You know one of my students raised a valid point the other day in class, she said “what did Malrus stand to gain from the hijack of project harmony? They couldn’t have just wanted to cause chaos surely” which gave me an idea.

“alright class this week I have something that’s not on the usual curriculum, I want you to have a look around online and see if you can find out any motive other than pure chaos, that malus would have to hack the harmony upload.

This cannot go without saying you are all aware of the risks involved with snooping online so this assignment can only be carried out on the university ground, none of this is to be done on personal data streams okay” just as I’m about to dismiss the class one of the students at the back raises his hand “yes Pac do you have a question” I ask sort of already knowing what he’s going to say.

“is this assignment mandatory, you know because of the risk involved” he says with a slight tremble in his voice.

“I understand not all of you might not feel like you want to risk getting by a player when online, so to answer your question Pac, no its not mandatory but I do expect you to at least come up with a few theories of your own by our next lecture, okay class dismissed” I walk over to my display terminal to start preparing for my next group of students, as I hear everyone leave the hall I hear a slight nervous cough from behind me. I turn around to see Pac standing in front of my desk.

“Mr jones can I have a word with you a second” he says nervously while rubbing the back of his neck.” yeah sure what is it. Look if it’s about not wanting to do the research that’s perfectly o”

“NO ITS NOT” Pac shouts almost aggressively and breathing heavily. “hay calm down a bit Pac there’s no need to shout” I try to calm him down which seem to work “sorry sir it’s just that I really want to do the assignment it’s just, researching malus is what, it’s what got my sister killed” he starts to look down and I swear I saw a tear fall from his face.

“look Pac, your terminal is on the university server right” he nods silently in response “then there’s nothing to worry about okay Pac”, “okay sir thanks” he starts to lift his head and go to walk out “any way I know even if you decide not to do it and just come up with your own theory, bell would have been proud of you either way” and that’s when I saw that light in his eyes that hadn’t shone since the day he lost his sister