.Hack//New Testament Chapter 7

When I woke up, I was in my room.

I sat up and looked around the dimly lit area for a while.

The clock on the wall was showing one o’clock in the morning.

It seemed that I had fallen asleep before I knew it while sitting in a chair.

Had I fallen victim to the plight of falling asleep at the keyboard that you often hear about in online games?

I felt a pain in the temples of my forehead.

I felt like I had had an ominous dream of something unknown.

What that unknown thing was I wanted to remember, but I also I didn’t want to remember, and while succ.u.mbing to a vague anxiety, I looked at my computer monitor and was shocked.

System error.

The message was displayed in red letters like an unpleasant p.r.o.nouncement.

As soon as I saw the letters, I remembered.

I recalled what had happened before I went to bed.

I recalled what happened in the game.

It wasn’t a dream. It actually happened.

The FMD had been left on top of the keyboard as though abandoned. I supposed it must have fallen off my head as I had fallen asleep.

When I looked inside the FMD, red letters like those on the monitor appeared on the FMD screen.

What the heck happened?

Who was that girl?

And what was that G.o.d of death?

Is Yasuhiko safe?

Suddenly, I had the urge to call him. I wanted to call out to Yasuhiko. Just hearing a few words from him would suffice. I could feel relieved just by listening to his voice.

Hey, you did it. I had great training. Is that a flash mob? Did you get someone to help you? Thanks to you I got hooked on online games. That d.a.m.ned schemer…

But the thought of making a phone call now at midnight was too unrealistic.

After a while, I ended up just sending him an email.

Then I turned off the computer, turned off the lights and went to the bed.

The house was quiet. Everyone else must have gone to bed already, I thought.

The dawn broke from a sleepless night.

Even when it came time to go to school, there was still no reply from Yasuhiko.

I went to school and cla.s.ses started, but I couldn’t concentrate.

When the first hour was over, I went to Yasuhiko’s cla.s.s and looked for him. He was nowhere to be found.

I overheard a nearby boy who knew Yasuhiko speak about him.

Then I knew for the first time that Yasuhiko was absent.

He had lost consciousness the night before and had been rushed to the local hospital.

After school I went to the hospital, but I was not allowed to see Yasuhiko.

The nurse who responded to me frowned, and I showed a look of disappointment, but she did not accept my plea.

Why was this the case?

On the bike-ride home from the hospital, I kept thinking.

Yas.h.i.+ko had become unconscious after playing the game.

I also fainted, but unlike Yasuhiko, I immediately woke up. What is the difference between me and Yasuhiko?

Orca, a PC operated by Yasuhiko, was attacked by the “G.o.d of death.”

It was the “G.o.d of death” who made Yasuhiko lose consciousness. The “G.o.d of death” was following the girl.

Speaking of the girl, Yasuhiko received something like a book from her. What happened to that?

Surely the girl knows.

At that moment, what happened?

And the key is surely over there – in The World. I had a feeling about it.

As soon as I got home, I entered my room and started up my computer.

An icon indicating new mail popped up. When I click on it reflexively, the mailer appeared. I had received two new messages.

Subject: Server Problems

Sender: CC Corp.

Message:

To all users of The World:

We apologize for the inconvenience
due to problems with our servers.

Currently we are focusing our
efforts in finding the cause of
the problem. However, in order to
proceed efficiently, we will limit
play to only the Δ and Θ Servers.

Thank you for your understanding.

Subject: Ple[*(

Sender: Au]$

Message:

To ^%* w*! +ol%s /:e book.
+<6it& is="" lo8$in!="" f="">r mi.

T+/&e i, ^o time.
Ple}se. Hel? 3e.

Both emails were enough to confuse me.

Unexplained server problems?

Did that have something to do with Yasuhiko’s loss of consciousness? I didn’t know. I didn’t understand any of it. There was too much information to take in.

The other email didn’t really make sense. The sentences were garbled and the contents could not be read. Even the sender’s name could not be confirmed.

First of all, we have to grasp the current situation.

What happened? Or rather, what is happening?

What should we do about it?

I remembered what Yasuhiko had told me.

“If you want to know more about the game, read the BBS. If you don’t have the information you want, post a question and someone will usually answer.”

That’s it, the BBS.

I launched The World and moved to the BBS screen.

After thinking for a little while, I posted the following question:

Sender: Kite

Post:

My friend is in a coma after playing this game.

He’s hospitalized and still isn’t out yet.

But do these things actually happen?

Does anyone know the reason?

Anyone know someone else in the same state?

I stopped typing and reread the text.

“…in a coma after playing this game.”

It brought to attention something so disconnected from reality and it felt like nonsense even though I wrote it myself.

But, this may be as good as I can explain it.

Because the post was so unrealistic, I was expecting a lot of curious onlookers and trolls.

On the other hand, it should surely catch the eyes of someone who knows something.

I added more sentences to the post.

The people who made the game look here too, right?

Please give me some kind of information.

Thank you.