“Ugh… How in the world do people even hack in a VRMMORPG? I mean seriously! The coding within virtual reality games are way different than computer codes!”

“Leave those issues with the Development Team, our job is to report our findings and remove abusive players. That’s it.”

Somewhere in the future where virtual reality games are real, blah blah blah. I’m certain you heard of this before, let’s just skip to my introduction.

My name is Verden Kyler, a Game Master in this virtual reality world. Oh, and do not mention about my appearance. I haven’t change one bit since I was eleven years old for some reason. No, doctors did not try to find out for the reason behind my ‘eternal youth’, leave it alone.

Anyway, in this world call Avant-Garde’s Mirror Sky; the first virtual reality game and a role-playing game to the boot. Everything is as realistic as possible, the NPCs, the mobs, the weather, temperature, etc. It’s very high quality, and surprisingly not an expensive game in this day of age.

Avant-Garde’s Mirror Sky boast around six million people playing. Yeah… With a fan base that large, one would be surprise how many jerks and hackers are in it. Did I mention that this is for the US and European servers in total? Yeah…

So, to counter all these problems the creators and stockholders hire us Game Masters/Moderators to patrol the game and help fix some bugs (We mostly fix the bugs… Boring stuff).

Thing is about Game Masters is that we have a strict rule of no interference unless it’s an event, dealing with abusive players, or otherwise stated. The bright side is that we have reality warping powers, which we barely used unless it’s a GM Event.

“Remind me again what macroing is?”

My co-worker Curtis Hester is a decent guy. A bit complaintive but he gets the job done very well. I pulled out my Rulebook and told him what macroing is.

“Macroing is a third party program that allows individuals to perform tasks automatically without the player itself. It’s a bit more complicated than that…”

“Got it. My question is why? Virtual Reality was made for people to enjoy it like they do in real life! What’s the point of letting some program do everything for you?”

“I get your point… But it doesn’t matter right now. I locked onto the IP Account.”

The individual who was using the macroing program already fled, but I got his/her Account Number. We can leave it to the Development Team to determine if its account is tainted by third party programs that has provided players unfair advantages. If we had gotten there and visual saw them hacking, then we could pass judgement on them.

“So we’re done?”

“Yup…”

“So… How’s your romantic life?”

“I should make that a taboo subject, if a lady try dating me… Let’s not imagine how wrong it would look. I look like I am eleven, in game and real life.”

“Then why not make an avatar that makes you look older?”

“I hate people who try to create an avatar that doesn’t represent them… Especially those guys who pick a female avatar.”

Seriously, you can use the Auto Avatar Creation to create an avatar that looks just like you. Of course, some people won’t do that for several of reasons. I won’t hold it against them, but to create an avatar of an opposite gender is perverted.

“Hmm, good point I guess. By the way the GM Event will begin tomorrow. We can finally unleash our power upon these puny players!”

“Curtis, I’m still task with patrolling the game.”

“Oh right. Wait didn’t you volunteer to patrol?”

“I get paid extra by doing so. Not that I need it, but somebody got to keep the game safe.”

“Alright, good luck then.”

Curtis took out some shades from his white uniform and put them on his eyes.

“Doesn’t this make me cool?”

“Maybe.”

Game Masters have special uniforms that varies depending on their tasks and server affiliation.

When new players start, they are given a Guide Book on who is a real Game Master and which ones are fake.

Curtis wears something like a white and black school uniform with our Game Master emblem attach to the shoulders and right chest. Dark blue gloves and neon outlined black boots.

As for me… I wear a black hoodie with the Game Master Emblem, black pants and black boots (wearing all black). My size makes me stand out, so I don a black and white mask to cover my face.

Okay, so the reason why I have this kind of uniform is because after that incident in the GM Event with people treating me like a kid. I asked for another type of uniform that could conceal my appearance and the executives happily agreed since my rage is legendary.

Keep in mind that we Game Master are invisible to the player’s eye for obvious reason (catching hackers, duh).

“Our shift is almost over.”

“Yours is almost over… I still have to track down those Item Dupers… Annoying brats, duplicating items just to make profit…”

“Yeesh. Well see you later Verden, logging out!”

“See you later.”

Curtis’s avatar envelope in a bright light and vanish, logging out of the system.

Tracking down the Item Dupers, I teleported to the Community Market where players can sell their items and other sorts of virtual stuff. No one saw me since I am in Stealth Mode.

“Now then… Item inflation rate for the Draconic Aural Blade is up by 65%... Market Stall #127…”

I pulled out my holographic clipboard (its call a Stat-Checker) that display statistics of the game. There are countless of things I could get from my Stat-Checker, but right now I am focus on locating the player who is selling duplicated items. A notification popped up on my Stat-Checker.

It’s the same notification for all the staff who patrol the Avant-Garde’s Mirror Sky world… It caused an uproar a few years ago.

Just to simplified things, players can get a simple headset that can transfer their minds into the virtual world. But there is another way if you’re fancy and rich, a capsule that can preserve your body while you’re in the virtual world.

Apparently, after an earthquake that hit his home. The missing player name Richard Anderson vanish from his capsule along with his Account file. The guy is from some sort of famous company and let me tell you; they raised an uproar.

They thought that we were behind the ‘kidnapping’, but after considering how absurd the claim is… Well they went quiet and went on a manhunt for the CEO’s son. Anti-climactic.

Of course, the company that hired us. Avant-Grande Inc., issue every staff members who patrol the game to be on the lookout for Richard, also known by his player name: Tsrif.

Honestly speaking, I don’t know what happened. I’m not even sure if we are able to locate the guy. Could be a hoax after all.

I ignored the notification since I didn’t detect any abnormalities in the game.

Teleporting to Market Stall #127, I did a scan on the items unnoticed by the Merchant Bot. There’s about three ways you can sell your items in this world. One is by trading, the other is by standing at the stall to sell things yourself, and lastly hiring a Merchant Bot to stand in your place.

It’s very simple, the seller lists a price and the buyer (if they have enough cash) buys it.

Five Draconic Aural Blades, we have a system that allows us to determine if these items are counterfeit or not. Some sort of genuine code created from the game itself. Duplicating the items also duplicates the complicated code. In a sense every item is one of a kind.

And all five of these high level weapons have the same code. I pressed on my ear where my Communicator is to chat with the Security Team Operator.

“Verden here. I found five duplicated items that is currently being sold at the Community Market. I am transmitting the player’s file code.”

“I got the files code. Five Draconic Aural Blades, am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“Good work, we’ll deal with the offender. Many thanks Verden; hopefully we can update our security system on time. Sorry about this.”

“No problem, keep up the good work.”

The Anti-Duplicating System is part of the security system that detects items being duplicated and identifies the offender to the Security Team. Because the system is in the Alpha stage, Game Masters and Moderators have to personally check the items that are being duplicated when the system is being updated.

The Market Stall along with the Merchant Bot disappeared into thin air leaving several pair of eyes staring at the empty spot.

My break has arrived.

“Accept.”

Stretching, I decided to go to the Café in Refallel City. It’s a city where most people started out, so you will see a lot of newbies and veterans there for hangout. Did I mention you can drink and eat in this world? The flavors and such is realistic, but you won’t be actually full just be eating virtual food. Still, the food here is great. I wonder how people are able to program taste buds…

Teleporting… Or warping… Whatever people call it these days.

…

Refallel Café is an extremely large café that could be mistaken for some sort of large fancy mansion. Many chairs and tables of different sizes due to the variety of species like those common elves and human sorts. The NPCs that work in the café are often the guards, servers, bartenders and musicians.

I’m here for the warm air and somewhat peaceful mood. I don’t need to order anything since I can conjure up my own meal and even influence NPCs to do my things, which we barely use actually…

I really don’t want to draw attention to myself, so I went outside of the café where the soft green grass were and lay down. To ensure that I really don’t draw attention to myself, I am still in Stealth Mode.

I just want to lay down and enjoy the ray of sunshine, it’s a lot better than the real world since we don’t have annoying tiny insects crawling around the grass. That also includes those annoying flies, so… Virtual World for the win?

“What a scrub, you actually focus on perfecting your escape and healing over damage? Really?”

“You’ve been extremely hostile towards me for no reason. Did your healer abandoned you?”

There seems to be some sort of argument between two people, one burly man and a well-built teen. The burly man is the one who called that kid a scrub; whatever that means… Kids these days…

Anyway, I got their account names. The burly guy is called Hercluses similar to Hercules from Greek (?) mythology. The teenager is called Veoter.

According to my Report List (shown by my Stat-Checker), the burly guy, Hercluses is a douche-bag. Having been reported by 16 people for verbal abusive and harassment to the extreme. The other guy has nothing on him.

I may be off duty, but I can still perform my task to a smaller extent. Especially abusive players who love to harass others just for fun. At least I think they do it just for fun.

We can do a minor suspension, but I feel like I would let this guy off a bit since I am in a relaxed mood. I decided to simply drop a thunderbolt on him.

Yup, we’re the big guys upstairs. Don’t mess with us.

Part of the clear blue sky went dark purple followed by a thunderous roar. A single purple lightning bolt (or is it thunderbolt still? I have no idea...) struck Hercluses causing him to spaz and stiffen immediately.

“Uh… I’ll… Go grind some… Golems? Golems?”

The burly man staggered away while everyone near him moved out of the way. The expressions on everyone’s face is priceless.

Here’s a fact: that thunderbolt can in fact do damage, but because I felt ‘harmless’ today I let it deal no damage. The catch? It causes a status effect called .

That guy is wandering the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. Don’t worry though, it’s only for ten seconds.

Well, time to sleep and hope nobody stands on me. They’ll go through me actually but that’s still somewhat unpleasant…

One hour nap is all I need in this fine and nostalgic area…

…