Neo-Tokyo, Mega factory 06(POV 3rd)The world of 2138 was a bleak one.

  Corporations ruled supreme; governments were no more, and things were awful for everyone except those lucky to be born into the higher casts. The Average Joe was seen as nothing more than a resource for those in power.

  In this world, you either die working or die by your own hand. A man known by his guildmates in YGGDRASIL as Amanomahitotsu or in the factories as "The Chief" would rather be the former.

  Why is he called the chief? It was probably due to his age. The Chief had lived an astonishing 51 years in this harsh world and worked in the same mega factory for the past 35 years. By now, he was one of the few who inspired the other workers to continue working; even the managers had some measure of respect for the man.

  Yet, on one fateful day...

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  .

  .

  Amanomahitosu was done with work and had already experienced all manner of things throughout his life. He had no regrets . . . Well, except for not seeing his friends in YGGDRASIL one st time. Nevertheless, he clocked in to work on his st day before retirement.

  Few people would ever reach retirement age, and fewer would actually retire. This is because most corporations made their work environments so dangerous that no one would ever make it to retirement. After all, they were forced by some w(which the corporations also made) to pay their retirees a generous monthly stipend.

  Today was the day Amanomahitosu would finally retire, and to say that he was excited was an understatement. As he walked through the factory's catwalks, people congratuted him, and some even gave him gifts as a sign of thanks for helping them. He hadn't felt joy like this in decades. Finally, he reached his usual workstation at the primary production center of the factory, where all the parts for the various products were made.

  "Mornin' Chief," a man said as Amanomahitosu had just arrived.

  "Takashi! It's always good to see you."

  "I see you're in a good mood today. Could it be because it will officially be your st day working in this shitty pce?"

  The Chief humored his friend: "Nah, it's because I got a wonderful night's sleep with your mom!"

  Both looked at each other for a moment before bursting into ughter. After they calmed down, Takashi put his arm around Amanomahitosu's shoulders. "I'm going to miss your jokes, man. It just won't be the same without your humor."

  *chrr . . .* the radio next to Takashi crackled *H#y €os?. we g?t @n ?ssυe up h-re*

  "Can you repeat that, Izu? Can you repeat that?" he sighed, smming the radio back onto its charging port. "Piece of shit! I guess we're gonna have to cut our conversation short. Something is going on at the Forge-04. See ya ter."

  Amanomahitosu replied: "Nonsense, I'll go with you!"

  "Ya sure?"

  "Yeah! What are they gonna do - fire me?" the old man smiled. He knew that the corporations needed to keep the dream of retirement alive, or else they might have to face the entire populous turning against them. "Plus, I'll miss this hellhole - Let's go!"

  The walk to the aforementioned forge was filled with a back-and-forth between the two friends and congratutions from other coworkers.

  "So what are ya doing after your final shift ends," Takashi asked as the two boarded the elevator leading to the Forge's control room.

  "To be honest . . . I don't know." he paused momentarily, "I guess I'll try DDVR again."

  "You pyed?"

  "Yep, I used to py YGGDRASIL. I still regret not logging in on that st night." The Chief looked downcast before wiping the look from his face, "You got any recommendations?"

  "Awesome! It's a shame that YGGDRASIL shut down st year; my kid loved pying it. If you're looking for recommendations-" the elevator jolted as they arrived at their destination "-there's this new game called "Tales of Elysium" or something along those lines." Both friends stepped out of the elevator to find the manager.

  Amanomahitosu merely nodded before he turned to other matters. Greeting Arata, another one of his friends and the manager of Forge-04, "Hey Arata, what's up?"

  Arata, who had previously been hunched over the radio, straightened up upon hearing his voice, "Old Man! I'm doing well! You excited about retiring?"

  Laughing, Amanomahitosu replied, "Old? If I'm old, then what are you? A sperm cell?"

  Arata ughed at The Chief's comeback. He was among the few who finished high school and had been rapidly promoted due to his leadership qualities. He was also only 20 years old. "HAHAHA, Chief, I'm going to miss your comebacks! It just won't be the same!" the young man hugged his elder.

  Takashi coughed loudly, finally getting Arata's attention, who quickly nodded. Although the two didn't like each other, both still held the other in high regard.

  "So what's this about an 'incident' over here? " Takashi continued, "We got a radio call from Izu. Is he alright?" He sounded concerned.

  "Well, there is an 'incident,' one of the corpo's brats decided that it was a great idea to take his . . ." he stopped to think " . . . girlfriend on a trip through the factory, everyone should've gotten a memo - not that anyone here would've cared, they somehow got lost and are now stranded above one of those vats of molten metal." He pointed to where they were,

  "Damn right about that boss," a random voice from within the control room replied.

  "Back to work Sato!" The entire room burst into chuckles, all directed toward the jokester.

  "They gonna live?" Takashi cut in.

  "Why should we care? They're little brats who've had everything handed to them on a silver ptter." Arata's voice dripped in disgust.

  "Because if they die, then we are the ones who are getting punished for it," Amanomahitosu replied in pce of his friend. Many of the workers in the control room nodded in agreement, understanding that the death of a corpo would spell disaster for the factory's workers.

  Akashi asked: "Then how're we going to save those shits then?"

  The Chief stood deep in thought for a moment before turning to Takashi.

  "Remember 'The 07 Incident'"

  "Yeah, everyone who worked here remembers."

  "What's 'The 07 Incident'?" the young man asked.

  "In 2107, someone activated the factory's emergency lockdown protocol, trapping workers where they were. Many were trapped above the foundry vats, some were rescued, and some burned to death before we could get to them." The Chief stopped expining, waiting to see if anyone had questions. "My idea is that we can save them by using our Chem-Suits to prevent ourselves from breathing in those toxic fumes and giving us more time to get them."

  Akashi nodded, "That could work. But the catwalks and grates are old; they could break anytime. We've got to do this quickly - I'll go suit up."

  "I'm coming with you," Amanomahitosu said, not wanting someone as promising as Akashi to do this alone. The young manager nodded affirmatively, respecting his elder's decision.

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  .

  .

  After 10 minutes, the two suited up and were on the catwalk where the brat was st sighted. As they walked, the catwalk creaked in protest at the prospect of being used.

  Soon, they finally found the stranded corpos. The male, blonde - in his twenties, was standing on the safety grate of one of the vats. He had his Chem-Suit on, a much more expansion version that was immune to the acidic burns of rain. The female was much less fortunate. Her body was reduced to an almost mummified state, as all the liquid within evaporated due to her wearing no protection.

  "I'll go to get the kid. You wait here to help him up." Amanomahitosu's ordered.

  "Got it, Chief." his younger co-worker nodded in affirmation.

  As he carefully lowered himself onto the grating, the trapped brat rushed over to him, "YOU, YOU GOTTA HELP ME. I CAN'T DIE HERE! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"

  The Chief attempted to calm the situation; he could already feel the heat in his suit: "Kid, I'm gonna need you to calm down—okay? I'm getting us both out of here; don't make any more sudden moves." He noticed the grating had begun to creak throughout the wealthy kids' outbursts and erratic movements.

  However, his tone somehow irritated the brat: "ARE YOU GIVING ME ORDERS? MY DAD OWNS YOUR PATHETIC A --" He didn't finish before a fist connected to his face, knocking him out and he was suddenly slung over someone's shoulder.

  That someone was Amanomahitosu. He had no patience today and wanted to get this done as quickly as possible to minimize the chances of an incident. He quickly but carefully moved to stand below the catwalk, where Akashi awaited.

  "Ready? I'm passing him over to you now."

  "Ready, just pass him over!"

  As Akashi grabbed onto the brat's shoulders, he suddenly woke up screaming and thrashing. Akashi managed to get him partially onto the catwalk despite this.

  Unfortunately, it wasn't as smooth for Amanomahitosu. The thrashing had resulted in a foot connecting to his face, knocking him down. He nded hard on the grating, and it gave off a very audible groaning sound. The Chief resisted the urge to move and waited for the groaning to subside. He stayed calm and started to get up slowly, trying not to put too much pressure on one side of his body.

  By this time, Akashi had managed to wrangle the Brat onto the catwalk and was waiting for his friend.

  "Come on, Chief! You can get out!" reaching out his hand.

  As Amanomahitosu finally stabilized himself, the grating began to creak. Knowing what would happen, he took off his mask and smiled at Akashi. Then, the floor gave out.

  As he plummeted into the vat, a golden symbol appeared in front of his face -

  YGGDRASILAmanomahitosu didn't have much time to understand what was happening before everything went red.

  SpoilerHey guys! Sorry for such a deyed chapter, I got SO much stuff to do for school and was getting swamped.

  I'll see if I can get another chapter out next week

  Thanks for reading!

  [colpse]