Beside them, the Technician's keyboard clattered much more urgently.
A moment later, he pushed up his thick lenses and looked at Schindler, sweat beading at his temples. "President, there's an anomaly in the system! We can't control it!"
"?!"
The people who had rushed over to stop the game froze.
Inspector Megure recalled his terrifying theory about a "cold-blooded corporate battle," and his expression turned grave. "Then what do we do?"
As he spoke, his gaze shifted involuntarily toward his dependable younger brothers, Kudo and Agasa.
Kudo Yusaku frowned in thought, while Professor Agasa looked toward the flickering monitoring screens nearby.
After the "system anomaly," the previously orderly images became chaotic. Screens from the Game Pods flashed past one after another, showing the people participating in this Cocoon experience.
Professor Agasa swept his eyes across them and spotted several familiar faces.
Professor Agasa: "..."
Several children he knew were all in the game.
...Those experience slots had been so hard to obtain, yet every one of them had somehow managed to get in. Those little brats really were resourceful.
But that was not the important part. The important part was, if something went wrong with this game...
Thinking of his miserable, lonely old age in the future, Professor Agasa's already formidable fighting spirit surged even higher.
He strode forward, thud, squeezed the panicked Technician aside, sat down at the console himself, and began operating it at high speed.
Before Schindler could react, he intended to forcibly terminate the game.
However, after Professor Agasa entered the command and pressed Enter,
the game system showed no response at all.
Instead, the enormous curved screen at the front of the Control Room began to flicker.
Professor Agasa jolted and cautiously stopped moving. Then, the Speakers in both the game hall and this