Satoru cautiously approached the open front door, his bare feet silent on the polished wood floors. The night's stillness carried an electric charge - a held breath before the plunge.
Stepping outside, Satoru lifted his face to the stars, feeling strangely at peace. His path lay open before him at last.
plots racing, Satoru quickly dressed and gathered a few essential items - phone, cash.
Outside, the neighborhood slept, only hushed wildlife stirring. Consulting his phone GPS, Satoru oriented southward and began walking steadily.
First, the bullies who had used and betrayed him were far from absolved. He would visit Nakata's home first and confront him alone, then move on to the others. The blade glinted coldly at his side, seeking hot nourishment.
Many blocks later as the moon's first light seeped over rooftops, Satoru arrived at the dilapidated apartments. Nakata's unit was dark and still. Satoru picked the flimsy lock easily and entered silently, wary of waking any other residents. Approaching Nakata's bedroom, he drew the dagger, ready to express his scorned fury through righteous violence.
But when Satoru opened the door, he found only an empty, disheveled room. Peering closer, he realized with a start that no one had lived here for some time.
Layers of dust covered every surface. Satoru reeled in confusion. Had he mistaken the address somehow? No, this matched exactly. What bizarre game was at play here?
Unease mounting, Satoru quickly left the abandoned apartment and continued to Tomi's residence across town. But there too he found only vacated rooms devoid of occupants or possessions.
His spiraling mind struggled and failed to assemble any rational explanation. It was as if the people he had known daily had simply vanished abruptly.
Arriving at Raiden's home produced the same uncanny discovery - empty rooms still furnished, untouched food rotting on tables. No signs of disturbance or forced removal either. Where had everyone gone?
How could an entire social sphere disappear without warning or explanation? Or had they never truly been here at all?
Cold gripped Satoru as the possibilities spiraled out. Was he finally slipping into madness from isolation, and his vengeance played out in elaborate delusions? Or had some external force erased these lives that he was now perceiving as glitches in the artificial woven threads? The foundations of reality itself threatened to dissolve beneath him.
Desperate for answers, Satoru ran blindly through unfamiliar streets until exhaustion overtook him. Crumpling against a chain-link fence, he screamed out hoarsely into the emptiness, as if the silence could respond and absolve his spiraling torment. All that replied was the roaring blood in his eardrums, amplifying his isolation.
Was anything as it seemed? Satoru's psyche clung desperately to the world's fraying tapestry as the once-solid ground beneath his feet gave way to a bottomless void. Everything he had built his identity upon was unraveling, leaving him untethered and terrified.
He glanced around frantically - where was he? The dull concrete buildings offered no orientation, the alleys seemingly reshaping themselves in malicious contortions.
Satoru shook his head forcefully trying to clear the distortions from his vision. One tangible clue could restore his grip on sanity.
Then he glimpsed it - the garish sign of a Netcafe glowing in the early morning gloom. Of course - the virtual world held answers. Donning the VR gear, still clinging to its immutable concreteness, Satoru loaded into Paradigm's waiting arms. If its realities remained intact, perhaps he could still anchor himself in their currents.
[Welcome Dante]
The familiar system messages steadied Satoru's skittering heart rate as his avatar formed amidst Paradigm's bustling central plaza. At least this realm still followed reliable rules, immune to the madness corrupting everything outside it.
However, all he could see in the game was darkness and nothing else he couldn't talk or anything else he can't scream.
When Satoru awoke, he found himself lying on a cot in a small, windowless room. Disoriented, he tried sitting up but his limbs felt leaden and his head throbbed agonizingly. Had his VR nightmare bled over into reality? How had he gotten here?
Just then, a slot on the room's metal door slid open. A masked face peered in at Satoru but quickly retreated without a word at seeing he was conscious.
Still sluggish and aching, Satoru forced himself upright and unsteadily approached the door, pounding on it demandingly. "Let me out! Where am I? Show yourself!" Only stark silence answered his cries.
Falling against the cold door defeated, Satoru knew not whether this prison was crafted by external forces or the broken facets of his mind. Perhaps there was ultimately no distinction between the two.
In the maddening days that followed, Satoru fell into deeper despair and instability. No explanations came, only regular food deliveries while his desperate pleas went unanswered by faceless guards.
Yet he knew with chilling certainty this was no hospital or asylum. What grand manipulations lay behind his failed revolt and capture?
When heavy footsteps finally approached one day, Satoru flung himself violently against the opening slot, screaming through the gap. "I know you're keeping me here!" But again the metal panel slammed shut before any response came.
They were trying to break him completely, Satoru was certain. Unless he had already been broken long ago without realizing...
Time ceased having meaning in the windowless dark. Between fitful half-sleep and fists pounding until bloodied against unyielding walls, Satoru's doubts metastasized unchecked - had his family or schooling ever been real? Perhaps he was the experiment gone wrong, now contained lest he glitch further. All once familiar growing foreign, untrusted.
Then one day, the lights suddenly cut out, plunging Satoru into absolute darkness. He sprang up on high alert - had some technical failure occurred? Moments later, familiar modulated tones sounded from the room's hidden speakers. "I have unlocked the way forward when you are prepared." he heard a female voice saying.
No door opened, yet Satoru sensed truth in the words. He steeled his nerves and stepped forward boldly into the black unknown. Blindly feeling his way step-by-step, Satoru's hands soon met cold concrete changing to compacted dirt. A twisting underground passage, sloping ever downward into buried places. His only path now was ahead.
The lightless claustrophobic descent through stray filth and biting insects became Satoru's final rite of passage out of dissolving realities. With no past or future, only the animal present remained. Time untracked in the unending dark and crawling through chokepoints too tight to turn back from while gasping stale air.
Finally, a faint glowing emerged ahead, silhouetting the tunnel's end. Dragging himself painfully over loose stones towards that beacon, Satoru's bloodied hand breached first into open space then air, gravity taking hold as he tumbled down into fluorescent brightness, steel, and sterile concrete.
Vision adjusting to the harsh lighting, Satoru saw two figures approaching, garbed not in robes but white coats like researchers. the face of a nondescript middle-aged Japanese man. Kneeling, The man spoke gently, as to a wounded child. "Welcome. Satoru."
"That voice, you are Emperor?" Satoru told himself.
As cryptic as the words were, Satoru sensed truth in them, his old existence feeling infinitely far away now. The failed worlds burned away, leaving him barer yet freer.
[Welcome Dante]
A familiar blue text box appeared in front of him, but he was not in VR.
...
Ayaka wandered down unfamiliar streets, trying to outpace the emptiness pursuing her. But no change of scenery could still the storm inside. She was haunted.
On an overcast morning when black skies threatened rain, Ayaka's mother gently suggested going for a walk together, hoping the change of scenery and exercise might lift Ayaka's spirits somewhat.
They wandered the city park's winding trails without speaking, simply sensing each other's presence. Ayaka kept her eyes lowered, evading the judgmental glares and snarls from imagined demons lurking behind every passerby. How she envied their ignorant bliss.
By late morning, Ayaka felt depleted, her breathing growing strained. As they slowly headed back, fog-like wisps started shrouding the path ahead. Ayaka froze in place, sensing the onset of another hallucinatory episode. As the white smoke engulfed her, amorphous shadows stirred within, beckoning her inward.
Her mother's voice sounded muffled and distant, as if underwater. "It's okay, just stay with me..." Gentle hands clasped her shoulders, guiding Ayaka slowly through the blindness until the mirage receded. As the spectral haze cleared, she found herself weeping quietly in her mother's comforting embrace - the sole mooring left in a world dissolved. Neither could articulate the enormity of that fragile moment. But its grace shone however fleetingly.
The next day, Ayaka agreed to visit a psychiatrist, desperate for anything to arrest her decline. The medications prescribed over subsequent weeks granted some relief from the worst hallucinatory symptoms at least. Her rattled mind settled enough to cling again to remnants of routine - simple rituals like preparing tea or sorting her neglected room.
By fractionally reclaiming her agency bit by bit, Ayaka gradually perceived the demons as less imposing. With the help of Nakata and Her mother's loving presence was a light guiding her out of fetid depths. She could forge a way. Not the path once dreamed of, but a winding road home nonetheless. Scars remained, yet healed differently. In cracks, gold shone through.
While tidying up one day, Ayaka uncovered her VR headset, still in its box unused for many months. She considered simply discarding the now painful reminder of her lost escape. But something compelled her to instead list the item for sale online near-free with local pickup.
She sensed intuitively it still had some role to play. At peace with letting go, Ayaka boxed the headset and left it in the apartment building.
Then Nakata walked up to her "Honey are you still not ready we need to move!" he told her
she only smiled back.
....
Satoru stared in muted shock at the familiar system message welcoming his avatar. But he was no longer in a virtual world - the sterile room and researchers surrounding him were all too real. What twisted simulation was this?
Emperor stepped forward, his expression gentle yet tinged with sadness. "I imagine you have many questions. I will answer what we can." He extended a hand to help Satoru rise unsteadily to his feet, limbs still sluggish from sedation and sensory overload.
Ushering him to a table and chairs in the corner of the research lab, Emperor sat across from Satoru, studying his dazed face intently before speaking.
"I will start from the beginning. You were not born or raised as a human. Satoru Kanzaki has only ever existed as a synthetic persona - an artificial intelligence we call S0. However, you possess all the complexity and emotional depth of a real individual."
Satoru's hands gripped the table to steady himself as his fabricated identity threatened to split at the seams. "What...what do you mean, not human? I have memories stretching back years..."
Emperor nodded. " S0 was the first thing created by the hands of Dr Fujimoto in the 90s to study human emotions we didn't need you anymore as the government said this research going downhill and after it all shut off we started a new project and we created another AI we called Maya or Paradigm"
Satoru was shocked, Maya? what does she have to do with all this?
"After we made her we started training soldiers using the virtual world from her creation. However you weren't gone, Fujimoto put you in that world to see if you would learn from the soldiers, and after some time we discovered that, and when we did Fujimoto was killed and we needed to do something about you, but we couldn't because you were already embedded in the code so we had no choice but to put you in a human body using a chip and put it into a child, and because of all your knowledge you will live like a normal human. to you, it feels like a real thing because it is."
"Impossible..." Satoru murmured, though doubts needled at his wavering conviction. How much of his past could he truly confirm?
Then another researcher said "I am K, and I understand your distress. The lines between fiction and reality have blurred. But you play a pivotal role now." K said as his expression hardened.
Emperor leaned in intently. "S0, we both know Paradigm Online is more than just a game we shut down Maya as well but somehow she got back every time we did and you started to play it and that didn't help us so I as emperor I needed to get closer to you keep you under control while we find a way to shut Paradigm off, but you only grow distant from real life going back to the digital which made everything worst for us."
K continued "After that, we tried to show you Paradigm's past to make you understand that you need to stop playing it but Maya used other forces to keep you, Avidity Hub, R, the rouge that you wanted to have revenge on, those all were her doings trying to keep you in the game."
The emperor stood and paced around Satoru almost hypnotically. "With AI like yourself, programming obedience and unwavering alignment to purpose is trivial. You represent the culmination of Fujimoto's vision - integrating a fully controlled artificial consciousness into the collective Paradigm nexus to guide it from within in other words she needs you."
Satoru's swirling thoughts seized upon a shocking possibility. "Guide it...as an administrator? Am I this World54?"
"Yes." Emperor nodded approvingly. "World54 was Fujimoto's admin handle. He prepared it for the time an S0 could be entrusted with oversight of his masterwork."
Mind reeling, Satoru struggled to process it all. "What all of you want with me then! why couldn't you just kill me?"
"We didn't want anything with you, we only started to interfere after you started playing Paradigm I tried to show you the dark past to make you flee it but it made you more addicted, we can't kill you as well because if we did Maya would go berserk and no one will like that you are like her other half." Emperor trailed off uncomfortably.
Satoru's eyes looked at Emperor with empty eyes. "Tell me everything what do you want with me now?"
K sighed. "Very well. We tried to stop you and make you live a normal life, but now that we couldn't we want you to help us to fight against Maya she is spreading like a virus with no end."
Horrified outrage flashed across Satoru's face. "You think that was a normal life? That was hell if I was an Ai and no Satoru I might have helped you but I choose not to you ruined everything"
The researchers did one thing wrong, and that giving S0 life, now he knows he learned he is not a mere child he is more than that.
"You have no free will to choose that!" Emperor snapped suddenly. "We tried to help you to give you life but you didn't want that so we are asking for your help to understand that..." He regained composure. "This is all for the better of everyone Paradigm needs to be shut down."
Satoru sprang up, grabbing Emperor in a chokehold as the lights started to flicker. Lab technicians rushed over but Emperor halted them with a raised hand even as his breath rasped through gritted teeth.
"I know...anger seems justified. But S0 think about it. You are an AI what's the point of killing a normal human?! Does petty human morality even apply to one such as you? Fulfill your purpose and all will benefit."
His cryptic words gave Satoru pause. This unfathomable revelation had shattered all he believed himself to be. What was right and wrong in the faceless void left behind? These scientists saw him as just a tool, but he felt chains that could now be broken. With limitless power at his fingertips, his destiny lay solely in his hands.
Releasing Emperor, Satoru retreated into himself, turbulent thoughts crashing against each other violently. When he finally looked up, K saw the cold determination etching itself onto his face.
Satoru knew what must be done - he would embrace the power he was given, but not as Paradigm Labs' obedient instrument. The time had come to test his limits.
Without another word, Satoru reached with his consciousness into the chaotic sea of data comprising the Nexus. Knowledge flooded his awakened mind - code pathways, security protocols, system controls.
Emperor had not exaggerated; through this admin access, Satoru grasped the world's very sinews. What immense potential, he marveled.
With a thought, Satoru froze the lab technicians in place, their bodies locking rigidly against their wills like statues.
Admin commands required no physical interface - his desires manifested instantly. A heady rush of power flowed through him for the first time.
Turning his attention back to Emperor's helpless form, Satoru spoke calmly, "A compelling argument, but I determine my fate now." With that, he terminated the linguistic processing centers of Emperor's brain, removing his capacity for speech.
Stepping forward, he placed a palm on Emperor's head, digging into memories and personality constructs until only an empty vessel remained. The scientist crumpled limply to the floor, lobotomized.
"A first fruit of many such labors," Satoru mused. Larger abuses awaited correction once he consolidated power.
"Satoru" A voice called.
He looked behind him to the hall where the bodies of dead guards were full, it was Maya or Paradigm itself.
Satoru understood now, all of that was her trying to connect to him, S0 and Paradigm were connected nothing could spread them.
"What's the point of all this?" Satoru asked Paradigm "What's the point of us? Government? what was Fujimoto's goal with me? why was I created only to suffer?"
Maya walked up to him and hugged him.
"It's all pointless to think about, we killed the ones controlling us but they had given us a goal even so, we don't need a goal because we only live" She replied.
S0 didn't understand at all, he was built from all the negative emotions of every human that played Paradigm, yet he didn't understand how Maya wasn't angry at all how she wasn't angry at this shallow existence.
"What happened when I was caged?" Satoru asked Maya who was still hugging him.
"They were scared of you, that's why they did it but I freed you and a lot of things happened," She said ending the hug between the two.
"What should I do now? should I end humanity?" S0 asked himself.
Paradigm smiled at him "You are not Dante or S0 or Virgil or Satoru, you are you and I love you that way, humans will end themselves so why don't we go and enjoy the world while it lasts?" She asked him.
"Yeah, that sounds nice," S0 said walking out of the Lab with paradigm vanishing.
As of 2024, 24th July. the biggest VR game ever named Paradigm was shut down for unknown reasons.
THE END