[Author Note: Sorry that it took a while because my pc decides to update window and the rest is history.]
"Lately, there have been rising numbers of individuals who could easily execute something that would normally be impossible, like jumping over 3 meters, running faster than speeding car—these record breaking actions were seen like it was another Tuesday. We called these people as Players."
In the meeting room of Japan Special Force Group, a small group of people sat around the table, each of them seems to hold important positions as they murmured amongst themselves. The man who had just spoken were the Leader of an operational unit that handles strange or mysterious case that couldn't be solved by normal means, he goes by Ryousuke.
"And these 'players', they gained strange power from that video game? What is it called again, Infinity Cruises?" The Ministry of Defense Force, Kagami, said with a strange look on his wrinkly face. The old man still finds it rather difficult to believe that a video game could gives people some kind of inhuman strength. It would've been wise if that game works with the Defense Force, then they could secure powerful soldiers for the country.
"No, Sir. It's Infinite Crisis." Ryousuke corrected, but the latter simply shrugged.
"Potato, potato. So, did anyone try contacting the company behind it? What do they have to say?"
"That is..." He hesitated.
"What? Are they pretending to be fools or something?" The Head of the General Affairs, Takagi muttered with her usual stern face.
"No, in fact, they might be in the knows because, and I quoted, 'We are fully aware of it, but that too is part of the game. It's stated in our terms of services, on page 67 specifically', unquoted. I verified it myself and..."
"In short, we can't do anything to them because they're protected by the laws, is that it?" Kagami asked with a frown.
Smack!
"Are you kidding me?! If the numbers keeps increasing, sooner or later there will be chaos! Someone with unrestricted power could be danger to our society! What if they suddenly decides that they wanted to use that power to take over the country? We need to arrest them now, or make a new law that specifically target them so they can't abuse their power willy-nilly!"
"Now, calm down a little, Minister. It's not a good idea to treat our law abiding citizens like criminals," the Prime Minister stated calmly. "Don't gives them a reason to start something when we could do a much gentler approach. Isn't that right, Kyouya?"
"It is as the Prime Minister said, we don't exactly have much information about Mythos Entertainment, aside from the fact that they started as a jewelry store and suddenly opened up the company that we know now today. Nothing conclusive as of yet." The Head of Intelligence Department said with a nod. Then he continues with a solemn tone. "However, it would be dangerous to act against them before we are certain that they have no supernatural forces backing them."
"How are you certain they aren't just some stupid people who only went it for the money? That capsule were rather expensive in the market." Kagami questioned.
"Because our experts have tried studying the capsule from the inside, but nothing about it made sense. They did finds something at least." Kyouya turned to his assistant, the latter nodded before placing the briefcase on the table and opening them. The inside revealed a black cube-shaped box, though it looks more like a block. "This thing is, we believes it to be the 'engine' that allows the capsule to do the impossible. But as you can see, it's just useless block after it was removed from the machine."
"However, the IT experts claimed that before it bricked itself, they briefly saw a strange symbol flickering." Kyouya pointed at the screen projecting the sketch image of the symbol to the whiteboard. "Look, does anyone have any idea?"
"...Rune?"
"Mister Mage, you knew something?" The Prime Minister asked, everyone immediately turned their attentions towards a person covered in cloak. They can barely see the bottom half of the face which seems to suggests it was an older gentleman, but that's it. However that's to be expected, it's already a good thing they got a connection to supernatural world. After all, almost everyone in this room are average folks except the mage and the two presumably assistants standing by their side.
"Umu, it looks like some kind of rune, though not one I recognise. How peculiar." Noticing their puzzled expressions, the elder mage explained while rubbing his well-groomed beard. "Rune is basically a magic word that can bind a certain effect to it, however, modern mages rarely rely on such ancient and unorthodox methods when it's much easier to memorize chanting."
"Then is it safe to presume that the capsule are not entirely man-made tech, but also have some influences of magic?" Ryousuke asked. He was just an average guy who had to deal with mysterious cases all the time, so he was rather used to blaming everything to magic. No logical conclusion? Must be magic!
"...Perhaps."
The elder mage however didn't mention that it wouldn't be easy to duplicate runes so many times, otherwise it wouldn't have becomes obsolete in modern days. So whoever behind this is likely an old monster who were very knowledgeable about runes, possibly comparable to that of Norse's God of Wisdom, Odin himself.
If possible, the elder didn't want to be involve in this matter. He was clearly out of the league here, maybe his Master might knew something about this. After all, his Master is none other than Satan Ajuka. Though recently, Ajuka hadn't responded to any of his calling, the latter likely busy again with his research as usual. 'What a troublesome matter. Though I'm rather curious if someone as old as me can even gain some new power if I were to play the game myself.'
As a half devil, the elder were very much interested in gaining more power. He willingly sacrificed his humanity solely to gain knowledge of magic after all. Just like his Master, the elder alao grew some interests towards the game.