A quiet sigh trickled past, too imperceptible to be picked up by the sound equipment where Hiro stood recording. Rukishi Hiro schooled his expression right after, not allowing for anyone to read through his thoughts as he the discussion carried forward.

The projection light illustrated him turning in place, his arms and hands moving across something unseen, clicking, swiping, and typing words off screen. The scattered files and images displayed against the wall moved in tandem, organizing themselves into small stacks until one particular file stood out from the rest on the virtue of it having been isolated and left in a corner of the screen. This file was picked up, dragged a bit, and then magnified until it took half of the display. The stacked files on the other half didn't remain idle as they spread out into multiple columns. Finally, Hiro appeared to be satisfied with this display.

The files that were kept at the top of their stacks could now easily be read through; they were player files. A picture of every player's base pc model was attached to the file, along with the chosen in-game name and some account information. Some of these players would became immediately recognizable:

Under Investigation

Vance Finiraldi .?......?.....??.!!. ...?.!.........??... .?..........?!! .....??!? ?.......?.....?.

Under Investigation

Mouse ...?...??.......?. ..........??!!?...... ..?!??.........? ..??... ...........??!?....

Under Investigation

Ornery ................ ................ ........... ..... ................

Under Investigation

Burgundy .........?......? ......??..........? ??...??.? .?..?..? ....?.......?....?.

Under Investigation

Whatchamacallit .....??........... ..??..........?....? ...........? .....?? ..??............??..

The large, single file that overtook the other half of the screen was also easily readable:

Kamin Xiang, MD
Dep. of Research and Development (2013-2017)
..............................................
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A long, pregnant pause ensued after the display was laid bare in its organized finish. Rukishi Hiro spoke then.

"Dr. Xiang...We have a strong suspicion that the shadow entity you three interacted with at Morrigu is related to Dr. Kamin Xiang. Used to work for us in the Dep. of Research and Development. Brilliant scientist. Picked up our algorithmic equations like he was reading from a children's picture book. Unfortunately, the last I saw this man was 5 years ago. His whereabouts remain unknown till this day."

Kenta stiffened slightly upon seeing his file spring to the forefront of the display. He quickly recognized the crinkly, kind eyes, the immaculate hair, the rigid suit...Strange. How come his father said he hadn't seen him since 5 years ago? Clearly, He'd visited later at that time...Did he forget? Kenta puzzled over this discrepancy in his father's words when Rukishi Hiro continued to explain.

"We currently do not have enough evidence to confirm it is him who spoke through the formless pc you encountered and...it seems we have no way to confirm either. It's been impossible to track it down. I don't know how he's doing it, but whatever defense software he uses to hide his tracks, it's able to learn and adapt to all our methods. It's like we're fighting against a super computer and our software simply cannot match its computational speed..."

Rukishi coughed into his hand, feeling quite embarrassed to have to confess his failure to crack through this man's security. It served to strengthen his suspicions however. Only Kamin could create a software that could run circles around him like this...

"In other words, we have a very dangerous bomb actively running around in the game and we don't know what could set it off or when. We've found some suspicious pcs that may be connected to this entity however. Out of all the altered accounts we've found during our investigation, these cases you seem to be just as difficult to decode as the shadow entity...."


Rukishi went on to say that he suspected there to be more and then fell into a bit of jargon explanation of how these accounts also appeared to be seemingly untouchable by the usual attempts to root our malicious programs.

Rukishi's image flickered amidst the silence of the room. He waited there for the information to sink in and observed the reactions of those in front of him, all of which seemed noncommittal so far. It was a good sign. Things were still under wraps to an extent. But not for long.

"Are we to try and monitor these accounts, then?" said Nao.

Rukishi rubbed a crease between his brows at the reminder. Sighs fled his mouth non-stop.

"They might be the key to finding Kamin. Restoring their data is no joke either. Best not to alert the enemy."

The giant presentation screen turned off suddenly, throwing the previous files and pictures back into obscurity. Rukishi had turned his back to them anyway, slumping back into whatever chair and desk lied at the other side of the hologram. The familiar sound of slurping noodles filled the conference room.

"Log their activities. Report immediately if there's anything suspicious. And stay out of sight," *slurp* "R&D just came up with a program to remove these accounts recursively. They'll set you up once its finished."

The hologram flickered off then. Rukishi's voice echoed din the room one last time.

"Above all, stay safe."