EBO: Resume - Chapter 17

July 14th, 2027

Despite holding the key to his downfall for a month now, Satoshi was incapable of unlocking Izanagi Arms. Every algorithm he tried, every attempt to break the innumerable firewalls. It had all failed. The last piece of the puzzle to his complete domination was so close, yet so damn far. It was tedious, irritating. He had everything needed to complete his rule, but the last part wouldn’t cooperate.

“They’ve put a lot of time and effort into this. This really will assure my downfall if it finds its way back into Hunter’s hands.” Satoshi sighed before pulling out a double-stacked Cartridge with a protrusion on the normally-flat bottom of the unit. “Plan Billion will have to be put into effect much sooner than expected.”

He set Izanagi Arms aside and placed the double Cartridge into his terminal, bringing a project file named “ERX LVL-Billion” onto the display of his computer. Behind him, lurking in the shadows, Kairi stared at the screen while contemplating his next move. Executing Satoshi now would lead to everyone’s death, but the mad man would be ejected from the game unscathed while minds were erased. Escaping with Nanaha right now would leave Satoshi vengeful. If he were to at least take Izanagi Arms with him, then he could return it to Hunter and have them duel to the death. But, the problem lay in how he’d get Izanagi Arms back and where he’d meet with Hunter to return it.

Satoshi could go days without sleeping, only stopping his work to eat, drink, or use the restroom. All of those bare essentials for existence were kept to a minimum so that Satoshi could have the greatest amount of time possible without wasting time on such mundane tasks. It would be near impossible to take Izanagi Arms away from Satoshi unless he was wasting time on one of those mundane tasks… Kairi turned to walk away just as Nanaha was entering the room. The two bumped and quickly apologized to each other before Kairi pulled her away, into her room.

“Listen, it’s about time for lunch, right?” Kairi asked her as he closed and locked the door.

“Yeah, why?” Nanaha replied, tilting her head.

“I know how we can get Izanagi back to Hunter and hopefully escape Satoshi.”

“How so?”

“Feed him lots of food, but slip in a little something to make him gassy. When he’s in the bathroom, I’ll grab Izanagi and we’ll meet up with Hunter. I’ll plan out a meeting spot and guide you there while you make lunch. Sound good?” Kairi laid the plan out for her to hear.

“Yeah… I’ll need you to get that ‘special ingredient’ you mentioned first.” Nanaha nodded.

“Will do.” Kairi opened the door and proceeded to leave their base, only for Satoshi to stop him.

“Where are you going?” The so-called god asked.

“Nanaha said she wanted to make something special for lunch. I’m fetching her grocery list for her while she does prep work in the kitchen.” Kairi told the truth.

“Does she really need it?”

“It’s vital to the dish she’s planning to make.”

“What’s the ingredient name? I can just fabricate it.”

“That would defeat the whole point of going shopping for groceries…”

“That’s the point. Spend as little time on the mundane parts of life as possible.”

“But, in the time she’s prepping the ingredients we already have, I can go out and get the secret ingredients and a couple of other treats. I know you’re all about efficiency and whatnot, but can’t you let me enjoy even the simplest things in life?”

“I am the God of this world. If you need anything, I shall simply bless you with what you desire.”

“Yes, rob me of my freedom to explore…”

“Why would you need to explore outside of missions I assign you?”

“To familiarize myself with the layout of the land in person because a map can only tell me so little?”

“Denied. Just tell me the ingredients she need and I shall fabricate them.”

“Do you even know how to fabricate fresh ingredients?”

“You dare question your God?” Satoshi tapped a few keys and brought up Kairi’s connected conscience, hovering over the purge button.

“Just wanting to confirm…”

“I can, and will. Tell me the ingredients and I shall do so.” Satoshi moved his cursor away from the purge button, moving the display over to his tertiary monitor as he continued work on his project.

“Let me confirm the ingredients she needs first.” Kairi turned and headed to the kitchen to consult with Nanaha. “It was a no-go. He’s keeping me stuck inside and having the ingredients fabricated here.”

“Then we can’t get the thing you originally wanted?” Nanaha was chopping up some cabbage.

“Yeah. I told him we’re consulting on ingredients right now, so I’ll research things we can use.” Kairi brought up a screen listing ingredients that would naturally cause an upset stomach when prepared for a meal. The two gathered the list and Kairi returned to Satoshi, sending the self-proclaimed god the list. The ingredients quickly appeared in the air on a silver platter for Kairi to retrieve. The thief thanked him before returning to the kitchen and placing the tray in the kitchen.

“You think we should prepare Fugu for him?” Nanaha asked.

“He’d definitely figure something fishy’s going on.” Kairi scratched the back of his head as Nanaha chuckled.

“Yeah… I may be a sniper, but the precision doesn’t translate 100% to a knife.” She shrugged and continued to prepare the meal: a spicy bean-and-cheese burrito, followed by steak and freshly baked dinner rolls, with a spinach salad on the side and sparkling water. Nanaha personally served it to Satoshi. He said nothing, nodding in acknowledgement of the meal before she returned to the kitchen. “Now we wait.”

Hours passed. Nanaha had made dinner, but Satoshi refused to eat. The meal from earlier was more than enough to go on. Night fell, and Satoshi had decided to sleep for once in weeks. Seeing this opportunity, Kairi seized the Izanagi Arms cartridge, as well as Satoshi’s original Shinigami Dual-Visor; the belt/dual-form weapon he had used to transform into Level 10 in the earlier days of the incident.

“You won’t be needing this anymore, will you?” Kairi thought to himself as he stashed the Dual-Visor in his inventory.

He then hopped onto Satoshi’s computer, entering in the password he had seen Satoshi type in. Fortunately, the password he strung together from brief glances worked, and access was granted. He then looked under the Entity Unit folder, looking for his Picaro Trickster’s data and porting the data over to a high-capacity USB drive. Porting the data for Nanaha’s equipment over to another USB, he found Satoshi’s work-in-progress “ERX” data, and copied its current data build onto yet another USB. When everything was said and done, Kairi locked the computer and crept silently from the desk to Nanaha’s room. The markswoman had already packed her inventory of the items she needed. Spare ammunition, rations, extra changes of clothes, healing items. When the phantom thief opened her door, she nodded and slipped silently through their hideout to the emergency exit. Satoshi had set up several emergency exits in the event that their base was raided and they needed a quick escape. They took the one that lead to the nearest city to them, taking extra care to leave no trace of their escape, and emerged from a shack on the city’s outskirts. What awaited them in said shack was a sign that said “Welcome to Shakariki City” and an address written on a piece of paper…

It was 3 in the morning when Kairi and Nanaha reached the address written on the paper. The two arrived on foot to their destination… another shack. This one was different. A large metallic circle with a glowing crimson ring inside of it awaited them. Another sign posted on the wall in front of them, handwritten, said to step on the circle. With literally no other options, the pair stepped onto the circle at the same time. A flash of red engulfed their vision as a loading screen appeared. The screen read “Fast Travel: Spectral Cave.”

When the loading finished, another flash of red briefly blinded them before they appeared in a cave. There was a wall lined with computer monitors. Ruined cartridges littered the floor. Racks of unfinished Entity storage Units lined the cave walls. No stalactites hung above them, sanded down to a fine stone surface and instead replaced with large lighting fixtures. A single man stood in the cave, wearing a dark red coat and leaning against the desk in front of all the monitors.

“Welcome, you two.” Hunter greeted the pair as he stood up from the desk. “You’re really going through with this? Once he finds out, we’ll have to go all out against him.”

“We’re done. I’m done. He’s used and abused me all this time. Only ever said thanks for all I’ve done twice in my entire time with him. I’m just a pawn to him. Well, let’s see what happens when this pawn of yours leaves you...” Nanaha grit her teeth as she failed to recall any good memories with Satoshi.

“You can claim to be a god, but you can never truly be one. Besides… my faith is determined by who pays more.” Kairi opened his inventory and handed Hunter 5 items.

One: Izanagi Arms. Two: the Shinigami Dual-Visor. Three: Picaro Trickster’s data. Four: all of the data for Nanaha’s equipment. And five: the incomplete ERX build. Hunter took all five presents and placed them all on his desk. He then reached underneath the desk to reveal a briefcase.

“50 million Levs, as promised. Took it from my personal account, but it’s fine. I’ve got plenty to spare.” Hunter handed the case of currency to Kairi. “I’ll have your equipment updated by morning. For now, feel free to stay here. This is a place Genm can’t track. He never knew it existed, and the development team has made sure to keep it that way. That’s why I had to set up that shack and teleport pad, which will now be self-destructing.”

“Where are we supposed to stay? I don’t see any beds or rooms…” Nanaha investigated her surroundings, stepping over the littered cartridges with care.

“Over here.” Hunter pointed to a wall that glitched away to reveal a large bed that could easily fit three people and two separate bathrooms, one on each side. “It’s the guest room I have in case things like this happen.”

“You just… have this here?” Kairi peered curiously at the hidden room.

“Yeah. I have my own room here, but that’s not the point. Stay here until I find a place for you two to settle down while avoiding Genm’s constant surveillance.” Hunter gestured for the two to enter the room. “And don’t have sex in the bed, please. I’ll hear it, and you’ll ruin the sheets. I don’t want to clean up the aftermath of that kind of shit in a room that’ll most likely never see use after you two are gone.”

“You think I seduce every woman I see, Specter?” Kairi scoffed, actually kind of offended.

“No, but I just wanted to warn you. If you are going to smash, do it in the shower. Clean yourselves up afterwards and drown the noise out with the showerhead. This spot uses a water filtration system and draws from the surrounding ocean if needed.” Hunter then sat down at the desk and began analyzing the data on the three USBs on his array of monitors. His first mission was to unlock the Picaro Trickster’s Level 99 form.

“Well, at least you listed an option for masquerading the deed. I think I’m just gonna sleep like a normal person. Just make sure the Level 99 works, and make sure Nanaha gets something nice. Fix her up something new if you have to.” Kairi entered the guest room and swapped out his current outfit for a pair of pajamas bottoms and a t-shirt.

“Since when did you care so much for me…?” Nanaha inquired, head tilted as she entered the room as well.

“Since your little breakdown.” Kairi stretched and yawned before sitting at the edge of the bed. “You’ve had it rough. But I’m here for you. Kuroto couldn’t be bothered to give you the attention you deserve, so I’ll spoil you.”

“T-thanks…” Nanaha sat down next to him, swapping her outfit for an extremely oversized sweater that was essentially standing in for a dress, shyly leaning against his arm and hugging it as she remembered when she let her true feelings flow for the first time.

“Anything for you, darling.” He leaned in to kiss her on the forehead, smiling softly.

Before Hunter had to see anything else, the cave wall regenerated and hid the two. He chuckled as he saw the suave phantom thief work his charm on the sniper, but continued to decode and decrypt the data he was given. The automated programs were running every possible algorithm to crack the encryption, which would take time as it worked on all three drives simultaneously. In the meantime, he looked at the Dual-Visor Kairi had brought, then back to the returned Izanagi Arms. His eyes finally fell on a smaller case, the case he had received from Hatena Technical Development’s Mythra. Inside this case rested the Proto Knight Arms cartridges and his own Zero Specter Origins cartridge.

“Zero Specter holds the nullify ability… What if I modified a belt to hold the same ability as a backup…?” Hunter mused internally as he opened the case to reveal the five Level 0 units in his possession. “Well, if Zero Specter goes down, then I’d better have a backup…”

He picked up the unit in question in one hand and the Dual-Visor in the other. Holding them both in front of his face, Hunter shifted his focus to the monitors. Nothing had finished decrypting yet. There would be plenty of time to modify this Dual-Visor. The weapon and belt Genm once wielded would be turned against him, in the absolute worst-case scenario.

As the files continued to decode, Hunter had completely dismantled the Dual-Visor and reduced it to its original components. Circuit boards, wires, heat sinks, processors, an unnecessarily-complicated power source, and weapon parts lay in front of Hunter, all resting on the original shell of the three-form item with the screws separated and stored in specific bowls. Step one was to remove all the weapon components. This would be a Driver, a belt to transform with only. Next, the power source. Hunter scrapped it for its parts immediately and began designing a simpler, more effective energy supply. He’d have to rewire the motherboard and circuits, calibrate specifically for transformation sequences as well as install a copy of Zero Specter’s negate ability. With the new power source, Hunter began the rewiring process, soldering and fusing together current wires with new ones.

Finally connected the motherboard to the power, Hunter looked up to see the Picaro Trickster data, fully decrypted and ready to access. The files contained within were also complicated for no reason. Taking a break from the new Driver, Hunter began to rewrite the coding of the Gear Dual unit, loading it into the terminal and typing up a storm. It took time, but the Picaro Trickster data was essentially cut in half and the Level 99 form was unlocked as a result. It seemed the clustered, unneeded information was acting as the locking mechanism for the apex of the Gear Dual’s power.

With the changes saved to the cartridge, Hunter removed the item and set it aside to hand to Kairi in the morning as he returned to work on the new belt. He loaded Zero Specter into a spare terminal that was connected to both his computers and the incomplete Driver, copying the data that made up the Nullify ability and loading it onto the motherboard. Sifting through once more, Hunter then found a brand new section of code previously unseen. It seemed to deal with Izanagi Arms, and acted as the unlocking mechanism to the Level 100’s full potential. This would most definitely be needed to make the belt work, so he copied the code to the belt and added onto it, programming it to activate at the press of a button rather than actively unlock.

Another file was freed from its firewalls. The ERX data had been laid bare for Hunter to see, and it was a truly troublesome sight. ERX was an acronym, standing for Eternal Reaper eXtreme. The LVL-Billion portion of the file name indeed indicated a Level designation of one billion, exponentially higher than Izanagi Arms’ Level 100. From what Hunter could fathom from its incomplete state, it was designed to allow Satoshi to actively and passively rewrite the fabric of the game without the need to access a terminal. Eternal Reaper X was designed to freely create, destroy, and modify the virtual reality with a snap of Satoshi’s fingers. It also possessed an ability labelled “Sub-Games”, with the unfinished data suggesting that the unit would be capable of creating a game inside this game, which would assist in Satoshi’s meddling of EBO’s very foundations.

“So that’s his end goal…? He claims to be a god now, but with this thing finished… he really will be a god…” Hunter muttered as he scanned the data for anything else.

ERX seemed to retain its Pause and Restart abilities, as well as incorporate an immunity to Pause should it be used against Satoshi. It lacked weapons of its own, but that wouldn’t matter if Satoshi made a “Sub-Game” that allowed him to create entirely new weapons or generate pre-existing ones. The user would be encased in a heavy-duty, mech-like armor that they could freely eject out of should the extra armor become unwieldy, while still retaining the Level Billion parameters. Truly, this form would be god-like if it were finished.

“I need to kill him… Before any of this can be completed… before anyone else dies… I’ll end his life with my own hands…” Hunter vowed as he closed the files and returned to work on his new Driver, working with much more focus and vigor than earlier.

The implementation of Zero Specter’s Nullify ability and Izanagi Arms compatibility was successful. All that remained now was to program finisher attacks into the belt, create a form using the new data and belt, synchronize it to Hunter’s previous equipment for weapons and additional abilities, and then testing. Having been through all these steps previously for individual Entities, it would be relatively easy. However, the platform he worked on was not a Cartridge, but a Driver. The programming would have to be altered to better suit the medium, but it would be relatively similar in the end.

Night passed. Morning dawned. All night long, Hunter had switched between analyzing the data and creating his backup Driver. In the end, all he could do for Nanaha was add immunity to Pause to her Succubus unit and Artemis unit. The Level couldn’t be further enhanced, and he’d have to go hunting for a new Entity to create an entirely new item for her. What he wasn’t looking forward to were the pacts he’d have to make with higher-level succubi to obtain their data. He still faintly remembered the deal he made with Amphitrite near the beginning of this ordeal, and he could feel his cheeks heat up at the embarrassment he felt throughout the trip and back at his office afterwards. A godly NPC already had him in debt. He didn’t need to be in debut to a group of succubi queens as well. Besides… he had Haruko. She was all he needed, and all he wanted. No other woman could compete with Haruko. Any girl who had stood on the same level as her were either lost to the depths of time, lost to the death game, or lost to vanity. His feelings for her were unbreakable, but another thought creeped into his mind…

Did Kairi have the same type of love for Nanaha that Hunter held for Haruko? Did the phantom thief truly, honestly love the markswoman for who she was? Or was this just a surface-level attachment? Was Kairi willing to lay his life down for Nanaha? Was he willing to spend the rest of his time alive with her? Or would he leave her for the next girl who had a better body and “better personality?” Though, it’d be hard to leave Nanaha. From what Hunter had seen earlier, she certainly had a voluptuous figure that would be difficult to separate. Compared to Haruko, Nanaha definitely had the bigger curves. But that didn’t matter. Hunter had held shallow attractions for only one girl, and that girl was a vain woman who only crave fame with whoever held the strongest power at the time. That was a heartache and a mistake...

“What was I doing again…?” Hunter shook his head to clear his thoughts.

“Giving Nanaha an upgrade?” Kairi’s smooth, baritone voice rang from behind Hunter. The tired genius jumped a bit, then turned around.

“Right… Listen, Nanaha’s Succubus unit? It’s maxed out, potential-wise. I’d have to find a stronger succubus to give her a proper power boost. All I could do was add Pause immunity to her equipment.” Hunter shrugged and handed him the cartridges she owned. “As for your Level 99, it’s unlocked, and I’ve tossed in Pause immunity as well.”

“Thanks…” Kairi accepted the items, stuffing them into his pants pocket.

“Before anything else…” Hunter got up and stretched, having spent all night sitting in his chair. “Do you really love her?”

“Hm? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“There’s no hidden depth to what I just asked. Do you truly love her?”

“It’s… complicated, to say the least. Hearing all the things she’s been through, I just can’t help but feel bad. But at the same time, I really want to make her happy. Honestly, truthfully happy. No hiding behind a mask. Just a real smile from her.”

“And you’ll do whatever it takes?”

“Yeah… She doesn’t seem to get much love from her family. I mean, she did cause an accident, but she had no ill will. It was just another ‘wrong place, wrong time’ scenarios, you know? Her family doesn’t seem to like her after the mess-up, but it was that accident that lead her to meet Kuroto. And that eventually lead her to meet me…”

“That so?” Hunter grabbed the Picaro Trickster off the table, handing it to Kairi. “Then take this, and guard her life with yours. Use this power to help me get you safely out of this game, so you can meet in reality and shower her in all your love and affection. Like you said last night, ‘spoil her’ with your love. Hold her tight. And don’t let go. Trust me.”

“Funny, coming from the shut-in genius who doesn’t seem to sleep.” Kairi accepted Picaro Trickster once more, smiling.

“Yeah, well… I’ve had a history of my own. Three girlfriends in the past. None of them worked out. Because I was too dense, too late, too heartbroken to care. From a guy who’s had a rough love life, it means a lot.” Hunter chuckled, rubbing the bags under his eyes.

“Damn, man. Well…” Kairi held up his empty hand for a handshake. “Here’s to a bright love life for the both of us.”

“Yeah…” Hunter shook his hand before heading to the kitchen. “I’ll make breakfast. I’m feeling pretty hungry after a long night of decrypting, scanning, and reworking.”

“The hell were you up all night for?” Kairi entered the cave’s kitchen, which held a fridge, stove top, and several stalagmite cupboards.

“Tinkering with that Dual-Visor you brought me. If Satoshi isn’t going to use it anymore, might as well turn it against him.” Hunter opened the fridge, extracting several eggs and a loaf of bread before closing it and turning to the stove.

“What were you doing with it?”

“Making the Driver part work for me. Took out all its weapons systems though. And he had a power core that was stupid complicated.” Eggs were cracked and bread sliced. Hunter cut a hole into each slice of bread he hacked off, toasting the bread off in the pan on both sides before cracking a single egg into the hole.

“Seriously? Figured he’d go the function over form, simple route.” Kairi decided to brew a fresh pot of coffee, looking through the cupboards for the beans.

“As I figured, he’s terrible. The core worked, but it was obviously intended for supporting the weapon systems rather than for transformation. I streamlined and enhanced the power output, focusing solely on transformation and a couple of extra tidbits.” Hunter flipped the bread to allow the egg to cook on both sides.

“So he’s a mess with both his existence and his work?”

“More or less.” Kairi shrugged as he poured them both a cup of the freshly-brewed coffee. Nanaha trudged into the kitchen, wiping the sleep from her eyes. The scent of breakfast had pulled her from the bed to a seat in the kitchen. “Morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

“M-morning…” She yawned her reply.

“Breakfast will be ready soon. Then I have to go hunting for strong succubi…” Hunter removed the egg in a nest from the pan to a plate before adding a pad of butter into the pan again and toasting more bread.

“Why’s that?” Nanaha took the cup of coffee Kairi placed in front of her and sipped carefully.

“You, miss, are in dire need of an upgrade. And stronger succubi are the only way I can get you one.”