Epitaph: The Day a World Died

——New Year’s Day, 2000.

That day, Sho jumped to his computer straight out of bed and visited a particular website. It didn’t matter that it was New Year’s Day, he was enamored with a video game called “The Far East City of Chaos.” He barely slept or ate, devoting his entire life to it. Sho was a hardcore gamer to begin with, having gotten into video games of all types before, but this was the first time he had really been captured by an indie game.

“That GM’s nuts, but us players aren’t too far behind.” Sho mumbled with a little bit of self-deprecation. While any game produced by a cooperation was subject to all sorts of restrictions, none of those applied to a game created by an individual. This was the year 2000, nonetheless. It was fair to say that the internet was still in its infancy. The World Wide Web was flooded with all sorts of independently-made websites, and text-based sites were all the rage, while there was only the occasional low-budget indie game that blew up in popularity. The internet wasn’t organized, but cluttered, and had an atmosphere akin to a dive bar. Sho was listening to the musical hits in Japan at the time, like LOVE Machine and Apollo.

“Hm...”

When he accessed the usual website while bobbing his head to the music, he was met with a pitch-black screen. Wondering if he had clicked the wrong bookmark, he tried again from his bookmark folder only to get the same result. In the middle of the black screen, only the following could be read:

I had to shut down this world, as its details were lacking.

Look forward to my next world.

Akira Ono

For a while, Sho could only stare at the screen, aghast. Eventually, he started to quake in anger.

“What... the hell...!?”

He had spent two years lost in the world of this video game. In an instant, it was all gone... save for two sentences and a signature.

“This has got to be a mistake... There were over a thousand players...!”

Sho immediately opened the forums he had bookmarked. This time, he was met with posts and replies filled with confusion and despair. No one had seen this sudden shut-down coming. The forums had erupted into chaos.

“...This is a joke, right?”

“Hey, Ono. It’s still early for April Fool’s, LOL.”

“Are you effing kidding me? How long do you think I’ve spent on this game, asshole!?”

“If you were going to shut down, you could have just talked to us first.”

“What ‘next world’? This guy’s a moron.”

Sho agreed with many of the comments, some of them wholeheartedly. It was a free game and he hadn’t paid anything for it, but he had still invested a lot of time into it. Pulling out everything he could think of, Sho managed to contact Akira Ono directly via instant messaging.

“Mister Ono, this is a little inconsiderate, don’t you think?”

“That world was incomplete. The next one will be much better.”

“...Next one? Do you think any of us are going to come back after being ditched like this?”

“Yes... I know you will.”

Sho wasn’t able to grasp how he could be so confident in the matter. He couldn’t shake that the shutdown was done in a manner worthy of a scandal. There had to have been a million other reasonable ways to shut down.

“I don’t know why you’re so cocky about it... The players have turned their noses away already. It doesn’t matter what kind of game you’re going to make next, no one’s going to care.” Sho typed off. In fact, Sho had no intention of playing in Akira Ono’s next world, no matter what that may be. What if it got shut down like this one? If he was going to play the game, even if it was free, he knew he would invest a significant amount of time into it. Only to have that vanish again? No thanks.

“My world will continue evolving forever... Everyone will come back.” Akira replied, and Sho went hot with rage. Not only was Akira not listening to what he had to say, it was as if Akira was speaking about a natural occurrence. How self-centered could he get?

“Oh yeah? Then suit yourself.”

Sho closed the messenger with that and went back to the forums. ‘It’s no joke. He really shut it down,’ he typed. There were a few dozen top players of the game who were famous among the player base, but Sho was a whole level above them. As he had always been the type to place responsibilities upon himself, he tried to calm the chaos in the stead of the GM. While many of the players were thankful for Sho representing the community in his conversation with Akira, they were outraged at the GM. Sho, concealing his own frustrations, proposed that the GM must have had his reasons, in attempt to keep the peace. He didn’t like the idea of his beloved game leaving a nasty taste in everyone’s mouths either. For weeks, Sho lurked on the forums, repeating what he had learned, and managed to mitigate the outrage from time to time. Thanks to his efforts, the pushback dwindled. The forums became less populated by the day until there was no one else left.

Sho was a player who would later gain incredible influence in the next world.

Back to New Year’s Day, a girl was reading through these chaotic forums. Despite being in her room, she was wearing a gothic Lolita outfit, and even wearing an eye patch on one eye. Her name was Myu, and she was one of the prominent players in the community. While she was still in grade school, as her appearance would suggest, she had a particular talent. In the Far East City, she had killed countless players.

“Aww. Ono’s quitting.” The girl muttered as she typed in the chatroom between her and her playmates.

“Hey virgin. It’s shut down for real.”

“I’m not a virgin! But shutting down out of the blue on New Year’s...?”

The one addressed as a virgin was Kiyo. Like Myu, he was another famous player on the side of the murderers. While he had slaughtered player after player through detailed calculations and strategy, Myu was the polar opposite — a berserker type. While their characteristics were as different as they could be, they were one in the same in practicality — they both experienced euphoria from killing their enemies.

“It’s hard, but we can look forward to his next world.”

“How are we supposed to kill time until then...? All the other games aren’t cutting it anymore.”

“Yeah, all the other games are cooperative.”

“It doesn’t do it for me unless I can take someone down in-game and know that there’s someone behind it...”

These two, through playing Far East City, had fallen head over heels for the joy and despair of PvP, and most of all for the cry-out-loud ecstasy of slaying another player. They were both serial killers, through and through, although being the odd pair of a Lolita girl and a virgin.

“Ugh. Back to fighting mobs and monsters...? Bleh. I want to kill some people, you know? Piss off someone I don’t even know. Make ‘em red with rage.” Myu typed out her desires in contrast with her cute appearance. Kiyo responded with nothing but agreement.

“You said it. I don’t know what it’s gonna be, but he’ll make some screwed up world again. It’s just not the same if I’m not popping other players.”

“But you know, virgin. You’re ‘popping’ in your hand and the occasional watermelon, right?”

“Shut up! How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a virgin!?”

“You’re a virgin because you deny it like that, Kiyo!”

They continued to yell at each other through the chatroom. In the next world, they would become the sinister duo, massacring anyone who defied the Empire.

Back to New Year’s Day, a mother and daughter were watching the forums erupt in chaos. A rare sighting of parent and child sharing a common interest in a video game.

“Mom, it’s really shutting down!”

“My my, that’s not good.”

The mother replied calmly, but the daughter was filled to the brim with frustration. She had just started sixth grade, but had abandoned her studies entirely to play Far East City. Even though her mother had scolded her at first, after being pushed by the daughter to try the game one time, she fell for it. She went out for wool and came home shorn.

“What the hell!? How long do you think I’ve spent grinding my character!?”

“Hmm... When you’re all grown up, there are a lot of things you have to think about.”

“Damn it! I just got a good parasite armor two days ago!”

“Hey, watch your language, young lady.”

The daughter’s name was Jo. She was the one who would create the bomb to knock down the Sleepless Castle on that fateful day in 2016. The mother’s name was Akki. She had repeatedly accomplished the feat of killing serial killers until finally receiving a special ability quite different from Zero’s.

Meanwhile, Akira, who caused the whole debacle... Was sitting in front of his computer, day in and day out, in order to create his new world. A week had passed since the shut-down, during which Akira had eaten almost nothing, and slept only an hour or so here and there before getting back to work. Some would have called him mad.

——XX has entered the chatroom.

XX signed into the password-protected chatroom Akira had kept open.

“Hey, Akira. You wanna hear my prophecy?”

“Prophecy...?”

Akira responded, almost like he couldn’t be bothered to.

“You’ve barely eaten, right, Akira? Or slept.”

“Huh? How’d you know?”

“I know everything about you, Akira.”

“Ew. Fuck off. Actually, get a job, first.”

“Sorry, you’re breaking up. Bad reception.”

“We’re typing!”

Even as they went through their usual routine, Akira didn’t stop smacking the keys. So many windows were open on his screen, and some strange scratchy sound could be heard from the console. He was creating a new world, a new arena, with all of his soul. Countless lines of code filled the screen, making him look like a sort of mathematician. While Akira wasn’t a professional programmer, he had innate intuition and the tricks of the trade. Through trial and error, he had built his own theory of programming and used it to design games. At the same time, he poured an enormous amount of money into it without so much as a second thought.

“Akira, aren’t you done with the next world, yet? I’m so bored? Hurry it up, already.”

“Shut up. Fuck off at the speed of light. Also, get a job and pay your taxes.”

“Taxes are canceled this year.”

“I didn’t know your authority superseded the prime minister’s.”

“RIP in peace, taxes!”

“Hey, I’m not complaining, LOL.”

Even as they joked around, Akira didn’t stop. At incredible speed, he punched in line after line into the various windows on his screen, almost as if he had multiple pairs of eyes and brains that were each working at the same time.

Eventually, he pulled out his back-up computer and began typing code with a hand on each keyboard.

“You’re funny, Akira.”

“Huh?”

“I know you’re hard at it, now. You’re sweating to make a world that ends in a week, right?”

“...Well, yeah.”

“We... I didn’t see that coming.”

“I’m going to break down the concept that time spent on an MMO translates to skill.”

“Yeah, you’re funny.”

“Stop being amused and get a job. Make your parents proud for a change.”

“Ha! My parents have been silent statues for a long time.”

Akira stopped at reading this. He couldn’t understand what exactly that meant.

“Uh, you mean they’ve passed away?”

“Nah, they’re alive, but they can’t even form a thought anymore.”

“G-Gotcha...”

Some sort of ailment to the brain came to mind. Akira imagined a person, barely surviving on life support.

“Hey, Akira. What would you think if I told you XXX’s parents are in the same boat?”

“What?”

Akira hesitated. That was someone from whom he hadn’t heard after they disappeared on New Year’s Eve. He had sent a few emails since him and XXX were close, but he hadn’t received any responses.

“...Who gives a shit?”

Akira replied harshly, but his wound still ached. With time, the sense of loss only seemed to grow.

“One day... XXX’ll be back to see the new world.” Akira added.

“Yep. Sure hope so. LOLOL.”

“What’re you trying to say?”

“It’s okay. You’ve got me, regardless. Don’t be sad.”

“Whatever. I’m going to finish this world, and I don’t care if I’m alone when I do it.”

With that, Akira dove back into his work. While society and the entire world greeted the new millennium with jubilee, Akira began his lonesome battle. As time went by, there were fewer and fewer people by his side. XX, at times with a grin and at other times with a complicated expression, watched Akira through it all. XX watched him like a best friend, mother, or lover, depending on the season. Even when everyone else had left Akira, XX remained by his side, true to their word.

——Six months later.

XX turned on the computer and extracted a particular file from a folder. The file had to do with the Far East City. XX had saved the file before it was all erased and indulged in nostalgia by viewing it from time to time.

A white figure appeared behind XX. The door never opened. The figure had teleported there without a sound. The figure parted their shapely lips.

“...How long are you going to hold onto that?”

“Right back at you. LMFAO.”

Despite the figure’s sudden appearance, XX didn’t act surprised nor turn around. XX continued talking to the white figure behind her.

“Nostalgia, am I right? I wonder what Akira’s new world’s going to look like.”

“Why should I care what that selfish boy does?”

“You two are so obvious. Major tsundere going on, here.” XX mocked, and the white figure burst out:

“You’re selfish, too, by the way. You just up and leave everything out of the blue and do whatever you want. No wonder you two get along so well.”

“I’m not crapping in diapers anymore, y’know? At some point, I gotta stop living life by mommy’s orders.”

“And I’m left wiping your ass.”

“It’s not like I asked you. Just go, already.”

“...You called me here.”

“Oh, really? My B, I’m so forgetful, you know?”

“...Fuck off.”

“Wow, the language. Would love to have Akira hear you say that.”

XX chuckled and opened the file from the world that was erased. It contained the worldview of and stories from the Far East City. XX loved this chaotic world.

“Light vs Dark? Nah, that’s old news, right? All covered in dust.”

“Your room is what’s covered in dust.”

“Ha ha!”

XX just laughed it off. Garbage littered the room, but XX seemed to have no intention of cleaning it.

“Yep. I like messy worlds, you know? Decrepit, dark, hopeless... Except for a single, clichéd ray of light.”

Blackness appeared on XX’s monitor.

·The Far East City of Chaos — Worldview·

A world that isn’t our own. A future that was never meant to be.

In the year 19XX, war erupted in the Middle East. The war, instigated by a Middle Eastern dictator, triggered retaliation and revenge. With each day, the war zone expanded. The participants of the war increased exponentially, until a finger pressed a particular button. During what would later be called the Terminal War, dozens of nuclear missiles showered the Earth, decimating 70% of fertile land around the globe. Starvation, radiation poisoning, viruses, and lack of medical supplies all contributed to the world population declining at rapid speeds. Rioters and refugees filled cities as chaos crescendoed. The surviving people in power moved to create new cities in order to protect themselves and their wealth. Cities began construction in the relatively less damaged countries: England, China, Japan, America, and Australia. The completed cities were each named Europe City, Continental City, Far East City, Freedom City, and South Hemisphere City, respectively. The surviving people of wealth rejoiced at the completion of the cities that would protect them.

Five skyscrapers in total stood among the wasteland that Earth had become. People rotted away outside their gates, locked out of the cities, the world crumbling around them. The lamenting people of Earth call these... the Cities of Chaos.

·Far East City — Outline·

In order to keep out refugees, rioters, and immigrants, the metropolis was constructed in the central region of Japan, with Tokyo at its epicenter. The city is surrounded by seven layers of walls defended by an enormous self-defense army. As the city holds electric plants, large-scale distillation facilities, and food factories, it can sustain a population of ten million on its own. As protection against radiation and radioactive rain, an invisible barrier surrounds the entire city, as well as a laser wall to protect the city from attacks. Approach the city without caution and even tanks will be zapped to ash, let alone pedestrians.

If you pay a fortune, you can enter the city after thorough radiation cleansing with heavy surveillance. While each city has its own prices, the price of a day pass into the city easily surpasses the average salary of those outside the walls. Naturally, most people die without ever stepping foot inside a city. While this is unrealistic for most anyone, with enough money, you can even become a resident of the city. Also, some individuals deemed beneficial for the city may be invited to move in (i.e. doctors, scientists, skilled military officers).

Around each city, people have formed a secondary city using structures that, somehow, survived the war. The residents of these communities are literally called second-class citizens. Another set of walls surround the secondary city, outside of which are decrepit structures and barracks that comprise the tertiary city. Outside the tertiary Far East City is a wasteland as far as the eye can see. Exceptionally, perhaps because of its vast landmass, the Continental City spawned all the way out to a fifth city.

The planet is littered with radiation, with practically no healthy land left on Earth. The air is also heavily polluted. Spend one day outside of a city, and your lungs would be painted pitch-black. Dust covers the sky, shutting out the sun most of the time. Occasionally, radioactive rain could be seen. Without a protective suit, you would be hard-pressed to step foot outside.

You are a third-class citizen, resident of the tertiary city. You are worth less than a pile of garbage. In these parts, various groups have formed in order to survive the harsh environment. You can choose which group to join:

-The group led by the Blood-Soaked Holy Mother that is attempting to conquer the Far East City.

-The group whose members don’t hesitate to kill other players for their money and goods.

-The group whose members trade for profit with the goal of becoming residents of the Far East City.

-The group that will serve as mercenaries to anyone willing to pay the price.

-The group of bounty hunters who make a living going after criminals with bounties on their heads.

-The group that spreads the teachings of the Way of the Messiah, a religion observed mostly in the Freedom City.

In addition, you can customize yourself and choose which paths to take. A Mech Warrior created by cybernetic technology, a Wielder who uses various skills, Spellcasters who use magic, Tradesmen, who are skilled in things like business or farming, are only a few options. In the Far East City, you live however you want. There are no laws or moral boundaries, here. Besides, a third-class citizen like you has no effect whatsoever on this world. So, I have only one thing left to say... Live an ugly life, and die an ugly death.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Reading the nostalgic intro, XX burst out laughing. The messy worldview and the antagonistic intro both drew XX’s attention. This is what got XX into the game.

“Akira’s the best. Like, he’s dead-on my type.”

“Good for you.”

“What’s with the cold shoulder? You’re the one who got so into the game you started the new Way of the Messiah group.”

“Too long ago to remember.”

“Whatever you say. Now beat it. I want to go to bed.”

“...What do you want from this world? No, what are you planning to do in this world?”

“Nothing. Just play and sleep. Hey, look. This part about magic spells? I was the one who taught the gist of it to Akira...”

“You just explained it to him. I was the one who helped with the actual programming. And fuck off at the speed of sound.”

“No way. I already decided to live out my NEET life right here.”

“I’ll still keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“Sounds fun, weirdo. Nighty night!”

With that, XX jumped into bed and curled up under the covers. The white figure watched for a while, but eventually sighed and disappeared.

The white figure had jumped to a giant building. The office at the top floor held a sign that read “42 — OMG,” which was a world-renowned video game company. The white figure took a seat at the luxurious leather chair in the CEO’s office, as an elderly gentleman in a butler’s uniform expertly poured a cup of tea. An elegant aroma filled the room. Without a word, the white figure sipped the tea.

“Any changes...?” The gentleman asked.

“Still unemployed. I have no idea what’s gotten into...”

A frown crept on the white figure’s beautiful face. Remembering how much trouble XX had brought about was causing a headache.

“Still obsessed with Akira as ever.”

“Excessively fond of Mister Ono, it seems... In my personal opinion, I suspect that Mister Ono may have a... gift, in that department.”

The gentleman insinuated something. The wise white figure immediately picked up on it, and denied it.

“Don’t be foolish. I have no interest in that boy.”

“Is that so...?”

The gentleman let out a polite chuckle and topped off the teacup.

“In any case, keep up the surveillance.”

At this command, the gentleman took a deep bow and left the room. Once alone, the white figure couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“To think they were left behind for this... That one’s almost at a breaking point.”

The white figure, eyes closed, appeared to be concerned about something.