By the time the chorus of cicadas began announcing the season of lush greenery, summer vacation had arrived for Kojiro too. For elementary school students, vacation was a very serious matter. At the closing ceremony held in the large auditorium, the students only grew happier despite the principal’s boring lecture.
Finally, the ceremony came to an end, and the children gathered in the auditorium spilled out one by one, making a racket with cheerful expressions on their faces.
Watching the kids run out of school after the closing ceremony, Kojiro thought, as he had last year, that the future of this country was truly bright.
"A country where the children are lively can only be a good country."
Thinking those old-man thoughts, Kojiro left the school just like the others.
Starting tomorrow, he would be free from school for two whole months. During summer vacation, Kojiro planned to focus on physical training in the real world and on clearing the [Tokyo Station Underground Labyrinth] in the [Unlimited Neutral Field].
But before that, there was something he had to deal with first. Kojiro recalled what had happened in the BB Net the night before.
**
The previous evening, Kojiro had logged into the BB Net as usual and was looking around to see if anything unusual had come up. Since most Burst Linkers were elementary school students, there were a lot of posts about the vacation starting the next day.
Posts looking for hunting parties to run the [Unlimited Neutral Field] during break, posts looking for duel tag partners, and posts advertising [Pure Colors] legions. The BB Net was as lively as ever.
The term "legion" here referred to a faction in [Brain Burst]. It was basically the equivalent of a guild in other games, and it had only recently become widely known after one Burst Linker discovered the legion creation quest.
As expected, Burst Linkers had cheered, and before long all kinds of legions began to flood in, led by veteran Burst Linkers who were confident in their reputation or skill.
Of course, Kojiro, who was among the top names in [Brain Burst] in both reputation and skill, had also been flooded with legion invitations, but he had no interest in that sort of thing and politely turned them all down.
Because of Kojiro’s attitude, some Burst Linkers had even tried to persuade him to join their own legions, just in case.
In particular, high-rankers represented by [Pure Colors] had sent out truly passionate love calls to recruit the famed "Swallow swordsman" into their legions. But Kojiro said that belonging to some group was not his style and firmly refused them all.
By now, the tacit agreement among the major legions was that, since the Swallow swordsman could almost be called an asymmetrical force, it might actually be better to leave him neutral. As a result, the number of scouting offers had dropped considerably.
As Kojiro was browsing the BB Net at a leisurely pace, a mail arrived from someone.
Because the BB Net guaranteed strict anonymity, anything that could identify a person in the real world was thoroughly excluded. That meant this mail had not been sent to the real-world "Sasaki Kojiro," but to the Burst Linker known as "Ultramarine Swallow" who operated on the BB Net under the nickname "Swallow swordsman."
Sometimes he received challenge mails, but this one was probably not for that purpose. Kojiro knew the sender very well. And given that person’s personality, this mail was definitely not going to be a simple greeting.
Kojiro clicked into his inbox and checked the contents.
"Please contact me if you read this mail."
The extremely businesslike wording of the mail made the sender’s personality easy to guess. Putting aside his personal impressions, Kojiro invited the sender into a one-on-one chat room. Fortunately, the other side seemed to be logged into the BB Net as well, because the number of people in the chat window immediately increased from one to two.
"Long time no see."
"Hello."
Kojiro got straight to the point.
"What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, before I get to that, there’s something you should know first. Have you ever heard the term PK?"
"PK? What’s that?"
"Originally, it’s a term from online games. It’s short for Player Killing."
"All right, I understand. So?"
"Actually, lately among Burst Linkers, that term has been used in a different way."
"In a different way?"
"Forcing another Burst Linker to make a physical direct connection in the real world, then extorting Burst Points from them by force. It seems people are calling that PK, short for Physical Killing."
Direct connection was short for wired direct communication.
Normally, a Neuro Linker communicates wirelessly through the network server present in the current space. That meant if the global network was turned off, it would be absolutely impossible to challenge that person to a duel. But if they were directly connected by wire, that restriction disappeared. Even if the other side did not want it, a duel could be forced at any time.
"No, how could something like that even be possible? It should be almost impossible to identify a Burst Linker in the real world."
That was right. The reason BB Net never allowed the real-world identity behind an avatar name to be revealed was simple: if someone targeted your Burst Points, you could become the victim of violence, kidnapping, or other crimes in the real world. Having your real-world identity exposed was practically taboo for all Burst Linkers.
"Almost impossible, yes. Not completely impossible. And there are other methods too."
"Other methods?"
"Using a child."
For a moment, Kojiro did not fully understand what the other person meant, but soon realized that "child" was slang for the act of copying the [Brain Burst] program. And once he understood what the other person was trying to say, Kojiro felt a faint sense of disgust.
"You mean they copied [Brain Burst] and stole the initial 100 points from the other person. From their own child."
"Yes. Since copying [Brain Burst] is only possible while directly connected, hunting the child side, which has no real knowledge of duels, would be very easy."
"Why are you telling me this? Wouldn’t it be better to post it on the BB Net board and warn the other Burst Linkers?"
"There have already been several warning posts about ordinary PK. The problem is the ones abusing the child system. If this loophole in the system becomes widely known, it may only increase the number of people who exploit it."
Kojiro was a little curious where the other person had gotten this information, but he did not ask. Through their many bouts in duels, he already knew the other side had something unusually special about them compared to ordinary kids. What mattered more was why they were sharing this information.
"Why go out of your way to tell me this?"
For a moment, silence hung in the chat window. Then, after a short pause, the other person’s reply appeared.
"Could Swallow swordsman possibly solve this PK problem?"
"By solve, do you mean you want me to reduce the Burst Points of the Burst Linkers committing PK to zero? In other words, drive them out of the Accelerated World?"
"If necessary."
When Kojiro did not answer and fell into thought, the other side seemed to think he was hesitating and sent a long message.
"I’m not just talking about a moral responsibility toward the people who have suffered because of them. I believe that if this kind of malicious behavior exploiting a system loophole continues, it will directly harm [Brain Burst] as a game itself."
"For example, getting involved in crimes in the real world?"
"That is certainly possible. If that happens, the chances of [Brain Burst] becoming known to the outside world will rise. And in the worst case, if the developer does not want [Brain Burst] revealed to ordinary people, they might even delete [Brain Burst] from all Burst Linkers. So we need to eliminate the Burst Linkers carrying out these acts as quickly as possible."
Kojiro felt a cold emotion in the other person’s words. It was like the anger directed at thugs who trampled into a garden someone cherished.
"If you’re saying that much, then you must have some clue."
"There’s a fairly large amusement center in Akihabara. And I’ve obtained information that those PK offenders often appear there."
"Good. Then send me the exact address of that amusement center by mail. I’ll handle it."
Perhaps a little surprised by Kojiro’s straightforward answer, the other person was silent for a moment before asking,
"I know this is a bit late to ask, but are you sure? You won’t gain anything from this."
Kojiro thought about it. Why was he stepping into this? Simple sense of justice? Or disgust toward people who did things like this? No. It was probably just...
"I’ve grown pretty fond of this place, this Accelerated World. I can’t just let bad insects crawl all over it."
"I feel the same way."
With that, the other person disappeared from the chat window. They had maintained an extremely businesslike attitude, but Kojiro figured they must have calculated a great deal before contacting him. Probably they had already prepared Plans B and C in case he refused. That was what Kojiro thought.
**
Back to the main point: through the mail he had received the day before, Kojiro had obtained the address of an amusement center in Akihabara. So today, he planned to go there and look for information about the Burst Linkers committing PK.
Kojiro stopped by the dormitory, left his schoolbag there, and boarded the subway bound for Akihabara. A little later, he arrived at Akihabara, a demonic land in Tokyo where every kind of subculture overflowed. He had heard the rumors, but the streets were extremely crowded, packed with young people wearing all sorts of bizarre outfits.
Kojiro passed through the main street and headed for the amusement center he was aiming for. Every window along the road was flashing with neon signs, leaving no sense of visual unity at all.
If Kojiro were to log into the global network of his Neuro Linker right now and set it to receive unlimited advertising data, the view before him would be flooded with holographic flyers advertising Neuro Linkers and all kinds of applications until he could not see anything at all.
Then a woman in unusual clothing appeared in Kojiro’s field of vision. She wore a black top with puffed shoulders, a long skirt, and over that an apron decorated with lace, the so-called maid outfit. Smiling, she handed out holographic paper flyers advertising some shop.
Honestly, it did not seem like a place elementary school kids like Kojiro would be looking for, but the maid apparently had never imagined that the casually dressed Kojiro was an elementary school student.
That was because Kojiro’s build was very solid for someone his age, and his height was close to 160 centimeters. The maid probably mistook him for a slightly short middle school student.
Kojiro put the flyer aside and reached the amusement center he had been aiming for. The building, which was six floors tall despite being called an amusement arcade, looked quite clean, as if it had been built not long ago. Even so, the first floor was bustling with many young people, just as one would expect from an arcade.
The games people were playing were retro arcade machines, the kind rarely seen these days when full-dive virtual reality games dominated. They were the sort of games that would appeal only to enthusiasts, but the neat interior and bright lighting gave off an image that made them easy for beginners to approach as well.
The couple playing a fighting game in front of Kojiro now seemed to be new to this kind of game too, because even to Kojiro, who was no expert, their controls looked clumsy. They had probably chosen this place as a date spot just to kill some time and stumbled across it by chance.
In any case, Kojiro had not come here to enjoy games, so he began wandering around casually, looking for anything unusual.
In truth, from the moment he accepted this request, Kojiro had not expected finding the PK player to be quick. Identifying a Burst Linker among this many people was close to impossible in the first place.
So he planned to keep coming here during the vacation whenever he had spare time and continue the investigation bit by bit.
Thus, while he was looking around with a half-relaxed mind, someone tapped Kojiro on the shoulder. Up until that moment, Kojiro had only thought the person had mistaken him for someone else, and he casually turned to look at them.
But at the words that followed, even Kojiro could not keep his expression from hardening.
"You’re a Burst Linker, aren’t you?"
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