Psychic World, or simply known to its players as PsyWorld, is an AR-MMORPG developed by the Miyazono Cyber Entertainment Company as the game of their flagship product upon entering the Augmented Reality game market a few years ago.
It first started out as a computer or console MMO, but soon received an AR update in their AR headset, Realityware Online, where its players can finally bring the game to the real world and have more fun with it instead of just seeing their pixelated avatars and its skills on a flat screen.
However, the AR gameplay wasn't offered to everyone due to "compatibility issues" or "insufficient game progress". There was no clear metric at all about how one can transfer their progress to the AR gameplay and for a while, it became an issue… until it was decided that access to the AR playstyle would be handed to the top 100 players in every monthly ranking.
It was at this point that the game stopped just being a "fun game" or "time killer"… All across Japan, thousands of people abandoned their real lives all in order to push through every other player that are blocking them from attaining that highly sought-after seat in the rankings.
"Yes… YES… YEEEEESSSS!!!"
"Wohoho! The graphics are amazing!"
"I can't get back to the computer screen anymore after this!"
At the first time when the monthly rankings were posted and its top 100 players received and even reviewed the AR playstyle, the entire game's community knew that this wasn't a fad but a truly revolutionary change in video games.
"It is done, Lady Yoshino."
"Mm… I see that they have unquestionably accepted the technology. Humans truly are simple creatures when you dangle what they desire the most just above their heads."
"My concern now though… is how effective all of this would be in convincing them that everything that they will be doing from this moment onward is just "typical game mechanics".
"Don't be too concerned about that, my dear. These loyal children of mine would never betray or question their beloved game. This is what happens when you make something that once someone partakes in, they can never escape from."
"What… do you mean, Lady Yoshino?"
"Hehehe… These kids would make a fine addition to those who like me, has been devoured whole by the monster named Curiosity…"
"That…"
"They too, will soon learn that everything that they desire to learn or experience… will demand greater and greater sacrifices from them… and if they truly desire to reach out to it without losing themselves…"
On that day, all 100 players signed their lives and fates to a woman who like them, sees others no longer as fellow humans, but simple mobs and pawns to use and discard as they desire.
"…they will throw away everyone else to the dark abyss."
Weeks after the AR chip implantation in their brain and the grafting of a psychic genetic seed onto their bodies, the 100 top players of PsyWorld commenced with their first "dungeon raid" in a place that they would normally see as an ordinary neighborhood.
Situated somewhere north of Tokyo, the brutal surprise attack upon almost a hundred people, that would usually make these young and seemingly innocent young men and women to regret or even make them retch in horror, was never seen in their faces.
"Wahaha! More Exp points!"
"Get that little goblin too! It may have more loot!"
"Don't let them run away! Agro them somewhere and let the fighters lower their health until we can finish them off all at the same time!"
In their eyes that is now a slave of their implanted AR display chips. The residents became mere mobs and their cries for help or mercy was translated into a monster's pained throes. Just as how it was designed to do so, none of them saw through the illusion of Augmented Reality and realized who these "mobs" really are.
Thankfully, because they are newbies to this kind of play style of the game, none of them managed to kill someone. Add to this the fact that the S.S.S's insider in the company has told them of this "dungeon raid" in advance, a Sumeragi Kanbu officer was sent to the town before any of the inhabitants was brutally slaughtered.
"O-Oi! What the hell is that mob?!"
"What's with its stats!? It's beyond absurd!"
Kanbu officer Moriyama Kamaji, the gatekeeper of Kabuki-cho estate, and the Sumeragi syndicate's greatest Geokinetic psychic, was tasked with this very rare assignment wherein he was relieved of his work of guarding the estate's gates all in order to wreak havoc amongst the enemies.
And wreak havoc he did… for not even a few minutes later, 81 out of the 100 players died, and the remaining 19 players can only run away in terror after seeing the indomitable power that he wielded against them. They however, was caught by the Sumeragi group and was said to have been interrogated extensively before "disappearing".
"Tsk, tsk… I had better expectations, but it seems like the first batch is no good."
"Not just that, it seems like the rest who were caught didn't hold back on speaking out about us… although they did withhold from speaking about the game, it just means that they are loyal about it to the end, but not to us who got them in that mess."
"Heh! Is that so…"
"Lady Yoshino?"
"That old man would surely use this to force me to abandon this so that he can get hold of the players and make them into his test subjects… if that is so, I just need to use even that to my advantage."
The following month, another batch of 100 players was inducted into the AR playstyle after "a substantial number of former rankers dropped down from their places due to rivalries" and "players who broke the non-disclosure clause about unreleased features in the AR playstyle has been punished".
Of course, some players in the community questioned this sudden drop in the rankers, speculating that the AR playstyle revealed the bad design of the game and how maintaining that rank in a playstyle that requires actually going outside just wasn't made for players who "don't touch grass". But these concerns were soon buried deep in obscurity after new features in the game was announced to be added such as earning real world money by completing quests in the game and premium in-game currency was given out as a "celebratory and appreciation gift to all the loyal players".
To these players who have now undergone a vicious feedback cycle with Gardener Aokigahara's game, there is no longer any need to question anything.
All that they need to do now is to consume more and more and unquestioningly obey their masters.
Almost a year after, the 2072 Freedom Music Dive festival event was set by the Miyazono corporation. Although it is still year 2070, the added two years was said to have come from the belief that by celebrating it in advance, the attendees can still say that they never missed a year in case the event becomes cancelled for a year as was the case during the outbreak of the MB1 and MB2 pandemics.
"…Did the updated genetic seed been implemented?"
"Yes, Lady Yoshino. This time, the players cannot be caught and leak out information anymore. Additionally, their game passes have been set to automatically trigger the transmutation of their genetic material as soon as they become brutally wounded or caught by the enemy. We're expecting none of them to live past their defeat."
"How about the ones protecting our frivolous young master?"
"Young master Keiji's usual retinue of guards has accepted our players to add to their numbers, but it seems like all of them are being relegated to simply surround the area instead of being active protectors."
"I see… even now, he is cautious of me."
"I believe that Young Master Keiji simply doesn't like the fact that we are making Seed Psychics and Replicants that he cannot take over if he's in a dire situation. As you already know, he's been very wary of changing bodies ever since Gardener Aokigahara showed him that he has a chance of dying if he fails to take over a body that has a strong enough soul."
"I know… the old geezer might be a truly mad disciple of science, but he also knows how to put his foot on the table if he wants to."
The objective of the Psychic Awakening in the 2072 Music festival was to find more people who are compatible with Psychic powers and induct them into the Psychic forces of the Miyazono group… but all of it was foiled and even their VIP was taken into custody in that very event.
"The countermeasures went perfectly, in that, we have no problems… However, harvesting more Psychic candidates from the populace was a total failure. Even young master Keiji was caught once again and are causing a discord amongst the Board of Directors about what should be done soon."
"Let the others handle that mess. We sent our players there to train and help out, it was their stubbornness that caused the young master's security team to lack enough numbers and hinder his escape."
"The other Gardeners wouldn't like that answer, my lady. As you know, even if young master Keiji has already been known to hand himself over to the Sumeragi group out of boredom, only to come back later when he wants to, it is still a big headache for everyone if he gets caught. The Gardeners would surely try to make a scapegoat out of this."
"I know… that's why I told you to just let it be as it is. We sent our people there and they declined our help. It is their fault and it's not on our hands anymore… In any case, you said that every single one of the surveillance cameras had their recordings corrupted?"
"Right. It seems to have come from a deliberate cyberattack by a hacker."
"Hacker? I thought the cameras aren't accessible through the internet because of their age that's the same as the stadium. How did a hacker get into it?"
"Through our preparations ahead of the time. It seems like someone picked up a flash drive and connected it to the security room's computer system without even thinking about whether or not it has a malware."
"Hmm…"
"The computer virus embedded itself in the surveillance system's hard drive and corrupted all of the footage that day before scrambling the entire camera program and turning the system useless…"
"Just the footage at that day? That's awfully precise."
"It is… and there is this small provocative note there too after the program has done its job."
Her assistant spoke and turned his laptop screen for her to see.
"Hah! Whoever made this surely has a pretty bad god complex…"
It was a statement that is as equally irreverent as it is sacrilegious… For the words written on the laptop screen was the words: "This computer has been smitten by I. Pray to me, the god of tech."
"But… this is still a big headache. With no footage of them to cross-reference their faces, we cannot identify the specific people who did this and put a bounty on their heads in the game."
Although amused with the grit of the hacker, Yoshino wasn't that happy with the fact that they have no possible way to find out the identity of their enemies other than the information that they are from the Sumeragi syndicate and the S.S.S.
"About that, my lady… It seems like Gardener Tetian had a short visit with Lady Himari today. I was the one who gave the message about young master Keiji's capture and I saw Gardener William enter her office after I left."
"What's new about that? We both know that William is that kind of man… He may be the strongest among the Gardeners, but that monster bends its knee to Himari-sama… in one way or another."
"I knew that you would see it in that light… but I'm afraid that it isn't the case, my lady."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I believe that the sudden drop of stray Malignances in Old Tokyo and the fall of one of our Replicant laboratories in Chiba were no mere coincidences… I know that this may all sound like pure speculation, but I have enough reason to believe that the assimilation of our Patron Spirit with the World Seed has been disturbed."
"Haah… how many times do I have to tell you to quit buying into the old man's theory and hocus-pocus crap about this World Seed and Assimilations? It's true that we do have Spirit Freedom as our patron, and each Gardener has contracted a Tainted Spirit to add to their strength as Psychics, but I am not going to believe unproved stuff like this."
"Oh… about that. I forgot to speak about it in my excitement."
"About what?"
"Our excavations in North America has confirmed master Aokigahara's theories… traces of a civilization that came way before humans existed, at least according to the theory of evolution, has been discovered inside a giant underground geode way below in the Rocky mountains."
Bit by bit, Yoshino's interest in what her assistant is talking about became greater and greater… until one statement came out that made it her next curiosity to chase after.
"Currently, we have enough reason to believe that a Spirit far, far stronger and authoritative over the principles and inner workings of our world has reemerged… and the reason why Gardener Tetian was the one who spoke about this news to Lady Himari is because he has been spying over master Aokigahara's excavation team for a long time."
"…The video footage has been corrupted, but there must be a record of those who entered the place that we can use to track them."
"My lady?"
"My curiosity has been tickled by this… I don't think I can just move on from it until I get to solve it."
Yoshino's face was flustered, beads of sweat lined her forehead and the edges of her face, and she bit the end of the nail of her thumb in an apparent show of ecstasy and excitement about finding out more about the subject.
"Scour the internet about pictures of that day and if possible, order some of our men to pose as police officers to ask those who attended about people that they noticed to be standing out back then."
"B-But, that would take so much time and effort, my lady. We can just wait for them to stick out again and-"
"I said that I am very curious about it NOW! I want to know about their identities as soon as possible! Is there something unclear with my words!?"
"N-No! I will arrange for it then as soon as possible!"
Every genuine Gardeners and Gardener Candidate possesses an unnatural nature that is derived from their Tainted Spirit. Just like how the late Hamasaki Satoshi drowned himself in every kind of vice as the one who carried Spirit Overindulgence, and William Tetian wildly chased after overwhelming strength as the one who carried Spirit Vainglory, even Yoshino, who is still a mere Gardener Candidate has also assimilated with the corrupted trait of her Tainted Spirit Curiosity.
And now, it has become both a blessing and curse for her.
"Just who could it be… who could this being of such strength be for even the Patron Spirit to fear it."
A month later, another discord sparked into being by the Miyazono group began… and it is no other than the brutal civil uprising in Fukushima.
"Whoever gets seen to be coming here in this list would be those people… I can't wait… I can't wait to finally know who these people are!"
However, her curiosity would again be curbed after the video feed over the area of Fukushima was cut.
"W-Wha-!? What the hell is going on?! Why did the footage get cut?!"
"Argh! It's that hacker again! He hacked into the drone and crashed it!"
"Then send another one!"
"We can't anymore, Yoshino-sama! The entire city has also been turned into a no-fly zone!"
"Why do we have to follow the law?! Get another drone into the air!"
"It's futile, my lady. It will just be shot down."
"ARGH! DAMN IT!"
Once again, she failed to know even a sliver of information… but as she is seething in hatred for the next few days, an unexpected news reached her about their person of interest getting into a fight that his upper officers cannot protect him from.
"What did you just say…?"
"After Gardener Hamasaki Satoshi's death in his party up in Aokigahara, the Gardeners have convened and agreed to make an attempt to break young master Keiji out of his prison… and the one who possesses this mysterious Spirit and was reported to have slew Satoshi, stopped him and even weakened him to almost the point of death."
"D-Do we have his identity!?"
"Yes! Although it's only his school records."
Finally, she saw the face and the information that they have with the young man that has been the apple of her eye for a long time.
"Ephraim Seliah Chronia… former student of Old Tokyo academy… He's a ranker that was repeatedly endorsed in a Promotion Party?!"
"Yes, my lady. It seems like his class adviser, Ms. Maeda Katsumi, has favored him with the nominations not only because he maintained a 4th place in the overall grading ranks of his year level but also because he fit the bill for someone worthy of entering into the New Tokyo academy."
"He maintained a 4th place?"
"Yes. All throughout his second-year level… Is something wrong about it?"
"There is. Statistically speaking, it's difficult to maintain a rank closer to the top 3 because of competition among the students… if he has really maintained that rank, that only means one thing…"
Learning who he is and what he did in his former school, Yoshino's interest only became greater as she decided to learn more about the young man.
"This guy… might really be worthy of scrutiny."
And thus, she stalked Ephraim like a hunter whose eyes are stuck to its prey.
Just a few weeks after that encounter, Yoshino has gained enough data about Ephraim and his estimated capabilities to try and synthesize a genetic seed that can theoretically match or even overcome him.
"Just a bit more… just a bit-"
*BLAG-!*
Keen on actually catching him or even killing him in order to study his body, Yoshino prepared a special kind of edited gene sequence that she intends to implant on the topmost player of the upcoming rankings.
"You damned failure of a daughter…"
"F-Father!?"
"I got engrossed with my experiments and my responsibilities, and the first thing I learn after I come back is that you've caused so much public deaths!"
"Kh!"
"It's time for me to finally deactivate you! I have no need for failures in my road to perfection!"
"That is my line, you damned fossil!"
Inside their laboratory in a remote island, Aokigahara Mifune and his "daughter", Yoshino, fought… and in the end, even the self-proclaimed "perfected human" fell down against his creation who has surpassed him in all regards.
"How… did you…!"
"While you're wasting your time chasing after the perfection of your physical form, I've went beyond that and perfected both the physical and psychical prowess of my genetic edits… You were simply too short-sighted and callous to listen to my ideas that it brought you to this situation."
"You wench…! How dare you do this to you own creator!"
"Huh?"
"I made you from scratch! I created you to become a mere servant to my ambition! You were never made to surpass me!"
"Well, well… is this the death throes of a dying failure that I am hearing?"
"You-!!!"
"For a pitifully small man like you who only gained his power because of his equally pitiful ego, a death like this where you will remember nothing but shame and the truth that you are a failure is quite something."
Those words that his very own daughter spoke… reminded him of his life.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Aokigahara Mifune is someone that people who has enough strength to not be intimidated of him sees as someone with a pitifully petty ego. He is a man who faced endless shame in his youth where he would flaunt "what he would do" with a certain issue with loud bluster and yet, when given a chance to do it, would always fall short of his prideful declarations.
However, instead of correcting his ways and become humble or perhaps, even just lower his estimations about what he can actually do, he not only kept his foul personality but instead, backed it up with physical strength that he actually possesses. For a while, his fist would always be stained with the blood of those who scorns his failures or even just those who wouldn't declare that they believe his baseless bluster.
Soon, even the closest friends that he has, who genuinely cared about him and wanted to help him change his ways, left him after realizing that no matter what they do, Mifune would remain like that… and yet, instead of regretting his actions after losing those lifelong friends, he only dug himself deeper into his belief that "they cannot accept his dream to be greater than anyone else".
Mifune's ambition went deeper and darker… wanting to be better than anyone else, he competed in both academics and sports. And when it was proven to him again that he cannot excel in it, threatened to hurt those above him until he got what he wanted from them… a position above everyone else.
Before long, the day when they would leave the school forever came, and while everyone clapped for each other regardless of what awards or honors they received, the moment that he was called to the stage to receive the highest honors and awards, no one raised their hands to applaud him, nor did they even look at him.
Yet again, Mifune didn't see this as the outcome of his paltriness, his oversized pride or even the fact that he didn't actually work for or deserve those honors and awards… to him, this is just how these people cannot accept that he is greater than them.
However, reality will soon hit him when he entered the Genetic Research Department of the Miyazono Medical Research Institute after he finished his ACES-course in high school… for in there, he met someone that he cannot possibly scare off with violence nor threaten with something in order to fall into his control.
"This is Dr. Jonah Seliah Chronia. As you may already notice, he's a foreigner who has been given the task to replace Dr. Sakurajima who retired from being your Department Chief. He might be new here, but he's not new in this job, so don't you brats dare to underestimate him, or your wages are on the line after the employee evaluations… am I clear?!"
"""Yes, sir!"""
Mifune reigned supreme in the department and even forced their Chief to retire in order to take his place... and yet, instead of awarding him that position, a foreigner was brought into the place and his dreams to become a Chief fell through.
"Then, what about the genes that are suspected to increase cancer cell proliferation? Should we also include it in the experiment?"
"O-Of course! That's one of the points of this project, so that's a no-brainer! If I am the one in charge, I'd already include every suspected genetic sequence in the first experiment alone so that we can wrap this up quickly!"
"M-Mifune-san… I was asking the Chief-"
"You know what, I've noticed that all of you have been too wary in our work. Why can't you guys do better and help out more?!"
Even though he wasn't the one that was asked that question, Mifune went on and on about "if only I am the one in charge of things" and even went as far as telling off the others about not being able to match or even surpass his "contributions" to the department's activities.
After he exhausted himself with his rambling that no one has stopped him from, their department chief finally spoke and said something that the others liked and drove Mifune to the edge of bursting his overinflated ego.
"Hmm… I think it's still too early to do all of that. Although there are merits to getting straight to the objective by including every suspected gene sequence in the experiment, it can also cause complications that we cannot properly associate with a certain gene that we spliced out. By doing all of this one by one and later on, pair by pair, we can detect what each edit would do more precisely."
"B-But that would only slow us down and increase the budget limitations. I know that they said you aren't new to this, Dr. Chronia, but I believe anyone who has experience about projects like this knows that time and money are the two things that our investors don't want to give out quickly."
"Well, you're right in that, Aokigahara-san."
"Heh! Then that just means that I should be the one leading-"
"But that is just plain irresponsible, you see."
"-!?"
Perhaps it is a trait unique to the Japanese that was the reason why his awful personality was never corrected. Throughout his life, the people around him simply kept their mouths shut and never castigated him openly about his words and actions, silently hoping that he will soon learn to read his surroundings and notice that he needs to change his personality.
But for the first time in his life, through the simple and perhaps, not even a true admonition of his massively self-centered and prideful character, Jonah struck not the outer edges of his egotistical character but its very own center. If likened to a game of darts, Jonah shot the golden ring of the bullseye.
"By taking this step-by-step, we can find out more about our subject and find out about parameters to be followed until we can find just the right level of acceptable risks while also reaping in results. If you are concerned about time and money, I'll talk to the investors myself. So long as we can explain it properly, I believe they'll understand why it would take longer and far pricier to do this."
"H-How can you be so sure, Dr. Chronia? I'm beginning to question whether you are thinking about this realistically or your head is in an imaginative scenario."
"Ahaha! I get why you would think that is so. But don't worry, Aokigahara-san. I am sure that this would work out. After all, the one who would perform the actual experiment is an old friend of mine whom the investors can trust to provide great results."
"…And just who is this person that would make this possible?"
"It's Professor Miyazaki Akihiro."
Upon hearing that name and learning that he is close friends with such a person that even he cannot confidently stand up to, Mifune only had one thing in mind in order to assert dominance against this man.
"If I'm not going to be credited upfront and above others in this, it doesn't deserve to be seen by others. No… it doesn't even deserve to exist."
In his sheer envy and wrath against their Department Chief, Mifune sabotaged the documents that will be passed to their superiors by implanting edited ones into Jonah's computer. However, it would fail miserably after Jonah detected it before printing and within a night, put everything back together before their presentation.
He would later try to undermine Jonah again by botching their research subject mice, replacing it with genetically modified ones that has a fragile genetic makeup and would die if put through the gene therapy test and prove Jonah's methods to be a failure.
But it was once again, a massive failure… for after Jonah noticed that the mice aren't behaving the same way as he observed them to be, signifying a change in them, the entire batch was disposed and replaced with a reserve batch of mice that already underwent the same treatment as their actual predecessors. Apparently, Jonah kept them as an emergency measure.
Many more attempts by him would be made. But all of them would either be foiled by the others or just become an utter failure… finally, he broke his façade and by making sure that he was seen to be drinking in their afterwork party, incited a fistfight with Jonah. He once again, regressed to his most effective ways of asserting dominance.
"Ack-! Gah!"
"You're a really bad drunk, Mifune-kun. We should go to a barbecue place next time to avoid this."
"Why, you-!!!"
"Come on, sleep already."
Little did he know that in the country where he came from, military service is required from every able-bodied male, and Jonah was someone who had actual combat experience and knew how to not only defend himself but also incapacitate his opponents… as he learned the hard way after a well-placed chop on his carotid artery made him fall down unconscious instantly.
This encounter with Jonah would be the catalyst of Mifune's complete fall to the person that he eventually became… for after being snared by an offer to receive a Psychic genetic seed and being tasked to eliminate Dr. Jonah after he uncovered the Miyazono corporation's true objective of making clones that would act to immortalize mankind later on, Mifune would spend the rest of his life researching about more and more genetic edits that would provide him more power and perfection as a living being… but it would soon be his undoing.
"Goodbye, you failure… I don't have any use for you while you're alive. So, be a responsible parent and give what your child wants. You may have focused entirely on physical-centric gene edits, but your body still holds a great deal of goodies that I can make use of. Don't worry, I will care for your corpse so that it would serve my ends."
"You wench… this is not the end. I will prove that I am…"
"No, you won't, old man… You will not prove anything anymore. After all, what have you proven throughout your life other than the fact that you're a pitifully petty man that can't overcome others and yet, be full of bluster and pride?"
"-!!!"
"So, die already… it's not like someone would miss a pitiful failure like you if you are gone. Even the other Gardeners are ready to induct me as soon as you croak, you did nothing but help me out by coming here."
As his consciousness faded and his last breath came, Mifune did not have a single fond memory to look back on as his life drew to a close.
Now, all of the things that he did haunted him… and there was nothing in his heart but the regret that he was supposed to have back then when it was still supposed to count.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Now… I want to get that guy already, but because of this man, it would take longer and more effort to even just locate him."
Her fight with her father destroyed her personal laboratory and the tubes that contain the edited gene samples that in her predictions about Ephraim's capabilities as a Psychic, would overpower him and allow her to capture him.
"Haah… even when you're about to die, you really still are a handful, old man."
After kicking his father's corpse in spite, the door of the laboratory was opened by her personal attendant who seems to be here to give a report.
"Lady Yoshino… I have important news from back in New Tokyo."
"Speak it up."
"Master Miyazono Ryuichi's revival is being prepared. All Gardeners are being ordered to come back and provide protection for the revival process."
"Say what?"
Unknowingly, her father's actions in the past, her current activities regarding her recruitment of Psychics through her video game, and the revival of their master, all connected to the fateful day where they came face-to-face and was substantially decimated by the very person that she was stalking.