Chapter 5:

Insert Command

Life is Just a Bugless Game


It was one of those vivid dreams again.

My surroundings were eye-catching; the ground was dry with countless cracks -something that was infinitely looped as far as my eye could see, with no obstacles blocking its repetitiveness whatsoever-, the sky was red, while the sun had taken a light shade of a mix of red and yellow. [Comparing it to an apocalyptic scenery wouldn’t be an exaggeration.]

A deep voice suddenly started resounding in the vast landscape of nothingness. Despite having looked around, I hadn’t spotted anything or anyone being there other than me. And I would have been right that my brain was playing games with me if I was talking just about the ground.

I directed my gaze towards the sky, only to realize that I was standing beneath 4 gigantic anthropomorphic forms.

I did mention that I heard the voice of one of them, but I can’t remember their words exactly. The only thing I can recall of their conversation is-

[-‘What should we do with [that boy]?’.]

A very vague but frightening sentence that could easily get one overthinking about its meaning.

*

‘’Onii-san! Onii-san!’’ whispered Anzu’s concerned voice ,who was approaching me, judging from the sound of every step getting louder than the previous one: ‘’Onii-san, wake up!’’ she started poking me.

I slowly opened my eyes to a small extent.

“You’re awake, thank goodness! You scared me for a moment…’’

I was awake since she entered the room, but was still in that phase where you can barely move and get yourself to speak. Your mind is working, but you’re just so sleepy that you are thinking of nothing but ‘’5 more minutes!’’.

‘’Anzu, why are you here?’’

‘’I’m not sure if this is the case, but…did you have a nightmare, Onii-san?’’

‘’Nightmare? I don’t thin-‘’

That dream could be described as a nightmare. A scenery akin to this of my dream is only used in apocalyptic situations.

‘I can’t tell her, that will make her worry even more.’ I thought to myself.

‘’Probably, I can’t really remember. Did I do anything weird?’’

‘’Is that so? I came in a couple of minutes ago and you were breathing really heavily, so I brought you a glass of water.’’

‘’Thank you.’’ I say as she hands the glass over to me to take a sip. ‘’Are Mum and Dad back yet?’’

‘’No, that’s why I came here.’’

‘’What time is it?’’

‘’3 AM.’’

‘’What?! They can’t not be back yet!’’

‘’Lower your voice, Onii-san! Enzu is sleeping!’’

Well, it’s not like I had any other choice. Almost anyone would react like that in this situation.

‘’Have you checked anywhere?’’

‘’I have. They weren’t in their bedroom, so I went to the garage too to see if the car is there, but no luck.’’

‘What the hell is going on here?! Where could they have gone?! They said they might be late, but 3 AM?! Don’t tell me-‘

‘’Onii-san, what’s the matter? You look kind of pale.’’

‘-It’s these 4! Could they be real?’ I started panicking and sweating slightly. ‘Don’t overthink something like that, Yuusuke! It was just a bad dream! Even so… I’m the older one here. I must take some measures in such a case.’

‘’Anzu, get 2 futons from my wardrobe. I’ll go get Enzu.’’

‘’O-Okay.’’

As I was ready to leave the room, I felt Anzu pulling my sleeve.

‘’Onii-san… Mum and Dad… Are they okay?’’

She was afraid. Her trembling voice gave everything away. It was almost a miracle she hadn’t cried yet.

‘’Don’t worry.’’ I faced her, flashing a huge smile and patting her head to help both of us calm down. ‘’Sometimes you have to go out of schedule, right?’’

‘I’m convinced that I was just dreaming anime-ish things. No way this could be true.’

[At least that’s I wanted to believe.]

I headed to Enzu’s room. It gave off an uneasy vibe for some reason… Was it because I left Anzu alone or because I was outside the devil’s door?

While opening the door as quietly as possible, Enzu’s tranquility left me in awe. It’s unlike her to have such a peaceful aura around her. I mistook her for Anzu for a mere second because of this.

‘’Enzu, are you awake?’’

However, they only thing audible other than my voice was her light breathing.

‘’So you are sleeping. I need to take you to my room for the night.’’

Again, the only comfortable way to carry her was princess style -correction; the only option.

As I returned to my room, I saw Anzu standing a few steps past the door to check on us, having a worried look on her face.

‘’Is she asleep?’’

‘’Yeah.’’ I answered whispering.

I laid Enzu on my bed and covered her with my sheets.

‘’Won’t you sleep on the bed, Onii-san?’’

‘’She would kill me if I let her sleep on the floor.’’ I forcibly giggled, as I know the consequences of such an action all too well.

But I was seriously concerned about my safety!

‘’I guess so. You’re right, Onii-san!’’ she let out a quiet chuckle.

‘Wait, what do you mean I’m right? Would she actually have killed me?!’

‘’Well, I want some peace of mind and not Enzu bugging me about it.’’ I sighed. ‘’If you need anything, just poke me.’’

‘’Okay, Onii-san. Goodnight.’’

Anzu laid on the futon and covered herself, and so did I.

‘’You know, Onii-san…’’

‘’What is it?’’

‘’I think that En-‘’ she cut herself off in the middle of her own sentence: ‘’Never mind. It’s nothing.’’

‘What is this anticlimactic feeling right now? Is it just me or have I missed something important?’

‘’Well then, sweet dreams, Anzu.’’

Of course, what would a good night’s sleep be without a good night’s headpat for her?

Complete silence prevailed. Anzu and Enzu’s light breaths were almost inaudible. It was like they weren’t even here.

‘That nightmare though…what could it mean?’

That thought -along with many others- kept me up almost all night.

*

The night went by with no unexpected events -other than Enzu actually not grinding my gears for being in the same room as her, if you can count that as one of course.

I couldn’t get myself to sleep when I needed to. That’s because-

-Enzu’s date is today.

And yours truly just had to oversleep on such an important day.

Current time: 12:30 -aka time for Enzu’s date to begin.

I left home in a hurry with a toast in my mouth and I barely managed to catch the train to Akihabara, where Enzu was going with her boyfriend.

Akihabara, for those not familiar with it, is heaven on earth for gamers and anime fans. And what better way to stal- I mean, follow the two pretending to be there on Yuusuke errands?

After getting to Akihabara, I started looking for the two for quite some time. While doing so, I ‘’happened’’ to stumble upon my favorite gaming center, which also happens to a retail game store.

Insert Command is on display.

The game on display is usually changed every week. The condition to get a game at display is simple; is it popular? If so, woooooooooosh at the storefront.

According to its creators, Insert Command has features that change the experience of mainstream gameplay entirely, as you are able to edit the game’s source code to a reasonable extent to your advantage. That’s pretty much why it is so damn popular.

Given its popularity and the hype the gaming community had shown for the release of the game though, the fact that there was no line at all was beyond inexplicable.

Well, there are always exceptions to everything.

Getting back on topic, I knew I should be looking for Enzu, but I really wanted to buy that game. Games over gagging, right?

Unable to contain my excitement, I ran into the center to find it. There, an unpleasant surprise was waiting for me-

-Enzu, of all people, was wandering in the aisles.

Of course, if she were to notice me, my plan would end up being a total failure, so I distanced myself a bit, hiding discreetly behind shelves.

She suddenly stopped walking and started looking around.

Despite trying to be focused on the present, a gazillion of questions were arising by the second in my mind.

‘What is Enzu doing here? Is she secretly an otaku!? Has she finally come to the dark side!?’

Drawing conclusions from my ass was more unreasonable than Enzu’s gagging. I had to reconsider the established facts.

‘Shouldn’t she be here with her boyfriend? As far as I’m concerned, Enzu isn’t into games and the like, so she’s probably looking for him. But would he leave her alone? I mean, I hope so, but that’s not the way things should go on a date.’

Enzu finally made a move and walked into a certain aisle with a hopeful look on her face. And it would only be natural for me to follow her.

The surprises weren’t nearly as over yet.

Enzu entered a VR booth. The name of the game played in the booth was-

[-Insert Command.]

‘The fragments of the Chaos have been gathered! I have constructed the truth behind all of this! Enzu was dumped!’

I pulled my cheek to wake myself up from my utopic dream.

‘What am I even thinking?! She’s my little sister, I have to act like a considerate brother!-’

‘[-Why would Enzu go in there anyway?]’

Needless to say that this thought made me feel uncomfortable.

I wasn’t really interested in playing the game at that moment as much as I was in the instructions on the booth themselves.

‘Insert Command. This revolutionary VRMMORPG gives players the ability to modify the game’s source code for themselves -and only themselves- to come up with never-seen-before strategies and make the gaming experience all the more unique, intriguing, and interesting!’

Indeed, I would have the upper hand in such a game. Coding is my notch after all.

What caught my eye was the game’s plot summary.

‘In the land known as Eien no Jiyuu, humanity has to fight its creators face-to-face;-‘

A terrifying detail that would normally make me never want to see that game again.

‘[-the 4 Dei.]’

My heart started beating at absurd speeds.

Being an anime fan, I couldn’t stop overthinking of connecting completely unrelated things to each other just because they have some similarities. That’s how plot twists work, right?

‘4 Dei. There were 4 of whatever-they-were in my dream.’

I just had to snap out of it, that’s not how real life works.

But for some reason, I was keen on reading the rest of it.

‘Gather allies and create unrivaled teams and guilds to take on and beat the 4 Dei before they unleash their secret weapon to eliminate humanity!’

Certainly, the game is intriguing in every aspect of the word. The plot is not unique, but the concept of adjusting the game to suit your needs is something unheard of. It could easily become a huge hit just by that.

As I was about to leave, a strangely immense light started emitting from the booth that piqued my curiosity, so my legs started moving on their own, heading to the booth.

I pulled the booth curtain-

-and everything went blank.

I don’t recall anything happening while I was trapped in that blank space. Everything went by so fast.

Next thing I came to realize was that I was on my futon, having just woken up from my night’s sleep.

And that’s how things went.

[Or was it just another vivid dream?]

My bed is messy and there is another futon next to me, but Enzu and Anzu are nowhere to be seen in the room.

On top of that, people are outside, screaming and crying their lungs out.

I quickly head outside to get a grip of the situation.

The scenery seems awfully familiar; [the sky is red, and the sun has taken a light shade of a mix of red and yellow -just like in my dream.]

What’s different from last time is a crucial detail-

-I’m in my neighborhood.

‘’Welcome, humans!’’ says a deep, almost provoking voice coming from the sky, referring to everyone present.

As I look up, I can only hope my eyes are deceiving me-

-it’s these 4 from my dream.

They are real, and I won’t even consider doubting it. After all, this feels more realistic than not.

The 4 are in a line, with numbers above each one of them, probably to be able to tell them apart.

‘’This world may seem familiar to you, but it’s not what you think it is. It’s an exact replica of your own world in the Land of Eternal Freedom. The Land of Eien no Jiyuu!’’ says the first one in a serious tone.

‘’We 4 are the creators of both worlds; this one and the one you will be saying your farewells too!’’ the second one follows suit.

‘’This is all just a game! Therefore, you have but one objective! Manage to beat all 4 of us and you will return to your world safe and sound! The only way to to do so is to gather allies worthy of challenging us! So don’t try to waste our time on weak opponents!’’ says the third one, speaking in a provoking voice, meaning he’s the one that was referring to us before.

‘’You have 1 month to achieve victory! Any more than that and your former world will be destroyed, along with this one! And you, mere, inferior humans, will vanish alongside them!’’ concludes the fourth one, him speaking in a greatly imposing tone.

Even us?! This can’t be happening…

‘’Your existence has been erased from the human world. No one can remember you there anymore until you return. All signs of you there have disappeared.’’ proclaims the first one. ‘’All of you here have been chosen by us. If you want to return to your world and your normal lives, beat us!‘’

This…is just another vivid dream…right?