believe it, or refused to believe what they had been told and just stood there slack-jawed, or with a wry smile on their faces. My head tried to reject what Kayaba had just said. But my body betrayed it and my knees started shaking violently. I stumbled back a few paces on my weak knees and managed to keep myself from falling. Cline fell on his backside; his expression lifeless. 213 players have already. This phrase replayed over and over again in my head. If what Kayaba said was true-over 200 people have already died up to now? Among them, there would have been beta testers such as me. I might have even known some of their character names and avatars. These people had had their brains burnt and...died; is this what Kayaba was saying? "...don't believe it... I don't believe it." Cline, who was still sitting on the floor, started talking in a strained voice. "He's just trying to scare us. How would he do such a thing? Stop kidding around and let us out. We don't have time to play along to your sick opening ceremony. Yeah...this is all just an event. An opening show, right?" Inside my head, I was screaming the same thing. But as if to dismiss our hopes, Kayaba's businesslike voice restarted