The screen was crammed full of tiny words. “The huge organization that controls painful death, anxiety, evil, hell, poison, the abyss, and the like—this is our enemy, and we must defeat this enemy to win the heroine’s love! That is the mission of this game. The enemy is invisible, and you won’t know where it is, so watch out! You could be stabbed from behind. It’s dangerous, dangerous…”

“What is this?” I asked Yamazaki.

Yamazaki slowly swiveled his chair. The pupils of his eyes were entirely contracted. His lips were twisted open as wide as possible into a dangerous smile, one that would frighten anyone.

“What do you mean? You can tell by looking, can’t you? This is my erotic game. It’s an RPG—a role playing game—and the player is the main character. The player progresses in the game by reading the text tile. If he reads it, he’ll learn all kinds of important things; on top of that, the heroine is moe moe. Look. Amazing, isn’t she? The heroine is an alien with cat ears. She’s captured by the enemy. When I say enemy, I mean villains—villains you can’t see. The real object of the game is to make these invisible enemies visible. That’s where the truth of life is found, right? Understand? In other words, I’ve been awakened to the truth of the world. I realized that my mission is to spread my epiphany to everyone, and then erotic games will become the new century’s Bibles. I’ll be able to sell a million copies. I’ll become rich. So… uh, it’s fun. Hey, Satou, you’re having a good time, too, aren’t you?”

Trembling, I stepped back. When I did, Yamazaki let out a metallic-sounding laugh. As if triggered by his own voice, his giggles quickly elevated into an explosion of laughter. “Ha ha ha, ha ha, ha ha ha! Oh, how funny!”

Yamazaki took a horrible fall off the chair, landing on all fours. He crawled toward me, his entire body shaking. His appearance reminded me of horror movie zombies.

I started to panic and stood terrified, rooted to the spot.

Grabbing my ankles, Yamazaki screamed, “It’s so funny, so very funny! There’s nothing I can do!”

I was so very scared, I couldn’t do anything, either.

“It’s so empty, so empty that I can’t carry on!”

I felt the same way on that point; but Yamazaki, currently in the throes of his drug trip, was powerfully frightening. I prayed for him to return to normal as quickly as possible, but he did not. Smile quivering, he continued giggling to himself.

Seeing that there was nothing I could do, I decided to give in. I absorbed the white drug through my nasal membranes. It kicked in immediately.

Ah, how enjoyable… How interesting… It feels so nice… This is the best.