Perhaps the day where you will also obtain this game may arrive.
However……, never ever play it half-heartedly.
This is no mere game.
At the very least, I was putting my life on the line.
ーWhat I can say is just that.
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Do you wish to participate in this game?
【YES】 【NO】
That incident suddenly occurred one morning.
On that day, just like always, I was also heading out to collect the morning newspaper.
Then, I opened my mailbox while rubbing my drowsy eyes.
Inside was the morning newspaper and ……
……Hmm?
I widened my eyes.
That was because other than the morning newspaper, there was also a game console which I have never seen before placed inside.
……Could it be something someone lost?
Nah, that's not it.
In the first place, to have purposely lost something in other people's mailboxes is too strange.
……In that case, a prank?
I tried to calmly lift the game console up.
"Ah……eh!? It launched……!"
Despite being surprised, I peered at the screen.
『Do you wish to participate in this game?』
These words appeared on the screen.
"Eh? N…no!"
I answered in that manner right away.
I guess I'm an idiot.
Even though it is impossible for the console to answer……
When I was giving a wry smile, as hard as it is to believe, a voice came emitting from the console.
"No, that is impossible. You do not have a choice. Yashiro Mai-san."
I widened my eyes involuntarily.
The console spoke?
ーNah.
If I think about it properly, a game console that emits voice is not rare in this world.
The problem is not there.
Why does this console know my name?
This is the part where I feel dubious.
―A coincidence?
Nah, judging from this situation, there's no way.
I'm terribly getting the willies.
Not minding my situation, that black game console continues to speak.
『Yashiro Mai-sama. All your personal information has already been inputted in this console. For example, you're 22 years old, Blood type O, height is 158, weight……』
"He…Hey! St-stop it!"
Without thinking, I was about to strike it and destroy it.
『In addition, if you destroy this console, it will explode, are you fine even with that?』
"……Wha!?"
I was suddenly seized by a terribly great sense of trepidation."
What's happening?
Why does it know the actions I am about to take?
Could it be that I'm being monitored……?
I felt a chill running down my spine.
ーScary.
I resigned to my fate and inquired of the owner of the game console's voice.
"What…what should I do exactly?"
Paying no attention to my trembling, the mysterious voice from the console continued the explanation indifferently.
『Please participate in this game. That is all.』
"Well then, what if I say that I refuse?"
I questioned further while carrying a sense of foreboding.
『We will kill all the people who are important to you. If you can't believe it, shall we try killing someone?』
In my mind, the faces of various people surfaced.
What if what this guy's statement is not a bluff?
People will really die……?
It's not a joke……!
I can't do something like testing it out.
"I got it! I got it okay. I will…I will participate…… However, let me just ask this. What is your aim?"
Once I indicated my intention to participate, the console's voice suddenly changed completely from it's previous indifferent tone to one that is thick with emotions.
After that, along with an uncanny laughter, this is what the guy said.
『It is simply for entertainment. Ah, that's right. It's because anything is acceptable inside the game. Finding and killing us too……right. Hee hee hee……』
ーShivers.
In an instant, my spine froze in place.
What is he thinking?
I can't grasp this guy's real intention.
ーBut, I can only say this.
I have gotten myself involved in something outrageous……
Even after the voice from the game console could no longer be heard, I was standing rooted to the spot for some time.
My mind was completely blank.
I gazed at the game console I was holding in my hands again.
First things first, I'll do what I am able to do.
There's nothing else to do but try it out.
I grasped the game console tightly with my quivering hands and opened the front door.
Then returned to my own room.
I have decided to resolve myself and commence playing this game.
Conveniently, today is Sunday.
Therefore, I will also not go to the office and finish this.
This is surely a small mercy amidst a misfortune.
┏━━━━━━━━━┓
┃■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■┃
┃■ ■ナイトメア■ ■┃
┃■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■┃
┗━━━━━━━━━┛
On the simple black screen, it was displayed in white words which looked like they have been scribbled.
Somehow it appears that this is the title screen.
A literal translation has the meaning of 【Nightmare】.
Nightmare, huh…….
I felt some bad vibes.
Speaking of this title screen, it gives off an uneasy feeling.
Thereupon, the screen changed completely and an explanatory note was displayed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Welcome.
You are the 6925030th player.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It seems like the voice is not always emitted.
However, this is an unthinkable figure.
I counted the digits.
Approximately 7 million people……!?
Furthermore, even while I was looking, the total number of participants displayed at the bottom of the screen.
This number was steadily increasing.
This game……there is certainly something strange about it.
Upon thinking about that, the screen changed completely again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Player's initial settings】
Please create your avatar.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
……Avatar?
This is definitely the character I'm controlling right.
However, it was beyond my expectations.
What you can choose is…
【Eyes】
【Mouth】
【Heart】
【Ears】
【Left Hand】
And the rest stated which were only one part of the body.
Moreover, there was nothing such as an image, there were only words.
How exactly are the heart, left hand and so forth related to the creation of the avatar?
But, I understand just this.
That from now on, I do not necessarily need to create an "avatar".
Then, at the bottommost part of the column on text, I discovered that a note of caution was present.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
《Points to take note of when selecting》
※According to which part you choose, your set value (status) will vary.
In addition, since there are risks, please be sure to exercise caution.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
……Risks!?
I am clearly getting a dreadful premonition……
For the time being, I decided that I will try to observe how much the status changes when I go in order from the top.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Eyes】
Skill acquisition upper limit…5
CP…50
【Left Hand】
Skill acquisition upper limit…3
CP…10
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
By looking at it, I could somehow or other understand that what varies seems to be 'Skills acquisition upper limit' and 'CP'.
The skills acquisition upper limit should definitely be about the upper limit of special abilities and stuff like picking up things in those kinds of categories.
The problem is CP.
As for this, it could probably be the abbreviation of something……
I don't know what it denoted.
But, I somehow understand that it appears to be something important.
I scrolled the screen further.
My hand was scrolling when at one column of text, it stopped.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Heart】
Skills acquisition upper limit…∞
CP…1000000
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
……Eh?
Wh…What is this!?
Only for this item, it is incredibly high.
Skill acquisition upper limit is an infinity(∞) symbol.
Furthermore, CP is 1 million points.
This is abnormal……
Moreover, even though you receive all those points, the location you must choose is the heart?
I'm sure there has to be something to it.
I gulped involuntarily.
This is not simply a "game".
If I don't choose carefully, I'm certain that something unthinkable will probably happen in the distant future……
Which body part should I choose?
After deliberating for a long time, I finally decided to choose 'Left Hand'.
The reason being that it seems to be the least risky.
However, I didn't think that I would spend an hour to make up my mind.
I guess I'm considerably indecisive.
I involuntarily gave a wry smile.
Incidentally, it happened that the skill acquisition upper limit for 'Left hand' is 3.
As for the CP, it is set as 10 points.
Is this actually a lot or little?
ーNot that puzzling.
Once I finished deciding, as if it had been waiting, the voice from the game console came on.
『……So you have chosen 'Left hand'. Understood. In addition, please note that if your character dies in the game, to be revived again, the body part you have previously selected will cease functioning as the cost of revival……』
Eh!?
Cease functioning meaning……, it will become unable to move, something like that?
I exclaimed greatly in surprise.
"Wh…What's that! You're kidding right!?"
The owner of the voice laughed eerily.
『Hee hee…… Whether I'm kidding, you'll find out if you try dying once…… Well then, for now, we'll start the game. Hmm, good luck』
Once it simply said that, after the voice made a snap sound, it went dead on its own……
Then, the screen display came on once again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Selection/Left Hand】
Activating the auto system.
Mai-sama's personal information
Starting recognition
・・・Processing.
Character creation is completed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Along with the electronic sound, a message informing the completion of work popped up.
Somehow it seems like the character can be created automatically.
It looks like you can confirm the data that has been prepared……
For the time being, I shall try to take a look at it first.
I pressed the button and it switched to the status screen.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【Character Name】
Yashiro Mai
【Skill】0/3
Not acquired yet
【Fear Tolerance Limit】
45/100
【Cost of Revival】
Left Hand
【Charm】A
※【High←S・A・B・C・D→Low】
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I looked at the status screen and was shocked.
The character name has become my real name.
In other words, it means that I have to play the game using my real name.
I somehow don't like it……
Besides, there's an item called 'Fear Tolerance Limit' which meaning I can't comprehend.
Even more, 'Charm'.
Although I'm happy that it is an 'A', I wonder if this is something the game requires?
ーIt's a mystery.
Next, I glanced towards the completed character's graphics.
"……Eh!?"
At that instant, I received a total shock within me.
This……, resembles.
The created character's hairstyle, hair colour, eyes, mouth, nose and everything were the spitting image of me.
Why?
Resembling me so precisely to this extent, I could not help but feel a sense of trepidation.
I looked at the screen and became stiff, it was right then.
On the game screen, 'One Message' was displayed.
Message……?
It looks like another player had come to communicate with me.
However, how exactly do I view this?
I was puzzled and used the game's help function.
【Auto Help】
For messages, you can check by pressing the【□button】.
※Auto Help explains the required "basic operations" when starting the game.
If you wish to know about the game in greater details, please refer to the help corner for the respective parts.
―I see.
I pressed the corresponding button as instructed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
【FROM: Asagi Taisuke】
【TO:Yashiro Mai】
I'm surprised.
You also finally participated too……
I'm glad that I have been checking the names on the list of new participants every day.
Oh, that's right.
I'll only tell you this in advance. Only for the heart, don't select it as your cost of revival.
In addition, before the game starts, be sure to definitely read the help section once.
That is if you do not want to die.
End
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I finished reading the mail and pondered over it.
"Asagi, Taisuke……?"
Who's Asagi Taisuke?
Although I feel like I have heard that somewhere before.
Since it bothered me for some reason, I decided to try giving a reply to this message.