The game progressed pretty standard. He was introduced to the Literature Club and its four members: clumsy childhood friend Sayori, timid long-haired Yuri, junior tsundere Natsuki (who had made cupcakes which he unfortunately could not actually eat) and lastly, mature Monika, the club president. Under light peer pressure, he joined the club. He was semi-forced to write a poem which was a minigame. Several words were written in a notebook and it looked like he had to select the ones he liked..

At the bottom he saw three little chibis of Yuri, Natsuki and Sayori. 1/20 was displayed as well. A helpful message said that 'something good might happen' if he picked the right words.

"Can you see them, Asuna?" He asked.

[Yeah.]

"You think selecting different words will change the relationship with the girls?"

[Most likely.]

He selected 'efficacious'.

The Yuri-chibi jumped up.

Like he had thought. Yuri had a preference for complicated words and horror themes. Natsuki probably had a preference for anime, food and video games and Sayori would like words like 'love' and 'adventure'.

"Strange," he said.

[No Monika, yeah I've noticed,] Asuna said.

"Why introduce a character without a romance route in a dating sim?"

[This is not a dating sim, Kirito. Don't be fooled. Dozens of people have died already.]

"Right. But who should I pick?"

[I don't think it matters.]

"You're right." He would probably have to play all the routes anyway. "Let's go with Yuri this time."

He picked another word that looked complicated which caused Yuri-chibi to jump up again.

Kirito continued to operate the menu. He managed to pick Yuri most of the time, but sometimes the game surprised him. 'Scars' and 'Tragedy' for example were Sayori words. Shouldn't this be related to Yuri's horror preference? He never stumbled across any Natsuki words however.

A new day started. The game skipped the walk to the school and immediately dropped him in the clubroom. Monika suggested they exchange their poems. It was still very strange. This couldn't be her only purpose in this game.

Unless of course…

Maybe if he divided the words equally among the other three girls he would eventually end up with Monika. But that would be a very strange move from the developers.

Best to try it out after his Yuri playthrough.

A menu came up. He could select who to show his poem to first.

Obviously, he picked Yuri.

Apparently his poem hadn't actually been written since he had to hand her an empty paper. She 'read' it and said she really liked his style, although it was lacking a bit in experience.

He chuckled. Clearly, the writer of this game hadn't gone through the trouble of actually writing different poems for the player.

Yui started discussing his imaginary poem while Kirito tried to stay serious. She was praising a poem that didn't exist. It was so obviously fake he couldn't help but laugh.

Dan Salvato had however written real poems for the characters.

Yuri handed him a poem titled: 'Ghost Under the Light.'

"Yui, can you record this? We might need it later."

[On it.]

He read it through. It was a short poem about someone standing under a streetlight. The last line read:

The light flickers.

I flicker back.

It wasn't half bad. There was lots of visual language in the poem.

His character told Yuri he liked the poem, which was actually pretty accurate.

She explained how the poem wasn't about a ghost it all, but rather a symbolic meaning. He didn't really understand much of it. If she wanted to say something, why not just say it explicitly? Why go through the trouble of making things vague?

His character said she had a nice handwriting and she blushed at that.

They were laying it on a bit thick. Of course, he had picked the Yuri route, but to make her fall in love with him in five minutes was a bit forced.

He moved to Monika next. She showed him a poem called: 'Hole in the Wall.'

It was a strange poem. It described someone looking through a hole. The last lines in particular stuck with him.

A hole of infinite choices.

I realize now, that I wasn't looking in.

I was looking out.

And he, on the other side, was looking in.

A similar theme to Yuri it seemed. The light flickers, I flicker back; I look into the hole, someone on the other side looks back.

Only this disturbed him more.

[She's talking about you, Kazuto,] Asuna said.

"What do you mean?"

[She's been making jokes that break the fourth wall before. This is the fourth wall. The hole is your connection to the game.]

"Right. So I'm on 'the other side' looking back at her? That makes sense."

[And the infinite possibilities refers to the real world with infinite choices.]

"That's a fun little joke," he said. Monika had indeed been making little references like 'don't forget to save your game' that indicated she knew this was a game.

[It's weird. She's not talking about your character, but the you lying in the hospital.]

"Not really. This is just a joke. These lines were written before I entered. If you would lie in that hospital bed, the exact same lines would show."

[But some people might forget about that and believe she is actually talking to you personally.]

"She's an NPC, nothing more. She can't do any complicated actions, only pre-programmed ones. There's no way she can adapt well enough to individual players to have an effect like that. Besides, she doesn't even have a playable route."

[Just be careful.]

"Okay."

He showed his 'poem' to Sayori next.

Sayori liked his poem as well. Her own poem was called: 'Dear Sunshine'. It was a cute poem about the sun which asked her to come out and play and wish away a rainy day.

If it wasn't for you, I could sleep forever.

But I'm not mad.

I want breakfast.

After some prying, she admitted to quickly making it in the morning. His character made a reference to her being an airhead.

Lastly, he showed his poem to Natsuki. She bluntly said his 'poem' was bad. Basically it wasn't cute enough for her taste, like his character suggested. With great reluctance, she showed him her own poem. It was called: 'Eagles Can Fly'.

It was, as he had expected, a cute poem about animals with a rhyme scheme that was slightly inconsistent.

Eagles can fly

Humans can try

But that's about it

It wasn't a bad poem. But it didn't really seem to carry much meaning. Either that, or he was completely missing it.

[It's about giving up,] Asuna said.

"Huh?"

[Isn't it obvious? Humans can't fly like eagles or swim like fish. You can't overcome certain limits.]

"But… we can. Just get in an airplane or a submarine. The thing that makes us human is that we don't have limits. We're overcoming our physical limitations with technical solutions every day."

[It's a poem, Kirito-kun. It's about giving up when you realise you can't overcome a certain barrier. Accepting defeat rather than fighting a hopeless battle.]

"Right."

Natsuki and Yuri exchanged their poems as well.

They both had a strained expression when reading them.

"It's uhm… cute," Yuri said.

"Hmph," Natsuki pouted. "You completely missed the symbolism. It's clearly about giving up."

Hey, Asuna was right.

"I knew that," Yuri quickly said. "But, the language…"

"What about the language?" Venom dripped into Natsuki's voice. "Not fancy enough for you?"

"I… I was just trying to say something nice," Yuri stammered.

"You mean you had to try really hard to come up with something nice to say?"

"I… I have some suggestions, if you-"

"If I wanted suggestions I would have asked someone who liked it," Natsuki said coldly.

"I…" Yuti was completely at a loss now.

"Kirito liked it," tsundere-girl said proudly.

"What, no I didn't," Kirito argued, but he was ignored.

"Kirito," Yuri mumbled. "Liked mine too. He said he was impressed by it."

"Oh, I didn't realise you cared so much about his opinion," Natsuki teased her.

"I… I don't," Yuri stammered.

Natsuki showed a satisfied expression.

"Maybe you're just jealous he appreciated my advice more," Yuri blurted out.

"You can't know that," Natsuki said. "Are you so full of yourself?"

"If I was full of myself, I would try to make everything I do overly cute."

Natsuki puffed up her cheeks. "I'm not the one whose boobs grew a size bigger when Kirito walked in."

A deadly silence fell. Well, it was silent, safe for Kirito who was suppressing a chuckle.

Yuri's hands went to hide her chest. An attempt that hardly worked due to its size.

[You didn't pick her for the size of her chest, did you?] Asuna asked.

"Of course not," he said quickly.

[Yeah right.]

"Don't distract me, Asuna, I'm in the game."

"Hey girls," Monika tried to intervene.

"Kirito," Yuri said, turning to him. "She's just trying to make me look bad."

"She's the one who started it," Natsuki argued. "If she just admitted that poems with simple language are more effective we wouldn't have gotten into this situation."

"But…" Yuri stammered.

"What's the point in making your poems all convoluted?"

"I'm surprised you know the meaning of convoluted, Natsuki."

"Uhm," Sayori tried intervening but they both threw her a venomous look and she backed off.

"Kirito," Yuri turned to him. "What do you think?"

As he had expected they turned to him to settle it. For the first time ever, he was given multiple choices. 'Side with Natsuki', 'side with Yuri' or 'ask Sayori for help'.

He picked the option to side with Yuri. Since he was following her route, it made sense to do this.

As expected, both Monika and Sayori took Yuri's side as well when he did. Natsuki got angry. She grabbed her poem and stormed out. On her way to the door, she crumbled up her poem and threw it in the trash.

He spotted Yuri. She was sitting down at a desk in the corner. Her head was resting on her arms in a defeated position.

A helpful arrow showed he had to approach her to continue the game. He briefly wondered what would happen if he followed Natsuki instead. Would there be a different route?

He saved his game in a separate slot so he could try that out later.

First, the Yuri-route.

Kirito picked up a chair and sat next to her.

[Are you alright?] His character dialogue displayed.

"I'm so embarrassed," she said as she looked up. "I said all those mean things."

"It's okay," Kirito said out loud. He put his hand on her arm. She paused for a moment, as if responding to his touch. But that was impossible of course.

"You probably hate me now," she said, looking away.

"No, I don't." His screen showed very similar lines. This dialogue was progressing as he had predicted. More lines showed up where his character reassured her.

Wait a minute.

If he could touch her arm without any consequences, then…

His eye fell on her impressive chest. No one responded to any of his actions, no matter what he did. So…

"Thanks," Yuri said. "You're so kind."

[Papa, why is your heart rate going up?] Yui asked.

[And why is your camera angle fixed on her chest?] Asuna added.

"Sorry." He quickly looked up at her face again.

[Unbelievable,] Asuna sighed.

"She's just an NPC," Kirito argued.

[I'm watching you,] she warned him.

"I have to test the limits in the response of the game, that's my mission."

[By touching her chest?]

"Would a harassment message show up? These are important details, Asuna. I have to know."

"I'm going to make some tea," Yuri announced.

Huh?

She stood up and walked away.

Damn. He had missed the rest of their conversation.

Kirito quickly summoned his backlog to read what he had missed. Not much it turned out.

Sayori was suddenly next to him.

"Shall we go home?" she suggested.

As if to mess with him, he was only given one option.

Maybe if he followed Yuri right now…

He once again saved his game in a separate slot. For now, it was best to go along with the story and try out fancy things later.

He picked the only option available which was 'yes'.

On their way out they almost bumped into Yuri who came back with a pitcher of water. A part splashed on the ground.

"Sorry," Yuri said. "I'm so clumsy." She blushed deep red.

"It's okay," Sayori said. "Let me help." She went back in the clubroom.

"Are you leaving?" Yuri asked him.

[Yeah.]

"I uhm… I almost forgot, but I wanted to give you something." She opened her bag and pulled out a book. "Here."

He accepted it. It had a red cover with an eye on it. It was called: 'The Portrait of Markov'.

"I thought you might like this," she explained. "It's a short read. We could uhm… discuss it, if you wanted to." Her eyes didn't meet his.

[Thanks a lot.]

Sayori returned with a rag to clean up the spilled water.

"Yui?" He asked.

[On it… Andrey Markov. A Russian mathematician from the nineteenth century. Best known for Markov chains.]

He had heard about those before. "Anything interesting there?"

[Doesn't seem like it. It looks like a random choice.]

"Okay."

He opened the book. It was empty, as he had expected. But the ominous eye bothered him. Was this just a random choice too?

"See you tomorrow," Yuri said.

She left them.

The screen faded to black and suddenly he was standing back in front of his house.

There was a little conversation with Sayori.

His character dropped some hints he wanted to get into a romantic relationship with the girls (especially Yuri). It was pretty obvious by now Sayori had a crush on him as well. They said their goodbyes.

The game guided him inside the empty house and to his room. He put down the book on the nightstand. When he laid down on the bed, the words minigame showed back up like last time.

Kirito saved the game and logged out. He removed the AmuSphere from his head.

"Welcome back," nurse Aki said.

"Everything still okay here?" he asked.

"All your vitals are normal. You heart rate did go up at one point."

"That was nothing," he quickly said.

"If you say so."

"I'm gonna stretch my legs a bit," he said. He had been diving for more than an hour already.

Kazuto removed the sensors and put on his shirt again.

"Is it really as scary as they say?" Aki asked.

"It's not," Kazuto replied. "I don't understand it at all."

"Maybe the scary part still coming," she said.

"Yeah, maybe. See you later. I'm just gonna take a walk."

"Okay."

He had been playing for over an hour and it looked like a cute little dating sim. Only one thing disturbed him: that book Yuri had handed him. There was more going on there. It couldn't be just a random book.

Markov chains were used to predict future outcomes based solely upon the current state and the probability of changing to another state. But how could that be relevant to the game?

The only thing he could think of was that Markov chains could be used to make a rudimentary AI. But the girls were just NPC's, so that didn't make any sense.

He kept thinking and turning it over, but no brilliant insight hit him.

"Ah, you're back," Aki said. "Someone called you."

He took out his phone.

Kikuoka.

Kazuto called him back.

"Hello?"

"Something happened?" he asked without any introduction.

"We've got another victim," Kikuoka said.

"Okay, but-"

"He's still alive."

"What?"

"He took a cocktail of pills, but his mom found him and they pumped out the contents of his stomach."

"Will he make it?"

"Hard to say. He's in a coma now, but… he did leave a note. I'll send it to you."

His phone made a pinging sound. Kazuto checked out the picture.

It was scribbled on the page in a terrible handwriting. The page itself had been crumbled up and then smoothed again. It wasn't easy to make out the words.

"Just… Norira?"

"Monika," Aki said. She was looking at the picture over his shoulder.

Monika?

Yes, that was it. 'Just Monika'.

He didn't like the sound of that.

Kirito put down his phone. "I should get back to work."

He pulled off his shirt and sat down on the bed.

Aki quickly attached the electrodes again.

She threw a concerned look at the monitor. His heart rate was higher than usual.

"Be careful," she warned him.

He nodded. "Don't worry. I'll beat this game."

He put the AmuSphere on his head and took a deep breath.

"Link Start."