Chapter 6:

PROLOGUE- The Immortal Tyrant

CYBERGROUNDS


The announcement blasted from an ethereal voice around the whole game, which pretty much brought all the sightseeing to a close. The central hub, that’s where the Guild building is, so I’m sure that I will meet Mom and Yuito there.

The only reason that I can think of right now that has Arctus scrambling and broadcasting an immersion breaking message, is because they might’ve just figured out many haven't figured out how to log out yet, that or we got too caught up and Day 1 is already over. But either way, we are getting to log out, so that might bring back the ease in some people.

Since I was already in Typhon, I beat most of the crowd to the announcement, however Mom and Yuito are nowhere to be seen, well, they currently are like a kid in a toy store so they might get here eventually. Five minutes passed and the plaza started to fill up, the fountain disappeared and it spawned a massive stage, the place started to crowd up fast, so I gave up on searching for my family and pushed that task for later. 2 more minutes for the announcement and all I can do until I’m waiting is to take in my surroundings. I was in front of the line, but the stage was blocked off by what looked like an invisible wall, and during my time waiting, I also spotted whispers.

“Hey, do you know how to log-out, I’ve been trying to find it for a couple of hours now”

“Seriously, how do you log-out, maybe the announcement is to show us how to?”

“Is this going to take long, I was in the middle of a quest”

Out of these conversations I’ve picked out, it seems that many are having the same logout issues.

2 more minutes pass, and rays of light emerge around us and bring in puzzled players. Looks to me like the ones who didn’t make it in time or ignore the message around Typhon were force teleported here. And with that, a big holographic screen showing a built man with a lab coat appeared above the stage, and the announcement began.

“Hello, all players and welcome to CyberGrounds Day 1, many will know who I am but of course we have new players with us today, so I’ll re-introduce myself, my name is Izanami Sato, the CEO of Arctus Productions, and one of the founders of CyberGrounds. Today I am personally here to answer a question that has caught the attention of many players recently. ‘How do I log-out of the game?’. As you might have noticed, the logout button has proven hard to find, but I assure you this is not a development misstep, instead it is the nature of the game. Logging out of the game can only be done in one way, and it’s for 10 people to reach the end gate situated in the higher sanctum in the city of Morpheus.”

I was frozen in shock as it my knowledge was correct-

“Now, I am sure that some of our returning players know what that means. Morpheus is the city that is only accessible to the players who has reached the rank of SuperNova, which is the highest rank in the game, and to get to the highest sanctum, you need to place in the top 10 ranks of the game, which was previously known as the Immortal rank. But I assure you that is one of the ways that you will get to leave the game and into reality. And to answer the question of where your slain companions might’ve gone to, they no longer walk in the land of the living. If you die, the Artemis console you are using will inject a toxin into your system through the arm you used to login through your fingerprint ID, which will kill all your vital organs within seconds. The only mode where death doesn’t mean an instant game over, is during PvP Artifacter matches. You are not safe from death during Battle Royale, you are not safe during PvE quests and boss raids, and you are not safe in the open world. To further prove my point, here is what happened to the ones who got too careless.”

More screens appeared and showed us what was happening on the outside. Many people, countless of them, slumping on their chairs with blood all over their mouths and down their eyes while every vein in their body was visible…Gasps of horror and sorrow took over the atmosphere from the imagery and I took a step back in terror.

“Yuito, Mom, where are they?” I say to myself

“And I am not hiding this from anyone, besides, this same announcement is being streamed in every source of media devices in the world, authorities are aware, but they will not be able to help as they won’t be able to breach through our facility’s forcefield. But don’t worry, you are not helpless, the only way to disable the forcefield is to either clear the game or cease any and every activity for 2 weeks of in-game time, that way, the authorities will be able to breach the building and unplug everyone from their chairs. And don’t worry, your real bodies will be kept healthy and maintained, as we will be supplying your real bodies with our very own nutrient solution through the same delivery method as the toxin, whenever you eat in-game, your real body will receive sustenance and waste will be removed when you do the same in-game. Now I know what you are thinking, ‘Why?’, ‘Why would the most respected and most recognized company in the world do this?’.

The world has come a long way throughout time, inventions like the light bulb and the mobile phone that changed humanity forever, medicine that can cure once deadly diseases and once impossible and deadly jobs, now made easy. Humans have come a long way, and they have extended the limits of physical research, but what about human morals? People have a defined way to judge what is acceptable behavior and what is not, but never has anyone done any research to discover the limits of that. How insane is insanity, and how decent is decency. CyberGrounds is and always has been, a social experiment, a test to see how strong human morals truly are, and what it takes to shatter it. And all of you, have volunteered to be its human trials. And for that, I welcome you again; Welcome to your salvation…Welcome, to Ark Sanctuary”

These were the same words I heard 8 years ago, but while it was joy and curiosity back then, it was pure dread and fear right now. The crowds were frozen in disbelief, and it erupted suddenly into mass panic. There were screams, cries and all sorts of inhuman sounds in the background where everyone was in either in disbelief or in terror. And suddenly, a shock went through everyone as the broadcast still wasn’t over. The panic calmed and the broadcast resumed.

“And finally, I have parting gifts”, Sato snaps his fingers and while nothing happened first,

I started to see an anomaly on my Heads-Up Display. My name turned from reading “Shinogami” to “Akio Nakamura”, I noticed everyone else was having the same issue as I noticed the chatter

“Why is it now displaying my real name, what’s going on?” said a player somewhere in the crowd

“As you might have noticed, what displays on your HUD, is now your real identities, of course you will not need your game names anymore since you are all rats in my experiment, and for your last gift, I would like to introduce the ones who will take over the game’s oversight in my absence, please welcome the former Immortal 10.”

Right on the stage, ten people appeared, and the one in front of the ground stunned me.

“Tadashi?” I said to myself

I knew the Immortal players before as I had played with and against them back in my pro days, but I only knew 1 of them out of the 10 that appeared in the light.

As soon as they stopped, one of the players got up on stage before they even said a word

“What’s the big deal here eh?, No way in hell I am going to be a Guinea Pig in your sick game, get us out of this shit you son of a-”

And that’s the last word he spoke as I shockingly witnessed Tadashi putting his massive combat knife right through the guy’s jaw impaling his tongue right up to his brain. He pulled the knife out, slit his throat in one swing and kicked him off the stage right in front of me.

“Wouldn’t have happened if he knew his place” he said

“Tadashi? What did you just do?” I paused to process the whole scene

A pool of blood building beneath my feet, with a guy with a slit-open throat right in front of my sight

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH YO-”

“CAN IT, YOU SWINE” replied Tadashi

“Huh?”

“Akio Nakamura, the one man I wish I didn’t run into today, and of course you spawn into Typhon just for my luck”

“What are you talking about?” I inquired to the murderer on the stage but got didn’t get an answer

He diverts his attention from me

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ll skip the pleasantries, my name is Tadashi Chifuyu, and who you see alongside me is my clan, We were all beta testers and I’ll be the one that will make sure everything here will go according to the way it’s supposed to be. In the absence of those Arctus nitwits, you will be living in my world. But first, let’s establish some order through a bit of punishment shall we”

The curtain behind the stage was lifted and I was frozen in horror from what I saw behind there.

“These 2 were caught poking their nose into places they didn’t belong, and for that, order must be established. First on the block, is one who always looked to match and maybe surpass his superior brother, Yuito Nakamura”

There lied my brother suspended from what looked like a drone

“Tadashi, W-what are you-” I said unable to speak from the shock

“What am I doing?, what I should’ve done the moment I caught them” replied Tadashi

“NII-CHAN, PLEASE HELP ME” screamed my helpless brother

“Please stop, PLEASE…STOP!” I screamed while I ran onto the stage.

I wasn’t stopped by the invisible wall, but the moment I jumped on stage, I was met with resistance

I readied my blade and pounced in for a swing, but I was effortlessly evaded, knee’d in my stomach, put into an arm-lock and restrained onto the stage floor with a knee on my neck.

“Running into a fight with no plan, that isn’t like you Akio”

“Tada-nii, Please don’t” said Yuito when Tadashi brought his knife close to Yuito’s stomach

“PLEASE TADASHI NO, HE’S MY BROTHER” I begged him helplessly,

“Hmm, I know”

Moments later, he slits Yuito’s stomach open with his knife, disemboweling him

Never have I heard such a bloodcurdling scream from Yuito as even with the pain dampening, his screams pierced my ears, it was so loud that it easily overpowered my own screams of helplessness and disbelief, and it stayed that way until he passed out from the pain, and moments later, his lifelessness confirmed his death.

Looking at his spilled guts right in front of me, I started to throw-up at the sight even while restrained into the ground. And all I see in front of me right now is my dead brother’s lifeless body hanging from the drone. I couldn’t hear the screams of terror from behind the invisible walls as my rage took over my hearing.

“That sounded like it hurt, wish it lasted longer though” the psychopath said

“I will kill you”

“What was that you said, my ears are still ringing from Yuito’s screams” he replied

“I WILL KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH” I screamed at him

He laughed

“Alright, I will take you up on that offer, let him go”

“But Chifuyu-san, he will-” was his last words before a loud bang went off

Tadashi had drawn his weapon and fired a shot point blank at my captor’s face

“Tsk, what did I tell you about having your own opinions, especially today?”

I was free from the grapple but the head exploding in front of me had me frozen in place, and Tadashi was standing right in front of me wide open

“Here, I will give you one free hit, go on, KILL ME!” he screamed at my face

I drew my blade and rushed at him, but my blade stopped short of his neck, the tip of the blade went in, and he started to bleed lightly, indicating I had him dead to rights, but I couldn’t do it. My hand won’t push it any further. I couldn’t murder a man in cold blood

“Yeaaah, thought so. First kill is not as easy as you thought huh?”

Tadashi grabbed me by the neck and lifted me into the air

“Ta-da-shi, stop” I said while I was choking from his grab

“Well, that was disappointing, I expected more from you Akio. And as a punishment, I will give you something”

He gripped my head using his free arm, and I saw all my veins on my arms being highlighted in red. It felt like all my pain receptors were firing on overdrive at once, I knew my mouth was open, but I couldn’t hear my own screams over the indescribable pain I was going through. After the pain settled, he dropped back onto the floor.

“What did you do to me” I asked the madman

“Oh that, that my old friend was a bit of a parting gift, a virus that changes your coding to the same as a spark”

“What?”

“Oh, by the look of your face, I guess you haven’t figured it out. Why don't Sparks do the same quests as players? Well that’s because they only have one life, no respawning ever and their wounds heal dramatically slower than players. Oh and for an added bonus it takes away your pain dampening permanently, so you will feel everything that happens to you just like real life. For example”

He sent his knife right through my right forearm, pinning me to the floor. The pain, it was enough to start clouding my vision with tears as I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

“Feels much worse than when you got impaled by that spider claw earlier huh? And don’t count on your healing, as that won’t close up for at least a day. But I think you got my point”

He takes back his blade from my arm, and as he said, it was still spurting blood all over and was not healing unlike before.

“But to be fair, I do feel bad for you my friend, so, the next person, I’ll leave their fate in your hands”

The next curtain opened, and behind that was-

“The second and the last, with her head in the modified guillotine, Misuzu Nakamura, and this time, the mother’s fate lies in the son’s hands. You see, the guillotine blade here weighs around 45 pounds, and Akio here has the opportunity, to save his mother by simply, not letting the blade fall”

Mom is under the blade and breaking down seeing Yuito’s disemboweled body

“Tadashi…please…no” I said lifelessly

“Aaaand go” he said as he cuts the rope to the blade

I pulled by heavy and agonizing self onto the rope and hung onto it with all my power

I need to think, but the moment I divert my attention to figure out a way to get Mom out, I feel my grip slipping, the hole in my forearm gapes wider the stronger I grip the rope.

“Mom, stay calm, I’m going to get you out, I’m not going to let this fall on you”

“It’s ok baby, It’s ok” my crying mom reassures me

I hang on with every ounce of power I can muster, but I can feel my forearm tearing apart and the pain is unbearable, I mustn’t let go, I can’t let go, somebody help me, I am scared.

People are trying to break through the wall to help, but to no avail.

And although I put all the strength I could muster into it, the blade fell through and what was lying next to me was my mother’s severed head. Pooling blood, clean cut through her neck, with her expressionless face on it

At this point, my ears blocked off, I couldn’t breathe, my body couldn’t decide between crying, screaming in pain or throwing up and ended up trying to do all of them at once. I was broken on the ground, shattered like a glass pane.

“Disappointment again, what kind of a brother isn’t strong enough to save his own sibling. And what kind of son would just let her mother die like that. I thought you were the brains of the team Akio, the one who always notices the stuff that no one else does and turns that into our advantage. I guess you have grown soft”

I had no energy to be angry, I had no strength to fight back, I had no hope in life anymore. And all that resulted in me being calm while staring at my mom’s blood pooling towards my knees.

“Why?”

“Hm?, You might want to speak up, I’m tired of you talking to yourself” said the psychopath

“Why?.... WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU TO DESERVE THIS? WHAT DID I DO TO HAVE YOU ENJOY MY SUFFERING”

“What did you do?” he replies while coming close to me and crouching down

“Well that would be telling, wouldn’t it?”

He kicks me off the stage onto the body of his first public kill of the day

“You were always too smart for your own good Akio, so I’ll give you the time to figure it out, if you do make it that is”

I was still behind the invisible wall so no one behind it could reach me, but they were ready to pounce on Tadashi if they even found an opening.

“Everybody, I know this is a lot to take in, but I’ll attempt to make your lives a bit easier. Fifty thousand Rels for the ones who brings me the head of Akio Nakamura”

At this moment, I felt that gazes of sympathy turning into stares of bloodlust. I had never been more scared in my life

In one move, Tadashi had managed to turn the whole crowd against me.

Everyone was circling around the invisible wall, waiting till it drops to claim their bounty.

I was too scared to turn around and check my surroundings, but I forced myself to since a tiniest part of me wanted to survive this.

“Get out of my way, the bounty is mine” is one of the things I heard from the crowd when I was down on my knees

And what followed was the sound of someone choking on blood. That person got stabbed and killed trying to get a better position. It was followed up by another kill, and another, and another, and in moments, the whole crowd turned into a massive warzone, innocent people were caught in the crossfire of blades, blunt weapons and bullets and nothing got to me past the invisible wall. Many ran away, while most were killing each other. So this is what exploring the limits of human morals meant.

Leaving the stage, Tadashi turns back one more time

“You want me? You’ll have to survive first. RUN. And try not to disappoint anymore”

The rest of the Immortals step back into the darkness and disappear out of existence. The wall drops but everyone is too busy infighting to notice that the wall is gone. I gather up every ounce of energy I have and slowly get up on my feet.

The gate, I need to get out of Typhon and hope for the best in Helios. It’s a long way there but it beats getting brutally murdered.

I gather my weak self-up and make a dash for the entrance. They are definitely going to close the gate down to stop me from leaving, I need to beat the gate close, or I am as good as dead.

And the moment I start running for the slums, the mob catches on

“Hey, he is running. After him”

Every gun in the vicinity is pointed towards by way, and I leap into the alleyways to cut off their sightlines. I still have enough energy to outrun the non-agile body types. I run through the narrow dark alleys and climb onto the roofs of the houses in the slums, I move rooftop to rooftop while using the edges of the roofs as cover from the enemies below me. I can feel my own heart beating heavily from exhaustion, but I took breaks of a few seconds to let my stamina recover between dashes, using the alleyways as cover. I climbed to the roof to avoid the hunters in the alleys however there were a couple of agile body types that contested me on the roof and caught me off guard. Bullets started flying my way and I involuntarily went for my blade and ended up deflecting the incoming fire. Just in the nick of time, I learned how to do one of my crucial moves, but I can’t keep it up for over a second and for multiple times with my torn forearm. I dropped down to a small ledge on the building I was on to catch my breath while keeping my ears open to even a pin drop, I get back onto the roof just before the hunters in the alley catch up to me and kept doing the same alternatively until I had the gate in sight until I have the gate in sight. Gate is closing in, and my time is limited, but 2 minigunners from the gate were aiming onto the roofs.

I took a gamble on the miniguns due to their low accuracy and ran from roof to roof while deflecting what few bullets came my way, but this proved to be a fool’s gambit as I ended up taking 3 shots to my left arm. My gauntlet dented in 1 shot and 2 more into my shoulder. I was in excruciating pain, but I did all I could to stop myself from screaming as I don’t want to let them know I’m more injured than they think, my eyes are tearing up from the pain and every fiber of my body was ready to give up, but I was purely running on adrenaline and survival instincts at the moment, and I was committed to not die today. I was running out of options to fight back, I can’t use my blade anymore as my torn forearm just got worse to the point I can’t even make a fist anymore, and my shoulder was too shot that I wasn’t able to throw Kunais. I had to look for a distraction. And I found it in the form of palettes of what looked like flour being held in place on the mill at the entrance to town. I knew the only way to drop them is to throw a Kunai but while I could equip them, my body showed high resistance due to my shoulder, I gritted my teeth through the pain, screamed at the top of my lungs to hope and negate the pain and threw a trio of Kunais onto the latch keeping the palette suspended, but I miss and hit the bags instead, which pours its contents on the 2 minigunners at the front entrance which also worked as well.

“I can’t see him, don’t let him get close” said one of the gunners

I took this chance to rush through the 2 brutes and out of the almost closed gate. They turned around to shoot me but even in my weakened state I knew what it meant if they fired their weapons, which the 2nd gunner caught onto.

“Idiot. Don’t shoot or you’ll ignite the dust and blow us all to kingdom come”

The 2 gunners who were closest to the gate were of the heavy body type, meaning that they won’t be able to holster their weapons and make it before the gate closes. The others were too far behind and the ones who were closer were not willing to take the risk of having the dust explosion trigger by using their weapons close to it.

I was finally safe for the time being, but I didn’t stop running. I can feel my heart beating at overdrive, my stamina bar depleted, and my HP almost gone entirely. I felt like I just ran around the world, my feet sinking into the mudded dirt by the rain that fell. But my mind now had some time to unravel.

Mom, Yuito, I was too weak to protect them. They weren’t even supposed to be here if it wasn’t for me.

First thing’s first, I need to get to Helios. I know the route as I remember the landmarks, but I have no clue how far it is. All I know is I can’t stop running.

So I ran, and ran, and ran. And after a couple of hours, I still didn’t even see the first landmark which was the fork on the road with the sign guiding towards Helios. I was dead certain that I was going the right way. I’m cold, I’m exhausted and I am in a level of pain that I can’t even describe in words. I finally dropped in front of a tree in exhaustion, I leaned on it, and assessed my injuries. Torn right forearm that severely drops my blade attack power and speed and my left shoulder shattered by a stray bullet. My legs were functional, so I can count on my mobility if I get jumped, but my attacks are almost non-existent. The gaping hole in my arm was exposing my bone and was still bleeding and I was losing barely noticeable amounts of HP. I tried to tie it up by tearing my jacket, but my clothes were like it was made out of flexible iron. I couldn’t wrap the whole thing around my arm, or I would freeze from the cold. I dragged myself out to make a small fire with dry branches around, it was easy to make just as I easily made a red-hot kunai just by rubbing it with my blade a few times. I did it out of desperation, but it managed to work.

I used it to first light the tinder on the fire I made and putting my blade between my teeth, I pressed the kunai against my forearm on both sides to cauterize it, I made sure to keep my tongue below the blade or I might slice it in half due to the pain. I then dug out the 2 bullets lodged in my shoulder using a stick and just by excruciatingly painful it was at even the slightest jerk afterwards; I knew my shoulder was shattered. I finally reheated the kunai in the fire and cauterized the massive hole in my shoulder.

I was fading due to exhaustion, but I managed to crawl myself under the bark of the gigantic tree, next to the fire. And in the last moments before I passed out, I was in tears of disbelief, and I reminded myself about the goal to stave away my hopelessness. Izanami Sato, Tadashi Chifuyu, the Immortal 10, I am going to make sure everyone pays for what they have done today. You might look down on everyone from your throne up in Morpheus, but I will knock all of you down from your peak, and disassemble everything you have built, piece by piece.

This is the beginning of my story.