Death Game?! Chapter 9

I was taken aback when this stranger started yelling at us. "Well, why not?" I eked out.

"Who would knowingly throw their life away? Especially people as pretty as you!?" He stood back up from his kneeling position. "Why? Why would you do that?" his voice grew more quite.

As if to counter is receding anger, I snapped back, "I don't know what you're talking about! Explain it to us."

Suddenly, something lit up in this man's eyes. "You, you guys said you logged in late at night. What was the time?"

"Ahh, about 5:45 in the evening, why?"

He started mumbling to himself. "They were on the outside. Maybe they know something about it. Maybe they were sent to tell us about the situation..."

"Oi! Answer me already! What are you all so freaked out about?" The scary figure turned back to us with a dark expression. I gulped without realizing it before he began to speak.

"What was it you said? You came home on your bike? Did you see a bunch of ambulances on your way? Like, way, way more than usual?"

"Ehh, now that I think about it, yeah. I almost got ran over by one, which is why my bike broke and I had to walk home. There were a bunch more the rest of the way. I figured there had been some sort of accident. But then I forgot about that when I got home and my sister was yelling at me for being late... Wait, why do you care about what I saw on my way home?" I snapped.

Ignoring me, "Then it really is true..." He turned to Keiko, asking, "And you? I'm assuming you're her sister, so you really didn't notice anything strange all day?"

"What's really true?" I tried cutting in. This man was infuriating. Were all gamers this annoying? Why wouldn't he stop skirting around my question and just answer already?

"Well, no. I used the spare time to finish all my homework and then read a book."

He seemed at a loss for words. For a few minutes. He gulped repeatedly. A few times, he opened his mouth, but shut it again. "I... I really... really... I really..." I was tempted to urge him on, as his halting speech was starting to get on my nerves. "I really don't want to have to be the one that tells you this..." He gulped again.

Then, all in a rush: "This game was a trap for the ten thousand players who logged in so now we're all trapped here with no way to log out or return to the real world and the only way out is to beat the game." He was panting slightly, his eyes unfocused.

It took a minute for what he'd said to finally sink in. I furrowed my eyebrows, not quite getting it, and then—

"NO WAY!" Keiko and I shouted in unison.

The main raised his hand, saying "I swear. I'm not lying. There really is no way out. If there was, I wouldn't be here right now. I have work in an hour. About those ambulances yesterday, they were taking all of us to hospitals. Kayaba said it yesterday, and you just confirmed it. If either of you had turned on a tv, looked at your phone, even a car radio, I'm sure all they were talking about was the «SAO» incident. Or something like that, none of us know anything for sure. We just have to believe because no one has tried taking off our «Nerve Gear» yet.

"Wait, but if they're taking everyone to hospitals, why don't they just take it off?" Keiko asked in a small voice.

"That is, the other thing Kayaba said was that..." he gulped again and pulled at the collar of his shirt. "If anyone tried to take it off, the Nerve Gear will turn into a microwave and fry our brain. And, if we die in here... even once, it'll also fry our brain. Kayaba Akihiko, that bastard turned the first real VRMMO in to a «Death Game». Death here means death in the real world.