EBO: Resume - Chapter 16

June 1st, 2027

Kairi and Hunter stood face-to-face in an alley, both transformed. The gilded phantom thief held a sub-machine gun in both hands as Hunter held a pair of revolvers in his. They stared each other down, circling one another.

“Don’t you think this is a bit unfair? I’m at a pretty weak level relative to yours.” Hunter dryly noted, gripping his revolvers tightly.

“That’s not on me, Hunter. You’re smart, I’m sure you could’ve made something to compensate.” Kairi replied, nonchalantly twirling his guns.

“I was on my way to pick up some materials to make that compensated unit, but you interrupted. Level 0-3 is the best I can manage at the moment.” Hunter shrugged before firing his Revolver.

Kairi fired off a burst of bullets to counter, knocking Hunter’s round off course as the other two flew at Hunter, who boosted into the air via a jet of flames from his boots. From above, three more magnum rounds rained down on Kairi, who dashed out of the way with his Level 50’s superior speed and fire another three-round burst. The bullets collided in mid-air yet again as the two came face-to-face, guns pointed at each other’s hearts.

“As expected of the Crimson Specter...” Kairi scoffed, impressed.

“Seems like you’re relying on your Level 50 a bit too much. I can tell you’re holding back. Level 50’s are far faster and stronger. If you wanted to, you could’ve speed-blitzed me and swiped another unit of mine.” Hunter retorted.

“This form isn’t the speedster form. If I wanted a speed blitz, I would’ve switched to my Silver Phantom form and blasted you with the energy pistols.” Kairi fired back.

“Mhm... Take your shot then.” Hunter egged on his enemy, who pulled the trigger without remorse. He grunted before falling over, a red dot over his chest where the bullet entered.

“Mission complete.” Kairi fired a couple more bullets, shooting Hunter’s limbs before walking away.

A couple of hours later, Hunter woke up in the alley with a sigh. He had modified Ifrit’s defensive capacity to withstand the damage of the bullets from Kairi’s weapons before heading out. He pulled a healing syringe from his inventory and injected it in his chest, healing that wound as his HP recovered.

“I hate Satoshi...” Hunter muttered as he got up, the healing item taking care of his limb wounds. “Time to pay a visit to the Technical Development headquarters...”

He walked to the train station, taking the next train to Hatena City, the game’s capital city and home of the game’s Factions. Each Faction had either a representative office in the city, or were based the city itself. The Civil Government faction had set up a capitol building here to conduct pseudo-political affairs. The Military Police Faction was also headquartered in this area, where the highest-ranking officers gathered. Perhaps the only faction that didn’t have their headquarters in this area were the Monster Hunter Faction. Instead they were have various hunting outposts for their nomadic lifestyle. There was a larger outpost set up here as their representative building, but nothing more.

Skyscrapers lined the streets of Hatena City. In the center of it all was the Hatena Capitol Building, where the game’s democratic voting seminars took place. Despite its rather small stature compared to its surroundings, the Capitol Building was significantly bigger on the inside. Using innovations made by the Technical Development teams only a few blocks down the street, the Capitol Building can house a room large enough to hold the majority of EBO’s active player-base with plenty of wiggle room and organized seating. Hunter passed by it like it was just any old building. He had never cared for politics, and his position as an active Beta Tester in the game granted him direct council with the Developers at every meeting concerning an upcoming, in-development feature.

Just a few more blocks, and he’d finally reach the Technical Development Headquarters. This titanic complex was the highest series of skyscrapers in the city, with the central building being 800 meters (2624.67 feet) tall. The surrounding towers were set up in an octagonal formation, each tower standing at 750 meters (2460.63 feet) tall, linked by walls spanning 4 miles in length. Within each wall were a series of horizontal, maglev elevators and tram systems to maneuver between each building. Similar modes of transportation linked the surrounding walls and towers to the central tower. Should a player need to move from one tower directly to another in a non-linear fashion, a teleportation system linked the entirety of this massive complex together. While the teleportation system allows a player to access every tower in the Technical Development Headquarters, the walls with their horizontal elevators and trams did have various restaurants, cafes, bistros, bars, bakeries, and various other eateries to maximize the amount of workspace in the main towers.

“Never ceases to amaze me, no matter how many times I come here.” Hunter murmured to himself, staring at the technological and architectural marvel.

While the towers’ windows appeared to be completely transparent, some were completely blacked out. Each window was coated with nanites, which could be programmed to project whatever image is desired at the moment. It may reflect the current environment in the office adjacent to it, or it project the image of a clean, empty office, or it may not project	an image at all, instead simply displaying a simple blackened panel. As Hunter approached the building, the security gate NPC looked up and pressed a button, opening the door for him right away.

“First time here since the incident... Let’s see if they can find a counterbalance to Level 0 for the time being...” He spoke to himself yet again as he entered Hatena Technical Development’s Tower 1, taking the elevators up and into the Central Tower floor 80. Floors 80 was specifically dedicated to research on Level 0 units, specifically on how to create them. The researchers there held... mixed opinions concerning Hunter’s arrival.

“What are you doing here?” A masculine researcher removed his protective visor and glared daggers at Hunter.

“Now now, Noel. Don’t let your jealousy get the best of you.” His fellow scientist lightly pat him on the shoulder, a motherly tone coming from behind her visor. “Apologies for his rudeness. What can we help you out with, Crimson Specter?”

“Does no one use the Avatar ...?” Hunter gestured towards the crimson nametag above his head. “Just call me Hunter, it’s fine.”

“Sorry, formalities first.” The female scientist giggled softly before bowing. “I’m Mythra, one of the head Level 0 researchers. How can we help?”

“N-no need to ...” Hunter gestured for Mythra to raise her head, embarrassed by the level of formality she used for him. “I’m just a mercenary, not royalty...”

“A bloody mercenary and a Beta Tester...” Noel grumbled as he returned to work on the Level 0 cartridge sitting in front of him.

“Let‘s speak in my office.” Mythra removed her visor and helmet, revealing wavy, blonde hair and beautiful, amber eyes. Her smile was warm and soothing, simply exuding a maternal aura.

“Sure.” Hunter followed her to a window-side office, closing the door behind them as Mythra poured them a cup of coffee for the two of them, placing them on her desk with a container of creamer and a jar of sugar cubes. “Thank you.”

“So, what brings you to the HTD?” Mythra asked, placing a few sugar cubes and pouring creamer into her cup. Hunter placed double the amount of sugar and the same amount of creamer into his.

“I need something for my personal Level 0 unit.” He reached into his coat pocket and fished out his Zero Specter unit, placing it neatly on the desk for her to inspect.

“Interesting... Personal Level 0? I suppose being a Beta Tester has its benefits.” She picked up the unit and looked it over. “May I read the coding?”

“It’s incredibly complex, more than anything I’ve ever seen. I’m more worried that your terminal might be corrupted...”

“Why would you think something like that would occur?”

“Zero Specter there has the ability to negate anything it makes contact with. It’s stopped bullets, closed gaps between enemies in fights, and avoided Genm’s Pause abilities. Though, it only lasted a few seconds on its own...” Hunter scratched the back of his head.

“If that’s the case, how could it corrupt the terminal?”

“Might negate the existence of your terminal and erase it entirely.” He shrugged, stirring his coffee before taking a sip.

“Do you not have control over this negate ability?” She stared intently at the unit’s label.

“I mean, I do when I use it. But I’m not sure what happens if other people use it. Never had other people use it.” Hunter shrugged again.

“Then, why don’t you place the unit into the terminal? It should respond to you, after all.” Mythra handed Zero Specter back to him.

“If you don’t me watching over your shoulder, sure.” Hunter got up, taking the unit and inserting it into the terminal, walking around to stand behind Mythra as they both observed the internal coding of the unit. “Crazy right?”

“This is amazing!” Mythra leaned closer towards the screen, eyes in awe of how much data was there. “Pure, unadulterated Level 0 data... Do you mind if we study this?! This would prove useful in creating additional Level 0 Entity Units! If we can study this data, we’ll provide you compensation! An archaeological expedition from a few weeks ago yielded a quartet of ancient units we’ve identified as the ‘Proto Knight Arms’ set! If we can understand those four units and your Level 0 unit, we’ll allow you to borrow the Proto Knight Arms until you have what you need!”

“Uh... Sure? Why are you guys making Level 0 units anyway? A Level 0 Change-type isn’t the most combat-effective unit.” Hunter looked at her, a little confused.

“If we can analyze Level 0 Augment-types and Change-types, we’ll have better knowledge on how to provide more powerful abilities to currently existing units! Besides, science and research always strive for possibility, right?” Mythra turned around and looked him in the eye, amber staring at crimson, smile to frown.

“There are some places Science shouldn’t reach for. Sometimes, it’s too dangerous. Other times, it’s just... not worth the time and effort. This is an example of the latter.” Hunter replied to her, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Aww, no adventurous side to the mysterious Crimson Specter?” She teased, smiling and giggling.

“Oh, ha ha.” Hunter responded dryly. “In all seriousness, how long do I have to wait for you to analyze the data before I can borrow those Proto Knight Arms?”

“Copying the data now would be the most efficient method. That should only take an hour.” Mythra turned back to her computer and tapped away, commencing the copying sequence. “In the meantime, I’ll share the data we’ve acquired from the Proto Knight Arms with you. If you brought a portable terminal of your own, we can copy the data over to your systems for you to analyze.”

“And that should take?”

“1 hour for each unit... We’re looking at a grand total of 5 hours. Unless you can simultaneously copy up to 4 units, which would drop it down to 2 hours, best-case scenario. Hope you’ve got a way to pass the time. We’re gonna be here for a while.” She observed Hunter pull his portable terminal from his inventory, quickly setting up the device and its laptop interface. “I’ll go get the units.”

He nodded in response as he looked at Zero Specter curiously, Mythra leaving the office to retrieve the set of Entities. Perhaps... he could negate the time needed to copy? But the data might come out corrupted... If that was the case, couldn’t the negation be used on the corruption? However, that could also lead to missing chunks of data... The safest option was to let each unit copy over accordingly, which meant that the 2-hour option was going to be the route chosen. Reaching into his inventory once more, Hunter brought out an extension for the Cartridge terminal, increasing its copying and storage capacity to the 4 slots needed to expedite the process. However, there was no guarantee the Proto Knight Arms series would feature nearly-identical data, meaning the four different units would copy at different and raise the waiting time back to 5 hours, worst case.

“Ready?” Mythra returned, holding a small briefcase in her hands.

“Yep. You said this would be 2 hours at best, right?”

“Correct. 5 hours at the worst.” She set the case down on her desk, opening and rotating it so that Hunter could see its contents.

“Let’s load them up and see what happens.”

He picked up a dark red rock with a formation akin to the screen on an Entity Cartridge. The letters”‘PPA” were engraved on the rock as an indication to its identity, seemingly done with a scorching sword slashing through the material. When he loaded the item into the terminal, the data appeared for him to see. Several options appeared, but Hunter scrolled through them all and clicked the “Copy” command, setting the laptop to begin copying the code in front of his eyes. Immediately, he plugged the other three rocks into the terminal, one by one, showing the bundle of data within each stone. Fortunately for him, some of the data was shared amongst the quartet of units, so the copying process would be cut short. The estimated time of completion with all four units loaded totalled 3 hours and 30 minutes. Added to the Zero Specter’s remaining duration of 45 minutes, and the grand total of time spent would be 4 hours and 15 minutes.

“Well, since we’ve got the time, I’d like to discuss your reasons for being here.” Mythra pressed a button under her desk, causing the door to automatically close and reprogramming the window to display a blank office. “Why did you come here, specifically?”

“Change-type Level 0 units are extremely lacking concerning Defensive Capacity. They’ve got barely any armor, meaning that they’ll only last for a brief hand-to-hand scuffle, at best. However, Augment-type Level 0s are completely different. Since they don’t have to worry about providing the base suit, they can focus on other parameters. Like these Proto Knight Arms, for instance. Their elemental manipulation feature is off the charts, on par with something like Level 50!”

“But... don’t you have something more powerful? I heard through one of the Beta Testers helping here that you had a Level 100 unit. One of two in the entire game. The other Level 100 doesn’t compare to yours, though.” Mythra tilted her head, curious. “Why not use that unit?”

“I uh... lost it.” Hunter rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, avoiding eye contact with the lead researcher.

“What!? How could you lose something that important?!” She gasped, shocked that the legendary Player had lost such a valuable item.

“It’s not like I wanted to. Kur- er... Genm. His kill switch is much worse than we thought. He lied about defeating him to release the people. If anyone manages to defeat him, the game will automatically log him out, and the rest of us will be purged with the Data Core.”

“That’s awful...! But... aren’t there any exceptions to that rule? And why is that relevant at the moment?”

“There is an exception. And that’s me. I’m the Joker in his deck. I have skills that parallel his own in coding. His kill switch has one glaring weak point, and it’s linked to me. He hired a thief to steal my Level 100 unit so that he can patch up that weak point, but there’s a problem for him.” Hunter took a sip of the coffee that he hadn’t finished.

“And that is?” Mythra took a drink of her beverage as well.

“My Level 100 has an active lock. It’s been heavily secured by Nexus Theory themselves. No one can use it, at all. Even I couldn’t, at first.”

“But... you were reported using it on two separate occasions. How did you- Ohhhh...” She dragged the “Oh” as she came to her conclusion. “Zero Specter has negation. Your Level 100 has an active lock and intense security. The negation is used to disable all of that security so you can use it in combat. Very clever, Nexus Theory. Very clever indeed.”

“Right? And because of that, K-... Genm can’t access the unit to patch up his Achilles heel. Even if he tried to disable the firewalls, the unit is programmed to loosen his grip on the Data Core, slowly but surely. I’ve looked into that unit’s data. There’s a hidden program in there that’s designed to scan and remove Genm’s control over the Data Core.”

“You guys are really going all out... Good to hear.” Mythra gave Hunter yet another warm smile. “At this rate, you’ll be just like Kirito himself.”

“The next Kirito, huh?” Hunter stared solemnly at the window. “I guess everything did stem from SAO... He did this because he wanted to relive his days in Laughing Coffin. I’m doing this to stop him, again.”

“Again? Laughing Coffin? How involved with SAO-”

“We’re survivors, Genm and I. I’ve been a Beta Tester long before EBO. I was in the SAO Closed Beta. Genm wasn’t, but he was in the PK Guild Laughing Coffin. The thrill of the kill, going unpunished in reality. That’s why he does it. I’ve fought with him in the past. I fight him now. Will I continue to fight him in the future? Or will he leave a legacy of evil for me to get rid of?” He mused, still staring out the window.

“Better to end the cycle here then, right?” Mythra finished off her coffee.

“Indeed. But... I have heard that Genm is a son of the Kuroto family. They’re a very rich family, and they have two sons. Genm, and his older brother Soichi. Fun fact, Genm’s real name is Satoshi.”

“Satoshi Kuroto...? Is that why you stuttered twice when you referred to him?”

“Yes... why you specifically remembered that I stuttered twice is a little odd, but good attention to detail.” Hunter drank his coffee with furrowed brows.

“It comes in handy when your line of work requires extreme precision and attention to detail.” Mythra shrugged, refilling her coffee mug.

“Fair enough.”

“So... Satoshi, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Is your screen name your real name?”

“Uh, pretty much. My legal name is technically Haruto, but an overseas friend of mine calls me Hunter, and it’s stuck ever since.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’m actually more used to being called Hunter than Haruto, so if someone ever actually refers to me by that name, I get very nervous and paranoid.”

“Weird how your name is a nickname from an overseas friend.”

“Yeah. And then her name’s Haruko... So Haruto and Haruko... That’s not gonna be confusing at all...” Hunter thought out loud.

“Her? A significant other?” Mythra tilted her head with innocent curiosity.

“Uh... more or less. I mean, it was the one date, but I did confess to her...” Hunter continued his rambling. “We’ve been living together for months, but not out of romantic interest. Rather, situational circumstances have made it more convenient for her to stay at my offices, especially with her other two companions also staying in my offices...”

“You’re thinking out loud, dear.”

“Huh?” Hunter looked up. Realizing he had broadcast his thoughts, his eyes went wide and his face flushed. “O-oh. Wait, dear?”

“Forgive me. My co-workers have described me as having a maternal aura. I’m the ‘mom’ of the group, according to them.” As if to further the connection, she gave him yet another motherly smile.

“I can see it...” Hunter muttered. “N-not that that’s a bad thing. It’s certainly good to have such a caring and forgiving friend such as yourself.”

“You’re a bit on the awkward side, aren’t you?” She giggled at his response, looking over to her computer. “In any case, we’ve still got several hours ahead of us. Perhaps you’d like to talk about her?”

“Haruko?”

“Is that her name?”

“Mhm.”

“Haruko...” She switched to a new window, opening a collection of player files and looking up Haruko. “Ah, former mercenary specializing in bodyguard detail. Asked to join the Hatena Military Police for her skill and interesting code of conduct. Immediately joined up and passed the academy with flying colors. She’s become especially popular with bodyguard details, despite enrolling in the Security Force division.”

“Hm... So she used to operate like me in the past... Where did you find that information?”

“Being a high-level researcher, I have access to the majority of player profiles for research purposes.”

“What would you need those for?”

“The units people acquire from their daily enemy hunting or from purchases. We need to keep tabs on those. If we don’t, we won’t know who has what and we won’t be able to sufficiently manage the data of the units distributed. It also gives us ideas as to what abilities we want to put into the next big project.”

“Huh... alright...”

“Anyways... what’s your relationship with miss Haruko?”

“Close allies... Although, I suppose you could say I’m dating her... It was just that one sushi place though. Shouldn’t have introduced them to alcohol...”

“Alcohol? H-how old are you, Hunter?”

“19 now.”

“Just under the legal drinking age, hm?”

“Exposure through sake and Asahi Super Dry. Liquor here is real easy to drink.” Hunter shrugged.

“Hm... A strong, silent lone wolf who drinks alcohol and knows his way around this world’s equipment.”

“Strong? I guess. Silent? Yes. Lone wolf? Not anymore. My strength isn’t real, it’s just know-how and my ability to adapt. If a person tried hard enough, they could take my equipment and use it as their own as good as me. Hell, maybe even better than me.”

“You sell yourself short, Specter. You have truly amazing skills. Even if you aren’t the best person in the world, you still strive to defeat evil. That’s all that matters, Hunter.”

“Is it really?”

“If you can stop Genm’s plans, you’ll be a hero to thousands.” Mythra crossed her arms.

“And what happens... after that? I go back to being a regular guy?”

“With your intellect, Hunter, I’m sure you’ll find ways to innovate the world outside of this game.”