Episode 3: In a World Where "There's No Way to Be Saved Anyway"

I went on a zombie-killing spree, my gamer brain firing on all cylinders for the first time in ages.
There was a certain thrill to it, sure, but the guilt of having killed things that were once human also weighed heavily on me.

(It’s fine in a game, but actually killing zombies is way rougher than I expected…)

Sighing, I leaned the machine gun against the wall and slumped into the chair next to the one the old guy had been sitting in.

(How did things even get like this…?)

As I pondered, my gaze fell upon the desk in front of me.
There lay a key I remembered seeing countless times in the game.

(Might as well grab it while I’m here.)

When I picked up the key, Kiryu-san, who had been watching, tilted his head in confusion.

"Sera-chan... What about that key?"

"It's a super useful key to have. My clothes don't have pockets, so... Kiryu-san, could you hold onto it for me? More importantly, what's with the 'Sera-chan' all of a sudden?"

As I said that, Kiryu-san gave me a rather complicated look.

"...I don't know if you're aware of it yourself, but your current appearance is identical to Sera Harvey, the heroine of 'Deadman's Conflict 2'."

"Huh?!"

"I've never played zombie games myself, but I recognize DedCon. I saw it at a game event they were holding in Kaihin Makuhari."

"Seriously? Can something like that even happen?"

I knew it was a dumb response, even as I said it, but it was all I could come up with.

I looked at my own hands, then down at my feet.
I saw long, white legs clad in an adorable mint-green sundress.
Long, dusky, bluish-black hair, and small, slender hands with pink-painted nails also came into view.

...No matter how I looked at it, this wasn't my body.

This was the body of Ms. Sera Harvey, commonly known as 'DedCon's One-Woman Army'—the girl who, despite her girlish confusion when attacked by a horde of zombies in a game-world shopping mall, awakened to her zombie-slaying abilities with unrealistic speed.

"...So, something like that can happen..."

Muttering to myself, I clutched my head. I felt horribly sick.

"It doesn't... It doesn't make any sense..."

"Judging by your reaction, it seems you're also just an ordinary person who was suddenly dragged here from the 'real world'," he said.

"...I think so. Until a little while ago, I was just a humble rookie nurse slogging through unpaid overtime at some hospital's breaking-point ward."

I said this and looked up.

"Um, Kiryu-san. This is a dream, right? It's weird to be talking about this stuff in a dream, but..."

"I wish it were a dream too, believe me," Kiryu-san said, his gaze dropping.
His tone was just like that of a doctor about to deliver bad news—pained, yet trying to remain composed and considerate of the other person's feelings.

"But this probably isn't a dream. ...Do you think a dream could be this detailed, or even make you breathless?"

Faced with his calm gaze, I could only shake my head.

"I don't think there's any dream like that. But still, zombies can't possibly exist in reality, and this place itself is strange, everything is! In the first place, when and how did I end up in this body... in this world...?"

The more I talked, the worse I felt.
Just as the nausea threatened to overwhelm my composure,

"...Life's tough all over, huh? To think you were working overtime too."

I don't know if he sensed my confusion or not, but Kiryu-san patted my shoulder with a small, wry smile. His hand was warm.

"I was working until just a little while ago myself. I was cooped up at the office for a game development job, participating in an all-hands-on-deck debugging session."

"..."

"Debugging, you know," Kiryu-san explained, "is the process of playing the game you've made in various ways to check for bugs."

"Playing a game over and over when you already know the scenario and everything inside out is sheer drudgery. I was also supporting other employees, so I was practically dead on my feet. I must have dozed off for a second, and when I woke up, I was trapped in this incomprehensible world."

"Is that what happened?"

"Yeah. ...So, while it feels a bit weird saying this, given this handsome face, on the inside, I'm just a tired, thirty-year-old engineer from a game development company—an old guy, really. Just like you, I'm from that other world."

He said it in a joking tone, so I couldn't help but laugh.
He's a kind person, I thought.
And somehow, he also seemed earnest and a bit clumsy.

"...I don't think thirty is old enough to be called an 'old guy' yet, though."

"I appreciate you saying that, but you'll understand when you turn thirty. The younger staff will call you an old-timer so much that you'll have no choice but to start calling yourself an old-timer just to cope."

"Does such a harsh world really exist...? I'd never imagine it from your super flashy appearance. Oh, by the way, Kiryu-san, do you know which character you are right now?"

"Kiryu Souichiro, right? I know because... I saw him at a developer event."

"I see."

When I laughed, Kiryu-san laughed too.
It was absurd, really—two people utterly exhausted by modern work and life, now stuck in the bodies of game characters, a world away from our own reality.

"Your smile's back... That's good. I was wondering what I'd do if I couldn't save you too."

"...'You too'? Were you with someone else until just now?"

"Yeah."

Kiryu-san's smile vanished, replaced by a bitter expression.

"A moment ago, I had just lost a companion I'd finally found. Zombies got him."

"'Got him,' you say..."

"As he started to understand the situation, he gradually lost his composure and tried to break through a horde of zombies barehanded."

"...No way. Why would he do something so cliché, like a character doomed from the start in a zombie movie?"

"I don't know either. He kept muttering something like, 'It's hopeless anyway'... Maybe when people get completely overwhelmed, they do inexplicably reckless things."

Kiryu-san lowered his gaze and sighed, then looked at me, his eyes serious.

"...So please, I need you to stay strong. Let's just focus on getting out of this world safely. That's why..."

Kiryu-san's voice trailed off.
I pressed a hand to my chest, where an unpleasant premonition was slowly spreading.

(Someone else got lost in here, just like me, and died. And he said, "It's hopeless anyway" right before he died... Did he know something… ?)

A hush fell over the room, thick with the stench of zombie corpses.
...But then, a sudden realization hit me. I shot to my feet, re-gripping the machine gun.
Kiryu-san looked alarmed.

"Sera-chan, I understand how you feel, but hold on. We should be safe with that weapon, shouldn't we? Let's talk here a little longer while we figure things out."

"I'd love to talk, but I just remembered something important. In this game, nowhere is safe except for places called 'Safe Houses'."

"What? Not safe?"

Kiryu-san's expression grew serious.

"...So, you're saying that anywhere but these Safe Houses, enemies will just keep coming at us?"

"That's right."

I nodded with a grimace.

"And the longer we stay in one place, the more enemies will gather. That's how it's designed."

"Ugh. If this really is a game world, that sounds like it'd cause some serious processing lag..."

Kiryu-san winced.
Maybe because he's a game creator, he catches on quick, which is a huge help.

"I see, I understand why you're panicking. You're right, staying here any longer is dangerous. To avoid attracting too many enemies, we have to keep moving, is that it...?"

"Exactly. That's why we need to reach a Safe House as soon as possible, no, before that..."

I trailed off, my mind racing.

...How was the map in this game laid out again?

Wasn't there an important item dropped near here...?

"...Before we go to a Safe House, there are two things we need to grab."

Explaining quickly, I started walking towards the exit.

"My 'smartphone,' which I dropped in the previous room, and the 'Vital Watch' that's found in the early areas of this stage."

"Vital Watch?"

"Yes. I think they're both essential if we want to get through this game world safely. ...Kiryu-san, have you really never played any of the DedCon games at all?"

Kiryu-san shrugged in response to my question.

"Nope. Zombie games aren't my thing. I play a lot of different games, though."

"I see. Um, the Vital Watch is this gadget, kind of like a watch, that appears in the game... How should I put it? Basically, it's like a wearable status screen for your wrist—it shows your character's health."

Saying that, I grabbed my own left wrist and showed it to Kiryu-san.

"You could glance at your wrist to see your remaining health, the current time, simple stuff like that. It was an experimental feature in 'DedCon 3'—not very popular with the fans, actually—but I think it would be really useful to have in a world like this."

"I see... a diegetic UI, huh."

Kiryu-san nodded, understanding.

"That Vital Watch thing does sound like an item we need right now. ...But what about the smartphone? Is it really worth risking danger to go back for it?"

"The smartphone is absolutely essential. The reason I ended up here was because my smartphone went haywire. There's a high chance it's an important key item, don't you think?"

"Your smartphone went haywire...?"

"I'll explain the details as we go."

I shook my head at Kiryu-san, who looked like he wanted to hear more.

"Right now, we just need to hurry. By the way, Kiryu-san, do you have your phone?"

"Nope."

Kiryu-san shrugged.

"I was taking a nap at my desk during overtime, face down... When I woke up, I was lying on my back in this world. My phone's probably still on my desk at my company."

"I see. Well then, let's retrieve my smartphone first."

"Right."

"And then the Vital Watch."

"Sounds good. Ultimately, let's aim to return to our respective workplaces."

Our objectives were set.

First, retrieve my smartphone.

Next, retrieve the Vital Watch.

...The Vital Watch is an item you get at the very beginning of this game.
On the other hand, the place we're in now is near the end of the game's very first stage, the 'Downtown' district.
So, from here on, we'll be going 'backwards' through the game stage, heading for the earliest area.

---..."It's hopeless anyway"...---

The words Kiryu-san said his companion had uttered—"It's hopeless anyway"—suddenly echoed in my mind.
I couldn't help but lower my gaze.

...But I don't have the luxury of feeling down.

If we keep standing still, in this game, enemies will quickly multiply, and we'll die.
Shaking my head to dispel the ominous feeling, I forced a smile and said,

"I don't understand a single thing about this situation, and I don't know how to get back to our original world, but... let's just do this. We don't have any other choice but to push through."

【Absolutely Unhelpful Character Introductions for Reading the Main Story】

■ Sera
A rookie nurse whose real name is unknown. Her words and actions are a bit ditzy, and she makes a lot of careless mistakes in her private life, but on the other hand, she consumes content at an incredible speed and, on top of that, she's the type of 'energetic person' who remembers an absurd amount of detail about game settings.