View source for City Series:Volume8a Chapter1

===Aoe’s Sight Mode: At DT Yard===

'''<Aoe’s Over Reload>

Aoe felt like he had suddenly awoken from sleep and found himself standing in a room.

“That was sudden.”

It was a small room of about 5 yards in each direction. The flag of the city, discolored with time, covered the north and south walls.

The city’s symbol depicted on the flag was a white cross standing atop a blossoming flower with a giant tower in the background.

A large wooden desk with a birdcage on top was found in the center of the room placed between two copies of that image.

A man sat on the other side of the desk with a digital wall clock above the window behind him.

The middle-aged black man’s fat body was contained in a Yard uniform with an unusual number of latches.

Amicable eyes smiled below his short hair.

He leaned over the desk, offering his hand to Aoe. Aoe reached out his hand too, but…

“Mh?”

He couldn’t get his hand onto Telyb’s. Telyb smiled bitterly when he noticed.

“You still need to optimize the subprograms that move your PC Body. Probably a good time to show you what a Download looks like. A nonstandard Download Text loads half your Lives into this Minus World.”

'''I want to confirm my presence.

A bluish-white light briefly gathered in Telyb’s hand. It formed an emblem that used a set of scales as a symbol.

The emblem soon disappeared and a sound like shattering glass came from his hand.

Then his hand was holding Aoe’s.

Telyb smiled again.

“Welcome to DT, the Minus City where we summon a god. And welcome to DT Yard, Aoe Shouzou.”

“Nice to meet you.” / <This guy’s face looks like a takoyaki.>

When that thought came to mind, a black-framed window appeared over Aoe’s head.

Aoe viewed the window. So did Telyb. The latter frowned and shook their clasped hands.

“Sorry, but the settings don’t allow criminals to hide their thoughts or to attack.”

“To keep them from plotting, I’m sure. Sounds more effective than a truth serum.”

Aoe checked the mirror on the wall to his right and saw a cartoony Shiba Inu on his shoulder.

He saw his own short black hair and his sharp and somewhat slender face. His skinny but fit body wore a simple black tank top and white shorts. His hands and feet were covered by armored gloves and sandals.

<That’s the usual me.>

“We made your PC Body identical to your real body. I hope that wasn’t a problem.”

“I look and feel the same as usual.”

This body was actually the PC Body created when he entered the city. His actual body’s Lives were stored in the intermediary layer between DT and the outside world and controlled this body through a resonance effect. Basically, this was a false body used to live in this Minus World.

When he needed his real body, he could switch to Sight Mode and perform either a Download or a Grandload.

<nowiki><I</nowiki> see>

Another thought window appeared over his head while he came to understand several things. Then he looked to the top of the wall.

The clock there said 29:53:54 and it was ticking down second by second.

“That’s counting down until the Day of the Oracle that Algo mentioned, isn’t it? For that festival celebrating the boost tomorrow.”

He nodded at his own words.

The word “festival” inspired him to look out the window behind Telyb.

He saw the city of DT there, but the image was weirdly blurry. Telyb noticed what he was looking at and addressed it.

“That’s what happens when you try to look past the borderline with another Page. In Sight Mode, you need to Over Zoom instead of Over Reloading.”

'''<Aoe’s Over Zoom: Full Sight Open>

The view out the window grew clearer.

A main street was located directly out ahead of the Yard building and all the buildings lining it were made of stone or wood.

The road itself was made of dirt with grass on either side.

There were a lot of trees between the houses and there was a well at the center of a distant intersection between two roads.

Looking north, he saw a gray castle surrounded by fortress walls. That was the royal castle.

Flags and other things had been erected throughout the castle town, so it really did feel like the preparations for a festival.

But Aoe tilted his head while viewing it all.

“Why the medieval look? I heard this used to be a major industrial city. Doesn’t this make for a lot of extra work?”

“You know the city was virtually sealed away by the detonation of the Word Bomb during the war, right? When the people trapped there were rescued a decade or so later, they left DT in fear.”

“So the place became deserted? That doesn’t explain this old-fashioned city.”

“It wasn’t just that. When we were given this place as a testing ground for our experiments, we rebuilt it as a Minus City instead of an industrial one. We gave it a sky and a sea and we built the workshops and houses out of a false forest and false stones.”

He took a breath.

“Later on, the 2nd Godtact Experiment ended in failure and DT lost its memories just like it had lost its form and its people earlier. The data from the experiment told us the godtact would trigger a Great Godquake, so I and the rest of the 11 Demigods made a crucial decision: we would end the godtact experiments and make the best of the time we had.”

“I see. So this easygoing city was created by those godtact experiments that are now known as Death Techno.”

Aoe had heard about that incident from Yuo during their schooldays.

The godtact experiments had attempted to reach into the ley lines and extract the Great God Lives said to be the foundation of the very world.

Aoe had heard precisely three things about those experiments.

One, the 1st Godtact Experiment held in ’73 had failed and resulted in massive damage to DT. Yuo and 12 others had been partially fused with DT’s OS and made into immortal beings known as the 13 Demigods.

Two, the 2nd Godtact Experiment held in ’82 had failed and resulted in the erasure of most of DT’s memories. Archon Suedomsa, a Japanese national and #2 of the 13 Demigods had also lost his memories. Yuo also lost her memories after the formatting and is currently under the protection of the royal castle.

Three, DT hid all records preceding that event and designated the experiments Death Techno.

Aoe nodded.

“I get making that Death Techno. No one would survive a Great Godquake.”

“I suppose a Japanese man would understand that part. Before we knew the consequences, we believed we were doing the right thing by approaching god’s Lives. We even took our Urban Names as our last names – every one of them an enemy of god’s name spelled backwards.”

“And now one of you leads the Yard, huh? You never know what life has in store for you, do you?”

Aoe sighed and shifted his gaze away from the castle. He noticed something to the south.

There was a mountain there and what looked like an amusement park. And past the Ferris wheel and white castle, he saw something much bigger.

“Oh,” he said out loud.

A vertical silhouette stood tall in the southern sky.

It was a giant tower.

“That must be Babel.”

“Yes, it was moved here because we provided aid with your country’s Godquake. That Word Tower was remodeled into an extractor of divine prophecies in order to rescue Tokyo after it was sealed away in the summer of ’99.”

“It looks complete to me.”

“It is. It’s scheduled to start running after the boost settings change tomorrow. The Japanese corporate sponsor won’t shut up about it, you see. They want us to hurry up and start producing a lot of prophecies for cheap. The boost settings change was a request made by that Japanese company.”

Telyb took a breath, rested his elbow on the desk and calmly viewed Aoe.

“Anyway, that should be enough of an introduction to DT, so let’s get down to business. I gathered my thoughts in a Word Mail and it honestly contains a fair amount of me just bitching.”

“How do I receive Word Mails here?”

“I already sent it to you. Have the Mouse on your shoulder bring it up for you. Think of it like a terminal you carry around with you.”

Aoe looked to his shoulder and saw the cartoony brown Shiba Inu looking up at him.

Once their eyes met, the Shiba Inu raised its front paw and opened a window.

'''<Opening Word Mail Window>