Eight years ago, the joint operation between the UN and Korea was only half a success.
It’s commendable that they wiped out every single member of Valpurgis without leaving a trace.
However, the resulting explosion of the Fire Bridge ultimately led to numerous casualties.
The related persons who feared covering up this truth are currently detained in Seoul Eastern Detention Center.
Among them is Won Seok-hee, a disgraced colonel from the 74th class of the Korean Military Academy, who was made to retire from the United Forces Command.
A call for a visit came from the police department.
“This morning, we found this on the body of a Japanese terrorism victim. Can you find out anything?”
The police threw several photographs onto the desk.
Won Seok-hee grabbed one with a frustrated tone.
“Hey, officers. What do you expect me to say when you just toss a photo like this? You should at least tell me what this is and where it came from. Ugh, people are so frustrating…!”
Wearing prison clothes, Seok-hee squinted his dim eyes behind his glasses.
In the end, the youngest officer took a seat opposite him to endure the bald man’s eccentric temperament.
“So, sir. It was embedded in the victim’s skull.”
“Skull? Which skull?”
“Count the sticks.”
“One, two, three, four, five… Nine in total.”
“Nine sticks all stuck in one head, and you expect to pinpoint a location? You could say they are roughly evenly distributed.”
“Hmm…”
Seok-hee put down his glasses and pulled the photograph away from his eyes.
These weren’t needles or pins.
They were about the thickness of a thick thumb.
The white sticks were nearly the length of a human forearm.
An item whose purpose could not be specified at all.
While retracing his vague memories, another officer subtly hinted at something to the colonel.
“During the Valpurgis incident in Korea, weren’t there several victims found dead inside capsules? I heard they all had square holes in their temples. We were wondering if this was related.”
“Ah! That’s the same! Exactly this size!”
Seok-hee said excitedly, snapping his fingers.
“…!”
“Well, I don’t know about other places, but the bodies of the hostages from Seoul Research Institute looked just like this. Initially, I thought some psycho was drilling or using nails, but looking at it now, it doesn’t seem to be exactly that. The National Forensic Service also didn’t have a clue, and well… I think it all ended up in a mess.”
“Then, were there any other peculiarities? I’m telling you this seems like an important case.”
“I only saw it in pictures, so I’m not sure. Valpurgis has been quiet lately, so did they pop up from across the East Sea…?”
“Yeah, seems roughly right.”
“What? Really?”
*
Japan was thrown into chaos.
The victim was identified as a perfectly ordinary business major student attending Showa Women’s University.
At the time of the tragedy eight years ago, she was just 20 years old, a second-year university student, way too young.
The body, gruesomely mangled with nine holes in her skull, could only belong in a detective novel.
According to testimonies from Katsuhata Sect members, the body parts soaked in liquid potions filled with residues were already undergoing decomposition at the time of discovery.
Japan’s overwhelming law enforcement managed to catch the involved criminals like catching bugs.
No matter how tightly bound they were by friendship and religious beliefs,
they wouldn’t be able to endure the pressures of near-torturous interrogations unless they were freedom fighters in a past life.
Ultimately, Bishop Aoyama Noshinobu from “Aleph” was urgently arrested, erasing their center of operations.
Moreover, it was revealed that the individuals behind the incident were elite members of society who were all in medical and doctoral programs, leading to an even bigger wave of despair.
Two students from the Tokai University Medical Department and Keio University Department of Applied Engineering, who were protecting the capsules, revealed their motive for the crime.
“It’s phowa. And I bet you’ll ask again, what is phowa! When a person dies, their consciousness exits through the nine holes of the body, and these nine holes serve as a gateway to reincarnation. The phowa practice opens the crown chakra and allows consciousness to transcend into the Pure Land. We attempted phowa on her and she must have safely reached heaven while contemplating the body of Amitabha.”
“Valpurgis? Ha…! We received help due to our talent, but calling them heretics would be too kind. They’re just foolish beings degrading humanity’s spiritual level. Why doesn’t humanity just attempt to create the Western Pure Land and return to paradise?”
Phowa, Pure Land, Western Pure Land.
They actively spread bizarre beliefs derived from Tibetan Buddhism to the public.
Knowing that a death sentence was practically guaranteed, they achieved a state of enlightenment.
In the heat of a pointless interview, an angry reporter threw them a new question.
“Don’t you feel any remorse for the victim? What was the reason for guarding the capsules for eight years? Where did you get your funding?”
“She gained enlightenment and became a Buddha, so she is a living Buddha. Though a monk can leave the temple, have you seen a Buddha ever abandon their path?”
“Ah… I’m not sure, but yes… Then where did the funding come from?”
“We received it as an offering to share enlightenment with people. I personally recommend that our foolish reporter here should also experience accident-accelerating magic someday.”
With madness gleaming in his eyes, the reporter set down the microphone, quietly retreating.
The male suspect faintly raised the corners of his mouth and leisurely advised the reporter.
“You don’t seem to believe it. I understand. It’s hard to attain enlightenment with an undeveloped mind. Allow me to interpret and distort it for you in your primitive language.”
Flashes from cameras exploded around them.
He had caught the timing of important words to drop like a bomb.
“Aleph was ultimately conducting research with the goal of shedding the physical form and returning to virtual reality. For follow-up research, we preserved the body, but all low data was handed over to Ms. Ophelia.”
“Ophelia! Wait, aren’t these the guys from the ASI manufacturing company in England?”
“Quick! Get the international reporters on the line! There’s definitely something big here!”
“Hahaha!”
Watching the chaos unfold, he couldn’t help but laugh.
The line of reporters turned into an absolute spectacle.
Detectives discretely grabbed his arm and led him inside the building.
But, as if to make a final stand, the suspect added one last remark.
“That’s right, Asaneko Adella! She is the proof of the living Buddha! Damn, ASI and all! Did you all know she was only a human originally? Hahahaha!”
*
When strange events occur in world history, pointing toward England is usually a safe bet.
It took less than two days for the entire Ophelia legal team in England to submit their resignations and escape.
Normally, they would be thrilled at the thought of hefty bonuses for punishment against spreading false information.
However, with the retrieval case of Adella causing headaches for the legal director, he didn’t even show up to work and quit abruptly.
Rumors couldn’t help but spread throughout the company.
“What if Ophelia really is linked with Aleph?”
“Could this turn out to be a black company?”
“What if just showing up to work is ruining my life in real-time?”
If this were to involve Valpurgis too, the company would surely be guaranteed a fall from grace.
Ophelia, willingly or not, finally threw off the safety helmet of law.
It was only natural for all sorts of beasts to come rushing in and start biting.
It began with the National Crime Agency and the Metropolitan Police in London.
Ophelia recalled all ASI products to which she lent her license and initiated an investigation for ethical crimes.
Investigators found it peculiar that ASI’s products were the only ones without intellectual property insurance.
In the end, they located the entity ‘bfa41d67c7’.
“It’s best to confess now. Where’s the ASI reference coordinates! Where did you hide the server?!”
A British detective brutally grabbed the CEO by the collar.
“Fuck off. You can file a Freedom of Information Act request.”
The CEO from an allied nation brazenly flipped the bird at them.
A fist flew toward the CEO, who chose death over his own suicide.
“Cough! You guys think you can just hit an innocent person and get away with it? I’ll spread this all over the media!”
“As long as you don’t use magic, you’ll be fine.”
“What kind of law is that!”
“That’s just how our country’s law works. If you don’t like it, go run for parliament.”
“This…!”
Of course, that was a lie.
But at times, creating excessive fear can serve as a remedy.
“California Redwood City, Ophelia’s 4th Data Warehouse Merger Management Center. Contact the FBI and request investigative cooperation.”
*
[Major Bug Report: 2045-08-30, 2:05:35 PM]
[System Format (REUNION-3): 2045-08-30, 2:08:37 PM]
“Completely formatted…”
The conclusion of the underway international investigation was rather dismal.
“Can a person really live on in virtual reality after death?”
The question that had caused an uproar now became an eternal enigma for humanity.
“Did the Aleph experiment really succeed?”
A naive inquiry came from an FBI investigator’s junior.
“Ah, what a joke. That’s something only ignorant people say. It’s physically impossible. Once virtual reality technology emerged, it was rigorously proven. Should I explain why?”
“Why not?”
“Very simply, humans have been interacting with the world since birth. That’s thanks to this Aura Heart. It’s like we’re born with an umbilical cord attached.”
“An umbilical cord? What is it attached to?”
“To the root stem and its offshoots. And the mana main trunk. When the mana-filled amniotic fluid is in the earth, what happens if you suddenly cut the umbilical cord?”
“You’d die.”
“That’s the basic principle. Or there’s a more intuitive proof. Open world is a concept expanded from the mana main line, so the very idea of going after death is contradictory. To exist in virtual reality, one needs an Aura Heart, but death means the cessation of the Aura Heart. Thus, the proposition that all humans existing in virtual reality are not dead becomes valid. Okay?”
“Then what about the opposite?”
The junior asked back.
“What about the opposite?”
“Creating a consciousness that resembles a human from the beginning within virtual reality, constructing a human-like body, and inserting the consciousness into that.”
“That’s obvious…”
The junior’s view of the definition of ‘body’ was too broad.
Could it really be called human even without an Aura Heart?
Could something entirely mechanical, like in a cyberpunk film, be called a body?
Though it was a story so distant into the future, the senior could not conclusively deny it.
“Perhaps it could be possible eventually unless humanity collapses.”
Since when a proposition is valid, even the contrapositive could not be known.
While sharing philosophical queries, investigators digging through data center log files came rushing in.
“Senior! That bfa-whatever reference coordinate has changed once!”
“What? Is that for real? The original?”
“No, not the original, but it’s definitely an ASI object that went through formatting… It seems like it was halfway recovered, at least.”
“Impossible? A stage 3 reunion should erase it without a trace. Did they possibly make a backup?”
“Chandra, could you please provide the IP?”
“184.85.235.194.”
“235, 194… That’s South Korea, Seoul.”
With an IP alone, one cannot confirm a reference address.
However, if one were to recall ‘Adella’ before the Aleph follower was transferred to prosecution…
The ownership of the entity would surely belong to NoName.
Every investigator thought in unison.
“Let’s call it a day.”
Unless Korea was incorporated as the 52nd state of the United States, this incident was beyond their jurisdiction.
