Chapter 2: Goodbye, RE Corp
I woke up around 1PM. The sunlight piercing through the curtain gaps made waking up quite difficult, but oh well, that’s fine. What’s important are yesterday’s results.
As I booted up the translation software and opened the bulletin board, a festive uproar was unfolding.
【What’s Going on With This Game】HAO Strategy Thread Part 58【Real Lawsuit?】
234 Anonymous Player
The Orange Book mentioned on TV this morning too. Why the hell is confidential information getting into the game, makes no damn sense.
235 Anonymous Player
And for RE Corp to notice already when it hasn’t even been a few hours since the info was leaked? Damn.
236 Anonymous Player
＞＞235 Apparently words used only internally at RE Corp were detected all over the HAO strategy threads.
237 Anonymous Player
An official statement from the devs!
『RE Corp should still be in the production phase for the Apollyon. However, the data we have is from after completion. How do they explain this? Also, we believe RE Corp’s Apollyon tech monopoly leads to 2055 – what are their thoughts on this?』
……???
238 Anonymous Player
I’m lost.
・Confidential corporate info mixed into the game data somehow ←?
・But the in-game data is more completed than the confidential info ←???
・And their statement seems to acknowledge confidential info is present ←?????
・Also what is this 2055 thing
239 Anonymous Player
Some kind of horror theme?
240 Anonymous Player
＞＞238 2055 seems to be when some big in-game event happens apparently. Bringing that up in real life is pretty creepy.
241 Anonymous Player
So Orange is actually the victim here…
…It seems things have become quite confusing. When I hurriedly checked the internet news, Orange’s name was appearing everywhere together with RE Corp. In fact, RE Corp’s stock price had dropped 5%.
I thought to myself that this is probably just some kind of information leak or something. Of course, it’s impossible for all of the confidential information to actually be in the game data. So this is probably a case where data that was meant for some future collaboration with RE Corp for merchandise or something got mixed in accidentally. By claiming it’s confidential information, they’re drawing public attention to it – it’s undoubtedly a viral marketing strategy! That would explain the cryptic, unclear statements too. Rather than answering RE Corp, they’re just explaining the game worldbuilding. This is it!
If that’s the case, then there’s only one thing for me to do – ride this wave of attention. This rare chance for the spotlight is on the game, I have to make use of this timing to spread awareness of the intricate game design, unforgiving difficulty, and most of all, the appeal of the giant robots!
I get up from my futon. Because my rural hometown didn’t have any decent high schools nearby I could attend, I started living alone early on. So I’m the only one in this room. I grab a sweet bun by my messy feet and shove it in my mouth as I boot up the VR gear.
I fiddle with the VR equipment made by Miclosoft, Inc., setting up the streaming. Next I access the video sharing site Y0utube, create a streaming account, and immediately log in.
「Uwah, this back alley again?」
Looks like this is the initial player room. A filthy back alley, collapsed buildings on both sides, and somehow perfectly wedged between them is a huge robot. How can an Apollyon fit in a back alley, isn’t it way too big! But that does seem to be the case – my display reads “Private Area: Excess Volume”. Apparently I can only add more objects until it becomes full, but for now it looks fine.
I check myself briefly – when I bring my hand to my mouth it bumps against a mask. Feeling the jagged texture with the perfect haptic feedback, I peer at my current form through a broken piece of glass on the ground.
An average height, average build teenage boy – relatively rare brown hair for a Japanese person, otherwise plain. And yes, it’s my natural hair color, I don’t have the courage to dye it. The boy wears metal gauntlets and gloves over his work clothes. He looks kinda like a worn-out soldier. And the most distinctive feature is the mask I touched earlier – a cool, intimidating piece of work with tubes extending from its edges.
『Oxygen Mask: After the ‘Torrent Phenomenon’ post-2050, atmospheric oxygen levels dropped drastically. While cyborgs and beastkin are fine, espers and powered armor humans need to use these masks to supplement their oxygen. In 2050, many died from insufficient oxygen but supply methods have now stabilized and prices are affordable.』
…That’s a long info window. Oh well, at least I discovered one of this crappy game’s instant death traps – taking off the mask means death. Anyway, I probably don’t have to worry about my face being seen. My mouth is covered so no one I don’t already know would recognize me. I slap my face, the pain transmitting through my nerves, sharpening my awareness. I select the in-game “Streaming” command, opening up Y0utube and hitting Start Streaming. My title is “Orange Attempts to Actually Take an Apollyon Apart – Live Stream”. Just made this account so my subs should be at 0… yet somehow there’s already 30 real-time viewers. The popularity of “HAO” continues to amaze.
「Can everyone see me..? I’m Orange. Umm, anyway, I’m gonna try playing with this Apollyon while staring at the manual… Uhh…」
I’ve never streamed before so it’s hard to talk normally. To escape the embarrassment I avert my eyes from the comment window display and climb into the cockpit instead.
「So, first I’ll try getting the generator running like the thread figured out yesterday, to activate the control programs I think. I’ll take this and…」
I pull out and open an oily box by my feet – inside are a box grip with dials and wires attached. A portable generator that I’ve seen before but never used. As I stand there confused, I hear a sound from the comment window.
『That top right dial, turn it and flip the power switch first.』
『It might ignite so make sure to wipe up the oil around it.』
…The comments are so competent. Truly helpful. Following the instructions, when I move my hand the device shakes with a burrrn. I connect the power cord to where it fits perfectly and flick it on – the cockpit interior lights up brightly.
Information is projected on the canopy:
『RE Corp Apollyon Mass Product type Activating』
『Damage: Both Arm Units, Both Leg Units, All Joints』
『Internal Control Program Functional, Ready to Activate via Neural Connection』
There’s no way this thing can move properly…! But once again, salvation came from the comment section for the despairing me.
『Orange is streaming lol』
『Page 125, looks like there’s spare parts stored in the back』
『Is this the guy wrecking the American powered suits market right now?』
『Arm maintenance starts page 146, there should be emergency repair stuff here. Page 300 is fundamentals, factory repairs, lore etc. so ignore that』
『Joints parts detach for easy repair. Welding puts them back on, translation may have mistakes sorry』
『The Orange Book seem to detail mass production Apollyon maintenance and manufacturing. The huge one in the PV must be even more top secret』
Amazing teamwork. Well, I shouldn’t talk down to them. I take out the manual, comparing the diagrams and comment info as I start repairs. Somehow my viewer count has exceeded 2000, with more foreign commenters too.
As instructed, I pry open the joint casing with tools, exposing the circuits. Bringing the camera close, tools in hand, I yell:
「We can do it! With 2000 people’s power, we can repair this damn Apollyon in this trash game! And devs, implement a proper tutorial!」
That day, RE Corp’s stock price fell 20%, recording a 600 billion market cap loss in one day. The reason was the field testing and live broadcasting of confidential info, the “Orange Book”, by the HAO player known as Orange. With the internal circuitry and structure exposed to the world for 5 hours, tech imitation by rival corps became easier, leading shareholders to fear the end of RE Corp’s powered suit market monopoly. The coming month, imitation powered suits and Apollyons announced by various nations marked the end of RE Corp’s dominance.
In this situation, the term “panic” spread online to describe society’s fear and turmoil, though clearly just one person’s posts are being misattributed as causing societal upheaval. The above details the “First Orange Panic” – the stock crash incidents referred to as such.
At 6PM the same day, Orange’s stream which peaked at 500,000 live viewers was forcibly ended due to protests lodged with the video platform itself by RE Corp. Afterwards, “HAO” underwent 12 hours of maintenance.
This world heads towards ruin. And the one destroying it isn’t a hero or god, but none other than this person, Mishima Kanji.
『Ver 1.07 Update Details
・RE Corp’s Apollyon monopoly has collapsed.
・4 mass production Apollyon variants now selectable.
・Existing mass production Apollyons will become unusable. You can select a replacement.
・Strengthened Apollyon forces saved 2 cities from total annihilation. Maps and markets updated.
・Ruin in 2050 remains unavoidable.
・Success rate for 2055 operations remains 0%. 』
『Torrent Phenomenon』
Rather than the cause of ruin, it was one result of the already unfolding disaster. The sharp oxygen level drop and subsequent mass extinction of organisms was hugely damaging. Normal oxygen levels are 21%, while humans die below 10% – the in-game atmosphere is only 3%.
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