kscans

Chapter 1 - Prologue

At long last, the time had come.

The mechanical bed hummed to life, its faint but distinct operating sound filling the air.

Lying on the machine I had seen even in my dreams, I was consumed by an excitement so overwhelming that it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I was on the verge of madness.

It had 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 day this virtual world sent shockwaves across the globe until now, I had endured days of patience and hard work. And finally, I had obtained the ticket to the dream world I had 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" from 2D media.

The [Arcadia] unit, which was announced as a completely built-to-order system, boasted a level of technology still described as being "several centuries ahead of its time," even three years after its release. Naturally, its price was just as extraordinary.

The cost for a single unit was a staggering three million yen.

Including myself, a middle school student at the time of the announcement, there were likely no ordinary students who could simply act on their desires and say, "I want it! I'll buy it!"

The only ones who could get their hands on it at launch were adults with enough disposable income to splurge on their hobbies. The reality for dreaming children was that they had no choice but to give up.

But this was VR.

It was the dream world that had only existed in stories, a world everyone desperately wanted.

So, for me, who was completely immersed in the swamp of gaming at the time, the option to 'quietly give up' simply didn't exist.

And so, I dedicated my three years of high school to part-time jobs.

After school, I worked until the absolute latest minute the school rules would allow.

On holidays, I worked multiple jobs from morning till night.

During long breaks, I took on every high-paying short-term job I could find—

Living a life devoid of any social interaction, my classmates bestowed upon me nicknames like the Part-Time Maniac, the Money-Grubber, the Corporate Slave Warrior, and so on.

After my horrified parents lectured me, telling me to "act more like a student," I threw myself into my studies with a death-or-glory attitude alongside my jobs just to force them to accept it.

As a result, I ended up at the top of my grade—a ridiculous achievement that, in its own way, seemed just as crazy. I even had the honor of receiving the less-than-flattering evaluation of 'hopeless case' from my parents and teachers.

My average daily sleep was a flat four hours.

I spent what little pocket money I scraped together on energy drinks.

And so it was, just before my high school graduation, having barely learned the names of my classmates or teachers—that I finally reached my goal of three million yen.

If I hadn't needed to study in parallel to persuade my parents, I could have reached it much sooner, but that couldn't be helped.

As a child still under their care, I couldn't outright defy my parents... though if someone pointed out that, in a way, I was defying them head-on, they'd have a point.

At any rate, after staring at the crystallization of 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 the resigned expressions I had grown so used to over the past three years.

Since the assembly process required optimization based on personal data, I had to travel from my rural hometown to Tokyo to handle the paperwork, inspections, measurements, and all that—

—and while I was at it, I took my university entrance exams—honestly, from around that point, my memory of how I spent the remaining days is a blur.

I suppose I was in a constant state of excitement, overflowing with anticipation. I also heard that by the time I graduated high school, I had acquired several more dishonorable nicknames, starting with 'that crazy guy.'

I might have lost the trust of my friends from middle school, my parents' faith, and whatever human dignity I had left... but who cares.

Even the acceptance letter from the prestigious university I'd applied to on the side...

...to me, right now...

...none of that matters anymore!

The only thing that's important is this—for just under a month...!

"Until university starts...!"

—the long-awaited fact that I can indulge myself in this virtual world!

"...Let's fucking go, Arcadia! Drive ooonnn, yeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

And so, I screamed the voice-authenticated activation key, 'Drive On,' with all the fury of my soul...

"—Would you shut the hell up, you idiot son!"

...only for my mother to burst into the room with enough force to kick the door off its hinges, subjecting me to a solid hour-long lecture. It was probably because my tension and articulation were both completely shot.

The machine ignored my beastly activation roar... and the ark to the virtual world remained frustratingly silent.