Tajima Tsutomu POV

somewhere in an office building far off from the event.

A thin man nervously paces outside of the CEO’s office. I had just finished watching the latest information gathered from the chips… We had tried to strike up a deal with Shimada Hitomi he had even sounded like he agreed. Then when the recording was watched today it’s clear he intends to take one more person with him. It’s been five days and nearly ¾ of the chips are in one groups hands…

The announcement to the public is later today and while we can stretch out five days a bit, most of the content is trash. No one wants to watch the daily life of the people in 'sanctuary' for too long. No one wants to watch hours of traveling without any action. We are quickly running out of content and even if we release it on a weekly basis, we might not make back the same amount from the investment. Our whole company hinges on ‘Themis’ and I already told the company president that Hitomi agreed to leave quickly… At least he didn’t take down one of our two main stage contenders.

I lightly knock on the door. Almost hoping he wouldn’t notice. My hopes are dashed quickly though. “Come in”

Nervously opening the door, the bald CEO stares at me. “So how is our little island doing? Enough content for the viewers?” He steeples his hands together as he gives me a long look.

“Uh no… it… The visual glitches keep happening. We don’t know what’s causing them, but it seems like many items that uh Shimada Hitomi touches seem to glitch. We think it may be a problem with his chip itself. Unfortunately, with the way we designed the program in order to change the textures we have to manually apply a fixed unmoving texture that doesn’t shade well. The BIM are the worst part when they detonate rather than the appropriate explosion animation it seems to think they are bursting guts of flesh. We actually put a camera on all of the suitcases we just released and uh we lost contact with one of them… the one he grabbed specifically.”

“The same suitcases you said were functionally indestructible to anything except the implosion grenades?”

“Uh yes the uh same ones sir… We also received an interesting report from the squad sent in to investigate Mr.Hitomi’s residence and past. Apparently, he owns a warehouse, we only found it after finding a fake ID within his bedroom. We have people investigating that in a few hours…”

“Interesting, well he’s definitely not a normal kid. When will he get here? He’s likely still bruised up but it shouldn’t be hard for him to get one or two more chips.”

“Um sir he decided to save another person from the island… he uh killed all the people in ‘sanctuary’ within about three hours of meeting them except for the little girl that he said he would bring back…” The CEO levels his gaze at me again.

“Did you not inform him of how this may reflect on him? That we may need to take some more… drastic measures to ensure that this goes on.” I gulp slightly as he stares at me.

“No sir, one of the higher members of the Shwaritz foundation interrupted the call and he’s apparently well connected to someone higher up…” At the mention of connections to someone higher up the glare softens significantly.

“If that’s the case then there is nothing we can do about it. As long as we secure the funding from that person’s company then the rest are not needed. If they sent someone to the island to play around, we just have to hope they are satisfied and fund the next one. Continue to look into his past though, I’m curious who he is. Just be delicate about it no need to upset anyone important.” Oh, thank goodness he’s okay with the failure.

“As for the graphics and the briefcase. I don’t take too kindly to being lied to about how cutting edge our technology is.” With a press of a button under the desk. I hear a slight tone. Looking around confused as to what was supposed to happen the door behind me opens up. Turning I see the face of a guard and a rapidly growing knife edge as it sinks into my eye. Pain blossoms from my face but my body won’t move… I hear a crunch sound…

Am I dead? Is that all I’ll achieve in life… As my consciousness fades, I hear one last thing. “Why did you have to kill him like that here? Now I have blood stains on my carpet.” I should have quit this job while I could. Everything fades to black.

3rd person perspective

An open stage is set the crowds are all watching with anticipation. Everywhere in Japan a new broadcast briefly interrupts their regularly scheduled program.

On a large screen the word “THEMIS” with a set of scales in the background. A black man with blond hair and a white suit walks out onto the stage.

“I’m very grateful today, that everyone can take the time out of their busy schedule to attend our opening ceremony!” He gestures to the crowd behind the camera.

“Themis corporation is an international investment enterprise founded by investors. Connected through our global internet conglomerate “Themis”.”

“The internet today is limited by the nations that manage its parts. As a result, international crimes are difficult to resolve. Cyberterrorism is left unchecked as well.”

“It’s time to stand up and take charge. But no single nation will have control.”

“In this new borderless network 148 founders from 23 nations have gathered like the UN. We propose that anyone who registers can be part of our nation! Please observe. THIS IS THEMIS!” He gestures to the screen behind him.

On the screen behind a small ad runs showing the statue of lady justice. With information running by.

“After a simple registration that anyone can do. You can become a Themis citizen! We promise you freedom from viruses and spam. We support financial transactions to resolve any business matter online. Translation software is also included for up to 18 languages from our 23 nations! With many more on the way as our nation expands!”

“My words at this very moment are being translated to all of your native tongues! Isn’t that right Michel? Juliet? Saito? Meng?”

“Now allow me to proudly introduce some of our original projects!” Gesturing to the screen once again there are various websites moving by, things such as various banking apps for easier transactions and different channel support and shows. One of the larges names however is called BTOOOM!.

“Btooom! A real-life game based on the award-winning video game. In this high-stake battle royal, we have players participate in an elimination game on an uninhabited island with REAL explosives! The contestant’s 3D models are directly shown on our broadcast allowing for real time extreamly accurate details!”

On screen they play a scene where four people are running away from a beach side at a fast pace looking back every once in a while, a radar pings showing the audience that people are following closely behind. Eventually two people from the running group turn back and throw small objects that BURST into a cloudy lavender smoke. Zooming in on the people following it shows a 14-year-old kid and a middle-aged man with tan skin and short hair.

The tan man laughs giddily while still giving chase. “Haha! We will get them and have enough chips to go home! These idiots thought a smoke screen would help them? They can’t possibly think that would stop the radar, do they?” He runs right into the smoke while the kid hangs back unsure about entering. That’s when the screaming starts to come from inside the smoke. The Tan man in all his screaming throws a BIM wildly. The screen follows the arc of the BIM as it lands within the smoke, zooming further into a small spark starts from a gout of flame in slow motion before zooming out and showing a massive explosion occur within the smoky area. The title of Btooom! Scrolls across the massive, freeze-framed explosion.

“As you can see tensions are high and there, some of the killers would surprise you too!” Showing the next highlight of the same 14-year-old child from the previous scene using some sort of black hole BIM to kill his own father. Going on about how the lawyer that was with him would help defend him here too just like in the other times.

“These people don’t need your sympathy! All the players in the game are either criminals who have done unspeakable things, or they have chosen to opt in themselves! Choosing to pit themselves against those inside for thrill or for love!” They cut to a split screen of two scenes with the same young man in a school uniform. On the left he is slitting the throat of a man coldly without care perhaps even a slight smile on his face. On the right he’s telling his group that he’s there to save a girl named -toned out- friend so she doesn’t become a killer. “Aw young love, but even we were surprised by how ruthless this young man became. Who knew today’s youth was so violent! Must be the video games.” He cracks a joke before continuing. “Btooom! considers improving the quality of our daily lives paramount! By relocating these undesirables from society, we can help ensure that you are all just a little bit safer from them.”

The screen changes to another view. Of a somewhat overweight man in a helicopter.

“Did everyone catch the recap? Nice to meet you all I’m the games architect Takandashi! Everything is like you just saw. We’re heading to the island by helicopter as we speak! We have received word that two players! That’s right two have received the eight chips required. We are here to retrieve them both!”

“Now we can’t go spoiling who they are yet, you’ll just have to join the show and see what happens. But for those of you that are already in the network feel free to tune in to our live broadcast for their heartwarming display of departure.” He gives a bright smile to the camera.

The broadcast for the general public here. But those that are already part of the network quickly pull up the broadcast to watch the live feed.

Elsewhere in a small house in the suburbs. A lone couple stare at their television in shock and worry. They hadn’t seen their bright young boy in five days assuming he was staying somewhere else the first couple of days but now they find that he’s off in some sort of death game. The woman breaks down crying while the man consoles her.

In another home not too far away a young girl cries while staring at the screen intently. Her mom has been too busy with work, not even coming home the last couple of days since Shimada’s disappearance. Her brother has been comforting her, but she’s just been too worried about her friends. Her mom had sent her a text not to worry about him just the other day. Did she know what was happening? Does she have anything to do with the nominations? It doesn’t matter now Miho stares at a television it’s showing the same stupid idiot white knight gushing his story to another group with a smile on his face while in a death game. The other scene beside it makes her nauseous though… The dark side of him she’s never seen before. It makes her feel uncomfortable seeing him so cold on one side and laughing on the other... Was he always so close to snapping?