Entertaining a Small Thought

Arc 6 Part 9: Into the Finale

"I will not give up hope until the very end!" 

"...Huh?"

From an outsider's perspective, that short interaction must have seemed comedic. The heartless robot was the one claiming he would not lose hope, all while the person orchestrating everything was left so dumbstruck he could only let out that confused noise. It would have been funny had the situation wasn't so dire.

"We can't give up. No matter what, hope is always within reach!" Keebo declared. "We must keep our heads high and search for hope, especially in deepest despair."

"Hope...?" Shuichi asked in an utterly exhausted voice.

"Hope? What hope can be found in this terrible place?" Izuru asked with a laugh.

"You said so yourself—this killing game is the Ultimate Real Fiction. If this is both real and fiction, then logically it can't all be fictional." Keebo surmised. "Even if this world is fiction, even if we're fiction, there must be something we can do. So there must be a way to break through this! I won't give up hope! Not ever!"

"Is that so? I suppose this makes things more interesting, having something to debate with at the end like this." Izuru hummed. "But are you sure? Do you really think hope can be found in such a hopeless situation like this?"

"Yes. I'm convinced the outside world doesn't just want despair... It wants hope, too." Keebo smiled brightly. "If our voices have reached the outside world, then what my inner voice is telling me is—"

"You mean the audience? Because that's what that 'inner voice' is. It's actually the voice of the outside world itself." Izuru revealed with a slight wave of his hand.

"...What?"

"I know because I was there when we designed you for this killing game! After all, I was the one who wrote you into existence and created your entire plotline!" Izuru boldly claimed. "There's no way I wouldn't know who that is you're hearing. Yes...it's the voice of the outside world guiding you as always. From the very start, you were given a very special role to play out in this killing game, Keebo."

"Special role? And it has to do with the voice of the outside world?"

"Yes. You are the audience surrogate!"

"S-Surrogate?" Keebo stammered in confusion.

"Your inner voice allows the audience to communicate with you throughout the killing game. Haven't you noticed how your inner voice acts? It's the collective voice of several thousands upon thousands of fans. If that's the case, can you figure out what exactly your inner voice is?"

"I-It's...an audience survey?" Keebo guessed.

"Indeed. It's merely a survey that's connected to your head. It's the result of a program that allows two-way communication that lets people participate in the killing game and you from their homes." Izuru explained. "That's the truth of that inner voice you always hear. That is its true nature. It's the results from our audience survey."

"Then...the voice I relied on for guidance...was just the audience...answering survey questions!?" Keebo exclaimed.

"Every single action you took in this killing game was dictated by the audience through that survey. Because of that, we were able to have the audience actively participate in this killing game for the first time. That antenna on your head lets you easily receive the answers from the outside world."

"M-My antenna...?"

"Yes. When that poor excuse of a copy broke off your antenna and you went crazy, that ended up being quite the problem for us as HQ. We got flooded with complaints from the audience. Some even sent death threats and doxxed some of our staff. And all the bots that flooded our systems...it was nightmare." Izuru sighed as he held his head in frustration. "But I digress. The problem was that you aren't just something for the audience to control through the survey. You're also their eyes."