The room was blindingly bright and hot, and the air was so heavy it took me a while to notice I was chained down to the floor. Then I noticed…this wasn't air, it was water…I was trapped in an aquarium…
It was too bright to see, but I felt like I could hear a crowd around me…
"No! Don't look!"
I struggled under the chains and heavy water, getting more desperate…
*guh*…*grh*…
My movements became more frantic, and I tried to block out the voices getting louder.
The pain of muscle and bone being crushed and torn from the restraints and my resistance made me more desperate.
"I am—free!"
I screamed at everything around me.
"Kill—I'll kill all of you! I'll rip you apart!"
My head was filled with pain, and I couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"Leave me alone…get me out of here…"
I felt numb everywhere.
"—Is that your wish?"
"…"
I opened my eyes with a sigh.
From the bright light coming through the window, I could see that it was 6:30AM on the clock.
"Twelve hours…I've been sleeping that long?"
I could feel my entire body full of sweat, and the remaining feeling of the nightmare made my head hurt. Even then, I couldn't remember what that dream was about anymore…
I vaguely remembered senpai's last words to me yesterday.
"Don't remove the NeuroLinker overnight," she said…it can't be that this has some relation to that dream?
After I idly thought about that while taking a shower, I changed into my school uniform, and ate my breakfast in the kitchen alone. I put the dishes in the dishwasher and knocked on my mother's bedroom door before going to school.
"...I am going."
Quietly saying that to the dim room, I heard a cracking voice say something unclear from the bed. She seemed to have drunk a lot last night.
While I waited for my mother to operate her Neuro Linker to charge my own with 500 yen, she sleepily mumbled with an irritated voice.
"Your Linker isn't connected."
Oh no, I put my hand to my neck and connected my Neuro Linker to the Global Net. Soon, with a *chariin* sound effect, my virtual money balance increased.
"…"
Without saying anything, I softly closed the bedroom door, put on my shoes at the entrance, and left my home.
I took the elevator to the first floor without saying hello to residents I did not remember. I went through the front entrance.
The automatic door closed, and I stepped into the building's front courtyard…just two seconds.
*bashiiiii* That sound reverberated through my whole brain, and my vision wavered.
All the colours were drained and replaced by a translucent blue that spread as far as I could see. The surrounding courtyard, people walking on the street, and my own body as well, all became a monochrome blue.
At that moment, everything stopped.
What!?
While I held my breath, in front of my eyes in a familiar burning font, was another line of English.
[HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!]
Where had I seen these words before…the words burnt out before I could remember, and at the top of my view, something even stranger appeared.
At the centre, a number that read [1800], and on both sides of that, blue bars extended…under those were small thin green bars.
Finally, filling up the middle of my view, were flame letters—[FIGHT!]
The number became 1799.
In order to get a handle on the situation, I desperately looked around and soon noticed something.
The breezy October morning had disappeared without a trace, but the surrounding area was still within my memory…I was still in front of my home. The two lane street on the left side, the convenience store and office buildings on the side of the street, and if I turn around, I would see the high-rise mansion that I just left standing in the darkness.
However, the group of cars filling the streets heading to Shinjuku, and the students going to school that filled the walkways, had both disappeared. Also, the street was cracked and was littered with potholes, the guardrail and signs were bent, and the glass on all the buildings were conspicuously broken.
At the intersection a bit further, rubble was piled up like a barricade, and flames were flickering from a huge dome like something was burning inside. The scares of destruction included my home building…concrete pillars were collapsed, the outer wall had a huge hole, and other distorted likenesses.
The world's colour also, instead of monochrome blue, was fully-coloured…but in a distorted dark and fiery palette.
Turning around, I walked a few steps and looked at the entrance from between the rubble.
Then, my eyes widened in amazement. The building's interior looked like an object textured with polygons in a game. No, not looks like…it is exactly that.
Even so, I've never seen such a detailed virtual space. Each small rock on the ground was made with impossible detail.
If it's like this…then my body…I looked down.
I thought I was going to see my familiar Global Net avatar, but—
"...W-what is this…"
Amazed, I involuntarily leaked my voice…an unfamiliar metallic sound.
What came into my view was a body like polished steel plates under metal sheets shaped like a cape and hands tipped with claws. It was like a robot or a completely armoured person.
I hurriedly put my hand to my face, but instead of a face, my fingers scratched something hard like a mask. Taking a moment to look around, I saw a cracked window on the front wall of a building on the other side of the street from my home, and with light *cachin**cachin* footsteps, I ran there.
The shape reflected by the large glass was a truly full-body metallic robot. The body was slender and taller than I actually was by 20cm with a feminine mold, the eyes were large unmoving bulbs glowing faintly, and there was even fine metallic hair coming down to the shoulders. To say it in one sentence, it was an unusual female robot.
At least make the skirt look less sharp, and these claws are too scary…
While complaining to the unknown avatar designer at that time, behind my reflection in the glass, on the other side of the street, a few vaguely humanoid shadows could be seen.
Surprised, I crouched my metallic body and turned around. Unknown since when they've been there, three figures stood under a destroyed convenience store. Since they were surrounded by darkness, I could only see their silhouette, but each of them seemed to be larger than me.
The shadows seemed to be talking to each other, so I strained my hearing and tried to listen.
"...Somehow, a strangely frail-looking girl."
"I don't remember her name…a newbie?"
"But she is a metal colour. Maybe she has some ability?"
Those guys—are not NPCs.
I felt that distinctly. That manner and speech pattern…without a doubt, they are human and not programs.
If that's the case…then they might know the situation. First, let's ask those three about the circumstances. After deciding that, I cautiously stepped out onto the road and got as far as the white centre line.
Suddenly, I felt someone else looking at me. I stopped my feet and turned that way.
There…more than three people. Unknown where they appeared from…on roof of ruined buildings, on top of rubble, and all around were strange silhouettes watching me. However, they didn't look like they wanted to get closer, just—yes, a feeling of waiting for something.
But…what?
Moving view back to the middle of the road. The counter at the top of my view has gone down to 1620. The bars on the sides hadn't changed.
"…"
No…I didn't notice it until now, but under the green bars were lines of small English.
The left side read «Steel Owl», and the right side was «Ash Roller».
This screen structure…it felt old.
I felt like the answer was somewhere at the back of my mind I couldn't reach.
While standing there searching through my memory, I jumped as an explosion suddenly sounded behind me.
"...!?"
I almost lost balance while turning around, and down the road in front of my eyes was a large shadowy silhouette.
It was a bike…though not the familiar electric motor type…illegal for over twenty years, an internal combustion engine at the centre from which a *doddoddo* heavy vibration sound came.
The handles extending from the front were ridiculously long, and the tire it connected to was thicker than some cars'. From the rugged grey tread, a strong burnt odour drifted over.
Looking up behind the curved handle, my gaze fearfully captured the figure of the rider leaning back on top of the leather seat.
Full body covered in a muddy spiked leather, two large boots, and both arms crossed at the chest…the head, too, was covered in a muddy helmet with a flashy skull mask.
From inside, a rough cracking voice sounded. I could only listen while dumbfounded.
"Long time no see «End of Century» stage—luckyyy~."
From one of his crossed hands, he raised an index finger moving side to side.
"You, as an opponent, are a shiny newbie—mega luckyyy!"
The skeleton rider lifted his right boot and put it on the handle bar skillfully. At that moment, *dobobaroruoooon* a mechanical roar sounded, and I jumped up again.
No matter how I sees it, this guy isn't a friend. Rather, if my guess is right, this is a «Fighting Stage» and this rider is—
"…Sh-shit…"
Inching back, I raised my arms and watched his movements.
Uwaa…it's a good thing nobody else is attacking, or at least, I hope it stays that way…
With my robot's slender legs screeching, I ran desperately.
"Whahahaha! Run away, run away! –Wait, what!?"
Another engine roar and sounds of tires burning rubber continued. Less than two seconds later, the bike accelerated rapidly down the road towards me.
Most likely, I only have one chance…
At less than twenty metres apart, I spun to the side close to a building. The bike ran past me before lying on its side to turn around.
Now!
"Uuooo!"
The rider was truly skilled to be able to stop his bike that quickly, and even though I was running at full sprint, the bike had already recovered from the turn—
—but it still needed to accelerate.
"What the!?"
There!
I shifted to the side a little with my arms raised and sunk my claws in the rider's chest as the bike passed by with not enough acceleration to escape.
Because of the speed of our collision, my hand had totally sunk into the rider's chest, and he fell of the bike which fell and skidded on the side of the road.
"You shiny bastard!" to my surprise, the skeleton rider was still moving and struggled to escape, but I got too confident, pulled my hand out, and let him get back up.
"Hehehe…that's why newbies are the best—giga luckyyy! Enhance Armament! «Night Rocker»!"
I stepped back when a bright light flashed under the half-dead rider.
"It can't be—!"
The light dissipated, and the load roar of an engine filled the surroundings.