are you okay with it?”

“Of course I am. But why do you choose me for this project?”
I gaze at his face, which seems to think in silence for some seconds, in searching of something internal – perhaps, then looks back at me.

“Well so far we have only managed to make 3 DRMs, so we can put only you on the project for now.”

“…”

The face of Yamato comes up to my mind, dang it, get it out me.

“It would be nice to have a lot of reporting and experience, so once we managed to make some more machines, we are gonna let more test players in. In the meantime I hope the lack of colleagues shouldn’t be an issue to you.”
“It’s okay. I don’t think I ever have any issue related to that.”

“Alright. Now the next thing to move on is…”

He picks up again that small book I saw previously before getting into the machine, this time he gives it to me.

“Well this is basically the story book of the game we are working on. The name isn’t final yet, but for now we call it Regina Fantasy.”

“Do I have to read all of this.”
“Would be helpful if you do, not necessary, but you should. Here’s a thing we want you to do to: to see how much does the game diverge from the main storyline, if you decide to do something the main protagonist doesn’t typically do.”

“Hmm? Is the game a rogue-like?”

“No it’s not.” He sighs, although not due to me saying anything idiotic, but more like he’s trying to find something to say. “A simple analogy would be like the game is planted with the principles seeds, and the rest just sprung out from those, so the game sort of has a life on itself. Some parts are hard coded but some are just generated.”

Isn’t that just an elaborated way to say rogue-like? Or does the game for whatever grandiose scale stuff the makers want to achieve still need some auto-generation here and there, but it’s just made with so much efforts they don’t want to call it so?

Well, not that it matters anyway. If the game is fun (hopefully it is), then I shall enjoy it. Besides, at the end of the day my job here is to work whatever they demand.

“Alright, so a scenario book.”

I open the first page… Huh?

“Seem more like a novel to me.”

“Well, it is a novel. There are some fascinating stuff about the author that are quite interesting,” he chuckles. But well, those are messy to tell, and perhaps should be left for another day.”

The author? Not some department’s writer?

“Well, it’s late already so… I will say more about the task’s details tomorrow, they won’t be any harder than what you daily do so don’t worry about. Well maybe I’m saying too much for something so trivial but well… see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow, Hinata-san.”

Next morning.

I haven’t read the novel at all!

“What is it?” Yamato asks.

“I forgot to read some material our boss assigned me.” I reply

“As usual huh?” Yamato replies nonchalantly, not bothered to ask about what is that material or how was it what happened with me yesterday.

“So, what do you get to do on this huge Regina Project of our?” I ask.

“Fewer work than usual, surprisingly. It involves fixing some codes I don’t know where do they belong to this time, just make sure the inputs and outputs are correct this time they say.”

“No way to make sense of your own inputs and outputs even? Well that’s of course is my job but it’s tedious only having some requirements to conform.”

I guess this project is too huge it’s divided into many smaller modules. And given that my friend Yamato over here only do programming on stuff like functional features or graphics, it’s harder to make sense of this project which involves higher-level coding. I’m sure there are plenty of that, judging on what I saw yesterday. Anyway those that are involved with coding higher level stuff should be in those basement labs?

Speaking of which, our boss mentioned that only 3 persons so far (including me) have used that machine or something like that. Does that include Yamato?

“You used that machine yet?” I ask.

“What machine?”

“The... I forgot the name... the one you use to get into the simulation.”

“Oh, so you do even use a machine to get into the simulation. I thought you was supposed to use some VR devices or something.”

“...you don’t seem to know about this project as I thought.”

“Well I was told stuff like the game would be just like a direct experience. So that’s what I figure they put you on to play test.”

Well, I guess that’s fair since I myself didn’t even have a single shred of respect for this company’s technological capacities.

“What are we even talking about... Anyway I should really read this material beforehand... or actually he said this isn’t necessary so maybe it’s not that bad.”

“Usually they say that but they would be disappointed to see you not having read the documents.”

“I know I know.” I would love to wonder how many promotion chances I have ruined myself.

Having paid a visit to my friend’s office, I get to the elevator and press B3. So this shall be my new workplace from now on. I guess if nothing hinders me then I can always pay Yamato a midday visit. However judging on his half-hearted attitude towards me previously, I’m not sure I really want to.

“Here you are, have you read through the novel?” The boss asks me.

Gulp.

“Well, I did give it some skim-through but…”
“Oh okay, keep reading, the better your grasp with the story gets the better.”

Huh? So the book was truly optional reading? I guess it’s truly not as necessary as he said.

“Your first playthrough would likely take about a week or sooner if you decide to speedrun. But typically it may even take a month and that’s okay. Do what you want with the first playthrough, just so you get used to the game.”

I nod mindlessly.

“Do I need to report the bugs during my first playthrough?”

“Well if you think they are supposed to be bugs, then just report them at the end of the day. Though don’t mind them too much.”

As I heard him say so, it hit my mind that ‘doesn’t this make knowing the story’s outline important?’. Maybe I can just know the story of the game through my first playthrough? What if the game has many branching paths?

…oh well whatever.

“So from now on you can just get into the machine during work hours and get out by yourself. The technical team has prepared other stuff like servers virtualizing and configurations… Just thought I would mention. Anyway no need for me here anymore. Please do remember to write reports at the end of the day however, as usual I mean.”

“You aren’t observing or something?”
“Well, we kinda want to uphold the privacy for the game testers. Your playthrough can be recorded automatically to data storage so we can always watch them any time we want. But right now, we aren’t doing that, since the size of the recorded data would be way too much. So no visual data of how you control your own character at the very least.”

“…how do I get into the machine?”
“That button.”

I lie into the tube and right hand feels the button.

“Just press it, yeah.”

The tube slides in smoothly in about less than 2 seconds. I forgot to wear the eyeband. Is it okay though?

“The game shall begin in 5 seconds.”

“What if I have any external needs during playing?”

“If you want to go to the toilet, your own consciousness shall return back to your real body. Otherwise you shall be in there until it’s time for your reports.”

Before I can reply with anything, my whole body feels [...]

2.

So here I am, into the world of… Regina Fantasy (was that its name though?). There are many things surely would excite me the first time seeing them with my own eyes. I would love to see how amazing would the direct experience in a simulation of a… medieval Europe inspired game. The type that this country has made endless after endless number of games.

I am a fan of this genre as well, of course.

“Waaahh…. Wahhh.”

A toddler’s noises? I wonder where do they come from? The view is way too blurry right now.

“I wonder if this kid will ever become anything significant, or he shall be a burden to his parents.”

“Don’t say such words, Wyatt. Your personality is way too often the source of troubles, so maybe keep it to yourself?

“Alright.”

Two another voices of a middle-aged male and female.

Oh… I can see them now. The man very handsome and the woman beautiful, judging by some beauty standards (although this is just a redundant thing to say, what kind of game would put ugly characters in though?).

“Wahhh… waaahhh…”

“Come on, be quiet!” The man groans.

“Darling!”
“Alright!” He grumbles, discontent obvious on his face. Although mostly because the view of their faces is right before my view.

Okay, the next question should be. Where am I and who am I (in this game)?

The feeling of the arms of the woman… suggests to me the very answer…

“Wahhh… wahhh…”

I am the baby they are holding, and the noises are coming from my own throat.

“Sleep well, Ryle.”

As of now I can’t control my own body in-game. I mean it literally. What kind of game design is this? Do the developers realize nobody wants to play a game they have to experience through some lame unskippable and uncontrollable.

“Baboo.”

Well, that’s pretty much the only noise I can let out. Great game. Great programming.

This is one of those very moments when I love to wonder if I should find a job in another company. Kougai? Suginata Haneko? Suzuki? Hanekawa’s Toy company? …well the last one too low for me.

Time passes. A lot.

“Why do you slack of so much?!”

Bapped.

“Come on darling, why push him so much?”

“Do you want him to become a good for nothing?” My dad retorts my mom. “Look at the books, not me!”

Bapped. Again.

Well, let me introduce ourselves.

My name is Ryle. The man who has been hitting me is Richard and the woman who looks protective over me is Diana.

Did I get scammed into some sort of experiment?

I swear so many years have passed, and I can’t even get out of this game. If it is even a game. I guess I’m stuck here now somehow.

Life here sucks, it’s not much different from real life. I mean the life I had before being born into this world.

Should I tell my parents in this world that they are all fictional characters? It means nothing right now.

“Swing harder!”

Can you stop screaming so loud. I’m trying.

This is sword practicing by the way. I pant a lot.

“At my age I already had to hunt some wolves. You only know to stay home and suck your fingers all day.”

Thank you for the comment, father.

“And an untalkative kid even.” He sighs.

I mean, I can’t exactly risk getting beaten harder myself, no? This sort of person isn’t the one that would listen to what their children have to say. My real-life parents sometimes are pretty stubborn sometimes, yeah. But they had never forced me to achieve unrealistic demands.

In the first place I wonder how does Richard suppose I get to read a book in such a young age? When I was just 3 years old. The compliment “Isn’t our son a prodigy?~~” from my mom of this world Diana doesn’t seem to ever register his head. Apparently not being able to digest the classics in this world make me a good-for-nothing. I see no other kid doing the same, but then again I’m not even allowed to go outside much.

Now I know what helicopter parents in legend are like.

[...]