A.M. 6:00
"Haaah~"
Kojiro opened his eyes in bed and stretched with a yawn. First, he checked the clock on his desk. 6:00 a.m. It was early morning.
Fortunately, it seemed he hadn’t woken up too early. Kojiro felt relieved in a way a normal child probably wouldn’t. Since he usually kept to a strict schedule of more than eight hours of sleep a day, waking up too early was not acceptable.
After a light wash and a quick meal of nutritional supplements for training, Kojiro left the dormitory. Then, stretching as he went, he started running across the silent schoolyard, where not a single sign of life could be felt.
"Huff—! Huff—!"
It was close to midsummer, but the schoolyard in the early morning was pleasantly cool.
His running style deliberately alternated between full sprints and jogging, putting strain on his cardiovascular system. It was a little harsh for a body still this young, but Kojiro didn’t care at all. If anything, part of his mind was busy thinking about something else.
Tomorrow, summer vacation, which had lasted a full month, would end. Perhaps because he had taken the chance to devote himself to physical training while freed from school classes, Kojiro could feel his body gaining muscle lately.
Thanks to that diligent vacation life, his real-world body was reaping the rewards. Unlike that, in the Accelerated World...
By the time his thoughts reached that point, Kojiro had finished warming up and began his morning training in earnest.
His routine, which loaded stress onto every part of his body in a fixed pattern, was like a blacksmith hammering hot iron. Following his belief that the harder you strike a body or a sword, the stronger it becomes, Kojiro drove his own body to its limits.
After two hours of training and a final round of running around the schoolyard as cooldown exercise, Kojiro sat on a bench and let the sweat cool. As he wiped himself down with a towel he had prepared in advance, cicadas began to shriek loudly, as if insisting that it was summer.
The morning sun rose blankly in the distance. And so, another day in the life of Sasaki Kojiro began.
*
A.M. 8:30
After showering and finishing breakfast in the dormitory cafeteria, Kojiro enjoyed a warm cup of tea and logged into BB Net. Since it was still early morning, there weren’t many users online, but the top of the board was filled with the posts that had drawn the most attention up until yesterday.
"[NEW] Finally, a flight ability has appeared in the Accelerated World?!"
"[NEW] Another genius swordsman appears in the Accelerated World. The return of the 'Swallow swordsman'"
"Who is theoretically the strongest avatar type in the Accelerated World?"
"Is Green Grande really mute?"
"Red Rider vs. Black Lotus: live coverage of the Shinjuku battle"
"Is Yellow Radio really a 'lolicon'? What’s the truth?"
After browsing those posts for a bit, Kojiro tapped the two newly risen ones in order.
"[NEW] Finally, a flight ability has appeared in the Accelerated World?!"
-The title says it all. It seems like some newbie who just debuted yesterday, but shockingly, they could fly. I think the avatar name was Sky-something. Anyway, in the middle of a duel, that newbie suddenly hugged their opponent, took off into the air, and then just threw them down from above. Naturally, the opponent kissed the ground and died instantly. Anyway, it was shocking.
[What kind of lazy post is good enough to make the best list?]
[More importantly, is that avatar a girl?]
┗ [Does that even matter?]
┗ [Yeah, a girl.]
┗ [Oh shit, pretty?]
┗ [This is... the average Burst Linker?]
┗ [Sniff, sniff. I can hear the quality of the Accelerated World dropping.]
[But what do you mean by "flying" exactly? With wings?]
┗ [No. It looked like they were wearing some kind of rocket engine on their back and flying.]
┗ [That’s called a jetpack.]
┗ [Sword is my body: so it’s Iron Man lol]
┗ [What’s that?]
┗ [Sword is my body: Good grief, now there are kids who don’t even know Iron Man.]
A flight ability, huh. If it was true, it was definitely an interesting power. Kojiro idly wondered if he should ask them to carry him while flying the next time they met, then clicked the next post.
"[NEW] Another genius swordsman appears in the Accelerated World. The return of the 'Swallow swordsman'"
-I think everyone who was around Shinjuku yesterday must have seen it at least once. Around 2 p.m., I was at the Shinjuku area duel as a gallery spectator since it was the weekend, and this insanely strong Duel Avatar showed up. It had a blue-toned, knight-like appearance, and the long silver hair was especially striking.
Anyway, to get to the point, the really shocking part was that even after the duel ended, that avatar didn’t stop accelerating and immediately picked the next opponent, continuing the duels. You all know that when you duel like that, the 〈streak〉 title gets attached in front of the avatar name and the number is displayed, right?
But dueling like that is unbelievably tiring, so it’s hard to do back-to-back matches unless you’re really something. Yet this guy didn’t seem to get tired and kept doing consecutive duels. And they were all wins, too, damn.
It looked like he got to around 9 wins in a row, and then, probably because he was tired himself, he stopped there. But man, he really used a sword like a ghost. His level was only 2, but the legions watching were all going crazy trying to scout him. At this point, can we call him the post-'Swallow swordsman'?
[I came in ready to curse because I thought this was just clickbait, but yeah, he really is kind of amazing.]
[Wow, 9 wins in a row at level 2? That’s insane.]
[I watched that too from the gallery. He was using some Western-style longsword, and he split a shield-bearing avatar clean in half with it. Damn.]
[But you said "long silver hair"? Is it a girl?]
┗ [You’re the same guy who commented on the post above, aren’t you?]
[Wasn’t he just farming weaklings at a low level?]
┗ [By the end, he was even beating level 3s and 4s easily.]
┗ [And he himself is only level 2, apparently.]
[He’s definitely impressive, but isn’t he still a bit lacking compared to the Swallow swordsman?]
┗ [Haha, another Swallow swordsman fanatic. That bastard hasn’t even been showing up in duels lately. I’m telling you, he’s all hype.]
┗ [You’ve never actually seen the Swallow swordsman in person, have you?]
┗ [Leave him alone, he’s just an attention seeker.]
┗ [Come to think of it, didn’t the Swallow swordsman do a win streak challenge too? How many wins was that again?]
┗ [47 wins in a row.]
┗ [?]
┗ [What, is my Neuro Linker broken? Or are my eyes messed up?]
┗ [No, what the hell is this...]
┗ [Bring that attention-seeking bastard back.]
As Kojiro was drinking tea and reading the post, someone appeared in front of him. Thick forearms, a sturdy build. It was the physical education adviser who had been persistently trying to persuade Kojiro.
Kojiro barely held back the expression that almost twisted on his face. Perhaps noticing his reaction, the other man waved his hands and hurriedly explained.
"No, Sasaki. I’m not here to try persuading you again. This time I’ve got good news."
"...What is it?"
"You’ve always been working out hard, right? Actually, our school has a dojo that used to be used by the kendo club, but there aren’t any important kendo club members left at all. So it’s just been sitting unused, and that felt like a waste. If you don’t mind, you can use it, Sasaki. What do you think?"
At that, Kojiro’s face lit up.
"Really?"
"Of course, of course. I put in a good word for you. I already got all the permissions, so use it freely whenever you need to. There’s plenty of training equipment there too, so it should help. Just make sure you clean up regularly, and don’t break anything, all right?"
"Yes, thank you, sir."
Kojiro was sincerely grateful. He had already been reaching the point where bodyweight training alone was starting to show its limits, so he really needed proper training facilities. The timing couldn’t have been better.
"Good. Still, seeing you work this hard on your own does put my mind at ease. If you ever need help with anything, just let me know."
With that, the physical education adviser stood up and left. He was probably trying to be considerate. Kojiro revised his opinion of the man.
He had thought he was just an annoying person, but it seemed he was actually a proper teacher who genuinely cared about his students.
*
A.M. 10:00
After finishing tea time, Kojiro decided to enjoy his hobby during his free time. Well, to be precise, it could also be called study time.
Kojiro headed to the school library. Then, sitting comfortably in a library chair, he brought up the Neuro Linker interface and entered a cultural documentary channel he had saved in advance.
"Was what I watched yesterday the history channel? Then today I’ll go with the science channel."
Kojiro started playing the science documentaries in order from the parts he hadn’t seen yet. In the augmented reality visible only to Kojiro, documentary footage with high-quality graphics and sound began to play.
As the handsome Kojiro watched the video with a focused expression, the girls passing by nearby began sneaking glances at him.
But Kojiro ignored all of that and quietly watched the documentary for quite some time. Then a single tear slipped from his eye. The librarian, who happened to notice, was startled and called out to him.
"Oh my, student. Are you all right? Why are you crying?"
Kojiro realized he had been crying without noticing and wiped his tears away with his sleeve before answering.
"I’m sorry. I got so absorbed in the documentary that..."
"Hm? A documentary? Did something sad happen?"
"No, it was just the moving scene where humanity first set foot on the moon... I think I got too caught up in it without realizing."
"Hm?"
The moon? The librarian couldn’t understand what Kojiro was talking about.
*
P.M. 8:00
That night, after taking care of dinner in the school cafeteria, Kojiro immediately went to the newly available kendo dojo and picked up a bokken for the first time in a while. It weighed about 500 to 600 grams.
It wasn’t especially heavy, but considering the physical ability of an elementary school student, it wasn’t something you could swing around carelessly. If he swung it without thinking, his arms would probably start shaking before long.
But that didn’t apply to Kojiro. He moved around for quite a while, swinging the bokken through the air. Then suddenly, gripping it with both hands, he brought it down with all his strength. The bokken, swept with terrifying momentum along a clean arc, came to a stop in midair.
Bang!
Even though it had been swung at empty air, a threatening cutting sound burst from the tip of the wooden sword as it split the air.
"Huuuu..."
Kojiro caught his breath and nodded in satisfaction.
"This really is different."
This was not a remark about the dojo’s facilities. He was talking about his own body.
It was true that Kojiro’s body was already more developed than that of ordinary children his age, but that wasn’t what he was focusing on. His body was on a completely different level from the common standard—not just in acquired traits like strength, stamina, speed, and flexibility, but even in innate abilities like reflexes and dynamic vision.
Because Kojiro had already once reached a realm of mastery through both martial skill and swordsmanship, he could tell. This body was a genius. That wasn’t exaggeration like the physical education adviser’s; it was Kojiro’s honest feeling.
If he had been born in the right era, and if the environment had been right, he could easily have carved his name into history. Maybe even beyond that.
And now, into that body had descended the soul of a swordsman who could truly be called the greatest of all time. Just how far he might reach in the future made Kojiro’s heart race just imagining it.
*
P.M. 10:30
After working up a good sweat in the dojo, Kojiro dragged his tired body to bed and lay down. Looking at the clock displayed on the Neuro Linker interface, it was about time to sleep. As he stared blankly at the time, Kojiro remembered that tomorrow was the end of vacation and the first day of school.
As the saying went, time can feel short or long depending on how you spend it. For Burst Linkers, who could accelerate time a thousandfold, this summer vacation must have felt long indeed.
Especially Kojiro, who had focused even more intensely on the physical training he had been somewhat neglecting, had gained his own results through this summer vacation.
But unlike the real world, which had yielded plenty of results, progress in the Accelerated World—specifically the [Tokyo Station Underground Labyrinth] in the Unlimited Neutral Field—had not gone so well. At first, he had enjoyed battling the rare samurai-type enemies and pushed the conquest forward, but soon he ran into a structural problem.
In the Accelerated World, there were only two ways to recover: use special items purchased from shops, or recover little by little in safe zones scattered throughout the Unlimited Neutral Field.
The problem was that by the time Kojiro, who was tackling the dungeon alone, recovered his lost health in a safe zone and returned, most of the enemies he had defeated had already revived.
And if he gave up on recovering in safe zones and used only recovery items, those items were limited in quantity, and above all, far too expensive to make hunting enemies worthwhile.
And even if he somehow got through all of that, there was still the existence of "that thing" guarding the labyrinth’s core.
Because of that endless loop, Kojiro’s conquest of the [Tokyo Station Underground Labyrinth] had recently been at a standstill.
"No, from the start, that monster is just too unfavorable for me. Is solo clearing really something I have to give up on...?"
Even Kojiro found himself thinking that without meaning to. It was about time he either gave up or joined forces with other Burst Linkers—he needed some kind of countermeasure. But other Burst Linkers challenging the underground labyrinth was still a long way off.
Rather than dwelling on a problem with no answer, Kojiro decided to hit it head-on with his body first. After all, hadn’t he decided to go all in on clearing the [Tokyo Station Underground Labyrinth] during summer vacation, at least? Then tonight, if nothing else, he would burn himself out completely. With that thought, Kojiro operated his Neuro Linker and connected to the global network.
One of the good things about Brain Burst was that no matter how much you had pushed your body in the real world, once you dove into the Accelerated World, all that pain disappeared. So even with his body feeling heavy, Kojiro could still call out as always.
"Unlimited Burst!"
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