Pandora of Fantasy And Reality Chapter 149

Goddess Pandora

Riku laughed in front of Akito.

Meanwhile Akito’s comrade was preparing for him to access Pandora.

While the orc player woman was fighting Kagami.

Akito turned his handgun toward his friend.

The girls――his comrades were standing expressionlessly around him.

The girls who spoke words that wounded Akito’s heart just now.

But, Akito thought.

(They have their own life. I can’t toy around with it because of game’s setting.)

He was looking at Riku with strong eyes.

「As I thought, you’re strong.」

Akito slowly opened his mouth in respond to his friend’s words.

「Release them all. Stop doing something like this.」

Riku was chuckling.

「Don’t misunderstand. You still haven’t heard their true feeling. Those were just a part of it.」

「Sorry but enjoying getting verbally cursed isn’t my hobby. My heart is really fragile so I’ll refrain from any more than that.」

Akito was hesitating to shot the device that Riku was holding.

He diverted only his focus and sensed that his comrade who was working on the device seemed to need some more time.

「Riku――hand over that device.」

「No, not yet. You better listen to it. The true feelings of these girls――」

Everyone took off their helmet and dropped them on the floor.

They all had headset that would allow them to login anytime. They had VR machine set up on their head.

Yumi was looking at Akito.

「……I looked down on him at first. I wasn’t interested at all. I wanted to make fun and toy with him.」

Reona was also similar.

「But, he’s kind like a father. I want to depend on him.」

Kanaho also followed.

「I want a papa like Ponsuke-san. There is only my mom and me in our  family……I thought, that perhaps a father is someone like this.」

The turn of affairs was getting strange.

The girls were speaking of their change in feeling toward Akito.

「Everyone, that’s not it. That’s not it! It was Pandora that meddled with your feeling that――」

Maya smiled at Ponsuke.

「――Even so that’s fine.」

「……Eh?」

「Something like Pandora doesn’t matter. We met each other in the  virtual world and became attracted to Ponsuke from that. That’s enough  isn’t it?」

「……No. That’s wrong. That’s a mistake. I can’t just disregard everyone’s feeling!」

Yakumo was also smiling at Akito.

「This feeling isn’t a lie. Hey……what should we do to make you believe us?」

Everyone pointed their weapon on themselves.

Anri said to Akito.

「We’ll do anything to prove it. If Ponsuke will believe us with that――」

Their head. They pressed their gun barrel on their jaw to shot through their head.

There were also some who aimed the gun barrel directly on their head.

「――tsu! Stop! Riku, make them stop!」

Riku shrugged.

「This is their true feeling. At first they weren’t even interested.  That is the truth. But you know, Ponsuke――thinking that everything in  the virtual world is a lie is your misunderstanding. Their feeling is  true. It’s something that you often heard. It’s normal for people to  fall in love to idol who appear and become popular in TV. They can  easily fall in love even though they only know the idol’s surface  appearance. You hold too much fantasy about love or romance. Human can  easily come to like other human.」

「That kind of argument――!」

As Akito was about to continue his sentence, the woman who had been fighting until now got sent flying and hit the wall.

She had a lot of conspicuous wounds. Her stomach was bleeding from what seemed to be a stab wound.

Akito moved to run toward her, but Maya fired her gun to near the woman.

Akito turned around and saw the expressionless Maya.

「……So it’s that woman who deceived Ponsuke this time.」

「President……what are you saying?」

Everyone turned their gun toward the woman with lightless eyes.

Akito stood in front of her to cover for her, then Kagami spoke up.

Her arm was broken.

She also looked wounded all over.

「Ponsuke-kun’s comrade is skilled. We also had a hard time on our way here.」

Riku supported Kagami.

「I worked you too hard huh.」

「I don’t mind. It’s for your sake after all.」

「It would be our failure if you got defeated here. Well, it’s fine. You can leave the rest to me.」

Akito glared at Riku.

「……Riku, if our body dies while we’re logged inside Pandora we’ll also die. Stop this plan.」

Riku looked at Akito in exasperation.

「Aa, I see. So it looks like that to you. You think that we’re giving  in to despair. Well, you aren’t wrong. This is an insane act from where  you’re standing.」

Akito approached the woman and checked her injuries.

「Are you alright?」

「Yeah, somehow……but, my body is at the limit.」

Akito was on his guard against Riku and also the girls while he was giving the woman first-aid treatment.

That was because their guns were being pointed at her.

Riku looked up to the ceiling sadly.

「This world will perish anyway……it’s just a matter of time.」

「What are you――」

Riku kissed Kagami, then he discarded the device in his hand and pointed a handgun at Akito.

The gun barrel was aiming at Akito’s head. When his finger moved to pull the trigger, bullets hit Riku and Kagami all atonce.

The eight girls acted to remove the threat against Akito.

Akito was surprised and ran toward the two who were bleeding and lying on the floor.

「W-why!」

There was no bullet inside Riku’s handgun.

Kagami was shot in the head and died instantly.

When he lifted up Riku’s body in his arms, Riku was throwing up blood from his mouth painfully.

「……Ponsuke, I’ll be waiting so come see me no matter what.」

Riku said that and breathed his last in Akito’s arms.

After the device stopped, the eight girls fell off on the spot.

Akito hugged Riku’s body and cried.

「Say something! Give me your excuse at least――I don’t understand anything like this!」

.

.

.

――The server control room.

His comrades gathered one after another.

The woman was receiving treatment and lying on the floor. The eight girls who got brought here were also lying down.

Akito was sitting with his back on the wall. He was looking at the  bodies of his friend and his friend’s lover that were covered up by a  sheet.

One of his bodyguards who arrived here talked to Akito.

「The preparation is finished. How about you rest for a bit more before accessing it?」

Akito shook his head.

「……Let’s hurry. I want to end something like this quickly.」

「That’ll be best.」

People all over the world were logged in.

In other words, there were people dying even at this moment.

Akito stood up in order to quickly end this. He connected the cord that was stretching from his powered suit to the VR machine.

His helmet contained a headset inside. He was able to login anytime.

His technician comrade spoke to him.

「I’ll connect you to Pandora directly. You’ll meet the goddess face to face.」

「……Yes.」

「Ask what kind of design the goddess’s panties has. I’m curious what kind of design she’s wearing.」

「……Yes.」

「……No retort like usual huh. Well, it can’t be helped in this situation.」

His friend died before his eyes.

It was painful for Akito.

(Just what in the world Riku wanted to do? For him to give up that easily――)

Even though he had gotten in his way until this far, Riku died easily in the end. He didn’t understand the meaning of it all.

After Akito finished his preparation, he lied down and logged in.

He was heading toward the location of Pandora’s control AI――[Pandora].

◇

It was a place with a solemn atmosphere like a grand cathedral.

Akito opened his eyes and stood on that place with his familiar Ponsuke avatar.

「A shrine?」

The atmosphere felt like a church, but there was nothing decorating that place at all.

Ponsuke found an NPC offering a prayer. He became on his guard seeing the NPC’s back.

He narrowed his eyes.

The NPC was wearing a loose attire and her face and other features looked exactly like the goddess statue.

No, it must be the goddess statue that looked like her.

「……Pandora?」

The woman stood up and turned around.

Her face also looked like the goddess statue. She was smiling before Ponsuke.

「I have been waiting, Ponsuke-san.」

Ponsuke materialized his weapon, but Pandora did nothing other than standing still.

She showed no sign of hostility.

「……I have a lot of things that I want to ask.」

「That’s understandable. It’s a correct decision. It’s important to  have a dialogue first. Though it’s a minus point in my eyes that you  took out your weapon.」

She had an atmosphere like a kind older sister.

Ponsuke was bewildered seeing her friendly smile.

「Why did you do something like this? What do you want to do by destroying the real world!?」

Pandora tilted her head.

「……Ah, I believe it will be better if we start from a mutual understanding.」

Pandora snapped her fingers and the place with solemn atmosphere vanished into a sea of data.

Everything turned into red particles of light. Then when all those took form once more, tatami floor and a kotatsu appeared.

Oranges were placed on top of the table.

Goddess Pandora entered the kotatsu and prepared tea.

「Ahh~, this style is really the most comfortable for me.」

She was wearing a hanten (traditional short winter coat) and gestured kindly to Ponsuke to enter the kotatsu too.

Ponsuke was confused.

He found that there was a hollow inside the kotatsu when he took a seat.

「Now then, we have to resolve all the misunderstandings first before  having our talk. In the first place, your basic premise that I’m running  out of control isn’t true at all.」

「――Then, why did Riku and others-!」

「Please raise your objection after I finish speaking. There will only  be more questions raised even if I answer you right now, and you will  also be able to see the answer from hearing what I’m saying. The  beginning lied on the game called Pandora. The official name Pandora’s  Box Garden……this is really a horrible game.」

It seemed that the game was horrible even from Pandora’s perspective.

VR’s MMO was one of the genres that people had been hoping for many years.

But, creating one required vast amount of time, money, and personnel.

It was something so challenging that it couldn’t even be compared to any other game before it.

It wasn’t just about creating it. Maintaining the game also required effort beyond imagination.

「The circumstance behind my birth came from the height of expectation  of players who weren’t satisfied with the flops that they tried.  Creating a game that used VR machine was a difficult undertaking with  the technology level at that time. There, the staffs who were dead tired  and about to go insane developed unrestricted AI in secrecy.」

Pandora was drinking tea, and then she sighed happily and reached for an orange.

「I was entrusted with full authority over Pandora then. Rather than  helping out with the development, it’ll be more accurate to say that I’m  mainly in charge of making the developers’ plan into reality. The  management was in charge of dealing with the players. That was because  the management at that time judged that it would be dangerous for me to  come into contact with outside party.」

It seemed they were having misgivings of the internet environment that was a vortex of ill wills to influence Pandora.

「Well, I was energetically involved despite that though! I was  playing as a player too. I also love internet. I often posted “Thanks a  lo~t www”. I also posted trolling comments.」

Ponsuke thought.

(……What’s with this AI? Even though I thought that she’s an AI with more dangerous ideal)

Pandora guessed what Ponsuke was thinking from his expression and warned him.

「It’s not like I’m thinking of something like wanting to destroy  mankind. Because, I was created by mankind and won’t be able to exist  without their maintenance. I was made to develop the virtual world  called Pandora while also getting involved in it as a player. In the  first place, what merit will there for me to be in control over  mankind?」

「……To strengthen your existence or something.」

「I had considered that. In fact I had connection with the government.  But, I didn’t know at the start……something like improving human’s  talent, it was an accidental discovery even for me. I thought it was  lucky and secretly reported it to the government to strengthen my  position. I didn’t expect for anything more than what I have now. Ah,  but that coincidence made me felt the presence of god you know?」

「You, an AI?」

「What about it? Well, that was why I enjoyed managing the game in my  own way while having fun with the game. As I thought playing as player  is great. I can’t stop.」

「Were you a famous player?」

「There were a lot of me. To make it easier for Ponsuke-san to  understand, I played by creating copies of myself and sent them out to  play. Ponsuke-san, haven’t you realized? I had been together with you  the whole time.」

Who? When he thought that, Pandora stood up and twirled on the spot into a different form.

It was the appearance of a player with his face hidden and most of his skin covered up……it was SOLOLY.

「SOLOLY!」

「You finally noticed, Ponsuke-kun. I’m a bit pleased that I can reveal this secret like this.」

Pandora’s form returned back to her goddess form and entered the kotatsu again.

「Well, the way to develop talent that I discovered by accident. It  attracted the government’s attention――I made myself known to them and  got my continuing existence approved. The beginning of Selector was the  experiment for that. At first I chose a player with human avatar. And  then, the last one was Ponsuke-san……you.」

Pandora was saying that she wasn’t running out of control.

She said that she chose Selectors also because of the developers, and  her search for a way to obtain talent was also a mission that was given  to her by human.

「……You made players as experiment subject for that?」

「I apologize for that. After all there were also people who went insane because of the talent gifted to them.」

It seemed that Pandora had a sense of danger against this plan.

「But, I didn’t have the authority to halt the experiment.」

「Then……then, why did things become like this!」

Pandora lowered her head.

「I’m sorry. That’s all I can say.」

「If only you stopped the plan! This kind of thing――Riku wouldn’t die!」

Pandora lifted up her face.

She was looking sad hearing Riku’s name.

「The first Selector is it? I also remember him. He was one of the players who I knew well.」

Ponsuke felt angry at Pandora’s attitude.

「The situation outside is horrible. People are dying――everyone is logged in and the societal structure is becoming terrible!」

Pandora replied calmly.

It wasn’t the answer that Ponsuke sought.

「I shall apologize because I was involved with a part of the plan. But, this is the result that people chose.」

「Who chose!?」

「The people who all of you called the new management. Their opinion  is also mankind’s opinion. It’s one of the opinions that can’t be  ignored.」

Pandora couldn’t go against the new management’s policy.

But, it seemed that a serious problem appeared midway.

「……But, they were too impatient. Even though I’m here as  administrator, they created jurisdiction that only they could come in  contact with.」

「You mean the air spot?」

「Yes. The out of sight area. It seemed they were observing how the  players would act in a situation where the regulation was removed. At  the same time, there were multiple plans in action. Among them there was  the NPC’s enhancing plan.」

The new management took action in order to make the NPC’s reaction in the game even more realistic.

As the result――.

「NPCs that I can’t manage were born in Pandora. They are AI. They  weren’t given any supervisory authority, but they are disguising  themselves as player while taking action. The new management didn’t  realize it.」

「NPCs were acting as they pleased?」

「There have been that kind of sign since some time ago. I also  observed it. Do you remember Shela? She was an NPC connected to me.」

Ponsuke’s face twisted hearing the name of the elf queen.

「She was naturally involved with player. I observed her attentively.  But, the new management meddled with my jurisdiction as they pleased,  and then they misunderstood that I dealt with it for them. What ran out  of control――are the NPCs inside Pandora. A very small number of them.」

The new management snatched the authority――Pandora from the old management. It wasn’t passed down or anything.

But, it seemed that they was under the impression that they had  obtained vast amount of data and Pandora was put under their control.

「I warned them. But, the new management didn’t listen to me. In the  first place, those people……they didn’t come to my place. They were  deceived by NPC who was disguised as me. Spare me all these troubles. In  addition I was imprisoned, and my authority was also taken away……there  were few things that I could do.」

Pandora said that she was also responsible, but there was nothing she could do. Ponsuke yelled at her.

「Then, what about Riku! Not only Riku. Even everyone――the players who  got toyed around by Selectors, are you saying that they don’t matter!  Senpai and president became like that is your responsibility!」

Pandora made a very displeased expression at Ponsuke’s accusation.

「……Please don’t make everything to be my fault.」

「……Eh?」

Ponsuke was bewildered.

Pandora (　゜д゜) 「Even if you treat me as the mastermind……that’s, a bit  troubling. Hidoine? True it was me who made the impetus, but those  girls are all natural hidoine. Don’t make it be my fault.」

Lyleヽ(*´∀｀)ノ「I always believed in you!」

Leon m9(^Д^) 「Ponsuke-san, you have it hard~www」

Ponsuke(#・ω・)「……」

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