Chapter 1 - Prologue
—The time has finally come.
The mechanical bed activated, humming with a faint yet distinct operational sound.
Lying on the machine I had only seen in my dreams, I was so overwhelmed with excitement it would be no exaggeration to say I was on the verge of going insane.
It’s been roughly three years since the release of [Arcadia], the world’s first and only gaming device to make VR—Virtual Reality—a reality.
From the moment this virtual world sent shockwaves across the globe until today, I have endured day after day of patience and hard work. And now, I’ve finally obtained my ticket to the dream world I’ve yearned for.
When [Arcadia] was first announced, it brought elation and despair in equal measure to all the boys and girls around the world who had long fantasized about the fictional concept of “VR games.”
The [Arcadia] console, sold on a completely made-to-order basis, boasted technology that even now, three years later, is said to be “centuries ahead of its time.” And its price tag was just as otherworldly.
How much, you ask? A staggering three million yen per unit.
Including myself, a middle schooler at the time, there were hardly any ordinary students who could act on their desires and shout, “I want it! I’m buying it!”
The only ones who could get their hands on it at launch were adults with enough disposable income to splurge on their hobbies. For a dreaming child, the reality was that they had no choice but to give up.
But this was VR.
This was the dream world that had only existed in stories, a world everyone desperately wanted.
So, for me, who was neck-deep in the gaming swamp at the time, the option to ‘give up quietly’ simply didn’t exist.
—And so, I dedicated all three years of my high school life to part-time jobs.
After school, I’d work until the absolute limit allowed by the school rules.
On weekends, I’d juggle multiple jobs from morning till night.
During long breaks, I’d take on every high-paying short-term job I could find—
Living a life utterly devoid of friendships, my classmates bestowed upon me nicknames like the Part-Time Maniac, the Money-Grubber, the Corporate Warrior Drone, and so on.
After my horrified parents lectured me, begging me to “act like a student,” I worked myself to death in my studies alongside my jobs just to force them to accept my lifestyle.
As a result, I ended up with the top grades in my year—a feat so ridiculous it was almost stupid. I even had the honor of receiving the disgraceful evaluation of being a ‘lost cause’ from my parents and teachers.
My average sleep per night was a flat four hours.
I spent my meager pocket money on energy drinks.
And so, having barely learned the names of my classmates or teachers, graduation loomed—and I finally reached my goal of three million yen.
If I hadn't needed to keep up my studies to persuade my parents, I could have reached the goal much sooner, but that couldn't be helped.
As a child still dependent on them, I couldn't just defy my parents… although, if someone pointed out that in a way, I was defying them head-on, they’d have a point.
In any case, after staring at the proof of my blood, sweat, tears, and energy drinks recorded in my bank book at least a dozen times, I placed the order for [Arcadia] with the help of my parents, who wore expressions of resignation that had become all too familiar over the past three years.
Since the assembly required optimization based on personal data, I had to travel from my rural hometown all the way to Tokyo to handle the paperwork, inspections, and measurements—
—and while I was at it, I took my university entrance exams. To be honest, from that point on, my memory of how I spent the remaining days is a blur.
I think I was in a constant state of excitement, overflowing with anticipation. Apparently, I’d collected several more dishonorable nicknames by graduation, starting with ‘That Crazy Guy.’
I may have lost the trust of my middle school friends and my parents, and perhaps a fair bit of my human dignity… but—it doesn't matter.
Even the acceptance letter from the prestigious university I’d applied to on a whim…
right now…
it doesn't matter anymore…!!
The only thing that matters is this—for a little less than a month…!
“Until university starts…!!”
The long-awaited—fact that I can indulge in a virtual world to my heart's content is all that matters!!
“…Aaaalright, let’s go, Arcadia!! Drive ooooooonnnnnn, yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!!”
And so, I roared out the voice-activated startup key—Drive On—with all the fervor of my soul…
“—Would you shut up, you idiot son!!”
My mother burst into the room with enough force to kick the door down, and I ended up getting a solid hour-long lecture… probably because both my tension and my diction were completely shot.
The machine ignored my beastly roar of a startup key… and the ark to the virtual world remained, for now, disappointingly silent.