Novel From Beyond (Part 2)

CR’s medical office.

Poppy and I returned from the virtual realm, but there was no one in the office.

When I peeked into the hospital room through the window of the medical office, I found the comatose Parad lying in bed. Hiiro-san and Kiriya-san were taking care of him. As long as those two are there, I’m not worried about Parad.

I have to clear Mighty Novel X before my symptoms worsen.

“Kurotopi said in the tutorial that the main character of Mighty Novel X is me, and the game field is the real city we’re in right now.”

“Yeah. He said there’s a novel spot somewhere in this town, right?”

“I have an idea.”

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The fourth district of Seito City. On a street in a quiet residential area.

I was straddling the driver’s seat of a CR emergency bike and turning the gas pedal. Poppy, riding in the back seat, was holding on to me with her arms around my waist.

Memory is a strange thing.

Even though I hadn’t been to the town in years, I could still feel the familiarity of the place.

The route I took to school every day. 

Perhaps because of the unusually large number of hills, this area is not so commercially developed, and the majority of the town is residential. There are more single-family houses than condominiums, and stickers saying “Beware of Fierce Dogs” are placed all over the gates and telephone poles, and even people who are used to living here are startled by the sudden barking of large dogs. At the time, I used to think it was like the man-eating plants that suddenly jump out of clay pipes in action games.

The steep uphill slope, which was rather difficult for me to climb on my way to school after waking up from sleep, became a test for my thigh muscles and transformed into a devilish downhill slope that caused modest damage to my legs and back when I returned home. It’s like the damage floor in RPGs where you lose HP when you walk through it.

I’ve loved games since I was a kid, and I used to think of everyday scenes and events in this way.

Assuming that you have 100 HP, you can recover 20 HP by eating one of your favorite hamburgers. When walking on a tiled road, if you step on the tiles one by one in a regular pattern and keep walking, you will get a no-miss clear. When I saw old people lounging in the sun in front of the eaves of a building, I felt like they were NPCs who only speak the lines they are given. And so on.

People often say that if you only play games all the time, you’ll become a useless person, but I still think it wasn’t all bad for me.

The game logic added to the scenery of the town I was looking around stimulated my imagination, or rather, not just an immediate interpretation of what I saw, but an infinite number of imaginary stories. Maybe it’s because I liked it so much, but I lost track of time when I was thinking about games. It could make an hour become five minutes.

As I was thinking about it, we quickly reached our destination.

After stopping the first aid bike, Poppy and I took off our helmets and got off the bike.

In front of me, I could see a coin-operated parking lot with space for four cars. It was in such a residential area that I doubted whether anyone would use it, but there were three cars parked there. Two of them were family cars, and one was the company car of a nearby construction company.

“Is this an important place for you?”

“…Yeah.”

There were a number of familiar single-family houses standing alongside the coin-operated parking lot. The vending machine, which I have probably used more than any other in my life, was still there.

“This coin parking lot. This is where I used to live.”

“Oh, I see. This is your parents’ house?”

“Yes… It’s where I grew up.”

“Oh, this is where you…”

Poppy looked at the landscape of the city with a curious gaze, making sure she didn’t miss anything. Even though it was an ordinary residential area that was not particularly interesting, she looked at it as if she were looking at an amusement park attraction. Just because it was the place I grew up in.

Sometimes I feel a kindness in Poppy that is far from human.

No, she’s not human, though.

Of course, bugsters are born knowing only the world of their own game, so I think it’s possible that they find the outside world refreshing.

But that’s not all.

Poppy has the kindness to be curious about any kind of thing, like when she wanted to know more about Hiiro-san and Kiriya-san’s family. I like that about Poppy.

…Maybe it’s okay to confide in Poppy if she’s like that.

…Maybe Poppy will accept me.

…about my family.

…about my past.

Such thoughts flashed through my mind for a moment, but I quickly shook my head and brushed them away, as if I were erasing a freshly made adventure book.

I made up my mind and approached the coin parking lot.

As the protagonist of Mighty Novel X, one of the novel spots must be here if my event is to occur.

“…Nothing’s happening,” Poppy muttered.

“Maybe there’s some condition that triggers the event.”

“Conditions?”

“Mighty Novel X is a game that Kuroto-san has prepared for me. It’s possible that he’s doing something to keep uninvolved members of the public from getting involved in the game.”

“I see. If that’s the case, does that mean the requirement is something that Emu can do and the general public can’t?”

Something I can do that most people can’t. I took out my Gamer Driver and put it on my waist.

My hunch was right.

“Mighty Novel X! Event Start!”

The system voice announcing the start of the game event echoed out of nowhere.

I wondered what kind of story Kuroto-san was planning to show me by sending me this game.

The fate that this story leads to. Is it light? Or is it darkness?

Either way, I’m ready for it.

No matter what the story is, I will not turn my back on it, and I will see it all through.

Soon, the scene around us became distorted into a mosaic.

We were lured into the special space of Mighty Novel X.

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