Until she was summoned by Kuroto Dan, the red-clothed helmet gangster was still trapped in Kuroto Dan's Game Area.
In that strange world, the completely confused gangster had no idea where she was or what she was supposed to do.
The weapon he had always kept in her hand was gone, and the person who had tortured her was no longer present.
Instead, she found herself in a strange space.
Tetris blocks floated in the sky, surrounded by a mixture of buildings with various architectural styles. The platform beneath his feet was filled with various pieces of furniture.
Sofa cushions, snacks, and a game console.
"Where is this place?"
The gangster had no idea what was going on, but her curiosity led her to explore the surroundings.
She touched the sofa; it was soft and could be sat on.
She touched the TV; it was hard, and the screen was on.
She touched the potato chip bag; it rustled and seemed to be edible.
"Is anyone there?"
The gangster's nervousness slowly subsided as the environment remained deserted and time passed. She tried sitting on the soft sofa cushion, opened a bag of cucumber-flavored potato chips, and reached for the game console remote control.
"What kind of game is this?"
With a hint of unease, the gangster pressed the button.
The TV screen in front of her lit up, displaying a row of fill-in-the-blank questions with flashing underlines.
"Please enter the player's name—"
"Do I want to enter my name?" The gangster girl pressed the directional key on the controller and entered her name, one letter at a time: "Amatsu-hane-Hanami..."
After entering her name, the game screen unfolded. Amatsuhane Hanam leaned on the sofa cushion, pressed a button and began controlling a little character on the screen that resembled her.
This sudden game before Hanami appeared to be a retro RPG in which the protagonist, the 'Bugster,' sought out her past, repaired her mistakes, and found the meaning of her existence.
"Hey... So the Bugster is a kind of data lifeform. Speaking of this concept, did we learn something similar when we were in school here before? No... It seems someone proposed this concept during the Millennium Technology Exhibition?"
Clicking buttons, the helmet gangster named Amatsuhane Hanami gradually understood what the 'Bugster' was.
As she reached the end of a chapter, Hanami snapped back to reality and looked at her hands.
"Ah... So I am also a 'Bugster.'"
A mirror suddenly appeared in the data world. Hanami, having learned to find some permissions she could use, summoned a mirror to see her current appearance.
The halo on her head was still there, and the helmet and mask on her face had disappeared at some point, revealing her original appearance—a girl with chestnut-colored long hair, some of it falling over her red eyes. The long hair, which had been pressed under the helmet for so long, cascaded behind her shoulders.
She awkwardly reached out, lifted her overly long bangs, and pinned them with a hairpin that appeared out of nowhere.
"Does it look better now?" Hanami stared at herself in the mirror for a long time, and her face suddenly turned red. "I've been wearing a helmet and mask every day. I almost forgot what I looked like..."
After finishing the first chapter of the game, Hanami finally understood her current situation.
After being hired by Kaiser PMC, the Helmet Gangsters had gathered and launched an attack on Abydos with overwhelming firepower. This would have been a straightforward offensive, but then a Kamen Rider named Genm fell from the sky and knocked them all down.
Afterward, to gather information about the kidnapped girl, the gangster leader Hanami dressed most differently from the rest was pulled out. She thought she could get through the interrogation with toughness, but the unknown adult tortured her in a way that terrified her, and in the end, her consciousness slipped into darkness.
"At that time... it was really scary. Is that what it feels like to be 'dead'? The one they teach you in the courses at Abydos."
Hanami remembered that she had once been a member of 'Abydos.' However, after the sandstorm, the school's land was sold, and the school was burdened with enormous debts. Like most students, she had no other choice. After signing the withdrawal agreement, Hanami left Abydos.
"Then, I joined the Helmet Gang to make a living."
Hanami recalled how the Helmet Gang had reached out to her when she was hungry. Losing her school and student status was a terrible blow. There was no way to work properly, no school dormitory to stay in, no classes, no student benefits. Unsure how to survive, Hanami joined the gang that licked each other's wounds.
After robbing Problem Solver 68s, carrying out hired actions, and obstructing work time and time again, Hanami gradually grew into a skilled Helmet Gang gangster and formed her own team. Through hurting others and committing crimes, Hanami saved her life and developed her own worldview.
"As long as you have strong power, you can have everything."
Whether it was the arrogant Kaiser Corporation, who acquired the robot, the arms dealers on the black market, or the chairman of the Gehenna Discipline Committee who she had met from a distance, they all emphasized this truth to her.
And today, she finally encountered a more powerful force—the adult named 'Kuroto Dan'—who easily defeated them all, buried her in pain, and firmly determined her fate.
"The weak can only crawl under the strong."
These thoughts filled Hanami's mind as she looked around blankly.
"But what's the point of leaving my life and turning into a Bugster body?"
Could it be that such a strong man needs my loyalty?
The next second, after contemplating this question, Amatsuhane Hanami was summoned by Kuroto Dan, teleported out of the game field, and stood before everyone.
"Huh? She is... the gangster from before?"
Shiroko was momentarily stunned and seemed to recognize the girl in front of her from her red sailor suit. "Where did she come from?"
"Because she was injected with the Bugster Virus and forced to evolve to the final stage, she is no longer an ordinary life but a Bugster, like me."
Kuroto Dan crossed his arms and nodded. "Under my control, she retained her previous appearance, and at the same time, is a 'subprogram' under my 100% control—that is, my subordinate!"
"Bugster... what is that?" Ayane was a little confused but quickly realized, "Ah! Could it be..."
"The first option I asked you to choose before has become like this." Kuroto Dan patted Hanami on the shoulder. "This child, named Amatsuhane Hanami, is now a data lifeform that can survive on the Internet. In other words..."
"She will live forever after death."