Endless Ending

KUROTO

Transcending all fate… I am God.

I always assume all possible fates. In particular, having a backup of my existence takes precedence over everything else.

The birth of this me, Dan Kuroto Ⅱ, means that “Kuroto I” has disappeared.

But this is not a big problem.

Because in every stat, I and II are one and the same. Talent. Ideas. Memory. Physical ability.

It was thanks to God Maximum Mighty X that I was able to create a backup. With the power of that gashat, which could create any game with just one of my ideas, Mighty Novel X was created, and I, a duplicate of Kuroto I, was designed to be the navigator of the game.

In addition, I had a pre-programmed mission for me.

“To see Mighty Novel X through to its ending and restore Kuroto I.”

I can’t help but feel excited by the will of Kuroto I, who imposed such a mission on me.

This is a great game of destiny between a genius game creator and a genius gamer.

It is the true desire of a game master to make players clear the game he has created, and the most suitable person to do so is Hojo Emu. And the ending of Mighty Novel X is the end of Hojo Emu and the scenario of Kuroto I’s rebirth.

I stood on the rooftop of a high-rise building, staring at the night scenery below.

Buildings of all sizes. Every single light. Each and every person living there. All of it looks like a model. It’s like a diorama that can be made to look any way I want it to.

Suddenly, a voice without intonation spoke from behind me.

“I told you to stay away from my company.”

I don’t need to turn around to know who it is. Hojo Kiyonaga.

“You are a man of great talent. Your development of medical equipment has allowed you to build so many of your own buildings in the city center.”

“…It wasn’t me alone.”

“Of course. Medictric medical equipment is now an integral part of advanced medicine, but there are still lives that cannot be saved. You are not perfect.”

“It couldn’t save your mother. Is that what you’re saying?”

“…I’m talking in general terms. And what you cannot do, I can do.”

“…You still have the same sick moral compass that allows you to replicate your own life.”

“You sacrificed your own son, and you think you have a moral compass?”

“….”

“Excuse me. Let’s not have a sterile discussion. It was all inevitable. It was just meant to be.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m the game master, a bystander to fate. The story of Mighty Novel X that is about to unfold is about your son’s future, as well as your own.”

“My own future? What do you mean?”

“There are many medical devices developed by your company in every medical facility in this country. They support the lives of many patients undergoing life-prolonging treatments.”

“…So what?”

“I’ve infected all of these medical devices with the Mighty Novel X bugster virus.”

As I had imagined, Hojo Kiyonaga had a picture-perfect expression of exclamation on his face.

“The time is now 11:55 p.m. Five minutes to go. As soon as the date changes, medical equipment will malfunction, putting the lives of patients all over the country at risk. …Yes, the Year 2000 problem you once feared will become a reality.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Why would you do that?”

“It’s to create the climax of Mighty Novel X. And there’s only one way to prevent that from happening: Hojo Emu’s life must be cut short and Mighty Novel X must reach its ending. Then all the bugster viruses will automatically die out and the malfunctioning medical equipment will be restored to its normal state.”

I took out a Gamer Driver.

This is the seventh one that Nagumo Kagenari had used. This is the driver of the man who once became Kamen Rider Fuma to save his only daughter from an incurable disease.

“Now, let’s give you the Mighty Novel X choice.”

“….”

“Will you save your son’s life… Or the lives of mankind?”

Why do games exist in this world?

Over the course of my long life, I’ve come to terms with this great question.

First. Unfortunately, I am not the creator of the concept of games. By the time I was born, games already existed, and a culture of entertainment had been established.

I thought of the night view spreading out below me, and the people who were playing games right now.

After a day’s work, they have a few hours before they go to bed. They travel to the virtual world.

They experience thrills and emotions that you can’t get in the real world. Sparing no time to rest their exhausted bodies and relieve their daily stress. Free from the restrictions and morals of society, they immerse themselves in a world of entertainment.

However, I don’t believe that the significance of games is only entertainment for the purpose of relieving stress.

Games are a concept of life itself.

Let’s talk about the definition of life.

“Life” is indeed multifaceted, but most commonly it is the source of life for living things. It is considered to be a concept that distinguishes between living and dead things, or between living things and matter. However, as a child, I did not have a clear interpretation of the definition of life.

Because there are viruses in this world.

Viruses do not have cells, which are considered the smallest unit of life, but they are not dead entities. They are structures that use the cells of other organisms to replicate themselves, and they have genes. Despite having the characteristics of a living organism, and even though they sometimes take human lives, we cannot say that a virus without cells is a living organism.

However, the concept of games gave me an answer.

Lives also exist in games.

In games, life also has many meanings, but in general, it is the source of life for characters. However, there are a wide variety of characters in the game world, and it is not only biological characters such as humans, animals and plants that have lives. Sometimes even material characters such as robots can have lives. In other words, even a virus can be defined as a life form in a game.

We can breathe life into what we create. Games, I interpreted, were the very concept of life itself.

At that moment, my world changed.

The worldview of reality itself, that there is only one life, seemed outdated and obsolete.

It was the same when my mother, Dan Sakurako, passed away.

I realized that the reality in which life is protected by medicine is an extremely fragile world. I realized that I myself – and my talent, which I must not lose – was exposed to such a deadly world.

However, in a game, you can freely construct the setting of the world. I can give myself the status of immortality, I can set up 99 lives, and I can even duplicate myself as a life form for insurance purposes.

It is possible to keep the concept of life constantly updated with just one of my ideas.

Mighty Novel X is the test I gave to the world, and the test I gave to Hojo Emu.

It was a warning to the fragile medical system that triggered the malfunction of medical devices, and it was also a warning to the conservative human race bound by preconceived notions.

Let the countdown begin.

The time is 11:59:55 p.m.

Four, three, two, one. …Zero.

Hojo Emu. Show it to me.

Show me the fateful ending of Mighty Novel X.

⇦ BROKEN INNOCENCE (PARAD) | CHAPTER INDEX | ENDLESS ENDING (EMU) ⇨