New York City – Baxter Building – December 31, 2009
Eight months had passed since Ajax Evarson—founder of Axer Games—returned from Japan, his mind brimming with inspiration and responsibility. The trip had been historic, not just for Ajax personally, but for the future of entertainment. He had met four of the greatest minds to ever shape shonen manga: Tite Kubo, Masashi Kishimoto, Eiichiro Oda, and Akira Toriyama.
From the ashes of old industries and stagnant dreams, something entirely new had begun to take form.
And now, on the eve of a new decade, it stood ready to be unveiled.
The Fifty Pods
By the end of December, Axer Games had completed the construction of fifty total full-immersion VR pods. The culmination of proprietary hardware, Ajax's dimensional digital powers, and the genius engineering team he had personally assembled under Alfred and Sebastian's guidance.
Four of those pods, however, were unique—created not for the public, but for the founding gods of this new world.
Each exclusive pod was engraved with a single symbol in gold:
A spiral leaf for Naruto.
A crossed sword and crescent moon for Bleach.
A smiling skull over waves for One Piece.
A four-star dragon ball for Dragon Ball.
These four pods were each delivered in secret to their respective mangaka across Japan. But what set them apart wasn't just aesthetics or exclusive access. Each one came with two operating modes:
Player Mode, to experience the world as any other user would.
Administrator Mode, allowing them to observe, tweak, or fully control their fictional universe inside the VR simulation.
Four Intelligent Assistants
To help the mangaka navigate their digital dominions, Ajax created four unique AI companions, embedded directly into each pod's system. These were not just assistants—they were curators, archivists, and narrative architects, based on the preferences and philosophies of each creator.
"Jōnin" – Assigned to Kishimoto. A stoic, wise presence with a dry sense of humor, resembling a digital Kakashi. He assisted with shinobi logistics, clan tree structures, and jutsu balancing.
"Zangetsu" – Assigned to Kubo. An enigmatic monochrome AI with a sharp voice and poetic manner. He helped implement spiritual realms, hollow mechanics, and reiryoku-based logic.
"Compass" – Assigned to Oda. Energetic and whimsical, this AI specialized in nautical routes, devil fruit tracking, and random island generation tied to Grand Line chaos theory.
"Kami-bot" – Assigned to Toriyama. Humorous and quirky, the AI often commented in fourth-wall-breaking fashion while regulating power scaling, timeline causality, and martial tournament events.
Each AI was granted a degree of semi-autonomy, capable of simulating creative input if a mangaka chose to let the world grow organically while they observed.
Alpha & Beta Phases
From August to November, Ajax and his tightly bound internal team ran rigorous Alpha Testing within a sealed facility beneath the Baxter Building. Only fifteen of the pods were activated during this time, used by trained Axer staff and a handful of graduate testers handpicked for their adaptability.
The first world constructed was a fusion realm codenamed D-Earth Zero, a sandbox filled with procedurally generated environments, physical reaction data, and social AI modeling.
By October, the testing expanded into Beta Phase One.
This included limited closed invites to university students, industry engineers, indie game designers, and anime historians under strict NDAs. Players were given access to a limited region from each franchise world:
Land of Fire (Naruto) with working chakra mechanics and early mission trees.
West Rukongai (Bleach) featuring basic soul burial and hollow hunts.
Shells Town + Orange Town (One Piece) including NPC Marines and bandit pirates.
Mount Paozu (Dragon Ball) where players trained with illusions of Grandpa Gohan.
The response was electric—even in a silent testing community.
"More immersive than reality," one tester whispered into the post-session debrief.
Another simply wrote, "I cried when I opened the gate to Soul Society."
Even bugs became legends. A player stuck halfway into the wall of a Konoha noodle shop was comforted by a ramen-delivering AI for forty minutes until the issue was resolved—an experience that went viral within private forums.
The Mass Production Problem
Ajax, ever the strategist, had foreseen the difficulty of mass-producing the full VR pods. They required rare materials, stabilizing technology from Stark Industries, and customized interfaces for each user. Mass production, even with dimensional tech assisting on the backend, was impossible.
So instead, Ajax authorized mass production of VR helmets only—a lighter, more compact version allowing immersive first-person interaction but without the pod's full sensory submersion.
By December 2009, 50,000 units of the Axer Helm had been manufactured and stored in a vast facility in New Jersey, prepared for launch day.
Each unit came prepackaged with:
Holographic calibration kit.
Player profile setup disk.
Direct neural interface layer.
A sealed welcome letter written by Ajax himself, quoting: "The world is waiting. Will you conquer it, protect it, or disappear into its myth?"
Launch Plan: New Year 2010
The launch of Axer VR: Phase One was scheduled for January 1st, 2010.
Only pre-orders would be accepted. Pod orders had to be placed through a secure registration site. Ajax had made the delay clear—"Pods will take at least 3 months to arrive after order." Each one required calibration, transport logistics, and AI pairing.
Public gameplay was set to begin on January 20th, allowing twenty days for onboarding, orientation, and global rollout of the necessary patches.
Alfred had been instrumental in backend logistics, while Sebastian coordinated with third-party vendors through dummy corporations to avoid any unwanted media attention regarding Ajax's personal involvement.
Axer Headquarters – Baxter Building – Midnight, December 31
Inside the observation deck, dimly lit by floor-level LEDs, Ajax stood alone at the tall glass window, looking out over the city. The lights of New York shimmered like stars on water, and in the reflection of the glass, he saw Alfred approaching behind him.
"It's time, sir," Alfred said quietly. "The timer has reached zero."
Ajax didn't move for a moment. His mind raced—not with doubt, but with the knowledge that the next day would split the world into two eras: before Axer, and after.
He turned. "Bring up the stream. I want to see the numbers."
A translucent interface blinked into view on the wall-mounted screen. Alfred gestured, and the latest pre-order stats from around the world materialized:
Japan: 15,224
United States: 12,897
South Korea: 4,220
France: 3,660
Brazil: 2,008
Germany: 1,998
Others: 9,356
Ajax whistled. "Over 49,000 VR helmets reserved in two weeks."
"And 183 full pod pre-orders already locked in," Alfred added. "Estimated shipping times have already been sent."
"Have the mangaka confirmed installation?" Ajax asked.
"All four. Oda said he may log in on launch day in Administrator Mode. Kishimoto requested his AI be upgraded with clan generation logic. Toriyama asked for a gravity toggle in the settings. Kubo… simply said, 'Let them dream deeply.'"
Ajax smirked. "Of course he did."
He turned back to the window, then lowered his hand to the ear-mounted comm.
"Alfred. Begin countdown protocol. At midnight, play the video."
"Understood. Broadcasting to all pre-order accounts via secure channel."
A long silence passed between them.
"Sir?" Alfred asked gently.
"Yes?"
"Are you ready?"
Ajax smiled. "I've been ready since the moment I stepped into Kubo's studio. The moment he looked me in the eye and said, 'Give them something that lasts longer than a lifetime.'"
The city clock struck midnight.
Fireworks bloomed in the distance.
The screen behind Ajax flickered to life, and across the globe, every pre-order customer saw a cinematic trailer:
The world was once ink on paper. Now it breathes.
Your story begins January 20th.
AXER VR – CHOOSE YOUR LEGEND
Tokyo, Japan – Simultaneous
In a quiet studio in Shibuya, Eiichiro Oda sat in front of his pod, sketching as Compass read weather code aloud.
In Kumamoto, Kishimoto stared at his AI assistant Jōnin while drinking hot tea. He smiled, quietly entering parameters for an Uzumaki descendant born in the Land of Whirlpools.
In Aichi Prefecture, Akira Toriyama was chuckling at Kami-bot's sarcastic commentary about power levels, while testing gravity training for a new Dragon School system.
And in Suginami, Tite Kubo sat motionless in front of his pod. His monitor displayed a gate opening into a new version of Seireitei. Zangetsu's voice echoed:
"Shall we begin writing the dreams that lie beyond death, Sensei?"
Kubo didn't reply.
He simply clicked "Administrator Mode" and stepped into the light.