Episode 13: Time Limit to a Dead End

A series of unsettling thuds—thud, thud, thud—echoed, and the entire room began to shake.

“Wh-what? What’s happening outside…?” Elisabeth anxiously looked around.
This Safe House was a sturdy shelter located underground. It wouldn’t collapse easily. …But scary was scary, I guess.
A moment later, when a similar sound reverberated, she flinched, shrinking back and hugging her own shoulders.

I patted her back to calm her down, while straining my ears to the sounds from outside.

…Bombing?

It felt as though the city had been under relentless bombardment for some time, the sounds and vibrations unceasing.

Bombing events weren't that common in this game… Don’t tell me!!

An ominous connection clicked into place, and my eyes widened.

“…H-Hey!? Sera! Where are you going!!”

I couldn’t spare a second to answer Kiryu-san. I grabbed the lever next to the red door and yanked it down with all my might.
With a heavy clunk, the door opened.
Through the dim passage leading to the surface, I sprinted up the metal stairs, clang, clang, clang.
Not a single enemy shadow was visible on the long, narrow staircase. It seemed the members of my Army of Hell, who had been waiting outside because they couldn’t get into the Safe House, were thoroughly decimating the Berserk Zombies gathered at the surface entrance.

I finished dashing up the stairs and emerged onto the surface.
The moment I stepped outside, I cringed.

—I was overwhelmed by the characteristic roar of afterburners.

“…Fighter jets!” yelled Kiryu-san, who had followed me out.
Multiple fighter jets tore through the cloudy sky, firing air-to-surface missiles at various parts of Confi-City.
Plumes of black smoke rose from all over the ground.

“It’s too dangerous! We’re going back!!”

Kiryu-san didn’t wait for an answer, grabbing me by the scruff of my neck, hoisting me up, and dragging me back towards the Safe House entrance.
While I was still stunned, Kiryu-san pulled the lever up with a clunk, and we were once again back in the sealed safe zone.

“—…What was that just now? Sera, do you know what’s happening?”
As soon as we returned to the Safe House, Kiryu-san put me down, tilted his head, and looked down at me.

“…If my guess is correct, the worst possible thing imaginable is happening.”
I looked straight up at Kiryu-san and said in a strained voice.
“Someone… someone other than the three of us, has triggered an ‘Ending Flag.’ I think that’s why an unscheduled ending has started.”

“Ending Flag…”
Kiryu-san’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“I see, that was a possibility too… Completely slipped my mind…”

Behind Kiryu-san, who clicked his tongue in irritation, Elisabeth tilted her head, completely lost. “What do you mean?”

“Um, I don’t really get it, but… does this mean another player has progressed the game to the end for us? Isn’t that a good thing? It means we’ve saved ourselves the trouble of verifying ‘what happens after the ending,’ right?”

“Unfortunately, it’s a huge problem, Elisabeth-san. I can only think of one ending scenario where the city is attacked like this… It’s the ‘Bad End’ where everyone dies.”

“Huh?! Is that true?!”

“…Don’t tell me that Bad End is the classic zombie game nuke ending, is it?” said Kiryu-san, scratching his head vigorously with a look of distaste.

“That’s exactly it, Kiryu-san. Though, strictly speaking, it’s not a nuke…”
I replied, my face twisting into a grimace.
“If things are proceeding according to the scenario, the current bombing should be the first stage of the government’s ‘Sterilization Operation.’”

“Sterilization, huh… What an intense name…”

“Right? There are various sterilization methods like ‘high-pressure steam sterilization (autoclave),’ ‘flame sterilization,’ ‘dry heat sterilization,’ ‘EOG (ethylene oxide gas) sterilization,’ and ‘gamma-ray sterilization.’ I guess this operation would correspond to something like ‘flame sterilization’… I’m not really sure.
Anyway, if the story progresses as it does in the game, there will be several more bombing runs by fighter jets after this. And then, finally, in about ‘three hours’… this Confi-City will be wiped off the map by a carpet bombing of Fuel-Air Explosives. This is the ending where the protagonist fails to call for rescue, so every single person here dies.”

“This is the worst…”

Behind Kiryu-san, who sighed, Elisabeth had turned deathly pale and looked like she was about to faint.
If possible, I’d like to faint again myself. This situation was just too dangerous, no matter how you looked at it.

“It’s not just DeCon; many horror games are designed so you almost never reach the happy ending on your first playthrough. So, I really should have predicted this would happen. I wish we could have triggered a more peaceful Ending Flag…”

“What other kinds of endings are there?”
Kiryu-san tilted his head.

“I thought the ‘Truck Ending’ was the best. There was an ending where the protagonist and survivors abandon Confi-City, which has suffered a severe outbreak, and escape to another city in a military three-ton truck.”

“Hmm.”

“The truth of the incident isn’t revealed at all, so the rank itself is low. But that one has fewer deaths, so it’s closer to a happy ending… At least it would have been better than the Fuel-Air Explosive ending…”
As I finished speaking, a heavy silence fell over the room.

“…Um, may I make a suggestion?” Elisabeth timidly raised her hand, having recovered from the shock.

“How about we leave this game right now and move to a different one? We could regroup there.”

“Come to think of it, you mentioned we could do that with the smartphone. That might be a good idea.”
Kiryu-san agreed with Elisabeth’s proposal, took the smartphone out of his pocket, and handed it to me.
(My clothes didn’t have pockets, so Kiryu-san had been holding it for me.)

“Sera. Turn on the phone and open the app, please,” Elisabeth prompted.

“…Are you sure this is okay? It’s not some cursed app, is it?”

“It’s fine. …The ‘last time’ it was a laptop… but it should be able to do the same things.”
Urged by Elisabeth, I timidly turned on the smartphone and tapped the Untitled app.

“You should be able to change the game you’re staying in using the app,” Elisabeth said, peering at the screen from the side and tracing it with her slender finger.
When I opened the Untitled app, a list of character names and the titles of the games each character was in were displayed.
Kiryu-san also peered at the smartphone, his eyes narrowing with interest.

“…I see.
‘Sera Harvey (Core) …Deadman’s Conflict 3’
‘Kiryu Souichiro …Deadman’s Conflict 3’
‘Elisabeth von Oldenburg …Deadman’s Conflict 3’
…So it’s displayed like this. And if you tap this game name, a selection list appears… you choose another game name from the list, and press ‘Confirm’ at the bottom, and you can go to that place. Whoever made this app doesn't seem too familiar with computer stuff. It’s pretty sloppily made.
Other than us, there’s only one other player in DeCon 3… So this is the bastard who triggered the Bad End Flag, huh?”
Leaning closer, Kiryu-san pointed at the name "Anata" on the screen.

“The character ‘Anata’… I don’t really know who that is. Could it possibly mean ‘you’?”

“Might be. Could be a character from a game where the player character doesn’t have a set name.”
There were about ten other names of people who seemed to have been dragged in from the real world.
All of them, though, were borrowing the names of game characters.

“So it shows the name of the game character whose appearance they’ve borrowed, not their original human name.”

“Yes. It was the same system before,” Elisabeth replied.
While we talked about various things, I tapped the current game next to the character name ‘Anata.’
Just like when Kiryu-san tried it, a selection list of other game titles appeared.

“…Huh? ‘Anata’s’ current game is grayed out and can’t be changed. The other characters can properly choose other games from the selection list.”

“This is bad. Is it because they triggered the Bad End and are on the verge of death…?”
Kiryu-san’s expression turned stern.
A cold sweat ran down my back too.

“Hey, Kiryu-san… is it possible that this ‘Anata’ is really dead? According to the story's progression, they shouldn't be dead yet, though.”

“…They shouldn’t be dead, probably. The guy who got eaten in front of me before I met you isn’t even listed here. I think the system is set up so that dead people’s names don’t appear.”

“Is that so… Then, if we’re going to save them, we need to do it quickly…”
Even as I said it, I couldn’t shake off a bad feeling.
Could we really save them? In this world where only irregular things kept happening?
…I didn’t know. It might be better to just quickly escape to an otome game world.

“By the way, Sera, do any of these games look familiar to you?” Elisabeth asked, pointing at the smartphone screen.

“Yeah, all of them. They’re all games I love. All ones I’ve played to death.”

“So that’s how it is. The girl who was the ‘Core’ last time said the same thing…”
Staring at the listed game titles, Elisabeth’s expression turned sad for a moment.
…But it quickly changed to one of exasperation.

“Actually, are you nuts? Why are there so many games you’ve played to death?”

“I’m a game addict.”

“…And most of them are zombie games, aren’t they… It’s a miracle anyone’s still alive with a lineup like this. The only halfway decent world we could go to seems to be an otome game.”

“It can’t be helped, can it? The only joys in my life were otome games, zombie games, and drinking.”
I shrugged, sighing.

“…But it seems Nijimu High School, where Kiryu Souichiro appears, isn’t on this list… I played that otome game on my phone to death too, though.”

“That’s one of those so-called social games, right? I’ve never entered a social game world before. PC or Famicom is fine, but it’s always been console games only.”

“Huuuh, I wonder why that is.”
As Elisabeth and I were talking, Kiryu-san snorted.

“Most of Nijimu High School’s code is server-side; it’s not structured to be on the player’s end (client-side). Even if some monster that could swallow and reconstruct game worlds actually existed, it wouldn’t be so easily captured and reproduced.”

“…”

“…”

“What?”

“No… Kiryu-san, judging by your expression and what you just said, I was thinking you seem to know an awful lot about Nijimu High School.”

“Wrong. It’s unrelated. I have nothing to do with a game like that.”

“……”

“Don’t look at me like that.”
It would be endless if I kept teasing Kiryu-san, so Elisabeth and I continued the conversation.

“Well, this is a problem. Among these game titles, the only safe world seems to be… an otome game world, huh?”

“Is there a problem with that?” Elisabeth tilted her head.

“A huge one. I’ve only ever played otome games with friends, laughing our heads off. So while I did play them a lot, and even blogged about them lightly, I don’t remember the details very well anymore… I’m not sure if I can clear them perfectly on the first try.”

“Huh…? What are you talking about…?”
Elisabeth looked dumbfounded.

“Playing otome games… fooling around together with everyone…?”

“You don’t?”

“I do not. You, Sera, when it comes to otome games, you were just one of those party people, a complete slacker, weren’t you? Listen, Sera, I’ll tell you something important. When you’re playing an otome game, you must be alone, undisturbed, and free. Quiet, and fulfilled…”
Elisabeth started saying something that sounded a lot like a certain imported goods merchant from a certain manga who loves solitary dining.
And as for me, while talking nonsense with Kiryu-san and Elisabeth, I gradually started to calm down.

…It’s okay. It’s not time to panic yet.

[A Mostly Useless Character Introduction for Reading the Main Story]

■ Party People (Pari-pi)
A slang term for 'party people,' stylized for young people. It was trendy for about the last five years, but recently it's fallen out of fashion and you don't hear it much anymore. It refers to people who prioritize taking Ins████m-worthy photos above all else – whether it's at a girls-only night pool, Halloween events, or gathering in Roppongi Hills wearing skimpy Santa costumes in the cold. (There are also mixed-gender groups of party people, but Sera, having attended an almost all-female nursing college, rarely participated in such gatherings.)

You'd think these party girls would have zero otaku hobbies, but surprisingly, they'd pass around manga in class during lectures, frequently sigh about how 'there are no good men outside of 2D,' and even play otome games together, cackling all the way. They don't play zombie games.