Chapter 1

## Opening

Real Account begins on April 25th 20XX. Kashiwagi Ataru is a 2nd year high school student who claims to not use his phone much. Though his friends obsess about Re-aca (Real Account/RC), he says he doesn't get on much. Everyone else appears to use it a lot and brag about how many followers they have.

Real Account is described in this chapter as the largest social media service in the country (Japan). Combining all the social networks into one, it has a registered user-base of over 50 million users. Real Account is also supported by the state and is tied into everyone's daily lives, even offering coupons for certain businesses.

Ataru admits to having one, but hides it from everyone else. His friends suspect that his distance is from a girlfriend. Although, Ataru actually lives with his sister, Kashiwagi Yuri. When Ataru comes home after school, Yuri has Miso soup prepared, but Ataru leaves dinner frustrated after Yuri points out Ataru's lack of friends, telling him that if he should feel free to eat dinner with them sometimes. Ataru reminds Yuri that they promised to always eat together since their parent's died in an accident.

Ataru reflects about his lack of friends and unwillingness to open up to anyone. He then focuses on his followers that he has in Real Account, admitting that even though they aren't real life friends, they are still friends that care about him, and he can open up to them.

He opens up a game and the screen shows him that he is ranked 4th in the nation. After Yuri asks what he is playing, he explains that it is a Real Account game called No Answer. In the middle of trying to open the game, Ataru's screen goes static and sucks his consciousness into Real Account. Standing on a stage in the Real Account world is the mascot of the social networking service: Marble. Marble informs all of the players that they are now trapped inside Real Account and that their lives are now tied to Real Account. He illustrated this by showing one of the players passed out in the real world. Marble kills this player, showing his death in the real world, but also showing that all of his followers also die when he dies.

Marble tells everyone in Real Account that they have to clear all of his games in order to go back to real life. All of the games will be broadcast live across the world. Marble refuses to tell them why they are here beyond saying that they are there for a "certain reason or goal." When someone tries to run away, Marble kills them, also causing all of his followers to die.

Mable begins the first game called True Followers Diagnosis In this game, he gives everyone in the real world 3 minutes to unfollow anyone in the game. If anyone in the game's follower count goes to 0 they die. Marble says this game shows that humans socialize only for appearances and that they are shallow.

Ataru gets down to only 1 follower remaining, his sister Yuri. In a move to protect her, he blocks her so that she can't follow him. After blocking her, Ataru still somehow has 1 follower, but who that is is a mystery.

Marble informs the contestants that they are down to 4,684 contests from the starting 10,000, but also says that the followers the contestants now have are the ones that truly care about you. In the real world, they are mourning the dead, even though they in effect killed them. Ataru begins questioning how he has run from reality all this time but vows to make it out alive.

Marble begins announcing the next game as the chapter ends