The Virtual Mass Murder

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

“Okay, here’s the rundown on what we need to do in this mission. I will sneak into one of the rooms to kill our target, Jabhar Al-Hadeed. The cue for that will be when Yuuto already shoots the guards who are at the watchtower. Both of you will make a move once I have already killed the target. There’s no doubt that they become more alert after Jabhar Al-Hadeed is dead. So, please be careful when you make a move,” I say to them. Everyone nods their head, understanding what they need to do in this mission.

Akie takes a deep breath, as she tries to calm herself. She seems nervous since it’s her first time doing the actual mission in Fatal Bullet. Sure, Jabhar Al-Hadeed may only be a fictional target that we have to kill to complete our first mission. But it can still be nerve-wracking for someone like her who is new to the game. So, I get why she feels antsy before the mission commences.

Our first mission for the qualifying round takes place in the terrain of Afghanistan. In this mission, we have to locate the terrorist group’s base camp. Once we already found the base camp, we have to kill the target and seize their base camp altogether. According to our intel, it seems that they’re keeping tetrodotoxin in the form of micro-encapsulated and aerosol in their base camp. It’s possible to extract TTX, the short form of tetrodotoxin in large amounts from the pufferfish.

We have no idea what this terrorist group intends to do with these large amounts of TTX. But it’s not surprising that they will use TTX for a large-scale attack on large cities anywhere in this world. In the single-player mode, the main character is a guy who is one of the officers in Delta Force. His default name is James Miller. But we can change the name into any name we want. Yuuto and I stick with the default name since we’re okay with that.

As for the multiplayer co-op mode, we’re playing as one of the teams from G Squadron in Delta Force instead. This squadron specializes in advanced force operations, reconnaissance, and surveillance. This squadron is also known to hire women too. So, we can choose to have a male or female avatar when we play Fatal Bullet in the multiplayer co-op or versus mode. We can’t switch to the female avatar when we play the game in the single-player mode, though.

In multiplayer mode, I use a female avatar instead. The reason for that is that some missions will need a female officer’s involvement. I’m fine with playing as a male avatar in other online games. But Fatal Bullet is the exception since I’m playing the game as a group. So, I have to consider everything from a strategic point of view. I’m fine with using any avatar as long as I can breeze through the missions without any hiccups.

Yuuto and I have been playing the game in multiplayer co-op mode on our own all this time. We can only play the game as a team until Akie completed her game training with Manabe. It took her three weeks to get used to the game’s mechanic since she’s new to the game. But thanks to Manabe’s intensive training, now she can play the game like a seasoned player. It’s a bit late for us to do the mission to qualify for entry to the Fatal Cup. But I’m sure that we can make it before the deadline which is next month.

“Hey, are you sure that I can do this? What if I screw up and end up dying for real this time?” Akie asks us. It looks like the rumor is still bothering her despite no news about casualties related to the game so far. I pat her shoulder, hoping that it will calm her and make her forget about the rumor for now. The last thing I want is she becomes distracted and ends up jeopardizing everyone in the mission.

“I understand how much the rumor is bothering you. But think about it for a second. Have you ever heard about the rumor being true for the last couple of weeks?” I ask her. Akie looks down, feeling guilty for letting the rumor gets into her head. “No. Even if the rumor is bogus, I’m still worried that I end up jeopardizing everyone on the team. I feel that I’m not good enough even after going through Manabe’s intensive training.”

I sigh as I listen to her concern. “Don’t worry about that,” I say, “Just follow Manabe’s lead and act according to my instruction. You won’t jeopardize anyone and the mission if you follow this simple rule. Remember that you’re not doing this mission alone. We’ll be here to back you up if anything happens to you. You already completed the necessary training before we begin our first mission. So, have faith in yourself that you can do this.”

Akie seems to calm a little bit after our little pep talk. “Thanks, Touka. It looks like we made the right choice for appointing you as a leader for the team. You do have the leadership quality in you.” I only smile without saying anything. To be honest, I don’t want to be the leader of the team. But Manabe and Akie insisted that I should become one. They felt that I was the right person for this role. Heck, even Yuuto agreed with them. He seemed fine with the thought of having me leading the team.

“Can we get moving now? The clock is ticking, you know. We only have forty minutes to complete our mission,” Manabe says to us. I nod my head and signal everyone to make a move now. Akie follows Manabe to their designated location, leaving Yuuto and me behind. Even in the game, I’m taking an active role in close combat while Yuuto is the sniper. Our role in real life doesn’t change even in the game. We can’t see ourselves doing anything else.

Yuuto nods at me as he’s about to make a move. He then heads to his designated location while I’m heading to where the base camp is located. As I’m heading towards the base camp, I can’t help but feel how realistic the setting is to me. It doesn’t feel like I’m walking around in the virtual world. The blue sky above me and the texture of the ground on my feet feel real to me. It sure does feel that I am in the desert terrain of Afghanistan for real.

In fact, I can still feel the scorching heat pricking on my skin as I’m making my way to the base camp. Heck, even the sweat looks and feels real too as I wipe it off with my palm. My throat starts to feel dry due to the scorching heat as I continue walking towards the base camp. It’s hard for me to believe that I can experience something so close to the real-life in the virtual environment. This realistic experience must have a lot to do with the technology used to create the game. It’s the same technology used to create the virtual battle room in PSIA headquarters.

I know that firsthand since Yuuto and I took part in the virtual mock battle back then. It turns out that Vector One is using the same VR technology as the one used in the military to create the game. That’s what Fatal Bullet director, Takeru Hanamichi said in a magazine interview. Of course, the VR technology used in the game is the watered-down version of the same technology. UTX Technology is the firm behind the VR technology used in the military and also for the general masses.

Even with the watered-down version of the same technology, it still looks real to me. I have to salute Mr. Hanamichi and his team for their amazing attention to detail. They sure do put so much effort to create this realistic virtual experience. I remember how passionate he was when he talked about the game’s development in the interview. He admitted that he went into the rabbit hole with his research to make the game to be as realistic as possible.

I stop walking for a moment since I need to check my inventory. I need to be sure that I have enough items to last me throughout the mission. The last thing I want is I’m running out of items I need when I’m in a pinch. And I also need to be sure that I have many recovery items as well. I admit that I couldn’t care less about treating my injury in a real situation. But in the video game, I have to make sure that my HP isn’t too low. Otherwise, I will end up dying in the game. And that spells game over for us.

As I’m in the middle of checking my inventory, Ms. Chiyo contacts me through Unplugged. I love the fact that Unplugged allows us to create as many separate private chat rooms as we want. That makes it easy for Ms. Chiyo to contact Yuuto and me only. We also have another private chat room that we can use to communicate with Manabe and Akie during the game.

“How’s the program that I created for both of you? Does it interfere with the game’s performance?” She asks us through the voice chat feature on Unplugged. Ms. Chiyo already created a program that can detect any abnormalities within the game. It can detect the abnormalities in the game source code, game client, and the main server too. We will only use this program when we’re playing Fatal Bullet in VR multiplayer mode since it’s an unauthorized program. Vector One may ban us if they find out that we’re using an unauthorized program when we play the game.

“Well, the program doesn’t seem to interfere with the game’s performance so far. It doesn’t affect the quality of the voice chat too,” I say to her. “Same goes for me,” says Yuuto. Ms. Chiyo breathes a sigh of relief when she finds out that the program doesn’t affect the game’s performance. That can be a huge problem if the program isn’t working well. And we will have to postpone our mission until she fixes the bug in the program.

“What about you? Do you see anything strange so far?” Yuuto asks Ms. Chiyo. “I don’t see anything out of ordinary for the time being. But I’ll keep you posted if I notice anything unusual. For now, just do what you need to do. I wish you the best of luck,” she says to us. Ms. Chiyo then cuts off her voice chat with us not long after that. I then switch to another private chat room and wait for the call from Manabe and Akie.

Ms. Chiyo also monitors any news report that mentioned unusual death. She even hacked into the police and hospital database to see if there was anyone who died like the one in the rumor. So far, she had yet to come across anyone whose death seems rather bizarre. I guess that we can safely assume that Satoru Yuuya hasn’t made his move yet. The only thing he did so far is to spread the rumor under the username Yokoto.

We did use the IP address that we got from the username to track him down. The IP address somehow led us to one of the Internet cafes in Tokyo. It was too bad that we couldn’t retrieve any footage from the Internet café’s security camera. The reason for that was because some parts of the footage were already wiped out. So, we had no proof that Satoru Yuuya was the one who had been spreading the rumor all this time.

“Akie and I are already in position. We’re ready to make a move at any time,” Manabe informs me through the voice chat. But in the game, his voice comes through my earpiece instead. It’s impressive to know that the earpiece we’re using in the game is the same model we use in real life. Mr. Hanamichi isn’t kidding at all when it comes to nailing down to the last bits of detail in the game.

“How’s the situation at the enemy’s base camp?” I ask Yuuto through the voice chat. It doesn’t take that long for him to reply back to me. “Well, it’s not surprising that everyone in the base camp is already on full alert. They already know that we’re going to take their leader’s head and seize TTX from them. It’s not going to be easy for you to sneak inside. But it’s not going to be a problem since I already mark everyone’s location in the base camp with my binocular. I’ll be sending the information to everyone in a minute.”

It doesn’t take that long for us to receive the information that Yuuto got to our smart glasses. On the surface, the smart glasses that we have look like typical visors used by the SWAT team. But the smart glasses work more or less the same as the smartwatch we’ve been using in real life. The only difference is we can enable augmented reality on the glasses. It helps us to analyze our situation since we can impose the information we get on the real environment.