EBO: Resume - Chapter 2

May 19, 2026

Hunter drove his real-life LS-218 bike to the parking complex of the Nexus Theory headquarters and office, parking said bike in the large parking complex nearby. His backpack contained all the equipment he needed to play EBO, as well as all the things he needed to get into the Nexus Theory offices. As he approached the glass doors of the large office building, a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Haruko approached the doors as well. Not wanting to be rude, Hunter held the door open for her before entering himself, the lady thanking him for his kindness.

“Wait… Hunter?” the lady turned around and looked at him again.

“So that’s what you look like IRL…” Hunter mumbled to himself. “Hello, Ms. Haruko.”

“Amachi. Get it right.”

“Alright, alright, no need to be so stingy about it.” Hunter signed into the offices and entered an elevator, Haruko entering the same elevator.

“I assume you know your way around?” Haruko asked Hunter as he swiped his badge across the scanner and pressed the button for one of the LTD floors and waited for the doors to close.

“Hey, hey! Wait for me!” A man bearing a resemblance to Hideo ran for the elevator. He wore his clothing messily, as if he were rushing to get to work on time.

“Ah, Hideo. Straighten yourself out, you’re a mess,” Haruko scolded her co-worker as she held the elevator for him.

“Excuse me for waking up late!” Hideo entered the elevator and proceeded to straighten out his clothes as the doors closed and the three began their ascent. “I think Kyoka stayed overnight to take care of a few things. She should be in one of the rooms already.”

As the elevator stopped on their floor and the doors opened, the trio saw a sleepy girl with messy black hair and vibrant blue eyes bearing a resemblance to Kyoka yawn as she approached the kitchen area/break room of the floor. Immediately, the three joined her in the kitchen as they all brewed themselves coffee or tea, depending on their personal preferences. Hideo and Haruko made tea, while Hunter and Kyoka made coffee and poured in all the sugar and creamer they desired. A moment of silence passed as the quartet sipped their respective beverages and let the caffeine wake them up slowly. Kyoka rubbed her eyes with another yawn before breaking the silence.

“Morning, everyone.”

“Did you get any sleep last night, Kyoka?” Hideo questioned her with worry evident in his voice.

“Eh, about two or three hours. The paperwork was piled up because someone forgot to take care of his case reports.” Kyoko sleepily replied, obviously still tired.

“Well, excuse me for wanting to sleep in my own bed. It’s been weeks since I’ve been home, and I need to check up on the place in case something happened!” Hideo fired back at her.

“At least take responsibility for your own paperwork, idiot!” Kyoko yelled back, now awake enough to yell.

“These two sound like a married couple…” Hunter murmured to Haruko.

“They get into arguments like this all the time. As far as I know, they’re both single and currently not interested in each other.” Haruko replied to Hunter’s comment.

“If this is how they act to each other all the time, I’m not surprised. But hey, who knows? They might end up together in the future.”

“Highly improbable, but still possible...”

“What are you two talking about over there?” Hideo asked the two.

“Don’t worry about it.” was Hunter’s nonchalant reply. ”Are we gonna dive soon?”

“Let’s get some actual food to eat first. Don’t you think we should carbo-load before we start gaming?” Hideo responded to Hunter’s question.

“There’s a convenience store nearby the office, we can buy some stuff to eat.” Kyoko suggested.

“Sounds good. Let’s go.” Hunter finished his coffee and put the cup in the sink to wash later, leaving the break room and putting on his motorcycle gloves.

The others followed Hunter out of the office, Kyoko going with Hideo on the latter’s personal motorcycle while Haruko sat behind Hunter. Before long, the two bikes drove to the nearby convenience store, parking out front. Not much time was spent on getting food, which they agreed to prepare and eat at the office. Instant ramen was set aside to cook, flavored breads and sandwich removed from wrappers to be eaten alongside more coffee or tea. Chips and corn snacks could be heard as the four young adults satiated their appetites. A good hour and a half was spent eating before they decided to dive back into EBO. As soon as each person was settled into their rooms, the dive began. Sign-in screen was passed successfully, and each person spawned in Hunter’s in-game office. Haruko and Hunter left the rooms they had been sleeping in the previous night and met Kyoka and Hideo in the main office.

“Now what?” Hideo asked.

“We work on finding Genm and stopping his plans. I could use some tech from Nexus Theory, but I don’t think I can get the things I need from them at the moment. We'll have to be locked in here before I can get the equipment I need.”

“So we wait until August 14th before we start our counterattack?” Kyoka asked.

“No, we prepare for our counterattack. Get equipment, try and gather data on Genm so we can work on strategies for fighting him.” Hunter replied. “We’ve got just under a few months, so let’s make the most of it.”

August 1st, 2026

Satoshi stood in his hidden base, typing away at a computer. A girl with a rather curvaceous figure lounged about on a couch nearby, tinkering with some mechanical components while kicking her legs about.

“Hey, Satoshi. You almost done with your units yet?” The girl asked, still messing around with the components.

“Almost there, Nanaha. I’ll have the three units ready. Just need everyone else's help getting them in…” Satoshi had three cartridges plugged into a device connected to the computer. An ominous purple glow began to overtake the one in the center, as a purple wave of pixels enveloped the cartridge. “One downloaded, two to go…”

Satoshi removed the center cartridge, watching as something viscous oozed down the cartridge and form a label stating “Scizor Hades X” with the X being stylized and having a blood-like liquid dripping from it while the letters appeared to be made of bone. The other two cartridges subsequently lit up with an ominous glow, the one on the right consumed by a blue pixelated wave while the left cartridge was overtaken by a pale yellow wave. He then proceeded to pull out the two remaining cartridge, watching as their labels formed. The bluish unit formed the label “Seismic Poseidon” as the yellowish unit was designated “Storming Zeus.”

“All the pieces have fallen into my hands… We can finally resume the death game…” Satoshi glared at the three units in his hands, a sinister grin on his face.

“Yeah? I bet we’re gonna have lots and lots of fun, Satoshi-kun~” Nanaha finished tinkering, putting the parts together to make a cartridge labelled “Mending Isis.”

“All I need to do now is test the power of these units. And I know the perfect setting for this test run…” Satoshi grabbed a device off of the table, the one with a double-barreled laser gun and sword blade. “This modified Cartridge Driver… My Shinigami Driver… Everything is going according to plan. I’ll be sure to show off to that damned Hunter when the time comes…”

August 14th, 2026

A system-wide announcement was displayed, gathering all players currently in EBO at the center of Hatena. Everyone stood in a stone plaza, where a building stood. A red system message was blinking in the center of the sky, which then multiplied and formed a sphere around the plaza. Everyone thought a Game Master would appear, but a player in black and white stepped out onto a pedestal. A female player in a white top with black leggings accompanied him, equipping a Cartridge Driver to her waist as she pulled out a black and silver cartridge.

“Hello, my new subjects.” The male player spoke. “I am Genm, and so begins the death game. I now have access to the VR Core, and can willingly delete your consciences from this world if I desire. However, I’ve decided to let the system run on an automated deletion program. No matter how you die, you can say goodbye to life forever more. Now, let me show you the power I’ve worked to obtain.”

Satoshi pulled out his Shinigami Driver, attached it to a buckle already on his waist, and prepared his Scizor Hades X unit. He inserted it into the driver and triggered the transformation. A screen appeared in front of him showing what appeared to be a white zombie-like entity rising from the grave was then torn apart as Satoshi stood there, arms raised menacingly in the form of a mechanical zombie.

“I have achieved the form of Scizor Hades Level 10… And I will demonstrate its power by killing Hunter!” Satoshi jumped off the pedestal and into the crowd, hunting down Hunter.

“Mighty Specter!” Hunter had equipped his Driver already, inserting the cartridge he held in his hand into the driver. After insertion, he immediately opened the driver and chose the profile icon for his armor before the screen enveloped him and summoned forth his armor. Its mask was that of Sniping Specter, but had the crown of Chivalrous Calibur embedded into the helm. No traces of Mighty Longinus could be seen outside of the name and base armor.

“There you are!” Satoshi leaped at Hunter, but was immediately uppercutted by the latter. The crowd and system message dispersed, players running in a panic as they tried to escape the plaza to avoid the fight.

“I’ve been wondering what this Mighty Specter unit does ever since I somehow lost my Longinus, Calibur, and Specter units. This ought to be interesting, right Genm?” Hunter casually dusted off his hands as if nothing had happened.

“Shut up! You know nothing about what I had to do to obtain this power!” Satoshi charged at Hunter, who countered with a well-placed punch. Satoshi punched once more, getting him in the stomach and making him keel over. Hunter used the momentum to spin around and knock Satoshi to the ground with a kick. Pushing off Hunter, Satoshi got back up and attempted to kick Hunter, only for him to grab his foot and knock him off balance. Hunter flipped up and ran at Satoshi, preparing to drop kick him.

“Enough of this!” Satoshi pressed both the buttons on his driver, initiating an ominous beeping. He taps on the right button, causing the belt to announce “Critical Ender!” in a distorted voice as his fist is charged with Burst Potential. “I will kill you!!!”

“Fuck!” Hunter quickly activates his own Burst Strike, making his belt announce “Specter Critical Strike!” as his foot was charged with Burst potential.

When the two sources of Burst potential collide, an explosion ensues, sending everyone in the way flying back a foot or two as the two energies clashed before Satoshi’s punch won the duel and knocked Hunter away. The latter hit the ground and tumbled about before coming to a stop. He got up and canceled the transformation to prevent his own death.

“Haruko, you’re up!” Hunter held his hand up to his ear, which had a direct voice call with Haruko, Kyoka, and Hideo; all of whom were on standby.

“On it!” Haruko had been on a nearby roof this whole time, currently in her Level 3 Armor. Her Picaro Vector cannon had been charging during this time, and was now ready to fire. A blast of black and red energy hit Satoshi dead in the chest as Hunter drank a health potion retrieved from his inventory. “Direct hit, Hunter! Kyoka, Hideo, go for it!”

The two charged in, Hideo in his Level 3 armor with his non-lethal weapons firing at Satoshi in an attempt to stall for Kyoka. While Satoshi was preoccupied with Hideo’s fire, Kyoka appeared from behind him and stabbed him with as many knives as she could muster before rolling backwards and activating her Burst Strike. She unsheathed a katana to execute her Numbing Storm finisher, slashing down on Satoshi as icicles began to impale him from the inside out. All this lead to Satoshi’s HP Gauge being depleted to its last bar as the icicle were melted into a black, tar-like substance that evaporated into nothing the moment it hit the ground.

“I suppose I should thank you for that… With this, my immortality has been achieved.” Satoshi told them as he let out an evil-sounding groan. “Perhaps one more hit might do…”

“Achieved? This isn’t what we wanted…” Hunter mused to himself. “Wait… Shit! Hideo, cancel your Burst Strike!”

“What?! It’s too late!” During this time, Hideo had been charging up his Burst Strike, and was ready to unleash it. “It’s non-lethal, so it shouldn’t kill him!”

“If you hit him with it, he won’t be able to die whatsoever! Aim it at something else!!”

“I’m sorry, it’s too late! Already got a target lock on Genm! Damn, the Burst Strike is gonna overload the system! I’m firing!”

“Hideo, NO!” It was too late, Hideo had already let loose his non-lethal barrage. Each and every shot fired hit its mark, and Satoshi’s HP Gauge finally dropped to zero. A dark and sinister cloud surrounded him as Satoshi laughed menacingly.

“You fools! Did you really think this was the best strategy?! Did you really think that my Scizor Hades X would cancel its transformation when it hit zero?! Imbeciles, all of you!! You have only cemented my immortality!! I can no longer die within the system, no matter what!! And I have all of you to thank for it!” Satoshi cackled as he threw his arms into the air, reveling in his victory.

“Fuck… Everyone, get out of here while you still can!” Hunter activated his Mach Lighter as he saw Hideo and Kyoka return to Level 2 and summon their own bikes. Haruko had just jumped down from the building in Level 2, summoning her bike and driving off away from the Plaza.

“Hm… should we let them go, Satoshi-kun?” Nanaha approached him from behind as they both watched everyone leave.

“They pose no threat to me. No one can defeat me now… I have achieved the immortality I so desired. I can kill whoever I want whenever and wherever I like. The real fun starts now…” Satoshi thought out loud for Nanaha to hear. “But right now, we need to head back to base. I need to index the data gathered today for future reference. And I’ll need something from you as well, Nanaha.”

“Oh~? Well then let’s head back quick. I’ll be glad to give you a reward for pulling this off~” Nanaha and Satoshi walked back to their base, which was nearby the Plaza.

Satoshi cancelled his transformation and sat down at the computer, exhausted and bloodied. Despite being the unit neutralizing the damage dealt to the armor so that Satoshi could be immortal, the wounds of the attacks thrown at him would still manifest underneath, requiring a healing aid of some sort. Ignoring his wounds, Satoshi plugged Scizor Hades into the device connected to his computer and began typing away. In the meantime, Nanaha had gotten out a case and opened it up, revealing a cartridge unit and a gun-like device. She activated the cartridge which announced itself to be “Mending Isis” before inserting it into the device and sliding a few things around to form a healing pistol of sorts.

“Hold still, now.” Nanaha told him as she took off his shirt and aimed the gun at his wounds. She pulled the trigger, which injected a healing serum into the wound and instantly clotted it up to prevent contamination. After a few more shots, Satoshi had finished with the data and removed Scizor Hades, admiring his work.

“My plan is proceeding perfectly… I’ll just need to test out the other two at another time to acquire more data…” Satoshi set down the unit before getting up and lying down on the couch for Nanaha to finish with the healing.

“You’ve been such a good boy, haven’t you~?” Nanaha pet Satoshi’s head affectionately before going back to the healing.

“I’m not your pet, Nanaha. Just finish the healing.” He closed his eyes and prepared to sleep.

“Ugh, you’re no fun…” She injected the last wound, then removed the cartridge and proceeded to pack up the equipment. “Just let the wounds rest like this for about half an hour. And keep your shirt off.”

“Why’s that? So you can gawk at my topless body and proceed to make sexual advances?” Satoshi dryly commented with his eyes closed.

“What? Nooo…” Nanaha looked away for a moment to choose her words. “The healing speeds up if the wounds are exposed to the atmosphere, so that’s why I’m telling you to leave the shirt off. You could put it on, but that slows the process down to about an hour and a half. The gawking part, maybe…”

“Whatever… I’ll get some sleep while I wait.”

“Go for it, you’ve spent gone days without sleep just to make this work. I don’t know how you pull this off…” Nanaha left the room to let Satoshi sleep in peace.

August 15th, 2026

It was the next day. Hunter sat in his office, staring at the ceiling fan as it spun around slowly. It wasn’t hot in the room, but he had the fan going anyway. The others had taken up residence in Hunter’s spare rooms. However, he only had two guest rooms, so Hideo and Kyoka ended up mutually sharing a room while Haruko slept in the other guest room. As he stared, he looked over what had happened during yesterday’s eventful battle.

He had been able to piece together the fact that Mighty Specter was an amalgamation of his three Change units, taking aspects of Calibur and Specter and fusing them to the Longinus unit. How this had happened was unknown to him, but had occurred two weeks ago, on August 1st. When he was obtaining more data for his Level 20 unit, he went to get his Change units only to discover that Mighty Specter in the place of the three. He had yet to try using Level 3 with this unit as the base, but felt a need to test that out later. As he got up to get himself some coffee, he bumped into Haruko by accident, who had just woken up from sleeping.

“Oh, my bad. Sorry, Haruko…” Hunter apologized.

“It’s fine… I was paying attention to who was there, it’s my fault. I’m sorry…” Haruko replied drowsily. She was wearing a tanktop and a set of underwear, having taken off her usual in-game attire before going to sleep last night.

“A-ah. I see…” Hunter looked at her, saw her attire, and immediately looked away to avoid being labeled perverted. “You… are aware you’re not dressed, right….?”

“Hm?” Haruko yawned and looked down, then noticed her clothes were at a bare minimum. “Ah! I forgot to put some pants on…”

“That’s what you’re the most concerned about…?” Hunter muttered under his breath, though agreed that some pants would be nice. “You’re not wrong though…”

“Ah, where are they…?” Haruko quickly rushed through her inventory to find something, then selected a pair of sweatpants to cover her bottom. “Better. You didn’t look, did you?”

“Not at all,” Hunter still had his head turned away.

“Why are you still wearing that stupid mask? Take it off, you don’t need that right now!” Haruko reached up to grab the mask. This time, Hunter didn’t resist, and she took it off no problem. “What’s wrong? You didn’t try to stop me.”

“I figured I could take it back you took it off.” Hunter grabbed the mask from her and held it in his hands. “You seem awfully tired, so I didn’t want to make things hard.”

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna put it back on…”

“I won’t.” Hunter walked into the kitchen and started brewing a pot of coffee. He put the mask into his inventory and started to cook an omelette to eat for breakfast. “Want anything to eat?”

“Whatcha got?” Haruko asked as she waited for the coffee.

“Eggs, some breakfast meats, bread, rice. I can cook something for you if you want.”

“Hm… Rice omelette would be nice…” Haruko mused aloud.

“I’ll make one then. There should be some chicken in the fridge, could you get that for me?” Hunter asked her as he prepared the ingredients for the omelette.

“Yeah, sure.” Haruko opened the fridge and dug around, eventually getting the chicken Hunter requested and handing it over to him.

Soon enough, the kitchen was filled with the scent of cooking, spices and sauces blended with the frying of the chicken as Hunter whipped up the eggs and poured them into another pan for the omelettes. He decided to make four omelettes, one for each of them with a side of miso soup and some tempura vegetables. There was a table in the kitchen they could eat at, so Haruko and Hunter set up the table for eating, while Hunter brewed some tea for whoever didn’t want coffee. Hideo and Kyoka were in the kitchen soon after the tea had just about finished brewing. Both yawned and greeted everyone before sitting down at the table, ready to eat. Hunter placed a cup of coffee down for Kyoka, while Haruko handed Hideo a cup of tea. They both accepted the drinks, and then the four sat down at the table and ate. They all said “Itadakimasu” before digging in, as per the tradition in Japan.

“This is amazing!” Everyone but Hunter exclaimed. The latter ate in silence, waiting for everyone’s reaction.

“How did you manage to get the tempura so crispy?!” Hideo questioned.

“This miso soup is perfectly balanced!!” Kyoka noted.

“This omelette is so fluffy, and the chicken tastes great!!” Haruko exclaimed.

“How did you do this?!” All three of the asked him. He looked back at them while he drank his soup.

“I cook for myself a lot. I do some research on cooking and recipes every now and then when I have the time. I haven’t made meals for other people that often, so I don’t really know how well my cooking is…” Hunter shifted in his seat, slightly uncomfortable with the way they were looking at him.

“I guess we can trust you to cook our meals,” Hideo told him as he went back to eating. “The girls can cook, but not the way you do. Hey, maybe we can have cook-off one day! How about it?”

“If they’re up for it, sure,” Hunter replied.

“I’d like to see his cooking beat my burger steaks!” Haruko said competitively.

“Oh yeah? Try matching my Tonkatsu Curry with rice!” Kyoka shot back.

“I don’t really have a signature dish…” Hunter sheepishly told them. “I could try making my Mapo Dofu for you and see how that goes…

“So, cook-off?” Hideo asked one more time.

“Yes!” The girls replied.

“I already said sure,” Hunter casually replied, finishing up his meal. “Isn’t it odd how casual we’re acting considering the fact that we just fought an immortal player and we’re now trapped inside a video game?”

“Yeah… This remind you of SAO, Hunter?” Hideo asked.

“A little bit, yeah.” He replied. “EBO’s gameplay is totally different compared to SAO, obviously. Still… at least we’re all familiar with the system more so than the SAO players were when the death games started. In a way, we have a bit of an advantage.”

“I see… I suppose we do have an edge in this fight… Hopefully, we’re not locked in here for a few years.” Hideo lamented aloud.

“You guys have been keeping up with Nexus Theory’s game update logs, right?” Hunter asked the three.

“A little bit, why?” Haruko answered.

“They’re planning on raising the level caps for the armor. Said they’re gonna boost it all the way up to Level 99, guys. NINETY-NINE. That’s insane!” Hunter told them the news about the future update. “The Level 99 suits are huge! They’re like mech suits, it’s awesome.”

“Mech… suits?” Everyone questioned in unison.

“Well, it’s still in the beta stages, but they’re planning on implementing some kind of mech-like armor into the game somehow. Either that, or they might revise the entirety of the Level 99 concept. One way or another, Level 99 is gonna be a bulkier, heavy-duty armor for some reason.”

“But… why?” Kyoka asked.

“What about getting us free?” Hideo voiced everyone’s current thought.

“They’re working on that thing too. But what they need me to do is gather data on Genm’s abilities and such. Nexus Theory said they’re gonna develop something specifically for me so I can properly counteract Genm and defeat him for sure.” Hunter laid down the details for everyone to hear. “We’re gonna do that by fighting Genm and making sure we don’t die for obvious reasons.”

“Okay… So how many times are we gonna have to fight him?” Haruko asked

“Nexus is saying we gotta keep fighting him until he unleashes all the powers he has. We need to make him bring out his final ace in the hole, and then keep going. They never specified the number of times we needed to kick his ass. They just told me to keep beating him up and gather data on his equipment.” Hunter had picked up his plate and set it in the sink. At this point, everyone was done with their breakfast, so Hunter had decided to clean up for them. “This is certainly gonna be fun, kicking his ass over and over. Like a human punching bag, except it can fight back.”

“Yes, the fighting back part is what concerns me.” Haruko replied to Hunter. “The fact that he’s able to take our attacks without a problem and retaliate almost immediately after is dangerous. If we’re not careful, we’re not gonna be living for long…”

“Well, the game devs can’t exactly do anything without data on all the things he’s got. This really is our only option…” Hunter grit his teeth as he cleaned the dishes, contemplating their next move. Their only hope was to continually beat Genm over and over, until all his tricks had been exhausted and the devs could develop a proper counter to Genm.

A long time was going to be spent here. Perhaps, they would be imprisoned here longer than the SAO survivors were...