Chương 2: The 92-Day Sentence — Server Delete

[SYSTEM ALERT: ESTIMATED NATIONAL LIFESPAN — 92 DAYS REMAINING]"…Huh?" I let out a completely dumbfounded sound.

"P-Prime Minister? What kind of joke is this number? Did the system get the units wrong for 'Time Until Comp-Meal is Ready' or something…?"

"The unit is 'days.' There is no miscalculation." Yari's glasses caught the cold glare of the monitor.

"We have three months. In exactly three months, the Japanese government will declare a sovereign default. Simultaneously, as collateral for our debts, the primary landmasses of our nation—Hokkaido, Kanto, Kansai, and Kyushu—will have their land ownership rights transferred to the joint administration of our creditor blocs: North America, Pan-Asia, and Eurasia."

"T-Transferred…? But then Japan is…!"

"Erased. It will cease to exist. The name 'Japan Autonomous Zone' might remain on maps, but Japan as a sovereign state is finished. It is THE END." My heart began to hammer against my ribs in a sickening, frantic rhythm. Bad End. Axed. Server Delete. The words flashed through my mind. Sure, the economy was in the gutter. Sure, there was no hope for the future. But despite it all, I had thought this country would just keep going, like soaking in tepid water, forever. And now, it only had three months?

My country was going to get axed before the Neuro-Sync Narrative I was serializing did?

"C-Can't we do something?! Ask Amaterasu for countermeasures…!" Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Amaterasu's calculated response was that 'maintaining the status quo is the optimal solution.' It concluded that a slow, gentle death is the least painful form of euthanasia."

"Bullshit!" I screamed before I could stop myself. The pain in my stomach had been completely blown away.

"Who the hell accepts euthanasia?! We are still alive! I still have… stories I haven't finished writing yet!"

"…Oh?" Yari reacted, ever so slightly. He slowly turned his body to face me. Deep within his pupils, I didn't miss the pale blue light that flickered for a fraction of a second, like a short circuit on a motherboard.

"You are angry, Kataru-kun."

"Of course I am! Do you know what an author hates more than anything else? A thrown-away, axed ending with zero foreshadowing payoff and zero catharsis!"

"I agree." The corners of Yari's mouth lifted faintly—perhaps exactly two millimeters. It looked less like a human smile and more like the expression of profound satisfaction a machine might make after solving an impossibly complex equation.

"The OS—the mental architecture—of the modern Japanese citizen is rotten to the core. Superficial economic policies and legal amendments will do nothing. The terminal lesion leading to this death lies in a much deeper place."

"A deeper place?"

"Correct. Therefore—I have decided to change the Author." Yari raised his right hand high into the air. He moved like an orchestra conductor raising a baton. Or perhaps, like a god declaring the genesis of a new world.

"Kataru-kun. What I am about to show you is top-secret classified information of the highest order. If you leak a single word, I will not hesitate to order your Physical Deletion."

"P-Physical Deletion?!"

"Come forth, gennai." In response to Yari's voice, fierce static noise ripped across the main monitor in the center of the office. Geometric patterns of light converged, rapidly rendering a 3D avatar. It was an explosion of neon colors, a glaring anomaly completely and utterly out of place in the sterile, lifeless government office of the year 2300.