Antagonist

"So… is there a sort of Game Master for this game? Someone who can alter the game world to fix errors or introduce new maps? Also, can you tell me everything you know about the game? It might be the only way for me to survive." Kai said as he retracted his sword as a gesture of friendliness, and held out his hand to help the female tester off the ground.

"GM? No way. Do you think the CEO would leave the entire world's stability on a single individual? No, he would not even leave it to a group of individuals. In fact, even if each and every person on Earth had been given the option to vote to decide the fate of this world, he would not allow it." The female tester snickered.

"Why?" Kai asked, bewildered. After all, the democratic system was the most widely used system for a majority of the Earth Alliance and was widely recognised as the most successful governance system.

"Why? Have you not seen the current state of the earth? If all decisions were made by just one individual, over time, there would at least be a few who would have realised the downward spiralling of the Earth's conditions and made preparations over the countless years since the founding of the Earth Alliance."

"Ah…" Kai exclaimed softly, before he added, "So what did your boss do?"

"Oh. Nothing much actually. He just set up a system which would gradually be built upon the remains of the deceased AI, and with time, this formed a new AI. Once with billions of AIs fused into one. One which formed the consciousness of the world itself, we call it the World AI. OF course, to prevent anyone from interfering with it, the boss made it such that even he himself would not be able to locate or tamper with this World AI, and as the countless years of simulations continued, the AI became more and more robust, to the point that we are currently limited to only being able to explore the area around this small town, and each time we die, we lose a bit of our strength. Of course, being as weak as we are, we would not be losing anything each time we die. Therefore, we do not know exactly how many levels we will lose for each death."

"Oh!" Kai exclaimed in faint surprise, while his mind was still a mess from all this new information.

"So… is there a way for me to leave the game?"

"No? Well… I'm not entirely sure. However, if you are able to contact the World AI, you should be able to ask it, since it knows more about this world than us the developers! However, meeting the World AI is not very easy. When the CEO was trying to implement the revival system into the world, he was not given any access to the world at all, and only after we tried for over a month were we able to get the World AI's attention. Of course, we could not harm it to get its attention since that was impossible to do… no… we acted more like children poking an adult with a twig until they get annoyed enough to give you their attention."

For some reason, Kai could imagine this in his mind, a group of scientists and programmers with sickly pale complexions due to not taking care of themselves, crouching around the enormous World AI and poking it until it turned to them.

"I see. Anything else I should look out for?" Kai questioned.

"Nope. Just that after a few months or so, we intend on releasing the game as a Beta version where a lot more people will join in. Well… a few months in the real world… so around a few years here. Besides that, I don't know much about this place."

"Also, you said something about levels. What is my level?"

"9"

"How do you know?"

"Well, since you can see the yellow arrow above my head, I can see information about you above your head, including your name, title, and level. Well, I should have been able to see other things as well, however, the data seems distorted. Perhaps due to you retaining your memories."

"Hmm… how do I contact you?"

"You can't. Once I leave, I doubt I will ever return. But… if I do, how will I contact you?"

"Well… that is fine. I doubt I will ever come to this place anytime soon. And even if I do, I will likely only meet others from Earth. It appears exchanging information with you is no longer useful." Kai mumbled as his gaze towards the female tester turned frigid.

"Kh- o" The female tester made a sound which was interrupted by her head being sliced clean off and her body landing on the ground with a thud. Kai sheathed his sword and nodded in satisfaction.

Only now did he faintly hear the sound of two people running towards him, and he immediately became vigilant. However, that vigilance immediately vanished as he noticed it was the two he had killed before.

"I will be leaving here and not returning. I hope you enjoy your immortality for however long it lasts." Kai left those parting words before dashing away.

"…It appears we have met the antagonist of this world…" One of the male testers commented while the other shook his head.

"Just because he acts like a villain does not make him one. Also, based on the number of people in this world, there are bound to be many, many more villains. He might just be one of the uncountable villains for players... just a small elite mob, not a field boss."