Author’s Corner: Due to difficulties sleeping, you all will be getting today’s chapter earlier than usual! Have fun!

Together with most of the police officers, I ran towards the direction where the scream came from. When we got there, we saw what was left of a young woman splashed across the hall as if she had exploded. On the far end of the hall, positioned in plain view for us to see, was writing in her blood. ‘Lives Remaining: 9’.

At this time, Officer Monte looked over to me solemnly. “How confident are you that his control range can’t exceed what you said?”

I thought about it for a bit before I could answer. “Sixty percent, at most. I don’t know if he has special skills that could amplify his abilities.”

“What about magic items? Those are common in the game, right?”

I gave a brief nod. “Yeah, but they aren’t very easy to put in the grove. At most, he should be able to bring his companion over, but not any items that could boost his magic range.”

Monte gave a quick nod. “AI, identify all people within fifty meters of the station. Track back reports from cameras and locate everyone that has been within the perimeter for the last fifteen minutes without leaving, excluding the officers. Additionally, if anyone appears twice, flag them.”

A mechanical voice rang out from the walls, and I wasn’t surprised that the cops had their own AI for the station. “Affirmative, acting chief. Registering six entities, including John Hulett, who have not left the fifty meter perimeter in the last fifteen meters. No entity appears twice.”

“Was there anyone on the roof within that time?”

“Affirmative, acting chief. Chief of Police, Carl Karlton was sighted carrying a large bag to the roof before leaving.” The AI reported again, letting us all know that the killer had basically walked right up to us using the body of a man he had just killed.

“Track his movements after he left.” Monte spoke through clenched teeth. “And take into account the possibility of… rapid physical alteration to disguise as someone else.”

I could understand how it might be hard for him to tell the AI to look for a shapeshifter disguised as his former boss, but the AI spoke up again soon. “Affirmative, acting chief.” However, moments later, the voice of the AI abruptly changed. “Naughty, naughty, acting chief. There are no cheat codes for this game. Play by the rules, or you’re disqualified.”

My eyes went wide, as much from hearing the voice as its contents. It was almost an exact replica of what had spoken to me in the interrogation room. Quickly, I turned to look at Officer Monte. “Where is your AI’s server room? I’ll assume it can only be accessed on site.” To be honest, I knew for a fact it couldn’t be accessed online due to my previous experience hacking their system. Working around their AI had been a real pain.

Officer Monte seemed to quickly understand my meaning, and ran off down the hall, leading me through the building. Meanwhile, I explained my theory to him. “Either the AI was just now hacked, or has been for a while. If it’s the latter, then the druid might not have Sound Affinity after all, and was just using the AI to transmit the voice to me in the interrogation room.”

“Isn’t it a good thing if he doesn’t have an extra ability?”

“Not if you consider that it gave him more time to train his Blood Affinity. Being more specialized does not make him easier to deal with.”

Soon, we had traveled down the stairs and arrived at the server room. However, it was electronically locked and was not accepting commands. Deciding it’d be best to minimize property damage, I used my Technomancy to tap into the keypad for the door. With that, I just had to command it to open, and it opened. Devices without any magic are so easy to control.. I mused over that as we went into the room.

There was another body in the server room, but it looked as if it had been there for a while. Unlike the others that the Gamer had killed, there was no explosion of gore, no writing on the wall. He was just a middle aged man with no hair, and his head looked like someone had burned a hole clean through it. Ah crap, he’s got a plasma gun.

“Fire Affinity, I take it?” Officer Monte said sardonically.

“Worse… plasma weapons.” It was certainly possible that the wound could have been caused with fire, but it would have taken far longer, and the man would have had time to struggle. With a plasma gun, one shot to the head and he was done. “He’s been here a while, hasn’t he..?”

Grimly, Monte nodded as we went back out to the hall. “Don’t have the coroner up here to confirm, but at least two days. Even though I just saw him this morning.”

“Lovely… so he’s been hiding inside the police station as a techy? Was that guy the one in charge of maintaining the AI?”

“Pretty much. Any ideas how he managed to hack into a sophisticated system like that without tripping any alarms?”

Groaning, I shook my head. “He walked right in your front door, and probably plugged his companion into the server. Don’t know how he managed that, they don’t exactly have outlets.” I looked down to the metal bracelet I was wearing. “So he could have Technomancy. And with the AI being hacked, the reason for me thinking he had Divination is gone.”

There was an applause sounding from around us, followed by the AI’s multifaceted voice. “Congratulations, ‘detective’. But what can you do? Help isn’t coming, and now your lives are down to eight.”

“Faraday!” Monte called out and suddenly ran off, with me soon trailing behind him. “Dammit, why didn’t I send anyone with him!?” Soon we arrived at the dispatch room, where we found four bodies. One was an explosion of gore, while three had taken precise shots to the head. In the far corner of the room, I could see the head of the man who had been my contact with the police.

It’s one thing to see a complete stranger dead. It’s another entirely when you personally know the victim. Every time you think back to your conversations with them, you suddenly picture the gruesome scene of their end. Moving over to a nearby trashcan, I retched into it. If nothing else, I was thankful that I had not eaten since morning.

Meanwhile, I heard Monte on the radio, calling all officers. “Everyone, buddy system, effective immediately. Do not go anywhere without at least two people with you. I don’t care if you’ve got to take a piss, you go with backup. Each group take one combat specialist from NeoLife. The Gamer has moved up to bigger fish. I want everyone in the briefing room pronto.”

When he ended his announcement, he turned off the radio and looked to me. “Is there any chance at all that the killer can hide his affinities from you?”

I considered it, and I honestly wasn’t sure. “None that I know of. I’ve never had an issue seeing them before, at least, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

Monte nodded, and we made our way back to the briefing room. There were more people here this time, even with the extra deaths, since everyone had been called in. With Celeste’s help, I scanned everyone in the room. Thirteen decently leveled people with no significant magic, four who looked to be mages, and the one druid. But no Blood Affinities in the room. When Officer Monte glanced back at me, I shook my head quietly.

“Alright guys, we have a situation here. The Gamer has hacked our AI, and can control all of our electronic systems. Everyone is to use their radios only. No calls in or out, as they could be intercepted. Dispatch is down, and that means we have no way to respond to a 911. As you all know, the Gamer is primarily targeting those who have yet to play NeoLife. However, he has also begun using the game’s weaponry in real life. Officer Cruz was just found dead in the server room, and looks like he’s been that way for a while.” Monte looked around the room. “Where’s the coroner?”

Officer Forest raised a hand to speak up. “Matthews, Johnson, and Richards went to get him. You know he never keeps his radio on.”

“Oh please don’t tell me that he’s on the list…” I mumbled behind Monte, who let out a sigh.

“No, thankfully he is a player. Went into the game as soon as he heard about some advanced medical techniques. Still, we need to have him in plain view too.” The acting chief turned around to look at everyone. “Alright people, as of now, anyone walking alone is to be considered a threat. Do not split up under any circumstance. We’re in a real life horror movie here, folks. I trust we all know how to act.”

Yeah, run as far away from the horror movie situation as possible… I thought to myself, and Celeste wholeheartedly agreed with me. “There’s just one thing that bothers me…”

When I spoke up, Monte looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. “Speak up, what is it?”

“The writing on the walls. When you choose a race in NeoLife, you automatically learn to read and speak the language of the race you chose. However, it sounds and looks like your native language. I am half wood elf, but I couldn’t write elven to save my life, because I’d just think it looked english.”

“But he’s writing in his alien language.” The acting chief finished my thought.

“Exactly. His companion might be showing him what it looks like, but he’d still only see it as english lettering. That means that somehow, he actually learned the language manually, which should not be possible under normal circumstances. We know for a fact that he is a shapeshifter, so he shouldn’t be a different race…”

“Even so, whether he learned how to write normally or not, what does it matter?” Monte looked at me with a level gaze.

“I don’t know, but it’s bothering me. Way more than it should.” After I spoke, Celeste appeared beside me.

“I don’t have an answer, John. In your eyes, both english and the wood elf languages truly do look the same.” I was not at all reassured by Celeste’s words, and she apologized. However, a moment later her expression turned strange.

What is it? As soon as I thought the question, Celeste showed me a few images. Tiny things, stuff I never could have noticed. However, every time I entered the room since coming to the police station, there was always someone whose eyes were focused on me. The first time, when they initially brought me in, it was Officer Cruz. I hadn’t been suspicious of a druid at the time, so naturally I didn’t scan people yet then.

The second time, it was Faraday, after they brought me out of the holding cell. But at that time, I really did scan him, along with everyone else. This time, it was a middle aged woman sitting near the back of the room. I had thought that she was just watching Monte, but Celeste zoomed in on her eyes and drew a path straight to me. The woman even smirked slightly as she met my gaze, before she mouthed something quietly.

Suddenly, the room went pitch black, all the lights cutting off together. No doubt, the Gamer had set up a command to cut the lights in the building if given the signal. “Flashlights out, everyone! The building’s gone on lockdown!”

This was exactly why I hadn’t just smashed the AI when we were down in the server room. Any damage to the AI automatically triggered a building wide lockdown. Every door would be magnetically sealed, and metal shutters would cover every window and exterior door. While I could still easily move around with my magic, I wasn’t confident that I would have been able to find everyone else and lead them out in such a condition.

“John, what’s the problem?!” Monte called out to me, and I had my Cybernetic eye switch to night vision as soon as the lights had gone out. Even with the quick reaction, it was almost not fast enough to catch the woman leaving the room, her skin rippling and changing.

“Dammit, they can hide their aura!” I raised my wrist and sent a command to Celeste, after which a hologram appeared above my companion bracelet. “This is what they looked like just now, and also their latest victim. They’ve been here the entire time… Faraday was already dead before you sent him to make that call. He must be storing their bodies in his grove and bringing them back out when he wants to plant the scene.”

“Fuck, that means we can’t track him!” Monte looked around, using his flashlight to search the room, as did everyone else. Thankfully I didn’t need to do that, and I could keep a watch on the doors. “Please tell me that there is some foolproof way to detect a grove?”

“I wish there was, right now. Even in NeoLife, groves are completely undetectable…”

“This is not the news I want to be hearing right now, John.” Monte called back to me, pointing his flashlight in my direction.

Suddenly, the AI’s multifaceted voice rang out again, and I could swear that it was even more complicated than before. “Now now, little piggies. Don’t be in such a rush. The game isn’t over yet. We’ve just moved on to the second stage. How about a little game of Hide and Seek?”

Almost in unison, Monte and I looked at each other. “The coroner.”

Author’s Basement: Well, this just got a lot more complex than I had anticipated! Stay tuned for the next episode of World Seed!