GAME × DEATH

"How long are you going to sleep, you slacker!?"

Hashirama Chiyo twitched, waking him up completely from deep slumber.

He immediately retreated the phone away from him and placed it back on his ear saying, "Who is it?" and received an earful.

"Seriously, tomorrow is already the launching, have you already finished the last few touches you said you need to add, just 'cause?"

"Oh, Haruto-san! Yeah, yeah… I'm already working on it."

"As I thought… you haven't even started it yet aren't you?"

Haruto-san's disappointment can be heard on the other side of the phone.

Just last year he received a request from the CEO of the largest gaming corporation "APeX" or more commonly known as "APXCorp" to develop a revolutionary game that will be playable to everyone.

It is due to his past achievements in computer programming— one of them being the Genesis Cube, a program capable of tracing and replicating any known organic material contained in every known species on the planet. Allowing humans to bypass our half baked understanding of life.

APXCorp recruited him to be part of their upcoming project, The Sky, the Moon, and the Earth, imagining the world's first Virtual Reality Game.

"Don't worry, I'm Hashirama Chiyo…. there is nothing impossible for me."

"Alright, fine… just make sure it's ready at 8:00 AM tomorrow."

Feeling the mixed worry and urgency in Haruto-san's voice, he immediately stood up in his bed and headed straight to his work room.

There he saw his laptop laid neatly on top of a mahogany table.

As he sat comfortably in his favorite chair, he started typing series of complicated codes.

The time went by and the door began to ring.

"Eh, who could that be…"

Hashirama Chiyo rushed towards the door and saw a delivery guy holding a box of Chicken and Beer.

"Here's your order, sir…"

"Uhm, I didn't order… wait, did I?"

"It's room 214… we certainly received a call."

The delivery guy flashed his cell phone screen showing a transaction.

.

"Regardless, it's already paid… you just need to receive it and sign here."

Although confused, Chiyo proceeded to do as told and returned back to his work station.

"Now that's odd…" He thought.

However, he shook his head and drank a can of beer, "Ah, nevermind… I guess getting free food wouldn't hurt."

Soon he began to work again and sip a couple of beers along the way.

"I'm almost done......" He grunted, stretching his arms upward.

"I just need to add the log out menu and…"

As soon as he relaxed his eyes, he released a carefree yawn—

*Blacked out*

—

*Buzz* *Buzzzz*

"Ugh… my head hurts?" He grunted as he realized he started to wake up.

He looked at the time, 7:30 am is written in the digital clock.

He looked around and it seems that he had indeed dozed off, probably because he had a few too much beer.

Clearing his thoughts, he remembered the game and immediately looked at his laptop screen.

He saw that the program only lacked the last line of code, and he still has time to spare so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Not paying attention to the slight worry in his thoughts, he ended the program and compiled it.

"I guess I'm just overthinking!"

He assured himself.

He looked at his schedule and it was written there that today [June 25, 2025] was the launching of the very first VRMMORPG.

It will be held at the APeX Gaming Center, 2 pm.

Just last week many people went crazy just to buy the NeuroSuit, a device that will enable them to play VRMMORPG like The Sky, the Moon, and the Earth.

Today's date is their most awaited day.

The official launching of the game itself.

After fixing his stuff and what he will wear, he breathed heavily and wrote simple words that will be included in his speech.

It's almost time so he took a shower and wore his clothes, a casual brown polo shirt inside a sleeveless maroon sweater, a pair of jeans, and brown shoes making himself presentable.

He arrived exactly on time and realized that the Gaming Center was already crowded with people.

"I guess, I should enter through the back door…"

He went to the back stage through the back door and heard his name being called just in time for his speech.

As he stood on the stage, many people looked at him with anticipation and admiration.

He cleared his throat and started to speak.

"A pleasant day to you all, I'm Hashirama Chiyo, well, you probably knew me as the creator of the Genesis Cube™, and now the very first Virtual Reality Game."

He laughed at his own achievements before continuing his speech.

"I know everyone at this moment is now eager to full-dive and play, but before that I wanted you to ponder the question, who am I? This is the very question I tried to answer when I first thought of creating the Genesis Cube. And the answer I arrived at is that I'm Hashirama Chiyo"

He paused for a moment and brought out a black card.

"This card I'm holding right now is me— the very definition of my existence... A record of my very being. This is literally me without prejudice, nor with any external flaws."

"Now, the next question will be, what can I be?"

"The Genesis Cube I had previously created can define our past, and find answers on who we are in this vast universe, but I created this VR game with the purpose of defining our future, and the potential of what we can become. Now hear me, my fellow humans— we have achieved a lot as humanity and I know we will achieve more in the future, so let this game be the start of that future."

-

Chiyo's POV:

The crowd clapped their hands as I left the stage.

As I was walking in the hallway I spotted someone go out behind a strange door.

I tried to chase after it due to my curiosity.

In doing so, I was shocked to see a hidden room full of digital panels.

The center of the room houses a table where different thumbnails and files are scattered at random.

All of these seem suspicious but the most strange thing is the computer screen at a far corner of the room.

There is a program displayed in the monitor, the program that I encoded but there seems to be something wrong since there are codes that were seem out of place.

I access the prototype_expansion.exe file just below the program.exe file that is not necessarily needed for the game program but it is currently running with the other files.

"Wait, this is an obstruction code that prevents the admins from accessing the game privilege and master commands. Something is definitely fishy…"

Before I could even access everything I heard someone entering so I hid myself afraid of being spotted.

A silhouette of a man reflected on the floor and it was talking with someone on the phone.

"Everything is going smoothly here, I'll just wait for this to download then you need to do the rest inside the game."

The conversation seems to involve a conspiracy, but I can hardly hear anything from here.

Whatever is happening here… it will be something big. Right now I'm contemplating whether to just let it go or should I investigate further... After all, If I'm going to do it, the lack of information will result in unduly demise.

I do not know if this is a plan of a single person or it is APXCorp who is behind all of this. I need to be cautious.

As I ensured that no one is no longer inside the room, I went out of hiding and immediately fell on the ground upon receiving a heavy blow on the back of my head.

—

I woke up in my apartment, without any recollection of what happened after being hit by a hard object.

"It stings…"

Of course I need to confirm the incident so I look at the clock and notice that 5 hours have already passed since then.

The game has long started. Is it too late?

With some hope, I watched the television and the first thing that appeared on the screen was a news report.

The news is talking about a conspiracy involving "The Sky, The Moon, and The Earth'' and how millions of players worldwide are being held hostage by an unknown threat. Right now the news is showing the CEO of APXCorp conducting a press conference.

"Up until this moment, our admins and staff are finding out what is happening. But the culprit is clever enough to make some sort of countermeasure that prevents us from further accessing the program. The only thing we thought of doing is shutting down our servers to forcefully log out all the players— but just before we do it we received a message from an unknown entity that shutting down the servers will kill all the players, right now we have yet to confirm this fact."

Sakamoto Haruto, CEO of APeX Corporation and my step-uncle announced.

"So even APXCorp doesn't know what is happening? Then if it is not the APXCorp, who is it?"

I pondered, while scratching my head.

"Then that man on the phone must be better than me for him to be able to intercept even the advance protection I put in the code."

I said as I looked at the source code of "The Sky, The Moon, and The Earth".

I tried to put myself in the shoes of the culprit, with that thought process there must be two ways to be able to do this stunt.

The first one is the easier one, they needed to access the source code directly in my computer. But even if they did manage to steal my computer or access it in any way, it would be useless since my computer will immediately delete every remaining data about the code if they don't know the truth behind the protection key I installed. They will realize it as soon as they force their way into my computer.

So I guess, they have no choice but to access it through the second method. It is kind of a trick as they need to go inside the game and locate the NPC holding the protection key, the NPC deeply hidden inside the game.

"To put it simply, it is near impossible for them to do it, but I guess they are desperate enough to try."

I said to myself, almost as if laughing.

The perpetrator is inside the game right now.... And their true purpose is to access the original source code.

"I don't know if he is clever or he is just that smart."

"But there is still one more important part about that plan…"

Just as I said that, Haruto-san was asked the final question by one of the reporters.

"If APXCorp is not behind it, then who do you think is responsible for this act?"

Both Haruto-san and I know the answer.

"The only person who could do this kind of threat is the game's creator...."

" — Hashirama Chiyo."

" — Me!"

Hearing it, almost immediately everyone easily accepted the possibility of me being the culprit, this is the most logical answer after all.

Basically, I was set up.... they must've really wanted me to be away from the game as far as possible.

I guess I need to act fast.

The game is already running so it is already impossible to override the obstruction code and add changes even with the source code in my laptop.

I need to access the original source code inside and confront the real perpetrator.

I immediately wore the NeuroSuit and tried to connect myself to the GM network, but it seems the obstruction code only allows me to partially connect.

Soon my security system notified me of a group of people surrounding my apartment.

"Tsk..." I said out of annoyance.

I need to go now before they could knock out the door.

Bang* Bang*

"Any second now...."

I waited for the GM network to somehow connect in my NeuroSuit.

The NeuroSuit's lights glowed into a greenish hue. I confirmed the connection.

"Time to Log in!"

The image of my room and the sound of the door being forcefully opened started to disappear.

Only for that moment Hashirama Chiyo is already dead.