Ishiki shivered as cold wind howled past him. Winter had arrived in Aethelburg, stripping the heat from the artificial atmosphere and plunging the temperature well below freezing.

Ishiki pulled his coat tighter around his frame. His gaze, however, didn't register the cold. It was lost in the distance, seemingly trying to pierce the colossal golden wall that loomed on the horizon like the spine of a sleeping god.

The wind atop the clock tower was colder than usual. It carried a bite that bypassed clothing and gnawed directly at the skin.

He sat perched on the stone shoulder of a gargoyle, his legs dangling over the massive, luminous face of the clock tower. Below him, the city breathed its usual rhythmic life.

The brass lamps flickered like dying stars, casting long, trembling shadows across the stone streets. Here and there, people gathered around large fire pits.

Though, only a few people were out at this time of the day... actually night, it was well past nine. Ishiki himself had sneaked out of his room and came here.

He held a small, crumpled cupcake in his hand. He had brought it from a bakery in the Outer Ring earlier today. It was slightly squashed and the pink icing was smeared against the wrapper.

His eyes were strangely distant and uneasy as if holding back a flood of tears.

He summoned the system window and only looked at the top part only... he didn't feel much for looking below that part. There was no need to look at his stats today.

========= Player : ????? ========

Name : Ishiki

Age : 18

Title : [Memory Reaper]

Rank - [Mythical]

Ishiki let out a slow, white puff of breath.

"Happy Birthday, Ishiki," he whispered to the wind. "You're eighteen now. An official adult. Congratulations on not being dead."

And after that he went silent, waiting for something.

He didn't know what he was waiting for. A message from Ren, asking if he wanted to play that stupid MMO? A congratulatory notification from the System? Or maybe, just maybe, a memory of his mother's voice wishing him happiness.

But nothing came. The wind howled, and the city below hummed. He was utterly, terrifyingly alone and tired, too.

He still forced a smile on his face and took a bite of the squashed cupcake. It tasted like... nothing. It was sweet, just sweet.

Indeed, he had turned 18 today. He didn't know how to feel about it, by now he would have completed his school and should have been on the line for going to work at a factory on Neo-Tokyo.

But that future went up the smoke one and a half year ago. It was funny that Ishiki had celebrated his seventeenth and eighteenth birthday alone in a different world.

Very weird actually.

He frowned a little and took another bite. 'I wasn't this alone last year, was i?'

Well, he had Filch and Yuki wish him birthday last time. But now they were gone too... Yuki was locked away in the gilded cage of the Secondary Ring, guarded by her brother. And Filch... Filch was a statue of flesh and bone, lost in a dream Ishiki couldn't reach.

A total of one year and two months had passed since the start of this scenario and they hadn't even figured out how would they reach the Emperor, killing such a figure was far away.

Disheartened, Ishiki summoned the scenario details and then opened the admin chat. He didn't look at it much now... he could go without looking at it for months now, but still the feeling that he was constantly being watched never left.

The messages started flooding the screen.

[Admin 77 - Hey there, brat. Why are you looking so sad?]

[Admin 81 - What do you need us for now?]

"Shut up, Jackasses. I am not a brat anymore... I am grown up." He sneered at the response from Admin 77 and then went strangely silent.

"Today Is my birthday... you know." he added softly.

[Admin 104 - Birthday? What is that?]

[Admin 97 - You sure do have some strange festivals? is it why you are eating a cupcake?]

Ishiki read some messages with a little annoyed face and then sighed heavily. These dumbasses knew nothing.

"A birthday is the day a person was born... don't you people know what a birthday is?" Ishiki answered with a shrug.

[Admin 77 - Oh! So you completed a Evolutionary Rotation. Congratulations brat.]

[Admin 126 - Congratulations on this birthday of yours.]

[Admin 97 - Happy Birthday, Player Ishiki. Try not to die this year.]

[Admin 81 - I bet he is going to cry. Look at him, sitting on a roof eating a sad cupcake. It's pathetic.]

[Admin 104 - Where is the fun in not dying? Die spectacularly, kid.]

Ishiki stared at the floating text, his expression hardening into a mask of indifference. A dry, humorless chuckle bubbled up from his throat.

"Thanks, assholes," he muttered, wiping a crumb from his lip.

It was funny, really. In this entire city of millions of people—his mother and friends included—the only entities that remembered his existence as a human being were the cosmic voyeurs that once betted on his death.

He was closer to the monsters in the chat than he was to the woman who gave him birth. Or where they monsters? He didn't knew.

... Actually, what the hell was he thinking.

'Mom must have missed it. There is no way for someone to remember the date here.'

Anyways, Ishiki knew now. Today was 13th November... at least on Earth it must be.

Earlier this evening, he had sat at the dinner table with her and waited for hours, dropping hints.

"Mom, do you know what date it is?"

"It's Tuesday, dear. Eat your vegetables."

"Right. But the date? It's 13th November mom."

"Oh ! My, how fast the time flies?"

She hadn't remembered. Not even a flicker of recognition. The woman who had baked him a cake every year since he was born, no matter how dire their situation was, had forgotten of her son's birthday.

Ishiki dismissed the Admin chat and was about to dismiss the Scenario details page as well... but that was when he noticed something and stopped.

========================

⌜Scenario Details⌟

Total Participants - 906

Objective - Kill the Emperor of Aethelburg

Rewards - 40,000 Data Fragments, 100,000 NC, New Skill Card.

========================

Ishiki frowned.

'906?'

On the surface, there was nothing wrong with it. The counter had been ticking down slowly for months. But the descent had stalled recently. Last time he checked—the day he met Yuki, two months ago.

Back then the counter showed 998... and the scenario rewards changed.

His frown deepened into a scowl. Back then he had counted 702 active players in the outer ring and Yuki told him there were 127 in the secondary ring.

'That totals up to- 829...' His eyes narrowed as a very strange and uneasy feeling crept into his heart.

The outer regiment had rescued a total of 94 players from all around Aethelburg, from the five regions and when he adds up the numbers... the total number of players in Aethelburg goes to.

'923... what the fuck.'

He blinked looking at the scenario details again.

It showed 906.

But... but how is that even possible? How can there be more players within the capital than there are total alive.

The only logical explanation was that seventeen Players inside the city had died without anyone noticing. But that was impossible.

"That's weird," he murmured. "There haven't been any attacks, or casualties reported during the patrols."

He looked down at the sprawling city below and it was then, that a very dangerous thought hit him... like a physical blow and he almost fell down.

His eyes widened, pupils dilating in shock.

'Wait... wait. How could I forget such a huge variable?'

He had forgotten to count the family members of the players. Maximum players who had gotten to Aethelburg had found their family members here. It was a bit strange from the start... but Ishiki thought that the system just paired related people together.

They were players too as they came from earth too, into this scenario. And... and he realized with a jolt of horror that he had never checked his mother's status. He had never asked about her Level or what she thinks about all this mess.

They did have a few vague talks but he didn't wanted his mom to feel sad and he was beyond happy to just have her by his side.

But that was not what overwhelmed him.

He did the maths again and again in his mind and no matter how he looked at it, nothing made any sense.

If he considered that only 500 players found their family members in Aethelburg then just that would make the player count go to 1500 and that was if he took the minimum.

Ishiki felt a cold shiver run down his spine which was irrelevant to the cold wind assaulting him.

'This is... this is absurd. The math doesn't work.'

"Something isn't right," he said, his voice hardening. The sadness of the forgotten birthday was suddenly replaced by a cold and dark unease that swelled up inside his chest making him anxious.

He gritted his teeth and pushed himself off the gargoyle. He landed softly on the roof of a nearby townhouse, his boots making no sound.

'I need to count them,' he thought, his eyes scanning the endless sea of lights. 'I need to count them all again. Fast.'

But What exactly was going on here? Every second that passed made his anxienty flare.

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