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  Chapter Zero: Infinite Dendrogram

  July 15, 2043. On this date, the VRMMO Infinite Dendrogram was released around the world. It had been nearly half a century since man had first dreamt of a VRMMO (virtual reality massively multiplayer online) game.

  In the 2000s, a variety of media, such as manga, anime, and video games, began to incorporate VRMMOs into their stories as the ultimate “dream game.” From among a sea of creative entertainment, people eagerly looked forward to the release of a VRMMO, and in the 2010s, quasi-VR headsets were released, offering enhanced quality of sight and sound immersion.

  Although at first a mere product of fantasy, VRMMOs were anticipated, developed, and then finally given form. In the 2030s, a small number of full-dive VRMMO games were released, allowing players to enter game worlds using all five of their senses.

  The reason so few were released was due to the difficulty and enormous cost of development. This meant that only companies with leading technology and sufficient resources could even make an attempt. Or perhaps more were attempted, but never completed.

  However, the few completed games that did make it out into the world were quickly met with disappointment. Unlike the VRMMOs depicted in fiction, these ones lacked in realism, they assailed the senses with discomfort, and their graphics were hardly any different from existing game systems. Also, despite guarantees of a safe design, players one after another fell ill and were taken to the hospital.

  The development companies behind the initial dive VRMMOs all went bankrupt due to poor sales, bad reputations, and numerous lawsuits from afflicted players.

  A reviewer from the time had the following to say about these games: “They managed to create the ‘dream game,’ but they weren’t able to create the ‘dream.’”

  Dive VRMMO games continued to be developed, but none were made that could be considered a success.

  That is... until Infinite Dendrogram was released.

  ◇

  The lack of information about Infinite Dendrogram before its release was abnormal.

  It was kept secret the whole time, and on the day of release, the developers only made one announcement simultaneously across the global media networks. In it, they presented four key selling points for the game.

  First: the five senses would be perfectly simulated.

  Second: even if there were 100 million players, all of them would play in the same game world on a single server.

  Third: players could choose how they’d view the game world, with options including realistic, 3D CG, and 2D anime.

  Fourth: time within the game would flow three times faster than in the real world.

  In response to the announcement, voices from around the world could be heard saying: “Is this really even possible?” “Just how much money and tech did they use to make this?” “Even for a case of misleading advertisement, isn’t this going a bit far?”

  Although the announcement had an impact, people found its content simply absurd. Out of everyone that saw the announcement, and this included non-gamers, 99.9998% didn’t believe it and didn’t buy the game.

  The remaining 0.0002% of people, however, said things like, “It seems like a lie, but what if it’s true...” “I’ll try it,” “I believe it,” and they headed into stores to buy the game.

  The necessary hardware cost around 10,000 yen, and was an extraordinary, some would even say reckless, pricing scheme. This helped lure in customers, with some saying, “Well, even if it’s a lie, it’s only 10,000 yen.” So they bought it and started playing.

  And once they logged into the game... they all knew it was the real thing.

  Overcome with amazement at the game’s realism, they would log out and look at their clocks, only to be astonished even more. The dreams they saw were all real — the “dream game” was now a reality.

  The day after release, amid the clamor set off around the world by posts and comments from those who played the game, the developers released another announcement. This time, the contents of the game were detailed. A man named Lewis Carroll, the lead developer for Infinite Dendrogram, presented the broadcast announcement and said the following:

  “The game system in Infinite Dendrogram has a special feature. Rather than relying on thousands of possible combinations of jobs and skills, this feature provides absolute and distinct uniqueness. This feature is the Embryo. It will offer players truly infinite possibilities and unique customization.

  “Embryos will respond to personal circumstances and evolve from among an infinity of patterns. These patterns will not merely be different colors and parts, but will even include unique skills, allowing them to be truly limitless in scope. This is what Infinite Dendrogram is all about.

  “Yes, Infinite Dendrogram will provide you with a new world and your very own unique possibility.”

  These words served as the last trigger needed to turn the game into a giant movement.

  ◇◇◇

  March 16, 2045 — Reiji Mukudori

  I, Reiji Mukudori, was sitting on my heels with the game in front of me and a nervous expression on my face.

  It probably sounded like an exaggeration, but after waiting a year and a half, I was finally going to be able to play Infinite Dendrogram. So, of course, I was nervous.

  “It’s been a long road,” I said.

  The game had been announced and released during the summer of my junior year in high school — at the same time I had been motivating myself to do my best on my college entrance exams.

  I’m sure there had been other game-loving high schoolers in their junior or senior years who had been left in despair like I had been, thinking, why of all times did such an interesting-looking game have to come out during my entrance exam years?

  However, I had now successfully made it into a college in the city, and had taken the opportunity to start living on my own. I had finished moving yesterday, and my parents, who’d helped me, had already returned home.

  I can play games as much as I want now!

  I had headed to the game store this morning as soon as it opened and purchased a copy of Infinite Dendrogram. For about half a year after its release, it had apparently been difficult to get a hold of a copy, but a whole year and a half later, I was able to buy it without any trouble.

  My older brother, by the way, was one of the ones who had bought the game on release day. This whole time, he had been calling me saying, “Hurry up and let’s play Dendro together.” I hadn’t been sure if this made me feel bitter or simply jealous.

  But all those feelings end today!

  “...Let’s do this!” I braced myself and opened the box. Inside, were a helmet-type game system and a manual.

  According to the manual, in order to enter the game world, all you needed to do was put on the helmet and turn on the switch. There were other explanations regarding visuals and time as well, but “amazing” would be the only way I could describe them.

  Really, just how in the world did they make this game? I wondered. It seems to be ten, maybe twenty years ahead of current technology...

  However, now wasn’t the time to be scared. Following the instructions and recommendations in the manual, I put on the helmet and lay on my bed facing the ceiling. I then turned on the game.

  Instantly, my vision went black.

  ◇

  “Hello and welcommme.”

  Before I knew it, I was no longer in my room, but in a space that appeared to be the study of a Western-style, wooden building. The voice had come from a cat I had never seen before, which sat in front of me on a seemingly well-made, wooden rocking chair.

  ...A cat?

  “I’m sorry for the intrusion,” I said. I was confused, but dec
ided to respond with a greeting first.

  “Yes, that’s niiice,” said the cat. “I like people with proper mannerrrs.” The cat spoke in fluent Japanese, but with a slow drawl at the end of his sentences.

  “Is this like the game’s tutorial or something?” I asked.

  “That’s riiight. You’ll be sent into the game after you finish configuring various settings herrre. Oh, I’m Cheshire, control AI No. 13 for Infinite Dendrograaam. Nice to meet youuu.”

  Control AI... I see. No wonder it’s able to use fuzzy logic in its responses.

  Control AIs are man-made cyber intelligences with entire modern supercomputers serving as their brains. Their primary uses, as the name suggests, are in control and management. It’s said that just one of them can perfectly, and at high speeds, manage the databases and networks of a small country.

  If this one is No. 13, does that mean there are twelve other control AIs of equal ability involved in managing this game?

  “Nice to meet you, too,” I said.

  “All riiight,” said the cat. “First up is selecting the graphiiics. Samples of these will alternate, so choose which one you like the best, okaaay?”

  After the cat... Cheshire... said this, the surrounding scenery completely changed.

  The study I turned into a spacious area — a somewhat Middle Ages European townscape. There were many people walking about, and after a fixed period of time, their appearance would change. Actually, it wasn’t their appearance, but rather, the way I saw them was changing. It went from a realistic appearance to CG, from CG to anime, and then back to realistic.

  “...Wait, how are you doing this?” I asked.

  “Imagery perceived by sight is processed by the brain, after all, so there’s a waaay,” replied Cheshire. “And so, the way you see can be changed like this, but which one will you go wiiith? You can change it later by using an itemmm.”

  “I’ll leave it as-is,” I said.

  I thought it would be better to see normally until I got used to the game, so that’s what I did. Although I was interested in how it would feel to touch something that looked like it was from an anime.

  “Okaaay,” said Cheshire, and the scenery reverted back to the study. “Next is your player naaame. What do you want your name to be in the gaaame?”

  “I’ll go with Ray Starling.” This was a name I had often used in games before. It was simply a distorted version of my first name and the English translation of my last name, Mukudori.

  “Okay, then I’ll set it to thaaat,” said the cat. “Next, the settings for your appearaaance.”

  After Cheshire said this, a featureless mannequin and a bunch of window screens appeared before me. These screens contained words such as “height,” “weight,” “bust,” their corresponding sliders, as well as facial features.

  “These are...” I said slowly.

  “Use those parts and sliders to make your own avatar for the gaaame,” said Cheshire. “Oh, you can also make it into an animal like me, or even change your genderrr.”

  No, I’m not so sure about changing my gender in a game this realistic...

  “It’s okay to take your time and think it overrr,” said Cheshire. “We have three times the amount of time here than in the real wooorld. ...Oh yeah, there was that one time when someone repeatedly logged in and out and spent one month in Earth time making their avatarrr.”

  That’s a tremendous amount of effort and concentration, so I don’t think I’ll be able to go that far.

  It wasn’t just because of the sheer number of sliders and parts, but the values you could set for each of them were way too exact. It was almost like they were telling me to make a real human face.

  For a beginner, that’s way too difficult, I thought. In that case...

  “Can I just use my real appearance as the default and make some changes to that?” I asked.

  “You can do thaaat,” Cheshire said and waved his tail.

  The mannequin turned into me.

  “Now you just need to make some changes using this as your baaase,” said the cat.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  It was fairly simple after this. I left most of the settings the same, but changed my hair color to blond, and changed my ethnicity as well, which altered my face. While I worked on this, I wondered about what my face would look like if I set it to anime or CG. I’d be able to see it if I played without changing any of the settings, but... no, it’s better that I don’t play online with my actual face.

  And like that, I finished creating my avatar after about thirty minutes or so.

  “And... finished,” I said.

  “Okaaay. Then I’ll hand over your starting itemmms.” Cheshire waved a padded paw in the air and a bag fell from empty space. “This is your storage bag, also known as your inventoryyy. The storage space inside it is from a different dimensionnn. You can store items in here if they’re yours, but on the flip side, you can’t put any items in here that arrren’t.”

  “I see,” I said.

  It’s a useful bag, but I guess that means it can’t be used to commit crimes.

  “Well,” Cheshire continued, “if it’s an item that dropped from someone you PKed, or one that you stole with the Steal skill, then it’ll go innn.”

  I fell silent. I don’t know what to say to that.

  “By the way, if a player’s Steal skill is high enough in level, they can steal an item from even inside this 4D pocket-like item baaag,” the cat said. “So be carefulll.”

  Now just how exactly am I supposed to be careful against a thief that’s capable of stealing from the fourth dimension?

  “This bag is for beginners, but there are also other types, such as ones that are tough to steal from, small ones, and ones with a lot of capacityyy,” the cat said.

  “What is the capacity of this one, by the way?” I asked.

  “The size is about equal to one classroom, and the weight is maybe around one ton in Earth measuremeeents.”

  “It can fit quite a lot,” I said. “That’s plenty.”

  “It’s apparently not enough if you’re a merchant, thooough,” said the cat. “They’re likely to buy new onnnes. Oh, item bags will scatter their contents around if they get destroyed, so pay attention to their durabilityyy.”

  “I’ll be careful,” I said.

  “Next is a set of beginner equipmeeent. Ray, what will you piiick?” Cheshire pulled a catalog from a bookshelf and showed it to me.

  In it were full sets of various types of armor. There was the typical Eastern and Western style armor, but in addition to these, there were traditional outfits from China, India, the Middle East, and South America. On the opposite end, there were even outfits that seemed to be from Sci-Fi movies.

  “I’ll go with this, then,” I said, choosing a combination that consisted of innerwear, a jacket, jeans, and a bandana. The look vaguely resembled the male protagonist from a masterpiece game of the last century.

  I played retro games as well as modern games thanks to my brother, so although the look was a bit behind the times, it matched my tastes.

  “Okaaay. What will you pick for your first weaponnn?” the cat asked.

  I turned to a different page in the catalog. All kinds of weapons were listed, including a wooden sword, a practice sword with a dull blade, a knife, a bow, a sling, and a staff.

  I should choose something that matches my outfit.

  “I’ll go with the knife,” I said.

  “Okaaay. So for your weapon and equipment... Wazaaaam.” It was hard to tell if Cheshire’s voice was energetic or not, but as he said that, my appearance changed. My outfit switched to the one I had just chosen, and a knife now hung from a belt at my waist. Most impressive of all, my appearance had changed to mirror the avatar I’d made earlier.

  “Wow, this is something else,” I said as I looked at myself in the full-length mirror Cheshire had provided. It looks pretty good.

  “Oh yeah, that’s right, here’s your starti
ng moneyyy.” Cheshire handed me five coins that appeared to be made out of silver. “Five silver coins is worth 5,000 lirrr. One rice ball costs about 10 lir, by the waaay.”

  Then 1 lir would be about 10 yen, I thought. In that case, 5,000 lir is a lot of money.

  “Is it okay to get this much in the beginning?” I asked.

  “Yep. Be sure to learn how to make money before it runs out, thooough,” he said.

  In other words, I probably won’t get any more after this, so I should use it wisely.

  “Well then, it’s finally time to transfer your Embryooo,” he said.

  “Oh, the thing in all the rumors!” I said.

  Embryos.

  I’d heard they were the greatest feature in Infinite Dendrogram. They offered true uniqueness and evolved in infinite ways based on the player. They were partners that exceeded the likes of items and equipment.

  My brother, who was already playing the game, said, “If this hadn’t been a well-made dive VRMMO, but just a regular MMO instead, I’m sure it still would’ve been a hit as long as it had the Embryo system.”

  “Do you need an explanation on Embryooos?” asked the cat.

  “Since you’re offering, I guess I should listen to it,” I said. It’s probably best to hear the tutorials for unique systems, after all.

  “Okaaay,” said the cat. “All players receive an Embryo at the starrrt. The only time they’ll look the same is while they are in this zeroth fooorm. With the first form and beyond, they’ll change in completely different ways based on their ownerrr.”

  “Ohhh,” I said. As a gamer, I can’t help but be fascinated by features that allow for something to be totally unique.

  “Although the possibilities are infinite, there are some rough categorieees,” added the cat.

  “Oh, I didn’t know that,” I said. This was because I’d done my best to block out any information before I started playing. I’d been worried that I might abandon my entrance exams if I’d found out something about the game, as it would have made it harder to resist playing it.

  The only information I’d heard from my brother was that “it’s fun.” It might have been the case that he’d also been worried about my exams, and so he hadn’t told me anything specific.