.Hack//New Testament Chapter 9

The key to saving Yasuhiko is in The World.

At that time, I remembered that Yasuhiko muttered something when face to face with the girl.

“…Could it be… that the rumors were true?”

Yasuhiko was aware of something.

And it pervaded The World to the extent that it became a rumor.

First, I decided to walk through the Root Town and hear from various people. There may be people who know something about the rumor.

I put on the FMD Face Mount Display and I logged in to The World.

I arrived in the same place as last time, Mac Anu.

An official email from CC Corp announced that the movement in the area was restricted, but that worked in my favor. I would not have to move far to talk with people.

The town was crowded with adventurers just like last time.

I tried to get to the town center and suddenly stopped.

A tanned female warrior was standing beside me.

No, that’s not right. I recalled the text in the manual about the PC jobs that I read when I created my character. There was no job called a “female warrior” in this world.

She is a “Heavy Blade,” equipped with a giant sword.

I focused on her because her behavior was so strange.

She was walking with unnaturally vigorous movements. Well, she was trying to walk, but it seemed as if she were doing a robotic dance. Perhaps she was a new player, too.

In my case, since Yasuhiko had taught me how to operate my character, I was able to get used to the controls immediately. However, it seemed that there was no one lead this girl and give her advice.

She stopped moving and looked at me, having caught my gaze.

“What? What is it? You got something to say?” she said in a harsh tone.

“No…”

I quickly shook my head.

It seems that she was bothered by being looked at.

She glared at me with a narrowed gaze, but eventually nodded as though she had suddenly come to a realization.

“Oh, I get it now. You are a newbie, aren’t you?” she said as though scolding me.

“I might’ve guessed. Well, are you or not?”

“……”

“C’mon now, don’t be shy, you can tell me. Listen, in case you’re not aware of it, you’re being very rude. It’s impolite to stare at someone like that. You have to understand that it’s the same as the real world. Don’t you get it?”

“……”

No answer came.

I remained silent and she put her hand on her waist.

“Last chance. What is up with you anyway, huh?”

“……”

“Come on! Will you say something already!”

She ran to the center of the city, grumbling all the while.

Jeez, I thought to myself, people who want to put you down for no good reason can be found everywhere.

When I pulled myself together, I started collecting information in the city as I had originally planned.

I greeted a nearby PC who caught my eye and he told a story.

However, it was really tedious and boring.

I didn’t take into account that this is an online game. This is decidedly different from an offline-only RPG such as GIGA. Friendly game-designers don’t have a reason to give direct hints and tips to pa.s.sers-by.

After about an hour, I realized that it would be meaningless to listen to people aimlessly.

I realized the naivete of my thoughts and walked with hunched shoulders down to the Chaos Gate. I had gone around the entire route town.

What’s this? There was the Heavy Blade near the Chaos Gate.

I tried to turn away to avoid making eye contact, but I was too slow.

“Wait a sec!” she said, raising her hand to get my attention.

She must have wandered around the city and gotten used to the controls since her movements were much smoother than before.

“…Me?”

“Yeah, you. I, uh, I know some interesting keywords. If you go with me, I’ll tell you what they are. Do you want to know?”

“What’s interesting about them?”

“Huh? What’s interesting about them? Well… ummm, a lot if things.”

She muttered for some reason.

“Lots of stuff. Many different things.”

Suspicious.

I refused with a tepid reply.

“This is kind of suspicious, so I’m not interested.”

“Oh, that’s okay then.”

She turned away.

“But, is that really okay? Such a good story is rare. It’s really interesting. I’m really disappointed.”

She shouted this at me while glancing side to side.

It was a bad performance

She must feel anxious about the words’ destination. So she was asking someone to accompany her.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“I have errands to run. I don’t have time for a suspicious-looking adventure.”

“It’s fine. I’ll go alone.”

Her voice trembled momentarily.

I sighed.

“You know, I do want to know after all. I really want to know.”

“Yes, you have to do it! Honesty is the best policy for beginners!”

We exchanged member addresses.

“I’m BlackRose. Pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Kite.”

After forming a party, I opened the Chaos Gate menu and entered her “interesting” area words.

Δ Delta Server Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground

The transfer destination was on a short bridge.

We stood in front of a stone building.

I looked at the double doors and then at BlackRose next to me.

“…What next?” I asked.

“Huh?”

BlackRose looked back at me.

“Should we go inside?”

“Oh, yeah. Right! Well, let’s go.”

BlackRose puffed up her chest and pushed the door open with an awkward motion.

I followed her inside.

The inside of the building looked like a deserted church.

As I walked towards the center, I thought the atmosphere here was similar to something.

That’s right, it looks like the place where Yasuhiko lost consciousness.

One could say it is either tranquil or lonely. Like it had been forsaken by the world.

“Hey…” I said to BlackRose who had gone ahead of me.　

As soon as I said that, she was startled and wielded her weapon.

“Huh, huh, huh, huh? Wha, wha, what?”

She looked at me and immediately calmed down.

She put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath.

“Oh, I thought my heart was about to stop.”

Then she remarked this.

“What do you want? Don’t talk to me out of the blue like that. It’s a manners violation! A breach of etiquette!”

We went to the front row of the cathedral.

There was a stone statue of a girl there. There were chains wrapped around her wrists, elbows, knees, waist, and neck.

I was surprised when I saw the face of the statue.

It was the face of the girl I met when I was with Orca.

That girl…

Why is there a statue of her here?

BlackRose looked up at the statue of the girl with bated breath, but eventually she spoke a few words.

“What is this? Somehow, it looks so heartrending…”

Suddenly something happened.

The door we had entered suddenly opened with forceful momentum and a PC rushed inside the cathedral.

We were surprised by the sound and looked back to see what it was.

The person who entered was a white-clad Blademaster.

I thought he was wearing a white cloak-like ornament, but when I looked more closely, it was feathers. The Blademaster’s back had pure white wings like a bird.

He spoke in a harsh tone.

“Hey! What are you doing?!”

BlackRose and I looked at each other.

“What?” I said to her.

“No time to explain! It’s too dangerous here,” the Blademaster said.

“What?”

“I’m telling you to get out!”

Suddenly, the s.p.a.ce between the Blademaster and us became distorted. The color tone was inverted and noise was generated and a monster appeared to break through the center of the distortion. It was a humanoid monster with a skull in its right hand and a sword in its left.

I was scared. I felt my heart beat faster.

It was as though Death had just appeared.

“Leave here at once!”

As the Blademaster shouted, he pulled out his sword and jumped on the monster.

The blade flashed, the monster died instantly, fell to the ground, and turned black.

But at the next moment, I thought I saw it wrapped up in a green hexagon effect and it got up as if nothing had happened.

BlackRose screamed.

The Blademaster shouted.

“It’s a bug from a computer virus. The virus is rewriting the data. It has a HP that is – infinite.”

The monster lifted his left hand and swung down.

“Agh!”

The Blademaster failed to dodge the attack and took it directly.

The blow turned his status to red. It was fatal. I remembered what happened to Orca.

Will the Blademaster become comatose if his HP drops to zero after being attacked by a Death-like monster? Like what happened to Orca, to Yasuhiko?

I have to do something. I have to help him.

But how…

Suddenly I heard a voice out of nowhere.

:The book. Open the book.”

I looked around instinctively.

“The book?”

“The power it holds can bring forth either salvation or destruction at the whim of the user.”

A huge book suddenly appeared before me.

What was this?

I suddenly felt a powerful force. It felt like a fish I had reeled in was struggling.

I couldn’t hold on to it, so I threw the book away.

The book opened to a page in the middle and fell to the ground. From there, a sequence of data appeared in a vortex and stretched out like a snake, wrapping itself around my body.

It was like watching a hallucination.

I thought that some fragments of data were concentrating on my right wrist and folding inward, and before I knew it, something like a “bracelet” appeared.

I pushed my right arm forward as it was being pulled by the bracelet.

It seemed as though my arm had a will of its own.

After that, the monster appeared and tried to crush the Blademaster. It seemed he had been knocked down and still could not get up.

Just before the monster’s sword and skull were swung down towards the Blademaster, a bunch of dazzling lights came forth from my right hand. The light penetrated the monster in an instant like a laser.

The Blademaster jumped up after a moment and a swordstroke slammed into the monster the same time as the laser.

Just as the previous invulnerability had been false, the monster turned black, stopped moving and disappeared.

What? What did I just do?

I looked at my right hand, but the bracelet was gone.

The Blademaster walked towards me. When I looked at him, his PC’s name was displayed in the window. His name was Balmung.

“That skill just now… and your PC’s changes…”

I noticed it too. My PC body was changing from green to red.

“I see. It’s like that, is it? You’re a hacker.”

Balmung clicked his tongue.

“You are the same as the virus. To think that I was saved by someone like you! How unpleasant!”

He thinks I’m a hacker?

“No, that’s not. I don’t even know what’s…”

“Don’t like to me! Recently, many places within The World have been damaged by a virus. Those who willfully spread the virus and destroy this world for their own amus.e.m.e.nt, they – they shall receive no mercy!”

Balmung pointed his sword at me.

“No! That’s not me! I…”

“It’s not you? What were you doing earlier? You’re nothing other than a cheat. You are a hacker. You are the ringleader of this operation!”

I couldn’t say anything back. The skill I had just used was the same skill used by the reaper who rendered Orca unconscious.

BlackRose, who was standing next to me, moved in front of me.

“Hey you! That’s hardly the way to talk to someone who just saved your life!”

“What?”

“You’d be dead if it weren’t for Kite, wouldn’t you? So why are you talking to him like that?”

Balmung jumped back and looked confused.

He put his sword back in its sheath and scowled at us. He wanted to confirm our names.

“Kite, and BlackRose?” he said.

“I still do not trust you. I just require the time to think this through. But if I find out you are indeed in with them… I will kill you.”

Balmung left along with the echo of footsteps.

Only BlackRose and I were left behind in the cathedral.