Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 148

Truth

Akito and others were running inside the underground colony.

One of the orc players running ahead gave a signal to stop. Then a drone that was moving by clinging on the wall approached.

The four legged robot was equipped with machine gun.

Everyone ducked, meanwhile the woman protecting Akito shot it with her handgun.

After it was destroyed, the woman exchanged the handgun’s magazine.

「――They’re waiting for us huh.」

The communication with outside was jammed. The enemies were completely lying in wait for Akito and others.

「What now?」

「We can only go forward.」

「Haa……even though I’m an indoor person.」

The orc players complained but they broke into a dash.

What was amazing from them was that they were a gathering of specialist――professional.

Akito was being protected as he thought.

(These people, are really amazing.)

Hacking and combat skill.

There were also various other things that they performed with outstanding skill.

He was shocked when he was told that they were already first class even before obtaining talent through Pandora.

A world where talent was converted to numerical form.

It also meant a world where human could become first class without needing to be puzzled about their path.

The result of that were the players around Akito.

The woman talked to Akito.

「It’ll be soon.」

「Yes!」

「Don’t feel too stressed. Your role is to connect to Pandora――」

A horrible noise ran inside her helmet when she spoke until that far.  The image projected inside the helmet was glitching greatly with  discordant sound.

「Jamming?」

The woman raised her guard toward the surrounding. Then she heard a sound.

「What’s this sound?」

「This is……something is approaching near.」

「It’s coming here!」

Everyone raised their weapon. Then the wall was destroyed and a four legged tank appeared.

Its cannon was aiming at Akito.

「Tsk!」

Akito instantly raised his handgun and pulled the trigger. The bullet  went into the cannon’s hole――the cannon blew up. Then the woman started  running with Akito in her arm.

「Take care of the rest!」

「Leave it to us! Oi, they’re coming in droves!」

The tank chasing after the escaping Akito and others was something belonged to the SDF.

Akito got lowered on the ground. And then he immediately broke into a run while yelling his complain.

「That kind of drone is unfair!」

「――No. That isn’t a drone.」

The woman said that. Meanwhile firefight could be heard ongoing behind them.

Akito tried to look back, but the woman grabbed Akito and forcefully dragged him to run.

「Don’t look. Don’t stop. Look forward and run!」

Akito gritted his teeth.

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.

.

Seen from the sky, there was a large hole opened at the underground colony.

The lid was closed in the past. There mankind was sleeping for a long time. Rook felt strange when he considered that.

「……If only they just kept sleeping like that」

Kagami――Mira hugged him from behind.

They both had their helmet off. They were looking down on the underground colony from inside their transport plane.

The transport descended vertically and entered inside the colony.

「Everything will be over soon.」

「Yeah. Everything will end. Mankind that opened Pandora’s box will perish……that’s all there is to it.」

Rook turned his gaze toward the eight people sitting silently inside the transport. He thought about his friend.

「Hey, Ponsuke……is reality for you in “this side”? Just what are you dissatisfied about the “other side”?」

They invaded into the colony. Then other transport planes unloaded weapons one after another.

For legged tanks and drones.

Soldiers wearing armored suit.

Just like how Akito had specialists around him, a lot of players were also gathering around Riku.

Rook called out to the girls.

「I’m counting on you all.」

The girls didn’t say anything back.

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.

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Pandora’s server.

When they arrived at the room where the device that could be said as  the main body was placed, there were only three people remaining around  Akito.

The woman entered the room and frowned in front of the device.

「……The shape is really different. Is it accessible?」

The person who was carrying a baggage put down his bag and took out  the VR machine’s main part――the old type device for business use that  Akito had from there. He then started to connect it to the device with a  cable.

「Yeah, it’s fine. The port for this kind of thing is standardized.  There are tools so switch or wiring can be used when using moon’s  technology. Now then, let’s connect it right away.」

Akito looked up to the server.

It wasn’t a device with the sole purpose of storing data.

In Akito’s eyes, it looked like a device with futuristic design, with something shining like jewel installed inside it.

It was shining.

「So this is the device that was brought here from the moon.」

The woman was standing guard against the surrounding with one other person. Then something got thrown into the room.

The other guard kicked it away before it started ejecting out smoke.

The surrounding became filled with smoke instantly.

「Continue the work!」

The man replied to the woman’s voice without stopping his hands.

「Protect us properly okay?」

Rushing in from the door were soldiers wearing powered suit.

As they rushed in, the woman closed the distance and stabbed a  soldier, then used that soldier as shield to charge forward and pushed  back several people.

Another soldier stood in front of Akito.

It was a battle between powered suits.

The enemies seemed like they didn’t want to destroy the inside of the room. They were choosing their weapon.

There was no firearm.

「――Soldier huh」

The woman defeated her fourth opponent and readied herself for more  when a powered suit with feminine form appeared from the door. Seeing  her,

「You, the one from the summer resort――」

「So it’s you guys as I thought. It looks like my instinct at that  time was correct. Even so, to be able to defeat my subordinates so  easily like this, not bad.」

Mira looked at her defeated subordinates and said that while they both closed the distance and fought a powered suit combat.

Knives tore each other’s powered suit. Blunt strikes were executed and dealt damage to flesh body.

But, the woman also wasn’t getting pushed back. Perhaps they were equal in strength.

Female type powered suits were coming in one after another from behind Kagami. They charged toward Akito.

His other bodyguard stepped forward, but he got easily hurled away.

Something was fired at the powered suit. It generated purple lightning and the powered suit stopped moving.

Akito took his stance.

「Does your powered suit get destroyed?」

The bodyguard showed no reaction. He must be unconscious.

(There are eight of them……eh?)

Akito noticed something and felt shocked. The eight people attacked him.

He blocked a strike. He leaped backward together with the impact to offset the momentum.

One opponent circled behind him and put him in full nelson, so Akito  performed shoulder throw to slam her on the floor. The person’s helmet  was taken off from the impact.

「――Senpai」

The familiar face of the red haired girl was looking at Akito with expressionless eyes.

The white smoke was clearing up thanks to the air conditioner. Then he heard footsteps.

The man who slowly walked into the room from the door took off his helmet and called out to Akito.

「……Yo, Ponsuke」

「――Riku!」

Behind the helmet was his friend’s face. Akito resented that the possibility that he hated the most was the right one.

Who should he resent right now……right now, he was resenting Pandora.

He pulled out his handgun from the holster and aimed it, but Riku was smiling at him.

He wasn’t looking scared. Akito sensed that Riku wasn’t bluffing and he really wasn’t feeling scared.

Riku talked to Akito.

His tone was the same like usual, like he was talking to a friend.

「What, so you know huh, based on your reaction.」

「……It has been on my mind all this time. It was also you Riku who  introduced the information broker to me. Besides Riku, you never said  that “real world is real” even once right?」

Normally Riku would say this side or that side but――he never really said the words real world or virtual world.

To Akito it felt like he was avoiding something.

「It was since you invited me to Pandora wasn’t it?」

「……Yeah, I guess. It must look like that from your side.」

「Why are you doing something like this?」

「Why? I’m the one who want to ask you that instead. Hey, Ponsuke……why are you fixated to a reality that is so shitty like this?」

Riku was looking sadly at Akito with the expression that seriously couldn’t understand him at all.

Akito shook his head.

The eight people――his comrades surrounded him so that he couldn’t run away.

「Riku, Pandora is a virtual world. It’s just a game!」

「It’s the most realistic thing in the world for me. It’s a world  where everything is equal! Things like your birth or upbringing doesn’t  matter. You can also choose your gender and appearance on your own. You  can go as far as you want depending on your effort……it’s this idiotic  world that numberized talent that should end!」

Akito tried to persuade Riku.

「Wrong. You’re wrong. Listen to me. Pandora is teaching this society  that think of talent score as absolute that talent can be grown. It’s  hiding that kind of possibility. We can work hard in reality with that!」

What the former prime minister wished for was to grant hope to the youths who fell into despair because of talent score.

「Pandora is hope. But, it’s no good if you get fixated into it.」

Riku laughed a little at Akito’s words.

And then his laughter got louder.

「Hope? Just now, you said hope, Ponsuke! Even you can tell a painful joke huh!」

「――Riku?」

「……Aa, that’s a good laugh. Ponsuke, let me tell you something good. Do you know about Pandora’s Box? The one in mythology.」

Calamities were sealed inside the box that Pandora had.

She then opened that box and let out various calamities into the world.

「……The last thing that remained is hope. Pandora didn’t open and let it out.」

After Akito said that, Riku nodded.

「Well, that’s the common version. There are several patterns of this  myth. The positive pattern that it was hope that remained last inside  the box――and the negative pattern that the hope that wasn’t let out from  the box was actually the greatest calamity.」

Why didn’t Pandora let out the hope?

Akito too didn’t know until that much.

「There are various theories. But you know……it’s not hope that  remained last. What remained was omen, premonition. There’s also a  theory that it wasn’t a box but a jar, but it’s unrelated with this  story.」

Akito didn’t let his guard down.

Because the eight girls around him would attack at that moment.

Because of that he couldn’t go help the woman orc player.

「It doesn’t really matter what remained inside the box. The important  point is, human can live because hope remained inside the box. Hey,  don’t you think so? It’s because omen or premonition like talent score  is created that we’re living so emptily like this! We need to be this  troubled in our life because of that!」

Riku continued his talk with a suffering look.

「……Listen, Ponsuke. It was human who opened Pandora’s Box. We  despaired ever since we were little because something like talent score  got invented! Do you get it? The true intention of Pandora of not  letting out hope at the end? Human already knew ever since the ancient  time that knowing the future will only bring despair, even so society  sought accurate omen or prediction rather than the uncertain hope. This  is the result of that!」

――Human could become happy by having talent.

There was a time when mankind harbored such expectation.

Doing something like pointless effort was unnecessary.

Each person would be able to go to a place where they could really shine……but, that was fantasy.

Not having talent. Or even if you had one, it was inferior compared  to other people. Children who learned that fact felt despair.

Even if they had talent, they couldn’t choose the path that they  liked. Such children also despaired. After all no matter how hard they  worked, they absolutely wouldn’t be able to arrive at the future that  they wished from the bottom of their heart.

Those who had talent which coincidentally was a talent in something  that they liked to do. How many percent of children could find  themselves in such situation?

Also talent was cruel.

That there was a first place meant that there were other people who lost against that first place.

Even if they had talent, they couldn’t become number one. How would the children feel when they realized that?

How about living without bothering about anything?

Society wouldn’t allow that.

If someone had talent, then parents and the people around them would push them to walk that path under the guise of support.

If someone had no talent than the people around them would tell them to give up and cut off their path.

Either way it was suffering, having or not having talent. And then  the number of youths who abandoned their own talent wasn’t few.

「――Ponsuke, will you keep saying that reality is better even then?」

「……No. But, it can be changed with Pandora. The society will change!」

「It won’t. Those who were born with talent will get even more  talented, while those who didn’t have anything will be forced to become  the cogwheels to let the wheel of society keep turning. Open your eyes!  Talent score isn’t absolute. But then what did society do? How did they  treat it? They see it as an absolute indicator and trampled on those  without talent like you or me until now!」

「――Even so, to me this is the reality!」

「This world? Your reality is hell huh. The girls around you are gonna cry.」

「……Pandora affected them, for good and bad. Their wills were twisted.」

Akito lowered his gun and spoke to Riku.

「You mentioned about becoming cogwheel for those with talent didn’t  you? Then, what about Selector? We even twisted the hearts of the people  around us. We are given favoritism in game. This time the division will  be between those who are Selector and those who aren’t!」

「……Selectors will give up their ability. If all humans logged in, a  new Pandora will start from there. Ponsuke, you are thinking like that  huh. That you distorted the people around you.」

Riku took out some kind of device.

It looked like a smartphone. He activated it and noise could be heard.

「――tsu!」

「Everything will be honest. Listen to their true feeling.」

The eight people around them suddenly looked pained and each of them showed reaction.

「W-what? What’s going on?」

「What’s this? Isn’t this a bad taste?」

「Ah, I know this. Isn’t this sauna suit?」

All of them looked like they had regained consciousness. Akito looked at Riku.

Riku smiled.

「Oi, Ponsuke is in front of you. Tell him your true feeling.」

Everyone jerked. Akito raised his handgun again.

「What did you do!?」

「I used my superior authority as Selector to make them speak honestly. Ponsuke, listen properly to them. To their true feeling.」

Akito turned his gaze to the girls who had fallen silent again. Then Maya opened her mouth.

But, her words――were exactly like Akito imagined.

No, they were even more horrible than that.

「……I thought he was a trash without talent.」

Yakumo continued next.

「A lecherous junior at part-time work. His gaze was annoying. I wanted to change shift.」

Yumi’s dispassionate voice could also be heard.

「……An idiot who worked hard even though he didn’t even have talent. He’s the same with other hollow men around.」

Reona was also similar.

「A common cogwheel you can find anywhere. Society need him but, he’s just a part with a lot of spares available.」

Kanaho also spoke with emotionless voice.

「A plain senior. I would never get involved with him if not because of Pandora.」

Anri’s voice didn’t sound casual like normal.

「Not interested.」

Chloe was even more horrible.

「A useless guy who isn’t even my fan.」

Risa was,

「A kid without any redeeming feature other than game.」

Hearing their true feelings was even more painful than Akito imagined.

He glared at Riku.

「……Are you satisfied now?」

「No, not yet. But, this is your reality. Can you really accept it?」

Akito was sad.

But, at the same time he also felt glad to hear those words.

(That’s exactly why it’s meaningful. The girls who I thought were in  love with me because of Pandora, weren’t interested with me. If it’s  made clear like that then……that’s good.)

「I can only accept it. If I made all of them went mad, then I should  also have the responsibility to restore them to normal. Even if not I’ll  return them back. Riku, I’ll stop Pandora’s out of control.」

Riku laughed.

He laughed and said to Akito.

「You’re that kind of guy. Perhaps that was why――I could become friend with you.」

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