.Hack//ZERO ME:1010

ME:1010

I returned yet again.

Standing on a familiar street corner.

In a world where nobody knew who I was.

The air of The World set me free.

Even though I had only stepped away for a few hours, the moment I stepped out of the Chaos Gate, it felt like years had passed since then, and my heart ached.

I couldn’t help but wonder if I might have missed out on something fun or terrible during the time that I was gone.

I say I hate it, but sometimes I wonder if I might be growing dependent on The World. Becoming addicted to it.

It’s a possibility I had to consider.

But there is one thing that I knew for certain.

Even if The World were to shut down and disappear tomorrow, I wouldn’t be disappointed. I wouldn’t care at all.

In fact, I would laugh if it got shut down. I would laugh like a madwoman and then forget that it ever even existed.

I’m playing this game all the while looking forward to the day it finally shuts down for good.

“Um…”

Someone called out to me, and I just froze up in response.

I had been so absorbed in being back that I hadn’t even noticed the PC that was approaching me. Annoyed at myself, I clicked my tongue in self-derision.

“You’re the one who gave me the Cross of Light before, remember? I was waiting for you.”

It was that Wavemaster kid. I remembered his outfit and color scheme.

But I just stared blankly back at him.

And he in turn dropped his gaze like he was ashamed of himself, but a moment later looked back up with confidence.

“It’s hacked, isn’t it?”

“So what?”

“That means it’s an illegal item, right?”

It was so stupid.

I considered how to handle him. Should I just ignore him? Threaten him, maybe?

Either way, I can’t believe he really waited here for me this whole time.

I just continued to stare at this idiotic kid.

And then the Wavemaster gave me this awkward, shaky grin. He looked like he was either on the verge of tears or laughter, but I couldn’t tell which.

“Hacking is prohibited, right?”

“Yep.”

“Then why…! You realize what would happen if I told an admin, don’t you?”

His tone changed.

It would have been so easy to just feign ignorance. A better role player probably could have pulled it off, too.

Finally, I decided to respond using more than two words, and it freaked the kid out.

“What do you expect me to do about it?”

I turned on my heel.

And then felt my headache start to settle in again.

“Wait! Listen, I’m not trying to tell you what to do!”

The Wavemaster actually followed after me.

“Just tell me how you do it. Then, I’ll be guilty of it, too.”

He didn’t get it. I’m not guilty of anything.

But I stopped and let the Wavemaster catch up anyways.

“Let’s talk outside.”

I nodded my head towards the Chaos Gate. By ‘outside’ of course, I was referring to a field.

The Wavemaster’s face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically.

He was clearly an honest and straightforward kid. Or to put it more plainly, he was an idiot.

I looked down at the Wavemaster who was now lying still at my feet.

The dilapidated colors of his character model proved he was dead. And after a moment, his outline fizzled out and he disappeared.

Maybe next time he would tread more carefully. There were better ways to go about these things whether it was to ask someone for a favor or to threaten them.

And in the first place, you shouldn’t be so willing to follow people you don’t know into random areas.

The heavy axe I wield had no bloodstains on it, but I swung it around out of habit anyways.

“Don’t you think that was kind of messy?”

Suddenly, a voice called down to me.

I looked up, searching for the source.

There was a huge bone fossil jutting out of the ground, and I could see a human figure sitting on top of it.

“Bada boom~!”

With a random shout, the person jumped down from the fossil and landed right in front of me.

“You…!”

I gasped as I recognized him.

It was the PC I met at <Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground>.

“Something the matter? You’re making a weird face.”

He spoke casually with me, almost like he thought we were friends.

“I like it, though. That weird face of yours.”

“Right…”

Internally, I was shocked by how different he seemed.

Much unlike the man I had found at the Cathedral, the person in front of me now was acting far more flippant. More than that, he… he was acting like an idiot.

He’d untied the vermilion wraps around his face, and they trailed out behind him from under the hem of his cloak. The fact he could do that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his PC wasn’t normal.

“Want to be my friend?”

He asked the same question as before.

“Look,” I puffed out my chest and leaned in towards him. “Just who are you, anyways?”

“Moi?”

He pressed a finger up against his nose and went cross-eyed.

Every gesture he made was exaggerated.

“Well, I’m Sora dee~dee~!”

“So…Sorority?”

The way he talked was already starting to annoy me. If he just wanted to joke around, that was fine by me, but I was only going to put up with so much.

“Hey, are you making fun of me?”

“Non, non, absolument pas!”

He shook his head furiously.

“I hate idiots like you.”

I was being serious, but he just smiled at me from behind his long bangs.

“But you’re one too, aren’t you? An idiot?”

His simple retort left me speechless.

But after a moment, I gave him a serious answer. “Of course.”

“Then we’re the same!”

He laughed wildly.

And for just a moment, his cheerfulness struck a chord with me.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve met, right?”

“What’s that?”

I started to wonder if this PC was some kind of special, limited-edition release I hadn’t heard of. Because the person in front of me now definitely wasn’t the same as the one I met at the Cathedral.

They had to be different, but then, there didn’t seem to be anything particularly valuable about the design, either.

“Member Address, please! Concessions réciproques.”

The PC calling himself ‘Sora’ held out both of his hands in expectation of a gift.

He was throwing me off my rhythm. I couldn’t keep my own pace with this guy.

Yet for some reason, I couldn’t resist.

“Carl? Why that name?”

When Sora read my name, he tilted his head and gave me a look of confusion.

“……No reason.”

“Ah, you paused. I don’t like that.” It was impressive how perceptive Sora was. “Come on, tell me. There’s a story behind it, ain’t there?”

“Is there a story behind yours?”

‘Sora’. Depending on the characters he used, it could be referring to a musical score, the sky, or even just fava beans.

“It’s the name of a disciple of Matsuo Basho. He used to be a student of his.”

His answer didn’t meet any of my expectations.

“That’s… surprisingly simple.”

“Well, better than naming myself after Basho doo~doo~. It’s a good name.”

So he said anyways, but I wasn’t sure he was telling the truth. I was pretty sure Basho was some sort of poet, but I couldn’t recall any disciples.

Which was kind of disappointing.

“So, why ‘Carl’ la~la~?”

Trying to cozy up to me, Sora asked again.

“Not telling.”

“Tell me,” Sora’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Or I’ll kill you.”

His sudden intensity scared me, and I caught my breath.

The sheer amount of hostility emanating from him had my whole body shaking like I was caught in a blizzard.

I wasn’t really afraid of being killed.

It was more the realization that I had no chance whatsoever of fighting back.

“Just kidding. That was a lie.”

In an instant, Sora’s hostility completely vanished.

I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief once I saw that I was safe.

And there in front of me, Sora flashed a devilish grin.

I belatedly realized that this was my life now. I was going to be stuck with this guy.

“Don’t laugh.”

“I can try, but that depends on what you say.”

“It’s a snack.”

“Quel?”

“It’s the name of a cheese snack.”

“Really?” Sora tilted his head in thought. “How ordinaire.”

Instead of laughing, he brushed it off without much care. And honestly, that might have been the bigger disappointment. I had at least wanted him to be surprised, if not a little impressed.

I tried to quickly think of something more to say, but it wasn’t easy.

“Well, I don’t like plain white rice; I’m kind of a picky eater. Really, I just don’t like anything that’s been prepared by human hands. Or rather, I’m kind of scared of it. But snacks and candy get made in a factory, so-”

I cut myself off. Why am I even explaining this to him?

Am I trying to get him to understand me? This PC called Sora?

Why was I bothering? What would it get me?

“By the way,” I pushed down whatever emotion was stirring in my chest and turned back to Sora. “What are you doing here anyways?”

The World has over 10 million users worldwide. Everybody passes through the Root Towns, but it’s a hell of a coincidence to bump into somebody you already know in a randomly generated field.

If I hadn’t known any better, I’d have thought he followed me here. But we hadn’t even properly exchanged names until just now.

It’s possible to find somebody by waiting in one place, like that Wavemaster kid had, but that strategy wouldn’t work in a field.

It wasn’t possible, and yet as ridiculous as it seemed, I felt like this Sora might have actually done just that.

“Just waiting~ting~.”

Zero hesitation.

“What for?”

“It’s a secret tee~hee~.”

“I see.”

I tried to match his nonchalance.

So, he hadn’t been waiting for me. I don’t know why I felt so disappointed realizing that, it had been obvious from the start.

But for some reason, it was.

“Just. Kidding. I’ll tell you. I’m waiting for-” Sora cut off what he was saying. “Who was it again?”

“Huh?”

He cleared his throat and looked up at the sky.

“Who was it? That I was waiting~ting~ for?”

“If you don’t want to tell me, you can just say so.”

I brushed off the matter like it wasn’t important to me.

And then my vision blurred.

I was really starting to lose it. Was I really crying over this?

But after a moment or two, I realized it wasn’t my vision – it was the area itself that was shaking.

“Who…… what was it?”

Sora started mumbling to himself.

His lighthearted, upbeat attitude had disappeared, and he started rambling.

Just like before. This was more like how he had acted the first time we met.

For a moment, the entire field around us pulsated.

I almost lost my balance.

The ground was shaking dangerously.

“What the…?”

I looked around.

Was this the work of monsters? But we hadn’t triggered any magic circles.

Had I been flagged for hacking? There was no way! I wasn’t even doing anything now.

And then, right in front of me, Sora’s body snapped in two.

My shoulders jumped.

“How…”

I didn’t want to finish my sentence.

The vermilion wraps around Sora started fluttering in the wind. They stretched up from the ground to the sky like a viper getting ready to bite.

Except there wasn’t any wind here.

I couldn’t move, I could only watch.

Sora’s body was trembling.

Was he in pain? It looked like he was desperately trying to endure being torn apart.

But I couldn’t get any closer to him.

Suddenly, Sora screamed.

It was such a terrible sound that I felt like my body was being turned inside out.

Hearing him scream made me want to start screaming, too. But I bit down on my tongue to hold back that urge.

A blueish-black line appeared on Sora’s cheek.

And a moment later, it glowed a venomous green, flashing on and off like a heartbeat.

I feared the light from that crack was going to tear Sora apart.

“……et a……”

“Huh?”

Sora fought to open his mouth and speak.

I heard his voice.

“Get a…”

“What?”

Sora grabbed at his own body, but only with his left hand.

His right hand was hanging limply by his side.

His shoulders had turned to stone, too, and that green light was pulsing throughout his body, shaped like some sort of letters or runes.

“……Away!!”

Accompanying his scream, a screeching howl echoed out. It sounded like a busted megaphone blaring static.

I felt the pressure in my temples, like something was trying to reach in and pull out my brain.

I gritted my teeth and wrenched my eyes shut.

Then, all at once, the sound cut off.

Or maybe it was just muffled, but in the moment, I didn’t care either way.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked up.

And all I found was a perfectly ordinary field.

Again.

Yet again, I seemed to have lost him.

Just like last time.

We can’t always get the things we want. The world just isn’t that kind.

The sound of birds chirping rang in my ears.

And I just listened to the sound as it played over and over again.

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