The next day, I was in my office at home, scrubbing through a video on my computer. Ruzo placed a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast on my desk. “Look, Vin, Tom showed me how to make this.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about Tom’s cooking. That man mostly lives in hotels and only ever eats take out.” I said, grabbing the fork and stabbing a chunk of scrambled eggs. Not half bad.

“I’ll have you know Vin. The hotels I stay at have little kitchens, so I can cook some of my meals. Granted, it's mostly breakfast, but that’s beside the point.” Tom said, walking in and drying his hands with a kitchen towel.

“Hey kid, don’t take after Tom. Next time, add a bit more pepper.” I said. Putting the plate down, I pulled up the video I was watching. “Okay, so I finally understand what’s going on.”

I moved through the video until I found a still frame of our killer. “So, I did some digging, and I found out that our killer works at Nightmare Chasers like we thought. His name is Rick Carter. He’s one of our developers responsible for skill creation.”

“Ah, how convenient. Rick created his own skill and could push it through without getting approval.” Tom said, walking closer to the screen.

“Exactly. That flicker we see is when the skill is activated. When he activates the skill, the basic sword gets swapped with the virus sword and injects the victim with the virus.” I said.

Going into the developer section of the game, I went to the skill that he created. “Now this is some extremely complicated script. I don’t even know where to start if I wanted to change its functions. Rick also didn’t leave any comments so I can’t tell what is dummy code and what code is actually useful. But from what I’ve gathered is when the skill is activated, it puts the players in a mutual death match. First Rick’s character has to be 20% or less, then the skill unlocks. Both players are afflicted with the virus. He must get a thrill of having his life on the line, but since the skill makes the match completely one sided, there’s virtually no risk to him. Then when either player’s health reaches 0 it will cause the VR headset to malfunction, killing the losing player.”

“I’m assuming he can’t use this on multiple people. Otherwise, why have that mission to scout out players?” Tom said.

“You're right, the skill can only put one person in a deathmatch, so we can assume that he is acting on his own.” I said.

“But how is he contacting people after they complete that purple knight mission?” Ruzo asked.

“That’s a brilliant question. He could set up a system process for whenever a person completes the mission, he is sent a notification of their player details, and he chooses who to go after. For some reason, he placed a requirement on the skill that he can only use it once per day. I guess he’s smart enough to know that if he goes on a killing spree, then he would have been caught a lot sooner.” I said.

“Okay, so now we need to come up with a way to catch him.” Tom said, stepping back and folding his arms. “There’s not enough time for me to start a new character and get to the 50-60 level range. We’ll need to find another way to lure him out.”

“I’ll do it.” Ruzo said.

Both Tom and I turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “No way, kid, it’s too dangerous.” Tom said.

“But I have a back-up account in the target range, so I am more than capable of doing it. Plus, I’ll have you guys on standby to rescue me if things get bad,” Ruzo said.

“But you’re missing the point you're locked into a one-on-one death match. If you get caught in his trap, there is no way for us to get you out of there.” Tom said. He then turned to me. “Vin, tell him this is a ridicules plan.”

“There is a way we can keep him safe.” I said. I ran my hands through my hair and continued. “There were a good amount of players at max level that wanted us to add a 2 v 1 feature into the PVP matches. We found a way to do it and incorporated the feature two updates ago.”

“I remember seeing that! But can’t the other players see if they are entered into a 2 v 1 match?” Ruzo asked. 

“I can mask it so that Rick sees you as a solo player and he unknowingly goes into a 2 v 1 match. From what I understand, if either person forfeits after the skill is activated, then the player’s life is also forfeited. We will have to avoid him activating that skill or someone will need to die to end the match. That means for this plan to work, I will need to stay at the computer. From this end I can mask how many players are going into the match and he unknowingly accepts a 2 v 1 match. Tom will be your only back up in the game, Ruzo.” I said.

When I looked over at Tom. His vibrant lilac eyes had morphed into a dark violet. I was tempted to call off the whole mission. But then he broke the silence. “Alright Vin, we’ll put our trust in you.” His eyes brightened up back to their vibrant lilac, and he turned to Ruzo. "We're starting the mission," Tom said as he and Ruzo walked out of the room, getting ready to dive into the game.

I forgot how scary Tom can be when he’s angry. If I fuck this up, my life will be on the line next.