Chapter One: Kickoff Meeting

Friday, August 2^nd, 2024, 2:10 P.M.

Outside the window was a clear, cloudless sky.

The tantalizing blue drew Kamo to the window.

On the other side of the cluster of high-rise buildings, the Tokyo Dome and the Skytree were both faintly visible, and the green space in between the two should have been the Koishikawa Botanical Garden.

A giggling sound came from behind him.

It was a pleasant laugh like silver bells. Kamo turned back, only to see a woman standing by the door, wearing a white pantsuit.

“The night view is also beautiful. After all, it was built on high ground, at an altitude of 250 meters.”

The woman's voice carried just a hint of coquettishness. She had a narrow face with a high nose and charming, almond-shaped eyes. This, coupled with her slender physique and elegant posture, gave her a princely air.

She curtsied gracefully then raised her head.

“Hello, I'm Kurata from MegalodonSoft. I'm sorry to have invited you here in this manner.”

“...You're Kurata?”

Kamo muttered dully as a mischievous expression flashed across Kurata's face.

“That's right, I'm the one and only Kurata Chikage. Even though there are many female producers in modern gaming, for some reason a lot of people are surprised to find out that I'm a woman.”

Kamo sensed a hint of sadness behind her words and hurriedly spoke “That's awfully rude. It's because all of your interviews are in magazines that people can make that mistake so easily.”

Kurata Chikage was a game producer at MegalodonSoft. She was the producer of Battle Without Honor, an open-world RPG that had sold more than ten million copies, so it could be said that there was nobody in the industry that didn't know her name.

“I'm the industry's only 'masked producer'... my age and gender are kept unknown, just to create a sense of mystery.”

“So is the name Kurata Chikage a pseudonym also?”

“No, most game creators use their real names. I was using the name Kurata Chikage long before I set up the 'masked persona'... Honestly, I'd like to change it, but it's too late now.”

“I see.”

“However, the real reason people always misunderstand my gender is probably because of how I speak.”

Kurata had a habit of using masculine phrasing when she spoke, and it seemed she was aware of it herself.

She crossed her arms and continued “Of course, it could also be that Battle Without Honor gives people preconceived notions. After all, it's a hardcore action RPG, a quintessential death game.”

“Death game?”

“It's a game that's very difficult and based around dying over and over again throughout the course of the game. The fun of it lies in exploring new gameplay and strategy through one death after another.”

So saying, Kurata Chikage turned back to look at the wall behind her.

There were several posters for the game plastered on the wall of the conference room, the most prominent of which was for the remake, Battle Without Honor VR.

On the poster, a witch with emerald green hair stared out.

Every last hair of the witch's CG model was flawless, maybe even too beautiful. Nonetheless, it gave the impression that something was missing.

Of course, what Kamo wanted to say wasn't that the CG character lacked realism. It could be said that the feeling of imbalance and incompleteness was what made CG unique. However, the character on the poster exuded a creepily human aura, flawlessly conveying the feeling of a crazed, obsessive woman.

“...'Whatever you wish for, I can grant it.'”

Almost subconsciously, Kamo read out the tagline on the poster.

He had heard similar words once, a long time ago.

What he remembered was an hourglass pendant called the “Hourglass of Miracles”, which had become an urban legend as it was said to be able to “grant a wish”.

In May of 2018, he found that tiny hourglass in a hospital... and the man who called himself Meister Hora. Then...

“Do you like the poster?”

Kamo returned to his senses when Kurata teased him with those words before handing him a business card.

Kamo reflexively reached for his breast pocket, but stopped mid-movement. He flashed Kurata a bitter smile.

“Sorry, I forgot to prepare a card of my own.”

Kamo took the business card and read it carefully.

To his surprise, Kurata Chikage was not only a game producer, but also the executive director of MegalodonSoft. It was evident that she was a woman with great influence in the company.

After the two of them took their seats across the table, Kurata opened her mouth and spoke officially:

“Our company is currently working on developing VR (Virtual Reality) games.”

At the end of 2019, COVID-19 became a pandemic, and in just a few short years, it spread around the world with a raging momentum, claiming many lives. At one point, Japan declared a state of emergency and a policy of “preventing the spread of the disease,” asking businesses to shorten their hours and people to remain at home. The national and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was incalculable.

However, in this time of crisis, one industry saw its numbers rise, year after year:

The gaming industry.

Due to the changes in consumer demand caused by the stay at home orders, many game companies saw their sales skyrocket. As a result, development and commercialization of VR games was promoted heavily.

Five years had now passed, and with vaccination spread throughout the population, people's lives were gradually returning to pre-pandemic standards. Restaurants and tourism were still more or less changed, but the world had almost returned to its former prosperity.

Kurata explained “It's no exaggeration to say that VR headsets have now achieved a market penetration of over one per household, gradually establishing themselves as a whole new form of entertainment.”

“Among them, your company's Mystery Maker has even reached over sixty million sales between physical copies and downloads, right?”

Mystery Maker was the most recent game produced by Kurata.

The game was called a “Virtual Reality RPG”.

In a VR space, players take on the role of one of the world's top amateur detectives and participate in the solving of various difficult incidents. The Story Mode was all about the battle between the detective and Dr. D, the King of Crime, and players could also enjoy James Bond style action fun.

In just one and a half years since its release, the game had sold more than sixty million copies worldwide, and had become a mega smash hit, ranking in the top ten of all software sales for every generation of games. And even now, its sales figures were still climbing, to the point where scalpers reselling the game's game-specific glove controllers on the second-hand market had become a serious societal issue.

Having said all this, Kurata smiled happily, revealing her white teeth.

“Thanks to all our players, Mystery Maker has become our company's best selling title... Have you ever played it, Mr. Kamo?”

Even though it was a bit awkward saying so in front of the developer, Kamo answered truthfully.

 “Not seriously, but a relative of mine who's a mystery novelist did invite me to play the multiplayer mode.”

Unexpectedly, Kurata didn't look surprised, but leaned forward and asked “Could it be that you played Creative Mode? With Mr. Kamo as the detective?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Wonderful. A puzzle created by a professional writer must have been a blast to play. So, may I ask who the winner was?”

***

“I made an original case using Mystery Maker, would you like to play it?”

About a year ago, Kamo received a phone call from Ryuuzen Yuki. At the time, Yuki had already made his literary debut some time ago, under the pen name Aoba Yuki.

Yuki was Kamo's wife's cousin. The two of them usually had little contact, but that day he'd called out of the blue.

The following Saturday, Kamo and his wife visited Yuki's home.

Kamo's daughter Yukina had a play date at a classmate's house that day, so the timing worked out for the couple.

If he were being honest, Kamo was reluctant to waste his precious time sitting around playing video games, as he felt there were plenty of other ways to spend his time, but his wife Rena had happily accepted the invitation, so he had no choice but to go along.

After a quick greeting, Kamo and Rena put on their VR headsets and glove controllers and sat down on the couch. The headsets were brought by the Kamo themselves, while the controllers they borrowed from Yuki.

Yuki took out a pair of glove controller sets with sharks printed on them and told them “You have to have the MegalodonSoft controllers to play Mystery Maker.”

“Don't other companies have glove-type controllers? Do those not work?”

“This is a MegalodonSoft developed game; you can't play it with other controllers.”

Kamo couldn't stop himself from giving a bitter chuckle.

“Because you make more money if you sell a controller bundled with the game, right?”

“You can't say that. The performance of different controllers varies, that's why they developed their own specialized controller. ...That said, this controller has some drawbacks. For one, the battery doesn't last long enough, and for two, the glove part has pretty bad breathability. If you play for a long time, you'll have to do it with them plugged in, and by the time you're done they'll have wrinkled your fingertips.

Although their talk had turned into them complaining about the gloves and their manufacturer, they all still put them on.

Once they entered the VR space, Kamo couldn't help but frown.

The corpses that appeared in the game had been exaggeratedly deformed, and the amount of blood had been deliberately downplayed. Despite that... it was still enough to remind him of the tragic cases that he'd seen.

Kamo felt nothing but the churning of his stomach, but Yuki continued calmly. “What you see before you is the game stage I created. The two of you will act as 'detectives' and solve the case I committed.”

The question posed was a traditional locked room murder case.

Since they already knew that the “murderer” was Yuki, what was left to solve was the howdunit (the method of the crime) and the whydunit (the motive of the crime).

“This time, I invited you to join in after the incident occurred, but there are other ways to play this mode.”

“Oh, there's different kinds of gameplay?” Kamo asked, raising his headset's lenses.

The VR headset could be firmly affixed to the head, and the lens portion could be lifted with the press of a button. This allowed the player to pause the game and return to the real world without having to take off the headset.

Yuki also lifted his lenses and replied “There's a prerequisite for this mode, which is that the murderer has to create the problem for the detectives by actually committing the murder in the VR space.”

“Oh? Not setting the scene after the murder?”

“No. First, the murderer character has to arrange the items and people in accordance with their plan before the crime.”

“So, if it's a locked room murder, then the murderer character has to... actually carry out the locked room trick in game?”

“That's it. Without proving that the criminal's methods are actually feasible in game, the investigation can't even begin.”

At that moment, Rena also raised her lenses and muttered with a somber expression “...I don't want Yukina playing this game. Even if it is just a game, to actually commit a crime in it, this will encourage criminal behavior and affect the child's education, won't it?”

Yuki nodded vigorously.

“That's what's gotten the most discussion... Currently, the game has a strict age limit for players, and there haven't been any major problems. Global crime rates haven't gone up since release, or anything like that.”

Hearing this, Rena sighed in relief.

“Good, that's something I can rest a little easier about.”

 “If you actually play it, you'll see that the game isn't as extreme as people fear.”

Yuki explained that the crimes that take place in game, including the presentation of the bloodshed, were made deliberately unrealistic. So just going off of graphics, it wasn't that much worse than fighting monsters in an action game.

 “It's quite convenient using it to check for contradictions in fictional scenarios...”

“Meow-ow.”

 Suddenly, there came the sound of a cat purring.

At some point, Yuki had gotten a big gray cat on his lap. This was Fuwawa, who Yuki had come across on a southern island and later adopted. She seemed to be tired of watching everyone happily playing games without her, and stared at Yuki angrily with her emerald eyes.

Yuki took off his controller, tore open a bag of cat strips, and continued “Incidentally, the most interesting way to play Creative Mode is to have a detective character join in before the crime occurs, and then have the murderer character try to get away with the crime right under the detective character's nose.”

Kamo frowned.

“This isn't going to take too long, is it?”

“Only if it's a good match. Some true warriors have been known to play for half a day in a single sitting.” 

Half a day? 

Kamo, who had wanted to end the game early, couldn't help but tremble. On the other hand, Yuki said with a smile as he fed Fuwawa cat strips “I know you don't like games like this, so I chose a game that won't take that long... All the clues are left at the scene, so Kamo, Rena, try to solve the mystery of the incident.”

***

“Well... That time, it was the detective who won.”

Kamo answered Kurata's question, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

That day, while Yuki was playing with Fuwawa, Kamo had found the breakthrough to reveal the truth. It had wound up taking him less than five minutes from there to fully solving the puzzle.

As a result, the multiplayer game had ended with Yuki in a state of devastation... Kamo, who didn't know how to understand the heart of an artist and exposed the truth with lightning speed, was scolded by Rena for his efforts.

Kurata, who didn't know exactly what had happened, applauded.

“Fantastic... as expected of someone who has solved so many wrongful conviction cases, your reasoning ability is just extraordinary. I read every issue of Unsolved Mysteries with great interest.”

Kamo had a serial in the monthly magazine Unsolved Mysteries called “The Pursuit of Truth”.

Kamo interviewed via mail people who claimed to have been wrongfully convicted of a crime, then collected new information and testimony, often leading the cases to unbelievable endings... Kamo was quite good at analyzing old cases in depth and discovering new explanations.

By presenting alternative explanations, the possibility of wrongful convictions is revealed. This is the main idea of The Pursuit of Truth.

The column had been running for nearly a decade, and several of the cases he'd worked on had been retried, with the ones originally convicted eventually found not guilty. Kamo had been featured on variety shows for his efforts, where he was hailed as “the Retrialist”.

Since then, Kamo's fame had grown to the point where the Unsolved Mysteries editorial board often invited him to give lectures.

Kurata narrowed her eyes and continued “Able to analyze details to come up with completely new hypotheses... You're like a real life great detective.”

Kamo felt a sting from her words and shook his head “...It's about time we get to the main topic.”

“Main topic?”

“The email you sent me only said it was related to a new game, and that you wanted me to sign a non-disclosure agreement... What exactly does the world's top-ranked gaming company want from me, an insignificant contributor to a completely different field?”

“I want you to kill people.”

Kamo stiffened. Kurata seemed to relish in the way he was at a loss for words.

After a few seconds, Kamo sighed and asked “...You mean in the game, don't you?”

“I'm sorry, that sounded like a cruel joke.”

Kurata's mouth formed the words without making her look the least bit reflective.

“I don't quite understand. Are you trying to get me to play the role of the murderer?”

“That's right. I want you, Mr. Kamo, to handle the creation of a totally original case... Of course, we've already prepared an appropriate payment.”

The amount she stated was what Kamo made in half a year. Seeing Kamo unable to say anything, Kurata said with a straight face “The reason why I asked you to sign a confidentiality agreement beforehand is because what will be mentioned in this kickoff meeting includes information not yet released to the public.”

“I see.”

“Our company expects to release Mystery Maker 2, the sequel to Mystery Maker, in February 2025. As part of the promotion, we're planning a special demo.”

“...I'm pretty sure the Tokyo Game Show is next month.”

The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) was held every fall and was the largest video game convention in Japan. Kamo had gone to it a few times when he was younger.

The major game companies would set up elaborate zones at the venue, and visitors would be able to go in and try out new games. Inside, there were also staff dressed as game characters and a variety of peripherals for sale, making it an attractive event for gamers.

Kurata's eyes widened in surprise.

“Mr. Kamo, you're quite familiar with the game industry.”

“I've only been to pick up material. ...This demo you're talking about, is it an event linked to TGS?”

“No, it has nothing to do with TGS, it's an event planned solely by our company. The event is scheduled for three months from now, that is, in November, and as you'd expect, it's planned as an internal event.”

“Oh, so you mean it'll be invite only, right?”

“I should have put it differently. It's planned as a closed circle event.”

Kamo's expression stiffened.

“...Closed circle?”

Kurata seemed to notice Kamo's reaction, and with a long, almost childish sigh, she continued “Hey, what's wrong? I though someone like you would be particularly happy to hear those words.”

There was nothing sinister in Kurata's tone, but Kamo still felt the childishness, obsession, and insanity behind it.

Unconsciously, his gaze was drawn back to the poster for Battle Without Honor VR.

The green-haired witch who exuded madness and obsession... Although her appearance was very different, that witch and the almond-eyed woman in front of him gradually overlapped, and finally merged into one in Kamo's mind.

“You really do like that poster.”

Kurata cheerfully patted the poster on the wall.

“There's a game director at our company called Juumonji who also did Battle Without Honor's character designs. This was his work. Although he refuses to admit it, it's long been an open secret within the company who the Emerald Witch was based on.”

Kamo's head throbbed with pain. He closed his eyes. Kurata's silvery laughter lingered in his ears for a long time. From the beginning of their meeting, this woman had been playing him.

He suddenly felt thirsty and longed for something to drink. But when he looked at the tabletop, there was nothing.

Kamo shook his head slightly and spoke “Let's get back on topic... Even if I participated in the demo playtest, it wouldn't be much of a publicity stunt, would it? After all, my popularity is pretty limited.”

“That's right, if it were just Mr. Kamo, the number of people who'd care would be close to zero.”

Faced with Kurata's sudden mockery, Kamo lowered his voice as he asked “...Besides me, who else would you like to invite?”

“Your peers.”

“I don't follow. Do you mean you want to invite other people who've solved cases?”

“That's right. I'm going to invite people with superior reasoning skills to try out Mystery Maker 2. The outcome of that battle of wits... no one can predict it, right?”

 She flashed a smile to rival the sun and continued “The game's playtest will be recorded and edited into a promotional video. We might even make a full length documentary and include it as a special bonus for Mystery Maker 2... Don't you think a movie like that would leave audiences on the edge of their seats, screaming for more?”

Kurata's passion left Kamo too overwhelmed to get a word in. His mouth had long since gone dry, but now there was nothing he could do but endure it.

Meanwhile, Kurata was still talking, getting more and more excited.

“This is an invitation for the top real world amateur detectives to face off, head to head! It's an unprecedented event, the sort of thing that could normally only be done in the world of our company's game!”

“That's true, but...”

“Including Mr. Kamo, we're going to invite eight people to act as detectives and murderers in a multiplayer game.”

Kamo clearly hadn't agreed yet, but Kurata seemed to not even acknowledge the possibility that he'd refuse. Kamo shrugged and said “You aren't planning to invite those eight people inside a villa or mansion, are you?”

“Of course we are.”

Kurata finished smugly, and Kamo couldn't help but laugh.

 “It's all just such a mess.”

“Our company owns a health resort facility on the island of Inunojima in the Seto Inland Sea. The building certainly resembles the sort of mansion you'd see in a mystery novel. The current plan is to hold the demo playtest there.”

Kamo felt his headache creeping back up and shook his head again.

“Don't you think that's a bit contrary to the times? Mystery Maker 2 is supposed to support online multiplayer as well, so is it really necessary to concentrate the players in one place?”

He had expected to Kurata to respond with “creating atmosphere” or something like that, but she surprised him by suddenly turning serious.

“If the playtest were held remotely there'd be a chance of a leak.”

“A leak?”

 “There are many major AAA games whose research and development costs exceed tens of billions of yen... Let's just say that our company has already spent almost that much on Mystery Maker 2.”

Even Kamo couldn't help but gasp. He'd never imagined how much money it would cost to develop a game.

Kurata continued flatly “Even if we put aside the development costs, we still have to do our best to avoid any content leaks from games still in development. Large game companies are often targeted by hackers, and our company is especially security conscious.”

“I see, so holding the playtest in a facility owned by your company would save you a lot of trouble on managing security, wouldn't it?”

“I'm glad we understand each other. However, since we are able to gather everyone together, how could we miss the opportunity to create atmosphere? Fortunately, the location of our health resort is also particularly suitable for committing murders.”

Listening to her obsession, Kamo grew increasingly confused and asked “I have one more question... This demo will live or die based on the strength of the murders, correct?”

“Yes. The murderer role is not only responsible for planning their crime, but also for executing it. To use the analogy of a novel, they'd simultaneously be the author and the character of the murderer. It could be said that the success of the promotion is entirely dependent on how capable a murderer is.”

Kamo shot a brief glance at Kurata.

“Can you not raise the difficulty on me this early?”

 “Mr. Kamo, I want you because I'm certain you're the best murderer I could get.”

“...Huh?”

“Out of the entire guest list, Mr. Kamo's reasoning ability absolutely surpasses all others. No matter how many detectives you face, you should be able to commit a perfect crime and win.”

Although only for a moment, Kamo heard Kurata's voice briefly clouded by a dark gloom. Kamo couldn't guess her true intentions, and her serious gaze left him at a loss for words.

“What I want to ask of you is just to commit crimes in the game. What I'm after is a bold and mysterious murder case... The more dramatic the case, the better. Since it's a crime committed among strangers, just think of it as a thrill kill! Fuck motives!”

The sudden curse made Kamo nearly choke.

“That's messed up.”

Kurata continued gleefully “In VR space, villas, mansions, castles, any building you like is at your disposal. Locked rooms, alibis, physical tricks... whatever, please feel free to cram them all in. In short, don't let the detective characters solve your puzzles. Don't play nice.”

Kamo froze with his mouth half-open, while Kurata stared him dead in the face, her almond eyes clear and tinged with amusement.

“...You accept the role of 'murderer', right?”

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