04/14: Catch the Moment
- Location
- The Sea of Souls
[X] Uh... Agil pretended to be your dad over the phone already! Dad probably won't fly but uh... close family guardian? He's quick on the uptake and has a car. You'd be kind of imposing on him even more though. [You have enough Empathy for this option to be free.]
[X] A giant fairy dragon.
[X] Plan No Cool Name
-[X] MAJOR ACTIONS
--[X] [A PRUDENT Talk]: Call your mom. [Costs 20 D] [SL]
--[X] [A Study in Velvet]: What is a Persona? You called it forth in Alfheim, and you know that Havfrue is not the extent of your power. The «Velvet Room» is the basis of your power, it's high time you visited it properly and introduce yourself to your strange allies.
--[X] [Yggdrasil Inc]: The World Tree appears both in reality and the virtual world. From what you can tell the one in the waking world gets smaller as you travel away and bigger as you get closer. You can't exactly tell a taxi driver to get closer to the invisible tower only you can see... but with a map, Tokyo's train system, and some good ol' fashioned footwork you can probably figure out where exactly the tree is originating from.
--[X] [Entertain Endou]: Endou's going to hang out in your apartment! Eh, at least she seems more fun than all the other mobs at school. Might want to check out an arcade together or something cause there's nothing really to do in your apartment.
-[X] MINOR ACTIONS
--[X] [Wiki-Warrior]: You're going to be spending ALOT of time in Alfheim Online. Maybe you can watch a tutorial video? Read the wiki? I mean, you needed someone to tell you how to even log out of the game. [Trains CHT]
--[X] [Report//OBERON]: Compile what you know of Oberon based on the information you've gathered so far with Meimi. Agil promises that information about the inner workings of Alfheim and the World Tree are valuable to Argo's bosses who will pay you for the task. [Gains 5000 Yen]
--[X] [Sparring//Leafa]: She's not exactly hard to find. Leafa is evidently famous as one of Sylph race's strongest fighters and fastest fliers. She's offered to duel you to help you train, though you'll have to deal with her intense LARPing. [Trains STR] [Costs 5 D]
--[X] [RMT Scout]: Look. You're here to do a job. Alfheim Online is a VRMMO so there are going to be farmers... you don't have time to grind it out yourself so why don't you go play around and see how people sell gold in an AI-controlled economy?
[X] A giant fairy dragon.
[X] Plan No Cool Name
-[X] MAJOR ACTIONS
--[X] [A Study in Velvet]: What is a Persona? You called it forth in Alfheim, and you know that Havfrue is not the extent of your power. The «Velvet Room» is the basis of your power, it's high time you visited it properly and introduce yourself to your strange allies.
--[X] [Yggdrasil Inc]: The World Tree appears both in reality and the virtual world. From what you can tell the one in the waking world gets smaller as you travel away and bigger as you get closer. You can't exactly tell a taxi driver to get closer to the invisible tower only you can see... but with a map, Tokyo's train system, and some good ol' fashioned footwork you can probably figure out where exactly the tree is originating from.
-[X] MINOR ACTIONS
--[X] [Report//OBERON]: Compile what you know of Oberon based on the information you've gathered so far with Meimi. Agil promises that information about the inner workings of Alfheim and the World Tree are valuable to Argo's bosses who will pay you for the task. [Gains 5000 Yen]
--[X] [Sparring//Leafa]: She's not exactly hard to find. Leafa is evidently famous as one of Sylph race's strongest fighters and fastest fliers. She's offered to duel you to help you train, though you'll have to deal with her intense LARPing. [Trains STR] [Costs 5 D]
--[X] [RMT Scout]: Look. You're here to do a job. Alfheim Online is a VRMMO so there are going to be farmers... you don't have time to grind it out yourself so why don't you go play around and see how people sell gold in an AI-controlled economy?
Reports are just coming in about a suicide on the Tokyo Skytree this afternoon at 4PM. A press release from the Metropolitan Police Department indicates the victim died from injuries sustained attempting to break through the windows on the upper observation deck.
The Police have noted a marked uptick in suicides over the last month, with an unusual skew towards suicide by jumping from height. This is the first suicide reported in the Tokyo Skytree since its opening, and the police are choosing to classify this incident as part of the current trend involving high elevation events. Pending further investigation the attraction will remain closed throughout the week.
Analysts have pointed to a recent resurgence of Apathy Syndrome cases as a potential culprit for the uptick in suicides. The Tokyo PD urges all individuals who are having thoughts of suicide to contact the suicide prevention hotline at 03-3772-0982.
SUNDAY - April 13th, 2025
Evening
"Please turn that off."
Agil glances in his rear view mirror while he silently turns off his radio. Looks like the incident was already making headlines, and true to their word the Tokyo PD was keeping your name out of the news. Whether it was because the officer believed you or was simply too apathetic to dig deeper you don't know and don't care to find out.
"...you doing okay? Want to talk about it?"
"Not particularly."
Your eyes stay focused out of the window, staring at the «World Tree» even now towering over the skyline of the city. Agil drives through gridlocked rush hour traffic, and you can tell he has many questions but is respectfully staying quiet.
You honestly weren't sure who to call, and Agil was the first person that came to mind who owned a car. It was a big ask to make such a request of someone who was, functionally speaking, a stranger you had just met this week.
There was a brief period of panic when Agil showed up, the police didn't allow you to speak unattended so you couldn't actually coordinate your story right. As with most lies it was best to use as much truth as possible, especially for Agil. Turned out the police also had a file on him too, every SAO survivor was already fingerprinted and placed in the police database during the initial hospital move. He simply had to introduce himself as the organizer of an SAO survivor support group, a statement that surprisingly had the benefit of being true. Evidently Agil's "regulars" were often SAO survivors themselves— all the more reason for you to avoid being seen by them.
"Hey, Hiyori."
A noncommittal mumble is all you respond with.
How do you even explain what happened? You could hardly understand it yourself, and your Shadow's only explanation was a glib 'it felt right'. Even setting aside the reasons the most shocking thing you can recall is how... certain you feel as your Shadow's memories coalesce in your brain. Somehow you knew that some... part of that man didn't die when his brains spilled out of his body. That «World Tree» wasn't just your hallucination, that man also saw it too. Who else could see that tree? What did it mean that you could see it in the real world? You hadn't even heard of Alfheim Online when it started showing up!
You think that's a problem? Need I remember our entire school reputation is now firmly in the hands of Endou!
"You don't have to talk. Just... listen," Agil responds, slowly.
He lowers his voice, recalling a painful memory. You look over at him, his eyes softening as he speaks.
"I knew a guy... just like you. Strong, hardworking, always there to lend a hand. Even to strangers, even to those who had wronged him. He would always offer help but he would never ask for it in return."
"Sounds like he was a hero." The opposite of you.
"Heh, about right. But the thing is... up until the very end he never asked for help. The first in line, the first to put himself in danger, the first to sacrifice his safety, his reputation for others. Only working together when absolutely necessary. People had to reach out to him, never vice versa."
Agil pauses for a moment, lost in thought before continuing.
"I never asked him if he was happy. It would've been a stupid question, but I like to think near the end he found his own peace... but those first few years... must have been quite lonely."
"...was he an SAO player?"
"Yeah. You know my biggest regret? It was lying there on the floor, paralyzed, watching him face down evil by himself. The whole time the same thought kept running in my head: 'why does he have to fight alone?' Could I have done more? What did I truly accomplish? Was I just relaxing in a shop simulator while others were dying on my behalf?"
Your gaze returns back outside where traffic is crawling along at a snail's pace. In the distance the World Tree remains a silent reminder of the job left unfinished.
"I get the same sensation watching you, Hiyori. I... can't really fathom what's going on, it's clearly something beyond even SAO. But I can tell when someone's trying to take on the world by themselves."
You glance back again. There isn't any anger in Agil's tone, no judgment. If anything, they sound sad, almost wistful.
"Just don't make the same mistake he did. Don't be afraid to show vulnerability. Ask for help when you need it, even if its from someone you can't trust or dislike. If you wait for people to reach out to you... well, unless you're very lucky you'll be waiting for a very, very long time."
"Are you talking about Argo?"
"I understand the two of you have history together... but you're both working towards the same goal, right? And if she's not reaching out to you... maybe you can reach out to her instead? And I'm always here, if you need a ride, if you need someone to talk to. I know we're mostly strangers... but there's a few people still trapped in there that I owe a drink to. If by helping you I can help them... well that's the least I can do."
"I... I can't promise that."
Agil shakes his head, smiling, "That's okay. Just take it one step at a time, just think on what I've said, alright? Now where to? Heading home or do you want me to drop you off at the train station?"
"You've still got to work, so just drop me off at your bar. I can make my way back from there."
The Dicey Cafe. This is the second time you've been here and the first time you've been here at night. Last time the whole scene was empty, here in the middle of evening you were expecting more activity.
"Why aren't there any people here?"
"Someone called me in a panic so I had to close early."
"Oh..." Whoops. The man did run a business after all...
"Well if you want to dive into ALO, just use the upstairs. You should really consider buying an Amusphere, they aren't that pricey and even if it's theoretically safe the idea of putting on one of those deathtraps..."
The Amusphere was supposedly much safer than the Nervegear, but universally considered to be a lower fidelity dive experience. Turns out there was even a small black market demand for the discontinued NerveGear, itself technically illegal.
"Thanks. Uh, can I ask you something Agil-san?"
"Sure," he responds, handing you a soda from his fridge while he pours himself a glass of water.
"What exactly is Argo planning? With regards to the «World Tree» at least?"
He scratches his chin as he thinks about your question. "Honestly speaking... the details are a bit beyond me. It's best asking that to her directly. I know she organized the Undine's last big attempt on the «World Tree», to disastrous results." He takes a sip of cold water and swallows. "She chanced on some kind of... item or something that she suspects will let her into the unfinished region. We have it on good authority the whole Grand Quest is a bit of a sham anyways, the whole «World Tree» zone is unfinished... but that unfinished zone is our only lead. No, it's more accurate to say that picture of Asuna is the only lead we have."
You nod along with this explanation before taking another drink of cola and swallowing hard against the burning sensation in your throat.
"Till I got involved."
Agil shrugs slightly. "Yeah. This whole situation with your friend is catching everybody off guard. Suffice to say she's suddenly become our newest lead, but uh, from what I've heard she and Argo aren't really getting along right now."
Sounds about right. Meimi was strangely proud of being a PKer in SAO, something you doubt Argo appreciates.
"So what happened with the Undine raid?"
"Hmm, a bit of background. You remember the «Aincrad Liberation Front»?"
"You mean «The Army»? They ended up splitting up near the end of SAO."
"Yeah. You know their leader, «Thinker»? He's a writer for MMO Tomorrow and is a bit of a celebrity now. I don't know if you've kept up but he's been publicly writing about his experiences in SAO since his release. As the leader of essentially the biggest guild in SAO he certainly has a lot to say. Check it out if you have the time, didn't realize it at the time but there was quite the bit of drama within the guild behind closed doors. Kidnapping, usurpation, some real Shakespeare stuff."
No surprise there, the story is pretty well known in the SAO gossip mill. A false imprisonment charge by the second in command followed by the Army's complete and utter implosion as a functional guild. You remember «Thinker» leading a smaller splinter guild soon after but the game was cleared before that endeavor ever bore fruit.
"Anyways Argo and him were pretty tight, so she asked him to leverage his popularity..."
"He's popular?"
"Yeah. When the public thinks of an SAO Survivor they think of him. Turns out first hand accounts of SAO really capture the public interest, he's made a bit of a business out of it. Talk shows, the works, heard he's working on a book."
Something about that... riles you up. «The Army» was hardly an innocent player, though compared to the likes of «Laughing Coffin» they came off as saints. "So he's just profiting off our suffering..."
"I hear a lot of ex-players make decent money doing these types of talks nowadays. It's not my thing but... well, two years away from society. Making money IRL isn't so simple as leaving town and killing the first boar you see. Trust me, «Thinker» is one of the good guys, he doesn't exaggerate, tells the truth as he sees it. Guy has a family to feed, I'm honestly happy for him. Key thing to know is, well, guy's fairly popular. And Argo was counting on that, asked «Thinker» to start ALO and get himself elected a Fairy Lord."
You're surprised. Among the young players of SAO there wasn't exactly a high demand to jump into another VRMMO, present company excluded. Unsurprisingly the situation with adults was significantly more complicated.
"...Long story short, «Thinker» wins the Undine election by a landslide. The Undines had already made a few attempts at the «World Tree» before without much success but Argo wanted full commitment. Mercs, the best equipment, a coordinated, well researched plan. Pretty much every Undine on the server who could hit things with a stick. The works. You can probably guess the result of that."
An utter wipe.
"So then what happened?"
Agil looks at the ground sadly and continues. "«Thinker» tried to rally them again, but no dice. Even worse, word spread quickly around ALO about how bad the Undines' did. Now Argo thinks the only way up the «World Tree» is with a coalition. The Undines have lost so much capital she can't count on them anymore, and is trying to organize some kind of Cait Sith and Sylph alliance to make another attempt. Part of the rush are rumors that there's going to be a prolonged maintenance and update at the end of May— who knows if Asuna will still be there after that."
"...I see. So the whole point of all this is simply to try and reach the top of the tree...? By any means necessary."
"Yup. But there's not much incentive for the races to play along, each race is like one big guild. The QMs were pretty clear, only one race can benefit. Argo's considered just going public, accuse ALO of kidnapping the still sleeping SAO players, but if RECT gets spooked they might just pull the plug on ALO in general and there goes Argo's one and only lead. If you want to help, best thing I can reckon you can do is go try to ingratiate yourself to other Fairy Lords and negotiate some kind of alliance... or, well, come up with a better idea than Argo's."
You look at him, considering everything that's gone down tonight, and shake your head. "I'll try things my way for now. Thank you, Agil-san. And sorry about messing with your business..."
"Don't worry, I said I want to help and I meant it. But you really should get going, got school to go to tomorrow, right?"
MONDAY - April 14th, 2025
Daytime
>STRESS: 2 points
2d6 roll = 6, 6
No stress response this week!
>Your mom has transferred 8000 yen into your discretionary funds! Next allowance arrives in 2 weeks!
We haven't logged on to ALO in DAYS. C'mon, what's the hold up?
This again? You'll login tomorrow or something. After all the whole fiasco involving the Skytree you were going to get to the bottom of the «World Tree» or die trying.
Okay. Just so you know she's stealing your lunch.
"HEY!"
Your loud schoolmate is currently wiping the sauce off her face. Your pure yakisoba pan has been murdered, half the toppings are missing. It was more bread than yakisoba now.
"I was eating that..." you grumble. It was the only thing your anemic cafeteria sold that was mildly palatable, and you were too exhausted to actually prepare lunch last night.
The SAO Survivor school has a fully stocked cafeteria. I think they have a private chef.
"Sorry Hiyori-chan! I asked if I could have some but you didn't really respond..." your loud friend responds, putting her hands together in a big exaggerated bow. "I know! Why don't you have some of my lunch? Mom makes the best pickles!"
A somewhat large bento box is brought out. Damn it, why did she steal your lunch if she still had her own!? And half the box was filled with cucumbers...
"They're good, right!?"
...they were. Nice crunch, a bit of a sweet aftertaste. Was this the secret? Cucumbers? You've seen how much she eats but if anything she was much thinner than you. Maybe personality? If you had as much energy as her could you eat whatever you want and not get fat? If only you could work out in VR, considering the amount of time you'll need to spend there... OUCH!
"Earth to Hiyori, you're spacing out again!" your friend admonishes. Did she just hit you on the head!?
"Hey, don't be rude! And don't hit Hiyori-chan!" says Atsuko, pulled away from her lunch to scold her friend.
"Sorry Acchan, but Hiyori wasn't listening..."
Okay, she was stronger than she looked. Having a voice in your head wasn't helping your reputation in school... and what did she hit you with?
"Hey if you're having trouble keeping awake, let me you in on my secret weapon!" your friend proudly proclaims as she hands you the book she just bashed you over the head with.
![](https://i.ibb.co/zFdJDnW/4-14-BOOKS.png)
"Nothing at all! The pages are completely blank!"
It's official. The insanity is spreading.
"And this will help me... how?"
"You can sleep through all of English class with this! If you put your head down and look engrossed in a book the teacher'll totally leave you alone, I've noticed she only calls on people who look like they're not reading!"
Now that you look closely her 'book' is just an empty notebook with a generic sleeve awkwardly pasted on. It looks like you already had a blank check to just read things in English class? Who knew. It was rather hard to keep up with classes considering all that was going on, and you've spent almost no time going through curriculum review.
"I... can't recommend sleeping in class," Atsuko adds, "but have you been getting enough sleep Hiyori-chan? You always look so tired. And there's that upperclassman..."
"What upperclassman?"
"I don't know who she was, but I saw her staring at you for like 5 seconds straight when you were eating your yakisoba. She looked pretty mad about something. Are you in trouble?"
"Uh, depends. What did she look like?" You're already dreading the answer.
"Hmm... she didn't really stand out? Brown hair, had some cute accessories? I think I've seen her around in the halls before."
Ah shit, probably Endou.
Well this is YOUR problem! You go talk to her or something so she doesn't turn me into the class serial killer!
Eh, nah. Seems like too much trouble.
Too much trouble!? This is YOUR fault! She's YOUR friend!
She's your friend too!
NO SHE'S NOT! I barely even know her! You're the one who keeps trying to hang out with her!
And now it's gotten boring. And annoying. You want to make up with Endou, do it on your own time.
I don't want to make up with her! I just don't want her spreading horrible rumors about me!
It's not a rumor. Besides I look pretty badass covered in blood.
"Hiyori! Stop hitting your head against the desk!"
MONDAY - April 14th, 2025
After School
I'm sure you realize this, but you're going to end up with a virus visiting this website.
In any other MMO you could just wander around randomly until you inevitably got accosted by a gold-seller in some kind of global chat, but evidently the Seed based MMOs had fairly active moderation - the Seed AI didn't take breaks, didn't have to be paid and abhorred spamming. It adds up to a rather hostile environment for gold sellers, but, well... greed finds a way.
<$MistCoin$: (*・ω・)ノ WTB? WTS?>
Not even a 'hello how are you doing'. Rude.
It's a gold seller! You're not going to get waited on hand and foot when doing illegal activity!
<TempAccount: Rate?>
<$MistCoin$: 1Mithril = 1MistCoin. Currently 1 MistCoin is 5000 yen. More if bulk.>
1 Mithril coin was worth 100,000 Yrd. The price of a decent weapon on the market was about half of that, and a high level crafted weapon a full Mithril. Fully kitting out your avatar would probably cost at least 5 Mithril... the amount needed to deck out every member of a race was likely unfathomably large by these numbers.
What the hell is a MistCoin? We're exchanging real money for fake money to buy more fake money!?
<TempAccount: WTS>
<$MistCoin$: Srs? Aren't u new?>
We have like 30 minutes total play time, a handful of mid tier skills and an inventory full of corrupted SAO items.
Which are still sitting in our inventory. They're doing you no good, but rather than dumping them maybe they'd be worth something to the right person?
<TempAccount: New to ALO. Experienced in Seed games. New to buying gold, but have transferred glitch items from other Seed game in ALO account.>
<$MistCoin$: (╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻ Impossible. Items and money don't transfer.>
<TempAccount: Have proof.>
Upload: itemlist.png
<$MistCoin$: w(°o°)w. Maybe interested. 1MistCoin for lot!>
<TempAccount: What's a MistCoin? Can u just pay in yen?>
<$MistCoin$: Yen too traceable! Magic of blockchain. You give me items in game as gift. Can use mail, best in avatar for this many items. Tell me time and place and I'll be there. After gift and u not scam, i send u MistCoin.>
<TempAccount: If yen's no good, no problem. Just pay in yrd.>
Whatever the hell this MistCoin was it sounded entirely too complicated for you. Is this the kind of crap that got popular while you were stuck in SAO? Whatever happened to good old fashion gold for yen...
<$MistCoin$: U def new. I don't have yrd, too much in one place v sus for mods. You get MistCoin, buy yrd from grinders with your MistCoin, I can facilitate for fee! Or you sell yrd for MistCoin, then sell MistCoin for yen! But I don't recommend it.>
<TempAccount: You don't recommend I sell MistCoin for yen?>
<$MistCoin$: MistCoin great, will get more valuable with time! Will go to the moon! You can be rich!>
Uh-huh. You're-
Being scammed. Yeah, pretty obvious.
Well what else are you going to do with all your dumb corrupted SAO items? What did we even have? Some mid-floor weapons, a disguise kit?
Your entire inventory was filled with poison crafting ingredients you hadn't bothered offloading. Selling it off for some fake funny money didn't exactly appeal to you, but the alternative was just deleting the items.
<$MistCoin$: MistCoin useful. ( ˙꒳˙ ) Everyone deal in MistCoin!>
<TempAccount: Can I sell MistCoin for yen?>
<$MistCoin$: Yup! Small fee. 10%, converting MistCoin to yen very annoying, easier to just use MistCoin in other VRMMO! MistCoin been around forever now, very safe. Put all your money in MistCoin, better than bank!>
<TempAccount: Thank you. Will think on it.>
<$MistCoin$: Think? Have fun staying poor! Or worse, being loser in ALO! Want to be big strong fairy? Open secret all great players buy power. Buy power! Buy MistCoin! (✧∀✧)/>
This MistCoin fellow makes a pretty hard sell.
Yeah, no kidding. You close the chat and do a bit of research— wow, there were a lot of these coin thingies. When the hell did this start getting popular? The salesperson didn't seem to be outright lying, looks like MistCoin really was being used by many VRMMO players as a currency of exchange. The most popular service the website offered was money transferring across accounts, players could dump their entire inventories as MistCoin then use the MistCoin to buy currency in the game they transferred their avatars to.
Lots of caveats though. Limits on conversion rates, recommended strategies for dodging the mods... seems the major benefit was since MistCoin was not actually part of the VRMMO itself the Seed AI actually couldn't see transactions performed out of the game itself. Evidently even if the Seed thought you were trying to cheat without hard proof it rarely acted, hence human mods had to be involved.
You did need power in ALO. Some hand me down weapons from Sigurd wasn't going to cut it and you needed in game money for that. At least it seemed your old glitched items could actually get you some benefit, if you really want to risk dealing with this suspicious MistCoin...
MONDAY - April 14th, 2025
Evening
You had a thought that this would be challenging. That you'd wander around lost trying to triangulate a giant tree based only on sight.
Instead you took a train to Minato Ward, opened up your navigation app, searched through a few buildings and immediately found your target.
You had expected some old run down shrine, a lost lot, maybe the site of some grisly murder. Instead you found something much more mundane and obvious. Nothing in the world was created de novo, everything had a creator, even ALO. Presumably even the «World Tree» itself was created.
Taking that question to its logical conclusion, who was the creator of the «World Tree»? OBERON? The Seed? No... the answer was staring you in the face all along, in the start up screen of ALO and the back of the box.
RECT Progress.
![](https://i.ibb.co/74zNGd2/4-14-RECT-Office.png)
From the research you've been doing in ALO a lot of online speculation pointed towards this SAO data as ALO's special sauce. While every developer had access to the Seed VRMMO design package, tech enthusiasts believed ALO ran off a higher fidelity version scraped from SAO's servers. You've not tried other VRMMOs so you couldn't compare, but in terms of sheer sensory verisimilitude ALO was just as amazing as SAO itself.
Okay. We're here... uh, great. So what now?
Your eyes wander up into the sky. Rather than the «World Tree» masking over the building, once you actually got close the bottom of the tree faded away like a mirage, though off in the distant sky you can still see the spiraling branches in all their glory.
You've come all this way, you're not going to stop here. This isn't anything different than what you've done in the past.
Whether it's spying in SAO or in real life, there was refuge in audacity. All you needed was an excuse, any excuse, to walk inside and at least get the lay of the land. Maybe even talk to the dev team? But you had no connections... well, maybe you actually did.
Something was going on in this building. Argo thinks the solution involves penetrating the «World Tree» from the virtual world, but wasn't she just ignoring half of the equation? Argo only had power in the virtual world, so naturally she would only imagine solutions involving the virtual world. But ALO wasn't summoned forth by magic, it wasn't even the creation of a single mad genius like Kayaba Akihiko.
This was a company. It wanted to make money, it cared about publicity... you could work with this.
You take a deep breathe. Strangely two years of being a «Laughing Coffin» spy has prepared you well for this day. Hell, for one, what were you truly risking? Your life? A reputation as a high school student? You're safer here than you ever were in SAO.
A plan's already forming in your mind. You march through the automatic doors as the security looks up at you in confusion. One way or another you're getting some answers.
What's your infiltration plan?
[ ] You're a fan of ALO. Like, MEGA fan! You're such a huge fan you have a life sized picture of your avatar glued to your ceiling! You must meet the dev team!
[ ] Have you ever met Seijiro Kikuoka? He's Argo's boss, and you only know the name because that's the person whose email you're sending your report on OBERON to later today. A quick online search places him in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. You are... technically, sort of, maybe working with him? Just throw his name around and see what happens.
[ ] Does RECT offer an internship program? You are a high school student after all, plenty of companies allow enterprising students to do work study, provided you aren't actually performing labor. It may be hard to justifiably ask questions if you do this...
[ ] You've... actually gotten offers for this. Some company named RATH was cold-calling SAO Survivors asking for experienced FullDive users to test some kind of new dive system. Who would volunteer for that kind of thankless work? You, of course! Leverage your status as an SAO Survivor and volunteer yourself for pro bono FullDive QA Testing! Don't worry RECT Progress, YOU don't mind being paid in exposure! In fact, you insist on it.
[ ] You're a concerned citizen. As an SAO survivor you believe the government should increase oversight over VRMMOs and recent reports of players becoming so addicted to the game they're losing their jobs worries you deeply. You plan on writing an op-ed piece as a known SAO Survivor and wish to give RECT Progress a chance to respond before you go ahead with it.
[ ] You know what? You're MAD! Your best friend (that you totally didn't just make up with half a week ago) just woke up from a months long coma, and she was trapped in ALO during it! You DEMAND to see the guy in charge, otherwise you'll go to the news with this!
[ ] Write-in (1 D requirement, more if complicated)
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