Crowbar Nurse Chapter 9

“Kiryu! Are you okay? Seeing you drive yourself into a wall like that makes me wonder if you’re really human.”

“…! Well, looks like you’re alright on your end.”

Landing firmly back on the ground, Kiryu looked over his shoulder and responded to me.
Him gritting his teeth told me that repeatedly running into a wall had hurt.

[[MOREE]]

“Yes, the troops should be fine on their own now… we’ll let Nick and the army take care of the enemies in the area. We’ve cleared this stage already, so we can consider it a safe zone.”
“You really are something else… I know I’ve asked you if you could do something to stall them, but I didn’t expect you to build a fully-functioning automated zombie-killing system.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you coming up with the bait. If it were just me all alone, I probably wouldn’t be still alive.”

I forced a half-hearted chuckle.

“If anything, you’re the one who’s been amazing, Kiryū.
I had completely forgotten about bugs and glitches. I didn’t believe you at all at first, but it seems like there’s really a spot which we can use to escape this world…”
“Yeah… if I keep attacking this wall, I’ll be able to get past it bit by bit and eventually clip through it entirely.”

Kiryū points to the wall with his chin and to which I nod along.

“Right, and that’s amazing. But… you know, Kiryū, not only do we have the unstoppable army from h.e.l.l, we also have Nick now. That means we can safely fight the zombies with combat tactics and strategy.
You don’t need to force yourself anymore.”
“…”
“…”
“… b-but I want to try.”
“Okay. Then let’s do it together.”

He scratched the back of his head after my awkward outburst.

“You don’t need to suffer with me either.”
“Well, joining you would be a bit of a headache…”

My forced laugh didn’t make it any less awkward.

“Why are you so focused on this one wall anyway? Are your game dev senses tingling?”
“Well, kinda, but also, I just want a clue…”

He paused to let out a melancholic sigh.

“… a clue on how to get out of here.
The more I think about what “here” is, the more confused I get.
If we’re truly in a game, then there’s gotta be bugs that we can exploit. Something like this wall here.”

Kiryū patted the wall as he spoke.

“Hackers aren’t people who try to force their way through an impenetrable defense.
Rather, they scan every nook and cranny where they think they might find c.h.i.n.ks in the armor.
… I still don’t understand much about this world, but I’m certain, with enough patience and perseverance, I’ll find a bug somewhere. And it’ll be by exploiting those bugs that we’ll find our way home… or so I think.”
“Kiryū…”
“Y’see, Sera…”

Kiryū looked down at me with a grave face.

“… you have the skills to survive in this world. You were so calm and collected, even when our situation seemed so bleak.
But that won’t get us home. There’s no point to survival without a goal.
I’m a game dev. Let me handle getting us home… and luckily for us, cracking security is my forte.”
“Hey…”
“We’ll be alright, Sera. We’ll definitely make it back home.”

He followed his words with a soft, clumsy smile—a telltale sign of someone not used to smiling.

“… you’re right. We’ll make it out of this.”

I couldn’t help but follow suit and smile after seeing his. I realized I came to adore his beautiful smile.
—Ignoring the fact that Kiryū is a total hottie from a dating sim game, there’s still something calming about his smile. It’s scary to even imagine how I would be without him… I’d still be lost and wandering alone.
I turned and faced the direction of downtown, where zombies and NPCs were killing each other.

Under the thick black smoke billowing out the skyline, monsters ran amok in the city. It was a scene from h.e.l.l.

Being thrown into this world is frightening. It still frightens me. But I’m glad to have met him…

I was in reflection.

… with him by my side, I can do it.

We’ll laugh at silly things together. We’ll search for our escape together.
No matter how bleak our way may seem, we’ll fight through this together.

“… let’s escape past the walls together, Kiryū.”

The profession of a common goal came out of my mouth as I turned towards Kiryū.
Be it playing a game or looking for bugs, it’s better with two heads than one.
Kiryū cheerily responded with another smile and he showed me the way.

“Thanks. Well, ladies first.”
“… what are you so happy about?”
“Things are more fun when you get to share it with someone. Isn’t that obvious?”
“Running into a wall head first is fun for you?”
“Hha, very funny. No, but exploiting bugs is.
Okay, listen up, Sera. Stand like this, right up against the corner… yeah, just like that. Now, keep jumping as hard as you can into the wall and you’ll find yourself clipping through it.”
“Alright… ugh, I bet this is gonna hurt.”

I might have been grumbling about it, but after closing my eyes shut, I did exactly what he said and began ramming into the wall… though at some point, it really did start to hurt my head.

“You can stop jumping, Sera! You’re through!”

His voice came from beyond the wall.
I gingerly opened my eyes and the scene that lay before me was… indescribable.

It was just as Kiryu described—I was beyond this world.

☆

“Whoa…”

Entering another dimension had rendered me speechless, dumbfounded.
There were yet more dilapidated buildings here, even more than the Downtown area in game.

I recognize this place… I’m in the Slums.

Hanging from the sills of broken windows was laundry that looked more like rags. An abandoned bicycle lay in the streets below, but anything worth money has already been plundered.

‘The Slums’

Though I may have seen it countless times, I had never stepped foot in the area.

They teased it in the trailer, but this area never made it into the final game…

I racked my memory as I looked around.
Not so surprising was the fact that there weren’t any enemies around. What was though, was the backdrop.

The scenery reflects in the sky…

s.h.i.+vers ran down my spine.

What’s usually the background of the game was now duplicated and plastered all over the s.p.a.ce above.
But even so, I remembered all of this. This tree stood beside this building, as it did when I played the game.
This creepy, odd scene was so… familiar.

I remember someone hacking their way into the Slums portion of the game and uploaded it for everyone to watch…

This s.p.a.ce was weird. The buildings and the trees that surround them seem to be crafted out of flimsy sheets of plywood. Almost as if they’re scenery built for a school play.
But… scenery pieces and props don’t float in the air, as far as I know. I’m definitely not back in the real world yet.

—Will we really be able to break free of this bizarro world?

“… looks like we’re definitely trapped in another world.”

Instinctively, I spun around to the voice that was behind me. It was Kiryū, and he was here before I even realized.
He was grimacing and clutching his head. Must’ve been from running into the wall too hard.

“Guess we really are in an alternate game dimension…”
“What do you mean by that? We’re not actually in the game?”

Kiryū’s eyes were shut, still wincing from the pain.

“Yeah. All of the bugs are still present, but this is too well-refined to be the actual game. Take for instance… oh, like my belt here. I’ve strapped the crowbar and the rifle with unlimited ammo to my belt.
There’s no way the characters in game could do anything like this.”

He spun around and showed me his backside and there were the crowbar and rifle hanging off his belt.

“Jeez, you’re going to shoot yourself in the b.u.t.t, Kiryū.
… well, but you’ve got a point. There’s no way in the game to stick a gun in your waistband like some gangsta.
Oh, and thanks so much for bringing my gun here too.”
“You’re far too careless. You know there are zombies out there, right? You can’t afford to leave your weapon behind.”

Kiryū sighed before scanning our surroundings.

“… we’re able to do things we shouldn’t.
Things show up that shouldn’t.
There are a lot of things we do that require really complex calculations, and we’ve really broken the physics engine too… there’s no way we’re in a game.”
“That’s true. Not only have the zombies been freely roaming, we’ve been moving around with way too much freedom than the game would’ve allowed… I’ve never seen this before when I was playing, that’s for sure.”

I looked around once again before shrugging.

“It’s impossible on a technical level, huh?”
“Yeah. This world we’re in is barely believable as fantasy, let alone science fiction.”

His eyes narrowed, staring off into the distance.
Then, silence fell between us.
I was lost in my own thoughts as I glanced around the thin, fake-looking buildings.

Will we make it back alive? How are things like back in the hospital? I wonder if my disappearance caused a huge stir. Or maybe time isn’t even elapsing while I’m on the other side…

Kiryū broke my train of thought as he began to smack the buildings and throw rocks at them. Then I noticed the unusual, distorted shadows by my feet.

“… the resolution of the shadow mapping is really low… clipping over the wall to this side didn’t change a thing.”

Mutters accompanied Kiryū as he examined the different bugs in this world… then, a rock by his foot fell through the ground and disappeared.

“Whoa, is physics not a thing here?!”
“… seems that way. We should really watch our step. We might end up falling through the ground and disappearing too.”
“What the…”
“Well, I guess if you fall, you fall. There’s no helping it, even if you were to worry about it.”
“… but you were just telling me to be more careful. Your curiosity beats your risk aversion, hey? It totally shows on your face. It’s saying, ‘exploiting these bugs is too fun to miss out on,’ you know?”
“…”

I caught a sheepish, embarra.s.sed smile on his face before I turned to looking around again. I’d be lying if I claimed to totally understand everything he’s said, but I know at least that this side of the wall is a lot weirder than the other side. We really should be more careful…

“… oh. Oh! I just remembered, Kiryū.”
“What is it?”

Like a certain theoretical physicist would do, Kiryū had been bas.h.i.+ng his red crowbar against every object he saw to make sure there weren’t any bugs that he might have forgotten about.

“I just can’t help but feel like this is all sci-fi.
Are you sure we’re not trapped in some sort of game world, like the protagonists in Lance Art Online?”

While voicing my concerns, I sat down on the ground, leaning on a wall. It looked safe enough anyway.
He answered with shock.

“We were just working unpaid overtime, weren’t we?
Where did we get the time to start playing video games?”
“Umm, our memories probably just got a little scrambled. You know how popular VR gaming has been real popular lately?
Someone probably knocked us out, kidnapped us, brought us to some underground testing chambers of a secret government agency, and made us guinea pigs to test out the newest VR headsets!
… whaddya think?”
“It’s just a little farfetched.”

Kiryū snickered as he playfully smacked me on the top of my head.

“Could you feel that?”
“Totally.”
“Me too. We both physically felt it.
No game is capable of this level of haptic feedback.
If a player hits anything with their hands, then the same amount of energy should be sent back into their hands. That would require actuators.
Without them, we would have neither the senses of “touch” and “being touched”. We haven’t even dreamed of having a gaming console or VR system with that level of technology.”
“Dang. Sci-fi is endlessly deep.”
“It’s not sci-fi either. We’re at the brink of large-scale development of that kind of tech.”
“Hmm… stuff like that kinda goes over my head, but I a.s.sume it’s still not feasible to fit all that into a glove.”
“You’re exactly right.”

He nodded.

“That’s why if we were really in a current-gen VR game, we would phase through other players and walls. The collision detection isn’t at that level yet.
Plus, I don’t think any headset could provide such an expansive field of vision.”
“I guess… that’s kinda lame, though. It would’ve been cool if we were stuck in a VR game world.”

Kiryū snickered again.

“I feel you.
But think about it. Firstly, if we were really stuck in a VR world, we could simply take off the headset and get out of here.”
“I think the in Lance Art Online, the players couldn’t get out because their brains were hooked up to the game.”
“That’s the least believable part.
How would you even connect a brain to a game? We don’t have that sort of technology yet.
What, did they crack open their skulls, plug in electrodes, and stick a USB port out through the back of their necks?”
“No way, that’s super lame. And grotesque.”
“Gross, sure, but I don’t think anybody would do that much for ‘just a video game’ anyway.”
“Oh, I’m not so sure about that.”
“It doesn’t sound very lucrative either.
… there’s no way any company would develop something that over-the-top.
I don’t think you’ll have to worry about being stuck in a VR world.”

With a shrug and a smile, Kiryū dismantled my theory before becoming dead serious.

“Anyway… it doesn’t look good for us.
If we’re really lost in some of alternate game dimension, then how are we meant to get back? What’s the key to solving all of this…?”
“…”

I grimaced at the words Kiryū said to himself.
—How do we get out of this world? I haven’t got the slightest idea…
Not ideas, rather I had tears started welling up before I knew it.
I had more important things to be anxious about, though.

“And, umm, Kiryū? I was wondering…”
“What’s up?”
“Are we… stepping on someone?”
“…”

We instantly turned our heads down to the ground to see a purple lump trampled beneath our feet.

“Agh, we totally are!”

We weren’t strictly stepping on a body, but just a skirt—the skirt a girl was wearing.
I knew she probably wasn’t an NPC simply by looking at her grandiose clothing.
She’s one of us… someone trapped in the body of a video game character.

■Nick

A headset for VR games. Though there was a setback in the mid 1990’s, this medium found its resurgence in 2012. It was then a teenager and his handcrafted prototypes received remarkable crowdfunding support and ultimately, rapidly leading the current trend.

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