| abstract | - On December 31, 2028, Sigma lost both his arms (which were replaced by mechanical prosthetics), and his right eye in trying to "save a woman" from the where was first reported, when investigating it with . After the mission, which ultimately failed, causing Radical-6 to spread across the world, Sigma went to the Moon and spent the next 45 years working on the AB Project, which would be the key to stopping the spread of the disease with the help of the consciousness of his younger self. During those 45 years, Sigma would meet , who would help him with the project, and become part of . He would also create the , including , who would participate in the AB project, as well as giving birth to his clone and "spare", , and would create the AI , along with the bracelets and chromatic doors, as well as asking Tenmyouji and Quark to come to . After fully developing the AB Project, Sigma's consciousness switched places with that of his 22-year old self. While the younger Sigma participated in the Nonary Game in 2074, the older Sigma would infiltrate the trap-infested facility where Radical-6 was first noticed in 2028 with the help of Phi, where he would lose his arms and eye. Four months later, in April 2029, his consciousness would switch back with his younger self's, who had reached the end of the game, where his younger self would begin research on the project, thus completing the cycle. Sigma finds a hologram of Zero Sr. in the while searching for Tenmyouji and Quark prior to the third round of the AB game. In his message to Sigma, Zero Sr. mentions termites, how a termite mound is similar to a rhizome, and likens humanity to termites. He says that mankind might be building something in unison they are not aware of and can only be appreciated by the intelligence of a higher order. Every human is an "oblivious cog in a tremendous machine programmed by millions of years of human DNA." The concept is that the termites all do their work, fill their niche, and mind their own business. Their activities by themselves are mundane. However, when humans look on a termite mound, they see a wonder, a work of art that is a product of the collective efforts of the termites. If one could look at human activities from a more all-seeing vantage point, perhaps the activities of humans would be equally magnificent. He then gives Sigma the password for Bomb 1 (BQZ RGJ DXR). He asks Sigma if he is aware of his time jumping abilities and warns him not to tell anyone about their meeting. Before the message ends, Zero Sr. says that he looks forward to speaking with him in person. It is revealed that Tenmyouji and Quark saw the hologram, which leads them to betray Sigma. Before "Kyle" wakes up, Zero Sr. instructs Phi that she can answer any questions about the test site to anyone besides "Kyle". He also carries "Kyle" to the where he and are looked after by Luna. After he wakes up, sees a hologram of Zero Sr. after speaking with Phi. He states that he cannot answer any questions about the to ? because if he did, the timeline where the virus was contained would disappear. his main goal as zero Sr is to go back in time by any means and stop Radical-6 with is a lethal airborne virus unleashed by Free the Soul witch killed 90% of all life. When Sigma goes by the name Sigma, he is a lot different. When Sigma was in preschool, there was a deserted house near his school that everyone called the Cat Mansion. He had always loved cats, so every day he would visit the Cat Mansion and give the cats that lived there some of his lunch. One day, he realized that he could understand what the cats were saying to one another. A magical black cat appeared, and told him that it has given him this gift in exchange for giving food to its fellows. "But you can never tell anyone about your gift," the magical black cat warned. "If you do, you'll be cursed." But young Sigma was so happy about his new-found ability that he slipped and told a girl about it, so the black cat cursed him. His curse was to speak only in cat puns for the rest of his life. Fortunately for him, a magical white cat came along soon afterward, felt the curse was a little too harsh and lessened it, so that he would only talk in cat puns when he talked about cats. At some point in time, he got wasted and had a one night stand with the mistress of a prominent politician. His girlfriend also breaks up with him on December 18, 2028 so he decides not to go to the party they were supposed to go. She broke up with him through e-mail and he wasn't able to contact her at all afterward. Sigma's home computer stopped working, and his Buddhist doctor said he still had to work on Christmas. All three events were orchestrated by Akane Kurashiki and the Crash Keys. Early Christmas morning in 2028, while heading back from the research building, Sigma finds himself unable to start his car, and after numerous failed attempts, he hears a weird noise coming from the engine. Suddenly, the whole vehicle is filled with white smoke. In confusion, he tries to escape, but he is unable to open the door. Before passing out, he notices a person wearing a gas mask standing behind his car. Unknown to him, his consciousness jumps to Rhizome 9 in 2074, while his body goes to the Mars Mission Test Site. Sigma eventually wakes up and is in a small elevator-like room. Trying to figure out what this place is, he finds a girl named Phi sitting in the corner of the room. Sigma asks her about the place they're in, but unfortunately, he is unable to communicate with her very well. She even calls him "grandpa", foreshadowing that he is really 67 years old in the AB game. Eventually, they find bracelets with "3" on their wrists, and Sigma forcefully tries to take the bracelet off, but as much as he tries, he is unable to. While he starts getting impatient, something appears on the small screen near the elevator door. Sigma draws closer to the screen and sees a rabbit-like character who introduces himself as Zero III. Zero III explains that their elevator is about to fall, and that they must escape before it does. After managing to get the key in the safe, the hatch on the roof of the elevator opens, allowing them to climb up through it. Sigma asks who she is, and she states her name is Phi. The pair find themselves in an abandoned warehouse alongside seven other people: Alice, Clover, Dio, K, Tenmyouji, Quark, and Luna. Their goal is to escape from the building. However, they find themselves enrolled in a game known as the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition, which relies on a system called "Bracelet Points" ("BP"), which are won by cooperating with or betraying other players. A player is allowed to leave the warehouse only if they possess nine or more BP; however, if a player's BP reaches zero, they are killed by a lethal tubocurarine injection. As the story goes on, Sigma discovers the ability to jump backwards and forwards in time to live out different timelines to the one he originally chose. He uses this to gain codes and secrets from other timelines in an attempt to find an outcome where everyone can survive. Several revelations appear about the other players; Tenmyouji is Junpei from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, and Quark is his adopted grandson; Alice and Clover are both Special Office of Internal Security agents who have been searching for a cult named Free the Soul, who was partially responsible for the First Nonary Game. Sigma discovers he has somehow gotten cybernetic arms. Luna is a GAULEM, a type of robot, and Dio is a member of Free the Soul, a clone of Left, the brother of Brother, the cult's leader. This last revelation leads to Sigma discovering that Dio has planted bombs in the facility and the world has been devastated by the detonation of antimatter reactors in an attempt to remove the virus Radical-6, unleashed by an unknown source at the Mars Mission Test Site. Several players also contract Radical-6 and kill themselves in several endings, but Sigma uses his ability to avoid any bombs being detonated and to prevent anyone from killing themselves. Sigma, in the true ending, jumps back into the past, one hour before the start of the Nonary Game, to prevent Dio from killing Akane Kurashiki. By saving her, they altered the past, bringing a new future. Akane explains to Sigma that every player is infected with Radical-6. She then ties a key to Sigma around his ankle, just before he is forcibly pushed back into the future. Sigma and the group successfully escape through The Number Nine Door, leaving Dio handcuffed to a sink in the Infirmary. Upon leaving the facility, they find out from Tenmyouji that they were on the Moon and the current date is January 25th, 2074. The "Red Moon" outside was actually Earth after 18 reactors on Earth simultaneously explode in order to hopefully stop Radical-6. The fallout of the blasts blotted out the Sun and killed millions of different lifeforms on Earth. Even in the present, 45 years later, the state of the world is bad, and the sky is still red due to the large amounts of particles in the air. Sigma eventually remembers the key around his ankle and the grave in the B. Garden. He decides to go back into Rhizome 9 and everyone else decides to follow, hopefully to learn more about what is going on. Sigma leads everyone to the B. Garden, where he unlocks the grave. A treatment pod appears, presumably holding Akane, however it must defrost for a while. While they wait, K explains about everybody's importance in the Nonary Game. When K finishes, the pod opens, revealing a Sigma clone. Everyone is confused who he is, saying that they've never seen anyone like him before. Sigma tries to get everyone to stop playing around, but no one seems to be joking. Panicking, Sigma finds a small pond in the Garden and looks at his reflection. Shocked, Sigma discovers his 22-year old mind in an older version of himself. The reason he did not notice his older body, was because of the moon's gravity. Suddenly, K sheds his armor showing that, in this timeline, K was actually Akane. Akane explains that this was all a part of the AB Plan and that his current young mind switched places with his older mind, revealing that he is Zero Sr. Akane explains that Sigma was there to develop his time jumping abilities along with Phi. With his training complete, Akane tells Sigma that it is his time to return to his past body. Akane then proceeds to attack Phi with the knife she recovered earlier from Dio. Sigma throws himself in front of Phi to protect her and is seemingly stabbed, but Akane merely hits him with the handle of the blade. This causes Sigma's mind returns to the past. The transfer is successful and Sigma arrives in his body on April 13th, 2029. After watching a news reporter's suicide on public television, he meets 22-year old Akane, who was the person behind the gas mask in December. Akane reassures him that she didn't really kill him in the future, but merely gave Phi and him a death situation to make their minds jump to a different time. Akane tells Sigma it's time to put the AB plan into motion and that he must go to the Moon with the three treatment pods holding Alice, Clover, and Phi. There he will research genetics, cloning, and robotics in order to set up the events of the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition, 45 years in the future. He also discovers that between Christmas 2028 and New Year's Eve, he lost his arms and his right eye in order to "save a woman" from the facility where Radical-6 first was reported, which was apparently full of traps. Suddenly, a large explosion occurs outside of the building. One of the reactors that created the Earth's state in 2074 explodes. Sigma prepares to leave for the Moon to prevent this event from happening, feeling that he must do so, having no choice. Sigma would spend the next 45 years developing the AB project by researching genetics and robotics. Sigma managed to make a young clone of himself named Kyle Klim. Working with Akane, Sigma would develop much of the AB Project in Rhizome 9. He successfully makes numerous GAULEM units, including Luna and G-OLM, and also completely creates and programs Zero III for the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition. This would all accumulate to January 25th, 2074 when his 67-year old conscious mind switches with his 22-year old mind on December 25th, 2028 in order to infiltrate the Mars Mission Test Site and stop Radical-6 from being spread to the general population.
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