[center][b][u]Arc Two: Wargames[/u][/b][/center] [center][img=http://wallpaperscraft.com/image/69033/1920x1200.jpg][/center] --- [center][b][u]One Month Later[/b][/u][/center] One month. One month had passed since that ever fateful night. Was it really a whole month? To most, it was probably little more than a short fixture of passing time, eventually receding back into the flow of their average little lives. But not for the residents of Deep Ground, the youth who awoke to the horror of what was to come next. The following day, Deep Ground Online was officially declared back online for the mass servers, followed by a rally of much rejoicing. The player known only in-game as Corpse Collector was subsequently arrested for abusing the system’s programming, her fate having been determined for her not by the game, but by the World Interface itself. To this day, researchers are still wondering how exactly a girl such as herself was able to tamper with the very fundamentals of the programming their ancestors encoded. Her identity was not revealed to the massed public, and little knew of her existence to begin with. She has since been placed in a mental institution. It was supposed to be a time of rejoice and triumph. And it was. For a while. Dead. All of them. Well, not all of them. But a good majority of them. Players who held the position and ranking of King within Deep Ground were suddenly found dead the very next night. There were no signs of immediate struggle; they all perished in their sleep without so much as a whimper. Orange King, Green King, Red King, and…White King. Each found dead. Each having their bodies carted off and carried away from the world. Since then, Deep Ground has come under intense investigation by the global leaders of the World Interface. In the span of one short month, heated political debates have spread like wildfire across the world. Two sides now stand: those who question the moral action of enforcing the Deep Ground program and its fatalistic nature, and those still stuck in their traditions of keeping the game alive. The latter seems to be the majority in this wasted world. And so Deep Ground Online stands today. --- [center][b][u]School President Yoshino Tsugumi[/u][/b][/center] School President Yoshino Tsugumi really, really, [i]really[/i] didn’t want to be here today. Her position within Royal Crown Academy was not something that accounted for her health, let alone her sanity. Still, the deed had to be done. How she dreaded it all. Some claimed that she wasn’t the same ever since that cold morning in which she found the White King dead within her very living quarters. Since then, she had only spoken when needed to, a blank look remaining dormant on her face at all times. And the Black King? Moon Rider had gone on the offensive, declaring all out war over the other Kingdoms. Those that stood with her grew in rank and number with each day. Those that did not soon found themselves regretting their hasty decision. Reports of a masked man had recently influxed throughout the school, his identity and strange powers now becoming the current gossip regarding Deep Ground. But for that, Moon Rider cared naught. No, all she wanted to do now was to get through this day. After all, no one wants to stand in front of their entire student body and give what was supposed to be an inspiring speech of the valor in the death’s of their peers. Tsugumi swallowed. No deaths. Only murders. Adjusting her glasses slightly, she stood behind the auditorium curtains and waited for the last of the student body to arrive.